Since some time, the trend towards low-carb diet has properly established itself.
Low-carb means an intake of as few carbohydrates as possible. There are different views of low-carb in practice, but it usually means only one or a maximum of two meals with carbohydrates.
Total quantities of under 100g are often the rule.
In many cases, a low-carb diet leads to the desired diet success and this also explains the success and widespread of this diet form.
Let us take a detailed look at the reasons for the success of a low-carb diet and the possible dangers that can occur.
We are also going to show you how we can do it better.
In the seventies and eighties, the typical diet in the fitness and bodybuilding world looked very differently. Here, fat in the diet was avoided and carbohydrates were fed plenty. Proteins were taken plenty today, as in the past.
The amazing thing is that both forms of diet, low carb and low fat, led and/or leadin most cases to the desired diet success.
You could almost say that it didn’t matter which diet form you choose.
This is not so, because we need to look more closely at the individual circumstances of a person.

The theory

The supply of carbohydrates leads to an increase in blood glucose levels. Which in turn prevents fat burning until the blood glucose level is lowered.
The blood glucose response is very different from one person to another. Some people react with a very strong blood sugar increase even after the supply of complex and rather low glycemic carbohydrates, while others are blessed with only a variation of marginal blood-sugar level.
Carbohydrates must be immediately utilized and/or stored because an increased blood-sugar level is unhealthy and dangerous. That is why the body secretes insulin.
If we are one of the lucky people now, for which a carbohydrate supply leads to less strong blood sugar variation, it means we can deal better with carbohydrates and the fat burning is less strongly suppressed in the intake of carbohydrates.
So we learn that an increase in the blood sugar level goes hand in hand with a temporary reduction in fat burning. The higher the increase of sugar in the blood, the less body fat we will burn.
In this context we also want to look more closely at the hormone insulin. Insulin ensures that the body is better able to store the carbohydrates and, thus, ensures a rapid normalization of blood glucose levels.
Insulin itself does not affect the body fat combustion!
Many times you can hear that Insulin is the evildoer in reduced fat burning. But that is not at all true. Insulin only ensures an increased deployment of the GLUT4 transport proteins and thus facilitates the storage of carbohydrates in the muscle cells and, if necessary, also as body fat. The storage of carbohydrates as body fat has nothing to do with insulin, but it’s a surplus in the carbohydrate intake.
Insulin is not only secreted by carbohydrates, but also by protein. According to protein variant, the insulin secretion is here yet dramatically higher.
This clearly demonstrates that insulin is not responsible for storing body fat, because otherwise all those people who consume protein would be fat, which is not the case.

Carbohydrates vs. Fat

What is now the right way for maximum fat burning?
Well, there are several ways. Insulin sensitive people and consequently people with a strong reaction of blood-sugar level on carbohydrates should take carbohydrates if possible concentrated and should not distribute them over the day.
On the other hand, people with a good insulin sensitivity can easily take carbohydrates regularly.
We must simply take care not to consume too many calories at once and not to take carbohydrates and fat at the same time.
But it is very important also for those people with a poor insulin sensitivity not to renounce complete on carbohydrates, in order not to ruin the metabolism through a negative influence on the appetite hormone leptin. If its concentration drops too much, the hunger increases and the metabolism goes down.
This starts the vicious cycle of the stagnating successes.
Leptin can only be influenced significantly by carbohydrates.

The practice

The theory sounds a little complicated, therefore, we want to get to the practice.
Protocol for people with good insulin sensitivity:
– Carbohydrates with a low glycemic index spread out over the day in small quantities
– fruit with balanced glucose/fructose content are allowed
– keep fats very low
– high protein supply 2.5 – 3g per kg body weight
– carbohydrate rich main meal after the training
Protocol for people with poor insulin sensitivity:
– no carbohydrates during the day
– the only permitted carbohydrates during the day are those in nuts, vegetables, and low fat curd cheese
– moderately fat intake
– high protein supply 2.5 -3g per kg body weight
In addition, there are also people that have neither a poor nor a particularly good insulin sensitivity. They should comply more to the protocol for people with poor insulin sensitivity, but they may eat however also small quantities of fruits such as berries during the day.
For everyone applies however to properly eat carbohydrates after the training to keep the metabolism going and not to let the leptin decline.

Conclusion

There is no black and white in terms of nutrition. Important is to note the individual circumstances. Every human being is different, nonetheless, there are similarities and these definitely need to be considered.