Jeremiah Farias (00:00.078)
Do you need to avoid or restrict carbohydrates if you’re trying to lose weight? Nowadays, low carbohydrate and ketogenic diets are not only popular for those trying to lose weight, but also for those trying to reverse their type 2 diabetes, reduce their risk of experiencing cognitive decline and other health conditions. However, is this necessary? No. And in this video, I’ll tell you why. Hi, my name is Jeremiah Fares. I’m a functional registered dietitian and I help adults suffering from blood sugar dysregulation issues, conditions like diabetes and pre -diabetes.

using a bio -energetic approach to optimize cellular energy production. I dive into the science and mechanisms involved in optimizing overall health and blood sugar metabolism while providing you with practical takeaways. I hope you enjoy today’s content. There’s a common belief that carbohydrates are fattening, or the best way to lose weight is to restrict or avoid carbohydrates. This idea comes from the fact that when you consume carbohydrate, it stimulates the hormone insulin. Insulin increases a process known as lipogenesis or fat deposition.

One of the things that insulin can increase is lipogenesis. However, the idea that avoiding carbohydrates is going to reduce insulin levels, therefore allow one to either earn fat or avoid the storage or deposition of fat is flawed and incorrect. For example, when you look at studies where they put subjects into two groups, one in a low carbohydrate group or one in a low fat group, you see similar amounts of weight loss or fat loss. These studies clear up the argument that carbohydrates are uniquely fattening.

and highlight that the insulin carbohydrate model of obesity is incorrect. Do people lose weight when they avoid or restrict carbohydrates? Yes, they absolutely do. However, there are two things to consider. First, initial weight loss when you restrict or avoid carbohydrates is going to be coming primarily from the loss of water. This is because as you restrict carbohydrates, you begin to deplete the body of glycogen. Glycogen is three to four parts water, so as glycogen is reduced in various tissues like muscle and liver,

you’re going to see a loss of water, therefore that water weight. Second, after losing some initial water weight, people are likely going to see additional weight loss. This is going to come from both fat free mass and fat tissue. The loss of this body fat tissue is definitely a good thing. This is because they’ve put themselves in enough of a caloric deficit to facilitate some degree of weight loss. Not because the carbohydrates specifically were causing them to hold on to fat or store fat. To clarify.

Jeremiah Farias (02:21.389)
In the short term, someone can definitely use a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet to lose weight and improve blood sugar levels. However, I have two concerns with that approach. First, I argue that focusing on restricting carbohydrate rich foods is taking attention off of what really matters when it comes to improving blood sugar metabolism, losing weight, and one’s overall health. Meaning, someone may take carbohydrate rich foods out of their diet,

but then replace them with more processed foods that are simply labeled low carb or ketogenic. However, their diet is devoid of vitamins and minerals. They may still be eating a more processed diet. However, it’s a lower carb version of their processed diet. So this person might lose some weight, but they will likely hit a plateau with their weight loss and also experience feeling worse in other areas of their health. Second, many people can only restrict carbohydrates from their diet for a short period of time. While restricting carbohydrates, they will,

then start to experience intense sugar cravings. And this is not because their body is addicted to sugar, but instead the need for carbohydrate or glucose is not being met. This person is then led to believe that they need to push through these sugar cravings and they’ll eventually subside and any other symptoms that might be a result of restricting carbohydrates. And this person just needs to keto adapt, fat adapt and improve their metabolic flexibility.

Finally, this individual may lose some weight, but because they did it in a way that they cannot sustain, they’re eventually going to end up reintroducing carbohydrates back into their diet. The second scenario can be similar to the first that I mentioned, where the individual is simply avoiding or limiting their consumption of a particular food group or macronutrient. However, there’s no other changes or improvements with diet and lifestyle. So when they can no longer sustain the carbohydrate restriction, they add carbohydrates back into their diet.

along with other foods that impair metabolism and blood sugar health, leading to the same weight gain that they lost, oftentimes even more than before. Essentially, if you cannot sustain a dietary intervention that allowed you to improve your body composition, I wouldn’t do it. Instead, find something that you actually can sustain in the long run. This might involve making dietary and lifestyle changes a little at a time so that you can begin to form new habits. This is not as appealing. However, this approach often allows one to

Jeremiah Farias (04:44.461)
improve and maintain their health over the long haul. Alternatively, maybe you’re someone who has no issue maintaining a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet in the long run. I would just ensure that other aspects of your health are still optimal. This means optimal thyroid hormone and sex hormone levels, healthy hair, skin and nails, and other blood markers to name a few. One last note, men appear to be a bit more resilient when it comes to following low carbohydrate or ketogenic diets. This still doesn’t mean it’s ideal.

Many women I work with end up experiencing some problems due to the stress that low carbohydrate or fasting can cause. So we review that you can lose weight whether you’re eating or avoiding carbohydrates. We also discuss the reason why people lose weight when avoiding or restricting carbohydrates, but I also mention the concerns that I have when it comes to restricting, avoiding carbs as it relates to body composition, blood sugar metabolism, and overall health.

In a moment, we’ll dive into how to eat carbohydrates while losing weight. But before we dive into that, let me know in the comments if you’ve done a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet to lose weight, improve blood sugar levels, or accomplish another health related goal. If you’re enjoying this video, please be sure to hit that like button. If you’re currently avoiding or restricting carbohydrates and you’re feeling stuck and you’re not sure where to go from here, you can schedule a free 30 minute discovery call that I offer where you can learn about working with me. I’ll help you get to the root of your blood sugar issues, help you improve your body composition,

all while optimizing your overall health. You can find a link to schedule that in the description below. Let’s dive into how to incorporate carbohydrates while still losing weight. For those of you that have seen my previous videos, you will know that I consistently recommend having balanced meals. This is to support blood sugar control, get enough macronutrients and micronutrients, and overall supply the body with enough calories to keep counter regulatory hormones at bay. This means having a high quality protein source, a whole food carbohydrate source, a healthy fat.

and a non -sartu vegetable. In my video on how much protein to have to optimize overall health and blood sugar control, I make the case one should aim for about .72 grams per pound of body weight. If your weight is in the overweight or obese category, you can use either your goal weight or your ideal body weight to calculate your protein needs to start. For whole food carbohydrate sources, this means prioritizing fruits, tubers, and squashes.

Jeremiah Farias (07:02.765)
and for healthy fats using mono unsaturated fats and saturated fats over polyunsaturated fats. This is because excessive amounts of polyunsaturated fats in the diet are going to down regulate metabolism and thyroid function and make reaching or accomplishing body composition goals harder. If you need examples of which foods you should be prioritizing, you’ll want to download my free macronutrient guide. In it, I’ll share the ideal protein, carbohydrate, and fat sources you want to be having in your diet to optimize blood sugar health,

overall metabolism and thyroid function. You can get that along with my other free guide in the description below. Lastly, you wanna make sure you’re getting enough overall calories. This is going to make meeting your macronutrient and micronutrient needs easier while optimizing your metabolism and thyroid function. This process takes more time, but it will result in long -term sustained weight loss, not requiring starvation or compromising other aspects of your health. In a previous video, I reviewed how to assess if you’re getting enough calories, and if you’re not,

how to slowly start meeting your body’s energy demands. I’ll link to that video next. It is very important to slowly increase your calories if you have historically been under eating, under nourishing your body. Once you figure out your calorie needs, you can then establish your protein needs each day. In this case, let’s say someone needs around 2 ,500 calories per day, they weigh around 170 pounds. Using that formula of .72 grams per pound of body weight,

This would put their estimated protein needs at around 120 grams. 120 grams of protein is gonna give someone about 480 calories. You take 2500, subtract 480, and you’re gonna get 2020 calories. You can take this 2020 calories and split it down the middle, getting half of that calories from carbohydrates and the other half from fat. If you do decide to split those calories down the middle,

This means this person is getting close to 250 grams of carbohydrates per day and about 110 grams of fat per day. This is neither low carbohydrate or low fat. Ideally, you may want to increase your calories as high as possible, right up until the point where your weight slightly increases and then you can lower it a bit from there.

Jeremiah Farias (09:13.709)
This will help you establish your true maintenance level of calories. If you have many health issues on top of body composition or blood sugar issues, you may want to remain at this maintenance level of calories for a bit of time until you start to see improvements in some of these areas. Once you’ve been consistent with meeting your body’s energy demands for a while, you can then start to reduce calories from either carbohydrates or fat. But it won’t be anywhere near as low as it was before.

so we’re not lowering our metabolic rate, impairing thyroid function, or other aspects of our health. If you feel overwhelmed navigating or implementing such a process, don’t hesitate to reach out to learn about working with me. And you definitely don’t want to skip my video where I go a bit more in depth on assessing and starting to meet your calorie needs. That process takes time and patience, but it will pay off if you do it the right way.

If you enjoyed today’s video, please be sure to hit that like button, subscribe and turn on notifications so you don’t miss any future videos. Take care and I’ll see you next week.