Carbophobic?

I often meet people who want to cut the carbs out of their diet to lose say, 10 lbs in two weeks. Then within a few days they find themselves tired, cranky and stuffing Twinkies down their throat as fast as humanly possible. Is it the carbs that are impeding your weight loss? Or is it the calories? Or is it neither?

First off, every single person is different and that's why taking one cookie cutter approach and applying it to everyone won't work - or at least it will work to an extent and take you just so far. Some scientists will tell you it's the calories not the carbohydrates, others will tell you that macronutrient ratios matter and yet others are stuck in the middle scratching their heads. Personally I think it comes down to the person, their needs, health status, and physical activity level. For the very overweight and obese, I turn to a plethora of research from the University of Connecticut showing that if these individuals can stick with a lower carb diet, they'll benefit from it (by losing weight and favorably changing their cholesterol, triglycerides etc.)

When it comes to everyone else, I will typically take a look at the types of carbohydrate they are consuming, how much in a sitting, how often and what they do for physical activity. From there, we can do a little macronutrient shifting to maximize what they are getting out of their food to fuel their physical activity and life and get the body they want.

So, the bottom line is that it isn't "carbohydrates" overall as a category. Carbohydrates fuel top athletes every day and give executives the glucose necessary for their brain to keep going from 8 am - 5 pm. Carbohydrates help bodybuilders, fitness and figure athletes get their cover-ready physique. But, the type, amount and most importantly, when you eat and drink your carbs, matters.