Carbohydrates contribute to several different functions in the body, but it is how you use them that determines if they are beneficial.
Maintaining your health is important but the first step has to be understanding carbohydrates.
Most people look at carbohydrate consumption when they are trying to lose weight. A lot of recent diet fads are centered around lowering carb consumption or eliminating it completely.
Carbohydrates are either good carbs or bad carbs. Cutting out all carbs, including the good kind, will not be beneficial to your body in the long run.
Human Body Benefit #1
Carb counting is not just about losing weight. There are certain health benefits to counting your carbohydrate intake. People who suffer from diabetes benefit greatly from keeping track of what they eat.
Carbohydrates break down into simple sugars in the bloodstream. When you have problems with insulin production, this can quickly become dangerous for some people.
Keeping a food diary is the best way to keep track of your carbohydrate intake.
Paying attention to food labels and serving sizes can help limit your intake of carbohydrates. It is said that carbohydrates have an addictive effect on some people.
Do you find yourself craving a chocolate bar or glazed donut? That craving can be all-consuming, right?
Human Body Benefit #2
The subject was bound to come up at some point in this article, so let’s stop beating around the bush.
A key element in weight loss ventures has become counting carbohydrates. This is neither good nor bad, as long as it is done in a healthy way.
Low Carbohydrate Diets
It is no secret that if you limit the number of carbohydrates you eat, you will see a change in your body. As your body uses up the carbohydrates in your system, it will begin to go to the secondary energy supply.
The secondary energy supply is stored in your body via fat. When you have to use the stored energy, you reduce your body fat.
Low carb diets center on carb counting. When you decide that a low carb lifestyle is what you want to pursue, you have to be ready to commit.
Most of these diets restrict the number of carbohydrates you can intake daily. For them to be efficient in weight loss, you must diligently watch the number of carbs you intake.
Keto diets are a new, extreme approach to a low carb diet. With keto diets, you are taking low carb to a different level.
A Keto diet practically eliminates the consumption of carbs which makes the body turn to the secondary energy supply.
That is what ketosis is: your body using the secondary supply of energy which is burning fat. That is why people following Keto see significant weight loss.
The Bad News
A diet is a diet. If you are not willing to change your lifestyle, there is no point in counting the carbohydrates to begin with.
Most people who successfully lose weight in a low carb or Keto diet often fail after they reach their goal weight.
Why does this happen?
After someone reaches their goal weight with a diet, they stop maintaining the lifestyle. If you don’t continue to watch your carb intake after weight loss, your body will snatch them up and store them back up.
Human Body Benefit #3
By paying attention to what you put in your body, you become a little more knowledgable about your body as a whole.
You may not realize it, but our body sends us signals all the time. It tells us what we need if we would just listen to it.
Our bodies cry out when we overeat. We end up bloated and tired. That is our body saying “You need to stop eating too much.”
Then we make the declaration to never overeat again because of how it made us feel.
Counting, Counting, Counting
When we start looking at the number of carbohydrates we are consuming, chances are we will start to look at the other things we put in our bodies.
Calories, fat, and sodium intake are often overlooked in weight loss. Sodium levels are also important for people with heart disease or high blood pressure.
Could it be there is a method to the counting carbs method?
Keeping Track Of What Goes In
There are different ways to count the number of things we are putting in our bodies. Let’s explore some of these options together and walk through what makes them so special.
#1 – Food Journal
One of the oldest ways to track what you are eating is by a food journal. Thanks to technological advances, this doesn’t require you to carry around a pen and paper.
(We won’t shun you if you prefer paper methods though.)
Using a food journal can help you familiarize yourself with how healthy the food options you make are. The fact that you can go back and look at a reference is golden.
Having a log of the different foods also make it easier and quicker for you to make your food choices going forward.
#2 – Smart Phone Apps
Apps are like a food journal with perks. There are apps for smartphones that not only log your food and water intake but also send you daily reminders.
These applications keep you aware of the minute carbohydrate totals, as well as other counts you are watching. They often already have a database of food entries that can fill in the totals without you lifting a finger.
#3 – Fitness Trackers
From the first Fitbit that only showed steps to the ones that track your GPS coordinates, you can now input your food via your wrist. This takes away the excuse that you didn’t have a pen or your phone handy.
These also remind you to exercise. Even though it doesn’t sound an alarm when you have been stationary for too long, it will vibrate your wrist until you acknowledge its existence.
It’s like a toddler, only on your arm for fitness purposes.
When is counting carbs truly beneficial?
To conclude this post, we need to identify when it is truly beneficial for you to count the carbohydrates you are eating.
Health – When you have a disease or disorder that requires you to monitor what you put into your body, counting carbs is important.
Weight loss – If you are trying to lose unwanted weight, counting carbs is the quickest way to aid in weight loss.
When you want to examine yourself – Counting carbohydrates helps us realize that our body gets put through a lot. When we count carbs, we are more likely to pay attention to other things.
The most important thing to remember is that once you make the commitment to counting your carbs, it has to become your lifestyle.
Carbohydrate counting IS NOT beneficial without committing to the lifestyle change.
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