Eating To Lose - When You Really Need Carbs

Do this, do that, do not do this, do not do that, eat this, eat that, these are not the foods you should be eating to lose weight--those lines make it sound like one of our parents is over our shoulder making sure that we do not make some kind of a mistake.

If you are one of those people that has purchased a bunch of dieting books and workouts you might have also heard a lot of those lines before as well, and it is likely that one of those lines has been uttered when it comes to eating carbohydrates.

There are plans on the market today that preach the idea of eliminating this macronutrient from your diet altogether as a means of eating to lose weight, and for the most part that is true, but there is one time from time to time that your body needs this group of foods.

Before divulging that information, one thing to note is that your body does not need carbohydrates to survive.  It only really needs protein, one of the building blocks to all things in your body, and fat the most efficient energy source you can find at the grocery store.  Both of those should be staples of the group foods you need to be eating to lose those unwanted pounds.

Truth be told there is one time when you should absolutely consume carbohydrates, and consume them in a large quantity, and that is in the window of time after an intense workout.

When we go to the gym our muscles need energy to function, and they need an easily accessible and quick burning source so it has enough energy to power through whatever it is that you are doing.

This means that it is going to start pulling that energy from glycogen, or sugar stores within your muscles.  It would pull from your fat stores, but since fat is nine calories per gram it takes more than twice as long for your body to break it down for energy.

Since we are unable to burn fat immediately for energy our glycogen stores within our muscles will have to suffice.  This means that once we deplete those stores with an intense workout we need to replenish them.

The best options for putting these sugars back into your muscles is fruit, and namely berries.

These tasty little nuggets are high in sugar and antioxidants, which is critical for your body post workout because it has endured some oxidative stress as well running down its own immune system ability.

The bottom line, your body does not need carbohydrates to survive, but if you plan on keeping all of that lean muscle that you just spent time trying to build to help you lose weight then your plan for eating to lose weight should include carbohydrates immediately after your workout.