One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, “Can I eat carbs if I’m trying to lose weight?” 

There are so many diets out there these days that encourage keeping your carb intake low, or non-existent. You’ll often see that many of these people doing these diets are dropping tons of weight, but the reason may not necessarily be what you think. 

Let’s dive more into this topic about the role carbs can play in your weight loss journey.

Can you eat carbs if you’re trying to lose weight?

Right off the bat, you can 100% eat carbs if you’re trying to lose weight. 

We all need carbohydrates to live, function and get energy. Not only that, but when you cut out healthy carbs, you’re depriving your body of key nutrients and vitamins that your body needs to function at its best. 

When you cut carbs out of your diet, you’re cutting out large food categories. This means that you wouldn’t be eating certain fruits, grains or starchy vegetables, all which have important nutritional value. Healthy carbs are key, however, there are some caveats regarding carbs that are important to note.

Understanding simple carbohydrates

One of the main reasons why you see people drop weight so quickly when they cut out carbs is because in America, we’re a bit carb crazy.

We’ve gotten to a point where we’re eating more simple carbohydrates, in other words, unhealthy carbs, than any other macronutrients like protein or fat. 

Additionally, the quality of the simple carbs we’re eating have all had their real nutrients stripped from them. They no longer have their fiber which leaves us with a higher intake of sugar. 

Simple carbohydrates are the carbs that we need to be cautious of. There’s no fiber in it to slow down digestion and goes straight to your bloodstream causing negative effects to other parts of your body like high blood sugar.

More often than not, the people who decide to cut carbs out of their diet end up feeding into their body’s craving for carbs, causing them to gain even more weight back than they lost.

Miserable is not sustainable 

There’s a reason why you may be more crabby or grumpy when you take carbs out of your diet and that’s simply because the body needs them.

One thing that I say all the time is that miserable is not sustainable. Low carb or no carb diets are very restrictive and simply cannot be sustained in the long-term. It’s unreasonable to think that you’re going to live forever without carbs.

Back in the hunter and gatherer days, people ate carbs and what was available. When protein was difficult to get, they resorted to things like fruits and starchy vegetables. Naturally, our body needs the carbs for energy and to give our body the nutrition that it needs.

The key to consuming carbs and losing weight

So, given this information, how can you consume carbs and continue to lose weight? The key is to focus on the complex carbohydrates.

Complex carbohydrates are whole foods, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables that have carbs, but also have a lot of nutrients and fiber in them as well. 

It’s also important to be aware of how many carbohydrates we’re consuming in a day so that we know where to reduce wherever we can.

Once you make the switch from simple to complex, that’s when you’re going to start seeing the weight loss. Not only that, but you’re going to feel a lot better by still having healthy carbohydrates in your diet, and also be able to sustain this in the long term.

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The good news is you can eat carbs if you want to lose weight without your cravings going crazy. Take a closer look at what you’re eating, switch from simple to complex carbs, and see how much of a difference this will make in your life.