The truth about sports, nutrition and pain!

Posts tagged ‘slow metabolism’

Carbohydrates part 2

It has been a while but I´m finally back (back again), so let us continue with the second part of carbohydrates. I will make it short since most of the important things were already said in the first part (click here). As I mentioned in my last post, carbohydrates have been getting a bad ¨rap¨, and a lot of people blame them for their weight gain. So, they are the first macronutrient ¨punished¨ when someone wants to lose weight.  But carbohydrates, if eaten properly, is an essential macronutrient, and one that should definitely not be completely taken out of your diet.

The thing is, most people completely misunderstand what carbohydrates are. When they think carbohydrates, they think sugar, pasta, or processed foods, but carbohydrates are much more than that. Carbohydrates are found in lettuce, broccoli, spinach, onions and many other healthy foods. So the important thing is that we should try to stay away from refined and highly processed carbohydrates, which can cause trigger cravings, and try to eat whole, natural carbohydrates.

Now, if you are not that active, I would recommend to try to keep your carb intake low. But if you exercise regularly and maintain a low carb diet you could actually be doing more harm than good. As it has been shown that exercising regularly and restricting your carb intake drastically can lead to (1-6):

  1. Decreased thyroid output
  2. Increased cortisol output
  3. Decreased testosterone
  4. Impaired mood and cognitive function
  5. Muscle catabolism

In other words, it leads to a SLOWER METABOLISM and this is the last thing someone wants when losing weight.

And again I will finish by saying that the most important factor when someone is on a diet is the percentage of proteins they eat. So it really doesn´t matter if you go on a low fat diet or a low carb diet, both of them will be more or less effective  as long as  you keep your protein intake high (7-9). Remember that!

Hope you enjoyed it.

References

 

  1. E Danforth, Jr, et al. Dietary-induced alterations in thyroid hormone metabolism during overnutrition. J Clin Invest. 1979 November; 64(5): 1336–1347.
  2. Spaulding SW, et al. Effect of caloric restriction and dietary composition of serum T3 and reverse T3 in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1976 Jan;42(1):197-200.
  3. Serog P, et al. Effects of slimming and composition of diets on V02 and thyroid hormones in healthy subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 1982;35(1):24-35.
  4. Anderson KE, et al. Diet-hormone interactions: protein/carbohydrate ratio alters reciprocally the plasma levels of testosterone and cortisol and their respective binding globulins in man. Life Sci. 1987 May 4;40(18):1761-8.
  5. Tsai L, et al. Basal concentrations of anabolic and catabolic hormones in relation to endurance exercise after short-term changes in diet. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1993;66(4):304-8.
  6. Lane AR, Duke JW, Hackney AC. Influence of dietary carbohydrate intake on the free testosterone: cortisol ratio responses to short-term intensive exercise training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Apr;108(6):1125-31.
  7. Hu T, Mills K, Demanelis K, Eloustaz M, Yancy W, Kelly N T, He J, Bazzano L.  Effects of Low carbohydrated diets versys Low-Fat Diets on Metabolic Risk Factors: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials. Am J Epidemiol. 2012 October 1; 176: S44-S54
  8. Loria-Kohen V, Gomez-Candela C, Fernández-Fernández C, Pérez-Torres A, Garcia-Puig J, Bermejo LM. Evaluation of uselfulness of a low calorie diet with or without bread in the treatment of overweight /obesity. Clin Nutr.2012 Aug;31 (4): 455-61.
  9.  Soenen S, Bonomi AG, Lemmens SG, Scholte J, Thisjssen MA, van Berkum F, Westerterp-Plantenga MS. Relatively high-protein or ¨low-carb¨energy-restricted diets for body weight loss and body weight maintenance. Physiol Behav 2012 Oct 10;107(3):374-80.

 

 

 

 

Category:

Diet

Tagged with:

Metabolism – The myth behind slow and fast metabolism

You always hear people say that they are fat because they have a slow metabolism or that they are skinny because they have a fast metabolism, but research has shown that to be false, unless you have a problem with the thyroid gland or some other medical disorder, which very few people have. Most of the time the person that is overweight is so because either he is eating too much or moving too little and the person that is skinny is so because either he is eating too little or moving too much.

First let´s clear up a couple of confusing terms:

  • Metabolism – is the name for the process your body uses to convert the food you eat into energy.
  • Basal Metabolic Rate – is the energy your body burns when you are not ACTIVE. Basal Metabolic Rate is determined by how much weight and muscle your body has. Muscle burns more calories than fat, approximately in between 6-10 calories per pound (25 calories per kilo), and fat burns around 2 calories per pound. This is also very interesting because people always think (I was one of them) that muscle burns many more calories, but it actually only burns 4 to 6 calories more!! That´s nothing!
  • Basal Metabolic Rate plus the energy required for physical activity make up our TOTAL ENERGY EXPENDITURE. Your total energy needs depend on how active you are.

Often, overweight people believe they eat very little and still put on weight, hence the ‘slow metabolism’ theory, but research has shown people tend to eat more than they think. Also, a very interesting fact is that overweight people usually use more energy to keep their bodies working because they need more energy to keep the blood flowing around their body, meaning their Basal Metabolic Rate is actually higher than skinnier people.

So analyzing all this information, it´s safe to say that people that are overweight are usally so because they are eating more than they are supposed to and moving less than they should, it´s that simple.

Here is a link that BBC did on this Myth. It´s a two part presentation each lasting 9 minutes long. I highly recommend that you all take a look at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt-qKTaEMIQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTx-D5NJ_kU

My next blog will talk about eating late. People always think that eating something heavy for dinner will make you fat. But is this is really true? We will see that next week, until then, enjoy the weekend!

Related articles

Category:

Diet

Tagged with: