Do carbs make you fat?

A lot of people are scared of carbohydrates or sugar these days. They have become the evil doer of the world and the cause of all problems. But like anything when you’re following the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge, everything needs to be kept in moderation.

Of course too much of one thing is not great and this is true with sugar and carbohydrates. But if you substitute sugar for fat, you still have an issue.

To answer your question, sugar does not make you fat. Nor do carbohydrates. Sugar does not turn to fat either.

Although I have just written that above sentence it is not 100% true. It is in extremely rare situations that sugar turns to fat. This is called de-novo lipogenesis. In a study done, in extreme conditions where people were feed 175% of their daily energy requirements for 4 days did some of the excess sugar turn to fat. But for you and me, this isn’t going to happen or be of concern.

The reason why people often say that “sugar makes you fat” is because if you are consuming a diet high in sugar, the body uses sugar as its first point of energy, rather than using fat stores. So if you consume fat and sugar together, the sugar will be used by your body first, and the fat gets left to sit on the sidelines, in me, on my belly.

In weight loss or weight gain it is the OVERALL consumption of kilojoules which results in weight loss or weight gain. Weight loss occurs when your body expends more energy than what you consume. Weight gain occurs when you consume more than what your body expends. It is EXCESS kilojoules that leads to weight gain, not sugar per se.

But it is a good idea when possible to reduce the amount of sugar which has no nutrition associated with it. This is in reference to the energy density. If a food has a lot of sugar or fat in it, it may be deemed as having high energy density. But if you want to lose some weight you want a food that yes, does have energy density, but more so you would want one that is nutritionally dense too.

Many ‘junk foods’ are high in energy density and low in nutrient density. But that is getting side tracked and a post all on its own.

The main point here is to remember that sugar does not make you fat. Excess food and excess kilojoules make you put on weight. That could be from fruits, vegetables, meat, lollies, dairy, hamburgers, pizzas or spaghetti bolognese. It just depends how much you eat of it!

So don’t go cutting out carbohydrates as you think they are full of evil sugar. Of course you can eat carbohydrates and even sweeties or chocolate too when you are on a diet, but you need to keep it in moderation.