Cutting Carbs Isn’t the Key to Fat Loss – What to Do Instead

I used to cut carbs every time I wanted to drop fat. I would feel a bit too puffy, wanna get leaner, and would press the “no carb” button in my brain. 

Overnight, I would go from whatever my “normal” was (cuz I didn’t regularly track food) to just not eating carbs. 

This would usually last 5-6 days before I felt I earned. “cheat meal” which would usually consist of pizza and ice cream in disturbing quantities. 

After a few weeks of this, my workouts felt blah, I looked maybe 5% leaner, and would go back to my old eating habits. Which, by the way< weren’t “bad”, they just had no structure or plan. 

I made “healthy” choices but would regularly eat out 4-5x per week. 

And guess what….I never saw great results on this plan. 

Going from “intuitively” eating healthy to “no carb” led to years of not much visible progress and no solid baseline habits I could rely on for seeing consistent progress. 

It can be very frustrating to be investing time and energy into your workouts, while also paying attention to your nutrition with periods of intense restriction of carbs all for nothing. 

The reason your no carb approach isn’t working is because you are trying to conquer the wrong demon. 

Carbs are not the enemy of fat loss. 

Cutting carbs or having a hardwired fear of carbs has never led to amazing or even “ok” results with fat loss. 

It simply leads to endless yo-yo dieting and an unhealthy relationship with food where you are afraid to eat white rice but then get hit with intense sugar cravings on the weekend that lead to binge indulgences. 

Here is what you need to know about carbs: 

1. Most “junk” foods have MORE calories from FAT than from carbs.

Pizza, french fries, cookies, chips, ice cream, cake, doughnuts, pasta dishes, etc are all foods with more calories from fat then from carbs. 

These are all foods you can fit in your healthy lifestyle in moderation, but they are not “carb’ foods. They are foods that are high calorie and super tasty, but those high calories are coming mostly from fat. 

So demonizing carbs or eating low carb pizza isn’t solving any problem here. 

2. After coaching 500+ fat loss clients, I can count on 1 hand the number of clients who were overeating carbs prior to coaching. Most all of them were unintentionally eating too many calories from fat. 

How? Well, like I listed above, most of their “off track” meals were high in fat.But, during their “on track” days, they were trying to avoid carbs which led to overeating calories from healthy foods that were high in fat. 

Avocado toast, whole eggs with cheese, flax seeds, chia seeds, almonds, peanut butter, olive oil, coconut oils, and “keto friendly” options led to high fat intake. 

Again…..not saying that any of these foods are “bad”. They are just high in fat and add up in calories quick. 

3. My average female client eats 175-250g carbs per day while staying toned & fit. 

As you build lean muscle, your body has more use for carbs. When you are depriving your body of carbs most days followed by weekend binge days where calories skyrocket, you don’t allow your body any opportunity to learn how to use carbs. 

Whereas, if you are eating more than enough carbs daily, you will see week to week improvements in strength, endurance, and energy. This leads to higher calorie burn during workouts which means better fat loss while eating more carbs. 

Also, when you are eating carbs 3-4x per day, everyday, you are not craving them which drastically decreases the “fuck it” days from happening.  

Carbs are not your enemy. Your mindset is your enemy.

Your body can handle more carbs.

We need to train your mind how to handle them. We need break years of diet culture brainwashing that convinced you to be afraid of fruit but leads you to Saturday bingefests on cookies. 

We need break the belief that you need to buy low carb wraps for your sandwiches but that eating an 800 calorie Acai bowl with no protein is “healthy”. 

This is part of my first phase of my 1:1 coaching program, Building the Baseline. 

This is where we erase the overwhelming nonsense information you have been misled to believe for years and create ridiculously simple & repeatable habits you can stick to daily. 

Habits that include carbs and fun weekends. 

If you want to finally get out of the diet hamster wheel so you can enjoy food while building a strong, fit body, then I highly suggest you ask about 1:1 coaching. 

If not now, well then I hope to hear from you when you are ready.