How to Lose Fat (EAT CARBS!)

We need to learn not to exclude them .

There is too much of a pull of carbohydrates on us every single day for us to say , hey , I'm just going to avoid them forever .

What we got Jeff Cavalier athlete dot com .

So today I'm pulling up a seat and I'm inviting you to do the same because it's time that you and I have a little bit of a talk and we're going to talk today about losing body fat and I'm going to follow that up with a recommendation to eat carbohydrates .

You see .

So it's time we have a talk because for some that's going to make you very uncomfortable .

As a matter of fact , the keto crusaders are likely to want to attack me and I place myself in a defenseless position by sitting on my ass .

But I'm quite comfortable with that because I feel as if I can defend myself and I'm actually just looking to provide you guys with information so that you can make an educated decision for yourself about whether or not what I'm going to tell you will work for you , right ?

That's what we're trying to do here .

And really what we're trying to us is whether or not carbohydrates should be included or excluded from your meal plan or at least greatly minimized .

And I am going to take the side of carbohydrates need to be included .

And for me , they actually need to be included to a large degree for long term success .

You see , that's the key here because I'm only interested in long term permanent success .

I'm not looking for the short term weight loss .

I'm looking for the thing that you're going to be able to follow , that's going to give you those results that you can sustain long term .

And that's what brings me back to the whole argument here .

Now , it's no secret .

I've covered my meal plan before .

I am an advocate of eating carbohydrates .

I eat somewhere between , I don't know , 355 100 g every single day .

I wouldn't know because I don't count every gram .

That's a whole other video we could talk about and I will say this before the comedy even comes in .

I am not genetically predisposed to be thin .

My mother had a way to both of her parents were extremely overweight .

My grandfather on my father's side had a large belly , you can never get rid of it .

So I know that if I don't take my nutrition seriously , and I'm not consistent with my nutrition that I could have the same problems that they did .

My issue with the exclusion of carbohydrates comes down to the fact that when we exclude them , are we sacrificing our ability to achieve long term permanent consistency with how we eat ?

Because if you do , then you are not going to find long term success .

Because consistency in the long run is what's going to get you to where you want to be .

And permanent success is the only thing I'm interested in that being said , guys , I understand that carbohydrates do have some baggage which has earned the reputation and why are they being greatly by a lot of people these days ?

But let's talk about them because I think if we can honestly address these things , it's going to help me here in my argument as to why we need to keep them , right ?

So let's talk about it .

First of all , they taste better , right ?

We know that carbohydrate rich foods tend to taste better and therefore we sort of over eat them .

We also know that they are less satiating , so we eat them and before we know it , we've eaten a whole ton of them and we're still not that full and that can have a dramatic impact on the portion sizes that we eat .

So that's a little bit of a pitfall too .

I also understand that we tend to have more cravings for carbohydrate rich foods , right ?

This has a lot to do with brain chemistry , but carbohydrates in exclusion actually taste good whereas fat rich foods in exclusion don't really taste that good .

And maybe while a big steak would appeal to somebody who's a big meat eater .

Again , even protein rich foods on their own aren't necessarily as appealing as carbohydrate , rich foods .

And we also know that through their act on serotonin , we can have an improvement in our mood by eating carbohydrates .

So it's no secret that there's a lot of different ways that carbohydrates sort of hook us and make us feel almost addicted to them .

But that is one of the real reasons of why I started this video the way I did , we need to learn , not , not to exclude them .

There is too much of a pull of carbohydrates on us every single day for us to say , hey , I'm just going to avoid them forever because that's not realistic .

And as a matter of fact , it's setting you up for long term failure .

And I will say this back to the ketogenic diet fanatics .

If you have found great success there , then I want you to continue to eat that way .

And that might sound strange coming from me , but it's true .

I again , I'm only seeking what works for you in the long term .

If you've been able to do it for three years , five years , 10 years , then by all means continue to do that because there are differences between people .

And I'm not saying that mine is the only way .

This is not a dogmatic video .

I'm saying that my way is a way that works and it likely is going to work for you .

But if you found success in other places , they continue to do that .

So I'm suggesting we have to learn ways that we can coexist with carbohydrates and not exclude them from our meal plans .

Now , I think there's a few ways that we can actually do this .

Ok .

The first is discerning between the different types of carbohydrates because there's really three main types .

There's the simple sugars , there's starches and then there's the fibrous carbohydrates .

And I actually broke down a whole list of all the categories that you guys can access on my website at apple dot com slash carbs and you can see all the different types of foods that fit in there .

But let's start on sort of the good side of it , right ?

The fibers carbohydrates and oh yes , this is the boring side of it too .

These are the broccoli , cauliflower asparagus , all the vegetables .

But what they provide is a more stabilizing effect on your blood sugar and ultimately insulin because of the additional fiber that they bring to it and also because of the fiber and the presence of fiber , they a bulking effect so that they actually tend to fill us up a lot faster than the starchier or more sugary carbohydrates do .

So they are actually on the more of the satiating side if we were to stick there on the other side of the spectrum here are those simple processed sugars , right .

These are the things that you need to try to avoid and I mean , avoid at all costs as much as you possibly can .

These are also the types of foods , right .

The simple sugars , the treats , the desserts that people reach for when they're looking for a cheat meal .

And you've heard my stance on cheat meals before , I don't believe if you're looking to get as lean as possible , that cheat meals should be a regular part of your routine .

And that's why you've heard before .

Probably , I don't have these cheat meals hardly ever .

I have carrot cake once or twice a year that I don't often delve into these .

I know the potential pitfalls that come along with delving into this area of carbohydrates too often .

But then there's that tweener area and that is the starchy carbohydrates , which by the way are still sugars .

But because they're strung together into more complex chains , their impact on our overall blood sugar levels .

And then ultimately , again , insulin is going to be blunted because of that and it takes a little bit longer for our bodies to digest these and break them down .

So those effects are altered .

However , this is still probably the biggest area of risk for us because these are the foods that are healthy , the grains , the oats , pastas , rice , right ?

All the things you saw me eat in that daily meal plan .

But because they're sort of healthy , we think we're doing the right thing , but they provide all those same risks that come along with it , of over consumption , not feeling full from them .

So this is where we tend to go off the rails .

So we have an understanding there .

We want to learn how to stay here and more in the areas of the fibers and the starchy carbohydrates and get away from those sugars , but know how to be respectful of how we eat them .

There is something we could do to follow up on this to dive a little bit deeper .

And that is just to simply educate yourself even online with any of the tools that are available to us about the foods you're eating , right of the total carbohydrate count how much of it is coming from sugars because we have that information now .

And if it's anything more than 20% I'd say don't eat that food , right ?

Try not to make that one of your selections , at least that often and at best , try to get under 10% .

So if we're talking about a food that has 20 g of carbs , you're looking at 4 g from sugars max and even better , two or less , right ?

That's something we could do very easily .

The next thing is adopting a technique for dividing your plate and how you lay out your foods when you make your selections because here , I think there's something very powerful we can do .

I talk about this plate division , you actually start by putting one third of that plate allocated to your protein .

OK ?

And again , the protein is where you're going to get most of your satiety .

When you eat it , you're going to feel full , it's going to help you in terms of control .

And the second portion here and that is the remaining two thirds gets divided among your starchy carbohydrates , not your sugars , your starchy carbohydrates and your fibrous carbohydrates .

And my only rule is that you need to put twice as many fibrous carbohydrates on your plate as starchy carbohydrates in terms of portion size .

All right .

Now , if I had a perfect world and I could say to you , hey , I want you to eat in a specific order .

I would tell you start with your proteins , then work around to your fibrous carbohydrates and then end with your starchy carbohydrates .

As a matter of fact , I actually sometimes do that because at night , let's say one of my favorite things to eat is sweet potatoes and sweet potatoes do kind of taste like almost a dessert for me .

So saving them for last is a bit logical .

But why I recommend that at least even in the beginning is because I want you to feel the effect of getting full before you overeat on those carbohydrates .

So start your carbohydrates that tend to dull your perception of how full you are , right ?

So if you start there and you work your way around the plate , you've eaten so much food , by the time you feel full , it's negating the benefit of actually setting up the plate in the first place .

What you didn't see on the plate , however , is an allocation of fat , not at least directly and certainly not in the , in the amounts of 70 to 80% of my meal , which is again , back on that sort of ketogenic path .

Guys , I do not feel that when you're trying to lose fat , which is ultimately going to require you to be in a hypochlorite .

Most calorically dense macro , nutrient fat , right ?

Nine calories per gram versus four calories per gram for protein and carbohydrates .

I don't think that's the way to go .

And I've said it before .

I think that a lower fat approach provided an adequate amount because I went the wrong way .

As a kid , I went to a completely no fat diet and I paid the price for it .

I talked about that a lot in the past .

You still need to have your healthy fats , but I say they're incidental .

You cook with them , you put a little bit on top a little bit of olive oil , you saute your vegetables , right ?

It doesn't have to be boring food , but you still have your fats .

You're just not allocating 70 to 80% of your meal to fats and again , the savings that you get calorically on a gram per gram basis are going to help you become hypo caloric and ultimately lose fat .

And that's where I think again , you're going to find more long term success .

So the last thing I would introduce is the fact that I also think that complementing our nutrition should always be some sort of a training plan .

And though nutrition is going to make up a large , large , large portion of your overall success when it comes to dropping body fat .

For all the reasons we talked about when you train and you eat carbohydrates , you give yourself a better opportunity to succeed by lifting weight and getting stronger and building more muscle because muscle acts as a depot for glucose as stoic Glycogen , we can eat more carbohydrates .

We have more places for that insulin to store that excess glucose .

We can put it into our muscles .

It , it's , it's , it's the main reason why somebody who tends to work out and is already lean can tend to actually eat more .

You've probably seen or you know , people like that .

Matter of fact , you might have seen my meal plan and thought , wow , Jeff eats a lot , eats a lot more than I do .

Why am I not as lean as he is ?

That's the reason why .

So adopting a training plan to build lean muscle is going to be a cheat code for you to allow you to eat these carbohydrates and again , not exclude them .

But as you can see here guys , excluding carbohydrates from your diet is likely not going to give you the ability to sustain whatever plane it is that you're following right now .

And though you might see short term success , though , your ketogenic approach might allow you to lose a rapid amount of weight .

Though cutting carbohydrates is likely to drop a lot of water weight early on all these things that make you feel success quickly and feel that you're tempted to continue to eat that way again .

I'm asking you to look more down the road .

I want that long term approach and the one that's you're going to be able to adopt maybe from watching this one video you see , you know , I'm finally going to do what Jeff said here .

I'm gonna try to do this if you do this .

I'm suggesting here that when you make that change and it sticks , you're never going to have to watch another one of these videos again .

Make sure you watch my other videos , but you're not going to have to watch a video about this anymore because it's going to be done .

You're going to be locked in , you're gonna be able to do this again .

And this is something that I have followed .

Now , as I said , for 30 plus years , you could do the same thing .

It's a mindset , but I don't think that trying to go after one of the most alluring macro nutrients like carbohydrates and excluding them and thinking that that's going to provide you the opportunity for long term success .

I just don't think that's the way we go here .

So guys , I hope that you found the video helpful if anything , I want you guys to feel that it is honest because we're addressing an issue that a lot of people struggle with .

And again , I'm just sharing with you an approach that I know works for me and I know will work for a lot of other people and hopefully it will work for you .

If you're looking for step by step meal plans , we actually build them into all of our programs based around the same concept I shared here with you today .

You can find them over at AFX dot com .

In the meantime , if you found the video helpful , leave your comments and thumbs up .

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All right guys , see you soon .