Carbohydrates Are An Important Part Of A Healthy Diet

Today people seem to equate eating carbohydrates to weight gain which is not all true.  While eating a lot of easily- digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to your weight gain, and therefore, interfere with your efforts to lose weight. On the contrary, consuming whole grains, beans, fruits, vegetables, and other intact carbohydrates promotes good health.  A healthy diet is about balance and moderation. A basic knowledge of what carbohydrates are and how you body uses them is essential to understanding how to balance them in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system. Carbohydrates are found in an array of foods such as bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, rice, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and desserts. The most common and abundant forms are classified as sugars, fibers, and starches.

The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Starches and fibers forms of carbohydrates are essentially chains of sugar molecules, some containing hundreds.

As mentioned above, most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.

Regardless of their source, your body breaks down all carbohydrates, except for fibers, into simple sugar molecules  These simple sugars are further converted into glucose, also known as blood sugar. Your body is designed to use blood sugar as a universal source of fuel for energy.

Fiber is the form of carbohydrate that your body cannot break down into simple sugar molecules. It passes through your body undigested. Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble, which dissolves in water, and insoluble, which does not. Although neither type provides energy for your body, they both promote health in many ways. Soluble fiber binds to fatty substances in your intestines and carries them out as waste, thus lowering your low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or bad cholesterol). It also helps regulate your body’s use of sugars, helping you to keep your hunger and blood sugar in check. Insoluble fiber helps push food through your intestinal tract, promoting regularity and helping to prevent constipation.

Here’s what happens when you eat a food containing carbohydrates. Your digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which then enters your blood. As your blood sugar level rises, specials cells in your pancreas churn out insulin, a hormone that signals your cells to absorb the blood sugar for energy or for storage. As your cells soak-up the blood sugar, its level in your bloodstream begins to fall. Now, your pancreas starts making another hormone called glucagon, which signals your liver to start releasing stored blood sugar. This interplay of insulin and glucagon ensures that cells throughout your body have a steady supply of blood sugar. 

As you can see, carbohydrates are an important part of a healthy diet.  However, as with all foods, balance and moderation in your daily consumption is key.

Practice Balance for Long-term Weight Loss

I have to be honest and tell you that more than 75 percent of the exercise required for long-term weight loss involves your fork and knife. No amount of exercise can compensate for poor dietary habits. A successful weight loss plan is one that you can integrate into your lifestyle and live with for the long-term.

Fad diets don’t work because they are too restrictive for most people to follow and to incorporate into their daily lives. How many times have you seen someone lose a lot of weight in a short period and hear people say, “Have you seen so-and-so, since she’s been on that new diet? She looks so good.” Then you see that person a year or so later, and she is heavier than ever. That’s the typical outcome of a fad diet because sooner or later you will start to feel deprived and then you will return to your old eating habits.

The key to eating healthy and maintaining your weight loss over the long-term is balance and moderation in the foods you consume daily. You can eat any food you desire as long as it is in moderation and balanced with the rest of the foods you consume. For example, I love brownies, so when I have a brownie for dessert I only have one. I also balance the carbohydrates and sugar in the brownie by not having bread with my meal.

The first step in learning balance and moderation in your diet is knowing how to classify foods into their basic sources of protein, carbohydrates, and fats as well as how they are used in your body. The second step is mastering portion. Knowing how many calories you consume from each food source and what your serving sizes are enables you to balance your meals. Eating this way can be easily incorporated into your lifestyle - it’s a plan you can stick with for the long-term.

Balance and Moderation is the Answer to Long-Term Weight Loss

I've been searching the web recently for credible information on exercise and fitness.  I'm amazed at the huge number of programs promising dramatic results in as little as 15 days.  I'm a certified personal trainer, fitness author, and competitive natural bodybuilder and I know better than to subscribe to one of these programs, but the general public does not.

While achieving dramatic results from your fitness program in a short period of time is possible, the probability of sustaining your results for a long time is very unlikely.  It takes me 16 weeks of intense exercise and very strict dieting to get ready to compete in a bodybuilding competition, and I cannot sustain that peak physical condition for very long.  So, buying into those quick fix programs is a waist of your money, because you can't keep up the effort it takes to sustain the results for the long-term.

Staying healthy and fit is a lifetime effort which is most easily accomplished through balance and moderation in your diet combined with regular exercise.  The quick fix approach is just a short-term answer to a long-term problem.


Recently I've found the best weight maintenance system I've seen in my 20 years in the health and fitness industry.  It's called the Metaboliq Lifestyle System developed by Dr. Donald K. Layman.  Dr. Layman's research in obesity and weight loss has proven that balance in your diet is the only long-term solution to losing weight and keeping it off.  You can find out more about this amazing system by following this link: Metaboliq.

Lets Get Real About Getting Fit

As a personal trainer with over 17 years of experience in the health and fitness industry, I've seen the fad diets and the quick fix exercise programs come and go. I'm always amused at all the so called health and fitness companies trying to rake in all the money they can by taking advantage of people's new year's resolutions. It's almost like a show I saw a few weeks ago on the Discovery Channel about all the sea predators waiting for the annual sardine run when they can easily eat their fill.

The advertisements entice you with quick weight loss results and a toned shapely body. They get celebrities to endorse their products to encourage you that buying them is money well spent. I hope you don't fall prey to these predators of human emotions.

The reality is their are not any quick fixes to long-term weight loss and improved physical fitness. Losing weight and improving your fitness level is a lifetime commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

In my experience, a healthy lifestyle consist of a positive mental attitude, balance and moderation in your diet, and a regular exercise program. The good news is all of these things are in your control. They are all based on the choices you make everyday and the first choice is not to become a victim of the "quick fix predators."