Why Bread Makes You Fat and High Fat Foods Can Help You Lose Weight

For a long time, we’ve been told to eat a diet low in fat and high in carbohydrate rich grains to be healthy. The food pyramid, found on school classroom walls and doctors offices, has breads, grains and other starches and its base. The message is eat more wheat, corn and other grains and we’ve been listening. 

Wheat production alone has tripled in the last 50 years to try and keep up with our insatiable demand for ‘healthy’ grains. But is it working?

Just look around you any time you’re out walking on the street if you really wondered the answer to that question. During that same 50 year time period clinical obesity levels in American adults have risen from just under 10% in 1960 to over 35% in 2010. Children’s obesity rates are going up even faster. It’s estimated that by 2030, over half the US population will be obese.

To be defined as clinically obese isn’t just overweight, it’s life threatening. We are getting fat real fast. But how can this be when saturated animal fat consumption has actually fallen significantly over the same time period? Surely eating less saturated fat should have made things better, shouldn’t it? Actually, it’s made things much worse.

How Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates Affect Your Body

One of the hardest things for some people to get their head around is that it’s usually not eating fat that makes us fat. Yes fatty acids contain more calories than carbohydrates or protein. But the way our bodies process and use protein, carbohydrates and fats are very different.

Good protein sources like free range eggs, seeds and nuts, wild salmon or grass fed meat help to build and maintain your body and its muscles, organs and blood. Eating protein also provides a good level of satiety (that satisfied feeling of fullness you should get after eating a meal) and you would find it very difficult to get fat on a diet of natural protein foods combined with a variety of vegetables.

Healthy fats like those found in coconut, avocado, butter from grass fed cows, nuts and seeds and free range meats provide an even higher level of satiety than protein. These types of high-fat foods really fill you up and tell your body to stop eating. They level out your blood sugar and tend to stop our hunger dead in its tracks for many hours.

Certain fatty acids, like the saturated capric acid found in coconuts or the monounsaturated oleic fatty acid predominant in avocados, have also been shown to help reduce body fat and significantly aid in weight loss.
Weight gain really is a much more complex subject than simply calories in calories out. The evidence has been staring mainstream food regulators in the face for many decades. But they are either very slow, or have a very big grain industry to protect.
This brings us to carbohydrates and grains. Bread, pasta and cereals are dealt with by your body much differently than protein or fat.

First of all, they’re digested much quicker. Even the so-called complex carbohydrates are rapidly converted into glucose and hit your bloodstream very fast. Whole wheat bread for instance completes its digestion only marginally slower than white bread. And as for those bleached burger buns or bright white slices of bread, they might as well be made of table sugar for all your body knows. The effect they have and the lack of nutrition they provide really isn’t very different.

Carbohydrates are sold to us as a quick source of energy. Sounds good but this is precisely the reason why they make us fat. Here’s why.

How Bread Makes You Fat?

Insulin is a powerful hormone that is responsible for storing fat. When a farmer wants to fatten up his cattle or a sumo wrestler wants to put on weight quickly, they don’t eat fats. That would fill them up and not have the desired effect. Instead they eat grain – wheat for the cattle, rice for the sumo wrestler.

They do this for the grains ability to spike insulin. It’s insulin that is needed to swell the body’s adipose fat cells and deposit even more fat. Without a spike in insulin you’d actually have a very hard time gaining weight.

Eating a diet high in carbohydrates will prevent stored body fat being used as fuel. There is never a chance for your body to switch to using it as an energy source. Even if you were to cut out fat completely (which is extremely unhealthy as fatty acids are involved in many vital bodily processes), you would still be unlikely to lose weight as long as you continue to eat grains. In fact, you’d probably get fatter even faster.

Your body isn’t actually very good at dealing with large amounts of carbohydrates. Any meal high in carbs converts quickly to significant amounts of glucose and is actually seen as a threat. Your blood sugar levels must be maintained in a fairly narrow range. As soon as they get too high your body releases insulin to deal with the danger.

A small amount of glucose can be stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen (and this would be helpful if you intend to run a marathon the next day). But the rest is shuttled away into the adipose tissue designed to store fat, at first around the waist and hips and once that starts to get full, pretty much anywhere it can.

This is a protective mechanism we’ve developed over many thousands of years and would have been useful in the past when food was scarce. But that’s no longer the case and now it’s our relentless consumption of fattening grains that is making so many of us obese and leading to a huge rise in diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease that are killing us.

Low-Fat Versus Low-Carb

Low-fat diets haven’t worked. They make us hungrier and much fatter as a result. We need healthy fats. They are a vital part of both good health and weight loss.

There’s one important exception, sometimes still marketed as good for you or ‘heart healthy’ but definitely not so. The processed vegetable oils like corn, soy, cotton seed, sunflower and canola oil that are added to a high percentage of processed supermarket foods and hydrogenated into toxic margarine.

These heated and altered polyunsaturated fats are highly inflammatory and linked to heart disease and many other health problems. Avoid them at all costs.
Avocado oil or coconut oil are far healthier cooking choices in your kitchen. Olive oil is a source of good fats too as long as you don’t heat it as it breaks down easily.

Ideally, carbohydrates in your diet should come from vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, peppers, leafy greens and many others and lesser amounts of fruit. These contain the fiber to slow down carbohydrate digestion as well as high levels of nutrients and enzymes for better health.

There’s a growing movement of people who have given up grains completely and many have been amazed at the changes in their health and energy. If you really need to lose some weight, cutting out grains for a while will be likely to have a far greater effect on your body weight than the old counting calories. Starving yourself just doesn’t work. You actually teach your body to get better at storing fat as food is suddenly restricted.

Once you reach your ideal body weight, you may be able to tolerate some grain foods without provoking too much of a spike in insulin. Even then, nutritional experts who’ve actually looked deeply into the effect foods like wheat and corn have on our physiology (rather than just chanting the old ‘carbohydrates for quick energy’ mantra) generally believe grain based food should not be more than 20% of your daily intake.

They also consistently say healthy fats have an important place in your meals if you want to lose weight and be fit and healthy.

Conclusion

Have you been trying to lose weight with the old cutting calories, low fat, more grains prescription? Has it been working? Why not try a different way?

While it may be hard to believe, you probably need more, not less, of the right kind of fats. Couple that with a reduction in insulin spiking grains and you’ll be well on your way to weight loss, better heath and more energy.

Low Levels of Vitamin D May Lead to Depression

Low serum levels of vitamin D are associated with clinically significant symptoms of depression in otherwise healthy individuals, new research shows.

Here is another good reason for taking vitamin supplements. Low levels of vitamin D seems to be the norm, rather than the exception. There are many important functions for vitamin D, including bone health, cancer prevention, immune system function, etc. Here is another.

 

Making a series of assessments of healthy women during a 1-month period, investigators found that more than one third of participants had depressive symptoms, that almost half had vitamin D insufficiency, and that depressive symptoms were predicted by vitamin D levels.

 

"Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency occur at high rates in healthy young women, and lower vitamin D3 levels are related to clinically significant depressive symptoms," say the researchers at the School of Psychological Science, College of Liberal Arts, Oregon State University, Corvallis.

 

Noting that vitamin D supplementation is a low-cost, simple, and low-risk intervention, they add: "Given the lifespan health risks associated with insufficiency, supplementation is warranted whether or not the modest role of vitamin D in depression observed here generalizes more broadly."

 

The study was published online March 6 in Psychiatry Research.

Why Electrolytes Are So Important

For exhaustive exercise and training, electrolytes are vital for performance.

When you sweat you lose more than just water, you lose vital electrolytes. Refueling and rehydrating after intense training is second nature for some athletes. However, not everyone realizes the importance of replenishing key electrolytes lost through perspiration, and that it can make or break performance.

Electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, are electrically charged minerals that travel through the blood and extracellular fluid. They regulate the body’s hydration, blood pH, blood pressure, recovery of damaged tissues, and nerve and muscle function. Electrolyte levels are tightly controlled within a strict concentration range by the kidneys and a variety of hormones.

While all electrolytes are important, special attention should be paid to maintaining sodium and potassium levels to protect against muscular and neurological deficits that can hinder performance.

Sodium

The most highly concentrated electrolyte in sweat is sodium. A study of an elite soccer team during a 90-minute training session found on average two grams of sodium were lost through sweat (1). These sodium losses can cause impaired mental and physical performance (2).

Sodium plays a key role in many important processes, including the vital regulation of cellular charge balances. As a positively charged ion, sodium works in contrast with the negatively charged potassium to create cell membrane potential. The charge-driven activity of membrane potential drives normal muscle and nerve function (3).

Maintaining stable sodium levels is especially important during an intense workout to avoid a drop in blood pressure. When sodium levels are low, the amount of extracellular fluid in circulation decreases resulting in less blood volume and a lowered blood pressure, which can cause fatigue or worse depending on how low levels drop (4).

Potassium

Potassium is also particularly important for athletes due to its role in regulating fluid and nutrient balance across cell membranes, which affects muscle and neuron activity (3). Without enough potassium in the body, muscle cramping and weakness, along with low energy is common.

Even though not as much potassium is lost in sweat as sodium, it’s still important to restore depleted stores after a workout. This is because significant changes in potassium levels in the blood can be dangerous. When potassium levels fall far below the normal range, the nerve impulses that cause the heart muscles to contract are disrupted. In some extreme cases this can result in a dangerous irregular heart beat or arrhythmia (5).

Sports drinks are a great tool to help rehydrate and restore electrolyte balance, especially when exhaustive workouts or athletic events cause substantial loss of fluids and electrolytes. However, many popular formulations contain excess sugar and calories that make them an unhealthy choice for non-athletes, not to mention being filled with artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners.

Refrences

1. Maughan RJ, et al .Water balance and salt losses in competitive football. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2007 Dec;17(6):583-94.

2. Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner EL et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand: Exercise and fluid replacement. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39:377-390.

3. Higdon Jane. Sodium (Chloride). Linus Pauling Institute: Micronutrient Research for Optimum Health. 2004 Feb.

4. Sahay M, Sahay R. Hyponatremia: A practical approach. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Nov-Dec; 18(6): 760–771.

5. 2005 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care: Part 10.1: Life-Threatening Electrolyte Abnormalities Circulation. 2005;112:IV-121-IV-125.

New Dietary Guidelines Reverse Flawed Recommendations on Cholesterol

For the past half century, cholesterol has been touted as a grave health hazard, and dietary fat and cholesterol have been portrayed as being among the “deadliest” foods you could possibly eat.

This may finally change, as limitations for cholesterol will likely be removed from the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It’s about time really, as 60 years’ worth of research has utterly failed to demonstrate a correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease.

Not only does undamaged natural cholesterol not cause heart disease, it is actually one of the most important molecules in your body; indispensable for the building of cells and for producing stress and sex hormones, as well as vitamin D.

Cholesterol is also important for brain health, and helps with the formation of your memories. Low levels of HDL cholesterol have been linked to memory loss andAlzheimer's disease, and may also increase your risk of depression, stroke,violent behavior, and even suicide.

New American Dietary Guidelines May Remove Limits on Cholesterol

A draft¹ of the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans,² created by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, now states that “cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

And, according to a recent report in the Washington Post,³ an insider claims the new stance on cholesterol will remain in the final report. As noted by medical journalist Larry Husten:⁴

“The proposed change reflects a major shift in the scientific view of cholesterol that has taken place in recent years.

Although serum cholesterol is still considered an important risk factor, cholesterol consumed in food is now thought to play a relatively insignificant role in determining blood levels of cholesterol.”

However, if you process saturated fat or cholesterol and heat it by frying, then  you create very dangerous products that will clearly increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. So this new information does not give you free license to eat any type of cholesterol. Remember, trans fats are worse than sugar for your health.

Guidelines on Fat and Cholesterol Should Never Have Been Made

Steve Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, toldUSA Today:⁵ “It’s the right decision. We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They’ve been wrong for decades.” This message was echoed in Time Magazine, which recently reported that:

“[I]n the latest review⁶ of studies that investigated the link between dietary fat and causes of death, researchers say the guidelines got it all wrong. In fact, recommendations to reduce the amount of fat we eat every day should never have been made.”

Low-fat diets saw a real upswing in 1977, but according to research published in the Open Heart journal,⁷ led by Zoe Harcombe, PhD, there was no scientific basis for the recommendations to cut fat from our diet in the first place.

What’s worse, the processed food industry replaced fat with large amounts of sugar, While Dr. Harcombe shies away from making any recommendation about how much dietary fat might be ideal, she suggests that the take-home message here is to simply “eat real food.”

I have to say, it’s refreshing to finally see that message being repeated in the mainstream media. As reported by Time Magazine:⁸

“The less adulterated and processed your diet is, the more nutrients and healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates your body will get, and the less you’ll have to worry about meeting specific guidelines or advice that may or may not be based on a solid body of evidence.”

Processed Fructose Affects Your Body Like Alcohol

The low-fat craze led to an avalanche of new processed food products, promising to benefit both your waistline and your heart. Alas, nothing could have been further from the truth.

When fat was removed, sugar was added in, and this has led to a massive increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As it turns out, your body metabolizes fructose in the same way it metabolizes ethanol, creating the same toxic effects.

Unlike glucose, which can be used by virtually every cell in your body, fructose canonly be metabolized by your liver, because your liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it.

Since nearly all fructose gets shuttled to your liver, and, if you eat a typical Western-style diet, you consume high amounts of it, fructose ends up taxing and damaging your liver in the same way alcohol and other toxins do.

In fact, when you compare the health outcomes of fructose versus alcohol consumption, you see the diseases they cause are virtually identical:

Chronic Ethanol Consumption	Chronic Fructose Consumption
Hypertension	Hypertension
Cardiomyopathy	Myocardial infarction
Dyslipidemia	Dyslipidemia
Pancreatitis	Pancreatitis
Obesity	Obesity
Hepatic dysfunction (ASH)	Hepatic dysfunction (NASH)
Fetal alcohol syndrome	Fetal insulin resistance
Addiction	Habituation, if not addiction

Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease Has Become a Serious Public Health Concern

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism and sounding the alarm on processed fructose in particular.

In one of his papers,⁹ published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2010, Dr. Lustig describes three similarities between fructose and its fermentation byproduct, ethanol (alcohol):

1. Your liver's metabolism of fructose is similar to alcohol as they both serve as substrates for converting dietary carbohydrate into fat, which promotes insulin resistance, dyslipidemia (abnormal fat levels in the bloodstream), and fatty liver
2. Fructose undergoes the Maillard reaction with proteins, leading to the formation of superoxide free radicals that can result in liver inflammation similar to acetaldehyde, an intermediary metabolite of ethanol
3. By "stimulating the 'hedonic pathway' of the brain both directly and indirectly," Dr. Lustig noted, "fructose creates habituation, and possibly dependence; also paralleling ethanol"

As recently reported in Scientific American,¹⁰ non-alcoholic fatty liver disease¹¹ (NAFLD) now affects an estimated 25 percent of Americans, including an estimated 20 percent of children, who have never had a drop of alcohol. Cases of NAFLD have even been reported in children as young as three years old. This may sound like an impossibility. But did you know that most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of a can of Coca-Cola?

Ditto for many baby foods, which can contain as much sugar and harmful trans fats as chocolate cookies or cheeseburgers. Babies are methodically “poisoned” with exorbitant amounts of refined sugar and processed fructose from day one, so it’s really no wonder that so many of our youngsters struggle with weight issues and associated diseases.  As explained in Scientific American:¹²

“NAFLD describes the accumulation of fat in hepatocytes, or liver cells, in excessive amounts. These fats are typically triglycerides, which the body naturally stores and creates from calories that it doesn’t need right away. Normally these fats are burned off for energy, but if the body is overwhelmed with calories and a lack of exercise, then the triglycerides are simply never released. They instead accumulate in the liver and cause NAFLD, which can lead to inflammation, scarring, liver dysfunction and even liver cancer.”

Wrong Dietary Guidelines Has Led to Flawed Medical Interventions, Too

Since the cholesterol hypothesis is false, this also means that the recommended therapies—low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, and cholesterol lowering medications—are doing more harm than good. Statin treatment, for example, is largely harmful, costly, and has transformed millions of people into patients whose health is being adversely impacted by the drug. As noted in the featured video, we now know a whole lot more about HDL and LDL, commonly referred to as “good” and “bad” cholesterol respectively, although that is also a bit of a fallacy.

Depending on the size of the particles, LDL may be either harmful or harmless, so LDL is not necessarily “bad” across the board. The issue of particle sizes is discussed in greater detail in my 2013 interview with Chris Kresser, L.Ac. If you’ve had your cholesterol levels checked, your doctor most likely tested your total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. But we now know those are not accurate predictors for cardiovascular disease risk.

A far more accurate predictor is your LDL particle number, the test for which is called an NMR Lipoprofile. It’s easy to get and all major labs offer it, including LabCorp and Quest. Most insurance policies cover the test as well. Best of all, even if your doctor were to refuse to order it, you can order it yourself via third-party intermediaries like Direct Labs, or you can order the test online, and get blood drawn locally. Also:

1. Check your HDL to total cholesterol ratio. HDL percentage is a potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. This ratio should ideally be above 24 percent.
2. Boost your HDL cholesterol and lower your triglyceride levels. High triglycerides are a very potent risk factor for heart disease. In combination, high triglycerides and low HDL levels are an even bigger risk; this ratio is far more important to your heart health than the standard good vs. bad cholesterol ratio. In fact, one study found that people with the highest ratio of triglycerides to HDL had 16 times the risk of heart attack as those with the lowest ratio of triglycerides to HDL.
You calculate your triglyceride/HDL cholesterol ratio by dividing your triglyceride level by your HDL level. This ratio should ideally be below 2. So while you strive to keep your HDL cholesterol levels up, you'll want to decrease your triglycerides. You’ll find strategies for increasing your HDL level below. Triglycerides are easily decreased by exercising and avoiding grains and sugars in your diet.

Statins Are Based on a Flawed Premise

Part of the reason why cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins are ineffective for heart disease prevention (besides the fact that the drug causes heart disease as a side effect) is that drugs cannot address the real cause of heart disease, which is insulin and leptin resistance, which in turn increase your LDL particle number via a number of different mechanisms. While some genetic predisposition can play a role, insulin and leptin resistance is primarily caused by a combination of factors that are epidemic in our modern lifestyle:

• A diet high in processed and refined carbohydrates, sugars/fructose, refined flours, and industrial seed oils
• Insufficient everyday physical activity. Chronic sitting is also an independent risk factor that causes biochemical changes that predispose you to insulin and leptin resistance, even if you’re very fit and exercise regularly
• Chronic sleep deprivation. Studies have shown that even one night of disturbed sleep can decrease your insulin sensitivity the next day and cause cravings and overeating
• Environmental toxins. Exposure to BPA, for example, can disrupt weight regulation
• Poor gut health. Studies indicate that imbalances in your gut flora (the bacteria that live in our gut) can predispose you to obesity and insulin and leptin resistance, and processed foods high in sugar effectively feed harmful bacteria, allowing them to take over

For Heart Health, Focus on Boosting Your HDL

A healthy diet is foundational for optimal health, and step number one is to ignore the advice to eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. Other strategies that will help reduce your risk of heart disease include the following:¹³

Replace processed foods (which are loaded with refined sugar and carbs, processed fructose, and trans fat—all of which promote heart disease) with whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods, ideally organic and/or locally grown.

Avoid meats and other animal products such as dairy and eggs sourced from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Instead, opt for grass-fed, pastured varieties, raised according to organic standards.

Eliminate no-fat and low-fat foods, and increase consumption of healthy fats. Half of the population suffers with insulin resistance and would benefit from consuming 50-85 percent of their daily calories from healthy saturated fats, such as avocados, butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk, raw dairy, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, unheated organic nut oils, raw nuts, and grass-fed meats. No- or low-fat foods are usually processed foods that are high in sugar, which raises your small, dense LDL particles. Balancing your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is also key for heart health, as these fatty acids help build the cells in your arteries that make the prostacyclin that keeps your blood flowing smoothly. Omega-3 deficiency can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. For more information about omega-3s and the best sources of this fat, please review this previous article.

You also need the appropriate ratios of calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, and all of these are generally abundant in a whole food diet. To get more fresh vegetables into your diet, consider juicing.

Optimize your vitamin D level. Some researchers, like Dr. Stephanie Seneff, believe optimizing your vitamin D level through regular sun exposure, opposed to taking an oral supplement, may be key to optimizing your heart health. If you do opt for a supplement, you also increase your need for vitamin K2.  Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Heaney recently highlighted research showing that carnivorous animals actually get some of the vitamin D they need from the meat they eat. For the longest time, meat was not considered a good source of vitamin D, primarily because it was so difficult to measure that we didn’t think it contained useful amounts. He recommends getting approximately 5,000 to 6,000 IUs of vitamin D per day from all sources – sun, supplements, and food – in order to reach and maintain a healthy blood level of 40-60 ng/ml.

Optimize your gut health. Regularly eating fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables, will help reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria that may play an important role in preventing heart disease and countless other health problems.

Quit smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption.

Exercise regularly. Exercise is actually one of the safest, most effective ways to prevent and treat heart disease. In 2013, researchers at Harvard and Stanford reviewed 305 randomized controlled trials, concluding there were "no statistically detectable differences" between physical activity and medications for heart disease. High-intensity interval training, which requires but a fraction of the time compared to conventional cardio, has been shown to be especially effective.

Pay attention to your oral health. There's convincing evidence linking the state of your teeth and gums to a variety of health issues, including heart disease. In one 2010 study,14 those with the worst oral hygiene increased their risk of developing heart disease by 70 percent, compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day.

Avoid statins, as the side effects of these drugs are numerous, while the benefits are debatable. In my view, the only group of people who may benefit from a cholesterol-lowering medication are those with genetic familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a condition characterized by abnormally high cholesterol, which tends to be resistant to lowering with lifestyle strategies like diet and exercise.

Carb Loading 101

How to fill out before contest day.

Let's summarize some contest-prep guidelines for calories, protein, carbs, and fat: Total calories should not be reduced below that which produces one to two pounds of weight loss per week. Six weeks or so out from contest day, you’ll want to reduce weight loss to one pound per week to save muscle. Protein should range between 1–1½ grams per pound of body weight. Carbohydrates should stay as high as possible while keeping protein in the ideal range and still allowing one to two pounds of weight loss per week. Resist the temptation to cut carbs too low. Fat can make up the rest and should fall between 15–20% of total calories. If this is your first contest, give yourself a week for every two pounds you think you’ll need to lose. 

Now, let's discuss how to fill out again before contest day. After months of dieting, your muscles are going to be fat from carb and water depletion. You need to replenish the glycogen in your muscle in order to get your fullness back. We call this carb loading. 

Traditional carb loading is accomplished by manipulating carb intake and training in two distinct phases. The carb-depletion phase involves depleting the muscle of its glycogen stores through a high volume of exercise and a very low carbohydrate intake. This depletion phase is then followed by a repletion phase. The repletion, or “loading” phase, consists of greatly reducing the volume of exercise, and at the same time, gorging on carbohydrate-rich foods for about three days. Successfully completing the depletion phase and the loading phase results in super-compensation of glycogen levels in the muscles and if done correctly (and a bit of luck) results in a much fuller appearance to your muscles. 

As anyone can attest who has tried traditional carb loading, it ain’t pleasant! Sure, the loading phase is a piece of cake, but the depletion phase can be killer. The reason it’s so difficult is the side effects of depleting your body’s glycogen stores. One of the first and most challenging is gnawing hunger. Not the kind you get just before dinnertime—I’m talking serious hunger that makes it difficult to concentrate. You’ll also experience symptoms of hypoglycemia; namely, weakness, loss of stamina, lethargy, and irritability. The loss of stamina makes it very difficult to complete the depletion workouts. Not to mention, it can make you very difficult to live with for a few days. 

Most people find this method extremely difficult. As mentioned earlier, the depletion phase tends to induce dizziness upon standing, fatigue, headache, and irritability, not to mention an intense appetite. In my personal experience I’ve also found the ensuing loading phase to cause significant bloating and unwanted water retention. Not everybody experiences this, but many do. Although not widely known, there is a modified method of carb loading that has shown to be just as effective as the traditional method. We’ll delve deeper into this new method next month! - FLEX