Are carbohydrates getting you FAT???????

To put it into simple terms this analogy by the amazing Phil Learney is the best way to explain this.

So why are we getting fat when we are consuming carbohydrates? The whole scenario is like placing a repeat online grocery order for potatoes, pasta, rice, sugar and fruit (Carbohydrates) and trying to get them up the stairs in your apartment and into your cupboards (cells that uptake insulin).

The delivery driver doesn't bring carrier bags (Insulin that carries the carbs to the cells) so you have no means of getting them up the stairs and into your cupboards (cells).

In your apartment you have two different cupboards, one which is empty and has a big capacity (muscle) and one which is slightly smaller and slightly harder to get into as it’s always got something in it (Liver).

You give your flat mate a call (pancreas) who comes down the stairs with a bunch of carrier bags (insulin).

You then venture upstairs with your carrier bags full of glucose (The food). If, when you get into the apartment the cupboards are full (glycogen saturated) you can’t put them in there so the shopping sits on the floor between the cupboard and shop (bloodstream).

Until someone uses up some of the food (glycogen depletion through day to day activity or going to the gym) there’s no room for it. If nothing gets cleared from the cupboard the food eventually gets put in the freezer (fat stores) so it doesn’t go off and can be used at a later date.

Insulin resistance is when the cupboards capacity goes down and the food in the cupboard gets used up very slowly (glycogen depletion or glucose disposal).

Finding room and getting more food in the cupboard becomes hard. Therefore, the space (receptors) in the cupboard becomes resistant to letting more food in. The food remains sat outside the cupboard in it’s bags until it gets close to it’s use by date, at which point it gets carried to the freezer (fat cells).

Every week the order repeats and more and more carrier bags (insulin) are needed as there is more and more shopping (glucose). The floor (bloodstream) remains full.

The cupboards become more resistant and the freezer with it’s unlimited capacity (like fat cells) keeps getting packed. Which means we keep gaining weight!

The standing order of groceries needs reduced (hypo caloric diet) so less carrier bags (insulin) are needed.

The cupboards get chance to empty (glucose clearance) and get cleaned (increased sensitivity). By consuming more (activity) at this stage than is in the cupboards or getting delivered (calorie deficit) we can get back to a maintenance delivery of food (isocaloric) that correlates with the use of it.

We order less than we need so we get chance to empty what’s in the freezer (fat loss) and normal function can resume.

You can get bigger cupboards fitted but it takes time (Increased lean mass and decreased fat mass).

If you want to stop putting anything back in the freezer except what is required for emergency situations you need a grocery order that match usage (caloric equilibrium, which means equal calories in and calories out, maintenance).

So to put it simple, carbohydrates are NOT making you fat to MANY carbohydrates are making you fat, alongside proteins and carbohydrates, once again calories in versus calories out.

Make sense? I hope so J

#changinglives