A Guide to Carbohydrates and Weight Loss

 

Carbohydrates are nutrients that your body breaks down to create sugar. Like other nutrients, carbohydrates also provide vitamins and minerals. But what does this have to do with losing weight?

Why Does The Body Need Sugar?

The cells in our body use sugar to make energy and your brain runs off of it exclusively for fuel. So, just like gas for your car, carbohydrates keeping the motor running. And while it is also true your body can run off fat and protein for a while, it will eventually need to switch back to carbohydrates, otherwise it will start eating its own muscle for fuel - not a good idea when dieting since it lowers your overall rate at which your body burns calories.

Two Kinds of Fuel

There are two types of carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are easily absorbed and provide quick energy to the body. Have you ever reached for a candy bar when you were feeling tired? That's you feeding your body simple carbohydrates to get the boost you needed. More examples of simple carbohydrates are honey, breakfast cereals, breads and biscuits made with white flour, fruit juice, and most crackers.

Complex carbohydrates aren't as quickly digested as your body since they usually contain fiber and as a result, don't cause the spikes in blood sugar. They also carry a lot more nutrients than simple sugars. Some examples of complex carbohydrates include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.

There has been a lot of talk about carbohydrates and how they hinder weight loss. To a certain extent that is true - if you eat too many carbs, then your body will end up storing them as fat. In addition, when you continue to go overboard on carbs, you become sluggish, overweight and retain water. But here's the thing: you body needs carbohydrates to fuel your brain, to create red blood cells (a key component of blood) and to repair wounds. So how much is too much?

Recent scientific studies show that daily carbohydrate intake between 100 grams and 150 grams per day is right where you want to be; enough carbs to run your body in a healthy, efficient manner but not get in the way of weight loss. Of course, if you are exercising strenuously on a daily basis, are recovering from illness or surgery, or have other health issues like diabetes, your optimum carbohydrate intake level may be different - and in some case, dramatically different. It's best to check with your doctor to be sure.

Shane Stewart is a full time fitness instructor living in Maryland USA. He writes articles for many online publications on the subject of health, diet supplements, weight loss and fitness.

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Does Drinking Water Help You to Lose Weight? Is It True?

One of the mostly commonly asked questions by weight conscious people is "does drinking water helps you to lose weight"? The answer is yes. Drinking clean water does help in reducing weight and we will see over the next few lines as to how drinking more water helps a person to lose weight. You will find more facts on "does drinking water help you to lose weight" through this article.

It is a commonly accepted fact that every normal human being needs to drink at least one gallon or 64 ounces of water per day. Vital vitamins, minerals and other nutrients need to be supplied to every nook and corner of the body. Water plays an important function in transporting these vital requirements to all parts of our body. Our body also needs to flush out unwanted and potentially dangerous toxic wastes from the body regularly and here to drink water regularly is very useful.

But, how does drinking water help you to lose weight? The answer to this question is amazing and should be borne in mind for each and every person who is desirous of maintaining a stable body weight. During summer and hot weather, drinking cold or chilled water helps the body to burn more calories. Drinking plain water can be tasteless and boring at times. So adding some green tea and a pinch of pepper can make drinking water a more enjoyable and eventually beneficial function.

However, one of the quickest ways to lose weight is to drink more and more water. With more and more water what we mean is drinking water in excess of the daily normal stipulated limit of a gallon. How does this work? The method is simple. Whenever there is a shortage of water in the body, then the brain sends a signal to the body's metabolic function mechanism and instructs it to store some water for its normal functions. Such water is stored in various parts and is known as subcutaneous water.

However, if we drink excess water, the brain stimulates the metabolic function mechanism to stop storing water. This automatically results in non-storage of excess water leading to weight loss. This is indeed a very scientific and proven technique to lose weight without any significant change in the diet pattern or exercise pattern. Now, you can answer on does drinking water helps you to lose weight if you read this article carefully.

While researching on this weight lose niche, the author Timothy Haines was asked with a prominent question does drinking water "help you to lose weight". He finds out more noticeable points about this niche on www.loseweightsafe.org.

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