‘Carbs are the devil’.
You’ll have probably heard this and many more carbohydrate-bashing mantras from the evangelical Paleo or Atkins diet crowd.
But before you start emptying all that rice into the bin and lobbing the last of the potatoes into next door’s garden, wait a minute.
Not all carbohydrates are created equal. They’re not all going to decimate that chiseled mid-section and turn you into a 21-year-old, 35-stone diabetic over night.
Whisper it quietly, but some carbs are good for you and will help you on the way to that six pack goal.
Complex carbohydrates
By now we all know sugary foods are bad. Bad for your health and bad for your physique. That’s fizzy drinks, sweets, fruit juice or just about anything with refined sugars and processed junk
Why? Every carbohydrate you eat is broken down into glucose – but simple sugars are quick to break down and send your blood sugar levels soaring, giving you immediate energy followed by a carb crash (at which you’ll need more carbs to give you a kick up the arse).
If you’re not burning it off with exercise, your body will quickly store this glucose in your fat cells – for men this tends to be around your stomach. Which is bad news if you’re wanting any kind of abs.
But this is where complex carbs are different. They are slower to be digested and broken down into glucose.
This means you get longer lasting energy, but also means you’re less likely to store it as fat than if you dump a load of high sugar food into your system.
Which carbs to eat
So you know which kind of carbs to avoid. But the good carbs you can add to your diet are sweet potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat, yams, oats and rice.
The best way to check how sugary they are is to look them at their Glycemix Index number – a ranking given to all foods on what effect they have on your blood sugar levels.
When to eat them
If you’re doing lots of exercise you’re going to need a lot of complex carbohydrate to fuel your workouts and help you recover and build lean muscle tissue.
But the timing when you eat your portions of carbs is important to keep that belly in check.
The two best times to get your carbs in are breakfast and after a workout.
Breakfast – You’ve not eaten for at least eight hours and your body is at its most glucose tolerant. Fill up on slow-burning oats.
Post-workout – Eating a good helping of carbs after you’ve smashed the gym will help replenish your muscles and aid in recovery. The insulin spike will also take nutrients like amino acids from protein directly to those muscles (rather than your fat stores).
Fibrous carbs
Fibre might just be the best thing out there for helping shed that layer of fat on your stomach – and so many people don’t even know.
MyFitnessPal data showed it was the one thing above everything else that helped people shift the most weight.
The reason fibre is such a potent weapon for people looking to get leaner is the fact that it slows down the digestion of your food. It will make you feel fuller for longer too, so you won’t feel like snacking.
With fibrous carbs you’re eating a higher volume of food but with lower calories, which will really aid weight loss.
Unlike a doughnut or a bag of cola cubes, it won’t spike your blood sugar levels so you can eat as much as you like.
Fibrous carbs are generally full of vitamins and minerals which will also optimise your health.
You should be eating around 38g of fibre every single day. Go eat some right now.
Which carbs to eat
Keep it green. Vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts, onions, cauliflower green leafy vegetables are a great source of fibre.
When to eat them
Unlike carbs that spike your blood sugar, fibrous carbs actually help regular those blood sugar levels and give you longer lasting energy. This means you don’t have to worry about when to eat them and when to swerve them.
Ideally you should be eating fibrous carbs at every meal other than breakfast to get the most benefit.
