So if Carbs don't make you fat, why do 'experts' recommend high protein, low carb diets?

There is a misconception (and it is actually one that i used to share) that cutting carbs out of your diet will result in fat loss. There is also a misconception that consumed protein can be stored directly as muscle.
Therefore, the advice of eating loads of protein and cutting carbs, will result in fat loss and muscle maintenence has become quite common.

The problem is, these diets are normally endorsed by some random celebrity (jade goody anyone?) who hasn't got the slightest idea of how to lose weight. Once the endorsement is there, the diet becomes popular. The truth gets lost and the dieters get frustrated as any weight they lose from the 'fad diets' returns almost as quickly as they lost it.

So why don't these diets work?

If you cut out all carbohydrates you will lose weight. That doesn't mean the diet works. You see, you will lose weight in the form of glycogen, water and lean tissue, yet the thing you most want to get rid of is still there (fat) and it's now harder to shift than ever.

For every gram of carbohydrate consumed, 3-4 times equivalent of water is also dragged into muscle cells. So when you drop carbohydrates from your diet, muscle glycogen becomes severley depleted, which in turn depletes all the water from muscle cells. So yeah, you will lose a lot of weight quickly, but it's not the right kind of weight.

On top of that, you will lose muscle tissue as you are not consuming enough carbohydrate to support your existing lean tissue. Protein will also be broken down and used for energy. To make matters worse, the less muscle mass you have, the harder it is to lose bodyfat.

Another problem with severly dropping calories (not just carbs) is your metabolism will slow right down which is also a very bad thing when you want to lose fat. The best dieting method for cutting fat is to decrease calorie intake by about 15%. Anyways i'll go into that a little bit later on.

to be continued...