Have you ever heard that you should avoid carbohydrates if you’re trying to lose fat?
Well, that’s a bunch of crap. :)
Sure, there’s a time and a place to go low-carb, but there’s nothing “bad” about carbs so long as their the unprocessed, fibrous variety.
That said, there is one little rule that you should always employ when consuming your favorite carb, and that’s this: never combine fat with carbs. In other words, limit your fat intake whenever you’re eating carbs.
Why? When you consume fat, fatty acids are released into the blood stream. When you consume carbohdrates, the storage hormone insulin is released in to the blood stream. Fatty acids + insulin = fat storage.
On top of that, insulin also causes certain fatty acid “transporters” to activate within the body’s fat cells, making fat storage even easier. Essentially, the “deadly combination” that it’s always best to avoid is having high levels of fatty acids and high levels of the storage hormone insulin (caused by carbohydrate consumption) in the blood stream simultaneously. How can you avoid this? Avoid eating fat with carbs, and vice versa.
Here’s a good rule of thumb:
If you are eating fat, limit your carbohydrate intake to less than 10 grams in that meal.
If you are eating carbs, limit your fat intake to less than 10 grams in that meal.
Simply by avoiding carbs and fat in the same meal (without even having to change the amount of food and/or calories you’re eating), you’ll create a more optimized fat-burning hormonal environment in your body and you’ll begin seeing faster results.
Want to learn to some other “food” tricks to help you burn up to 10% of your body fat in the next 10 days? My good friend Isabel shows you here:
==> Burn 10% of your unwanted body fat in the next 10 days
Keep rockin’,
Joel
Hi Joel, nice work.
You might need a bit of help with your spelling though.
“Sure, there’s a time and a place to go low-carb, but there’s nothing “bad” about carbs so long as their the unprocessed, fibrous variety”.
You have grabbed the wrong their/there/the’re. You needed the abbreviation for they are, which is the’re, not their.
All the best,
Andrew
Dammit, I put seeds in my oatmeal for fat. I don’t want to stop putting seeds in my oatmeal! I make sure my meal after exercise is low fat/high carb though.
Hey Joel,
I know this article is about fatloss, but when it comes to muscle gain without fat, would you still separate your carbs and fats?
Does this also apply during the cheat day (Core Phase) and/or cheat meal (Maintenance Phase) of the “Cheat to Lose Diet”?
(i.e. pizza)
So even if I have 80-100g of carbs in a single meal, which is the maximum I would ever have, as long as i keep the fat content under 10 grams, it’s ok, right?
This article is misleading. By telling someone not to combine carbs and fat, you’re discouraging them from eating healthy foods. For example, what if I want to eat grilled salmon with lots of veggies? That’s carbs and fat. Or how about having a banana and a handful of nuts. That’s carbs and fat too. So you need to be more specific. Not all carb/fat combinations should be lumped together. I would never put salmon and veggies in the same category as vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. The latter is clearly worse than the other. I also think you underestimate the body’s capacity to process food. I doubt prehistoric man looked at certain foods and said “I’d better not eat these two foods together or I’ll get fat.” The real takeaway here isn’t that you should avoid certain combinations. It’s that you should stick to real food and avoid processed garbage. Do that and you won’t have to stress over whether you’re mixing the wrong macronutrients together.
I think I do this a lot more than I think… Thanks for enlightening us, Joel!
one more thing Joel, how long after a meal do u have to wait after a Carb Meal that contained 10 g fat before you eat another meal that contains fat, so you don’t cause an insulin spike? is 2 hours decent?
@ Joel Marion:
the note you clarified about veggies being considered low carb is one i was actually wondering. I’m pretty obsesed with having carrots/celery/asparagus/spinach/etc with olive oil/coconut oil so I started to get paranoid that I was doing it wrong!!
@ Joel Marion:
Andrew is wrong as well! “Sure (they are) a time??? I don’t think so! (They are nothing bad about)??? I don’t think so!
Joel, your abbreviation is just fine.
Hi Joel!
Good article! I am currently jumping back on your Cheat Your Way Thin program because it worked really well for me the first time around (I got lazy and stressed out for a while upon the news of and preparation for my deployment to Afghanistan). I am having great luck so far. This article reminded me of it because of the carb cycling and how you can actually use carbs to your advantage. I wish people would stop coming on your blogs just to attack you, attempt to debunk what you say, criticize your advice, and nit-pick you for silly things like typos. Sorry that happens – the world is full of those kinds of people and always will be. It must be frustrating when all you’re trying to do is help.
Anyway, I also own your Extreme Fat Loss program. That works like a charm within the first 5 days alone, but that’s all I could do it for because I just can’t fast… it’s too much. The reason I’m saying all this is because I want people to know that you genuinely DO know what you’re talking about and I’m a firm believer in your methods and programs. Although, I have e-mailed your customer service twice before and never gotten a response, which made me a little sad…
Either way, quit picking Joel apart, people. He knows what the hell he’s doing… damn.
Take care,
Bethany
Okay now I am completely confused because I have read many articles where they say eating fat slows the absorption of sugar!! As a matter of fact they advice diabetics to eat fat at the same time as sugar to slow down insulin release. What to do now?! Please enlighten me.
Joel,
Always appreciate your info. Agree with your perspective on “who the folks are reading this blog”, and as always, whenever I have read your stuff, really like the professional and precise way you handle those who misunderstand and/or find a need to “correct” or “inform” you of their fitness/nutrition wisdom.
Thank you for being committed to great info. and helping people like me understand and want to live better with great habits regarding food and fitness.
Best,
Rachel
Hey joel, I thought that healthy fat were limiting the insulin produced by the carbohydrates when combined. They are supposed to stabilise the blood sugar, not the opposite. Am I wrong? Actually, this is what most experts told us about this topic…
However, when we talk about unhealthy, processed carbs and fat, I totally agree with you that we shouldn’t eat them together unless we are on a cheat day:)
Thanks
Nic
I was under the impression that the ultimate factor in weight loss was the total number of calories consumed, not the ratio of fat to carbs? For example, I fail to see how eating 2500 calories of just fat/protein or just carbs/protein is better than eating 2500 calories of fat/carbs/protein (assuming all come from quality sources).
And I am under the impression that digestion of a meal can take up to 12 hours if it is a large meal and has fiber in it (which slows digestion, obviously). If I eat fat in that meal, am I not allowed to eat carbs until over 12 hours later to make sure that none of the earlier fats get stored? And vice versa?
Can you guys help me figure out where I’m wrong?
How do ‘cheat days’ fit into this model of not eating carbs with fat? Are you suggesting having one cheat meal with high fat and a different one with high carbs?
Joel this is something that everyone seriously needs to read! (simply understanding insulin would make a world of difference in terms of health, burning fat, and building muscle!) Thanks Joel!
Andrew you’re an ass.What’s Joel’s spelling got to do with this topic?Unless you’ve got something valuable to add,don’t add anything.You’re getting free valuable information here so just be happy with that.Thanks for the latest Joel,was always wondering about this especially when I have the spoon and the organic peanut butter tub open!I’ll know in future to keep the fruit and peanut butter seperate when snacking between meals!!!!;)
@ Joel Marion:
Yeah, pretty funny Joel… I saw that too. Andrew mis-spelled ” they’re” trying to correct you. Oops.
My God…. So simple and we all did not get it so far… Does anyone think like giving up right about now?
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...read more