Logic behind cutting carbs?

I'm trying to shed the fat I've picked up during the school year over the course of the next month or so. In the past, I restricted my calories and did a lot of circuit training while making sure my body was getting enough protein, but my diet was still relatively carb heavy.

I'm just wondering, what's the reason behind cutting carbs for fat loss? From what I understand, everything just turns into calories at the end of the day and if you're in a caloric deficit, you should see results regardless of whether those calories come from carbs, proteins, or fats.

Is it just bro-science behind cutting carbs or is there a good reason behind it? All I eat are complex carbs, if it makes any difference.

There is some reason behind it...but I think most of what that made it into a fad diet was that people just ate less calories since something so simple as a bagel can be replaced by a pretty huge chunk of food before you get close to the same number of calories.

I'll chime in even though I'm new. I have a bit of experience with dieting.

Generally, cutting carbs is only effective in dieting if you cut them drastically. To the point where you are only taking in something under 10-20grams of carbs a day and eating a fair amount of healthy fats in their place. This is supposed to put your body into ketosis where eventually your body isn't getting enough carbs for energy so it begins to use fat (the process of going into ketosis can take up to a couple weeks). It can be a hectic diet, especially during the first few weeks where most people go through keto flu which involves nausea, headaches, etc. After the initial weeks, you can implement "carb ups" for a 24-48 hour period where you can eat a fair amount of carbs. I've never gone through it, but I tried at one point and gave up haha. I would have had better luck if I had more money at the time as I had very little sources of protein/fats/non-carb foods.

Also, there are people who claim to be "carb sensitive", meaning that when they eat over about 50-60 grams of carbs each day (more or less depending on the person) they get a softer, bloated look that they find unattractive. This could be due to how their bodies store water weight, etc.

In the end you should be fine sticking to the ol' high protein, calories in<calories out method.

True, cyclical ketogenic diets are effective at modifying your body composition. However, one does not jump straight into the deep end when it comes to dieting. Please refrain from carb-ups and TKD's and what have you until you have worked these things out:

1. A decent, balanced diet with a moderate deficit
2. Understand the energy balance equation and the true deficit you're creating
3. A month isn't really a long time to diet, in those 4 wks you're probably not going to drastically lower your bf%

ckd works but i agree with the poster above me.

does ckd work any better than just going low-carb (30g or less) or zero-carb all the time?

The theory is that lowered insulin means less fat storage. It's a specious theory. In my experience carb cutting cuts subcutaneous water more than anything else. People that stay on it tend to stop losing weight as vasopressin rises to accommodate the lowered hydrophilic glycogen in their muscles, hence the 'cyclical' part of the diet.

I've done it, I like the increased epinephrine response (the day after first reducing carbohydrates makes me feel light when I run), it tends to help whenever I have inflamed joints, etc. But in terms of weight loss or true body composition it doesn't really affect much. Keep in mind that I'm not speaking toward its on appetite in which I think it works very well for many people who struggle with personal dietary control.

yes because it spares muscle and keeps your body from adjusting to the new norm.

Originally Posted by bbaquiran

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does ckd work any better than just going low-carb (30g or less) or zero-carb all the time?

Just to clarify, I'm not a total newbie to weight lifting and dieting. My diet is very clean, just much carb heavier than most bodybuilding sites recommend when in a cutting phase.

What I'm wondering is whether it will make a difference whether my diet is 60% carbs/25% protein/15% fats vs. 20% carbs/50% protein/30% fats (assuming that my carbs aren't refined and I'm not taking in excessive saturated fats) if I'm already in a caloric deficit? Not worries regarding the appetite aspect, my appetite is already well below what I need even to cut.

I've been down to roughly 10% body fat but I've never actually gotten to the point where I was totally shredded. Not sure whether it was because of my diet or because my cutting phase wasn't long enough.

Yeah, I know 4 weeks is a short time frame, but this is just for my own general knowledge. After my summer internship ends, I'll be working out much more constantly again.

with extreme starvation (the golden two period mark) the human body will be utilizing ***** acids (broken down from fat) and the abundance of ketones (also used for energy and a byproduct of ***** acid utilization). so the ***** acid and ketones are elevated in the blood, the brain will switch over to ketones as a source of energy (almost a 3:1 ratio to glucose). This shift almost acts as a preservation of body protein (which can/was be used for energy too).

so that is a state of ketosis where simply you burn fat and use fat and ketones as the main sources of fuel.

instead of plain old no food starvation the ketogenic diets try to replicate that starvation state (increased fat breakdown, ketosis, protein preservation) by creating a state of "glucose starvation" ie cutting carb just consume exclusively fat and protein for a two week period (the golden starvation duration).

theoretically the ketogenic diets really should work, but you have to really stick to that initial two week (at least) "glucose starvation" period to get to that sweet zone where you're burning fat and using ketones.

if not then you are good just creating a simple caloric deficit to lose weight (the less than 500calories a day type of thing). so ketogenic diets are not just bro science, but sometimes using simple bro logic (cut carbs and calories increase calorie deficit through exercise) can lead to weight loss all the same.

the key is that two week (or more) period of extremely low carb consumption - if you want to do a ketogenic diet. so if you have 4 weeks then you can try it.... but as others can attest it will be torture. its best to actually hire a dietician to guide you through it.

but sometimes its just simpler to do the 500 calorie or more deficit per day type of thing. its easier just to count calories (through a iphone app/website/ect) then to go through an extreme discipline of a low carb type diet.

i've recently lost over 40lbs over the course of 8+ months by just doing the calorie deficit method (diet plus exercise).

Originally Posted by v.freeman

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Just to clarify, I'm not a total newbie to weight lifting and dieting. My diet is very clean, just much carb heavier than most bodybuilding sites recommend when in a cutting phase.

What I'm wondering is whether it will make a difference whether my diet is 60% carbs/25% protein/15% fats vs. 20% carbs/50% protein/30% fats (assuming that my carbs aren't refined and I'm not taking in excessive saturated fats) if I'm already in a caloric deficit? Not worries regarding the appetite aspect, my appetite is already well below what I need even to cut.

I've been down to roughly 10% body fat but I've never actually gotten to the point where I was totally shredded. Not sure whether it was because of my diet or because my cutting phase wasn't long enough.

Yeah, I know 4 weeks is a short time frame, but this is just for my own general knowledge. After my summer internship ends, I'll be working out much more constantly again.

Same with me, I've seen results with just the simple caloric deficit but I just wanted to check with some more people to see whether the ketogenic diets were worth it. I do want to try it out, but it's just so much easier to get the majority of my calories from complex carbs, not to mention much cheaper.

Originally Posted by LawrenceMD

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with extreme starvation (the golden two period mark) the human body will be utilizing ***** acids (broken down from fat) and the abundance of ketones (also used for energy and a byproduct of ***** acid utilization). so the ***** acid and ketones are elevated in the blood, the brain will switch over to ketones as a source of energy (almost a 3:1 ratio to glucose). This shift almost acts as a preservation of body protein (which can/was be used for energy too).

The fortnight or any other temporal prescription is not required. Higher utilization of ***** acids is achieved through hormonal changes brought upon by diet. Utilizing more fat doesn't actually mean more fat is lost from adipose tissue, it just means many processes which have the ability to use glucose or ***** acids preferentially use ***** acids. Most ketogenic diets are low-carb high-protein and not much different from low-protein higher-carb diets in terms of hormonal response -- most of the protein consumed is converted to glucose and elicits congruent hormonal responses.

The advantage of ketosis (or any kind of temporary starvation), in my experience, is the increased epinephrine.

Originally Posted by why

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The advantage of ketosis (or any kind of temporary starvation), in my experience, is the increased epinephrine.

you can see the effects of this on the contestants in Survivor... LOL

i hear ya on the hormonal logic.. and its a higher level of understanding, but my logic is that ***** acids have to come from somewhere when in starvation so theoretically it should come from stored fat. as to if that happens in "glucose starvation" yup it is intertwined in the hormones situation like insulin and glucagcon (which is stimulated by Ep, cortisol, GH, ec)..

I'm doing CKD now (starting week 3) but keep in mind I've been in bulking-cutting-recomp cycles for years.

Lately CKD has been the most effect re-comp method for me but as said above, you need to dive all the way in and get your macros right, your timing and not cheat. I do one cheat meal every Sunday evening and otherwise it's fat and proteins for 6 days to drop into ketosis wear the body has to go about energy creation differently (ketosis). It does your ego good to have your lifts going up while leaning out

I have seen too many try to jump into this and think the occasional cookie or banana or whatever won't matter and they don't get to their goal. I've also known too many who jumped off the wagon hard and ended up worse than they started.

Thanksfully, I've always done well low-no carb for the most part.