).png)
August 11, 2023
In today’s newsletter, I’m going to help you use educated common sense to decide if your diet should be mainly based on carbs, fats, or a combination.
Both in my own health journey and when trying to help others determine a way of eating that is ideal for them, this is one of the questions that pops up again and again.
Should I eat carbs? Is fat bad?
The source of people’s confusion seems to be the extreme polarization on this topic that permeates the health and wellness worlds. Everyone has an opinion, but as Naval puts it, not everyone can be right:
“If you survey enough people, all the advice will cancel to zero….so you have to have your own point of view.”
But at the end of the day, how do you develop your own point of view? How on earth can you ever know what to eat?
I’m going to try to inject some much-needed common sense into the conversation.
Here are 4 steps to determining whether your diet should be comprised of carbs, fats, or a combination.
#1: Get the basics right first.
The carbs and fats question doesn’t really even apply to you if you haven’t yet laid a solid nutrition foundation.
And in case you’ve forgotten, here are the basics of nutrition that you have to be consistent with first:
Eat .8-1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day.
Target whole foods at least 80% of the time.
Tailor your overall caloric load to your size, goal, and activity levels.
Don’t waste precious mental energy trying to solve the carbs/fats conundrum until you’re consistently eating close to your bodyweight in protein every day, eating whole foods at least 80% of the time, and consistently not over or undereating.
Here's one caveat to the overeating situation. If you’re consistently eating enough protein and targeting whole foods, but still find yourself overeating and gaining weight, this actually may be a situation where lowering your carb intake might help. Read on for more details.
#2: Evaluate your unique situation.
If you’ve gotten the basics right, then congratulations - you’ve earned the right to start worrying about carbs and fats. And by “worrying,” I mean, “take a step back and objectively evaluate your current situation.”
How much high-intensity exercise do you do (i.e., sprinting, high-volume strength training, CrossFit, a sport with lots of sprinting, jumping, etc.)?
How are your insulin sensitivity and overall metabolic health?
Do you struggle with managing your hunger and making it between meals without snacking?
Your answers to these questions will clue you in on the direction you should take in determining your carb load.
As Nate Miyaki puts it in this excellent 2014 article published on robbwolf.com:
“A 300lbs, obese, sedentary, pre-diabetic office worker trying to improve biomarkers of health and save his or her life DOES NOT have the exact same nutritional needs as a 175lbs, lean, fit, insulin-sensitive athlete trying to reach elite levels of performance or physical development."
People with metabolic issues, appetite dysregulation, and living a largely sedentary lifestyle don’t have much physiological need for carbs, and may want to experiment with a low-carb diet. People who have good insulin sensitivity, are very active, and do lots of high-intensity exercise will possibly do better with more carbs.
#3: Determine what types of foods you prefer and do best with.
The next question to consider is what you enjoy eating and feel best eating. Remember, you’re not going to stick to a diet that you don’t enjoy.
You could have your diet optimized to the T, carb and fat amounts dialed in to the gram, but it won’t mean a thing if you can’t stick to it, either because you don’t like the foods you’re eating or you feel miserable eating them.
Here are some questions to consider:
What foods do you enjoy eating the most? Are they mainly carb-rich or fat-rich foods?
Examples of carby whole foods: potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, lentils, beans, oatmeal.
Examples of fatty whole foods: bacon, ribeyes, avocados, full-fat dairy.
If you’re including carbs, which carbs do you have a good blood sugar response to?
A loaded question that will take lots of time to determine. Refer to Robb Wolf’s book, Wired To Eat, for some guidance here.
Which foods do you digest well? If a food causes persistent digestive issues (i.e., bloating, diarrhea, etc.) or signs of an immunogenic response (brain fog, skin issues, etc.), then those foods aren’t great for you right now.
Your answers to these questions will determine what type of foods will become the staples of your diet.
#4: Evaluate your results and stay open-minded.
Give any shift to carbs or fats some time to work - your body needs time to adjust its preferred metabolic pathways, enzymes, and other processes. Then, keep evaluating your outcomes.
The biggest question I always come back to is a fairly simple one.
Are you satisfied with how you look, feel, and perform?
Are you eating low or zero carb and feeling wiped out and unable to recover fully from exercise?
Are you eating more carbs and riding the carb roller coaster all day long?
Are you gaining too much weight?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” you may want to keep tinkering with your carb and fat ratio, or your food selection. But if your body composition is in a good place, you’re sleeping well, have good energy and mental clarity throughout the day, and recovering well from exercise, then keep doing what you’re doing.
And once you find something that works for you, feel free to tune out anyone telling you otherwise.
If you’re doing well with more carbs, don’t be swayed by a health influencer or doctor who tells you that carbs are evil. And if you're humming along on a low-carb diet, don't be deterred by someone who tells you that you need carbs to thrive. Keep going back to how you look, feel, and perform, and let that be your guiding principle.
Summary
Some people do better with a higher carb intake, while others do better on a higher fat intake. Others do best with a mixture of carbs and fats. The types of foods you enjoy and feel best with also varies from person to person. The key is to view this as an ongoing, N=1 experiment, and to have a smart framework for your experiments.
Today’s action step: Determine where you fit in all this. Do you still need to work on nutrition basics, or is it time to start fine-tuning your carb and fat intake?
Whatever you determine, write down one change you can start making now - whether that's increasing your protein or testing your blood sugar response to carbs - and start taking action.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, click the button below. You'll be taken to the email subscriber page to get each edition of HWB in your inbox every Friday.
Comments