The Real Benefit of Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are the key to helping you get over the craving hump. Since one gram of carbohydrate contains half the calories of one gram of fat (4 calories for 1 carbohydrate gram vs. 9 calories for 1 fat gram), you can eat double the amount of carbohydrates and still be eating fewer calories than when you were eating fat. That's a lot of food you can eat! The key is to replace fatty foods with carbohydrate foods.

A simple example will show the benefits of reducing your fats and replacing them with carbohydrates. Let's assume that you eat 150 grams of fat per day (some people actually eat that much). That's a total of 1350 calories just from fat (150 grams x 9 calories per gram). If you replace 75% of those fat grams with carbohydrate grams, you will reduce your total calories by 563 calories each day. [For the math inclined, here's the analysis: 1350 total calories - (112.5 grams of carbohydrates x 4 calories + 37.5 grams of fat x 9 calories) = 563 calories.] But remember you don't need to count calories. Just reduce the amount of fat you eat, replace the fat with carbohydrates, and you automatically realize those calorie savings without counting total calories.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates come in two forms: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are pure sugar. Complex carbohydrates are foods such as breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables and pastas. In the beginning of your new eating habits, you should not concern yourself with the different types of carbohydrates. Remember, any carbohydrate, whether or not it's pure sugar, is better than pure fat. But in general, complex carbohydrates are better sources of energy because they are slower to convert to energy and keep you feeling full for a longer period of time.

Great sources of carbohydrates are cereal, bread and pasta. These are usually low in fat (of course, read the label to make sure) and make a great snack throughout the day. As long as you are eating low fat, you can eat lots and lots of carbohydrates and still be ahead of where you were when eating high fat foods. Remember....read the label and know what you're eating. And refrain from putting extra stuff on those carbohydrates that contain fats, such as meatballs on your pasta, whole milk on your cereal or high fat salad dressing on your salad.