January 7th, 2012 
Caroline Middlebrook I have finally got around to reading the chapter on ‘Effortless Weight Loss’ in the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I was under the impression based on what I had read previously that all you needed to do in order to lose fat was to stay in the 50-100g carbs a day range. I keep hearing on Robb Wolf’s podcast that when you’re following a Paleo lifestyle that calories don’t matter. It seems that is not the whole story…
Calories Matter… Sometimes
You’ve heard the saying, “calories in vs calories out”. The theory goes that you calculate how many calories your body needs, then make sure you eat less than that amount to burn off fat stores. That’s the very simplistic version but it says nothing of insulin…
Carbs, Glucose, Insulin & Body Fat
I’m not a scientist and my recollection of what I have been reading may be a litte fuzzy but here’s the gist – when you eat carbs those carbs are converted into glucose and our blood glucose level rises. Glucose is needed by all the cells in the body but we can easily ingest too many carbs and now we have too much glucose (a form of sugar) in our bloodstream. When it is too high the body triggers an insulin response – insulin is excreted into the bloodstream which removes the glucose from the bloodstream and converts it into fat.
When we eat too many carbs this causes a couple of problems. First of all a massive amount of insulin is released to try and get the glucose levels down quickly – this in turn brings the glucose down very quickly causing what’s known as the ‘carb crash’. You’ll now feel lethargic, hungry and craving more carbs. Secondly, the purpose of insulin is to take that glucose and store it as fat – it’s taking the carbs you just ate and storing it as body fat and this is why carbs make you fat!
But it doesn’t stop there… many years or decades of consistent high carb eating can cause the body to become insulin resistant which means that more and more insulin is required to keep the blood glucose level regulated. Recall that the purpose of insulin is to store fat – the more insulin resistant you are the more your body will produce and the more fat you will store. All that excess insulin is also making you hungry and crave more carbs so the vicious circle continues.
People trying to lose fat eating a low fat and high carb diet are going to struggle immensely because they will be battling with constant hunger and cravings.
Lean people have an easier time of it
The good news is that this insulin resistance can be reversed by dropping the carbs and a Paleo lifestyle can encourage a low carb diet as many traditional diets are high in bread, pasta, rice etc and if you take those out you’ll naturally eat less carbs. Of course it’s still easy to overeat the carbs if you gorge on carb rich fruit, sweet potatoes etc. Mark Sisson recommends 50-100g carbs a day for ‘effortless weight loss’, and 100-150g a day for maintenance.
For people who are already lean and have normal insulin sensitivity, the body can correctly regulate its blood glucose levels and calories do not matter too much. Carbs still matter because it is the carbs that cause insulin resistance / sensitivity but for someone who is already lean and functioning well, the occasional splurge is not going to affect them.
People who need to lose excess fat are almost always insulin resistant to some degree and so the carbs and the calories matter because the body is not functioning efficiently enough to process any excess. One thing I am unclear on is exactly how long it takes to become insulin sensitive if you are already insulin resistant. I’m going to assume that it takes several weeks or months and as long as I have excess fat to lose, I’ll assume that calories do matter. Damn!
In the next post I’ll discuss how to calculate calorie requirements to determine exactly what I need to be eating each day to effectively burn fat.
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Caroline Middlebrook is an entrepreneur based in the UK. This is her personal blog where she talks about anything that comes to mind!
If you are not diabetic, I would not be overly concerned about the insulin response. The simple rule of thumb is to avoid foods that a high glycemic load – namely, white potatoes, bananas, plantains, that kind of thing; “safe starches”, as the Jaminets would call them. You are right that you do need to continue to eat carbohydrate for the glucose – this is essential for good cell maintenance.
When I started out with paleo, I went a big mad on the meat and low-carb thing, but still kept butternut squash, carrots, sometimes parsnips, swede and turnip in my diet. I found butternut squash worked out really well in place of pieces of potato in stews and mashed cauliflower, mashed daikon, mashed rutabaga, mashed celeriac all worked out well in place of mashed potato – one of my favourite meals is ‘Bangers & Mash’.
If you look at meals from the earlier part of 2011 at http://livingintheiceage.pjgh.co.uk you should find some solid ideas for the weight loss phase.
Now down to a weight I am happy with, I started to bring starchier foods back in – this is where potatoes and white rice came back in. I don’t go wild on them, but a few chips, a small portion of rice, a starter of risotto, that kind of thing are all good in moderation. Meanwhile, my carbohydrate plateau is happily maintained by good vegetables.
While we’re on carbohydrate and insulin, check out: http://www.gnolls.org/1029/fat-and-glycemic-index-the-myth-of-complex-carbohydrates/ – basically, eat carbohydrate with fat and the glycemic load is dramatically reduced. So, rice with avocado and salmon: sushi? Potato with butter and cream: mashed potato? Chips in dripping! Baked spud with cottage cheese. That’s for later, though …
One warning I will give about this phase of lower carb eating: ketosis will get you. Ketosis is natural – in fact, we all go into ketosis at night as we sleep and we’re already in ketosis when we wake up. When first going onto a lower carb diet, this can come on much stronger and you do risk ketoacidosis, which is NOT good! If you wake up with a strong smell of nail varnish remover in the room, eat some carbs!
This happened to me once and I felt very ill – this is when I started to read more about balancing carbs in meals and throughout the day. Carbier meals are best first thing, okay at lunch and largely to be avoided in the evening. I’ve come to understand that protein and carbohydrate macronutrients should be seen as a see-saw – heavy protein meals should have few carbs, carbier meals should have less protein. Fat is always good!
Jump in and get on with it! Have fun …
@Paul, thanks again for your in-depth response. I think I tend to do the carbs backwards – I have very little carbs for breakfast, usually a bit more at lunch and if I’m going to have something starchy such as potato, it’s usually in the evening. I may try to reverse this but it’s very difficult to shake that idea of the big evening meal when you’ve lived that way for 40 years!
I don’t think ketosis is a problem as I’ve not actually managed to keep the carbs that low. I’ve been trying this week and I’ve been snacking in the evenings :/
I’ve actually been through every recipe on your site since the beginning heh! It would be easier if I liked more vegetables as then I could replace the mash / rice much more easily. I will keep at it!
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Protein is a well known instigator of Insulin rising even without carbs.You could forsake carbs but Acylation Stimulating Protein,a hormone that drives fat into fat cells without carbs or insulin present will be more than happy to oblige if you eat more & burn less. As far as Paleo man goes,he would of gladly eaten bread & ice cream if he found it growing on trees,its called survival.