\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>his is a bit of a grey area, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist at\u00a0Loughborough University. She wouldn\u2019t advise the athletes she works\u00a0with to completely cut out carbohydrates \u2013 foods such as bread, grains, potatoes and sweets. \u201cHowever,\u201d she says, \u201creducing carbohydrate intake can be beneficial for weight loss, if we can moderate total energy intake.\u201d<\/p>\n Weight loss comes down to energy balance: consuming fewer calories than we burn. There are many ways to achieve this: exercising more, eating less, or choosing foods that are lower in calories. Cutting back on some carbohydrates can be one way to create this deficit, she says. Not because carbs are uniquely \u201cfattening\u201d, but because other macronutrients such as fibre, protein and fat tend to be more filling. \u201cIf we spend more of our calorie budget on these foods, we feel fuller for longer,\u201d Crouse says.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll feel much better for eating a\u00a0balanced, high-protein meal with vegetables and some healthy fats. It\u2019s a better investment of your \u2018calorie cash\u2019<\/p>\n This is especially the case when it comes to refined carbohydrates, such as white bread and sweets, which are digested quickly. They can be useful as a pre-workout snack, but they\u2019re less helpful as a staple carb source. Instead, Crouse recommends higher-fibre varieties at mealtimes, such as brown rice and wholemeal bread, which release energy more slowly.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll feel much better for eating a\u00a0balanced, high-protein meal with vegetables and some healthy fats,\u201d she\u00a0says. \u201cIt\u2019s a much better investment of your \u2018calorie cash\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Crouse recommends consuming more carbohydrates on days when you\u2019re working out: \u201cIt reduces the risk of illness and injury, and supports exercise adaptation.\u201d On rest days or less active days, cutting back on carbs can help to reduce your overall energy intake, as long as you still include protein for muscle repair, plus plenty of fruit and vegetables for vitamins, fibre and antioxidants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a bit of a grey area, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist at\u00a0Loughborough University. She wouldn\u2019t advise the athletes she works\u00a0with to completely cut out carbohydrates \u2013 foods such as bread, grains, potatoes and sweets. \u201cHowever,\u201d she says, \u201creducing carbohydrate intake can be beneficial for weight loss, if we can moderate total energy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[16510,11888,8176,8175,7643,1235,1933,2192],"class_list":{"0":"post-27733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-carbs","9":"tag-cutting","10":"tag-dieting","11":"tag-diets","12":"tag-helps","13":"tag-lose","14":"tag-true","15":"tag-weight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}