Carbohydrates or "carbs", as most people refer to them these days, are the number one enemy to fat burning in most people's diets. While it may seem more logical to limit fat in the diet when trying to get rid of fat, the body's biochemical reaction to excess carbs will stop fat burning dead in its tracks. This is often how lose weight programs fail, because the importance of limiting carbohydrates is not stressed enough.
The reason why carbs interfere so much with fat burning and weight loss is because they trigger the release of insulin. You may associate insulin with diabetes and blood sugar, but it is just as important in the body's storage of fat. Insulin is an extremely powerful hormone that stimulates fat storage and blocks the ability of the body to burn fat.
When you consume a high carbohydrate meal, the carbs are rapidly digested and absorbed into the bloodstream as glucose, or "blood sugar". A rise in blood glucose above what the body needs for its immediate energy needs triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin stimulates the tissues of the body to store the extra blood sugar as glycogen (a quick energy supply stored in the liver and muscles) and as fat to be used later. The body's capacity for glycogen storage is pretty small compared to the capacity for fat storage. This means that the more carbs you eat and the higher your blood sugar goes, the more fat you store.
Some people think that they can overcome this problem by simply exercising more to make up for eating too many carbs, but this will not work. Even though exercising more will burn additional calories, they won't be fat calories!
When you don't eat a lot of carbs, and don't produce a lot of insulin, exercise stimulates the body to first burn glycogen, and then turn to burning fat when the glycogen is gone. But, in the presence of high insulin, once the glycogen is used up, the insulin blocks the conversion of fat to blood sugar, so the body has to burn something else instead to get energy. That something else is protein from your muscles, not fat!
At first, people who are trying to lose weight and continue to eat a lot of carbs may have the illusion that they are burning fat, but in actuality, they are losing water weight and muscle mass. As this goes on longer, the loss of muscle results in a lower metabolic rate, which makes it even harder to lose weight. The end result for the person who continues to eat a lot of carbs while trying to lose weight is that they wind up feeling up weak and tired and have an even higher percentage of body fat than before they began their weight loss program.
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