Why Carbs Make Us Fat

Carbs. Are. Awesome.

Seriously, this is the MAIN problem with carbohydrates. It’s why cutting carbs from your diet works. It’s why paying attention to the number of carbs you eat works and it’s why for the most part carbs ARE responsible for our obesity epidemic.

It is EASY to overeat when you are eating carbs. Heck, it’s not just easy, it’s fun and it’s downright delicious. Carby foods are easy to eat, easy to find, super convenient. Some you can eat on the run, in your car, or even while walking down the street. When you’re on the road in your car and you need a quick snack so you pop into the roadside station… can you get some foods that are purely protein or fat? Maybe you can find some jerky, but you can definitely get food that contains carbohydrates, the kind that you can eat out of a bag in your car… and you’ll pay a heck of a lot less for a bag full chips, pretzels or crackers then you would some sort of protein/fat meal.

Carbs are everywhere. They taste great, they can be crunchy or soft, thick or airy, chocolate or vanilla. They’re convenient, they’re easy to carry, they don’t need to be refrigerated but can taste great hot or freezing. They have a great shelf-life… really, they’re awesome. Heck, carbs can even make protein and fat taste better, and protein and fat make carbs taste better.

That’s why carbs make you fat. Forget the rest of the scientific theorizing and posturing… Some are right and some are wrong, but none of it is as important as the fact that carbs are awesome. This is also the exact reason why watching your carb intake will most likely make you lose weight. Without debating all the metabolic advantages, insulin/leptin levels, how our ancestors ate, their effect on our microbiota or any of those scientific topics, we can see that monitoring carb intake makes sense because they are a part of the food we are most likely to overeat. In other words, generally speaking, the fewer carbs you eat, the less food you eat (again, generally speaking).