Burning Fat Instead of Carbs as Fuel Doesn’t Burn More Fat

But It Can Lead to Insulin Resistance, Obesity, T2D, Chronic Stress, Hormonal Imbalances, Poor Thyroid Function, Slow Metabolism & Weight Rebound

Removing all sugar, can have detrimental effects on your health ranging from sluggish liver and poor detoxification, reduced thyroid function, slow metabolism, endotoxin and bacterial overgrowth, estrogen dominance and hormonal imbalances, increased oxidative stress, digestive issues, systemic inflammation, accelerated ageing and degeneration, and an inability to lose weight no matter how much you exercise and how low your calories are.

Keto dieting may temporarily appear to lower blood sugar levels, however, avoiding sugars for a long time leads to high blood sugar levels even without eating carbs. Long term carb restriction leads to an impairment in the way the body stores and uses glucose as fuel, thus any cellular function requiring glucose will be down-regulated also. Furthermore, too much sugar circulating in your bloodstream and cells responding poorly to insulin and storing less glycogen will eventually lead to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

The pro-keto people say that this state of ‘insulin resistance’ is normal and temporary. While it is true that the body creates starvation-induced pseudo diabetes on a keto diet, insulin sensitivity doesn’t always recover right away.

Most of the initial weightloss in week 1-2 on a keto or low carb diet comes from water loss, since cutting carbs has a similar effect as taking diuretic drugs. After the initial honeymoon period “the balance between fat oxidation and fat storage starts to get heavily skewed in favour of the latter and the organism develops obesity and diabetes – making a person fatter than before embarking on the keto diet”. Put simply, burning fat as opposed to sugars as fuel makes you more diabetic and eating too much fat, especially PUFA fats, drives obesity.

When you don’t eat enough carbs, your body increases stress hormones which stimulates lipolysis (Free Fatty Acid release) which sounds great right? But in the presence of stored PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) in the tissues, the stress response is amplified – promoting low grade systemic inflammation, suppressing your immune system, increasing fat storage and muscle loss (cortisol is the master catabolic substance). This is how you block weightloss from happening.

Whenever you oversupply fat through diet and accumulate more fat and you have an overabundance of fatty acids versus glucose, then the body will oxidise the fatty acids rather than the glucose, especially when stressed (e.g. low calorie diet and exercise). So then glucose will start to accumulate, insulin will rise and one of two things at this point can happen: glucose gets wasted into lactic acid (lactic acid is basis of all disease including type 2 diabetes and cancer) or it will get stored as body fat.

A better approach to weightloss, is to remove all PUFA fat sources in favour of coconut oil and replace complex carbs with prometabolic carbs and fruits which contain fructose and help regulate blood sugar, whilst giving your cells the energy and minerals to perform all the vital metabolic functions essential for optimal health. Trying to lose weight at the expense of your health is literally the worst thing you can do.

Burning glucose as fuel as opposed to fat, increases heat and heat is a biproduct of a high metabolic rate. More glucose burned means more heat produced by the body which means a higher metabolic rate – therefore easier and more sustainable weightloss.

“A higher metabolism, not exercise makes people naturally thin.” – Dr. Ray Peat

If you’re dealing with a body that doesn’t ‘respond’ to dieting as well as it used to or if what used to work no longer does it’s because your body is in a huge metabolic slump due to months or years of the on-and-off fat loss chase – your metabolism needs a makeover.

Join BodyIQ to rebuild your metabolism so it burns calories at rest, rather than stores them as fat, to help you regain your health, vitality, confidence and a body you’ll be proud of at any age. It’s the only way to achieve permanent, exercise-free weightloss without sacrificing your health.

Summer bodies are made in winter.
Join the BodyIQ’s 8 week online Metabolic Makeover Challenge to get you started on your health and weight loss journey. Your only regret will be that you didn’t sign-up sooner!

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Article by Kinga Fourie
Certified Nutritionist, BodyIQ Founder & IFBB Figure Champion