I get asked all the time what are the best carbs for fat loss!
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s no food you have to completely cut out to lose fat. I’ve never been one to give my clients a do or do not eat list. I don’t tell them that they can never eat a certain food either.
However, there are more nutritious choices that are going to help you on your journey more so than others. In this article, we will be going over 3 tips on how to choose the best carbs to support your fat loss journey.
My first tip for choosing the best carbs for fat loss is to choose more whole food carbohydrates, as opposed to package and processed foods.
A whole food is something that you can find in nature, right? It has one ingredient. An apple, pear, potato rice, beans, etc… the list goes on! Whereas something that comes in a package or a box and has a longer ingredient list is going to be a processed food. The reason we want to choose these whole food carbohydrates more often than the processed foods is because they’re in their natural state and therefore more nutrient dense. They have more fiber, water volume, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
So think about it this way. When we have a package food that’s more broken down, it’s actually easier to overeat because of the bigger impact it has on our blood sugar. When we’re eating more whole foods that have more water and fiber, they’re going to keep us full longer and keep our blood sugar stable. Not to mention… they’re just going to be better for our overall health. You can totally eat those packaged and processed foods. Trust me, I eat them all the time, but 80, 90% of the time, we want to try focusing on whole foods.
Tip number two is to choose carb sources that are higher in fiber.
The more fiber a food has, the more full it’s going to keep you. Fiber can help regulate our blood sugar and cholesterol levels as well as improve digestion, which is going to improve your overall health and energy while on your weight loss journey. For example, Banza pasta is a bean based pasta that is higher in fiber and protein than regular pasta. In this bean based pasta, the total carbs is 32g, the fiber is 8g and the protein is 14 grams. Whereas Barilla pasta has 42 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein. So the bean based pasta has double the amount of protein, more than double the amount of fiber and less total carbohydrates. That’s going to be a better option for most of the time when choosing the best carbs for fat loss.
Now not to say you can’t have regular pasta. My clients do all the time. But you still want to portion it out and ideally choose the one that’s higher in fiber and protein. So if you are looking at carb products that are in a package, let’s say you’re comparing crackers or cereals or breads, try and choose the one that is higher in fiber, because that’s going to be better for your weight loss journey.
Tip number three is really knowing your trigger carbs and them out of sight, out of mind.
A lot of people find it harder to control themselves with big bags of popcorn or chips, stuff like that. And if that is you and you feel like you can’t just have one and you just wind up eating the whole bag, it’s not your fault! They have the perfect combination of sugar, salt, and fat to make you want more. So it’s really not about “willpower” at all. Knowing yourself and what foods you find, you are always overeating is really important for choosing the best carbs for fat loss. So I suggest to either not have them in the house put them in an opaque container in a closet or cabinet that is up high.
Another thing you can do to be mindful of carbs that trigger you is to buy individual portions. For example. I love simple mill crackers (they’re so good!) but I buy the individual bags to keep my portions in check.
In The Low Carb Babe Society I teach how to figure out how many carbohydrates is best for you to lose weight and finally feel your best.
If you’re interested in learning my prove step by step process to losing weight and feeling confident in your body, CLICK HERE to join The Society today!