A major reason why Paleo is so effective at helping you lose weight is because it will use and burn fat instead of carbohydrates for fuel. How can this be possible?
There are two simple facts about fat and sugar that is either kept from consumers or cloaked in obscure language. Simply:
1) Dietary fat is not body fat. When you are reading about or thinking about diet, know which one you are focused on. As you will read here, dietary fat is good for you, body fat is bad for you.
2) Sugars and simple carbs turn to body fat very easily. It is much harder for the body to turn dietary fat into body fat as it first has to break the dietary fat down before the body can use it.
Fats as the Main Source of Energy
The human body’s main source of energy is fats. This may seem a bit surprising especially to people who have been led to believe all these years that our body’s first preference for fuel is carbohydrates. Your body knows that fat is a better source of fuel than carbohydrates. Fat burns slowly in the body which makes it a more stable and efficient fuel than carbs.
The prevalence of carbohydrate-rich foods in the western world is the reason why there is a continued and perhaps uncontrolled increase in carbohydrate consumption among many people. This is also true among individuals from many countries anywhere in the world. The increased availability of carbohydrate rich foods has resulted in massively increased carbohydrate intakes for almost everybody compared to earlier times.
If you eat more carbs than what is necessary for immediate energy requirements the excess will then be stored by the body as fat for later use. However, most people are not in danger of “not being able to eat” so these carbs that were stored as fats will almost never be used by the body. As an individual keeps on eating carbs they will only be adding more to their fat storage.
Thankfully, the vicious cycle of eating more carbs and adding more to the body’s fat storage can be stopped by following the Paleo diet eating habits. You can shift from an unhealthy and fattening sugar-based diet to a healthier protein and fat based diet with a Paleo diet.
Making “Lipolysis” Happen
When you stop eating simple carbs, you will also be putting an end to the constant influx of dietary sugar. Your blood sugar will drop to normal levels which will also lead to better regulated insulin levels and such occurrence allows lipolysis to take place in your body. Lipolysis refers to the process of releasing fat stores to be burned by the body as energy.
Eliminating simple carbs in your system will allow your body to start using fats as the main source of energy. Lipolysis will not occur with high levels of insulin present. High insulin levels are a natural response to simple carb and sugar consumption. When insulin is present in the blood the body is in a glucose uptake (storage) mode, so there is no chance of stored fat being released.
Hello Healthy Fats, Goodbye Simple Carbs
Once you start thriving on Paleo you will realize that fats not only taste better but they are also more satiating compared to simple carbs and sugar. Since these fats are more satiating, you will feel fuller faster which lessens your tendency to binge on calories.
Fat has received some bad and inaccurate press over the years. Better health and lower body fat can be yours if you focus more on reusing simple carbs and lifting healthy fat intake from unprocessed meat and vegetable sources.
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