Understanding Carbs, Fats & Proteins

Here is a query for I article I responded to:

What are the positive things that carbohydrates do? How do carbs interact with the body to make people fat?

I apologize for the length of the answer, but there needs to be a basis of scientific understanding of how this all works. Everything mentioned can be found in a Biology 101 textbook. There are 4 substrates your body uses for energy, ATP/PC, carbohydrates, fats and proteins. ATP/PC cycle is the energy system used when you blink your eye, your heart beats... Carbs are stored in the muscle, blood and liver. The reason - it is an immediate energy system. When you make a move, it's there to supply the energy to make that happen. It takes carbohydrates to facilitate the Kreb's cycle (where fats and proteins are converted into energy); therefore, FATS BURN IN A CARBOHYDRATE FLAME. Through Anaerobic Glycolysis (the breakdown of carbohydrates in the mitochondria of the muscle cells) produces 2 key co-enzymes (Oxyloacetate and Acetyl Co-A). OX and AC-A are shunted into the Kreb's cycle for the complete breakdown of fat into energy. Without those ingredients, you will have an incomplete breakdown of a fatty acid known as Keytone Bodies. KB are indicators that the body is in a catabolic state (the body is eating muscle tissue for energy). Why? Because without carbohydrates, energy/movement comes from the breakdown of proteins into glucose (carbohydrates). Protein is not immediately available for energy like carbohydrates are. It must be shunted to the liver and by a process called Gluconeogenesis, broken down into Acetyl Co-A and sent back to the muscles to be used to fuel the Kreb's Cycle. It is not a very efficient system and takes a long time from the breakdown of proteins (amino acids) into AC-A, then the Kreb's cycle then into movement. The fewer muscle cells you have means you lose the engines that perform work. Less work performed means fewer calories expended and the lower the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR- calories burned at rest). The body fatigues more readily. Pounding headaches are likely to start because brain tissue really likes simple sugars. It can function off of keytone bodies in an emergency, but it really does not want to. That's why if you have a headache from not eating many carbohydrates, a sip of Coke a Cola will cure it. Because of the lower Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR, as soon as you come off a high protein diet and start consuming the same amount of calories you were before, means you will gain all your weight back plus more because the muscle mass is not there to burn the calories at rest. It is much better to use carbs and fats for energy; otherwise, protein will have 3 jobs instead of two - to provide energy, tissue repair/building and hormone production. So, fats burn in a carbohydrate flame. Carbs give us energy to move. The more carbs we have stored the longer we can sustain movement for longer periods of time (carbs are "protein sparing" because you don't have to use your muscles for fuel) and at higher intensities. That's the reason for endurance athletes to ingest carbohydrate solutions during a workout. Without the carbs, you will "bonk" (aka run out of energy). The more movement that can be sustained at higher intensities means the more calories will be burned at rest. Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR - calories used at rest) will increase with higher heart rates. The saying "you must keep you heart rate in your target heart rate zone in order to burn fats" has long been outdated. If you really want to just burn fat, then go to sleep. That's the energy system that keeps us alive while we are dreaming the night away. If you have know somebody that has taken a bench aerobic class for years; they look the exact same as the day they started. If they were overweight to begin with, chances have it, they still are. Why? Because they don't get their heart rates high enough to increase RMR. Want proof? World class track and field sprinters hardly ever run more than 200 meters (~21 seconds) at a time and their heart rates will be close to if not over 200 beats per minute during that interval. The males will have 2-3% body fat and females 8-12%. There are 4 calories in 1 gram of carbohydrates. There are 4 calories in 1 gram of protein. There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat. Cut down the fat and lose half the calories!!!!! It's not carbs that make people fat!!!! It is the TOTAL calorie intake. It takes only 3% of the total calories from digested animal fat to convert animal fat into human fat. It takes a whopping 23% of ingested calories from carbohydrates to be converted to human fat. Therefore, you are what you eat. If you expend more calories - doesn't make a difference where they came from - than you take in, you will lose weight. That is the ONLY WAY somebody loses body fat/weight.

If the intake of calories is equal to the amount expended, then your body weight will remain the same. If the intake of calories exceeds the amount expended, you will gain weight. It's not the baked potato that makes you fat. It's the 3 pounds of butter, sour cream, bacon bits and cheese that add the calories. It's not the bread, Its the 5 pats of butter and 12 gallons of olive oil its been dipped in. If the calorie consumption is greater than expenditure, you will gain weight. I'll say it again. A Calorie is a Calorie. Doesn't matter if the calories come from Carbs, Fats or Proteins. If you Expend More Calories than you take in, you Will Lose Weight. I got so sick of hearing about the high protein diet a few years ago that I put up a dry erase board, in the gym, and wrote in big letters - "There are 680 calories in a Big Mac. 80 Calories come from the bun. If you really want to lose weight, just eat the bun." Where people get the misconception that carbs make you fat is that 1 gram of carbohydrates holds on to 3 grams of water. What they might actually be feeling is the bloating from water being held in the cells. Which is not a bad thing. Think of it as a canteen when the days are hot plus this helps keep the electrolytes from being excreted excessively through urine, sweat and saliva. It is a survival mechanism. Plus, I think another reason for the carb bashing is because everybody loves their meats and surely it can't be that hunking steak that is exploding my waist line and clogging my arteries. Carbohydrates and Proteins must be converted into adipose tissue (fat) and that process takes energy. Animal Fats require very little (~3%) if any conversion - from ingestion, will go straight into the blood stream and into their energy storage units (aka fat cells) in your body. Therefore, you have to consume more calories of carbs and protein to equal the amount per gram a fat stored from eating fat. Take a global view - the countries that eat the most protein, thus fat have serious obesity issues. The one's that ingest the most carbohydrates are the leanest (Italy, China, Japan, Indochina........). It's not the other way around. So, carbohydrates are not the issue. It's the excess fats and proteins. Your body will oxidize (breakdown) about 20-25 grams of protein in about 2-4 hours. The rest is excreted or stored as fat. Carbs are broken down immediately up to 2 hours. A 5'11" male will store approximately 400 grams of carbohydrates in his entire body. That's less than a pound. He will store pounds of fat and protein (muscle, organ, bone). It takes fats approximately 6-8 hours to breakdown and you know where it is stored - in fat (adipose) cells. If 1 gram of carbs is equal to 4 calories and 1 gram of fat is equal to 9 calories, you have to eat over twice as many grams of carbohydrates to gain fat - as long as you are taking in more calories than you are expending. Conclusion- You are what you eat.