How To Avoid Fat Gain: Separating Carbs And Fats Throughout The Day

It’s time to look at our nutrition more scientifically and effectively to take our results to the next level.

After all, you can’t out-train a bad diet.

There’s one thing I’d like you to take note of and remember as a fact:

Eating a large amount of fat and carb together leads to one thing = fat storage.

It’s a big, overlooked scientific fact in society that is helping fuel the obesity epidemic.

Along with being the biggest hindrance for people achieving the body they want, progressing in their fitness performance, and even affecting their day to day health and well-being, to an extent…

We’re going to dive deeper into this claim to fully understand why and how we can utilise nutrient timing and partitioning super effectively…

To gain lean muscle and not fat, within every eating window. And throughout a 24 hour period.

You’ll also notice a correlation between these eating windows and our two different nervous system modes: Warrior mode and Buddha Mode.

How do carbs cause fat storage?

Carbs cause insulin to be released in the body, insulin is a fat-storing hormone.

The body will look to store fat when insulin is spiked (due to carbs):

Carbs
will be shuttled into muscle cells for energy storage and to be used as building blocks to create new muscle cells.

Protein
will be shuttled to wherever it is needed for repair and growth. For us, that is the muscle cells we have trained and broken down within our workout, which need to be rebuilt stronger and better.

Carbs are the bricks to build muscles but protein is the cement to bind the bricks together. One can’t work without the other.

Fats
can’t be used by muscles. So when insulin is released from carb intake they go straight to fat storage.

What does this mean?

It means we don’t want to be eating meals high in fat and carbs, because the fat will go straight into fat-storing cells due to the insulin spike from carbs. It makes sense.

It’s evolutionary. Our body always wants to store the best energy or longevity, which is fat.

We can store days, weeks, even months of energy (in the form of calories) in our fat stores.

It does this for survival. We don’t want to work against the body, only manipulate it to our advantage.

So, we always want to prioritise avoiding having high fat and high carb together in a meal. This way we ensure we don’t spike insulin when eating fats.

Which, dramatically decreases the chance of us storing fat easily. We’re going to make our body work harder to store fat.

At each meal, we either keep fats high and carbs are low, or carbs high and fats are low. Whilst protein will remain the same and consistent.

Technically all foods spike insulin.

But spikes from protein and fats alone don’t have the same effect as what spiking with carbs does.

High fat and high carb foods

If we look at foods that are high in both carbs and fats, they mainly comprise comfort food and treats.

They are mostly always manufactured or contain manufactured products.

Manufactured meaning, food not from nature, not natural and not organic:

• Cookies
• Donuts
• Chips/fries
• Chocolate
• Cake
• Biscuits
• Chocolate bars

If we were to look at these food labels, we’d find that the percentage of carbs and fats would be quite close:

+ In some it may be a 50/50 ratio of carbs to fat
+ in others it may be a 60/40 ratio of carbs to fat
+ or we may find a 40/60 ratio of carbs to fat

…and what do these types of food easily lead to? Fat gain.

Now let’s look at nature. Foods that are natural and organic, the way mother nature intended them, don’t follow this same ratio.

Can you think of any natural foods that are both high in carbs and fat.

Nature always leads with one over the other.

Either high carb and low fat.

Or low carb and high fat. Protein may or may not be present with both:

Fruit – high carb and low fat

Vegetables – high carb and low fat

Avocado – high fat and low carb

Sweet potato – high carb and low fat

Nuts – People assume nuts are high in carbs and fat and protein. Yes, they contain all three. BUT, one (carbs or fats) always leads with the majority of %amount.

Let’s take natural peanuts for example:

A ¼ cup serving of raw peanuts contains:

• Protein: 9 grams.
• Fat: 18 grams.
• Carbohydrates: 6 grams

Fat leads.

There’s nothing in nature that has high fat and high carb.

And for good reason.

One energy pathway is very important

The body, how mother nature intended us, prefers to only use one pathway of energy at once, from the food we eat and ingest.

This comes back to the correlation of Buddha and Warrior Mode:

Warrior mode = Carbs – associated with higher arousal state and quick energy

Buddha mode = Fats – associated with calm and slow activity

The body prefers and functions better when just one energy source is the main component of a meal.

That is how we want to look at eating.

Like nature and just like how our body prefers to be fed. In all our meals, either a carb or a fat source should take lead.

Most of the time, protein remains consistent throughout.

If we eat both energy sources together at the same time, the body will always prioritise carbs because it’s easier access to energy.

It will store the fat to deal with it later.

And it will only deal with it later if:

• We are in a caloric deficit (dieting), burning more than what we eat daily.
• If fat burning pathways are being initiated (buddha mode) and there is no easy access to carbs.

It’s not all or nothing

That doesn’t mean zero carbs or zero fats is a strict must for every meal

We digest certain foods and proteins better in the presence of fats, as we discussed in the beginner module.

So, I’m not saying you have to be super strict with your meal and have zero fats in a high carb meal.

There’s no harm in adding some fat. In fact, I’d encourage you to add some to aid digestion.

My point is don’t go for 50/50% ratios. Go for:

85% – 95% fat
with
15% – 5% carbs

and vice versa.

Just make sure one is always leading.

Why do we eat carbs and fats?

This is simple.

For our goals, we can sum it up as:

Carbs

To replenish energy after a workout so we are ready to perform again for the next one, and to provide the building blocks for muscle growth.

Carbs are fast-digesting, that’s why they are not satiating and we can crave more and more the bigger spike they give, sugars being the worst for this.

Fats

To provide our body with the nutrient it needs for hormone production and reducing inflammation.

Fats are slow-digesting that’s why they are satiating and make us feel fuller for longer.

Remember!

• Protein always stays consistent, most of the time, with our meals.
• Everyone eats differently, some people don’t like a lot of carbs and prefer higher fat. That’s absolutely fine, the same principles apply. We’ll cover all this in more detail later on.

By the way, if you want to understand how to implement this into your lifestyle, to transform your body…

Every Fitness Freedom Athlete TRX Suspension Trainer Program comes with the Lean Lifestyle Nutrition Blueprint…

Where I’ll teach you how.

You’ll know exactly what and how to eat before, during, and after your workouts to achieve your fitness goal.

I’ll teach you how to re-optimise your body by improving your insulin sensitivity, waking up your dormant fat burning hormones, and igniting your metabolism.

Which means you can build lean muscle, strength, and a healthier-energised body quicker and easier. And ELIMINATE guesswork and ‘diet fads’. Improve sleep, focus, productivity, and BOOST your body confidence!

Let’s get to it!

Coach Adam