Carbohydrates: Understanding how to choose between the Good ones and Bad ones

Carbohydrates -  are fibers, starches, and sugars naturally found in fruits, milk products, grains, and vegetables. It's also known as your body's "main source for energy"! 

You've probably heard a lot of people mentioned "good and bad carbs" without even elaborating on them, right? Well, don't feel alone because this post does not fall into that category. I'll try my best to go in depth just enough for you to get the understanding because carbohydrates can broken down in so many ways. So, let's get right to the difference.

The major difference between good and bad carbs relates to if they have been processed or not. Most foods that have been processed have ingredients listed on the back of food labels and the non-processed foods have not and are referred to as "Whole" foods.  

So, we will have to do our due diligence and take the time to read the back of food labels because there's a few ingredients that's a key give away that a food has been processed. Those ingredients are enriched, hydrogenated, hydrogenation, preservatives, refined, sodium benzoate, sugar alcohols, and the word "added". I'm pretty sure that they are several more ingredients, but those are just the main known ones.


Examples of whole foods are vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, poultry, fish, and meat. Remember that whole foods doesn't contain no extra ingredients. It's just the whole food itself. 

Just like carbs, the word "processed" is another confusing term and hasn't been legally defined but for the purpose of understanding carbohydrates, I will translate what it means.

One meaning of the term relates to companies taking foods, removing the impurities from them, and then infusing the nutrients back that was removed in the process. Another way can be as simple as you drying, freezing, baking, pasteurising, and canning foods to preserve the nutrients in them. So, according to that 2nd definition, you're probably eating more processed food than you thought.

Who's right and wrong can definitely be up for debate but that's another topic for another day. 

When it comes to working out, you definitely will need an adequate amount of energy to finish your workouts. Carbohydrates are crucial and you want to ensure that you're consuming the right amount of good carbs for eating and exercising.

Hopefully, this post help clarify some of the confusion when it comes to carbohydrates. So, I know there are some people out there who are using a no carb diet and I would say to reconsider that approach unless you have been directed by a doctor. I wouldn't recommend that you cut them out completely. If you're targeting the low carb route, please consume the good carbs. 

The FDA recommends that adults should aim at consuming 45 - 65% percent of carbs for your total calorie intake, which translates to about 130 grams a day. If you're pregnant, then you should consume about 175.


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Losing Belly fat; Extreme Weight loss and Carbohydrates Foods

Losing Belly fat; Extreme Weight loss and Carbohydrates Foods Breakdown

This seems like the number 1 question in the fitness world and every time you log on to the internet, there's this magical pill or some type of machine that will help you obtain abs. So, people tuned into these infomercials, see these models with abs (most were paid to advertise the product), and they expect to look like that in a short period of time.

Now, I know that you're sick and tired of buying these products and getting minimal results. I'm sick and tired of seeing these pop up ads that saying that "the trainer hates these guys". In order to get rid of or slim down your midsection, you will have to understand your abdominal muscles and fat. The body needs fat to store energy and the abdominal is the area where it stores it.

So, what does that mean? To put it in a nutshell, that's the last place where fat is going to leave. Well what about liposuction? Please avoid going that route because I believed it’s unsafe. For one, during that type of procedure, it strips away all of your fat cells and fat will go where there are fat cells. So, if fat cells are not around the abdominal area, then your body fat must go where they are cells. That could increase in the fingers, neck, or wherever fat decides to go.

You must control what goes in your body and stay away from foods that are high in fat, have high sodium (which leads you bloated), and ones that have trans-fat in them. You will have to find alternatives and give up the fast & greasy foods. Exercising is important but they key to obtaining great looking abs is through the foods that enter your body. More fruits and vegetables and less meat and potatoes. You can either continue buying pills and machines or stay looking the way you are or you can make a sacrifice and do it the right way. The choice is always yours. Make it the right one!

Losing Belly fat; Extreme Weight loss and Carbohydrates Foods Plus Foods that have natural fat fighting properties

Fat Burning Fruits

Some of the fruits that cut fat are apples, blueberries and watermelon, oranges, guava, grapefruit, papaya, sweet lime, and tangerines. 

Fat Burning Fruits rich in vitamin C - Citrus Fruits: like limes, lemons, oranges, guava, grapefruit, papaya, sweet lime, tangerines and tomatoes are rich in Vitamin C and fiber and have fat burning properties so they may be called as fat burners or fat fighters.

Vitamin C helps the body process fat faster and also stimulates the carnitine amino acid which speeds up the body's fat-burning capacity.Vitamin C also dilutes the fat and makes it less effective and helps in releasing the fat from the body.

Apples: Pectin in apple restricts the cells to absorb the fat; and also encourages water absorption from the food which helps in releasing the fat deposits from the body. The antioxidants in apples may help prevent metabolic syndrome, a condition marked by excess belly fat or an apple body shape.

Losing Belly fat; Extreme Weight loss and Carbohydrates Foods

Fat Burning Vegetables

Some of the vegetables that may be included in the list of fat burning foods are asparagus, beet root, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, chilies, beans, soybeans, sweet potatoes.

Chilies: Foods containing chilies or cayenne pepper are considered as foods that burn fat. Chilies contain capsaicin that helps in increasing the metabolism. Capsaicin is a thermo genic food, so it causes the body to burn extra calories for 20 minutes after you eat the chilies.

Curry leaves (Curry Patta): Curry leaves flush out fat and toxins, reducing fat deposits in the body.

Fat Burning Vegetables: Garlic: Garlic contains the anti-bacterial sulphur compound allicin which helps reduce cholesterol and unhealthy fats, making it an effective fat burning food.

Cabbage: Cabbage, raw or cooked inhibits the conversion of sugar and other carbohydrates into fat, making it good for weight reduction.

Dairy Products That Burn Fat:

Calcium rich foods like dairy products - milk, cheese and yogurt are good at fat burning that can boost weight loss by increasing fat breakdown in fat cells.

Eating 3-4 servings of dairy products a day is more effective at enhancing weight loss efforts than calcium supplementation alone.

The researchers found:

Overweight people who consumed 3 servings a day of calcium-rich dairy lost more belly fat than those who followed a similar diet minus two or more of the dairy servings. The calcium supplements didn't work as well as milk.

Nuts help feel full while also increasing the body's ability to burn fat, says author Jordi Salas-Salvado of the University of Rovira i Virgili in Reus, Spain.

Cardamom: Cardamom is a thermogenic herb like Capsaicin that increases metabolism and helps burn body fat.

Proteins: High Protein Foods and high fiber foods are best foods burning belly fat. Protein needs more energy to digest than fat so eat low calorie dairy products, beans, whole grains, oatmeal, eggs, etc. as much as possible. Eggs contain vitamin B12, which helps the body in breaking down and burning the fat.

Lentils are high in protein and soluble fiber, two nutrients that stabilize blood sugar levels, therefore lentils are a great tummy flattener," according to Tanya Zuckerbrot, R.D., author of The F-Factor Diet.

Green Tea: Studies show that green tea revs up your metabolism, so drink several cups a day.

Fish oil: Fish oil supplements are a great way to shed pounds. A recent study found that fish oil is great for helping your body burn fat more efficiently.

Honey: Honey mobilises the extra fat deposits in the body.

Avoid Salt and Sugar: Avoiding salt and sugar can shape you up very fast.

Note that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you consume. This can be done by eating fat fighting foods and doing some physical activity. This will help your body burning up the excessive stored fat.

Another process that's crucial to losing belly fat is the detoxification of your liver. To understand exactly how, click here or on the picture below to know why!