Don’t Obsess Over Cutting Carbs

Low carb diets can be effective, but they can also be disastrous when starting your body recomposition journey

Last week’s article discussed the benefit of focussing on a single macronutrient and tracking its intake in line with your goals. It’s a simple and effective way to improve macronutrient intake without overwhelm in the early stages of nutrition optimisation.

Today I want to focus on the downside of the opposite strategy — heavily restricting the intake of a macronutrient, specifically carbohydrates. Theoretically, this approach can sound good but rarely feeds into long-term adherence, a critical component of successful body recomposition strategies.

Until the mid-2000s, fat was the villainous macronutrient to avoid in most popular diets. Low-fat and fat-free product lines were all the rage, often relying on added sugars for palatability.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a switch and carbohydrate has swung out of favour. Sugar and carbohydrate intake has been supposedly associated with everything from increased rates of overweight and obesity to reduced attention spans.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle; both macronutrients play essential roles in our bodies and require daily consumption…