Why Should You Reduce Carbohydrate Intake When Trying to Lose Weight?

Moderate weight loss is an excellent lifestyle choice, and the most scientific approach to achieving it involves increasing physical activity and controlling diet. There are many dietary taboos to be aware of during weight loss, such as reducing carbohydrate intake, as carbohydrates play a crucial role in energy supply and storage for the human body.

The storage function mentioned here does not refer to converting carbohydrates into fat. The human body has dedicated "warehouses" for storing carbohydrates, but these warehouses have limited capacity and cannot store unlimited amounts of carbohydrates. Only when the warehouses are full and cannot hold any more carbohydrates will the excess be converted into fat. This process is complex and not straightforward, and it is not a simple one-to-one conversion of 1g of carbohydrate into 1g of fat. Additionally, there are intermediate losses involved, so even if carbohydrates are converted into fat, the process is not as efficient as wholesale conversion.

Each gram of carbohydrate can retain three grams of water. For example, if your body contains 500g of carbohydrates, it will retain 1500g of water. Therefore, during the initial stages of weight loss, when carbohydrate intake is restricted, the "warehouse" will release carbohydrates, and as the stored carbohydrates are depleted, the body's water retention will also decrease. The apparent weight loss observed during the early stages of a carbohydrate-restricted diet is primarily due to water loss, rather than significant fat reduction.

The human body can synthesize fat both internally and through dietary intake. Internal fat synthesis is a complex and energetically costly process. In contrast, converting dietary oil into fat is much simpler, analogous to making homemade chocolate by melting and then cooling store-bought chocolate. Some people advocate ketogenic diets for weight loss, but regardless of whether they are healthy or not, even if you completely eliminate carbohydrates from your diet and only consume fat, if your caloric intake exceeds your energy expenditure, you will still gain weight.