Hopefully everyone is feeling good going into Day 4 of the challenge. Today we want to touch on one of the main concepts of the Primal Blueprint: the erroneous notion that fat is what makes you fat! Most people actually need more healthy fats and should instead focus on the amount of carbohydrates that you take in to look and feel better. Following the Standard American Diet it is incredibly easy to over consume carbohydrates and take in 300 grams or more in the form of pasta, bread, sweetened drinks cereals and rice. As a “sugar-burner” you can over stress your insulin response until you become insulin resistant. The resulting systemic inflammation can lead to many problems.
If you are used to consuming a lot of carbohydrates you may notice over the next several days that you may not feel 100%. This is common as you make the transition off of being a sugar burner and has been called the low carb flu. If you experience these symptoms just know that they are short lived and it will be well worth it to become a “fat burning beast”! As you start to burn fat you will have more sustained energy and will not experience the crashes or ravenous hunger that you may get when consuming lots of carbs. By the end of these 21 days you can easily reprogram your genes to burn fat as your source of energy.
Take a look at the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve above. If you are looking for body composition changes you should give the 50g-100g range a shot. For those of you who are happy with your body comp and just want to maintain the 100g-150g is probably best. Once you get above 150g a day your weight may slowly creep and above 300g over the long haul you could experience many problems.
The awesome part about eating Primal is it would be tough to get above the 150g range without the carb heavy processed foods and sugars. You can still easily stay within that range and have some fruit, squash or sweet potatoes at every meal.
Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve
Today’s Challenge:
Get 15 minutes of sun exposure. The weather looks like it should be perfect for this. Get outside before the frigid Wisconsin weather sets in! This could be your last chance to get precious Vitamin D from the sun. So, take a mid day break from work and get outside.
Comment with your five points. Also, how has your transition to fat burning been? Have you been feeling good or do you think you are still adjusting?
