Why Sugar (Not Fat) Makes you Fat

I try to make all of our material as easy to apply as possible: DO THIS = GET RIPPED; but it’s completely worth learning about how your body works while you are losing weight.

Even as a “celebrity” personal trainer/nutritionist, I tried to teach all my clients HOW TO EAT not just “what to eat,” knowing full well that after a year- they wouldn’t need me anymore and they could fire me. Slowly, I want to teach you the same thing. One day you’ll be able to “eyeball” foods and say “healthy, not healthy, healthy, not healthy…” and put together meals in about 20 seconds.

I spent most of my 20′s training either for sports (hockey and football) or as a wanna-be college-douchebag-bodybuilder. I followed the same sort of diet- moderate fat, moderate-high complex carbs, high protein. It worked well. Since I’m way past my glory days and spend the majority of my day doing “everything except playing sports,” I can’t eat like I used to. I’ve found a way around it though. I still eat 3000-4000 calories, but I don’t eat [m]any carbohydrates or sugar.

As you will learn, this is a recipe to GET and STAY RIPPED with minimal effort. I only go to the gym 3 times a week (if I’m lucky) for 40-45 at a time. People think I live at the gym. I don’t. It’s my diet.

One of the first things I’d like to understand is (unless your are very active)-

SUGAR MAKES YOU FAT.

SUGAR KEEPS YOU FAT.

SUGAR IS YOUR WORST ENEMY.

It super important that you understand why this is and what happens after you eat/drink anything with sugar.

please note: the Amazon links below are ‘affiliate’ links; this means I get a small commission ~5-6% if you buy something.

I’d like to thank you if you purchase via my links but I still highly encourage you to just pick up stuff at your grocery store if the price is reasonable.

Why Does Sugar Make Me Fat?
(The Effects of Sugar on the Body)

There’s long biochemical, health and human performance explanations, but I’m going to keep it super short-

Your body stores fat when your insulin/blood sugar levels are elevated. 

(Your body doesn’t store fat when your insulin/blood sugar levels are not elevated.)

Eating sugar, of any kind, raises your insulin/blood sugar levels.

Therefore, in general, your body will store fat when and after you eat sugar.

Got it?

Eat sugar.

Increase your blood sugar.

Store fat.

What About Carbohydrates?

Lets review. Really quickly.

Elevated Blood Sugar = Fat Retention

Eating Sugar = Elevated Blood Sugar

Therefore, Eating Sugar = Fat Retention

Nice, you got it.

Since you know that sugar cause fat retention, let’s talk about carbohydrates now.

Sugar = Carbohydrates

Yep, sugar are carbohydrates. To be specific- simple carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates aren’t necessarily ‘sugar’ however. Still, and it will vary food-by-food, carbohydrates will raise your blood sugar.

And if you’ve been paying attention- when your blood sugar increases, what happens? FAT RETENTION.

All carbohydrates will raise your blood sugar.

exception: vegetables

Some are really bad (white bread) and some aren’t as bad (yams/organic sweet potatoes).

All of them, with the exception of vegetables, are BAD if you are trying to lose weight.

Rather than nitpicking and Googling to find the hidden “blood-sugar-friendly” carbohydrate foods, the smartest thing a newbie can do is- AVOID CARBOHYDRATES. Stop looking to cut corners if you’ve never dieted before.

You can learn which carbohydrates are “not too bad” and which are totally awful later.

What Is the Best Way to Burn Fat?

If you’ve been following along, this shouldn’t come as a surprise- don’t eat carbohydrates.

Your body’s preferred energy source is carbohydrates.

If you don’t eat carbohydrates, guess what happens-

- You die?

No.

See how it has sugar? Don’t eat it if you want to lose weight.

You burn fat.

There’s a lot of biochemistry involved but– it’s basically that simple.

If you don’t eat carbohydrates- you will burn body fat for energy.

Theoretically, you could burn fat the ENTIRE DAY by just avoiding carbohydrates. It works.

How do you do this?

For starters, to avoid sugar-

Look at the nutrition labels.

If it has SUGAR- don’t put it inside your mouth.

If you want to take the guesswork out completely-

check out our Fat Loss Diets, all you have to do is follow the diet.

You Never Needed Carbohydrates in the First Place!

Believe it or not and despite the outdated, political agenda of the Food Pyramid-

Carbohydrates are NOT ESSENTIAL to your survival.

Carbohydrates are often thought of as “essential” macro-nutrients. Essential means- you need them to live.

Keep eating the bread!

This is simply not true.

Did your great-ancestors always have a loaf of bread to munch on? How about cereal? How about Doritos? Of course not!

They didn’t even know what grains were. Furthermore, they didn’t know what “heart disease” or “obesity” was either, those conditions simply didn’t exist. Our bodies were designed to be lean and agile, which came from a healthy diet that did NOT include carbohydrates.

Wheat and grains are actually a ‘relatively’ new addition to the human diet. Grains first started sprouting during the agricultural revolution but didn’t really become a staple of the Western diet until about 50 years ago when corporations found that they could easily make, distribute and preserve addicting carbohydrates-based meals and snacks. Despite the notion that grains are “defenseless” “natural” plants that can’t be “bad” for you- that is simply not true either. Grains are bursting with gluten, lectins, estrogen and phytic acids that cause inflammation, disease and oxidation of your cells. They also keep you fat but encouraging high-blood sugar levels.

• For more information, check out- “Why Grains are Bad For You”

A healthful food pyramid is largely the opposite of what the USDA suggests.

If you stop eating dietary fat or protein, you will die.

If you stop eating carbohydrates, you’ll lose weight.

It’s the entire basis around health and weight loss benefits of nutrition plans such as the “Paleo” diet and Primal Blueprint.

It’s true- your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather probably had a better body than you and a longer flaccid dick because of it.

I’m not a conspiracy-theory-type guy, but I can still identity bullshit by sight, smell and taste-

The government’s “Balanced Diet” (food pyramid) have been inaccurate for decades and only exists to prevent the farming industry from destruction. Image if EVERYONE stopped eating carbohydrates. People would lose weight. Wheat farmers and snack food companies would in big trouble- they’d have to start growing cigarettes.

Eat Fat, Lose Weight.

For many years “fat” earned a bad reputation from doctors and health professionals across the globe. It’s been blamed for the rise in obesity rates and labeled the cause of heart disease.

Let me be very clear –

Eating fat, does not make you fat… if you are adhering to a low carbohydrate diet.

The key to a high fat and protein diet, is avoiding carbohydrates. High fats and high carbohydrate foods (potato chips, donuts, fries) will promote weight gain. As mentioned earlier, carbohydrates elevate your blood glucose levels and insulin level which then in turn promotes fat storage. Eating foods high in fats and carbohydrates is the quickest way to get fat or at worst, fatter!

Now I know some of you may be thinking – “Doesn’t fat cause heart disease?” Wrong! Heart disease is caused by inflammation within the body, which occurs from a combination of physical inactivity and a diet containing large amounts of refined carbohydrates.  A meta analysis (a large study combining lots of other studies) conducted by Skeaff and Miller concluded that there was “no direct relation between total fat intake and risk of heart disease.”

Still not convinced? Let’s turn to the research… In a study conducted by the University of Cincinnati, researchers gathered a group of obese subjects and placed them on either a low fat diet or a low carbohydrate diet for 6 months in order to investigate which form of dieting is the most effective – a low fat diet Vs a low carbohydrate diet.

After 6 months of following the two diets, the individuals on the low carbohydrate diet lost an average of 8.5kg, whilst the individuals on the low fat diet only lost an average of 3.9kg. That’s 54% greater weight loss for those who followed the low carbohydrate dieting.

Good Looking Loser Eats 7,000 Calories of Fried Cheese For a Week, Loses Weight

Video – The Week I Ate 7,000+ of Full Fat Cheese and Lost Weight 

To be honest, before 2009, I didn’t know how carbohydrates literally made calories stick to you.

I also didn’t know the reverse- by dropping carbohydrates [completely], calories literally can’t not stick to you. It’s physiologically impossible if you are healthy.

I’ve gotten pretty ripped (sub 6% BF) but I always followed a High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat diet to do so.

To maintain a lean physique (sub 10% BF) I always followed a High-Protein, Medium-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat diet to do so.

I have discovered that to maintain a lean physique (sub 10% BF) a High-Protein, Low-Carbohydrate and Medium/High-Fat diet is BY FAR the best to do so.

I can [almost] literally eat ANYTHING I want and not gain weight if my carbohydrate is below 30 grams.

Real Cheese has NO CARBOHYDRATES

In 2009, after reading about the “Anabolic Diet,” I decided to REALLY put the “no-carbohydrate” diet to the test. I decided I was going to consume enormous amounts of [mostly healthy] FAT and PROTEIN for a week.

To make things easy, for the most part, I ate this exact meal 5+ times a day-

• 3/4 Lbs. of Full Fat Cheese (>980calories, no carbohydrates)
• Organic Butter (>300 calories, no carbohydrates)
• Organic Full Fat Mayonnaise (>200 calories, no carbohydrates)
• Hot Sauce, sometimes Guacamole (+150 calories, no carbohydrates)

I fried the cheese (THERE IS NO BREADING or ANY CARBOHYDRATES, these are NOT mozzarella sticks) in butter right on my stove top.

Each meal was 1500 calories (or more). I ate this 5+ times a day.

I started the week at 240lbs (about 18% BF).

After 7 days I was 234lbs (about 17.5% BF).

I literally lost weight (most water, but some fat) eating 7000+ calories of fattening cheese. 7000 calories is more than most people eating 3 days.

More importantly- I DID NOT GAIN WEIGHT.

I Ate 7,000+ calories and I lost weight.

The vast majority of people I told this to (including 2 doctors) said that I would probably gain 5-10lbs.

After all, eating fat makes you fat, right?

WRONG

Now, this IS NOT a weight loss diet. This is NOT what I’d suggest following to lose weight. That wasn’t the point.

The point- for me (and probably other guys too) if you AVOID ALL CARBOHYDRATES* you can literally eat thousands-and-thousands of calories of healthy fat and protein.

Unless you are genetically prone to hypercholesterolemia, your cholesterol will likely GET BETTER, not worse. (that is a different topic however)

* supplement your vegetables with this amazing formula

Quitting Sugar: How to Stop

Garbage. Do Not Insert Into Your Month.

Unlike quitting smoking, quitting sugar is relatively easy. Sure, initially it may seem hard, but with gradual changes, you can wean yourself off it and start the fat burning process.

Start with simple and small changes such as cutting out all soda from your diet.  A can of soda contains up to 40+ grams of sugar alone! The WORST POSSIBLE sugar. It’s hardly a snack, nor something that should be included in your diet if your aim is to lose weight and gain lean muscle. Cutting this out of your diet alone, can in some cases be enough to kick start some weight loss. Once you’ve removed the soda from your diet, you can start to look at cutting out other forms of sugar within your diet.

Start by doing a “sugar clean out” of your refrigerator and cabinets to remove the sugar laden, fat promoting foods that may be in there – ice creams, potato chips, candy, breads, baked goods, crackers and cereals, just to name a few.

When shopping for food, start to read the ‘nutrition facts’. Check the ingredients and then check how many grams of carbohydrates the item contains. A good general rule of thumb is to aim for products that contain less than 5 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams. You will quickly learn that many of your favorite past time snacks or treats do not fall within these guidelines. But remember, these snacks or treats are the reason you gained weight and will only hold you back from your full potential.

Love Stevia Extract. We will discuss Stevia at length another time. Rather than using sugar, use Stevia. Simple.

Stevia is completely natural and 100x more healthful than sugar. It is sweeter than sugar and will have the same exact effect on your taste buds without the calories and more importantly- without increasing your blood sugar.

Wait, What about Fruit?

This is important to understand.

Fruit is a healthful food.

BUT

It is not a ‘weight loss’ friendly food however.

Fruit contains vitamins and fiber which we all know are good for us, however the main macro-nutrient in fruit is sugar.

The sugar is in the form of something we call Fructose – “Fruit Sugar.”

There is no such thing as “healthy sugar,” as world-renown strength Charles Poliquin explains.

A high intake of fructose has been shown to promote weight gain, decrease insulin sensitivity, promote unhealthy changes in blood cholesterol levels and also promote heart disease. The problem with fructose largely lies in the body’s ability to turn excess fructose into body fat. Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center recently demonstrated that fructose is converted to fat at a significantly quicker rate then other sugars. Other experts, such as Professor Robert Lustig, have even publicly labeled Fructose as “dangerous” or “poison.”

If your goal is to lose weight, keep fruit to a minimum or at best- avoid it completely.

Fruit juice was NEVER a health food.

Conclusion - Does Sugar Really Make You Fat?

If you are trying to lose weight and keep it off-

Sugar Makes you Fat…. Sugar Keeps you Fat…. Sugar is your Enemy.

Unless you are trying to put on muscle, gain weight or need energy for strength/endurance sports- you should avoid sugar.

If you are trying to LOSE WEIGHT, you should AVOID SUGAR COMPLETELY.

Sugar will causes your blood sugar and insulin levels to increase, which in turn promotes fat storage. The more sugar you consume, the more weight you will gain. It really is that simple.

Carbohydrates come in many different forms, but regardless of form they come in- they will all cause an elevation in your blood glucose levels and insulin levels and promote weight gain. In order to achieve your ideal physique (or simply maintain your current body without extensive exercise) you need to start by “Quitting Sugar.” Quitting sugar allows your body to use its fats stores or fat consumed in your diet for energy. It may surprise you, but simply removing sugar from your diet and replacing it with healthful fats and protein rich foods will help you bust that gut and start you on your way to a chiseled 6 pack.