Lots of dieters have heard about the dangers of eating too many carbs – but too few of us hear about the other side, the dangers of cutting a lot of carbohydrates from our diet. Going down the path of an oversimplistic diet slogan can create some imbalance situations that can have unintended side effects. Rather than trying to cut carbs, try a moderate change in diet to avoid some detrimental scenarios that can cause more harm than good, even if they sound like good diet tools initially.

Problems With Lowering Carbs

Some simple math might show that cutting down on carbs generally means weight loss, but that’s not the whole picture, and when it comes to your body, the math is hardly ever that simple. What can happen when someone suddenly cuts out too many carbs? First, the body’s available protein is cut, and a kind of basic starvation process ensues. While the body searches for stored protein, it can create a product called ketones, which, in the extreme, causes a state called ‘ketosis’. This can have effects on the endocrine system, and also can put the body into a kind of ‘standby’ mode – a throwback to times when famine meant expending calories could be deadly. As a result, you might experience a lack of appetite, but it’s actually signaling an imbalance that’s not going to be beneficial in the long term. Those cutting carbs from their diet might feel listless, unable to pursue that regular program of physical activity – because their fuel source has been compromised!

Carbs in Your Diet

The bottom line is that your body needs carbohydrates to function properly. So how much is enough, and how much is too much? The actual answer looks a lot like one of those old food pyramids in your grade school biology textbook:

8 or so servings of fruits and vegetables daily
6-10 servings of whole grain carbs
2-3 servings of dairy products
Additional legumes, nuts, or other similar foods

In a more detailed look at cutting down on carbs, you can see that what really helps is to cut out enriched or “white” bread and rice, replacing them with healthier carbohydrate options (or natural fruits and vegetables, i.e. (unfried) potatoes).

The Role of Activity

Along with a balanced diet, physical activity is key to a healthy weight loss plan. The irony of the whole thing is that crash diets that take away fuel sources from the body are really pulling the rug out from under the other ‘pillar’ of weight loss: the ability to get up and expend calories! Some find this out the hard way, but by reading up, you can see how any kind of extreme weight loss plan can fail without consideration to fueling up for those runs, weight lifting sessions, or other workout routines. Your body needs physical activity to be healthy, and a starvation diet just won’t cut it! In addition to the above issues, it’s the workout component of your diet that leads to agility, joint and bone health, muscle tone, and range of motion capacity. Diet won’t do any of those things for you.

The next time you see a crash diet plan, think about all of the above before doing anything radical – and remember that extreme diet changes could undermine your whole fitness plan.