How to Eat Carbs without Gaining Weight

As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in the Concord, CA area, I often hear my clients say – “I don’t want to eat a lot of carbs.” This brings me to the topic at hand: Do carbs make you gain weight?

The simple answer might be too simple!

The answer is: “it depends!”

Can you eat carbs without gaining weight?

The ROOT cause of weight gain is you eat more than what your body needs. This means that if you overeat anything for a sustained period of time, it WILL make you gain weight. Notice I said the word, ROOT. What causes us to eat MORE in the first place can be a whole different section in itself that I face as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.

Carbs or carbohydrates when eaten at night DO NOT MAKE you gain weight. Not one food will make you gain weight despite what “gurus” or health coaches tell you that they will. Sure, carbs are tasty and delicious. Some people might feel they are addicted to them, but to compare them to an addiction is not entirely comparing apples to apples.

If you eat more carbs than what your body needs, you could gain weight.

Carbs do not make you gain weight by themselves. If you eat MORE than what your body needs, then yes you will gain weight. It also does NOT matter when you eat your carbs. In the grand scheme of things, you will GAIN weight if you eat more than what your body needs, you will LOSE weight if you eat LESS than what your body needs.

You might say “but one of my friends went on a low-carb/keto/paleo diet and lost a bunch of weight!”

While it is most likely true that they did lose weight – it was because they SIMPLY ate less than what they needed. That is it! Eliminating carbs eliminates foods to eat. When you REDUCE the foods you eat – you are potentially eating less! There is no magic to eliminating carbs.

Following a low carb diet isn’t necessarily the answer.

Low carbs are popular because they are marketed HEAVILY – they (diet companies/diet gurus) want you to believe that because they make $$ off you using their principles and ultimately buy their products.

Do you need help learning how to lose weight and keep it off for good? Let’s chat to see if you could be a good fit for the John Canlas Nutrition program!

Can’t make it in person? I offer virtual 1:1 services through zoom. If you are in the neighboring cities like Fairfield, Vallejo, Martinez, or as far as Fremont, I offer virtual services to get the help you need.