Are carbs really the enemy?

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In the quest for weight loss, a lot of blame is dropped on carbohydrate based food sources. Few "experts" and media tend to generalize few things based on results claimed by few people.

Our bodies prefer different kinds of foods and movement patterns and most of all, we all have varied lifestyles and thus, one size fits all will never work when it comes to nutrition and exercise. Someone would like to lift heavy weights in the gym and eat more carbs in their day to day lives where someone else would only prefer more yin based yoga exercises and be ok with eating very little carbs.

The nutrition equation boils down to calories in vs calories out which is also known as energy balance. To lose weight, you need to burn more than you eat and vice versa, to gain weight you have to eat more than you burn. However, being such a simple concept, people tend to overcomplicate things by targeting macronutrients like carbs or fats without considering the equation of energy balance. If you are not burning more than you are eating, no matter how low you bring your carbs, you will never lose weight.

The claims that people make on low carbs for weight loss is also due to the fact that people don't usually eat enough protein. As a general rule, it is advised to take 1.5-2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. For a 60 kilogram human, their protein requirement per day should fall roughly in the range of 90 grams to 120 grams. If you train regularly with weights, protein per day should shoot even beyond the upper limit of 2 grams/kilogram of bodyweight. If you can eat this much protein your entire day, there is automatically less room for carbs to fit into your day. So, when they say eat low carbs, they should usually mean replace extra carbs with protein. BUT!! your daily calories should not exceed your maintenance calories or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).

Carbs is not the enemy, it is just one of the three major macronutrients that can be extremely helpful for your body functions. If you love carbs, go ahead and have them, but make sure you accommodate them into your meals and not exceed your total calories for the day.