Carbs - Cut em' or keep em'?

While there are seemingly endless "cut carbs" diets out there most don't know how carbohydrates work. Here's how: Carbohydrates are your primary source of energy. You eat carbs (bread, rice, corn, carrots, cereal, etc.) and your insulin levels rise. Carbohydrates are then converted to glycogen which is readily available to be converted to ATP (ATP is the energy all your bodies' cells utilize). If you don't need that amount of energy the rest will be stored as fat. So there are three scenarios: Get too many grams of carbs or too many simple carbs (sugar) and you will store the excess as fat. Get too little carbs and you start drawing energy from either fat or MUSCLE. Fat can be used in very low intensity activity (sitting, reading, etc). Fat cannot be used in moderate to high intensity exercise (it takes too long to break down and yields too little energy). So where do u get energy when no carbs are available and you can't break down fat fast enough --> MUSCLE. This is called catabolic state --> your body actively breaks down lean mass for energy. You DON'T want that as it will negatively affect your metabolism. So what to do? Switch your simple carbs (sugars) to more complex carbs (white bread vs wheat, cut sodas, etc.), try cutting carbs during the last several hours before bed (carbs are energy and you don't need much energy before you sleep). Final answer: Keep em'; just keep the right kind at the right times.