The Super Carb Diet: Shed Pounds, Build Strength, Eat Real Food

by Bob Harper, Danny Pellegrino

Overview

How do you prevent those constant food cravings and feelings of deprivation when trying to lose weight? Host of The Biggest Loser and celebrity trainer Bob Harper’s Super Carb Diet is the answer. Harper focuses on nutrient-dense foods that are big in flavor and allow certain kinds of carbohydrates at targeted times during the day.

In The Super Carb Diet you’ll find:
- How to eat carbs earlier in the day for sustained energy
- A list of super-carb foods
- Limited snacks but larger and more varied meals
- A way of eating that’s sustainable
- Super-charged weight loss

The Super Carb Diet will keep millions of dieters from giving up after Week One. The program leads you through precise plate proportions, balancing good protein, low fat, high fiber, and nutrient density. Not only will you lose significant weight and whittle your waistline, you’ll walk away from the table feeling happy and full.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250146618
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	282
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

BOB HARPER is a fitness trainer and health expert who starred as the host of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. A three-time #1 New York Times best-selling author, he has his own line of bestselling workout DVDs and an online fitness program called Black Fire. Since his much-publicized heart attack in February 2017, Harper has redoubled his efforts to educate and enlighten his fans about nutrition and its role in building health.

DANNY PELLEGRINO is a writer, comedian, and content creator, whose work has been featured in Buzzfeed, Cosmo, US Weekly, World of Wonder, People, Huffington Post, and W Magazine. He lives in Los Angeles.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

CARBS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT

Carbs don't make you fat. After all my years in the industry, I find this to be one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to weight loss. So many people think carbs equal fat. That's wrong. Completely wrong. I hate to be so harsh, but every now and then we need a little tough love. While it's true that carbs can be dangerous if you're overeating or not eating the right ones, they do have a place in your daily life. In fact, The American Society for Nutrition published a study in February 2017 that found that switching to a diet with whole grains appeared to lower the number of calories absorbed by the body during digestion and speed up your metabolism. Those whole grains are carbs, and it's proof they're not all bad. From now on, I want you to think of fuel. I want you to think about fuel every time you hear the word "carb." If you're going to start changing the way you eat, I need you to start changing the way you think. It starts with knowing that carbs will fuel your body and mind. Good carbs are going to give you the energy you need to get through your next workout and, more generally, through your day. By ingesting a healthy amount of good carbohydrates, you're giving your body the fuel it needs to be successful. How exactly is it fueled? Glucose.

Our brains and bodies run on glucose. It's the most important source of energy our body has. Coffee is great, but unless you hook an espresso IV to your vein, java beans won't be able to energize you long-term. Glucose is the energy we need, and we get glucose from carbohydrates. This is where things get a little complicated, so bear with me. Carbs, originally made up of sugar and starch, are broken down into glucose when the stomach digests them. That means every time you put a carb in your mouth, the process of turning it into glucose begins. Once broken down, the stomach and small intestine absorb that glucose, where it is either immediately used for energy or stored for later use. Since glucose is the main source of energy, our body needs carbohydrates to successfully power its engine.

Let's break this down even further: carbs are molecules made up of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms. Stay with me. Each carbohydrate is composed of one of three monosaccharides. Monosaccharides is a fancy way of saying sugar. Still there? I know this is a lot of scientific information, but it's important to understand how we are going to lose the weight. The three monosaccharides are:

1. GLUCOSE. This is the energy carb. It's found in fruits and vegetables. Eventually, all carbohydrates will be reduced to glucose through digestion.

2.FRUCTOSE. Also known as the fruit sugar. It's found in fruit, honey, and high-fructose corn syrup.

3.GALACTOSE. I want you to think of galactose as the milk sugar. It's less sweet than the others and found in milk.

If a word ends in "ose," it's sugar. These three sugars affect the body differently, so each one that you ingest will cause a different reaction. Now, there are many foods that are a mix of those three sugars when they bond together. The fancy term is disaccharides, and they look like this:

1. Sucrose = Glucose + Fructose

2. Lactose = Glucose + Galactose

3. Maltose = Glucose + Glucose

There's also something called polysaccharides, which are long-chain carbohydrates that are made up of smaller carbohydrates. Dietary fiber is an example of a polysaccharide. Remember that because we're going to circle back to fiber shortly.

So, we get that all carbohydrates are sugars, right? Now I want you to remember that all sugars are not created equal. Remember when I said glucose is needed to fuel the body? You might be thinking, "But Bob, if all carbohydrates are sugar, and these sugars are broken down into glucose, aren't all carbs good?" No. Glucose is what we want, and while it's true that fructose will be broken down into glucose eventually, it doesn't mean we want to ingest a bunch of high-fructose corn syrup. The reason lies in our digestive process.

When you put a carb in your mouth, your body immediately begins to process it. Like I said before, as soon as it goes in the mouth it begins to break down into glucose. So, what kind of carbs should we be eating? For the most part, we want the type of carbohydrates that take a while to digest. This seems backward, right? You would think you want fast digestion, but that's false. When it comes to carbs, the slower the digestion, the better. We want to eat the carbs that travel slowly through the body. Why? Processed carbs (bad ones) are super quick to digest. Most of these super-quick carbs lead to a spike in your insulin, causing your body to get completely off balance. Off balance is not good. In terms of digesting carbs, slow and steady wins the race. Good carbs are the tortoise, and bad carbs are the hare. This is why we only want to eat good carbs. The junk is going to get your system off balance, but the good carbs will give you a steady flow of energy over a longer period. Next time you buy those chewy fruit candies from the checkout counter, pay attention to what happens when you eat them. You get a little spike in energy when the sugars are digested, but this happens so fast that your body doesn't have time to level out, so you crash very quickly. We don't want to crash. There is an exception to this rule, fruit, and we'll get into that shortly. For now, I want you to remember that carbs are fuel, but it's important that you fill up on the right kind.

Without carbs, your body will not have the fuel it needs. If you've tried a low-carb diet, you probably have experienced low energy, or what many people refer to as the "carb flu." Your body gets confused when you remove its number-one energy source, and it begins to scramble to find a new way of sustaining itself. Your body is telling you that you are doing something unnatural. When I was doing the low-carb thing, I had days when I had zero energy. You might be wondering how someone can survive on a carb-free diet, and that's because the body will start to turn protein into carbs, and use fat as a main energy source to get what it needs. It's searching for a fuel source. The body is smart, smarter than you think. Which is why, when it wants balance, it's going to do whatever it needs to do to get that balance.

When the body gets off balance, crazy things start to happen when it tries to correct the problem. Carbs aren't just needed to give us energy, they are also used to break down fat. Without the right number of carbs, a by-product will enter the body. This byproduct is known as ketones. When your body creates ketones, you run the risk of ketosis. I like to think of ketosis as the body's way of telling you something ain't right. Now, you may have heard of a diet that is quite literally called the Ketogenic Diet. It's for people who want their body to enter ketosis. Like many of the other low-carb diets, there can be great weight loss as a result. However, it comes at the price of the loss of good complex carbohydrates and a whole lot of other negatives. Urine sticks are even involved. Unless I'm pregnant, I don't want to be peeing on a stick. Ever talk to someone on the ketogenic diet? You can tell right away because their breath is often bad. One type of ketone that is produced is called acetone. Acetone comes out in the breath (and urine), and it smells rotten. I'm talking dragon-breath bad. The point is, the body will adapt to whatever we give it, but it's on us to give it the right stuff. We must listen to our bodies when they are telling us what they need and what they don't. I want us to use what the body was MEANT to use for fuel, and that includes carbohydrates and the right mix of nutrients.

Speaking of the right nutrients, remember that I mentioned fiber? If you grab some food from your cupboard and look on the nutrition label, you'll notice dietary fiber is listed right under "Total Carbohydrates." This isn't by accident. Fiber is a carbohydrate. And you know how I said we want carbs that break down slowly in the body? Fiber doesn't break down at all. It can't be turned into the glucose energy we need. Instead, it travels through the system all on its own, absorbing water along the way. This is why we get great poops when we eat lots of fiber. Not only will fiber get those bowels flowing, but it will slow down the digestion cycle, which is why we feel fuller for longer after eating high-fiber foods. The fuller we feel, the less inclined we are to eat the bad stuff, right? High-fiber foods will help you steer clear of the junk you eat when you're hungry.

"But Bob, what if I'm gluten-free? How can I eat carbs if I can't have gluten?" Okay, I've heard this a lot. I mean, a LOT. Nowadays, people are collecting food allergies like they're Pokémon. While there are quite a few people with allergies, there are lots of others that are crying wolf. The journal Digestion recently published a study that found that 86 percent of people who believed they were gluten-sensitive were actually gluten-tolerant. That means quite a few people are buying gluten-free when they don't have to. My advice is always to go to the doctor and get an allergy test. It's completely possible you have a reaction to gluten, but you won't know it unless you get checked. If you are running around telling everyone you are allergic to gluten when you're not, you're doing your body more harm than good (and you're annoying your friends who may be allergic to gluten). If you think you are having a negative reaction when you are eating gluten, perhaps it's something else. For me, if I don't have a protein and a fat with my carbs, I get ... gassy. Sorry to gross you guys out, but it's the truth, and the truth can be hard to hear sometimes. I wasn't gassy because of the gluten, I was gassy because I wasn't properly combining my macros (macros = the grams of protein, carbs, and fat you consume). If you have a properly balanced meal, your insides will be properly balanced. I'm going to teach you how to do this in the next chapter, so stay tuned!

If carbs don't make you fat, what does? Simple. Overeating. Your body needs carbs for energy, but when you eat too much, the excess is turned into fat. Your body needs a certain amount of everything, not just carbs, and when you eat more than you need, it becomes fat. Sure, there are other factors, but the most basic and simple answer is that overeating is the primary cause of weight gain. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans eat 1,996 pounds of food per year. Not only that, but the New York Times reported in 2010 that Americans consume 31 percent more packaged food than fresh food. These numbers are TOO HIGH. Do our bodies need that much food? No. And they certainly don't need that much packaged food! If we don't need that much, why are people eating that much? I have a few theories. First, so many of our foods are filled with empty calories. That means food without any nutrients. Those carbs that digest superfast are entering and leaving the body at such a rapid rate that you're craving more and more. Nothing is filling. Everything is a large portion without sustenance. Second theory: ease. The crappy food is more readily available. It's much easier to grab some hot fries from the gas station than it is to stop at a grocery store when we are hungry. Even if the gas station has a few healthy options, it's more tempting to grab the KitKat from the checkout counter than it is the old banana. Finally, addiction. The wrong food can be addictive. We crave the bad stuff. It's made to be addictive. You don't think these large food corporations are stupid, do you? They know exactly what they're doing, and they're doing it well. We must be smarter than they are. The first step in being smarter? Knowing it's not the carbs that are making you fat.

When I did the low-carb thing, my body eventually adjusted to the changes. The large amounts of protein I ate were used as carbs, just like we talked about, but the moment I had a real carb again, my body went into survival mode. I wasn't getting the balance I needed. Like I said before, the body is smart, so you won't be able to trick it for too long. If it wants a carb, it wants a carb. A no-carb lifestyle isn't sustainable. Many people like it for the fast results, but it always comes back to bite you in the butt in the end. I'm sure you've seen friends, family, or yourself lose weight quickly when cutting out the carbs, only to balloon up again as soon you had a slice of bread. We've all been there, even me. For a long time, I was a champion of the paleo diet, but ultimately I found its faults. My weight wasn't where I wanted it to be, and the results weren't worth what I was giving up. I still want you to get fast results, but I don't want you to run the risk of gaining it all back the minute you slip. That's why I created this plan.

Carbs can be tricky to understand. Complex, if you will. The scientific stuff can be confusing, but it's important to understand as you make the necessary changes in your diet. As we've learned, all carbs are not created equal. What I want you to remember most is that they do have a place in a well-rounded diet because the good carbs will fuel your body. The workouts at the end of this book will be possible by filling up your tank with the right kinds of nutrients. The right food will make it possible for you to lose weight and maintain the body you've always wanted. Remember, it's not carbs that are making you fat. It's overeating. I'm saying that so much because I want it to seep into your heads. We're changing the way you think, so you can change the way you look. Carbs don't make you fat. Carbs don't make you fat! CARBS DON'T MAKE YOU FAT! Okay, I think you get it. Now that we've changed the way we think, let's change the way we look.

CHAPTER 2

THE PLAN

MEN

Three square meals per day, plus one "floater" meal per day, for 90 days.

1. 160 calories from carbs per meal for three main meals.

2. 136 calories from protein per meal for four meals.

3. 135 calories from fat per meal for four meals.

4. 75 extra calories from vegetables per meal for three main meals.

= 506 calories per meal for three main meals, plus 271 calories per floater meal, for a total of 1,789 calories per day.

WOMEN

Three square meals per day, plus one "floater" meal per day, for 90 days.

1. 120 calories from carbs per meal for three main meals.

2. 100 calories from protein per meal for four meals.

3. 108 calories from fat per meal for four meals.

4. 75 extra calories from vegetables per meal for three main meals.

= 403 calories per meal for three main meals, plus 208 calories per floater meal, for a total of 1,417 calories per day.

EVERYONE

7–9 hours of sleep per night.

Weigh your food.

Weigh yourself.

Work out.

Monitor your waist.

THE MATH

Everyone is different, so everyone's numbers will be different, too. The above numbers are based on my own weight at 185 pounds. The women's column was calculated using a 135-pound woman. The numbers are in calories. I'm giving you the caloric numbers up front because I need you to understand why I am giving you all these numbers. Most people think in terms of calories when dieting. That's going to change when we convert to grams. You won't have to worry about conversion later, but for now we need to start with calories. First, I need you to pull out your calculator, or open the calculator app on your phone, and grab a pen and paper. We are going to get your numbers and personalize this plan for you. I know this part isn't fun. It's complicated, and I need you to know that's okay! It was complicated for me when I was figuring all this out. I get it. But if you want to take control of your life, I need you to put in some work. Ready? Let's break it down and get into how I got those numbers.

IMPORTANT

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories

1 gram of protein = 4 calories

1 gram of fat = 9 calories

These numbers came from counting macronutrients. Maybe you've heard of this idea before. It's the process of keeping track of the grams of our three major nutrients, or macronutrients — carbs, protein, and fat. In some circles, there is a fourth "macronutrient" that is probably familiar to many of you, which is alcohol. We'll get into that later, but for now I want to focus on the main, real, macronutrients: carbs, protein, and fat.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Super Carb Diet"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Bob Harper.
Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

TITLE PAGE,
COPYRIGHT NOTICE,
DEDICATION,
PREFACE: THE SUPER CARB CATALYST,
INTRODUCTION: BODY BY BOB,
PART I: THE SUPER CARB DIET RULES,
1. Carbs Don't Make You Fat,
2. The Plan,
3. Good Carbs,
4. Carbage,
5. All About Protein,
6. All About Fat,
7. Lettuce Talk More About Vegetables,
8. What to Do When You Want to Cheat,
9. Tips and Tricks,
10. Sleeping Your Way to Healthy,
11. The Fourth Macro,
12. Micronutrients,
13. Aging,
14. Scaling,
15. Dear Diary,
16. Super Carb Diet for Beginners,
17. FAQs,
PART II: THE TOOLS,
Fitness,
Recipes,
Final Thoughts,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS,
NOTES,
INDEX,
ALSO BY BOB HARPER,
ABOUT THE AUTHOR,
COPYRIGHT,