Do you enjoy eating bread but are afraid of eating it because you’re trying to lose weight?
Bread gets such a bad rap for causing weight gain because of all the low carb diets out there.
And there’s all these interesting subs no carb breads like cloud bread (just egg whites) or using bell peppers or mushrooms or even firm tofu as sandwich or burger buns. I’ve tried all these before when I was low carbing to lose weight, but it’s definitely no substituite to actual, fluffy, carb-containing bread.
Bread gets this bad rap for causing weight gain but what it all comes down to is calories in and calories out for weight loss.
In other words, eating less calories than your body needs. This is the most easiest and simplest form to digest the theory of weight loss, but there’s more to it.
There’s the mechanics of how your body metabolizes or digests the food. the holistic aspects which is how the food makes you and your body feels (like low energy, sluggish, or satisfied and energized), and the healthfulness of the food to your body.
AND.,…you need to make sure you can continue eating this way for long-term, lasting weight loss. I cannot see myself eating cloud bread or never enjoying or feeling guilty about enjoying an actual burger bun with my hamburger- that’s not living for me.
So, let’s take a look at bread. Bread is a carb and what happens to our body when we eat bread is that it causes insulin to be produced by an organ in our body, called pancreas. This is because bread or any carb has sugar in it and after we eat it, the sugar goes into our blood stream. The sugar then triggers insulin response because the high blood sugars in our system needs to be cleared. Insulin is like the herding dogs and pushes the sugars into our body’s cells. This is a completely normal response and happens automatically, unless your insulin production is affected in the case of diabetes.
Our cells use the sugars as energy. It’s like the gasoline for our car and our body is the car.
However, the type of bread and what you eat with it affects the our blood sugars and can make us feel sluggish, low energy, not satisfied, or wanting to eat more bread. For example, white bread doesn’t take out body too long to digest, so it causes it to enter into our blood stream quicker and easier, vs bread with fiber and protein, like a whole grain bread takes our body more work to digest it.
Therefore, if it takes more work, it’s going to have a slower effect on our blood sugars compared to white bread, which can just dissolve in our mouth (we don’t even need to chew it!). So, this spikes our blood sugar quickly. We might feel like eating white bread, we feel energized soon after but it doesn’t last. And very soon, you will also be feeling hungry again- causing you to crave another slice of white bread.
This isn’t the case with whole grain bread because of the time it takes to digest it. And the added fiber helps you stay feeling more full- fiber is just bulk, so that can help you poop, and doesn’t have any calories- so it’s great!
So in terms of calories, 1 slice of white or whole grain bread is pretty much the same, around 90-110 calories/slice. But the nutrient profile is much different because of it’s effect on your body.
So simply, put, the answer is yes. You can eat bread and still lose weight. I encourage it with my clients and also with you!
So, if you’re having toast or a sandwich, opt for the whole grain variety (it will say it on the bag!) and make sure to add some protein and fat (like some PB or avocado + egg) to help you stay fuller, longer and STILL lose weight. My clients enjoy bread daily (and sometimes for lunch and breakfast) and drop the lbs- and you can too!
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