[Hammer]

I didn't intent to get a discussion going on carbs, but I do understand how everything works. You NEED carbs, and without them you'd die. Carbs are where you get your energy from. A lot of people think that you get energy from protein, and that's not true.

Every person needs a certain amount of carbs, protein and fat to maintain their body weight. If you eat the same number of calories a day that you burn off, then your weight will remain the same. If you increase the number of calories you eat each day, and don't burn them off, then you'll gain weight. If you eat less calories each day than you burn off, then you'll lose weight.

If you burn off 3500 more calories than you ate, then you'll lose 1 pound of weight. So using that number, if you cut back your daily caloric intake by 200 calories or you burn an extra 200 calories a day, then in 17½ days, you'll lose 1 pound of body weight.

If you cut back on your carbs, your body then has to get it's energy from someplace else. What it does is to breakdown your body fat and use it to create energy. This is what happens when you diet. You'll have less energy, but by cutting back on carbs, you reduce your caloric intake and your body needs to breakdown your stored fat to give you the energy you need. When your body breaks down the fat, a byproduct of this process is released into your body. This byproduct is called Ketone.

If you severely cut back on your carbs, your body will be breaking down large quantities of fat and releasing large amounts of ketone into your system. This can lead to ketoacidosis which can kill you.

That's why it's always better to go on a balanced diet and not one of those fad diets. You need carbs, you need protein, and you need fat. The trick is to eat them in a balanced proportion. In my mind, the best way to lose weight is to not diet, but to exercise. When I say not to diet, I don't mean to eat whatever you want, I mean that you should eat a balanced diet, but then exercise enough so you burn off the calories that you ate. If you should cheat one day and eat something that you shouldn't have, then you would need to exercise longer to burn off those extra calories in order to keep from gaining weight.

One thing though....burning calories is a slow process, so don't think that you can eat a candy bar, then walk for an extra 5 minutes to burn it off. It might take to an hour of walking to burn it off.

I remember reading that if you ate a spaghetti dinner, to burn off the calories in that dinner, you'd have to row around the isle of Manhatten three times to burn off the calories.