The macros of the typical American diet consists 50% of calories from carbohydrates, 15% protein, and 35% fat.

If you're otherwise healthy and eating a carbohydrate centric diet, your body burns those carbohydrates for energy, and stores any excess as fat. In order to burn fat stores, we must deplete the carbohydrates

During the Fuel Refocus phase of The Galveston Diet we will be adjusting our macros to enhance fat burning: fueling our bodies with healthy fats and protein and good carbohydrate choices in percentages that encourage the body to utilize fat for fuel.

The Science of Fat Loss

Our bodies prefer to burn glucose for fuel, derived from the carbohydrates in our diet and from a process called gluconeogenesis that takes place in the liver.  Once those sources of glucose are burned up, our bodies then switch to fat-burning for fuel.

Heavy carbohydrate diets, as in the typical American diet, provide a lot of carbohydrates in the form of bread, pasta, rice and added sugars.  These high carbohydrate diets then provide a large amount of glucose for our bodies to use as energy. The problem usually lies in the fact that modern living usually includes a diet that is carbohydrate heavy and exercise light.  If you don’t burn the glucose you have in your bloodstream, the excess will be stored as fat.

When we refocus our macros and adjust our percentages away from the typical American diet towards percentages that encourage fat burning, our bodies will create ketone bodies as fat stores are broken down for energy into fatty acids.

These fatty acids are a form of fuel that helps the body burn fat as the main source of fuel, instead of using the glucose (sugar) from carbs.

Why "Bad Carbs" are Bad

All carbohydrates raise our blood sugar levels; however, bad, heavily-processed carbs are processed and absorbed by our bodies faster than the good, fiber and nutrient-rich carbs that are closer to their natural state.

The natural process of carb consumption is that carbs are turned into sugar, also known as glucose, and then released into the bloodstream to be used as fuel.

This increase in blood sugar levels gives us energy. To help these sugars to be used by our bodies, our pancreas releases insulin. This insulin release is what allows our bodies to process the sugar of carbs as fuel.

The problems begin when we consume too many carbs, because this can cause our blood sugar levels to rise so quickly that the corresponding insulin that is released then blocks our body’s ability to use this increase in sugar as fuel, and this results in fat deposition and weight gain.

Simple Substitutions to aide with Fuel Refocusing