Bread & Weight Gain/Loss: What’s The Truth?

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝Every now and again I try quitting bread to lose some weight and it works, but it always seems to come back and then I eat bread again anyway. Is there a way to break out of this cycle?❞

Yes! You can break out of that cycle by simply enjoying bread in moderation without quitting (and then you will certainly not be in the cycle of quitting it and restarting it).

However, to give an answer that’s probably more in the spirit of your question:

Firstly, know that a lot of the short-term benefits of quitting bread are unrelated to fat loss. We’ve covered this part before, and in few words:

Cutting bread for 30 days can lead to weight loss for some people, but the initial change is often more a matter of reduced water retention and bloating rather than immediate fat loss. In particular, it’s common for people feel lighter within the first week or so because reducing fermentable carbohydrates can decrease gas production and resultant digestive discomfort, especially in those with sensitive guts.

You can read more about this, here: Does Quitting Bread For 30 Days Trigger Weight Loss?

Next, understand that oftentimes the issue is not the bread, so much as the glycemic index thereof, and this can vary wildly from one bread to another.

We wrote about this, here: Is Flour As Bad As Sugar?

And more broadly, here: Grains: Bread Of Life, Or Cereal Killer?

Lastly (for today), there’s some recent science that indicates the issue with bread is actually in your non-bread dietary components.

Researchers (Dr. Miona Marutani et al.) found that mice given access to carbohydrate-heavy foods like bread, rice, and wheat strongly preferred them over standard mouse food and gained body fat despite eating roughly the same number of calories.

In other words, the body fat gain wasn’t about eating more bread; it was about eating less of the other food!

You can read the paper itself, here: Wheat Flour Intake Promotes Weight Gain and Metabolic Changes in Mice

Now, this was a mouse study and may or may not be replicated in humans, but it at the very least presents us with an important reminder of the value of positive dieting, that is to say, worrying less about what to exclude from our diets, and more about what to include, to ensure we get good, diverse, nutrient coverage.

Yes, even if your goal is fat loss, making conscious choices about what to include, rather than what to exclude, can help a lot.

For more on that, enjoy: Intuitive Eating Might Not Be What You Think

Want to enjoy bread, healthily?

As we’ve said, moderation is key, as we as a focus on making sure to include plenty of good nutrients.

There are several ways to do this, including:

• A healthy sandwich with lots of nutritious things inside!
• Healthy things on toast (avocado toast is a great example)
• Soup with bread (just make sure there’s plenty of healthy stuff in the soup!)

Another approach (which can be done in tandem with the above) is to make healthier, non-wheat bread, for example:

• “4-Ingredient 10-Minute Bread” That’s High-Protein, High-Fiber, Gluten-Free
• Healthy Homemade Flatbreads ← a different healthy bread recipe of ours
• Delicious Quinoa Avocado Bread ← another one, also in text

Enjoy!