To understand why the PSMF diet works as well as it does, it is really important to understand the role of carbs.
Carbs are the first thing that our bodies look for when looking for energy. As such they are the first thing to be burned, before fat. Unfortunately for fat loss, our bodies are able to store a lot of fat, but limited carbs, hence why we put fat on as fat.
Our bodies will burn what they have access to. If you eat just carbs, and meet your daily caloric needs then your body will just burn these carbs, the fat will not be touched.
When we cut carbs as we do in PSMF, are body then turns to our carb stores (aka Glycogen). We don’t store that much glycogen, so after that our bodies turn to fat burning.
In PSMF we limit our carbs and our fat, so when we cut calories, after the initial carb and then glycogen burn off we start burning our fat stores.
So what about glucose for our bodies main functions? Well this is where what is known as glycogen sparing comes in. Our bodies when at very low levels of Insulin as a result of carb reduction, will only use glucose for essential tasks, brain, organs etc.
So think of it this way, our bodies are always looking for fuel. First it goes to carbs. When no carbs, it goes for glycogen. When there is no glycogen it will look to convert fat. If you are not eating that much fat, typically less than 20g in psmf, then the body will look for fat stored, and this is where weight loss happens. Pretty simple.