[chrissyk]

Morning,

Well, it's a snowy/icy Saturday here in MN and I figured this was a great time to ask you all a question.

Does anyone out there count carbs as well as calories? If so, what are your limits?

Thanks in advance

[nomorefatpants]

Just calories for me. I did notice I was eating too much sodium so I've been working on that but I eat carbs.

[Heather]

I now pay attention to many aspects of what I'm eating. though, when I first started, I just looked at calories, now I'm trying to eat healthier all around. So, I pay attention to many more aspects of my diet than I ever used to.

How many carbs to eat really depends on your goals -- it's a personal thing, so hard to tell you how many you should eat. Also, many people have started to focus on the kinds of carbs. Sugar is all carbs, and not necessarily something you want to eat a lot of. But fruit is also carbs and a much healthier choice.

Then you will find the whole issue of "white" carbs -- which come from foods like white bread, white rice, white pasta as well as the aforementioned white sugar. These foods become "white" because a lot of the nutrients have been stripped from the grain or from a lot of processing. These foods have less fiber and often fewer nutrients than their "brown" counterparts, and have been linked to more "spikes" in blood sugar -- and again, they tend to have had more nutrients stripped away.

So, it's not just how many carbs you're eating, but what kind!

To answer your original question, I aim to get about 25% of my calories from fat, 50% from carbs and 25% from protein.

If you're just starting, my advice is to not worry about everything all at once. Read about food and nutrition and over time decide what battles are more important for you to focus on.

[chrissyk]

Thanks for the answers ladies.

Now I have a follow up question.

If I am currently keeping track of calories and then the grams of carbs that I am eating daily, how do I figure out what percentage of my calories are from carbs?

Can I just divide the number of carbs by the total calories that I am eating each day???

[alinnell]

Do you use fitday? It will give you the percentage of carbs, protein, fat and alcohol consumed each day.

Personally, I don't watch carbs because I eat a lot of vegetables which are naturally high in carbs. I do watch the carbs that come from breads, though.

[nomorefatpants]

Agreed I know I eat about 50% carbs only because my fitday type program tells me I do. There's a bunch of free online programs that will figure that stuff out for you. Somone posted this link earlier with a review/breakdown of the different sites that offer online food journals.
http://unclezeb.blogspot.com/2007/02...-counting.html
HTH

[SmartButt]

Yeah, fitday doesn't separate out "bad" and "good" carbs, so that may be confusing. I actually don't know if a really good way to accurately count them separately.

I try to keep my carbs at less than 1/3 of what I'm eating but if I've had a lot of veggies, as mentioned above, I don't worry if the percentage gets off-whack.

[chrissyk]

Hey Everyone --

Thanks for your wise tips. I went onto Fitday and entered all of the info from yesterday's meals/snacks and found out that I am right at 50% carbs.

Someone mentioned that Fitday does not separate bad/good carbs, so, after reviewing the types of foods that I ate, I feel that this is a good mix for me !!

I am now able to take this total number of carbs from yesterday and use it as a guideline moving forward, so for me, I need to keep my daily carbs right around 240/day. This totally jives with what I have seen on the scale -- it's just nice to have the numbers verify what I have already felt.

Thanks again !!!!

[lottie63]

I use www.thedailyplate.com and try and keep around 1,500 cals (that is what is recommended for my height and weight by thedailyplate.com) but I also make sure I don't go above 100% of any of my RDA of things like sodium and carbs, etc. I wouldn't say I'm on a low carb or smart carb diet, but I DO try and only eat brown rice instead of white, and wheat pasta instead of white and sweet potato instead of white, etc, things like that. but it's not ALWAYS possible.

[aphil]

I don't count carbs...but I do take special note on what KIND of carbs that I eat-fruit instead of juices, vegetables, whole grain breads and pastas instead of refined white ones, brown rice instead of white, and I only have sweets every once in a while...and in a very small portion if I do.

As long as I do that, and I have a serving of protein at each meal...it works itself out. Really, it does.

It is much better to have 45% of your diet in good carbs than it would be to have 20% of it in refined or sugary carbs-make sense?

[pacman12]

Yep, at the moment I try to keep 50% carb, 20% fat, 30% protein. I am experimenting with different combinations to see which works best for me. I've found that 60% carbs is way too high for me - feel tired and don't lose much weight, so I'm now adjusting and trialling a higher protein plan.

[ennay]

I thought I would be aiming for 60/15/25 c/p/f but I kept coming out at 45/23/32 and it was working so I ran with it.

[srmb60]

Working on percentages is something that grows on you, I think. It's a sort of natural outgrowth of counting calories and becoming aware of the quality of your food.

I'd love to hang in at about 40p, 40c and 20f.