Calorie and carb counting question

  • Back at this again. I am currently 5'8 and 246lbs. I understand both concepts of càrbs and calorie counting. I'm trying to combine both, being more strict with calories then carbs. I am eating healthy whole foods for the 1600 calories per day I consume. My 'snack' that's not good IF I have to cave, is one of those 100 calorie packs of popcorn. Gives me the potato chip feel.

    Anyways, I'd love to do a strict low carb diet as I k ow its successful and I've watched my very heavy father shed A LOT of weight. BUT, I k ow it is not realistic for me to stick to that for maintenance or lifetime. I'm not a carbaholic. However, I don't want to deprive myself entirely of bread and I k ow if I cut it out, I'll binge sooner or later as I have in the past.

    Now my question. On a 1600 calorie a day diet, what is a safe number of grams of carbs per day, without be crazy limiting which would put me on a runaway for a binge?
  • I think this is a very individual thing. You'll have to tweak your diet to find the right amout of carbs for you. What I'm aiming for right now is for calories from carbs to make up between 25% and 35% of my daily calories. I may try to go lower in the future but this is working for me so far. For a 1600 calorie diet, this would work out to between 100 and 140 grams of carbs.
  • Thanks for the reply, immaculate. That is what I have been aiming for; around 100 grams. Maybe I'm on the money then. I try to eat all my carbs in my first meal of the day. Don't know how much of a difference that makes, but I'm combining 3 different diets at the moment and am anxious to weigh-in, in a week to see if anything has changed.
  • I don't know how many carbs are best for you, but just wanted to say that I also do both carb counting and calorie counting and it works really well for me. I have seen some really good results so far!
  • I believe it's mainly about calories. Two years ago I lost 50 pounds on a high-carb diet (60% of total calories) and have maintained the loss while continuing to eat high carb. I now eat about 300 g of carbs per day, and as long as I keep my calories at 2,000 I don't gain weight. I recently tried lower carb (just to see if it would help me feel fuller) but didn't like it at all.

    As people say, it's a very individual thing. Most of my carbs come from whole grains and I almost never eat junk food, so I don't consider my carbs "bad" in any way.

    Freelance
  • You'll figure out as you go what level of carbs makes you crazy, what level keeps you full. This week mine ranged from 88 to 195 per day, most days around 120-130. . Calories ranged from 1300-1800. I don't count carbs, I just looked them up in my tracker, but I eat bread once a day and pasta once a day.
  • I'm doing something similar to you...counting calories but working to keep my carbs low-ish. I just find that I stay fuller that way. Right now I shoot for about 1600 calories depending on how active I am, and about 100 grams of carbs.

    For me, that's a totally doable number. I usually do eggs/bacon for breakfast, salad with protein for lunch, then there's room in my carb count for a half serving of pasta or a little bread at dinner if I want it. (And even an occasional dessert.)
  • When most my carbs come from non-starchy vegetables and I eat an adequate amount of protein and healthy fats, and I don't go too long between meals, I feel satiated. If I let starchy carbs and sugar in any form sneak back into my diet, I start experiencing issues with hunger.

    As I understand it, when eating enough protein, the human body doesn't require starchy carbs. It converts the protein into glycogen to use as fuel anyway, which is what carbs are converted to as well.