Is there is a recognized amount of carbs in one day

The food plan should keep you around 30 net carbs or less per day. But counting nutrients or calories is not something to be concerned about. Just follow the program and do not have more than one restricted item per day, and you will do just fine. Little tastes of this or that will foul up the underlying body chemistry that makes IP work. So focus on staying on program and you will be very pleased with the results.

Having said that - I recommend anyone on the program use a food tracker - MyFitnessPal or Fitbit or something - this will be a good habit to help you through maintenance. And there is no question - maintaining is much more challenging on a day to day basis than following IP Phase 1....

If you use MyFitnessPal, it does NOT calculate net carbs!

No MFP does not calculate net carbs, but it will track fiber and provide the numbers in a column on the table at the bottom of your food diary, right next to carbs column, so you can easily see the 2 numbers and mentally calculate your net carbs. Just go into the setting for nutrition goals and add Fiber to the nutrients you want to track.

I know that some calculations look at other nutrients to make the net carb calculation, but if you are hanging out at or near a net of 30 when you subtract fiber from carbs, you will be right on the money with IP. IP friendly net carbs seem to focus on just carb grams minus fiber grams.

I am sorry if you were mis-lead by my response -- but, even if there was no way to track net carbs on MFP, its still a good habit to post daily in a food diary. Later when you need to keep the weight off, you will be glad to have already developed the habit.

Many IP foods are already in the MFP database so I find it pretty simple to use.

I hope this is helpful info.

Hi there,

I have just run my daily food through my fitness pal (which does now include carbs) and it says that I am averaging 35-45 carbs a day. I read somewhere else we should stick to around 25 grams but how the heck can we do that when one unrestricted snack is still 15-19 grams?!?! I'm feeling confused.

Hey Kara! I think it is great you are tracking in My Fitness Pal. I started to track there when I transitioned to Phase 4 a few years ago. For me what I love about IP is that I don't have to track. I just eat what I'm told based on the Phase 1 sheet and done. That tracking got me too stressed out, lol. Anyway, as far as the unrestricted snack, you have to take the fiber into account to get the net carbs. So for example, a bag of unrestricted BBQ chips has 12 grams total carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber. If you subtract those you are left with 6 net carbs. For IP, unless things have changed (I am not doing the plan with a coach this time) unrestricted is 8 grams or less of net carbs. I hope I am making sense

Net carbs (generally) = Total carb - fiber - sugar alcohols

So, I do protocol using alternative products.
Oatmega is a restricted protein bar

Carb = 21g
Fiber = 7g
Sugar Alcohols = 5g

Net Carb = 9g

Some choose not to subtract the sugar alcohols, so then it would be 14g

I have been 'reading/following' on this forum since 2011 and I AM STILL LEARNING every time. Its amazing! And funny eh? on Atkins, for induction, its 18-22 carb per day, but if I bump up to 28 or 29 by 'accident' then my weight drops faster than holding at 18-22