Daily Carbohydrate Intake

[kansas1973 1]

Hi everyone:

I'm 7 months post-op, and I'm down 95 pounds. I've started re-introducing some carbs into my diet; whole grains mostly, but the occassional Cheez-it or Goldfish cracker also makes it into the rotation.

I'm tracking my food and exercise on Livestrong.com, and their nutritional profile suggests that I can have almost 300 grams of carbs a day and still lose a pound a week. I think that sounds crazy. What are your daily carb intake limits? I'm just trying to figure out a happy medium.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[chilo1 62]

To maintain your weight carbs should be about 50% of your daily calorie intake. That can be around 200 grams of carbs a day. But to lose weight it has to be less, I think that if you keep it under 100grs 7 months out you will keep losing weight.

[Susanne 32]

Why does that sound crazy? If you reduce everything else, you'll probably lose weight. You lose weight if the caloric intake is less than the caloric expenditure.

1 g carb has 4 calories, so if you can have up to 300 g of carbs, that's 1200 calories and you should be able to lose on that...but you would have to be on very restricted fat and Protein diet. So yeah, it sounds stupid and definitely not recommended for a VSG patient...so maybe a little crazy :-)

Most people say they have 1200 calories to maintain, so considering that you have to have 60g of Protein (= 240 calories) and probably 50 g of fat (= 450 calories) you end up with 510 calories from carbs which is 127 g of carbs Some people advocate a split of carbs/protein/fat of 50/30/20 which seems a little high on carbs for many.

Here is an interesting article about that ratio: http://www.muscleand...ers-part-I.html

Example: Total calories required 2600 calories per day:

* 30% of 2600 = 780 calories for Protein
* 50% of 2600 = 1300 calories from Carbohydrates
* 20% of 2600 = 520 calories from total Fat

For 1200 calories, you can almost cut that in half.

That said, I posted this article a while back, that shows the different ranges: http://www.verticals...s-should-i-eat/

[Becca 108]

My NUT advised me to keep the carbs under 100 to lose weight. It forces your body to use the fat for energy rather than the carbs you are eating. I think 300 per day is very high for a sleeve patient in the losing stage. I have dropped my carb intake recently due to a little stall I was having and now I am losing again. I went from 60 carbs per day down to 40.

[morethan 4]

I am going to ask my Nutritionist on Thursday when I see her. She never mentioned Carbs, Only Protien atleast 60 grams. When I was discharged, they told me to be more concerned with hydration and not calories or even Protein. Try to get the protein in but be more concern with liquids. Now that I am 5 weeks, I want to know what should be my calorie intake (right now its 500-800 per day), and what should be my Carb intake. I already know protein should be between 60-80 grams per day.

[BlackBerryJuice 349]

I eat as many carbs as my heart desires, as long as I get in enough Protein. I think 95% of people on this board would pop an aneurysm if I posted an actual amount. Let's just say today I had Pasta, two bananas, AND chocolate ice cream. Doesn't seem to hinder my weightloss efforts in the slightest.

[Becca 108]

I eat as many carbs as my heart desires, as long as I get in enough Protein. I think 95% of people on this board would pop an aneurysm if I posted an actual amount. Let's just say today I had Pasta, two bananas, AND chocolate ice cream. Doesn't seem to hinder my weightloss efforts in the slightest.

I wish I could be like you!!!!

[pattimomof3nj 21]

I eat as many carbs as my heart desires, as long as I get in enough Protein. I think 95% of people on this board would pop an aneurysm if I posted an actual amount. Let's just say today I had Pasta, two bananas, AND chocolate ice cream. Doesn't seem to hinder my weightloss efforts in the slightest.

That is great, but don't you exercise a lot? that may be the reason. I added a bit of carbs, not the good kind, and was at a stall for 4 weeks. I'm trying so hard to reduce them, but the cravings are killing me! maybe i should just up my exercise!!!

Patti

[Susanne 32]

I do eat all the carbs I want too - as long as I get my Protein in. I refuse to cut out carbs just for the sake of low carb.

First of all, with the carb levels I read here, you can't even get a remotely healthy level of whole grains and Fiber. I believe getting good nutrition trumps fast weight loss right now. I did not get surgery to lose weight fast, I got it to be healthier - cutting carbs out to less than 40g seems unreasonable and counter productive.

You are supposed to have 40 to 50g of whole grains (not whole wheat, whole wheat means nothing) and as a woman at least 25g of Fiber (which usually overlaps with the whole grain). Soluble fiber lowers cholesterol, helps you stay fool and regulates blood sugar.

I may not have the staggering weight loss that some others may have - I lost 52 pounds since November 2nd (from a BMI of 42.8) but I feel extremely good and not deprived of anything. I don't feel like I am on a diet, since I am not cutting out anything. I am making some smarter choices by using more "whole foods" vs. diet/processed foods and I feel I am finally eating like a normal person. And I am working out 5 to 6 times a week on my treadmill but that amount of exercise is recommended for anyone, young, old, fat or skinny simply for cardio vascular health.

Those who say they can't lose when eating carbs, what carbs are you actually referring to? Can you really not lose weight when eating Beans, whole grain bread (in moderation) or whole grain rice? Cutting out white carbs and sugar is one thing, cutting out carbs to less than 40g seems not healthy to me.

Here an article from Harvard - hey, it's Harvard, I assume they know what they are talking about :-)

http://www.hsph.harv...tory/index.html

[**LaSaJaTa** 4]

Not to point fingers, but those that advocate higher carbs seem to be loosing much slower...just my 2 cents.

[Susanne 32]

That's what I am saying (and admitting) - but is loosing faster at the cost of health (lack of fiber/whole grain) really worth it?

I would assume (and hope) most people here had their surgery to get healthier, not to just lose fast. Cutting carbs to below recommended values for whole grain and Fiber doesn't seem the way to go either.

I am actually having my 4 month doctor's appointment later today and I'll make sure to ask how I am ranking with my weight loss and eating.

[Stacy160 201]

Those of you who can lose simply with low calories, more power to ya.

Unfortunately some of us are VERY carb-sensitive. I can maintain easily enough by eating normally, but I can ONLY lose weight if I keep the carbs under 40 grams, no matter where the calories end up.

[BlackBerryJuice 349]

That is great, but don't you exercise a lot? that may be the reason. I added a bit of carbs, not the good kind, and was at a stall for 4 weeks. I'm trying so hard to reduce them, but the cravings are killing me! maybe i should just up my exercise!!!

Patti

Yeah, I exercise regularly, although nothing too crazy. On an average week, I've got 2 or 3 dance classes and 1 or 2 days going for a quick run (2 miles) and lifting weights, for a total of 4 days at the gym/week, about 4.5-5 hours. I'd rate everything besides running as moderate intensity exercise. I try to work in some random physical activity, too - e.g. rather than wait for the bus by my house, if I don't see it, I'll just walk to the next stop, then the stop after until it finally catches up with me, and I'll sometimes take the train instead of the bus because then I have to walk an extra 10 blocks to get home. But outside of that, I'm very sedentary, as I have to study a lot, so I do a lot of sitting around in front of the computer.

If I try to limit carbs, I get major headaches and cravings, and I definitely don't have energy to exercise. I tried Atkins once, and I basically just lay in bed watching TV for 4 days until I binged on a bunch of ice cream, lol.

[chilo1 62]

That's what I am saying (and admitting) - but is loosing faster at the cost of health (lack of fiber/whole grain) really worth it?

I would assume (and hope) most people here had their surgery to get healthier, not to just lose fast. Cutting carbs to below recommended values for whole grain and fiber doesn't seem the way to go either.

I am actually having my 4 month doctor's appointment later today and I'll make sure to ask how I am ranking with my weight loss and eating.

I agree about the getting healthier, but I guess we all do what we think is best. I find it hard without carbs but I've stopped losing weight and I know the only way to lose what I want to get to goal is to lower my carbs (not completely but stick to fruit veg and a bit of wholegrain) I upped my exercise I do at least 3 times a week cardio and weights but much more intense than before, still not losing weight

[Susanne 32]

Chilo, do you weigh everything? I sometimes feel that people who REALLY don't lose when they should lose, are eyeballing it or using "volume measurements" instead of weight. Not sure what the recommended measurement unit is in the UK, but in the US the main measurement is a "cup" which is volume and not weight. I don't mean to be a smart-ass (though my husband keeps reminding me that I am just that)

On a general note - and I know I am repeating myself, so bear with me or skip over the rest.

It is so easy to cheat yourself when measuring Cereal, Pasta and rice with a cup instead of a scale. Doing that, you can easily double the mass and thereby double the calories accidentally. Cereal and Pasta gets broken and crushed during transport and storage, and the bottom of a cereal/pasta box always has the small pieces. If you measure a cup from a fresh box of cereal and compare it to the last cup of a cereal box, the last cup easily has twice as many calories.

Another thing that always trips me up is Protein, where I easily scoop out 50% more.

I always have a food scale on the counter. I put my bowl or Protein shaker on it, hit the tare button and pour in the recommended amount BY weight. I often switch it to grams because it is a more precise unit of measure for small amounts, but that's just because I am anal.

I do the same with basically everything, if I make a toast with jelly, I place the bread on the scale, hit tare and then add jelly. It's not much more work at all, and takes not more than seconds but you will be amazed at the difference - an possibly see where some calories started to creep in that remained unaccounted for. Here is a post by someone who went through this revelation:

http://community.act...e/329982#329982

Unfortunately, this is always occurring more on carby things than proteiny things because there is much more variance in carbohydrate heavy foods than in protein heavy foods because protein heavy foods naturally seem to have a higher density than the looser carb foods.

The one place where I got confronted with that was while studying construction engineering, in my materials classes. All the sand, gravel, rocks and what not had to be tamped tamped tamped all day long to make sure they have as little air in between and that the measurement is accurate...oh the boredom of manually tamping sand and gravel in class -- but I believe everyone has done that at home too when trying to pour coffee meal from one container into another. If it doesn't fit and there is just a little left, it helps to just smack the can onto the counter a few times to get a little more room on top.