Carbs, Carbs, Carbs....somebody please help me !!!

[LilMissDiva Irene 3,282]

I do total carbs (its just easier). I count all carbs I eat throughout the day on livestrong.com - I do stay under 60g of total carbs per day when I'm in weight loss mode. This is considerably higher than most others, however I'm very much ok with this. I do workout quite a bit and I just don't lose weight when I stay under 30g per day for any period of time.

My carbs are usually Beans, brown rice, fruits (minimal), veggies (tons!), multi grain crackers or breads, etc. I always try to make high Fiber choices too, sticking to around 20g fiber per day. So in net carbs that would put me at about 30-40g per day.

I lose really good with this system. Good luck in finding your optimal zone! Everyone is different.

[meggiep 57]

I try to keep my carb count below 40ish -- recently, I've been upping the carbs to see where my threshold is (where I lose and where I gain) -- but in the past it was 40, not counting veggies and fruit. Now mind you, I don't eat *that* many veggies and fruits -- maybe an apple or two a day and some veggies for lunch or dinner. So it's not like I'm carbing out . . . as for Protein shakes -- yes, once in a while I'll have one. Especially if I feel I'm not getting in enough Protein. Initially I had a non-flavored protein that I added to Soups and tea and such. But after I could eat a substantial amount of protein for my meals, I kinda stopped using Protein Powder in my food except when I was being lazy and didn't want to cook anything In those cases, I'll make a protein shake. At your stage, I was definitely using protein powder A LOT. I just couldn't eat much, didn't want to eat much, and basically had to get my protein from the powder. An egg was too much to eat. Glad that's over Now I eat between 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of food. Sometimes if it's slider food, I can eat like a normal person which is scary. For example, yesterday my son made me a Breakfast wrap for breakfast -- it had a small low carb tortilla, scrambled egg, bacon, black Beans and cheese. It was very yummy and I could eat one entire one. Granted my kids each had 2 or 3 a piece. But the fact that I could eat an entire one was interesting -- I think 4 months ago if I could have eaten half of it I would have been lucky.

I still don't get really hungry -- head hunger is more of an issue now because I'm fooling around with my carbs more (word to the wise). But being in semi-maintenance, I'm trying to figure out what my normal is. And maybe I'll always be trying to figure it out, who knows.

Speaking of fooling around with carbs, seems to me that the processed carbs are the ones that affect me and not the veggies and fruit. So, that's also interesting (at least to me).

Hope that answers your questions. Basically, I was super strict up until about a month ago when I started increasing my carbs and calories to figure out how much I should be eating as a "real" person not trying to lose as much.

Thanks- it does help! And it makes a lot of sense too!

I am going to see how that works for me- and no, I can't eat many fruits and veggies anyway- we are talking 4 green Beans or 2 apricots from our tree. Always protein first and no room for much else!

I can't even imagine fitting a half cup!

xoxo