How many carbs?

[vafoodie]

Do you eat? I know to cut empty carbs. Back when I really low carbed, it was a ridiculously low amount that you can have. I gather you eat more now. I’m a 60 yo female weighing 150. I need to lose 15-20 lbs.
I also must be doing something wrong with the search feature on these boards because when I put in low carb every post on every forum seemed to come up.

[audreyh1]

Search in health forum only, and try searching on “keto”. That will probably uncover most of the threads.

[sengsational]

You can put a longer search in the "powered by Google" thing and it will rank the results. Keto should certainly be a search term for what you're looking for.

[donheff]

I searched on LCHF and came up with this thread that has a lot of pages. To directly answer your question, when I went on an LCHF diet about 6 years ago I held carbs to ~50 grams per day. I kept a log of everything I ate to make sure I wasn't missing some. I never counted calories. I quickly lost about 35 pounds, getting down to 162 where I remain after 6 years, I have added a fair amount of carbs back into my diet but not anywhere near as much as in the decades I added those 35 pounds. If I tick up 2-3 pounds I pay more attention to the carbs for a while. This lackadaisical approach works for me but not for many.

[CyclingInvestor]

If you are looking for low-carb but down not to keto levels, you might try looking at diabetic diets. I limit net carbs to 40 gms/meal, and average 40-80 grams per day.

[RAE]

In my experience, the carbs contained in vegetables are not really a problem, so I don't limit my consumption of them. It's the carbs in grains and sugar, and in particular, "acellular" carbs, which can really put on the weight (and adversely affect your health).

Here is a link for more reading on this, and a quote from the article:

https://chriskresser.com/leptin-resi...le-in-obesity/

Cellular plant foods have a low carbohydrate density compared to Western foods. Root tubers, fruits, leaves, and stems store their carbohydrates as part of fiber-walled living cells. These cells are thought to remain largely intact during cooking. The fact that carbohydrates are stored within cells means that the maximum carbohydrate density they can have is around 23 percent.
In contrast, flour, sugar, and grains are among the most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet and are considered “acellular” carbohydrates, meaning they lack intact cells. Processed foods made from these ingredients can have a very high carbohydrate density—as high as 75 percent. This leads to a dramatic difference in the slurry of food and stomach acid that reaches the gut:
“The chyme produced after consumption of acellular flour and sugar-based foods is […] suggested to have a higher carbohydrate concentration than almost anything the microbiota of the upper GI tract from mouth to small bowel would have encountered during our coevolution.”

[COcheesehead]

My doctor told me to stay under 150/ day. I target less than 100. At that rate, I lost weight, 10% of my body weight and my blood tests improved, some pretty dramatically.
I also 16/8 intermittent fast.
If you start watching carbs, you’ll be amazed at some foods. A handful of cooked rice has almost 80 carbs. I just think of all those Chinese dinners I had with rice over the years. No more. If you just eliminate white foods: bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, bananas, crackers, you will be better off.

[audreyh1]

I was on a ketogenic diet which is an extreme low-carb diet at first limited to 20-25 net grams of carbs per day. The net was after subtracting fiber on things like vegetables (but not processed junk). This was to deliberately drive the body into ketosis which has several health benefits to reset the metabolism and help curb cravings, lower blood insulin and blood sugars, burn fat, etc.

A low carb diet can have much higher carbs - even up to 150g non-net carbs is considered low-carb AFAIK. 100g carbs will still give you lots of health benefits.

[travelover]

Darn, thought it was a hot rod discussion- Dual Carbs, 4 on the floor.

[6miths]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Darn, thought it was a hot rod discussion- Dual Carbs, 4 on the floor.

+1
Was going to chime in that I have never had a vehicle with a carburetor but then I remembered that '99 Land Rover Disco.

[Red Badger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RAE In my experience, the carbs contained in vegetables are not really a problem, so I don't limit my consumption of them. It's the carbs in grains and sugar, and in particular, "acellular" carbs, which can really put on the weight (and adversely affect your health). Here is a link for more reading on this, and a quote from the article: https://chriskresser.com/leptin-resi...le-in-obesity/ Cellular plant foods have a low carbohydrate density compared to Western foods. Root tubers, fruits, leaves, and stems store their carbohydrates as part of fiber-walled living cells. These cells are thought to remain largely intact during cooking. The fact that carbohydrates are stored within cells means that the maximum carbohydrate density they can have is around 23 percent. In contrast, flour, sugar, and grains are among the most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet and are considered “acellular” carbohydrates, meaning they lack intact cells. Processed foods made from these ingredients can have a very high carbohydrate density—as high as 75 percent. This leads to a dramatic difference in the slurry of food and stomach acid that reaches the gut: “The chyme produced after consumption of acellular flour and sugar-based foods is […] suggested to have a higher carbohydrate concentration than almost anything the microbiota of the upper GI tract from mouth to small bowel would have encountered during our coevolution.”

Thanks for the link. Just downloaded the book on Paleo. Been low carb, somewhat paleo for a while. I may add back some forbidden veggies and fruit based on his points.

[OldShooter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Darn, thought it was a hot rod discussion- Dual Carbs, 4 on the floor.

Yeah. I have the same reaction when I see the thread title. I always think "three." As in my three-carb 1962 Austin Healy 3000.

[Cobra9777]

When DW and I were actively trying to lose weight several years ago, she was targeting 30g/day on a doctor-supervised diet, while I was typically around 50. We were both in ketosis and lost a lot of weight very quickly.

Now, to maintain our weight, we target ~100. But honestly, we don't really measure any more. We just don't buy things like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, cereal, beer, and anything with sugar including fresh fruit. But we are now eating beans and dairy more, which we avoided when targeting carbs <50.

We also eat whatever we want on holidays, eating out, or eating at someone's house. But that's probably only 25-30 meals per year (pre-Covid).