Is limiting carbs bad for you?
ambetts98
Posts: 3 Member
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
0
Replies
-
What matters is a calorie deficit, however you choose to achieve that. Just be aware that if you are low carb, and then splurge on carbs or resume a normal diet, you will have a jump in weight as your body restores it's normal water levels.0
-
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
There is no required level of carbohydrates, eat as little as you like.
0 -
If you can be low-carb and not hate the diet, sure, you can do it. You don't need to, but you can. If you have insulin resistance / diabetes / etc. it might be beneficial to do so.
If you have no problems with insulin and get cravings that make your diet unbearable, then don't bother with it.
Your body absolutely must have protein, and it needs a certain amount of fat, but it doesn't need any particular level of carbohydrates - unlike protein and fat which serve more than one purpose in the body, carbohydrates are basically nothing but an energy source. I don't personally restrict them, but it's not harmful to do so.0 -
You need to have protein and fat.0
-
There is no minimum level of carb intake. My daily carbs are a good 100-120g less than yours. Going low carb is safe.
People do tend to need more salt when carbs are cut because they lose water. If you feel weak or fatigued, increased salt my help.0 -
There is no minimum level of carb intake. My daily carbs are a good 100-120g less than yours. Going low carb is safe.
People do tend to need more salt when carbs are cut because they lose water. If you feel weak or fatigued, increased salt my help.
I average about 50-100 carbs a day. I didn't know about the salt thing. I will have to try that. thanks for the tip!
0 -
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
The RDA for carbs is 130 grams. Therefore you are fine also from a conventional point of view.
0 -
No - keep it below 100.0
-
As others said, there is nothing wrong with limiting carbohydrates. For me personally, I like to keep them at 200g+.. any less and my lifts start to suffer as well as my energy levels. Also, when my carbs are too low, I tend to feel too full and actually not eat enough. Everyone is different, so it is good to experiment with different macro ratios to see where you feel the best.0
-
For me I am trying to cut out the naughty carbs I.e. Bread, pasta, potato and replace them with better ones! That's the way to go and you still have a lot of energy!0
-
"But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake?" - not according to many people who say they feel great and run marathons on very low carb/high fat diets. There are also many people who feel wretched on such diets. Check out Freelee (aka bananagirl) on youtube who is the opposite extreme, eating pretty much only raw fruit.
If it's working for you then stick with it, good luck!0 -
jaywirth88 wrote: »There is no minimum level of carb intake. My daily carbs are a good 100-120g less than yours. Going low carb is safe.
People do tend to need more salt when carbs are cut because they lose water. If you feel weak or fatigued, increased salt my help.
I average about 50-100 carbs a day. I didn't know about the salt thing. I will have to try that. thanks for the tip!
At about 50g of carbs per day, higher if you are quite active or lower if you have insulin resistance, you will enter ketosis (fat burning rather than glucose ) and you may get fatigued, headaches, ill from loss of electrolytes and adjusting to fat oxidation. 3000-5000 mg of sodium per day will fix that. I add salt to water and drink broth to make up for that.
I mention that because at the carb level you are at you ay be going in and out of ketosis, which won't feel great. Any find it easier to stay at less than 50g or above 100 g. That 50-100 g range is range many low carbers avoid, but if you feel good there, then keep at it.
Best wishes.0 -
-
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
It depends on the context, certainly restricting carb intake has been shown to negatively impact mood scores, cognition etc. Besides the research on this, the anecdotal evidence showing negative effects on cognition, reading comprehension, simple logic, mood scores is vast.
0 -
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
It depends on the context, certainly restricting carb intake has been shown to negatively impact mood scores, cognition etc. Besides the research on this, the anecdotal evidence showing negative effects on cognition, reading comprehension, simple logic, mood scores is vast.
This seems to happen in the first week or two mainly in those who do not up their electrolytes when going into ketosis. Otherwise, cognitive abilities often improve on a LCHF diet.
My n=1 showed an improved mental ability to the point where my husband actually noticed.... In hindsight, it is a bit disturbing to know how my inappropriate diet was affecting me.0 -
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
At first I had a problem craving them. When I learned carbs are not a required source of food to have total health it is was a game changer for me. We still need calories so I wound up replacing all but 50 grams of carbs daily with fats to fill the gap. I can not go too high on protein because about half of protein can wind up functioning as carbs after eaten. Eating a lot of fats is key to me losing fat at this time in life.0 -
It's interesting that there are so many polar opposite views on this.
Tim Noakes, a well-respected sports and exercise professor describes low-carb and the state of ketosis as being the 'natural' and more healthy state for the human body.
John McDougall, a well-respected physician describes the low-carb ketosis state as an 'illness', and recommends a high carb vegan diet.
My take-away from this is that the human body is an amazing machine that can thrive on all kinds of diets. The best thing is to find what's most comfortable for you.0 -
hamlet1222 wrote: »
John McDougall, a well-respected physician describes the low-carb ketosis state as an 'illness', and recommends a high carb vegan diet.
An illness? He must think that most people become ill at night when the stop eating for 12 hours or so and enter mild ketosis.
Ketones are just another energy source that promote better health in some people. For healthy people, it is jus another option.0 -
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
It depends on the context, certainly restricting carb intake has been shown to negatively impact mood scores, cognition etc. Besides the research on this, the anecdotal evidence showing negative effects on cognition, reading comprehension, simple logic, mood scores is vast.
This seems to happen in the first week or two mainly in those who do not up their electrolytes when going into ketosis. Otherwise, cognitive abilities often improve on a LCHF diet.
My n=1 showed an improved mental ability to the point where my husband actually noticed.... In hindsight, it is a bit disturbing to know how my inappropriate diet was affecting me.
Longer term studies do show an improvement in cognition in carb restricted dieters, however not as large as an improvement as non carb restricted dieters. Anecdotally there is plenty of evidence suggesting that low carb diets are detrimental to cognitive abilities as well as many others0 -
blankiefinder wrote: »What matters is a calorie deficit, however you choose to achieve that. Just be aware that if you are low carb, and then splurge on carbs or resume a normal diet, you will have a jump in weight as your body restores it's normal water levels.
There is a lot more that matters than just a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is all that matters to pure and simple weight loss. But weight loss can happen in a variety of ways, and not all of them are healthy.
For example, the Atkins diet. That diet says NO carbs, (including the little bit in milk), but you can have all the fat you want. All that fat and protein is supposed to make you fuller longer, which helps you to achieve your calorie deficit. However, you "mortgage your future," as my professor says.
Can you lose weight on the Atkins diet? Yes. Is it contributing to your overall health? Absolutely not. It contributes to heart disease.
Our bodies get energy from three "buckets," if you will. It draws from these sources in order:
1) Glucose in the blood.
2) Glycogen in the liver.
3) Fat in the body.
When we eat carbohydrates, the body breaks that up into glucose, and stores some in the blood. That is your blood sugar. When that "bucket" gets full, the body stores the fuel in the liver in the form of glycogen. When that bucket gets full, the rest is stored as fat.
When you do aerobic exercise, your body first draws energy from the blood, then from the liver, and then from the fat. That is why we are recommended to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise; at that point we are burning more fat than glucose and glycogen.
SO, how does this all relate to the carbohydrates that you eat? Without carbohydrates, your body cannot fill up those first two buckets as their initial source of energy.
It sounds all fine and dandy to have your body's only source of energy to be fat, but that's actually really bad for you. Your body produces ketones when you burn fat, which, when not filtered out properly, lowers the pH of your blood, meaning your blood is more acidic than it's supposed to be. This can lead to a variety of health problems.
Now, I'm not a health professional (yet); I'm just a student. So if any part of that needs tweaking, please correct me! But as far as my knowledge goes, this is correct.0 -
lisaloolovesblue wrote: »blankiefinder wrote: »What matters is a calorie deficit, however you choose to achieve that. Just be aware that if you are low carb, and then splurge on carbs or resume a normal diet, you will have a jump in weight as your body restores it's normal water levels.
There is a lot more that matters than just a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is all that matters to pure and simple weight loss. But weight loss can happen in a variety of ways, and not all of them are healthy.
For example, the Atkins diet. That diet says NO carbs, (including the little bit in milk), but you can have all the fat you want. All that fat and protein is supposed to make you fuller longer, which helps you to achieve your calorie deficit. However, you "mortgage your future," as my professor says.
Can you lose weight on the Atkins diet? Yes. Is it contributing to your overall health? Absolutely not. It contributes to heart disease.
Our bodies get energy from three "buckets," if you will. It draws from these sources in order:
1) Glucose in the blood.
2) Glycogen in the liver.
3) Fat in the body.
When we eat carbohydrates, the body breaks that up into glucose, and stores some in the blood. That is your blood sugar. When that "bucket" gets full, the body stores the fuel in the liver in the form of glycogen. When that bucket gets full, the rest is stored as fat.
When you do aerobic exercise, your body first draws energy from the blood, then from the liver, and then from the fat. That is why we are recommended to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise; at that point we are burning more fat than glucose and glycogen.
SO, how does this all relate to the carbohydrates that you eat? Without carbohydrates, your body cannot fill up those first two buckets as their initial source of energy.
It sounds all fine and dandy to have your body's only source of energy to be fat, but that's actually really bad for you. Your body produces ketones when you burn fat, which, when not filtered out properly, lowers the pH of your blood, meaning your blood is more acidic than it's supposed to be. This can lead to a variety of health problems.
Now, I'm not a health professional (yet); I'm just a student. So if any part of that needs tweaking, please correct me! But as far as my knowledge goes, this is correct.
nice explanation, what I'd be interested to know is what % of energy are coming from each source at any moment in time? My hypothesis is that most of our fat loss occurs in our sleep, as for a few hours after eating we've got enough energy and are even storing surplus as fat - so in a typical day on calorie deficit, your body does still store some fat, it just uses more.0 -
hamlet1222 wrote: »so in a typical day on calorie deficit, your body does still store some fat, it just uses more.
Yeah--focusing on fat burning from specific activities (the fat burning zone or exercising fasted) or based on certain ways of eating seems to me to be pointless. We are always burning and storing fat, the trick is just to make sure you burn more than you store, which happens in a calorie deficit, period.0 -
lisaloolovesblue wrote: »For example, the Atkins diet. That diet says NO carbs, (including the little bit in milk), but you can have all the fat you want.
I don't think no carbs is healthy at all, and I think diets that are enormously high in sat fat aren't good for you, probably (with more evidence against processed meats and deep fat fried foods if they are a significant part of the diet, as well as transfats, of course). However, Atkins isn't recommending that, I don't think, or no carbs. It has a brief very low carb induction period and then different levels, and it does recommend vegetables. (I haven't done it, but I know people who have.)0 -
what puzzles me is where glycogen fits in. Some low-carb diet proponents suggest that it not possible to burn fat until you've depleted your glycogen stores.0
-
I struggled with doing lower carb. I saw faster progress for the little time I did it. But I woke up with headaches every day, was tired all the time, got horrible sleep and consequently negatively affected my workouts and I felt like binging all the time. I decided it wasn't something I could maintain and feel good. I don't feel like I should feel crappy to lose fat. But my hubby did it for several months a few years ago and lost a ton. However he has since found it harder to lose weight. Not sure if it affected him?0
-
hamlet1222 wrote: »what puzzles me is where glycogen fits in. Some low-carb diet proponents suggest that it not possible to burn fat until you've depleted your glycogen stores.
I don't think that's the case, although I'd read the evidence for it. We do lose fat without seeming to be in a state of glycogen depletion all the time, after all.
I'm not sure how reliable it is, but when I did my DEXA I also agreed to some other tests, including some cardio stuff and an RMR test that also claimed to measure how much I was burning fat while at rest. It was something like 50%, even though I don't eat a low carb diet at all.0 -
Take care, @hamlet122 that you don't make the cognitive mistake of thinking that two opposing positions mean that the "truth" is somewhere in the middle, or even that the positions/opinions are equally valid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg
I suspect the answer to your question, hamlet, is complex.
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/265/3/E380.short
To this layman's eyes, it looks like there's a bunch of processes going on all the time, all at once.0 -
hamlet1222 wrote: »what puzzles me is where glycogen fits in. Some low-carb diet proponents suggest that it not possible to burn fat until you've depleted your glycogen stores.
And many low carb proponents are anti science and just make things up like the glycogen claim0 -
Take care, @hamlet122 that you don't make the cognitive mistake of thinking that two opposing positions mean that the "truth" is somewhere in the middle, or even that the positions/opinions are equally valid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuGCJJUGsg
I suspect the answer to your question, hamlet, is complex.
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/265/3/E380.short
To this layman's eyes, it looks like there's a bunch of processes going on all the time, all at once.
great points!0 -
ive been eating about close to 140 grams of carbs a day. Some days I'm under and some days I'm a little over. Is it okay to limit carbs? Some say it's not healthy to do that because your body needs the nutrients. But so far, by eating less carbs/fat and more protein, I've lost body fat. But is it harmful to your body to restrict your carbohydrate intake? I don't think it is. I feel tired a lot but I don't think eating more carbs will give me energy like people think
It depends on the context, certainly restricting carb intake has been shown to negatively impact mood scores, cognition etc. Besides the research on this, the anecdotal evidence showing negative effects on cognition, reading comprehension, simple logic, mood scores is vast.
This seems to happen in the first week or two mainly in those who do not up their electrolytes when going into ketosis. Otherwise, cognitive abilities often improve on a LCHF diet.
My n=1 showed an improved mental ability to the point where my husband actually noticed.... In hindsight, it is a bit disturbing to know how my inappropriate diet was affecting me.
Longer term studies do show an improvement in cognition in carb restricted dieters, however not as large as an improvement as non carb restricted dieters. Anecdotally there is plenty of evidence suggesting that low carb diets are detrimental to cognitive abilities as well as many others
I disagree. The ketogenic diet is now being used to treat dementia and alzheimers. It is beneficial for mental health in all studies and books I have read.
And my n=1 improvements happend with a month of going LCHF. It doesn't take long for improvemnets to happen.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions