Sneaky Carbs and Meal Nutrition Questions

TabithaQuinn

As I’m paying more attention to things like macros and the little details behind my calories, I’m learning a lot, making good progress, but also developing questions.

Q1. Do carbs from vegetables still count as “bad carbs”? Like I munched on some carrots the other day and was proud of myself for choosing a healthy snack, and then I realized that I had accidentally snagged 12g of carbs in the process, which put my slightly over my goal for the day.

Q2. How do you determine serving size and nutritional information for a homemade meal? I’m trying to figure out how I would log the chili I made last night. Normally my meals are just a few simple and easily portioned ingredients, but this is different I think. Should I still just log each ingredient individually? I’m willing to do it because I want to keep myself honest, but I didn’t know if there was a more efficient technique.


Thanks everyone!

1thankful_momma

Q1: a carb is not always a carb, unless that is how you track it. This is the debate on net carbs vrs total carbs. I go by net( total carb - fiber). Others go by total.
Veggies will have other nutrition that the same carb count of smarties will not give you. (Not to mention the other slew of reasons to not have straight sugar) So you should also consider that aspect in picking what foods fill you daily carb count.
Q2: MFP has a 'my recipe' section that you enter your recipes into that will add up the data and then you add that as part of your diary

Violet_Flux

For Q2, I use the MFP recipe function, put in all the ingredients for the whole batch and tell it how many 'servings' I expect to get out of the batch. Eg. I make my own low-carb BBQ sauce, and I figure to get 6 servings out of a batch. Put in all the ingredients, tell it to divide by 6, and then when I log it, if I had less or more than 1/6th of the total, I'd say 0.75 servings or 1.25 servings or whatever. This way your calories and macros are 'pretty close' or 'close enough' with homemade stuff. IMHO.

For Q1, I would strongly suggest that no, all carbs are not created equal. And IMHO you are far better off to get some extra carbs from a handful of carrots than from a bag of chips or a candybar. Edited to add: if you're strictly counting then I'd still count the carbs from the carrots, but I would not stress over them. I routinely eat sweet onion and sweet bell pepper, which some folk think are 'too carby'.

As always, your mileage may vary.

Cadori

1 - I use net carbs and subtract fiber from veggies. I think a snack of carrots with 12g carbs is a totally different thing than a snack of m&ms with 12grams carbs. I don't eat a ton of carrots just because they're on the sweeter side, but don't think there's anything wrong with them.

tcunbeliever

1 - I go by total carbs, not net carbs, but I'm just low carb, not keto, so 12g wouldn't be a big deal for me anyway

2 - if it's something I'm going to cook again I make a recipe, if not then I just add the ingredients individually

TabithaQuinn

Thank you everyone for all of your help! This is good information. I'm going to sit down with the recipe section and see what I can come up with, I'm interested to see what my chili came out to because it's something that the family requests pretty often.

I've been kind of leaning towards keto so I think I'll total everything up at the end of each day for a week or two and see what my carb count is total and compare to what it is minus the fiber.

Thanks everyone!

JohnnyLowCarb

I go total carbs & if you are seeking Ketosis then you need to watch the total carb count whether they come from Vegetables, Nuts, Fruits (ie. Avocados). So carrots in small amounts to reach your macros.

Serving sizes will be determined by your total calorie goal and macros and by meals (some here only eat 2 meals a day others 3, some 1) so it all depends on your settings.

nvmomketo

IMO, the only bad carbs are refined carbs: sugar and flours. I don't think those are fine for anybody. Many can get away with eating it but I think it's a crapshoot.

For people with metabolic issues, starchy carbs and high GI fruits are not in our best interests. For those who handle carbs fine, I think those are fine.

Bad carbs are bad because they hurt our health, IMO. If it doesn't hurt your health, it is fine... Carrots and other veggies are not inherently bad at all. I'd eat more of them if they agreed with me better and did not affect my health and cravings.

When I make keto chilli, I lean towards more meat and celery and fewer beans. Keeps it lower carb. Right now I am trying the meativore May challenge and just make a small, meat only batch for myself. Yummy.

Sunny_Bunny_

If you're reaching for carrots for a treat, I wouldn't be too worried about it. Sure, they're higher in carbs from sugar but if you aren't binge eating carrots to the detriment of progress toward your goals, I think you can go ahead and include in whatever quantity and frequency fits within your goals.
If managing blood sugar or maintaining a medically therapeutic keto diet is your goal, carrots might not have much of a place, but fit weight loss, you can probably make it work.

lemurcat12

I'm new, but here are my current ideas:

TabithaQuinn wrote: »

Q1. Do carbs from vegetables still count as “bad carbs”? Like I munched on some carrots the other day and was proud of myself for choosing a healthy snack, and then I realized that I had accidentally snagged 12g of carbs in the process, which put my slightly over my goal for the day.

For the purpose of keto (not sure if you are aiming for ketosis), there are no bad and good carbs other than if you are in the US where fiber is a carb, it doesn't really count as a carb for the purposes of trying to get into keto.

Otherwise, a carb is a carb, BUT some foods with carbs are nutritious, so even on low carbs are good to have in your diet for nutritional reasons and those are vegetables and, if you like them (as I do) nuts, plus to some degree fruit if it fits (berries, for example).

If you have more carbs, I'd similarly focus mostly on the nutrient dense ones, but you can fit in more, including more fruit and legumes.

Another positive about vegetables is that their net carbs are pretty low (even carrots, although they aren't as low as, say, asparagus).

(I will note that I don't consider legumes, potatoes, or sweet potatoes bad carbs at all, they are just foods I don't currently have much room for in my macros.)

Q2. How do you determine serving size and nutritional information for a homemade meal? I’m trying to figure out how I would log the chili I made last night. Normally my meals are just a few simple and easily portioned ingredients, but this is different I think. Should I still just log each ingredient individually? I’m willing to do it because I want to keep myself honest, but I didn’t know if there was a more efficient technique.

If I'm eating it all or splitting it in an easy to portion way, I log the ingredients (based on the percentage I ate -- i.e., 100 grams of cauliflower if I ate half would become 50 g). If not, I make a recipe, but for me that's reasonably rare because I think it's easier to list and log the ingredients. I note them down when cooking.

It becomes efficient once all the ingredients you commonly use are in your recent or frequent foods.

TabithaQuinn

Thanks again, even more good info. I'm going to keep my carrots, just maybe less of them. I make veggie juices and use lots of carrots in them, I think I need to seek new recipes then...hmmm...questions for a juicing forum.

I'm finding that a lot of the veggies I prefer, carrots, peas, the cucumber I just ate, have higher carb content. I'm not going to stop eating them, but I'm thinking keto might be out of reach. I think keeping carbs under 50g a day is doable, but under 20g seems impossible with the kinds of veggies I like.