I need to increase my carb intake without massively boosting my sugar intake, any advice?

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Wicked2009
Wicked2009 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been tracking my food for just over a month now and one think i am always heavily below my daily allowance of is my Carbs, I am not doing to bad sugar wise and am eating fruit and veg but I don't know how to incorporate more carbs without going over my daily allowance for sugar intake? Any food suggestions?
Many thanks
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  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,129 Member
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    First of all, it's not bad to be under your carb goal, unless you're feeling ill effects like low energy levels.

    Secondly, if you still feel the need to increase carbs, some ideas: bread, potatoes, rice, pasta...
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,715 Member
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    legumes: lentils, black beans, peas, Canelli beans, etc., sprouted grains, sweet potatoes, fruit, carrots, vegetables, steel cut oats or old-fashioned oats, buckwheat groats, yucca, plantains, winter squash, wild rice, quinoa, fava beans, adzuki beans, barley, freekeh, Kamut, corn
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,198 Member
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    Good suggestions above. Also, if you eat dairy, some dairy foods have meaningful carb content - yogurt, fluid milk, kefir. Lowfat or nonfat ones will concentrate the carbs vs. full-fat. Cheese won't have much carbohydrate, typically.
  • BrightEyedAgain
    BrightEyedAgain Posts: 243 Member
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    Unless there's a specific reason why you feel you need to increase the carbs, I wouldn't worry about it. MFP really overestimates the carbs IMHO, and I've never followed their ratio. Instead I focus on getting 100g protein and then divide the rest of my calories between fats and carbs. It works out to roughly thirds of each macro. We're all different, and there's no perfect ratio that fits everyone. So if you're eating good carbs and you're doing well with your results, I say don't stress about not hitting MFP's numbers.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    It's added sugar that organizations like the World Health Organization is concerned about. (They call it free sugar.)

    In the US, manufacturers were only required to put added sugar on labels a few years ago, so MFP still only tracks total sugar.

    If your sugar is mostly coming from naturally occurring sugar, don't worry about it :smile:

    https://www.who.int/news/item/04-03-2015-who-calls-on-countries-to-reduce-sugars-intake-among-adults-and-children

    "...The WHO guideline does not refer to the sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sugars naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of adverse effects of consuming these sugars."
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Wicked2009 wrote: »
    I have been tracking my food for just over a month now and one think i am always heavily below my daily allowance of is my Carbs, I am not doing to bad sugar wise and am eating fruit and veg but I don't know how to incorporate more carbs without going over my daily allowance for sugar intake? Any food suggestions?
    Many thanks

    There's nothing "magic" about MFP's default macro settings. Nothing is going to happen if you don't increase carbs to hit your carb target. Mine is 250 grams per day and I don't come anywhere near that. Your macro targets in general don't really matter too much, at least where weight management is concerned.

    If you want to increase your carbs you'd be looking at things like oats, pasta, rice, bread, and other grains, potatoes and root vegetables, legumes, lentils, etc.

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