Calories and Carbs

PaulaMartin67

Every night when i fill in my foods for the day i'm always under the amount of calories and carbs. Also is there such a thing as good carbs and bad carbs. They say to eat all the fruit and veggies you can but this brings up the carb count drastically. Anyone care to explain this to me...PLEASE!!!!

JennLifts

If you're under, don't you want it brought up? A bad carb would be the carbs you get from like a candy bar. As in ...bad for you. There's no nutritive value in those carbs. A banana has carbs with nutritive value. You might try preplanning your day so that you can make sure you get everything you need to in.

hpsnickers1

even fruits and veggies have calories. You can gain weight eating too much fruit. I think being under on carbs isn't too bad. And as long as you aren't under 1200 calories NET for more than a few days in a row you are ok.

Good carbs: whole grains, fruits and veggies
Bad carbs: white sugar, white pasta, white bread, cookies, cakes, etc. White potatoes can be very good for you nutritionally. It's what we like to put on them that make them so bad. Potato chips - very bad carb.

I have actually changed my carb/pro/fat ratios over to 40/40/20. To me 15% protein isn't enough, especially if you are doing any strength training. And 55% carbs were just too much for me.

bstamps12

Bad carbs come from things like cookies, potato chips, etc. Good carbs come from fruits, veggies, etc. The easiest way to say it is that you definitely need carbs to give you energy, especially if you work out a lot. As long as you aren't going over, it shouldn't be a problem where carbs are coming from. If you are going over, look at the foods you eat that have a lot of carbs. Was it a bunch of fruits or a huge restaurant size portion of pasta? If it was fruits, you shouldn't worry. If it was pasta and cookies, scale back on those.

JennLifts

even fruits and veggies have calories. You can gain weight eating too much fruit. I think being under on carbs isn't too bad. And as long as you aren't under 1200 calories NET for more than a few days in a row you are ok.

Good carbs: whole grains, fruits and veggies
Bad carbs: white sugar, white pasta, white bread, cookies, cakes, etc.

I have actually changed my carb/pro/fat ratios over to 40/40/20. To me 15% protein isn't enough, especially if you are doing any strength training. And 55% carbs were just too much for me.

I Agree on the protein. But as far as the going under, it really depends on what under is. 100 under ...not good. 15.. who cares.

garett_

Counting carbs from fruit and veggies is not something you should worry about too much. Carbs from bread, pasta, rice, nuts, fast food, and other less healthy foods is something you can consider. There definitely are good and bad carbs. There are three types of carbs: sugar, starch and dietary fiber. Also there are complex (starch) and simple (sugar) carbs.
Good carbs won't cause a drastic raise in blood glucose, whereas bad carbs will. You can pay attention to the glycemic index (GI) for foods that will keep your blood glucose levels 'on the level'.

Food lists of high/low GI:
http://www.myfit.ca/glycemic_index.asp

The fact that you're under your calorie count for the day is good. Don't worry about the calories and carb amounts in your fruit and veggies. Eat more veggies than fruit though, because of the sugars in fruit.

And remember, you need carbs for energy. It is recommended that adults get between 45–65% of dietary energy from carbohydrates. the WHO says you need 55–75% of total energy from carbohydrates, but only 10% directly from sugars (their term for simple carbohydrates).

Here are some resources about carbs, good and bad ones:

Carbs explained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate#Nutrition

http://kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/carb.html

Good/Bad Carbs:

http://www.mamashealth.com/diets/goodcarbs.asp