Count Calories AND Carbs?

mitts1970

Hi All -

Need some advice and guidance! My doctor told me yesterday that I need to make some serious changes in my life in order for me to look - and most importantly - feel better. I thought I was doing better by counting calories and eating better in general, but apparently I need to do more... Among several other things, she told me I need to cut my carbs...

So now what do I do? Do I count carbs instead of calories? Do I count both carbs AND calories? What are good carbs? Should I do Atkins or South Beach? Are there still concerns about high fat and heart problems with those diets? Can I do a modified version of either? I'm so confused - I don't know what I should eat anymore!!! Counting calories is EASY compared to what I'm facing now

The bottom line is that I know what she's telling me is right and I need to do it - just need some help getting there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks MFP!

April
mitts1970

Amaris1973

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/carbohydrates-full-story/

If you want to go the lower carb route, try to include some fruits, vegetables, and whole grain carbohydrates every day. They contain a host of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are essential for good health and that you can't get out of a supplement bottle. And do your heart a favor by choosing healthy fats and proteins to go along with those healthy carbohydrates: A 20-year prospective study of 82,802 women looked at the relationship between lower carbohydrate diets and heart disease; a subsequent study looked at lower carbohydrate diets and risk of diabetes. Women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in vegetable sources of fat or protein had a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease (7) and a modestly lower risk of type 2 diabetes, (19) compared to women who ate high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets. But women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in animal fats or proteins did not have a reduced risk of heart disease or diabetes.(7, 19)

Adding Good Carbohydrates
For optimal health, get your grains intact from foods such as whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole grain pasta, and other possibly unfamiliar grains like quinoa, whole oats, and bulgur. Not only will these foods help protect you against a range of chronic diseases, they can also please your palate and your eyes.

Until recently, you could only get whole-grain products in organic or non-traditional stores. Today they are popping up in more and more mainstream grocery stores. Here are some suggestions for adding more good carbohydrates to your diet:




•Start the day with whole grains. If you're partial to hot cereals, try old-fashioned or steel-cut oats. If you're a cold cereal person, look for one that lists whole wheat, whole oats, or other whole grain first on the ingredient list.

•Use whole grain breads for lunch or snacks. Check the label to make sure that whole wheat or another whole grain is the first ingredient listed.

•Bag the potatoes. Instead, try brown rice or even "newer" grains like bulgur, wheat berries, millet, or hulled barley with your dinner.

•Pick up some whole wheat pasta. If the whole grain products are too chewy for you, look for those that are made with half whole-wheat flour and half white flour.

•Bring on the beans. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as a great source of protein.

erickirb

count it all this site does it all for you. If you have a carb number of grams per day you are supposed to eat, you can manually change your carb goal on MFP to align with that.

NYCDutchess

Ok, so simply put. I was having some health issues including always being over tired and having gall bladder pain. What I do is, I count calories and I don't eat any white carbs and I don't really eat "carbs" with my meals. Now that being said, there are carbs in fruits, veggies etc. I don't even count those. I just eat sooo much more healthy. Take a look at my diet journal and you see what I mean. Now by NO MEANS am I an expert or preaching, but it's been really easy to just cut MOST of the bad carbs out. I feel different, more energy and I've slimmed my waist line about an inch in 10 days!!!! If you want to friend request me, we can track eachother.

It sounds soooo much harder than it actually is. Good Luck!

ETA: I'm sure the advice above is excellent, I'm just really lazy and busy so this is what I do.

mitts1970

Thank you all so far - this is GREAT information and just what I need to get going Knew I could count on the MFP community!

Cloud_Dancer

Ok. Here is my advice, babe. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a specialist, so just take this into thought, but don't let it hold any weight.

On this site, it gives you a daily allowance of what you are suppose to have, for calories, fat, carbs, sugar, fiber, ect ect.. I would think that if you used that to track your carbs, you would probably always be ok. You can't NOT eat carbs, but you shouldn't go overboard either. Just like with sodium (which you can also track) So, my advice is, keep track of all of it. If you are thinking about eating a certain food for lunch, put it into the system (load into your dairy).. see how that affects your numbers. If it is way too high, and would hurt you for the day, then try something else that sounds good to you. Then when you get to the end of the day, you know how many you are allowed left and can manage dinner that way. I know it is a pain to have to plan out your meals like that, but after awhile it will become habit. You will learn which foods have less carbs, calories, sodium, without looking it up. It will become second nature to eat healthier. In my opinion a lot of diets fail, and aren't healthy, because they don't allow you a healthy allowance of everything. They stick to one or two certain things to cut out or cut down, but not pay a lot of attention to everything else. For example, WW (I used to do WW, but I don't know if I am remembering correctly, so don't hold me to this) doesn't count or draw attention to sodium. So what happens if you are eating low calories, but still eating high levels of sodium? (An example is soup.. WW counts some soups as 0-1 point, yet on average has around 800 sodium)

Don't be hard on yourself. Take one day at a time. You are NOT going to get it all straight overnight. It will take time to adjust your habits and to learn foods. But keep an eye out for it all. Your body needs a little bit of everything, right? So give it what it needs, and nothing more! GOOD LUCK!! >hug<

PS: DRINK LOTS OF WATER!!

SueInAz

I don't want to quote the whole thing, but Amaris1973 had a great article there! I am personally on a low carb plan, myself.

Use the goals setting option to lower your daily carb goal to whatever your doctor gave you (if he did). Then make sure the protein and fat balance is right for you. Since more of your calories will be coming from fat and protein, make sure you are eating lean proteins, lean beef cuts, chicken, seafood, etc. in addition to lots of good carbs (whole grains, brown rice...) Don't buy white bread, white rice and stay away from processed snacks and, of course, sugar.

Try to get at least 12-15 grams of your carb allotment each day from green veggies. You don't really need to try to track this but think broccoli, green beans, cucumbers, celery, spinach, darker lettuce leafs, cabbage, etc. instead of vegetables like corn or iceberg lettuce. The darker veggies are low in carbs and higher in nutrients. For fats, look at adding some nuts to your diet and use olive oil instead of regular vegetable oil.

Most of this is pretty much common sense and you don't really need to make it too difficult on yourself. MFP will help you track it all, you just have to play with the settings a bit. And good luck!

mitts1970

Thanks Sue - great advice! And Lillie - I love your "books" and knew I could count on you for good advice and encouragement - you're the best!!!