Do I really need as many carbs as it says?

OliveCarsey
OliveCarsey Posts: 78
in Food and Nutrition
The report thing says I need around 350 carbs per day- after eating 2 piece of 8 grain bread for lunch (I skipped breakfast) and quinoa for dinner it says I have only eaten like 70 of those carbs. Is it going to be bad for me if i don't actually eat as many carbs as it says I should? I plan to have some watermelon and maybe some airpopped popcorn tonight as a snack but don't think I can get anywhere near the 350 per day. Thanks

Replies

  • hastinbe
    hastinbe Posts: 130 Member
    According to the ADA and IoM the brain requires roughly 130mg of carbs (glucose) a day for normal functionality. Likewise they suggest 45-65% of your calories come from carbohydrates. Of course you will want to make sure you are not going over your sugar intake when trying to meet your carb goal.
  • OliveCarsey
    OliveCarsey Posts: 78
    Thank You that is a much better number and I am sure I can do that every day- I'm not usually a big carb eater.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    MFP uses the SAD, very sad, Standard American Diet recommendations - you can drop the carbs as low as you want, most people trade them down for more protein - use custom goals to set your protein to 30-35%, fat to 25 or more and carbs the balance.
  • Alohathin
    Alohathin Posts: 360 Member
    You have to remember that not all carbs are bad. It is not so much how many carbs, but what kind of carbs. There are carbs in fruits and veggies, and you should be eating a lot of most of those. Whole grain rice, potatoes (without the mega toppings), oatmeal, beans, plain greek yogurt are all fine to eat. If you want to sweeten your tea or yogurt, you can use a little raw honey or REAL maple syrup. You should especially be avoiding refined sugar, and high fructose corn syrup.

    I personally try to avoid bread, as well, but there are some that are not too bad.
  • ronnio_ron
    ronnio_ron Posts: 61
    Just to help - have you ever read about Keto or Cyclic Keto diets...well they are largely based on fact that low carb high protein high fat foods, can be really good for weight loss...

    and yes its very much proven that it can be miraculous, so what i will suggest is to personally moderate your goal charts to go on a low carb diet (say around 100-150g per day, rather than decrease it to 2 digits or maintain it at 350...

    350 sounds very high to me, but I will suggest you aim at 40% macro coming from carbs or less...and drink lotsa water to help....

    Do try read a bit more or carbs vs other macro nutrients on MFP, they are really good to read and well worth understanding...on how our body functions with out w/o them.
  • dhakiyya
    dhakiyya Posts: 481 Member
    Don't believe anyone who says that everyone needs x amount of carbs daily. How many carbs you need depends on how much exercise you do, and also some medical conditions mean you should be very careful not to eat too many carbs. Also what kinds of carbs you eat is important.

    If you run marathons you need a lot of carbs. If you are sendentary you don't need very many at all.

    I'm currently aiming for 35% protein 35% carbs 30% fat. It's not good for me to eat too many carbs, but at the same time I can't function on too few either. I eat carbs for breakfast, before and after exercise, and try to limit them at other times, and I'm trying to get more of them through fruit and less through starchy carbs (other than weetabix for breakfast) - sometimes you have to see how your body is in terms of carb tolerance and see what levels of carbs you function best on.

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