no carb diet is FAILURE

Yafai001

The whole "war on carbs" really grinds my gears. Your body NEEDS carbs for energy. They serve a vital function. To cut them out is faddy and not a healthy long-term eating plan. Around 33% of your calorie intake should come from carbs.

I agree with this - except I get around 55-60% of my diet from carbs, and I'm healthy and fit, and trim to boot. Carbs rock, especially for people who do endurance sports.

Most people don't understand that a low-carb and/or a carb free diet is a way of curbing peoples immense appetites through fats, greens and proteins. While fats and greens should be the higher portion of your meal and proteins the lesser, the idea of this is to help drop the weight and start eating in a smaller (but healthier) fashion. As a T2 diabetic, "Keto" has helped me immensely with my weight and maintaining my energy levels. Your body doesn't "NEED" carbs. It is simply the easiest source of energy. But fruits rock to be fair, hah.

birdiecs

I've found restricting anything too greatly sets me up for a backlash. Settled in at around 100gm of carbs a day and thas been working for me.

jml_25

instead you should try a natural low carb diet. Where you include a couple of whole grains and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. I think that it is the refined carbs that get us.

skydiveD30571

Carbs are essential to the human body. We don't produce them and our body needs them.

Carbs are a nonessential nutrient. Glucose can be produced via gluconeogenesis from amino acids (protein). Essential nutrients are fats and protein.

Fats, protein, electrolytes, carbs, vitamins.

Edit: The body uses carbs to make glucose

carbs are not essential. that said, there is nothing bad about them. they are a ready source of energy and it's probably a good idea to eat some amount of carbs throughout the day if you don't have any medical condition that warrants excluding them.

Yes carbs are essential. There's no time for me right now to debate this. But it was nice listening to your guy's opinions.

You can insist on this all you want but it is incorrect. Feel free to google essential nutrients. The facts are pretty easy to find. An essential nutrient is one that cannot be sythesized by your body. As has been mentioned, glucose can be sythesized from amino acids.

This is from Lyle McDonald and is on his website bodyrecomposition.com. He tends to know his stuff:

"Remember from the last chapter what the two requirements of an essential nutrient are

■That nutrient is required for the proper function of the body.
■The body can’t make that nutrient in sufficient quantities.

The second criterion is the reason that dietary carbohydrate is not an essential nutrient: the body is able to make as much glucose as the brain and the few other tissues need on a day-to-day basis. I should mention that the body is not able to provide sufficient carbohydrate to fuel high intensity exercise such as sprinting or weight training and carbs might be considered essential for individuals who want to do that type of exercise.

So how is the glucose made? The answer is a biochemical process with the unwieldy name of gluconeogenesis, which simply means the making of new glucose. This process primarily occurs in the liver. When necessary, the body can make glucose out of a number of other substances including glycerol (which comes from fat metabolism), lactate and pyruvate (which comes from carbohydrate metabolism), and certain amino acids (from protein).

Which brings me back around to the topic of protein as a fuel source for the body. Readers may have read that “carbohydrates spare protein” and this is part of the basis for that claim: when carbohydrates are being eaten in sufficient quantities, the body has no need to break down protein for fuel. By extension, when carbohydrates are being restricted for whatever reason, some proportion of protein will be used to make glucose, leaving less to be used for building blocks. This has an important implication for dieting, namely that protein requirements go up when you’re restricting either calories or carbohydrates."

pandia17

I think it's harder to cut carbs out of your diet than most people think! I used to think, "Oh, I 'll give up bagels, and rice and popcorn." but then I'd eat fruits and veggies with carbs in them! No clue. I think it's best to stick with foods that have good carbs in them and stay away from white flour items and processed crap. I eat quinoa, whole wheat cous cous, whole wheat tortilas, etc. and limit those items so I'm not overloading on them. Otherwise I stick to proteins and veggies and fruits as much as possible. Is it a perfect diet? Lord, no! I still eat stuff I probably shouldn't, but tracking everything on here makes me face what I am putting in my mouth. And some things that I thought were OK are definitely not. Ha. Kinda makes you rethink certain foods.

This is a trial and error process - you live and you learn! Good luck!