Curious about carbs..

justjenny
justjenny Posts: 529 Member
I try to stay around 60g for a low carb day, and 130g on a high carb day. Just got me wondering. What are you carb goals?

Replies

  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
    Under 100 for a low carb day (I'm usually under 80), and 150-200 or so on a high carb day... sometimes higher.. but not often
  • Blingslinger
    Blingslinger Posts: 12 Member
    I do the same as Babe :)
  • Circapaleo
    Circapaleo Posts: 114
    I've only been on this plan for about 1.5 weeks, so I'm not in a position to be giving advice or anything, but you did get me curious about what my macros were in comparison to others.

    HC day: 1500 cal, 208g carbs, 46g fat, 87g protein
    LC day: 1200 cal, 60g carbs, 82g fat, 85g protein

    I was doing an english muffin at breakfast on LC days, but I was thinking that it was making my carbs for the day too high, and a couple of hours after breakfast on LC day was the only time I was really getting hungry (I do get a little hungry right before bed, but it is pretty mild) so I cut out the english muffin and added more fat and that seems to have fixed the hunger issue so it has lowered my carbs on LC days.
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
    I've only been on this plan for about 1.5 weeks, so I'm not in a position to be giving advice or anything, but you did get me curious about what my macros were in comparison to others.

    HC day: 1500 cal, 208g carbs, 46g fat, 87g protein
    LC day: 1200 cal, 60g carbs, 82g fat, 85g protein

    I was doing an english muffin at breakfast on LC days, but I was thinking that it was making my carbs for the day too high, and a couple of hours after breakfast on LC day was the only time I was really getting hungry (I do get a little hungry right before bed, but it is pretty mild) so I cut out the english muffin and added more fat and that seems to have fixed the hunger issue so it has lowered my carbs on LC days.

    Glad to see that you found what works for you! Chris wants us to have a HC breakfast every morning because it helps "stoke the fire" to get you up and moving in the morning. So, if you want to try going back to a HC breakfast, perhaps try fruit instead of a bread product... and maybe add some veggies in an omlette or egg scramble (and eat between 15-20g of protein at this meal)... if you do all that, you might just find that the hunger issue is fixed.. or maybe not. Do what works for you! :)

    I had/have the same issues after breakfast. With my HC breakfast shake, I find myself hungry in only 2 hours or so instead of 3... so I simply have my morning snack at the 2 hour mark when I need to, and call it good. I also found that for me, I needed more protein and less fat to keep me full. I generally stick between 100-120g of protein a day... sometimes more, but almost always above 100g. Since doing that, I've found two things. 1) I'm rarely hungry during the day. A major plus I think. 2) My nails have never been stronger. I can actually grow out nice long beautiful nails, and they rarely break anymore.

    -sarah
  • Circapaleo
    Circapaleo Posts: 114
    Thanks for the info, Sara. :) I've only been at this just under 2 weeks, so I'm not sure that I have exactly what works for me nailed down. I'm still doing a little experimenting. I decided to try adding back the carbs at breakfast and increase my protein for the day...so today is 183 g carbs and 110 g protein. My fingernails and toenails break and peel all the time so maybe I'm needing a little extra protein.
  • I wonder why Powell does not prescrive specific targets for Carbs/proteins/fats in his book? -
    the hand measuring measuring system he shows seems inprecise and error prone.

    I took a sample Powell meal plan i found on a Dr Oz site and calculated all macronutrients and computed the following

    HC Days: 49% Carb, 43% Pro 8% fat (% of daily calories where carb/protein are 4 cals/gr, fat is 9 cal/gr)
    LC Days: 23% Carb, 41% Pro 16% fat

    This was just for the sample meal plan given, but its probably close to what he would recommend for all meal plans. Looks like he recommends protein should be the same % of cals for both LC and HC days.

    So for Carbs:
    1200 cal day LC=70gr
    1500 cal day LC=86gr HC=184gr
    2000 cal day HC=245gr
  • babeinthemoon
    babeinthemoon Posts: 471 Member
    To defend the hand measuring system... Anyone can do it. You don't need any special equipment... and bigger people with bigger hands will eat more than smaller people with smaller hands. In my humble opinion, it makes sense to me.

    Thanks for doing the math LexLuther61! By using my "hand sizes" as a guide, (and then weighing/measuring before loging) I found that on a Low carb day I'm under 80g (with 1200 calories) and a High carb day I'm usually around 150-200g (with 1500 calories)... so I guess I'm on track!
  • justjenny
    justjenny Posts: 529 Member
    I wonder why Powell does not prescrive specific targets for Carbs/proteins/fats in his book? -
    the hand measuring measuring system he shows seems inprecise and error prone.

    I took a sample Powell meal plan i found on a Dr Oz site and calculated all macronutrients and computed the following

    HC Days: 49% Carb, 43% Pro 8% fat (% of daily calories where carb/protein are 4 cals/gr, fat is 9 cal/gr)
    LC Days: 23% Carb, 41% Pro 16% fat

    This was just for the sample meal plan given, but its probably close to what he would recommend for all meal plans. Looks like he recommends protein should be the same % of cals for both LC and HC days.

    So for Carbs:
    1200 cal day LC=70gr
    1500 cal day LC=86gr HC=184gr
    2000 cal day HC=245gr



    Thanks for this! It's very helpful! :smile: