Are Carbs Evil?

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Rayanne203
Rayanne203 Posts: 207 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So are they? It's Fall my favorite season full of warm tea under blankets and hearty meals. My sister who happens to be a fitness fanatic who is gluten free and dairy free hardly ever eats any carbs tells me I should eat like that if I want to lose weight.

The thing is...I LOVE CARBS! If I stay under my calorie count for the day shouldn't I be able to eat whole grains and potatoes?
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Replies

  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    No, they're not evil. Not even a little bit. Your sister is wrong.
  • Rayanne203
    Rayanne203 Posts: 207 Member
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    I can't help but always feel guilty for eating them now though lol
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    No, they're not evil. Not even a little bit. Your sister is wrong.

    This. Enjoy your carbs.
  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
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    Yes, carbs are evil! They are a creature from hell! They will ate you from inside like acid and you will melt in your sleep!

    Sorry, couldn't resist. ^^

    No... they are not evil. And no, whether you ate them or not has no actual impact on your weight loss. Low carb diet is nothing but a gimmick. Some people like it and it works for them... great! But it will not give them any better results than those who ate carbs. Neither they are unhealthy.
  • MamaKatel
    MamaKatel Posts: 180
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    I hope not, but lately im starting to think they are :(
    The only time i've ever been able to loose weight successfully was by limiting carbs. For some reason calorie restriction doesn't work for me.
  • ksuh999
    ksuh999 Posts: 543 Member
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    Do you know what Hitler ate?

    Carbs.

    And Hitler was very evil.

    Therefore via the transitive property, carbs are evil.

    QED.
  • randomtai
    randomtai Posts: 9,003 Member
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    I hope not, but lately im starting to think they are :(
    The only time i've ever been able to loose weight successfully was by limiting carbs. For some reason calorie restriction doesn't work for me.

    Calorie restriction works for everyone. Because science.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    I can't help but always feel guilty for eating them now though lol
    Ok, some serious advice. If you really want to be successful at losing and maintaining weight, having a healthy relationship with food is key. Carbs are not bad for you (assuming you don't have a medical condition that genuinely necessitates you reducing carb intake). You shouldn't feel guilt about eating food, ever. (Unless you're eating food that you stole from a small child.)
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
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    They're not evil. However, my high carb intake was getting in the way of my goals. It wasn't until I went keto, that the scale started moving downward again. That's just me though. I still eat carbs, but I keep them under 30(25 if I can help it) and get them from veggies and other more healthier sources.
  • Rai007
    Rai007 Posts: 387 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1107114-are-carbs-bad
  • mommabenefield
    mommabenefield Posts: 1,329 Member
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    photogallery_secrets_to_portion_control_01_full.jpg



    Portion control....


    that is all
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
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    I can't help but always feel guilty for eating them now though lol

    An entire message board feels that your sister is incorrect. Stop feeling guilty. Now go! Eat those carbs within your caloric goals and be happy!
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    I hope not, but lately im starting to think they are :(
    The only time i've ever been able to loose weight successfully was by limiting carbs. For some reason calorie restriction doesn't work for me.

    Special Snowflake Syndrome. You have it.
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
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    I hope not, but lately im starting to think they are :(
    The only time i've ever been able to loose weight successfully was by limiting carbs. For some reason calorie restriction doesn't work for me.

    Special Snowflake Syndrome. You have it.


    YAY! I'm a special snowflake too!!! I've been at this for 3 years, and the only time I've ever seen the scale move down was when I restricted my carbs...it sucks, and it's for a lifetime, but you get used to it.
  • born2drum
    born2drum Posts: 731 Member
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    carb it up.
  • rachelwilliams93
    rachelwilliams93 Posts: 30 Member
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    i love carbs, they give you the energy you need to keep going, unless you have a medical condition to watch them don't bother. problem with going on a low carb/fat diet is that once you lose the weight and go back to eating them it will go back on. unless you have a carb free diet forever but that wouldn't be good, slow and steady wins the race. all about calories
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    yes. your entire body runs on evil. every cell in your body breaks down glucose to get energy. This is called respiration. glucose is a carb. carbs are evil, therefore your entire body runs on evil, every cell in your body is right now breaking down evil in order to get energy. :devil: :flowerforyou:





    please don't feel guilty for eating carbs. Balance your macros, aim for about 40% of your calories to come from carbs, 30% from fat and 30% from protein, and stay within your calorie goals. Carbs are good for you, and too much of anything is bad for you.
  • lilRicki
    lilRicki Posts: 4,555 Member
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    Don't feel guilty for eating carbs? or don't feel guilty for eating 500g of carbs? everything in moderation right? what's the moderate amount of carbs then? To me, 100g of carbs a day IS low carbs...compared to the 400+g I was eating before.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Don't feel guilty for eating carbs? or don't feel guilty for eating 500g of carbs? everything in moderation right? what's the moderate amount of carbs then? To me, 100g of carbs a day IS low carbs...compared to the 400+g I was eating before.
    How about don't feel guilty for eating food. It may be that a particular food is not good for your body, for a variety of reasons, or that certain quantities are not good for you (ie. overeating is not good for you). But guilt? You might feel regret, or think "hmm... I don't feel great eating that, I'll change things", or "I'm not losing weight eating that much food, I need to eat less". There are actions in this world that warrant feeling guilty, and (imo) eating isn't one of them.
  • ZacFields
    ZacFields Posts: 62 Member
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    My view on carbs is this:

    High carbs typically = high calories. If you would typically eat 400g carbs per day, and you go on a low-carb diet that restricts you to 25 carbs, you're significantly reducing your caloric intake, which is how you're losing weight. That's the science behind it. Don't believe me? Calculate both your carbs and calories from a typical day before you started trying to lose weight versus now. You'll find that they're both reduced.

    Where a lot of people are unsuccessful with calorie-based diets is one or both of two things:

    1. They don't accurately measure the calories going in (thus they're eating more calories than they think)
    2. They're over-calculating the additional calories they can eat due to exercise.

    #2 is very common. I've seen two different GPS-based cycling apps come up with calories-burned data more than 300 calories apart for the same 1 hour bike ride.

    I look at carb diets like I look at weight-watchers. If it helps you more to keep track of 25 carbs as opposed to 1,500 calories because it's simpler to keep track of then sure, watch your carbs and you'll lose weight because your calories are lower. If you're already using something like MFP, you'd might as well watch the calories first and keep an eye on your other metrics (vitamins, fat, protein) as a secondary but still important goal.

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