For Low Carb Dieters, how many carbs should I be consuming?

I've been on Atkins for a while now since I have PCOS. I consume 20 grams of net carbs a day. (Net carbs is Carbs minus dietary fiber). They have good Atkins shakes that you can buy that have 15 grams of protein and only 2 grams of net carbs.

Are you doing a structured plan such as Atkins or South Beach? Or, are you doing a less structured plan, such as Paleo or Primal?

I ask this because with South Beach and Atkins you are going to start out at 20 grams of carbs and then add foods in according to phase.............

Paleo and Primal you just kind of eat fat, protein and vegetables, minimize the fruit intake while losing weight.

Atkins you learn the level of carbs at which YOU will lose weight, maintain weight or begin to gain weight. It is as tedious as counting calories to me.

I did Atkins back in 2003, lost 100 pounds and kept it off until 2008 when I was in a near fatal car accident, so low carbing does work.

There are 4 phases of the Atkins diet.

1. Induction: 20 grams of Net Carbs a day for a minimum of two weeks.

2. Ongoing Weight Loss: Week by week, you add back nutrient-rich carbs (more veggies, cheese, berries, nuts, seeds, etc.). You do this by adding just 5 grams of Net Carbs per day in weekly increments until weight loss ceases. So you go from 20 to 25 grams per day one week, then to 30 grams daily the next week, and so forth. Once you stop losing weight, drop back 5 grams and you've discovered the amount of carbs you can eat while still losing weight. For most people, that amount is between 40 and 60 grams daily. Continue until you are within 5 to 10 pounds of your goal weight.

3. Pre-Maintenance: Slow your weight loss to an almost imperceptible rate so that your good eating habits become ingrained. Each week, you'll now add another 10 grams of daily Net Carbs to your program - so long as you continue to lose. If your weight loss stops, cut back 5 or 10 grams until you resume gradual weight loss. This is your revised level for carb consumption, at which you will continue until you reach your target weight.

4. Lifetime Maintenance: You've achieved your goal weight and can start enjoying an even wider range of nutrient-rich foods. Most people find that they can maintain their weight by consuming somewhere between 45 and 100 grams of Net Carbs a day. Someone who is fit and exercises an hour or more daily may be able to go even higher.

Net Carbs = total carbohydrate content minus the fiber content (along with glycerine and sugar alcohols found in some reduced carb foods).

I suggest you buy a low carb book such as Atkins diet or South Beach diet.

Edit: You can customize your macro %'s (and thereby your daily grams) by going to My Home>>Goals>>Change Goals>>Custom. Save your changes.

Personally I think the less carbs you eat the better. I'm not a fan of the Atkins approach because, like calorie counting, it requires counting! My approach is to severely limit carbs except to eat healthy carbs (usually fruit) for a post-workout recovery and occasionally throw more of them in small doses just because I like them. I know that almost everything I eat has at least a small amount of carbs (nuts for example are extremely healthy, but its very easy for the carbs to add up on these). So I expect to get a lot of hidden carbs and account for that informally. This approach seems to work pretty well for me.

Remember that you are going to replace the carbs with something. Add some oils and fats.

I used the Dukan diet successfully and I recommend it. It's similar to Atkins but promotes low fat as well as low carb. Rather than counting carbs there is a list of allowed foods for each stage, this makes it fairly easy to follow.

Now I don't follow any specific diet, I have a routine of meals that I eat, based on what I like and easily available and is kind of cross between Dukan and Paleo - I avoid all processed food, no bread, pastries, pasta, no added sugar, and I avoid high fat food (eg no cheese or butter) and added fat (oil etc).