Carb struggles - any advice

I have a target of no more that 120g carbs per day. Somedays though, this can be a real struggle to keep below, especially if I want to add a little variety to my diet. Any thoughts on low carb meals would be appreciated ☺️

Replies

  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    edited June 2015
    That's 480 calories from carbs. How much room is left for allocation to fat and protein?
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    That should be a pretty easy target to reach. What kinds of meals are you looking for?
  • Cpalmer18
    Cpalmer18 Posts: 8 Member
    I'm on 53g of fat and 160g of protein a day. Generally my carb intake is easily manageable, but today for some reason I ended up being 35g over!!
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    I'm on 53g of fat and 160g of protein a day. Generally my carb intake is easily manageable, but today for some reason I ended up being 35g over!!

    That's really high for protein intake, you do not need that much, and in fact get no added benefit to muscle synthesis from excess protein. I'd trade some of that protein for carbs to help your issue.
  • ACyclingAdmin
    ACyclingAdmin Posts: 444 Member
    AJ_G wrote: »
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    I'm on 53g of fat and 160g of protein a day. Generally my carb intake is easily manageable, but today for some reason I ended up being 35g over!!

    That's really high for protein intake, you do not need that much, and in fact get no added benefit to muscle synthesis from excess protein. I'd trade some of that protein for carbs to help your issue.

    Totally, 1-1.2gm per kilo of body weight is what the average person needs to sustain themselves.

    This is a good article along with some reference material:
    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/maki1.htm
  • mantium999
    mantium999 Posts: 1,490 Member
    AJ_G wrote: »
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    I'm on 53g of fat and 160g of protein a day. Generally my carb intake is easily manageable, but today for some reason I ended up being 35g over!!

    That's really high for protein intake, you do not need that much, and in fact get no added benefit to muscle synthesis from excess protein. I'd trade some of that protein for carbs to help your issue.

    Agree. Set your protein and fat targets first, let the rest fall to carbs. You will get to eat more carbs, problem solved.
  • ACyclingAdmin
    ACyclingAdmin Posts: 444 Member
    edited June 2015
    You aren't so far down on carbs that it could affect your health, but it can affect your levels of fatigue and mental state if you don't spread them out throughout the day. Check out:
    https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/low-carb-diet/art-20045831?pg=2
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Can you open up your diary so I can see what you're eating now?

    One easy thing I do is just have smaller portions of rice or pasta, and up the veggies and protein. I think my serving size of rice used to be one cup - now it's 1/2 C, for 24 grams of carbs. I also eat rice and pasta less often.

    I made 4 Bean Salad yesterday and arbitrarily decided a serving would be 200 grams, which was 37 g of carbs. Today, I decided to try to see if I was satisfied with less, had 150 g for 27 grams of carbs, which was fine. (Plus 87 grams of grilled chicken thighs.)

    I also entirely cut out my afternoon hot chocolate (32 grams of carbs).

    I'm eating smaller servings of bananas. I used throw a whole banana into my smoothies. Now, I cut them up and freeze them and have @ 2 oz in a smoothie - 13 g carbs.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited June 2015
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    I'm on 53g of fat and 160g of protein a day. Generally my carb intake is easily manageable, but today for some reason I ended up being 35g over!!

    Whoa. Why such high protein? I believe the norm for body building is .8 grams per body pound. If that's you in your profile pic, you don't look like you weigh very much.
  • Cpalmer18
    Cpalmer18 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you all for such great advice. I've had an online programme to work out my macro nutrients and that's where I got my daily fat, protein and carbs from. However, it seems wrong or not correct for my body size. Back to the drawing board to work it out again I think
  • ihatetodietalways
    ihatetodietalways Posts: 180 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    One easy thing I do is just have smaller portions of rice or pasta, and up the veggies and protein.

    This is what I do (although my starchy carbs are more likely to be potatoes or sweet potatoes, just due to personal preference).

    When my carbs were lower (they are higher now, but were 100-120 or so when I started) I'd also simply save starchy carbs for one meal, and maybe have some dairy and berries at breakfast as they fit (my main breakfast is a vegetable omelet). If high on carbs or calories I'd simply cut out the starchy course and replace with root veggies like carrots or turnips or celeriac, which basically fill the same role, or some winter squash or maybe just add in an extra veggie course.

    However, that said, I agree with those who say that your protein is probably higher than it needs to be, so if you'd rather have more carbs, that would make sense to me.
  • ibnfaqir
    ibnfaqir Posts: 139 Member
    You only need to do low carb if you very very lean. If you are not a calorie deficit will be fine.
  • ihatetodietalways
    ihatetodietalways Posts: 180 Member
    I don't understand why fat intake is so low. If you increased it, you would be more satiated. On another note, if you want to do some IF in the morning, you don't have to worry about having carbs for breakfast.

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    Thank you all for such great advice. I've had an online programme to work out my macro nutrients and that's where I got my daily fat, protein and carbs from. However, it seems wrong or not correct for my body size. Back to the drawing board to work it out again I think

    You don't really need a program, it's pretty simple for the most part.

    If one of your main goal is maintaining muscle mass while losing weight, or gaining muscle mass while gaining weight, then you want to max out protein utilization for muscle synthesis. To do this set your protein goal to 0.82 grams per pound of body weight. This goal is a minimum and it's important to understand that it's perfectly fine to exceed this goal, just make sure you hit it daily.

    Next set your fat goal to 0.4 grams per pound of body weight. Dietary fat is important for hormone production, absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals, brain and organ function, as well as skin and hair healthy. This goal is also a minimum and it's fine to exceed it as long as you hit your protein minimum and don't exceed your calorie goal.

    Finally allocate remaining calories to carbs. Your carb goal is the only goal that is a max. Do not exceed it because if you do it means you either didn't hit your protein goal, your fat goal, or both. Carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that you can survive without. They are important as fast energy for performance during exercise, but you can be perfectly healthy without them.
  • ACyclingAdmin
    ACyclingAdmin Posts: 444 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?

    Right, I eat a crazy amount of sugar as a cyclist, energy gels, PBJ sammich, energy chews, etc.. lol... It's all about calorie deficit.
  • Cpalmer18
    Cpalmer18 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you ☺️ once again for your good advice. I'll do a little tweaking from your suggestions
  • mantium999
    mantium999 Posts: 1,490 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.

    Her macros are not set ideally. This advice does not help her.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    One easy thing I do is just have smaller portions of rice or pasta, and up the veggies and protein.
    (although my starchy carbs are more likely to be potatoes or sweet potatoes, just due to personal preference).

    Ya, I have those too, but worry about them less :)

    100 g raw sweet potato = 20 carbs

  • ihatetodietalways
    ihatetodietalways Posts: 180 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?
    No, I cannot except you ate much lower than you burned off. I don't want to turn this into a sugar is good/bad thread.
  • mantium999
    mantium999 Posts: 1,490 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?
    No, I cannot except you ate much lower than you burned off. I don't want to turn this into a sugar is good/bad thread.

    Then don't. Her macros are wrong. Sugar is not an issue. She would like to increase her carbs to allow more flexible eating. Your advice failed to address any of that.
  • ihatetodietalways
    ihatetodietalways Posts: 180 Member

    mantium999 wrote: »
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?
    No, I cannot except you ate much lower than you burned off. I don't want to turn this into a sugar is good/bad thread.

    Then don't. Her macros are wrong. Sugar is not an issue. She would like to increase her carbs to allow more flexible eating. Your advice failed to address any of that.

    She does not want to increase her carbs, and you are rude.
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  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    mantium999 wrote: »
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?
    No, I cannot except you ate much lower than you burned off. I don't want to turn this into a sugar is good/bad thread.

    Then don't. Her macros are wrong. Sugar is not an issue. She would like to increase her carbs to allow more flexible eating. Your advice failed to address any of that.

    She does not want to increase her carbs, and you are rude.
    She didn't want to increase her carbs because her allocation was too skewed to protein and she didn't realize it until it was explained to her.

    It could be considered rude to throw the "sugar is bad" bomb into the ring and then act like you don't want a sugar debate. If you don't want a sugar debate, leave sugar out of it.

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    mantium999 wrote: »
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.
    Can you explain how I've lost 111 pounds while eating refined sugars?
    No, I cannot except you ate much lower than you burned off. I don't want to turn this into a sugar is good/bad thread.

    Then don't. Her macros are wrong. Sugar is not an issue. She would like to increase her carbs to allow more flexible eating. Your advice failed to address any of that.

    She does not want to increase her carbs, and you are rude.

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  • Cpalmer18
    Cpalmer18 Posts: 8 Member
    Hey listen guys, I would prefer not to increase/decrease my sugar so not sure why mentioned, however it's not worth getting heated over. I am eating too many carbs on the odd occasion and find the level difficult to manage. I wanted some suggestions on how to make better and I've received some great advice and will now reevaluate my 3 levels. Thank you ☺️
  • JahanLindy
    JahanLindy Posts: 12 Member
    Cpalmer18 wrote: »
    I have a target of no more that 120g carbs per day. Somedays though, this can be a real struggle to keep below, especially if I want to add a little variety to my diet. Any thoughts on low carb meals would be appreciated ☺️

    If you have uncontrollable sugar craving, don’t push yourself over the calorie edge. Replace too much sugar with natural sweetness. Like instead of creamy cake, try fruit salad with whipped cream or apple with pea nut butter. Changing the habit at once is really hard. :blush:
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Have your greens first with your 3 meals. Then, with starch, have a 1/2 cup rice/potato, or a slice of bread. No refined sugars should come into the diet, if you are trying to lose.

    ridiculous advice
    ibnfaqir wrote: »
    You only need to do low carb if you very very lean. If you are not a calorie deficit will be fine.

    also silly

    I think the OP has worked out that she can move her macros around .. good luck OP