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What's your carb ceiling?
Rob_in_MI
Posts: 393 Member
Hi all. I hopped into the low carb wagon about 6 months ago to shave off 10-15 pounds. I ended up down 20# and pretty happy with this dietary style. (Me and cheese/jerky are old friends). I started off trying to stay at 25 carbs per day. Now I kind of cycle on/off on the weekends. How do you guys manage yours?
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Since nearly all of my favorite foods are keto friendly, and I am now just maintaining weight, I don't specifically track. That said, nearly all of my carbs come from spinach, jalapeños, celery, cheese, zucchini and minimal amounts of seasonings I use in my cooking like garlic. Based on when I was tracking, I would say most days my total is below 30 g a day with close to half of those being fiber so if you are a net carb person, then the answer would be closer to 15 g a day.
For me, the consistency is big. Changing up on the weekends just doesn't work very well. For instance, Saturday I went to Texas Roadhouse where they have the peanuts in the shell at the table. Clearly, I am not going to eat the bread, so I munched away on those peanuts. Based on the shells, that probably doubled my normal carb intake for the day. I think that is why by BG got a bit wonky on Sunday and this morning.
I have made such great progress with my BG, which is my primary objective here, it just isn't worth it to me to stray from the straight and narrow. Besides, as I mentioned above, I LOVE the food I do eat. BACON, STEAK, CHEESE!1 -
My "limit" is 20, but some days I am closer to 10. Every now and then I am low 20's.2
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35g daily. I average between 20-40g1
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My maximum for net carbs is 30g, and ideally under 20g. For total carbs I try and keep it under about 40g.
I seem to be a bit lucky though that I'm not as sensitive to carbs as some folks.1 -
I started at keep it strictly under 10g. I slowly started getting lazier and worked my way up to 20g and now I am sitting around 30g. I am hating it because I am starting to feel a little bloated again (lived my pre-keto life bloated everyday). So I am trying to get down to strict 10g.1
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50 for sure, though I've been working to get it lower.1
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During weight loss, I mostly tried to stay under 20-30 net. After the first couple of months I increased that a little bit; my macros for the most part over the past year have been set to 15C/65F/25P. Right now I'm shifting back into maintenance mode so as I'm gradually increasing calories, my carb ceiling is edging higher. I'm thinking about aiming for 50-80gm/day for maintenance long-term but we'll see how it goes. I know carb quality makes a big difference to me, too, so I'm trying to get the bulk of those carbs from veggies, a little fruit, maybe some legumes (plus nuts and dairy) and not so much from random junk.
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I will also add, the "where" is as important as the "how many" in terms of carbs. Getting 50 g of carbs from real foods (veggies, nuts, dairy) versus from junk food makes a huge difference. The more your carbs are from products that don't require a nutrition label (like fresh veggies), the better you will be.
Similarly on the fat side, upping fat with bad fats (veg oils and seed oils) will add to your inflammation issues and counteract the benefits of cutting carbs.5 -
I never deliberately add carbs to any food, or meals I have. I work to omit them, so on that basis I would say I'm a zero-carb gal. However, some foods naturally have carbs, and calculating the average I have consumed, I'm doing around 14 - 15/day....0
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40g/day now hat I'm in maintenance. At my lowest carb intake per day during the weight-loss portion of my journey, I was eating 20g/day. I like the wiggle room 40g/day gives me. Most of my carbs now come from nuts (nut flours in LC stuff I've baked or made at home), dark chocolate, a little bit more vegetables and fruit.1
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(overdid it tonight by 13g's, - added roasted barley to a dish for 2 - but I haven't gone over once yet.... still, there's always tomorrow to rein it back in again - !)0
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I try to keep it under 30. Most day I have around 20ish. But everyone will be different I'm sure.0
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I've been around a few years ....50g-100g a day1
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Mine averages 30 total or less. I don't look at net often since my carbs are probably 90% from above ground vegetables.0
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I've only been at this a month, and I keep my total carbs at 50 or fewer. I'm at almost exactly 20 pounds gone since 3/9. It's amazing.2
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I'm only on my fourth week of eating LCHF, and the most carbs I've eaten was 42g. in a day. It didn't seem to stall me but I didn't want to risk it.
I've lost 4kg since March 20th2 -
I'm currently experimenting with leangains - max 75 on rest days, and 222 on training days1
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KenSmith108 wrote: »
I'm very sensitive to carbs
or 
Sorry, I'm new to this and I am wondering what you mean.
Are you trying to lose weight at the moment or are you on maintenance?
Is it that you instantly come out of the keto-zone or do you get diarrhea?0 -
NoortjeGrolsch wrote: »KenSmith108 wrote: »
I'm very sensitive to carbs or
Sorry, I'm new to this and I am wondering what you mean.
Are you trying to lose weight at the moment or are you on maintenance?
Is it that you instantly come out of the keto-zone or do you get diarrhea?
I will let him answer for himself, but after eating this way for several months, I ate a bunch of popcorn (used to be a favorite) and felt a bit bloated and my face broke out with acne.
That was when I realized that since changing to keto, my acne had completely cleared up. Being 46 yo and ALWAYS having acne was annoying. I thought it extremely unfair to have both acne and gray hair. 3 1/2 weeks after the popcorn incident, and I am down to the remnants of the last zit. So that is MY sensitivity to carbs.1 -
cstehansen wrote: »NoortjeGrolsch wrote: »KenSmith108 wrote: »
I'm very sensitive to carbs or
Sorry, I'm new to this and I am wondering what you mean.
Are you trying to lose weight at the moment or are you on maintenance?
Is it that you instantly come out of the keto-zone or do you get diarrhea?
I will let him answer for himself, but after eating this way for several months, I ate a bunch of popcorn (used to be a favorite) and felt a bit bloated and my face broke out with acne.
That was when I realized that since changing to keto, my acne had completely cleared up. Being 46 yo and ALWAYS having acne was annoying. I thought it extremely unfair to have both acne and gray hair. 3 1/2 weeks after the popcorn incident, and I am down to the remnants of the last zit. So that is MY sensitivity to carbs.
As soon as I eat something even medium heavy in carbs, I feel bloated, headache, grumpy.... its so not worth it!!!0 -
@NoortjeGrolsch I seem to be the unusual person who can pig out on as many carbs as I want and not seem to be bothered by it in any typical fashion (bloat, increased cravings, nauseousness, acne, gastro issures, etc). If I were to say "carb sensitive" for myself, it would mean it negatively impacts my Dystonia (neurological movement disorder) which is the reason I eat keto. Just adding some input as I think "carb sensitive" means many different things to different folks.1
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NoortjeGrolsch wrote: »KenSmith108 wrote: »
I'm very sensitive to carbs or
Sorry, I'm new to this and I am wondering what you mean.
Are you trying to lose weight at the moment or are you on maintenance?
Is it that you instantly come out of the keto-zone or do you get diarrhea?
Carbs drive up my blood glucose numbers
To keep my insulin shots lower I eat very few carbs.
I'm losing weight but that's just a bonus.
I don't count carbs or calories or care to much about keto,
I do faithfully track my glucose numbers.
You're welcome to check out my diary to see my VLC. or 1 -
I just ate an apple, whole, to up my fibre count and my carbs doubled! Dammit!!
(TbH, though, I don't even know what my daily calorie count should be.... I've set it at 1500, but damned if I know whether this is right or not, suitable, appropriate, over-doing it, too much, too little....)
I seem to consistently come under though....0 -
AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »I just ate an apple, whole, to up my fibre count and my carbs doubled!
My wife and I will split an apple once a week usually. It will be a day when I end up hovering around 20 net carb grams total. I really like them, and this is an "splurge" for me.
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*kitten* me. Delicious, ripe, juicy nectarines are right around the corner. I better be super-diligent for the next couple of months and get the rest of this weight off before that *kitten* comes around.0
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AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »I just ate an apple, whole, to up my fibre count and my carbs doubled! Dammit!!
(TbH, though, I don't even know what my daily calorie count should be.... I've set it at 1500, but damned if I know whether this is right or not, suitable, appropriate, over-doing it, too much, too little....)
I seem to consistently come under though....
Giving up apples (mostly) is one of the harder parts of LC for me. I really like apples.0 -
LowCarb4Me2016 wrote: »AlexandraCarlyle wrote: »I just ate an apple, whole, to up my fibre count and my carbs doubled! Dammit!!
(TbH, though, I don't even know what my daily calorie count should be.... I've set it at 1500, but damned if I know whether this is right or not, suitable, appropriate, over-doing it, too much, too little....)
I seem to consistently come under though....
Giving up apples (mostly) is one of the harder parts of LC for me. I really like apples.
I miss fruit too. Those baby oranges are delicious0
This discussion has been closed.