Keeping your carbs down ??

Do you have any medical reason to watch carbs? If not, don't worry about it. Carbs aren't bad.

In my humble experience - most of those kind of shops don't sell 'weight-loss' friendly snacks.

I highly recommend you make your own lunch then you know exactly what's in it and can log it to the gram. You add more protein to it if you need it etc.

Takes less time that walking to the shops, searching, queuing and walking back - plus it's cheaper once you're in the habit.

Best of luck.

If you have no medical reason to avoid them, then go at it. Carbs tend to get a bad rap in weight loss because they typically contain more calories per serving. You could eat twinkies all day and still maintain your weight assuming you only ate within your caloric daily goal.

The biggest culprits obviously are simple carbs - sugar, flour, starchy vegetables etc.

The issue that most people don't realize is that over time, refined sugars (in all their forms) can cause insulin issues and that is why type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic levels worldwide.

Just be mindful of the types of carbs you eat. Swap white bread for whole grain, white rice for brown or couscous, eat mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. Eat whole grain pasta versus white or semolina and cut out things like fast food, soda pop, fruit juice (unless its severely watered down) and skip fruits that are high in fruit sugar (anything tropical...bananas, pineapple etc.).

Bear in mind too that mostly anything that is manufactured/processed contains too much sugar, sodium or fat so just try to avoid them as often as possible.

Dilvish wrote: »

If you have no medical reason to avoid them, then go at it. Carbs tend to get a bad rap in weight loss because they typically contain more calories per serving. You could eat twinkies all day and still maintain your weight assuming you only ate within your caloric daily goal.

The biggest culprits obviously are simple carbs - sugar, flour, starchy vegetables etc.

The issue that most people don't realize is that over time, refined sugars (in all their forms) can cause insulin issues and that is why type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic levels worldwide.

Just be mindful of the types of carbs you eat. Swap white bread for whole grain, white rice for brown or couscous, eat mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. Eat whole grain pasta versus white or semolina and cut out things like fast food, soda pop, fruit juice (unless its severely watered down) and skip fruits that are high in fruit sugar (anything tropical...bananas, pineapple etc.).

Bear in mind too that mostly anything that is manufactured/processed contains too much sugar, sodium or fat so just try to avoid them as often as possible.

This is almost all wrong. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. White/whole grain counterparts of the same food tend to have more or less the same calorie level. From a weight loss perspective, there is no need to swap them. The whole grain counterpart may have certain aspects of it that are more nutritious, such as higher fiber content, and they may be more filling for some people. So some may find making the switch beneficial if they find that eating refined carbs makes them more susceptible to overeating. But within meeting your calorie goals, there is absolutely no need to make a switch.

Warning someone off tropical fruits is just plain bad advice. Citrus based fruits are incredibly nutritious, and often quite filling for their calorie level. I personally find 150 calories of pineapple a whole lot more filling than 150 calories of beef (I love both and eat both, just for an illustration point).

And most importantly, carbs do not cause insulin issues/type 2 diabetes. Don't believe me, ask Diabetes: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-with-diabetes/diabetes-food-myths/myth-sugar-causes-diabetes. Obesity can cause type 2 diabetes, so if you overeat sugar and carbs to the point where it creates a calorie surplus, that could make you more susceptible to diabetes. But the same is true with anything. Whether it be sugar or beef or butter.

Diabetes is at record levels because obesity is at record levels. But it is not from carbs, which humans have been consuming as a staple of their diets for 1000s of years. Depending on where you lived in the world, you diet was mostly bread, potatoes, or rice. Meat was for the most part a luxury reserved for the wealthy. That's why when there was a potato famine, scores died of starvation. Obesity is on the rise because we now consume more food and are less active than in the past. For example, meat consumption has doubled on a per person basis over the last 100 years, but somehow that doesn't seem to get blamed for our rise in obesity as much. Asian cultures that are heavy in (refined white) rice tend to have less obesity than we do in America.

People should avoid certain carbs and sugar if: they have a recommendation from their doctor based on a certain health condition, or they find that eating them causes them to overeat their calorie goals/not meet their nutrition goals. But if neither of these things are the case, then it is not necessary.

Dilvish wrote: »

If you have no medical reason to avoid them, then go at it. Carbs tend to get a bad rap in weight loss because they typically contain more calories per serving. You could eat twinkies all day and still maintain your weight assuming you only ate within your caloric daily goal.

The biggest culprits obviously are simple carbs - sugar, flour, starchy vegetables etc.

The issue that most people don't realize is that over time, refined sugars (in all their forms) can cause insulin issues and that is why type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic levels worldwide.

Just be mindful of the types of carbs you eat. Swap white bread for whole grain, white rice for brown or couscous, eat mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. Eat whole grain pasta versus white or semolina and cut out things like fast food, soda pop, fruit juice (unless its severely watered down) and skip fruits that are high in fruit sugar (anything tropical...bananas, pineapple etc.).

Bear in mind too that mostly anything that is manufactured/processed contains too much sugar, sodium or fat so just try to avoid them as often as possible.

I am genuinely curious about something and have been debating asking this question for a little while. In the face of all the evidence presented to refute the claims that you make about carbs and processed foods, and with the sheer quantity of 'woos' that are awarded to these posts, why would you keep giving the same 'advice' regarding carbohydrate consumption? I am honestly puzzled by this...