Too Many Carbs ?

I'm eating about 200 carbs a day , give or take , but they are mainly healthy carbs like fruits & veggies & whole grains ( but barely much of whole grains , mostly just fruits & veggies ) . so is this a bad thing or a good thing , considering also that i would like my stomach to be flatter & to lose some additional weight . i also workout everday to a nice moderate effort , probably even a bit harder than that . please give me answers . (:

200 grams of carbs is 800 calories. That can be good or bad considering your overall caloric intake.

How many calories are you consuming per day?

i'm consuming about maybe the most 1,050 , if i'm lucky .

Increase your calories.

What is your activity level?

I agree .. You need to eat at least 1200 calories Or your body will begin storing your food as fat to save fuel. Many people think eating less means losing less but you can't deprive your body of what it needs.

1200 not much better. did you see her reply - 30-40 mins exercise per day. my guess would be somewhere around 1500. but don't know her height, weight...

In general, I don't have much of a problem with carbs (I eat lots of them and don't think people should restrict them unless they have a medical need to). But, if you are eating 200g (800 cals) of carbs in a total of 1000 cals/day then that is 80% carbs which seems way out of balance for anybody.

Really though, before you start worrying about macros, it seems to me as though you should be eating more of anything. 1000 cals is a pretty small amount to keep an adult person healthy and if you are 5'10" tall, then that seems ridiculously low.

Try for a variety in your diet - fruit, veggies, diary, nuts, beans, fish (if you eat it), grains. If you eat a wide variety of foods you will get a better range of nutrients and macros.

i weigh 128 & i'm 5'10 . & i eat only about maybe 8 grams of fat a day . i'm also a vegetarian & i keep trying to add food so my calorie goes higher , but my carbs keep going too high & i heard you shouldn't be eating anymore than 150 carbs .

For one thing, 5'10" / 128 lbs is darn close to being underweight. What is going on here?

Secondly, by the Harris Benedict formula, your maintenance level is around 2228 calories per day. So with a reasonable deficit of 500, that would put you at around 1728 cals per day.

But the bigger question is why would you be trying to lose weight at this point?

ETA: possibly you have a high body fat percent even at your low-to-normal weight. If this is the case, you ought to focus on body composition. Eat your maintenance level, around 2228 cals/day, get plenty of protein - 100g/day minimum, and get into strength training. Don't fall into the starvation vortex. It leads to eating disorder.

I couldn't have said it any better.

i weigh 128 & i'm 5'10 . & i eat only about maybe 8 grams of fat a day . i'm also a vegetarian & i keep trying to add food so my calorie goes higher , but my carbs keep going too high & i heard you shouldn't be eating anymore than 150 carbs .

Whoa there is a problem here ... Have you ever asked your doctor or read online what your healthy weight should be for your height? I'm 5'7 and I weigh 143 pounds ... And I am NOT overweight. Now you are much taller than me and also a woman ... Usually height adds weight, especially of your body is more athletic like mine ... Not every woman has a "petite" frame.

i haven't been eating the best over the past few months & i know that , but i have been eating everyday a bit over 1,000 calories .

and we're in agreement (rare for this forum) that it's WAY too low. doctor's aren't the best consultants of nutrition. i think you have a problem and i hope you can sort it out.

consider any day under 1700 calories a bad day.

The misconception you have is FAT is bad. You want to up your calories easily as a vegetarian? Add in more healthy fatty foods like avocados, nuts, etc.


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Agree with what others have said wholeheartedly - 5'10'' and that weight and activity level NEEDS more caloric intake. You wouldn't expect your car to drive long distance on fumes, so you can't expect your body to either.

I guess it does beg the question why you want to lose more weight - seems to me like from those stats you don't need to. Gaining muscle and toning is a different thing entirely, and to do that you need to eat an appropriately balanced diet - plus hours of cardio won't do that for you anyway.

Up your intake of whole grains, nuts, seeds, fats - fats ARE essential, don't fall into the low fat trap. If it's low fat it's generally high sodium and sugar, food companies HAVE to play around with the ingredients as when you remove fat, you also remove taste.

If you're wanting to work on your muscle definition, I'd say seriously pay attention to your protein intake - the rule most often quoted here is 1g protein per lb body mass per day.

Good luck!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/639892-vegan-weight-loss?hl=vegan#posts-9265920

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/627477-calling-all-vegans-vegetarians-and-raw-vegans?hl=vegan&page=5#posts-9265205

^^ here are a couple of groups of people that should help you with getting some new food ideas!! that being said if you are already underweight you should not be dieting! If you are trying to lower body fat you need to first be at a healthy weight. Your doctor might have not been concern cuz she/he didnt know you are trying to lose weight? Eat more!!! A lot more! and be careful cuz like other have said there are a lot of red flags that hint at a disorder. Good Luck!!!

Several other people have already mentioned it, but I think it's important to stress - eating fat is not bad. We in our society have turned "fat" into a bad word. Okay, so we don't like having lots of fat on our bodies... but, our bodies create fat out of other things (yes, like carbs) and not just directly from "fat" that we eat. The processes our bodies use for turning consumed food into fuel/fat is much more complicated than that.

For years I ate very "low fat." Yes I was able to lose weight doing that for a while, but I wasn't happy. I mean, literally - I wasn't getting some essential nutrients that my body needs, and quite literally my mood was negatively impacted by this. Since I've increased my fat intake (I do eat meat, so some of my fat comes from there, but I also get fat from avocados, coconut milk and coconut, nuts - especially macadamia nuts which are exceptionally good for you - and those sorts of things) I feel healthier mentally as well as physically.

An added benefit - fats tend to satiate hunger better and keep you feeling fuller longer.

Please consider increasing your fat intake - you just might feel happier, healthier, and more radiant :-)