# How many grams of carbs?



## Hera (May 6, 2011)

I'm sure this question has been asked so many times, so I apologise if I'm repeating this simple question...

...I don't want to do keto so is there a simple way to calculate how many grams of carbs to have a day in order to lose weight?


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2011)

Depends what the rest of your diet is made of Katy.

Well,

4cals/gram, between 10-40% of daily cals depending on what you want.

So its not too hard.


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## Virtus (Apr 30, 2007)

Weight loss will be determined by cals in vs cals out, exercise and a clean diet. The range that mike identified is probably the most efficient, start at 40% and monitor. The Zone diet was based on a 40c/30p/30f macro split and this a really good way to get a balance between all food groups.

The calculation to do it is pretty simple:

Pro = Cal requirements for a day x 0.4/4

Carb = Cal requirements for a day x 0.3/4

Fat = Cal requirements for a day x 0.3/9


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## 3752 (Jan 7, 2005)

there is no steadfast way to determine how many carbs you need as an individual to lose fat, this all depends on your metabolism and what amount of calories you burn through a normal day this would dictate what amount of carbs/cals you needed.

in general a rule of thumb is anything less than 30g your body could drop into keto


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## Andrew Jacks (Sep 29, 2010)

I would have thought it all depends on what kind of carbs rather than the amount


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## Hampy71 (Jan 18, 2011)

Please excuse my ignorance but what is keto?


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## Andrew Jacks (Sep 29, 2010)

Hampy71 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance but what is keto?


PM him and find out :laugh:


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2011)

Hampy71 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance but what is keto?


The state of Ketosis. Where your body uses fat for its preferred fuel source instead of Glycogen/Carbs


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## Hampy71 (Jan 18, 2011)

Thanks mike. I thought the body turned to feeding off muscle or protein if no carbs available?


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

Andrew Jacks said:


> I would have thought it all depends on what kind of carbs rather than the amount


That's what I used to think and to some extent still do... however bayman has provided some very good counter arguments that state otherwise. PM him, I'm sure he'll send you some info.


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2011)

Hampy71 said:


> Thanks mike. I thought the body turned to feeding off muscle or protein if no carbs available?


If a large enough portion of your diet is fat then itll use fat.

Theres loads of threads about Keto diets mate.


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## Andrew Jacks (Sep 29, 2010)

Think I will bow down to experts like hackskii who has a few sticky comments, its all about the GI index.

Quote "The glycemic index is a measure of the entry rates of various carbohydrate sources into the bloodstream. The faster their rate of entry, the greater the effect on insulin secretion."

http://www.uk-muscle.co.uk/losing-weight/1941-carbohydrates-blood-sugars-dieting-carbohydrates-misunderstandings.html

Or the great All carbohydrates are not created equal!

http://www.uk-muscle.co.uk/losing-weight/2033-all-carbohydrates-not-created-equal.html


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

Like I said it's only a counter argument... but it's worth keeping an open mind. It's undisputed that a gram of carb from sugar contains the same calories as a gram of carb from brown rice or oats... 4.

The gi index of a food is only true if that food is eaten alone, it will change depending on what you eat with it.


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## PHMG (Jun 15, 2010)

im losing fat on about 300g, mostly from white rice, with oats in the morning (and only fat burners are test and tren ace, obv not very good for you katy....or is it  ). But then, thats just me. Others it might be way too much.


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## Prodiver (Nov 14, 2008)

Katy said:


> I'm sure this question has been asked so many times, so I apologise if I'm repeating this simple question...
> 
> ...I don't want to do keto so is there a simple way to calculate how many grams of carbs to have a day in order to lose weight?


No-one can determine with sufficient accuracy what their energy expenditure on any day will be. It varies significantly with sleep, daily routine, workout, intensity, walking, air temperature...

So it's impossible to say how many calories you need.

Eat just a few more cals on average than a set figure and you'll put on flab, eat fewer and you'll likely gradually lose energy.

The best approach is to eat the right amount of protein, which you can calculate with some confidence, don't worry about eating fat, which you need (including saturated fat), and adjust your carbs every day to ensure you have enough energy but don't get porkier. (Just look in the mirror.)

This works because carb energy goes in and out faster than fat, and you can see the changes almost daily.


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## Hera (May 6, 2011)

Thanks for all the responses guys. I appreciate that there certainly can't be one rule for all; we all have different metabolisms, different body compositions, different diets and fitness regimes. I was just wondering if there was some sort of vague general way of figuring it out...mainly because someone told me that there is a certain amount I should be having which prompted curiosity. I'll be stepping up my exercise over this week so may find that I need more carbs.

I think that in response to Prodriver, I suppose that I'm doing what you've suggested...I'm not eating too many carbs...at times I'm craving them but I'm not fatigued. I had one dizzy spell yesterday but no biggy and was most certainly due to not having enough carbs.

I'm also making sure that I do get some good fats


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## Hera (May 6, 2011)

PowerHouseMcGru said:


> im losing fat on about 300g, mostly from white rice, with oats in the morning (*and only fat burners are test and tren ace, obv not very good for you katy....or is it*  ). But then, thats just me. Others it might be way too much.


Yeah, not quite relevant to me :laugh:

300g is way too much for me but then my body and fitness regime is most certainly VERY different to yours!


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

The answer to this is both simple and complicated at the same time, lol.

What I mean is that the answer is quite simply to not to eat more carbs that the amount of glycogen and glucose you burn within a day. If you do this then not only will you hardly convert any carbs to triglycerides and fat but your insulin sensitivity will remain very high, cholesterol will be low, and fat burning will not be impaired.

The non simplistic bit is knowing exactly what this figure is, because as pointed out by Prodiver and Pscarb, the amount of energy you will burn from glucose will vary a lot between individuals and activity and a range of other factors.

I remember reading in a diabetics vs non diabetics study that in general, an adult male of normal health, BMI (bodyweight around 70-75kg), insulin sensitivity etc with a moderate actvity level and who is consuming a carb freindly diet will use between 150 and 250g of glycogen/carbs per day as standard turnover without any potential issues.

High levels of exercise significantly increase the amount of carbs you can handle... I remember watching a BBC documentary on Steve Redgrave and Matt Pincent when training for their last joint gold olympic medal and them saying they were eating around 1000g of carbs per day (4000kcals from carbs out of a 7000kcal a day diet), mostly bags and bags of jelly babies and high sugar foods between the seven hours of traing they did each day, and them commenting on how they were still getting leaner.

Have had a not quite so extreme but similar experience myself when wilderness trekking in sub zero temperatures in north china and mongolia - total daily caloric intake of about 4000kcals, with at least 2000 of those kcals from carbs (500g per day), and I dropped a lot of fat and bodyweight in that week because I was still in calorie deficit and no doubt my carb intake was not exceeding my bodys use of glucose based fuel.

Anyway, I don't know what your bodyweight and activity levels are katy, but I'd imagine that somewhere between 100g and 200g per day would probably be a safe range.


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## bayman (Feb 27, 2010)

Andrew Jacks said:


> Think I will bow down to experts like hackskii who has a few sticky comments, its all about the GI index.
> 
> Quote "The glycemic index is a measure of the entry rates of various carbohydrate sources into the bloodstream. The faster their rate of entry, the greater the effect on insulin secretion."
> 
> ...


Suffice to say I disagree with this above for may reasons, Dvlt's example above is one of the reasons, but ultimately it's energy balance that determines fat loss / gain, not the type of carbs you take in. No bear in mind I'm talking about fat gain / loss here, not overal health, that's another topic.

There's metabolic ward studies of subjects consuming 1000kcal of straight simple carbohydrate, and yet they still lose fat / weight, why? Because they are in a an energy deficit / caloric restriction. Allbeit the subjects lost a higher proportion of muscle as well due to the lack of protein and resisitance exercise but the point still stands.

At the end of the day, nearly all carbohydrates are metabolised into glucose in the body. Be it starch, Sucrose / Table Sugar ( a mixture of glucose and fructose), lactose etc et, although some are processed by the liver primarily (fructose for instance).

GI means jack outside the contect of eating foods in isolation. Some proteins for instance have a higher GI than Carbohydrates.

I could go on, so unless anyone has a specific point to address I won't clutter the thread further.


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2011)

PowerHouseMcGru said:


> im losing fat on about 300g, mostly from white rice, with oats in the morning (and only fat burners are test and tren ace, obv not very good for you katy....or is it  ). But then, thats just me. Others it might be way too much.


With tren ace I could sit in a pie shop stuffing my face all day and lose fat lol. Although i'd keep tryin to fight the bakers


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