Too many carbs?
 

Currently I am eating a diet that consists of a lot of grains and veggies. A typical day for me would be: a bowl of honey nut cheerios for breakfast, a bag of baby carrots with a whole wheat tortilla stuffed with spinach greens and seitan, and for tuna with another helping of veggies like peas, mushrooms, or tomatoes for dinner. I snack on fruit a lot, usually strawberries, pears, apples, or bananas.

My question is, is this a diet that would encourage weight loss? I know its healthy and makes me feel good, but the amount of carbs in all the vegetables and grains I eat worries me. Does anyone have any suggestions that would improve my diet? I LOVE my fruits and veggies, I just am unsure if this is ideal for my weight loss goal.

Well, I think the answer is, "it depends". :p

Everybody and every body is different. If what you're doing is working and you feel good, then why change it? If it's not, then consider a chage.

I like to keep my protein a little higher as it keeps me from getting hungry--my body burns carbs like pouring gas on a fire but protein seems to stick with me much longer.

I think the only thing about being too low in fat/protein might be if you're trying to retain/build muscle as that does require a certain amount of protein.

At the end of the day, it's the results that count.

Regards,
Michael

Grains & Fruits/Veggies
 

Grains are best when you minimize them. They are not the best carbs to eat.

Keep eating lots of fruits/veggies, you can eat a ton of them and they are very healthy to eat.

I read a book by a nutritionist and that's pretty much his advice. I also took a nutrition class last year. : )

I highly recommend "The Eat Clean" diet by Tosca Reno. Actually, it's not a diet, it's a way of life. The book is very easy to read and understand. There are a lot of examples of how to plan and choose your meals (6 a day)

Try switching the cherrios for plain oatmeal, and cut out the bannanas. good luck

What you described as your typical meal plan is fine - and there is no such thing as 'too many carbs' unless you are a diagnosed type 1 diabetic and under the care of a doctor, who advises you about the number of carbs per meal. Even then, there are plenty of type 1 diabetics who are vegetarian and do just fine, without ever suffering weight gain problems eating healthy carbs!

So what you HAVE left out is the number of calories you are eating in a day and how many you are expending. Fitday gives you the tools to get some caloric limits. Then you can put the measured food quantities you eat in your food log and see how many calories you are eating each day. If you are gaining weight, and you are accurately (important) reporting your food in your log, you'll see why. You just have to shave off some calories or seriously increase physical activity.

That's the whole story, pretty much, right there!

I guess my question to you would be "Are you hungry all the time?". I find that when I get higher than 50% of my calories from carbs, I feel the urge to binge on more carbs. And that is especially true with grains, when I carb crash after eating grains, I'm starving like a hollow dog and will eat darn near anything that can be chewed up. Also when I work out really hard I need protein and plenty of it. So if you're hungry all the time and working out, you might be getting too many carbs, and if you're not hungry all the time and not working out, maybe your ratios are just fine.

To this day, I've all but sworn off all carbohydrates with a high glycemic index (i.e.,grains) and limit carbs from fruits and vegetables. About one year ago, when I replaced cereals and breads with lots of fruits and vegetables (still totaling to 250-350 g/carbs/day), I lost a lot of weight (about 15 lbs, from 15% body fat to 12%).

So it will work.

Eventually it stopped working and I couldn't get below 12% body fat, instead, I began gaining weight despite the regular cardio (running, swimming, group-ex, hiit, etc.)

Now, about 5% of my daily caloric intake comes from carbs (about 25 g/carbs/day), mostly vegetables. I find it absolutely disgusting how quickly I'm losing body fat (according to my fancy scale). And my strength hasn't declined either as I've just increased the weights on my bench, squats, rows, and deadlifts. I feel as though I just wasted three years basing my diets off that stupid pyramid the USDA and AHA recommend...

Those pyramids are so full of stuff that various lobbies campaigned to have in there it's not even funny. I kind of like the one the Mayo Clinic put out, but the bottom line is to find out what works for your body and do it.

The food pyramid is meant to insure that people who use it as a guide will get the right amounts of vitamins and minerals, fiber, protein, etc. and not gain weight in the process.

In the end, calories for the day can be apportioned any way you want them. And whatever works for you, works for you. I have heard the 'I lost weight and then I gained, doing the same thing' applied to every diet (including low-carb diets). You just adjust, adjust, adjust. For one thing, your body is not stuck in time. You're getting older, and your hormonal profile (for a woman, that's an entirely different thing...) is changing with every bit of aging, too.