How many carbs should you eat a day?
 

How many cars should I be eating a day?

What I've heard as a general guideline is 1g per pound target weight. My weight goal is 180, so 180g. I try to keep it below that.

I've always heard that for protein. :confused:

As far as carbs, IMO there is no one size fits all. Some people do better on high carbs while others do great with lower carbs. I would focus on the quality of the carbs first. 20g of carbs from broccoli with have a different effect on your body than 20g of carbs from a coke... or even fruit.

I googled this question a few weeks ago when starting since I tend to eat pasta a lot. I found this on About.com:How Many Carbohydrates Do You Need Each Day?
Hope this helps!

Thanks everyone for your responses but I calculated the total number of carbs and it was 231.25 grams of carbs a day! That's slot I didn't even come close to that today. Is that unhealthy? Is it good for loosing weight? I am also having trouble with the whole journaling process. I don't really know what to write down. And ideas?

I lose weight the fastest going low carb high fat & high protein. I tested this a few months back was actually felt like I was losing weight too quickly.

I just use the Foods and Activities journals. Log EVERYTHING you eat/drink and any activities in which you engage above and beyond your "normal" lifestyle (which you should have chosen already). This will give you your calorie mix (percentage of carbs, fat and protien--I personally keep mine around 40/30/30) and give you a fairly accurate idea of your calorie deficit (or surplus) per day. FitDay's calculator, many of us find to be a bit optimistic so we add in another 8 hours of sleep to our daily activities.

If you have other questions, please ask.

Regards,
Michael

PS I don't really worry about carbs--I work more on keeping my protien up to at least 100 grams a day. I do make sure most of my carbs are complex, from fruit, veggies, whole grain bread and so forth.

Do you log the number of calories, carbs and protein in each food? What should you do if you eat our or don't know how much of each are in the food?

Well, if you find food in the list of fitday. It's will automatically have the number of protein, carbs, and fat.
If you eat package food, check the nutrition fact and make a custom food.
If you eat out, try your best to estimate what you eat and log.
With trial and error, it becomes easier each day.
Best of luck,
mai

Connor, you should write down everything that you eat, even if you use a half of a teaspoon of this or that.

Yes, carbs have a bad name, but that is not reality.

Are the carbs you are eating sugar? White rice, White bread? Potatoes??

Those are bad carbs.

Good carbs are non processed or man made.

Examples fruits and veggies, whole wheat bread, multi grain cereals, etc.

Always eat the exact amount of what you are suposed to, and don't eat anything that does not have a label for you to extract the calories, protein, carbs and fat, which does not include fruits.

For example, yesterday, I walke to my friend's apt across town, on the way there was a street vendo selling fruits, I bought a cup of pineapple, and a pear to eat on the way along with the two bottles of water that I had.

When I got home, I jumped on FITDAY, and lookedup both items and put them in my food log.

I ate chicken at his house, I didnt weigh it, but I know that I didnt eat a whole chicken, I looked up chicken, and to make it easy, I just chose a large breast.

I did not eat the skin, although it would have been delicious.

Every thing that you purchase has a food label.

Measure what you ingest.

It appears to me that dieting starts with a notebook, a calculator, and a place to look up calories (the internet).

I have not been to a restaurant, because I am not going to estimate, I need to know
exactly what I am putting into my body.

Write everything down, and read the portion size so that you know exactly what you are getting.

I'm more worried about fats and sodium myself, but I'm doing the 40-30-30 (or maybe even carbs=40, protein above 30 and fats below).

If you're trying to track a recipe, I've found this site helpful:

You can type in your recipe, say how many portions it's to make and it will generate a nutrition label that will let you know how many whatever is in the recipe. Then you can add that to your custom foods here.

Hope that helps.