Carbs.....opinions please......

YankTank

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Well recently I have been reading this book......

Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It: Amazon.co.uk: Gary Taubes: Books

I like to think im reasonably well informed but I had no idea about how carbs effect fat retention/energy resource use. There is alot of other information on line that supports this books findings, now I have started doing some digging. The above book completely challenges the "calories in/calories out" hypothesis.

Are you guys restricting carbs and if so, how many a day?

Im definitely thinking of reducing carbs now, but am wondering how it may effect the ability to exercise......

Any thoughts on all of the above??
 
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Replacing one generalisation with another generalisation?

Eat well, sleep well, exercise well. Three things. No complication.

The food and health industry are full of self-interest groups, fads and u-turns. How does replacing the war on saturated fats with a war on carbs help? Removing an entire food group is extreme when the better education is balance. People need to be honest with their food intake, cook properly and combine with an active lifestyle.
 
I think part of the point is that the western diet we now have, even when we think we are eating well, Is laden with processed carbohydrates. The book is well worth a read and makes some interesting points about carbs and the way they effect fat retention/processing; it advocates well with good research to back up its point thats is not just calories in/calories out.

Im certainly not advocating a 'no carb diet', but I wondered if anyone had any experience of reducing carbs (perhaps specifically processed carbs) and its effect on weight loss/ability to exercise.
 
Nothing wrong with carbs like you said processed carbs are what you should avoid.
 
Limiting intake of chocolate, cakes, pastries and full sugar fizzy drinks is hardly revelatory. Fair play if you can sell a book about it but it remains common sense. I defy anyone deep down to truthfully plead ignorance that the sausage roll they are eating is high in saturated fat and calories
(perhaps specifically processed carbs) and its effect on weight loss/ability to exercise.
If I were to eat processed carbs it would be a sandwich at lunch or a pasta meal. At a set meal and certainly not before a workout. Sweets pre-workout can be useful as it provides that instant energy boost. Same result can be achieved with a jam sandwich
 
Replacing one generalisation with another generalisation?

Eat well, sleep well, exercise well. Three things. No complication.

The food and health industry are full of self-interest groups, fads and u-turns. How does replacing the war on saturated fats with a war on carbs help? Removing an entire food group is extreme when the better education is balance. People need to be honest with their food intake, cook properly and combine with an active lifestyle.

The OP doesn't at any point suggest a war on carbs, merely thoughts on carb reduction. I actually agree with what he is getting at.

I'm very much an advocate of going for a very low carb diet if you're trying to lose fat. Not zero carb but as low as you can go without any adverse affects. For me that is very low. I aim for probably a little over 100g of clean carbs. But can quite easily go as low as 50g.

Sometimes I do think people over complicate when it comes to carb intake. Especially when referring to carbs as 'fuel' and how carb intake can affect workouts. I'm quite sure that the only people that need to worry about that are those that are doing cardiovascular exercise over marathon distances.

Go low carb, eat lots of protein and get in a good amount of clean fats making sure your overall calorie intake is within a decent deficit and your body fat will fall off.
 
Never said the OP was. My post was phrased in the third person; i.e. the link contained in the first post
 
I don't conciously restrict carbs at all, but I've always had a fairly healthy attitude to food, I don't eat too much of anything and try to have a balanced diet.

I don't really think much of the really low-carb diets, although I imagine there is some benefit to sensible carb reduction if you have too much of them currently.

I'd rather just eat normally and exercise my arse off :D If I cut back too much on anything in particular I get demotivated and end up with some pretty bad munchies!
 
Anyone got a link to a decent site explaining about carbs - good/bad, what are processed carbs etc?
 
Good Carbs Vs. Bad Carbs: A List

I found this website helpful, but the book mentioned in OP does a good job of explaining thoroughly.

The thing I found out when looking into carbs was how I probably was sabotaging my own diet plan with eating too much high carb stuff, even if it's on the 'good list' - that sounds odd but when you max out on some 'good' things because you have increased levels of hunger because you are exercising more, you can be undoing your good work, it seems. The things I have read suggest a balanced diet yes, but maybe adding in more protein as opposed to maxing out on fruit, pasta and bread (restricting good and bad carbs).Yes we all all know sausage rolls and pork pies are bad, but did we know about eating too much fruit?

If you are at you ideal weight you don't need to worry about this, just a balanced diet will do, however, if it's fat reduction you are after, optimising exercise undertaken and 'food control', the information/evidence seems to suggest restriction of overall levels of carb intake may be helpful..........I don't know but I'm going to give it a try.
 
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Ok, so going by that list, nearly every carb I eat is Medium GI. Is that ok or should it be a mix of low and medium?

Also white rice is medium GI, but it seems a big no no generally. Confused.
 
High GI
Instant White Rice 87

it isn't xD
 
Basmati Rice 58 Medium GI.
This is what I eat.

What is instant white rice? That microwave stuff?
 
Quite a complex one this!

Firstly, carbs are carbs, don't get too caught up in the GI of foods and the concept of "good" and "bad". The evidence isn't great and it doesn't matter too much unless you're diabetic.

The answer to the original question is tired but true - it depends what you're looking to achieve. Anyone with aspirations to get sub 10% body fat, without being a stick or doing monumental amounts of cardio needs to monitor their carbs. Calories in/out is still important, and there are some big myths floating around, such as eating carbs & fat together makes a difference (it doesn't) and eating carbs at night makes it more likely to be put on as fat (nope).

The quickest/easiest way to get results with a diet is high protein, medium carbs/low fat.

I've never fancied keto myself (too many side effects) but it does work very well.
 
On week days I eat around 50-70g carbs per day and this has helped me lose 3 stone quickly.
 
On week days I eat around 50-70g carbs per day and this has helped me lose 3 stone quickly.

Ah, this is very interesting.....

Can you give a bit more info?

What things have you been mainly eating?

From what you say, are you eating 'normally' at the weekends?????? (not watching cabs at all) - has this undone you good work in week?

What foods have you not been eating at all in week?

How much exercise have you been taking and what type (cardio/weights)?

How long has it taken to shed 3 Stone (Good effort mate!)?

Sorry for all the Q's ! :rolleyes:
 
If I remember rightly it was march because he was posting about HIIT.
 
Ah, this is very interesting.....

Can you give a bit more info?

What things have you been mainly eating?

From what you say, are you eating 'normally' at the weekends?????? (not watching cabs at all) - has this undone you good work in week?

What foods have you not been eating at all in week?

How much exercise have you been taking and what type (cardio/weights)?

How long has it taken to shed 3 Stone (Good effort mate!)?

Sorry for all the Q's ! :rolleyes:
The loss has slowed down quite a lot lately but looking at myfitnesspal, I went down almost 30lb between the 9th of May and 2nd of July. Overall I'm at about 41lb I think.

For months I stopped drinking alcohol completely, tried practically starving myself, eating what I thought was healthy food, working out a lot. Well, with help from people on here and using myfitnesspal I was able to establish that I was eating a huge amount of carbs per day.

At this point I then followed the advice on one of the main thread on bodybuilding.com where you are basically just advised to have 1g protein per lb of lbm, eat healthily and work out a lot. I found that the lower I went with carbs, fat and calories, the quicker the weight loss went. I was losing pounds a week at one point and I wasn't losing any strength in my lifts.

On a typical day I will have a protein shake for breakfast (UGN pure protein 56 g), a pack oh ham with 15g of light mayo in a brown roll for lunch, fillet steak with onions, mushroom, broccoli and some french mustard for dinner, then a protein shake at about 9pm after working out. This is around 1500 calories per day

At this point I think I was drinking once a week and having maybe one takeaway a week. I then found that by Friday's my weight loss was really slowing down, then would go up a little over the weekend, then would start rapidly decreasing again. I then started drinking on Saturdays as well and having plenty treats like a couple of takeaways, some snacks etc. Again the weight loss would fly off after the weekends. Possibly a form of calorie/carb cycling. I would likely be reaching a certain maintenance level by the Friday from the low calories and going way above over the weekend would help shake things up. It helps prevent you from going into starvation mode.

Essentially, I can eat and drink whatever I want during the weekend and by say Tuesday morning, I will be back to Friday's level and hopefully by the Friday after that, I will be 2 pounds or more lighter than the previous week. But it's worth noting that I still try to stick to the same principles during the weekend, and other than a couple of nights of drinking and a couple of cheat meals, I'll otherwise try to stick to my plan. As an example though, I had a wedding recently where I ate and drank lots all weekend and by the Monday morning I had gained 3lb, but by the Tuesday or Wednesday I had lost it all again.

Over the course of things I've been doing weights 3-4 times per week and running 5-6 days a week. I've gone from barely being able to run 4 minutes to being able to do 10k.

Sorry if this is a bit of a muddle, at work just now and can explain things better later.

PS - I've found lately that if I go low on carbs (< 70 g say) I find the treadmill can be very, very tiring. If I up it to 80-90, I can last a lot longer on the treadmill so I go a bit higher on cardio specific days.
 
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Thanks so much far all that info ! Keep up the good work........
 
The loss has slowed down quite a lot lately but looking at myfitnesspal, I went down almost 30lb between the 9th of May and 2nd of July. Overall I'm at about 41lb I think.

For months I stopped drinking alcohol completely, tried practically starving myself, eating what I thought was healthy food, working out a lot. Well, with help from people on here and using myfitnesspal I was able to establish that I was eating a huge amount of carbs per day.

At this point I then followed the advice on one of the main thread on bodybuilding.com where you are basically just advised to have 1g protein per lb of lbm, eat healthily and work out a lot. I found that the lower I went with carbs, fat and calories, the quicker the weight loss went. I was losing pounds a week at one point and I wasn't losing any strength in my lifts.

On a typical day I will have a protein shake for breakfast (UGN pure protein 56 g), a pack oh ham with 15g of light mayo in a brown roll for lunch, fillet steak with onions, mushroom, broccoli and some french mustard for dinner, then a protein shake at about 9pm after working out. This is around 1500 calories per day

At this point I think I was drinking once a week and having maybe one takeaway a week. I then found that by Friday's my weight loss was really slowing down, then would go up a little over the weekend, then would start rapidly decreasing again. I then started drinking on Saturdays as well and having plenty treats like a couple of takeaways, some snacks etc. Again the weight loss would fly off after the weekends. Possibly a form of calorie/carb cycling. I would likely be reaching a certain maintenance level by the Friday from the low calories and going way above over the weekend would help shake things up. It helps prevent you from going into starvation mode.

Essentially, I can eat and drink whatever I want during the weekend and by say Tuesday morning, I will be back to Friday's level and hopefully by the Friday after that, I will be 2 pounds or more lighter than the previous week. But it's worth noting that I still try to stick to the same principles during the weekend, and other than a couple of nights of drinking and a couple of cheat meals, I'll otherwise try to stick to my plan. As an example though, I had a wedding recently where I ate and drank lots all weekend and by the Monday morning I had gained 3lb, but by the Tuesday or Wednesday I had lost it all again.

Over the course of things I've been doing weights 3-4 times per week and running 5-6 days a week. I've gone from barely being able to run 4 minutes to being able to do 10k.

Sorry if this is a bit of a muddle, at work just now and can explain things better later.

PS - I've found lately that if I go low on carbs (< 70 g say) I find the treadmill can be very, very tiring. If I up it to 80-90, I can last a lot longer on the treadmill so I go a bit higher on cardio specific days.

Thats pretty much a typical carb cycling protocol (though probably with less focus on whats going into your mouth on high carb days than some)

I do a 3:1 carb cycle most of the time. Thats 3 days with restricted carbs and constant protein/fat, then one day where I blast the carbs and go about 20% over maintenance (again keeping protein\fat constant)
I tend to go no less than 130g of carbs on low days though as I get too lethargic

Your weekday/weekend cycle would work out as a 5:2 or 2.5:1 so pretty close

Its well proven to work well for fat loss (and maintaining lbm) and your results bear that up. I also find its good to have that carb blast to look forward to when Imm feeling worn out or hungry. I HATED running at a constant deficit and lost less weight doing it anyway
 
silent ninja said:
Isn't that just similar to having a junk day?

Depends how you do it. Some people eat what the hell they like. I prefer to control it and eat a load more complex carbs rather than just shovel in a load of crap. I just think its better for you

I tend to eat a lot of porridge and whole meal bread :)
 
Depends how you do it. Some people eat what the hell they like. I prefer to control it and eat a load more complex carbs rather than just shovel in a load of crap. I just think its better for you

I tend to eat a lot of porridge and whole meal bread :)

That is what I do.
 
I would like to hear more about carb cycling........what exactly is it and how does it work?
 

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