How low is low carb?

therower said:

Whilst at work today a work mate consumed about 150g of carbs for his lunch, no he's not one of us . This got me thinking about carb intake and more specifically low carb diet's which I know a lot of you guys out there use to control your sugars. So my question is how low is low carb? Personally I tinkered with low carbs many years ago, there was no real science involved, I just ate less bread and potatoes basically. I just didn't get on with it, I felt drained all the time. I'm more than happy with my current regime between 120/180g of carbs daily. I know this isn't low carb but what is? Where do you draw the line? When does low become average/medium?
I appreciate people will have differing opinions, but it's those opinions I would be interested to know. I'm not interested in official guidelines or advice from expert's in a book.
I'm thinking below 50g per day but I'm not sure.
Thanks for your time and replies.

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30 to 50 grams per day spread over 2 meals in an 8 hour window has worked wonders for me. I don't find it too difficult either.

Regards

Bluebell

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Under 20 is my number

I would personally say anything under 50g is low carb. Under 20 as @Kristin251 has mentioned, to me, is very low carb (I don't know how she does it! Her self control is amazing). I consume anywhere between 50-100g per day, and I consider myself moderate carb.

Just as you witnessed with your co-worker, it's safe to say that the vast majority of people are consuming well over 200g a day - if not sometimes per meal! A simple meal of lentil curry, rice and some naan bread will put you close to 200g! I call that high carb, but I think a non diabetic would just say it's normal.

A typical diet, pretty much anywhere in the world, is very high in carbs.

I've been as low as 20g carbs a day to get me into ketosis originally, now I live comfortably on < 50g carbs a day, and this allows a little wiggle room, which means I can keep this up long term - 2+ years so far.

When I was first diagnosed I was told to watch my sugar consumption, and I did this for a short time until I realised I needed to watch all carbs not just sugar, so I then cut down on starchy foods too. This was before i discovered our forum and a "real" LCHF diet, but just doing those 2 steps in blissful ignorance over a couple of months had a dramatic effect on reducing my glucose levels.

How many carbs you eat will depend on how many or few you'll actually need to eat to achieve your own specific targets, and more importantly how few carbs you can cope with without ending up falling off the wagon. You need to find your own balance, and you may find it easier reducing your totals gradually rather than taking one giant low carby leap. Using your meter will tell you how you're managing with your glucose levels and you'll need to adjust your carbs depending on your results, and if you're wanting lose, gain or maintain weight, you'll generally need to adjust the amount of fats you eat up or down too; use a low carb nutritional calculator to find your personal carbs/protein/fats proportions - e.g. http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/DietMakeupCalc.php

I think the most important thing to remember for success is that it's a low carb higher fat diet: both are equally important and you must make sure that you have enough fuel in the form of fats, oils and protein to replace what came previously from the carbs you're going to cut out.

Sorry about the essay, but I think that you will probably manage better if you have a reason or definite plan for deciding on the number of carbs to eat rather than just plucking a figure "out of the air".

Robbity

I don't bother counting, I just eat the one's that are necessary.


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I call low carb anything under 150g carbs a day in general. I eat 180 approx and I would call that moderate carb.

therower said:

I'm more than happy with my current regime between 120/180g of carbs daily.

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The main website of DCUK states the following:

• Moderate carbohydrate: 130 to 225g of carbs
• Low carbohydrate: under 130g of carbs
• Very low carbohydrate: under 30g of carbs

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html

The last couple of weeks I've been eating very low carb. Last week was <30g a day, this week is <20g a day, with the express intention of cutting body fat ahead of a trip involving beaches. In order to do this, I'm also eating around 2000 calories a day, doing a particularly fat burning focused gym session twice a week and ensuring I'm doing the 10k steps a day, and my current amounts of macronutrients are:

180g Protein
20g Carbs
133g fat

But, it's working... Over the last two weeks my weight has done the following:

***Breaks out the red shorts....***

When i talk about Low Carb I'm making vague, generalised reference to the 50-130g carb a day range.
When i talk about Very Low Carb, I'm thinking 50g or less, which is also often referred to as Ketogenic eating.
But really Ketogenic eating is very personal. Could be under 50g or under 20g, depends on the individual, though it is often the hormonally challenged middle aged women who need to drop that low.

25g for me during my first 3 months post diagnosis.

Will now start to test carbs, volume and carbohydrate sensitivity with adding new foods


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therower said:

@noblehead . Thanks for that info. Feel better educated now. Felt a bit left out with so much reference to lchf and not really knowing what targets people had. Obviously like most things diabetic it is what suits the individual. Didn't realise that I'm in the moderate range, quite surprised.

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Hi @therower,

My view is it doesn't matter how many carbs someone is eating overall as long as they are controlling their diabetes and are otherwise healthy, so yes it certainly is ''what suits the individual''.......

@therower

You should eat as much crab's as your body need's. If you eat more , then the crab's will be converted into fat. The amount off carb's depend on your physical activities. The basis of the carb's amount is your BMR ( the Basal Metabolic Rate ). The easy way to calculate the BMR is to multiply your desired body weight with 24. Ask your doctor and make experiment's to find the right amount of your need for carb's. ( under 130 g/day sounds reasonable)

luna50 said:

@therower

You should eat as much crab's as your body need's. If you eat more , then the crab's will be converted into fat. The amount off carb's depend on your physical activities. The basis of the carb's amount is your BMR ( the Basal Metabolic Rate ). The easy way to calculate the BMR is to multiply your desired body weight with 24. Ask your doctor and make experiment's to find the right amount of your need for carb's. ( under 130 g/day sounds reasonable)

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Thanks Luna. I'm burning 1277 calories a day in exercise on 18g of carbs a day at the moment. Yesterday night my gym resistance training session saw me increase my weights by approximately 1000kg of lifted weight in the course of the session. My BMR burn is 1,884 calories + the 1277 including cardio exercise. I ate around 2000 calories yesterday and that was less than 80 calories in carbs. It had no effect on my physical performance.

By your reckoning this shouldn't have been possible, and yet it works (and not just for me).