How Many Carbs Should I Eat, a Day?

Everyone eats carbohydrates. You pretty much can not get around it. We need carbs for energy after all. But the question still remains: how many carbs should I eat in a day? Are there drawbacks from eat too little or too many carbs? What are the side effects of eating carbs or abstaining from eating carbs? Well once again, as with protein, it depends on what you do on a daily basis. Furthermore, ingestion of carbs should be focused more around the question: WHEN should I eat carbs during the day?

As with how much fat to eat in a day and how much protein to eat in a day, it all depends on a couple factors:

* job

* insulin resistance

* activity level

* target body weight

* exercise goals

* lifestyle

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as stated by the Department of Health and Human Services, suggest that roughly 50% of your daily calories come from carbs. Thus, a person who eats approximately 2,500 calories per day should take in about about 300 grams of carbs. This number is not altogether bad for the average American, but we have to take into consideration the sources of those carbs.

These are the kinds of carbs to avoid at all costs:

* sugary snacks and pastries

* sugar-sweetened soft drinks or fruit juice

* candy

* cookies

* regular fried greasy chips

* processed, packaged snack foods

* high sugar kids cereals

* processed white flour products such as white bread and pasta

These foods offer virtually no nutritional value, and they contain far too many calories. Some of these foods also contain saturated and trans-fats that are bad for your heart, and sugary foods can lead to such maladies as type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Specifically if you are already insulin resistant, you should avoid these bad carbs as they will just ruin your day by making you tired, slow, dumb, and hungry.

Instead choose these kinds of carbs:

* fresh fruit

* vegetables

* whole wheat and whole grain products

* beans, nuts, and other legumes

When Do I Need More Carbs?

People that exercise with high intensity or with prolonged endurance, can benefit from a high carbohydrate intake before exercise. It is feasible to consume a high carbohydrate meal before a marathon, or a moderately high carbohydrate meal before lifting weights or martial arts training. It is not a good idea to consume too many carbs in one sitting, but 50 grams is not out of the question if you are preparing for a physically draining event.

During and after exercise is also a key time to consume carbs. In fact this is the only time it is recommended to consume sugary carbs. I tend to sip on Gatorade during a workout and my post-workout drink contains about 40 grams of carbs in the form of dextrose. If allowed to choose, I would choose Biotest Surge as my post-workout drink of choice. This is a product that is specially formulated to replenish lost glycogen stores and restart protein synthesis after a demanding workout.

When Do I Need Fewer Carbs?

There is no need to eat carbohydrates at night. Ever. Some folks believe in consuming a high-carb meal the night before an event like a marathon, but I just don't see it. I would say eat that meal in the morning if the event is in the late morning or early afternoon. The best time for a high carbohydrate meal is in the morning, when your body is prepared to uptake glycogen for energy for the day. Lunch should be a moderate carb meal as you don't want to get that 'bonk' feeling in the middle of the afternoon. Also consider that if you don't plan to exercise during the day then there is really no need to gulp down many carbs at any point in the day.

Carbs and Fat Loss

If you are on a fat loss diet, then there is definitely no need to eat more than 100 grams of carbs in any one day. I don't necessarily support Atkins, but there are valid points to that diet. When I am in the middle of a hardcore cutting phase, trying to get as lean as possible in a given time frame, I will only consume 20-30 grams of low glycemic index carbs for breakfast.

For lunch I will try to avoid most carbs, opting for whole grain bread or a salad if necessary. My pre-workout drink is typically 1/2 a serving of Biotest Surge, I sip on Gatorade during the workout, then finish off with 1 serving of Biotest Surge after the workout. On non-workout days, I skip all of that and choose a protein bar, cheese, or a meat snack instead.

Dinner is always low carb during a diet. Soup, meat and vegetables, and salad are all great choices for low carb dinners. Appropriate snacks are meats, cheeses, protein bars or shakes, veggies, and other super-low carb foods. Typically in the midst of a diet phase, I eat around 75 grams of carbs on a non-workout day, and maybe 120-140 grams of carbs on a workout day.

In conclusion, I recommend that if you are moderately active, you should derive maybe 30% of your daily calories from carbs. Sure, my opinion differs from specialist government agencies, but that is only because I have seen low carb diets work. I have also seen Americans grow obese and suffer from a long list of carbohydrate induced diseases.

A 200 lb man on a 2500 calorie diet would probably eat maybe 180 grams of carbs in a day, all from unprocessed whole food sources. A 140 lb woman on a 1500 calorie diet might only eat 100 grams of carbs in a day.

Someone on a strict diet might limit themselves to 50 grams of carbohydrates a day regardless of sex or weight. Just remember to avoid those nasty sugary processed carbs so that you can stay healthy, avoiding energy crashes and adult-onset type II diabetes.

Recommended Food For Diabetic!!

Brewer’s Yeast Brewer’s yeast is a wonder food. It is rich in traces of mineral chromium. This mineral helps the pancreas produce more insulin. It is one of the best supports for normal handling of sugar by the body. According to an article by Dr. Richard J. Doisy and others, which appeared in the Medical World News, Brewer’s yeast has lowered the insulin requirements of many diabetes patients. Broccoli, a close relation of the cauliflower, has long been a popular food in Europe.

This vegetable has proved to be an effective anti-diabetic food. It is rich source of chromium, a trace mineral that seems to lower blood sugar. This trace mineral regulates blood sugar, thereby often reducing the medication and insulin needs of diabetes. Incases of mild diabetes, chromium may prevent the onset of the full-fledged disease. If a person’s glucose tolerance is on border, chromium can help control it. Even low blood sugar levels can be brought to normal with chromium. Curd Curd injects friendly bacteria in to the digestive system that stimulate the pancreas. It also washes the pancreas of its acids and wastes. These cleansing actions enable the pancreas to perform much better and thereby help in the production of insulin.

Garlic In scientific trials garlic and its constituents have been found to lower blood sugar in diabetes. This vegetable is rich in potassium, which effectively replaces the large quantities of potassium lost inthe urine of diabetics. It also contains zinc and sulphur, which are constituents of insulin. Some authorities believe that low levels of zinc may be one of the factors responsible for the onset of diabetes. Garlic also contains manganese, a deficiency of which can contribute towards diabetes. Garlic constituents appear to act by blocking the inactivation of insulin in the liver. The result is higher blood insulin levels and lower blood sugar. Garlic has other benefits for diabetes besides lowering blood sugar. It prevents arteriosclerosis, which is a common complication of diabetes and relieves body paid. Diabetics can take the equivalent of one or two cloves of garlic a day in any form they like, either raw or cooked in food or as capsules.

Garlic milk, prepared by adding four cloves of crushed garlic to 110 ml of milk, is one good way of taking garlic. The best way, however, is to chew raw garlic thoroughly first thing in the morning. Bengal Gram Bengal gram, also known as chickpea, is a widely used important component of Indian diet. It is a valuable anti-diabetic food. Experiments have shown that the oral ingestion of the water extract of Bengal gram increases the utilization of glucose in diabetics as wellas normal people. In a study conducted at Central food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, the requirement of insulin of chronic diabetes patients decreased from 40 units a day to 20 units, when kepton a diet which included liberal supplements of Bengal gram extract.

Diabetic patients who are on a restricted diet, which does not severely limit the intake of carbohydrates but includes liberal amounts of Bengal gram extract, have shown considerable improvement in their fasting blood sugar levels, glucose tolerance, urinary excretion of sugar and general condition. Bitter Gourd The bitter gourd is a common vegetable cultivated extensively. It has excellent medicinal virtues. This vegetable has been used as fold medicine for diabetes from ancient times. Research has established that it contains insulin like principle designated as plant-insulin, which has been found beneficial in lowering blood and urine sugar levels.

Bitter gourd is thus and effective anti-diabetic food and should be included liberally in the diet of a diabetic. Juice of three or four bitter gourds taken every morning on an empty stomach has been found more effective than eating fruits. The seeds of bitter gourd can be powdered and added to regular meals. A decoction prepared by boiling chopped bitter gourd is water is equally effective, as is its dry powder mixed with liquid foods. Bitter gourd is rich in all essential vitamins and minerals especially vitamins A, B1, B2, C and iron. Its regular use, therefore, prevents many complications associated with diabetes including hypertension, eye complications, neuritis and the defective metabolism of carbohydrates.

Black Gram Black gram is a highly prized pulse in India. It is an anti diabeticfood. Germinated black gram taken with half a cup of fresh bitter gourdjuice, forms and effective remedy for treating mild types of diabetes.It should be taken once a day, for three to four months, with arestricted intake of carbohydrates. In severe diabetes, regular use of this combination is an effectivecomplement to other treatments. It is also a useful health food forpreventing complications due to malnutrition in diabetes. Milk preparedby grinding sprouted whole black gram is also recommended fordiabetics. Groundnut Groundnuts are valuable in diabetes. Eating a handful of groundnutsdaily by diabetics will not only prevent malnutrition, particularly thedeficiency of niacin, but also checks the development of vascularcomplications.

Preventing Diabetes!!

For all those diabetics out there, do the names Avandia or Altace ring a bell? A recent study has shown that both drugs may well help by giving additional prevention for those that are “pre - diabetics”,- which accounts for almost 40 million of our population.


As many as half of the people who are “pre-diabetics” will develop diabetes within a three year time span.This has been the largest study on diabetes prevention ever, the study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well asother companies that make pharmaceuticals, like Glaxo Smith Kline PLC which makes Avandia and Sanofi-Aventis SA and King Pharmaceuticals which makes Altace. Avandia, also know as Rosiglitazon, was shown to cut the risk of Type 2 diabetes development by more than half. Avandia also controlled blood-sugar to keep it at a normal level.

Type 2diabetes is by far the most common form of diabetes in the U.S today, for 18 million sufferers, this information could well be a major development.Another part of the study looked at Altace, or Ramipril which functions as a blood pressure medication but can also help control blood sugar –yet it does not reduce any risk. The aim of the study was to prevent Type 2 diabetes which is most linked to obesity and sometimes kidney failure, amputations and death. Type 2 diabetes happens when the body naturally does not produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use what the body does produce.


So here are the ups and downs of the study. Both Altace and Avandia were used on the volunteers and some of them did not use any form of medication. The study showed that less people died on Avandia than those who did not take it. But of those volunteers on Avandia given, fourteen of them developed heart failure and only two developed heart failure from those not taking medication. Experts are somewhat skeptical about the study results because the volunteers were also regularly counseled about healthy diets and lifestyles.


Meaning the results could well be very different had the volunteers not been participating in any form of medical assistance. However many doctors say that working out and maintaining a healthy diet is still the best possible way to prevent diabetes in the long term. “We know that lifestyle changes alone can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by up to 58 percent,” said Dr. Martin Abrahamson, Medical Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Dr. Abrahamson is not associated with the study.