Hello!

Can someone help me determine what is the correct amount of carbs that I should be eating per day? I think I’m getting overwhelmed with all the information and not sure what is the breakdown I need to follow in regards to fat, carbs, fiber, etc. Also, what apps are people using to track their calories and nutrients? I have barely started and feel I am going to failed already :(.

Thank you!

Welcome!

I use the tracker that comes with my Fitbit app. Others like MyFitnessPal, Fat Secret and there is one called Carb Manager. general consensus is that carbs should be less than 50g per day, though most apps don’t work this out for you easily or like it when you only want to eat 800 cals per day 😀

I can only really speak for Fitbit, which will calculate your macros if you input your food each day. I’ve used MyFitnessPal before too, and find it has a much bigger food database, but Fitbit lets me obsess over heart rate, weekly steps etc. I am sure other more knowledgeable folk will be along soon!

Hi I use fatsecret, it doesn’t nag you to have minimum values as I hear myfitnesspal does. Also it works with the UK method of showing carbs with the fibre subtracted.

Dr MM’s book doesn’t give targets for macros, so most of us who have a lot of weight to lose have turned to other sources for the guidelines.

Protein in the range 0.6g to 0.8g per Kilo of TARGET weight.
Carbs – It depends on how insulin resistant you are, some people can get into fat burning mode (ketosis) on 50g of carbs, others have to drop under 20g of carbs. – If you are only going to be on 800 cals a day for just a short time then eating low carb is fine, but if you have a lot of weight to loose you run the risk of slowing your metabolic rate if your insulin levels are too high for your body to access your fat stores easily. You can either use blood or breath testing to work it out, or play safe and stay under 20g of carbs if you have a lot of weight to loos.
The rest of your calories come from healthy fat.

Jgwen how much would you class as a lot to lose? Xx

I’m interested in your opinion on this too, JGwen. I’ll weigh in at 100+ lbs. (pun intended!) 🙂

Welcome new members! The subject of how many carbs is one that reappears weekly. Please type “how many
carbs” into the searchbox and there will be extensive material there for you to read. Good luck to each of you!

Allie

There is research that if you do not keep your insulin levels low enough that your body can access your fat stores, than your body will respond to calorie restriction by reducing your metabolic rate. – (See Biggest Loser research).

So to me the issue of strategy revolves around how long a period of cal counting when not in ketosis will the body tolerate before reducing metabolic rate. – I haven’t seen any research on this topic. – So my view is that if someone will loose enough weight in an single round of 8 weeks of eating 800 calories to make it possible to move on to 5:2 afterwards, then Dr MM has effectively sanctioned this as being a workable option and there is no evidence that he is incorrect.

But for those who have enough weight to loose that they ask the advice of members of the forum about repeated rounds we should advise them to play safe and ensure they are in ketosis if they are going to eat 800 calories a day.

If you consider the example of the Biggest Loser, people were evicted each week and even the winners were only on the show for 30 weeks. The majority of participants regained more weight than they lost, Dr Fung points to research that their metabolic rates dropped by 600 calories a day. – I have just come across a different piece of research that says it was 500 calories a day, but that there were some people who did not regain weight but only by maintaining higher levels of exercise. https://www.today.com/health/new-study-biggest-loser-contestants-finds-exercise-not-diet-key-t118250

The other issue is about adaption to eating patterns such as one meal a day. – That is something Dr Fung talks about. I wonder if the issue is again that without either the personal resolve to stay under 20g of carbs or using some mechanism to monitor so you remain in ketosis having one meal a day causes a spike in insulin which is enough to push your body into reducing metabolic rate. Whereas if you fast for 36 hours 3 times a week and then eat without counting calories between each fast you have a long enough period low insulin so that you enter ketosis, and at the same time have periods of refeeding so the body is not triggered into reducing metabolic rate. – If you are having no cals one day, and two meals the next then you will be probably averaging less than 800 calories a day, and Dr Fung says it isn’t important to eat low carb (but it is easier to fast).

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I recently posted a link on the take a look at this thread about a podcast by Dr Bikman, where he explained how burning ketones increases metabolic rate, because it encourages fat cells to be decoupled and burn extra fuel that you may find interesting.

Hi all
If you are in Australia and have an iPhone – then I use an app called Easy Diet Diary – in app store blue logo with a pear.
It lists most of the Australian brands so easy to use, and you can add your own foods and recipes. It tracks daily protein, fats, carbs etc. I’ve used it a long time, and they regularly update their food lists.
If I make a recipe such as from the book, I enter it in, with number of servings and it gives me all the stats per serve.
Merry

I use Sparkpeople.com. You can track your food etc for free, add your own favourite foods etc. It is US based and the database is a bit heavy (!) on processed foods. But once you have used it for a while and put in your own foods, the “recent” and “favourite” options make it very easy to use.

Ooh MerryMelba I wish MFP would do the break down per serving, would make a lot easier as the book is not correct in its breakdown😢. Hope you are well hun💞🦜

MFP does do a serving breakdown if you use their recipe function. Import ingredient lists from online recipes or manually enter your own, enter the serving number and save. When you click on the name of the recipe, it will show you a per-serving nutritional panel. It’s a bit of a pain to search for all the ingredients at first (even the automatic import feature gets things wrong a lot so you have to edit the entries to replace them with accurate ingredients), but it’s not difficult and it won’t be long before you have a rather nice collection of options that you can add to your daily log with a single click.

Oh wow thank you Essie💞🦜

I have just done it for the mini frittatas that Allie suggested to me earlier. Love it Essie as this will make my life a lot easier. 😄😄😄😄🎉💞🦜

I should have told you that’s what I was using when you made the spinach feta frittatas, but I didn’t realize you didn’t know. I have like 10 pages of recipes on MFP, no joke. Invaluable tool.

Ah I see🤣🤣🤣. Thnak you though 💞🦜

Essie I wish you could send all those recipes to me🤣🤣💞🦜

Ha! No jumping the cue, Birdy! I recognized Essie’s genius first, around here 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie I am sure Essie has enough for everyone 🤣🤣

Hope you realize that I spoke “tongue in cheek”, Birdy! I use E.’s recipe for devilish deviled eggs all the time. Type
KIMCHI into the search box and you will find it there.

Allie of course I did sweetie🤣🤣💞🦜. I am in sunny Hampshire helping mother in law out who is crutches for her ankle she has her space boot on🤣🤣. Don’t think I will be getting much sleep today before my night shift😢