Hi, I am doing the 800 calorie a day 8 week diet. I am uncertain how many carbs to have. I know less is best but we also need some healthy ones. Am I right in thinking maximum of 50g carbs from a good healthy source a day? Or less? I have been on this a week tomorrow and have lost 5lbs. Not as much as I thought I would from reading the book but hey…that’s still very good. Feeling very hungry despite eating plenty of my calories in protein and fat. Hope I am doing it right.

Hi On-a-Mission! Good for you to be started and so successfully already! The issue of carbohydrate intake is a personal one and over the next few weeks you will be discovering how much carbohydrate your body can handle and still lose weight. Every person is different. Carbohydrates drive your production of insulin, and, because insulin is the “fat storage” hormone, keeping your carb intake low will keep your insulin production down and will help you mobilize your fat stores.
When you eat too many carbs, especially simple carbs, you literally “lock away” your body’s fuel source (your fat) in your fat cells. Because it is locked up in your cells, it is not available to your body and brain and you will get panicky/super hungry. That is not ideal and usually results in people overeating to compensate.
By lowering your carbs, you will be allowing your fat stores to mobilize. The recommendations from various research (out of the US) can be as low as 20 grams per day. If you are a high-insulin individual, you may need to go that low for a while. After you start to mobilize fat and start to lose weight, you might be able to increase your carb intake — you will have to learn your own “sweet spot”.
I need to keep my carb intake around 30-40 to control weight gain — but I have now maintained for 6 months at my goal weight (I started March 2016) and I eat a lot of food and I am not hungry (you know, except at mealtime, as appropriate). During the weight loss period (I did about four months on the strict BSD) I tried to stay under 30 carbs per day and that really helped me lose weight AND most importantly, stopped my hunger — a big issue for me!
Try going very low (20 grams/day) and then add back in complex carbs in tiny portions and watch your body’s response. It will revolutionize your life — for the first time ever, I can control my weight, eat real food and enjoy my food. Good luck on your journey!

I just remembered that I forgot to say that you will be counting “net” carbs so don’t forget to subtract the fiber from the carb count to get net carbs — makes a huge difference and will give you more flexibility and will encourage you to eat high fiber/low GI foods!

Californiagirl thanks for such a comprehensive explanation. When you say subtract the fiber from the carb count to get net carbs, would that mean that if I am having a salad and some metamucil and a carb dense food I add up the whole meal’s fiber content and take it from the whole meal’s carb content to get the carbs level. Or is just the fiber from the carb product? Thanks for your help xx

Interesting question — I believe it would be a mixture of insulin responses — but who knows really because how do we digest high carb and low carb and high GI and low GI all in our stomachs at the same time? I think we need an expert nutritionist for this question!

Thanks Californiagirl.

Hi all
In the book it doesn’t mention at all about staying under 50g CARBS and loads of the recipes have that or more in one portion! I’m struggling to stay under 50g and eat what I think is a good amount of vegetables. I’m starting to drift towards too much cheese and Quorn ( I’m vegetarian) as they have very low carbs. I was hoping to add more pulses but carb content is too high. Can you suggest anything?

Vegetarians often struggle to stay under 50g, it may not be a problem if you are slightly higher than this, if you are still losing weight. If the weightloss stops then you may have to continue the struggle, but try 60g net carbs as i believe some other vegetarians have and see how it goes. Just keep the quality of carb sources high and you could still be okay.