Hi – I hope this hasn’t been asked a million times before. I’ve read the book from cover to cover and I know its 800 calories per day, but what is the maximum carbs and sugar we should be eating on a daily basis?

The Blood Sugar Diet does not focus on quantity of carbs. It focuses on quality – nonstarchy, complex, legumes, and making them a taste – not the whole meal.

Any advice about specific quantities you receive (and you likely will) comes from people experimenting to find out what works for them. So it is a personal limit, not part of the diet.

My own personal limit, until I started this diet, was 20 carbs in a 3 hour period. I still generally stick to that, since I know it is safe in connection with my blood glucose. I have tried to stick to the spirit of the diet, which does include more carbs than I can usually tolerate – and just last night had a 30 carb meal (primarily from chick peas and non-starchy vegetables). My BG peaked at 5.39. 🙂

My advice is to follow the recipes, and perhaps the menus, and not fixate on quantities of carbs you are eating – unless you are having a blood glucose response that troubles you.

Thank you for your response. It was very helpful. Now I know why the maximum amounts are not mentioned.

Hi LIndy Lou
It’s correct that there are no figures mentioned in the book for carbs.
A lot of us try to keep them below 50g per day as that is the figure quoted elsewhere to put your body into ketosis or fat burning mode.

Hi Lindy Lou,
as both Neohdiver and Bill say, the carbs you require are part of your biochemistry. I have lost weight consistently over 10 weeks (15.5g) and my average carb intake was 60g per day, calories 800 +/_ 75. In the last 2 weeks I started testing for fat burning – and I was burning fat at that level of carb intake. Exercise taken that day also impacted the fat burning and pushed it up a notch (I used keto-stix as an indicator). Others (David6855) was managing to reduce his BS on 70g carb a day.
Start with something you are comfortable with – I get leg craps overnight if I drop below 55g, so I have stuck to 60g. Neohdiver’s approach of a consistent amount per meal is a good idea. If you do not get the results you expected over a couple of weeks, you can cut the carbs down a bit.
It is important to monitor you carb intake. I aim for 800 cals, but it my carbs are over 60g and I am at 700 cals, then I stop there for that day. If my carbs are too low, then I will go above 800 to get the carbs up and avoid leg cramps. Bill does not look at calories, but monitors carbs and sensible portion sizes. You will find out our own bodies idiosyncrasies over time!
good luck and enjoy the journey.

Hi Lindy Lou,

I’ve been more worried about getting enough fibre with restricted carbs. Also I’m keeping track of my food with my fitness pal app and it doesn’t subtract the fibre content from the carb amount. So I was probably getting less fibre than I should have.

Think I’m still working it out and am 3.5 weeks in lol

Thank you all for your responses. It is certainly a learning curve. I have been managing to keep to the 800 cals, but now I have an idea of the range of carbs I should be eating, hopefully the weight loss will step up a notch. I’m not complaining though, I have lost 4.5kgs in 4 weeks.

For the last 12 weeks my sugar intake so far as I can ascertain from the labelling and Google searches has been less than 30 gm/day. I never counted carbs – just cut out or severely restrict “white” foodstuffs – job done.