Hi, I’m a new joiner today having read the book cover to cover yesterday. Don’t know if I missed this somewhere in my haste to read book and get started but is there a recommended daily amount of carbs whilst on the plan?

Sorry if I’m being a bit thick and have missed it but would be grateful if someone can answer.
Thanks

Hi,
I read the book two weeks ago and can’t remember seeing a recommended daily carb allowance. I got the impression that pretty much all starchy and white carbs were off the list – there might be a few included in some of the menus in the book? There are carbs in beans and peas and fruit, plus a little in yoghurt and feta cheese, and in vegetables. Strangely, ordinary potatoes only contain about 17% carbohydrate (I read this in a book once), but they’re starchy and quite high on the glycaemic index. I initially tried no carbs other than legumes, etc., but felt strange, constipated, and grumpy! I then included a very small amount of porridge oats for breakfast (the slippery slope….) and two small boiled potatoes at dinner..and felt alot better; I even made a ham and pea risotto where the risotto rice was a 25mg portion in alot of peas, rather than the other way around, and that helped me tolerate other meals with no carbs. I then found I wasn’t hungry for hours after a Subway salad and single portion of meatballs alone – although the meatballs probably contained some carbs, such as breadcrumbs or flour.

Hi Happywife, I just logged on to ask this exact question. I’m pretty much following the menu plan but am making up my own recipes too (I’m a chef and I can’t help myself) and I would really like to know roughly what the breakdown of carbs, protein and fat I should be aiming for each day. Can anyone help?

I would interested in hearing the official word on this. I’m averaging around 55 grams of carb per day, according to my tracker.

To be honest there isn’t an official ‘carb allowance’ or clear research as to what this might be – I’m not sure it is a particularly helpful concept as it utterly depends on what sort of carbs you are eating . The Med style diet differentiates between the high sugar & starchy carbohydrates which put up blood sugars and need to be significantly restricted and the complex carbs found in green veg, pulses, seeds etc that can be eaten more freely. Your absorption of carbs is also affected by what you are eating the carbs with – so it is slowed down by eating it with healthy fats.
The Med style diet is not the same as a very low carbohydrate diet; the principles are described in this web site and there is more detail in the book. I hope this helps. It should make it easier as you are aiming to eat healthy food groups and so hopefully there is less counting needed.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Guess we all know when we are stretching the guidelines on recommended foods to suit. So bottom line here is to use common sense and as Michaelmas daisy recognised there are times when a few carbs just hold mind and body together.
Night all, only 54 days to go!
Ax

There is a recommendation for grams of protein per day though – from memory I think it’s around 50g. And there’s some research on VLCDs that suggests that you do need to make sure you have at least 7g fat a day (and preferably more) in order to reduce the risk of gallstones – http://www.foodedsoc.org/marks/MARKS34.htm

I’d go for at least 20g of fat, and there’s no reason to be scared of having much more than that now that we know fat doesn’t make you fat.

So, given there’s 4 calories per gram of protein and 9 calories per gram of fat…

4 x 50 = 200 calories
20 x 9 = 180

Total intake from protein and fat = 380 calories.

Which leaves a maximum of 420 calories for carbs – so up to 105g of carb a day (given carbs are 4 calories per gram).

According to many low carb gurus, anything less than 100g carb a day is considered a low carb diet.

But to be honest, it’s probably not worth worrying exactly how you spend your calories (quantities of fat and protein aside) provided you eat a good range of foods each day.

Thanks for all of those responses, I’m pretty confident the carbs we are eating are all good carbs and we are trying to incorporate good fats into all of our meals so I am going to stop worrying about it! According to myfitnesspal I’ve been anywhere between 25 and 50% carbs, protein and fat each day, it’s been fluctuating a lot which I am pretty happy with, I’m sure it will all balance out by the end of the week. I am having trouble getting enough iron in though… definitely having a Friday night steak dinner!

I too am interested in this question. Haven’t received my copy of the book yet (waiting impatiently by the letter box!) but I’ve read in various threads about the importance of trying to stay under 50carbs per day for maximum weight loss. I haven’t really managed to do this yet, or come close to it even though I am finding it really easy to cut back to 800 calories without feeling hungry.

Has anyone who has completed the 8 week 800 calorie version of the diet found that counting carbs isn’t necessary?

Lily, I’m impressed with your calculations and the way you reached them.
Thank you !

Hi Beverley,
There have been people who’ve lost weight just on the 800 cals per day. So you will lose weight if you stick to that and avoid the easily digestible carbs mentioned in the book ( potatoes, rice, pasta etc). Best to make sure your carbs come from pulses, legumes, veg, the more complex carbs that contain plenty of fibre.
I think you’ll find that most of us who are counting carbs are doing it to bring blood sugars under control. Sometimes if people are worried about about weight loss stalling we might ask them to check their carb intake as it is possible to have a high carb intake on 800 cals if you don’t eat from a wide range of foods.
While you are waiting for your book you could download the articles from the Daily Mail, search for the 8 week blood sugar diet. That will have enough info and the meal plans to get you started 🙂

Hi Beverley

I’ve stuck to 800 calories and not really counted carbs. But I have avoided the bad carbs and always try to go for the lowest carb option in veg. I don’t often eat fruit because even berries can spike my blood sugars.

I think most if those counting carbs use an app to record their good intake, but I use a notebook to record everything. If I did use an app I would count the carbs.