High-carb, Low-carb, and Between: What's the Difference?

[zeno]

What's the difference on a diet that is high in carbohydrates, low in carbohydrates and a moderate amount of carbohydrates?

I'm afraid that if I eat too much carbohydrates I become sluggish and sleepy; if I avoid carbohydrates my energy level is low and I eventually become irritable.

How can one avoid either of these extremes?

Would this require a consistent load of carbohydrates that do not have a high glycemic load (the impact upon blood sugar) spaced throughout the day? 

What do you think is ideal for yourself?

[TylerDurden]

Just experiment and be instinctive.If you start measuring your exact carb-intake, you'll just become overly orthorexic and get anxiety or worse. I, for example, vary my intake according to my feelings. If it's too hot, I eat mainly only raw plant foods, if I want to feel more alert/able to concentrate, I'll only eat raw animal foods. All this I leant via experimentation.

[eveheart]

I'm afraid that if I eat too much carbohydrates I become sluggish and sleepy; if I avoid carbohydrates my energy level is low and I eventually become irritable.

This is exactly what happened to me last summer, especially when I tried to lower my carb intake; too low an intake made me unable to sleep well at night.

Also, as TD mentioned, carb-defining and carb-counting made me an orthorexic monster. Same thing happened when I tried to calculate fat-intake percentages.

My middle way is to define my food-choice parameters along the lines of paleo-available foods, keep it raw, seasonal, local, and unprocessed, and let instinct do the rest.

[Adora]

I am extremely frustrated about carbs. I am eating all of the fruit I want now and I feel so much better. My bs are getting better, but I want to be able to eat low carb because it makes much better cave sense. I just feel so bad, so for now I'm eating carbs. I'm sleeping outside with candle and firelight hoping I will adjust.

[goodsamaritan]

what fruits and how much?

[Adora]

I've been eating whatever fruits I want, not worring about in season, b/c nothing is in season here. I have had melons, papaya, banana, berries, citrus, apples. I have had some honey and raw coco beans. Basically, I'm living the high life. I'm feeling ok just taking a little more insulin. I'm having some with every meal so my bs is pretty stable.
    Being very low carb dropped my bs and insulin briefly, but it would creep up. I think partly b/c I ate bigger portions, with a fruit on my plate I have wanted less food. I don't need the really full sensation to be done. I was taking .70 units / hr when I started eating fruit more and now I'm take .85- not a big change. I'm hoping rest will decreas my need a bit more.
     I was getting depressed - feeling that I would never heal diabetes. Depression is bad news. I need hope so I change things up. A new plan has helped. I hadn't had high meat in a while. I forgot my high fish in my jar in fridge- I hadn't aired it in soong I just tossed it. High meat is good for my mood, so being without was not. I will make more soon and I'm getting a large cut of fresh beef that I will keep open in my fridge so maybe those bacteria will be mood enhancing.
More answer than question, but the fruit change was a big choice for me. At some point I'm thinking of going very low carb with low portion size and hoping that the big drop in carb gradient will let my body come off insulin long enough to heal pancreas. All of these things are long shots but they keep me going strong.

[Adora]

GS I tried a bitter melon supplement that I found locally. There wasn't anything else in it, but it was dried and I doubt raw. I did it with low carb, cold, dark protocol. I didn't notice an improvement. I took it all over about 3 weeks. It will be available fresh here in summer so I thought I would try it again then. Just being raw is changing me in many ways I do get stronger. It would be such a big improvement to heal type 1 diabetes and it is a huge impediment to healing to be stuck with it for now. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Iguana]

I was getting depressed - feeling that I would never heal diabetes.

I’ve been told by one of the 4 first persons to practice and develop the instinctonutrion that diabetes is not a problem at all anymore with this nutrition. Moreover, some years ago I met a young windsurfer who was diabetic ; he told me that he no longer needs insulin since he eats « instincto » and he can eat absolutely normally, just whatever he likes – of course as long as it is paleo (thus no dairy and no wheat), raw, unprocessed and unmixed.

[Iguana]

 

What do you think is ideal for yourself?

I just don’t care about carbs/proteins/fat ratios. Animals and our paleo ancestors didn’t know anything about those things but they’ve nevertheless managed to remain healthy and thrive! We have a kind of inbuilt computer which knows and tell us what and how much to eat of each stuff according to our specific current needs. 

This 'computer' is fooled by cooked, mixed and processed modern and neolithic stuff, but it works well enough with raw paleo stuff.

[spitfiredd1]

What's the difference on a diet that is high in carbohydrates, low in carbohydrates and a moderate amount of carbohydrates?

Different needs for different circumstances, that's why a once size fits all approach usually never work.  There are day's when you need to eat more carbs, for instance when you are doing a lot of physical activity.  And there are day's when you need more fats for healing and repair of you body.  Aside from listening to your body, be aware of what you are doing and any future plans that involve either a lot of physical activity or rest.

How can one avoid either of these extremes?

Aside from listening to your body, be aware of what you are doing and any future plans that involve either a lot of physical activity or rest, and adjust accordingly.

What do you think is ideal for yourself?

Usually when I am doing more working out or alot of physical activity I end up eating more calories in general, the calories I usually eat on those days are usually excess carbs I need for glycogen storage and fuel.

On normal day's I usually eat somewhere around 40-45% fat 15% Protein and the rest carbs.  I kind of take the moderate approach.  I do stay lower in protein though since I do think there is a point where you can overload on too much protein.  That's why I eat fatty cuts of meat, "lean" cuts of meat with all the fat trimmed never appealed to me since were always so dry.  Growing up I always went for the drumstick and the fatty skin when we had chicken, which have more fat.