How many grams of carbs must you stay under/above (on average)?

[Sully]

How many estimated grams of carbs must you stay under, for your body to switch to an alternative fuel? If I remember, it was 25g right?
I am pretty sure this was answered quite a few times.

[eveheart]

From what I know, "low-carb" is highly variable from person to person. I have to stay well under 20 grams per day. The best way to find your level is with a ketone test strip, which is usually accurate enough for this purpose. Also, remember, excess protein in your diet will convert and act as though you ate carbs. Even as an athlete, you have to moderate protein intake within the proper range for your body's demands, or else ketosis won't happen.

[Sully]

Where do you get these ketone test strips? How do you use/read them?

[jessica]

they are at walgreens.  you pee on them and compare the color of the little thing you peed on to a chart of the container. 

[TylerDurden]

How many estimated grams of carbs must you stay under, for your body to switch to an alternative fuel? If I remember, it was 25g right?
I am pretty sure this was answered quite a few times.

Eveheart said it all, really. I have only to add that the usual range is between 20g to 60g a day, depending on the person,  according to anecdotal reports.

[sabertooth]

Requirements do vary from individual to individual.

Some people naturally produce more carbs than others in their livers.
Others produce more insulin or have stronger insulin responses to the carbs they eat.

I haven't seen the studies to back it up,
But I have heard Mark Sisson claim that carbs arnt needed because our liver can produce up to a 100 grams of carbs a day on a zero carb diet.

When I came to the RAF diet my liver and pancreas where damaged, so that I couldn't eat any carbs without having sugar spikes. I suspect my liver was making to much glucose, and my pancreas not enough insulin or digestive enzymes to cover . Even after fasting for over 12 hours my blood sugars would rise in my sleep. 8PM at night after skipping dinner it would be 100, then at 8AM in the morning after not eating it would jump to 130.

Because of these abnormalities, and carb sensitivities I adapted really well to low carb.

I currently take in around 40 grams of carbs each day (mostly from tomatoes, avocados, and coconut). My bodies organs and glands have healed over the last few years and now I am able to eat larger amounts of carbs without it effecting blood sugars, but because my carnivorous gut ecology and fat adapted metabolism has become so accustom to low carb , if I eat excess of 60 grams per day(give or take) It affects my ability to digest the 3/4 a pound of raw animal fat I eat everyday as my primary fuel source. The main issue with excess carbs is undigested fats passing through the stool, and low energy.

An other consideration?
The higher in fat and protein the diet is and the better you are adapted to low carb, the less your body produces the enzymes that digest carb rich foods. After being low carb you eventually quit making the enzymes that digest starches. When you are low carb adapted and eat excess plant matter that make up most carb foods the ingested material without the proper balance of herbavorian digestive enzymes may play a role in inhibiting proper fat digestion.

[Sully]

Thanks for the insight everyone. I will check it out at Walgreens for the ketone test strips.
I will have to find my balance. I find cranberries are the easiest plant carbs for me, if I were to go very low carb. I don't eat much at a time, and they have a strong stop signal.

I want to try very low carb for a bit, but was pondering on the idea of including some plant foods if organs are scarce.
I guess I will have to find that balance. Good to know about the fact of everyone is built a little different. And damaged a  little different haha.

I figure, with the amount of training I do. I want to eat as much as I want. But it doesn't work to well when i take that approach with carbs. Im going to find a balance, eat as much meat as I want of course. But perhaps limit the type of carbs to foods I have strong stop signals with. Or wild fruits as well.

I wonder how a practically all animal food diet, zero carb, will have on my affect in competing in kickboxing/mma.

[Sully]

I mean, I been eating mainly meats for a few years now. Now all grass fed or raw sometimes. But all or 99% paleo foods. I just always wanted to try extreme low carb for at least  a month. I never did it that far.

[cherimoya_kid]

I wonder how a practically all animal food diet, zero carb, will have on my affect in competing in kickboxing/mma.

You'll probably throw less useless kicks/punches, and wait for good opportunities. Less movement, but getting more usefulness out of the moving that you do.  Just a guess.

[Neone]

I found my body felt a lot heavier when I was zero carb, I havent done it in a while but I too wanted to try out a low carb diet again. I train martial arts 5 days a week so ill give it another go and let you know (if i dont say 'this is totally lame' after a few weeks of suffering, again haha). 

One thing that i thought of was that I seem to have a lot more energy than everyone else.  Now im on a raw diet, so thats going to give me an edge, but i was also thinking that since I have done periods of low carb my body has learned to burn fat.
So when I go back to eating more carbs again, Since your body burns fat, protien and carbs all at the same time. My fat burning efficincy is better than other people whose body's have never had to burn fat before, so i end up needing to burn less of my carbs\ammino acids and can keep that for when I need it, which ends up with me having more stamina.

[sabertooth]

Some low carb foods may be more beneficial than others and less disruptive of proper ketogenic metabolism. Two of my favorites are avocado, and coconut. They provide a minimal amount of carbohydrate and a large amount of easily digestible plant fat.

Lemon water with eggs, tomatoes, coconut, avocado provide a good balance of low glycemic and easily tolerated carbohydrates, personally.

[paper_clips43]

Do raw pasture raised eggs have carbs? I have read conflicting information on this..

Also I read that avocados can have up to 15 carbs in them. Does anyone know the carb content of the foods we eat?

[eveheart]

Do raw pasture raised eggs have carbs? I have read conflicting information on this..

Also I read that avocados can have up to 15 carbs in them. Does anyone know the carb content of the foods we eat?

There are lots of nutritional data pages on the web. Wikipedia has nutritional information for many foods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_%28food%29#Nutritional_value According to this data, eggs are considered to have negligible carbohydrate content.

Avocados have carbs. Depending on their size, figure about 5 grams per 1/2 a fruit.

Other meats have carbs - oysters, squid, liver - I consider all animal carbs negligible.

[paper_clips43]

Ok thank you. So to achieve ketosis one could only eat say 1 lemon and 1/2 an avocado per day and that would be the limit on carbs? Or even just 2 lemons would reach the maximum carb limit for a keto diet and no avocado or coconut cream would be allowed for the rest of the day. Is this correct?

[Neone]

Can someone explain something about ketosis to me.

If i am active and burn say, 3000 calories a day, and 300 calories comes from carbs...  well wouldnt my body burn up those carbs i have and then have to go into fat burning mode because there are no carbs left?  wouldnt your body go into ketosis because it has to until you get some more sugars?

[eveheart]

Ok thank you. So to achieve ketosis one could only eat say 1 lemon and 1/2 an avocado per day and that would be the limit on carbs? Or even just 2 lemons would reach the maximum carb limit for a keto diet and no avocado or coconut cream would be allowed for the rest of the day. Is this correct?

Are you so completely carbohydrate intolerant? In that case, the answer could be "yes."

Otherwise, no. The range of possible carb levels is very broad. It's best to consult a good book on eating for ketosis. Richard Atkins, MD, comes to mind.

[Barefoot Instincto]

I started eating low carb recently without even really realizing it. Mainly just cut out a lot of the fruit I was eating, and started to eat more nuts, seeds, and veggies (also meat!)

My body seems to be getting leaner and stronger every day now. I'm going to try and hit a sweet spot of at least under 100 on most days except special ones. In the Summer I believe I'll ramp up the fruit eating a bit more. I know that the body is always burning ketones, just like the other forms of energy. So at these levels I should still be able to train my body to be a lot more efficient. Its way lower than most days of my life. Mark Sisson claims that 150 good quality carbs aren't a problem if you're active. A guy at work today, in just his one single can of pop in the morning took in 80 grams (and of a really bad type, no less). Then he more than doubled it again by having a cookie later. They rack up really fast if you're not careful. I really wasn't careful in my younger years ._.

My typical day looks like this, and its making me really satisfied and content. A lot of times now it feels like I don't even have to eat dinner.

First meal: 200+ grams of vegetable sprouts, 1 avocado, 1 or 2 small pickles, handful of soaked seeds (sunflower or pumpkin). Been wrapping these up in seaweed

Second meal: 60-80 grams assorted soaked nuts (cashew, pecan, almond, walnut, brazil), Himalayan crystal salt to taste.

Third meal: 200-300 grams meat (chicken, lamb, or beef)

Fourth: Usually more sprouts and two or so other vegetables with a (100 gram) meat.

Fifth: I always plan to enjoy eating a fish item at this time, maybe 9ish, but I usually never get around to it. I tend to have a semi-paleo snack cheat that I need to stop doing on more days than not. I'm also not really hungry at this point anymore. Whereas before I would snack on something tasty just to do it, now I think of whether I want fish or not, and a lot of times I don't. Salmon could be the exception though.

Anybody got an accurate figure for the carbs in this type of meal plan? Maybe adding a 30 on for good measure for cheating (I do enjoy my chocolate coconut milk, with its god damned carbs).