Carbohydrate has been very confusing topic along with fat. It is very confusing because it is very wide category of food source. On one end you have sugar, flour, bread, pasta that elevate your insulin level immediately and high. On the other end you have broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower and so on which is vegetables that has slower releasing starch that does not elevate insulin level as much as the other end of carbohydrate.
We know from physiological stand point that when you have sugary and flour based carbohydrate the insulin level goes up with steep incline. And frequent consumption of these types of food or beverages, insulin level cannot be managed even if you were exercising on regular basis. When insulin level are not managed because of over consumption of those carbohydrate we start accumulate fat. This is because insulin's main job is to store.
For this reason, low-carb diet has become very popular and another diet trend called ketogenic diet has been monitored closely and practiced by many. Why? Because, people started to realize that carbohydrates are causing obesity.
What determines low-carb diet?
There are 3 categories of low-carb diet.
Option 1: <50 grams of carbs per day
This is also known as ketogenic diet. This diet is very good at helping body to metabolize fat as energy source.
Option 2: <150 grams of carbs per day
This is favored by those who lift weights for fat loss and muscle gain. Our liver stores carbohydrate in a form of glycogen and typically max out at around 150 g. When we are consuming less than 150 grams of carbohydrate, our body is running on stored glycogen. This can be replenished by extra protein consumption.
Option 3:<250 grams of carbs per day
This probably would not consider low-carb diet but it is still lower than typical American diet, which is over 300 grams per day. So in other words, below 250 gram is eating less carb then the others.
What determines, which carb amount should you follow?
It is determined by whether or not you deserve it.
Just because you worked out 3 times per week, you may not deserve to go with option 3 unless you want to be in obese category. For those who can go into option 3 are outside of 3 times per week of workout, they are physically active, should have body fat percentage of 15% for male and 25% for female. At this level the body can handle carbohydrate and able to manage insulin level fairly easily.
Physically active people can be, athletes, construction workers, farmers, who has 3-6 hours of physical labor work outside of their workout in the gym. Remember being busy and physically active are different. Even as a trainer, I do not consider myself as physically active although I workout 5 days per week. Hence my carbohydrate portion size is Option 2.
Being stressed out does not mean you deserve carbohydrate. We would never hear people complaining about eating bag full of spinach because they were stressed out. This is because while your cortisol level is high, because of stress, the insulin level will be high as well. To quickly fix elevated stress or cortisol level is eating rather sugary and/or salty food like chips, ice cream, cookies an so on. And you and I know the consequence. Again, being stressed out does not mean that you sugary based carbohydrate, especially when you have weight and health issue(s).
By the way, your brain can run with both carb and fat. Even with low or no carb diet the brain can function very well
What are smart carbohydrate choices?
As mentioned earlier, carbohydrate is very broad category. Type of carbs you should be consuming are nutrient dense carbohydrate which are mainly in vegetable category, such as broccoli, asparagus, pepper, cucumber and so on. They do contain carbohydrate, however, it is low in insulin secretion. Why? Because majority of carb is in dietary fiber form and not sugar.
Then the questions come, how about fruits? Well, majority of fruits are high in sugar or also known as fructose. May be natural but sugar is still a sugar but compared with glucose, fructose stimulate insulin more. Normal sugar is mixture of both fructose and glucose. The body will not be able tell the difference between natural or artificial. So if you do not deserve sugar then that includes fruits as well.
Some of the fruits does not stimulate insulin as much. Those are berries. Strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, and so on. However, that does not mean you can eat unlimited portion. Handful should be good enough.
Conclusion
Determining the amount of carbs you can consume is determined on whether you deserve it or not. If you are conscious about your weight and health you should think about if you have been physically active or not. Even if you do workout, if majority of your daily activity is not physically demanding, then you do not deserve more than 250 g of carbs per day.
Kota Shimada
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