Carb Counts for Weight Loss

Carb counts and calorie counts are very important elements of an effective long term weight loss program!

The first step is to always calculate your daily calorie intake. This is done using this TDEE formula.

Once you have calculated your maintenance level of daily calories then you can multiply this number by the amount of calories you want from carbohydrates and divide by 4 calories per gram.

This will give you the amount of carbohydrate grams that you must consume on a daily basis to meet your daily requirement needs.

Carb counts for weight loss should be done using the best nutrient ratio for your body type.

Since my site is focused on weight loss I assume that most of my readers have an endomorph dominant body type.

For this body type the best nutrient ratio to begin with is 50-30-20, meaning that 50% come from carbohydrates, 30% from lean protein and 20% from dietary fat.

For example if your daily calorie intake is 2000 calories and you are using the 50-30-20 nutrient ratio this means that you multiply 2000 by 50% and get 1000.

Then you divide the 1000 calories by 4 calories per gram and get 250 grams of carbohydrates per day.

In the meal planning section of this site you will find the full details about how to make your daily meals so in this article I will not go into more details.

What I want to say is that consuming moderate amounts of carbohydrates is the best approach when it comes to creating long term weight loss results.

Low carb dieting has its place, but it is an advanced strategy and should be used only when you have mastered the basics and fundamentals of proper nutrition and exercise.

When fad diets like the Atkins diet suggest to consume very low carbohydrate intakes right from the start of your weight loss program, they do not consider that most people simply can’t follow low carb diets for long because of the hunger you feel when you do not consume enough carbohydrates during the day.

The Atkins diest also suggest to do carb counts, but their main focus is on low carb intakes and not moderation.

From my experience fad diets eventually backfire, and the 95% failure rate proves that weight loss is about using a moderate approach and using a long term strategy that takes into account reality and not only our desire for quick weight loss results.

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