Carbohydrates, and the role they play in a healthy diet, are one of the most hotly contested nutritional debates in the world, both in conventional and ancestral health circles.
One one side, you’ve got folks who say that carbohydrates are nonessential and increase your risk for diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and neurological disorders. On the other side, some say that carbohydrates are crucial for good health and should make up the majority of your calories.
It’s no wonder I have so many clients who come to me completely confused about carbs and whether or not they should eat more or less of them.
While some people do incredibly well following a low carb Paleo diet, there are many people who crash and burn on this type of dietary plan. So, how can you tell if you’re the type of person who shouldn’t be eating a low carb diet, and how do you figure out how many carbs you should be eating? I plan to teach you just that in this article.
Is your low-carb diet doing you more harm than good? Find out how many carbs YOU should be eating.
Pregnancy
I recently discussed the role of carbohydrates during pregnancy in an episode of The Ancestral RDs Podcast. The most important reason why women need adequate carbohydrates during pregnancy is to ensure adequate fetal brain development and growth. Another reason is because a high protein diet can be dangerous during pregnancy, and when you cut out carbohydrate as a major macronutrient, you usually can’t help but increase protein as a percentage of calories. Protein intake greater than 25% of calories during pregnancy may lead to decreased mass at birth and increased perinatal morbidity and mortality for the baby.
Like these other experts, I generally recommend 30% of calories from carbohydrates for my pregnant clients, and also for those who are struggling with fertility. Unless you have diabetes or a serious neurological condition that requires carbohydrate restriction, it’s not worth the risk playing around with a low carb diet when you’re pregnant, and these diets aren’t conducive to fertility for many women either. (If you’re interested in more reasons why carbohydrates can affect fertility, read this great post by Stefani Ruper.)
Athletes
If you’re a professional or recreational athlete who trains hard 4, 5, or even 6 days per week (I hope you’re not doing 7 days per week!) and trying to maintain this level of activity on a low carb diet, you may be doing more harm than good to your health and fitness.
While there are athletes who thrive on a well-planned low carb approach (LeBron James most recently!), there are many others who do not. Each athlete is completely unique in their ability to perform well on a low carb diet, and there’s nothing wrong with testing out the diet to see how it affects your athletic ability.
But if you’ve been trying a low carb diet for months now and your workouts are suffering, your weight isn’t budging (or maybe you’ve even gained weight!), and your recovery time is increasing, you’re probably not the type of person who can handle a low carb diet combined with regular intense physical activity.
For my athletic clients, I usually recommend a minimum of 20% of calories from carbohydrate, and depending on the person’s health goals, training schedule, and current issues, I may actually recommend more like 40-50% of calories from carbs.
Again, each athlete is an individual and what works for one person, or even a thousand people, may not work for you. So don’t be afraid to experiment and pay attention to how your diet makes you look, feel, and perform! And don’t hesitate to get help if you need it!
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Hypothyroidism and HPA Axis Dysregulation (Adrenal Fatigue)
Hypothyroidism is one of the most commonly cited medical reasons for needing to eat a moderate carb diet. The main reason why carbs affect thyroid function so directly is because insulin is needed for the conversion of the inactive T4 hormone into the active T3 hormone, and insulin is generally quite low on very low carbohydrate diets.
So if you’ve suddenly started developing hypothyroid symptoms on your low carb diet, it’s a pretty good sign that you’d be better off upping the carbs (and getting your thyroid tested if you haven’t already!) For more about how low carb dieting affects your thyroid, listen to this great interview with Chris by Jimmy Moore.
HPA axis dysregulation, also known as adrenal fatigue, is another condition where a moderate carb intake is important for general health. Kelsey and I talked about adrenal fatigue on our first Ask the RD podcast, so listen to it if you’re unfamiliar with this condition. The main hormone that gets dysregulated in adrenal fatigue is cortisol, and cortisol has been shown to increase on a low carb diet. This means that a low carb diet is a potential adrenal stressor in susceptible individuals. Combine that with a stressful job, inadequate sleep, and overexercise, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for adrenal burnout.
So if you have adrenal fatigue, or if your current lifestyle is already high stress in a few different areas, you may want to increase your carb intake until you can get those additional stressors under control, as you may drive yourself into adrenal fatigue by having a chronically elevated cortisol output. Lara Briden has written a great article on the benefits of whole food carbohydrates in lowering cortisol and raising GABA, a calming hormone that is often low in adrenal fatigue patients.
Gut Health
One of the less discussed downsides of a very low carbohydrate diet over the long run is the potential for alteration of the gut flora. Chris recently covered this issue in a podcast with Jeff Leach, where they discussed evidence that a very low carb diet can lead to gut dysbiosis and a reduction in the diversity of the gut flora. A lot of the information on this topic is new and not fully understood, but it’s reasonable to believe that when you avoid carbs, you’re also avoiding important prebiotics (i.e. food for your gut flora) like soluble fiber and resistant starch.
These prebiotics are essential for promoting the growth of beneficial gut flora. Without them, your beneficial flora can’t produce as much gut-healing substances like butyrate and other short chain fatty acids, and your microbiome composition may even shift in an undesirable direction. And as Chris would say, you’re only as healthy as your gut is: an unhealthy gut contributes to everything from obesity and diabetes, to digestive illness, to autoimmune disease, to skin disorders.
Those who are doing very low carbohydrate diets, and who simply can’t increase their starch intake for whatever reason, should use prebiotic supplements such as resistant starch-rich unmodified potato starch or FOS powder. However, these products must be incorporated slowly into your supplement regimen, as you can experience severe gas and bloating if too many prebiotics are taken all at once, or if there is existing gut dysbiosis or bacterial overgrowth. In this case, it would be wise to work with someone who can help you get the prebiotics you need while on a very low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet to protect the health of your gut microbiota.
How Many Carbs Do I Need?
To determine how many carbs my clients need to eat in a day to reach their health goals, first I decide what percentage of calories from carbs they’d possibly do best with. As an example from above, a woman struggling with fertility issues may benefit from a carb intake around 30% of calories. I then determine her caloric needs using a calculator like this one. If we determine that her daily needs are roughly 2000 calories per day, 30% of calories from carbs is 600 calories. As there are 4 calories in a gram of carbohydrate, this works out to be 150 grams of carbs per day.
Usually I give my clients a target range to hit depending on their activity levels, and we use these targets to re-evaluate their food diaries and see if they’re hitting their goals. Most of my clients are surprised to learn how much carb-rich Paleo foods they have to eat to get up to 150-200 grams per day! But once they start making a real effort to hit those targets, the health benefits are immediate.
Final Thoughts
The purpose of this article was not to bash low carb diets. I truly believe that there are many people out there who get amazing health results from a low carb plan, and there are dozens of health conditions that benefit from a very low carb or ketogenic diet, especially severe neurological conditions. Paul Jaminet has written some great posts explaining when a ketogenic diet may be useful and necessary, so I strongly suggest reading those posts if you’re still on the fence about where you stand with carbohydrates and your health needs.
My hope is that by reading this article, you’ll be able to understand the many factors that play into how a person handles a low carbohydrate diet, and whether or not their health will improve on such a plan. Everyone is different in their ability to thrive on a low carbohydrate diet. If you’ve found yourself identifying with any of the issues I’ve written about in this post, you may be in need of a macronutrient adjustment in your diet.
Helping people optimize their carb intake is a challenge I truly enjoy. As a dietitian, I love to help people evaluate their diet to determine if they’re meeting their health needs with the food they’re eating. If you think you could benefit from a Paleo diet makeover, I’d love to chat with you about where you’re at and where you want to go with your health.
Your carb intake shouldn’t be the major factor that’s preventing you from reaching your health goals. I hope you use the information I’ve shared today to evaluate your own nutritional needs and make the changes that make sense to you.
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Ketosis can be used to treat many issues. Demonizing a low-carb diet is a foolish thing to do.
I forgot to mention that we strongly suspect a Candida overgrowth because of a lot of antibiotics I have been on. I am trying to kill it, and then repopulate with good bacteria, but something I read in one of the comments confused me about that too. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks again,
Michelle
Laura,
I am having trouble with infertility, have adrenal fatigue, low thyroid, fibromyalgia, IBS, etc… When I first started doing paleo I wa told that you can have certain starches like sweet potatoes, but NOT if you were overweight or needed to lose some weight. So I have really stayed away from them for the most part. I basically eat fruits, green leafy veggies, meat, fish, nuts and seeds. Now I can’t believe what I am hearing that I might have caused this or made it worse. 🙁 I looked at the link of ways to get more carbs and don’t know how i could eat enough sweet potatoes and fruit in a day to get up to 150 grams… Could I incorporate some beans and some quinoa? Is quinoa really bad for you like the other grains? Especially if it is organic? That would be an easy way for me to possibly get a few more grams of carbs. I used to make fresh hummus too but thought I wasn’t supposed to have beans, but if I could have some of that it would be nice. My instinct is to add in a bit of beans and quinoa so I don’t have to eat a ton of sweet potatoes every day, but I just don’t want to eat things that supposedly put a strain on my body/digestion to solve another problem. I would have thought things like beans and quinoa would have been better options than white rice, but I honestly don’t know anything about it.
Thanks for the help!
Michelle
I follow a cross between the Gut and Psychology diet and the Specific Carbohydrate diet. This has been working well for me. I eat a lot of produce seasonally that is relatively high in carbohydrate such as beets, turnips, carrots, squashes, melons, berries, apples, pears, grapes. I don’t worry about how much as I naturally gravitate towards these foods throughout the day. I don’t eat any grains, potatoes, yams or sweet potatoes. I don’t count calories or measure anything. Is there any reason to be measuring and counting? My weight is perfect. My GERD is gone. And my energy level is about what it was before the dietary change except it is more consistent since I no longer have intermittent bouts of diarrhea that last for days, weeks or months.
I agree with this article. I went on a sort of ketogenic/paleo diet for a while, where my net carbs were always under 20g per day. If I even raised them to 25g per day I’d start gaining weight. So I stayed under 20g per day, losing weight and feeling great. For four months. Then I crashed. Hard. I suddenly felt worse than I ever had, and despite my best efforts, gained 17lbs in less than 3 months. All around the middle. I went to my doctor (conventional doc) who immediately did a thyroid panel, lipid panel and ordered cortisol tests. It turns out I have extremely high cortisol. I eliminated all stressors in my life months before this, so the only thing I could point to was ketosis. I asked a doctor who is a proponent of ketosis for all, and he said it’s common to have these issues, and that I should adopt a “cyclic ketogenic diet and keep my ketones up”. To me that sounded like a bad idea for where I’m currently at, so I need to know where to go from here. Paleo seems to be my best bet because I have issues digesting most grains and all legumes. I also now have glucose intolerance from ketosis too long. So where do I go from here?
You may want to have your doctor check you out regarding extremely high cortisol as there may be other causes than just ketosis that may need to be ruled out. If it’s just ketosis, then great.
Back in the 1960s many people were on low-carb diets, or “the drinking man’s diet.” I was in my mid-teens at the time and a non-drinker. Several adults I knew were on this diet as well. The idea was to keep carbs between 25-60 gr. That was the only guideline. People lost weight on this diet, but found that when they went off the diet later they gained weight rapidly. I knew several people this happened to. I instinctively knew better than to go that route, but I didn’t know why. What I did instead was keep to carbs somewhat low, between 60-100 gr, for 3-5 years later, and then not go crazy with carbs even after that. This allowed the body to *acclimatize* or transition back to more normal carb intake over a period of many years. It was, in effect, a diet with a view to mindfulness and long-term change of lifestyle, not a weight loss diet where one resumed their previous eating pattern or some “normal” eating pattern afterward. Then and now, I’m mindful of what I call “slow acclimatizing” in relation to metabolic changes from diet, which takes much longer than most people ever imagine. Have to take the long view.
Thanks. Do you think it makes a difference that I haven’t had a gallbladder for 21 years, or an appendix for 13? On a side note, I’m one of the rare people that, even though I gained a LOT of weight after the gallbladder removal, my liver compensated for it by over-producing bile. So now I have to eat a bunch of fat to counteract the effects of the constant drip. I think that’s why ketogenic made me feel so great for a while- the amount of fat I was eating.
I’ll talk to my doctor about checking for other causes for the high cortisol. 🙂
There is not a shred of evidence that the lower T3 that accompanies a low carb diet has any adverse effect. It is a pernicious and dangerous myth that has neither theoretical nor empirical support.
There is, on the other hand, clinical evidence that isocaloric addition of carbohydrate to a diet, while it elevates T3, does not also raise basal metabolism. This suggests that the higher levels of T3 that result from adding carbohydrate to a diet are used primarily, if not exclusively, to metabolize higher levels of blood sugar, making it a particularly harmful practice for anyone with hypothyroidism or borderline thyroid function.
Omg. Where’s the evidence? You guys are making all these claims without backing it up with true science? Centenerians (people who live beyond 100 years) most of them show overall low T3 levels, while other thyroid markers are within the normal range.
You guys are just being delusional. Low T3 is desirable for increased aging while most of you want it to be sky-rocket. This is bro-science. Major BS!
Thanks for the article, Laura. I’m wondering if you’d have a recommendation for a good starting carb level for me. According to the carb calculator, I need about 2000 calories a day. I don’t do too much heavy exercise – 2-3 hours per week of moderate exertion. I do have hypothyroidism, but it seems the opposite to many people – my TSH is high, my T3 is low but I don’t actually feel too bad, just slightly tired.
My approach to analyzing diet is to begin by finding your basal metabolic rate (BMR)
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
which is supposed to be the number of calories you need to maintain current weight if you’re doing nothing but laying in bed. In actual practice, most sedentary people can use their BMR number as-is, or possibly add 100-200 calories to it. If more active, add more, but the 2000 calories usually suggested for women is often far too high to be practical. You can play with the calculator tool above to find BMR for a given height/weight at a particular age e.g. 20, 40, 60, 80. You’ll see that BMR goes down slowly with aging. You’ll see that your BMR goes down with weight loss, which explains plateaus encountered in losing a lot of weight. What worked to lose the first 40 lbs may not work to lose the next 40 lbs since BMR has dropped by about 200+ calories. If you want to lose weight, start with current BMR and subtract 100-200 calories, which gives you a daily target and a slow but sane rate of weight loss. When thinking about carbs, I start with my BMR(+) to give current calories needed to maintain weight. Think of these calories as your target, and as a working spectrum.
Then factor in adequate protein at 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. A working figure is about 60 grams protein for women and 70 grams for taller men, with more for athletes and bodybuilders (however the extreme high amounts of protein that some bodybuilders are smashing down are not necessary nor desirable, and the whey protein so “popular” among bodybuilders is unsuited to many people). 1 gram protein = 4 calories, so 240 – 280 calories protein. Put protein calories on your spectrum. I target to eat about 15-25 grams protein at each meal, for a total of 60-65 grams/day.
Next, factor in fat. Percentage of fat in the diet can range from 10% on an 80-10-10 type of rawfood diet to 80% on a ketogenic diet, with the average person being somewhere in the middle — a mind-boggling span of variation! After experimenting with fat percentages for two years, my own ideal amount of fat intake is currently about 25%, which is a bit less than average (if I eat more fat than that from any source, I get cystic acne – your mileage may vary). 1 gram fat = 9 calories. 1 level tablespoon of fat = ~100 calories. Find your own fat “sweet spot,” translate it into calories. and put it on your spectrum.
Add your protein and fat calories, and subtract the sum from your maintenance calories. The result is your carbs in calories. To find carb grams, divide carb calories by 4.
1 gram carb = 4 calories.
Formula:
BMR+ minus (P + F) = C in calories.
Divide C by 4 to yield carb grams.
That gives you perspective on your macronutrients.
So I come at carb grams now in a roundabout way, rather than carbs being first in my thinking (like they are when one does a “low-carb” or a “ketogenic” diet).
To use myself as an example, BMR=1500 calories.
Protein=250 calories.
Fat=375 calories.
1500 – (250 + 375) = 875 calories in carbs.
875 divided by 4 = 219 gr carbs.
Sources of carbs can be personalized to suit your needs. For myself, I like to think of my carbs in terms of non-starchy vegetables, fruits, root vegetables, oats, brown rice, honey. Gluten-free.
You can add fiber to your considerations, but fiber as such has basically no calories, so it’s good to have in the diet but need not be part of this formula.
(Ref: F, 63. Blood type O-neg, secretor, Oa. Gatherer-Hunter genotype. 50-80% raw diet, high plant-based, some fish and eggs, gluten-free, dairy-free with exception of kefir.)
– CBW
08/27/14
Thank you so much for this article! It explained a lot about my own experience. I have been careful with carbs for over a decade because I have reactive hypoglycemia. I always used to monitor the glycemic index of everything I ate. But, I find that GI really doesn’t correlate to my reactions. Sugar and grains of any kind, in any amount, even with fat or protein to slow it down, even properly prepared sourdough will send my blood sugar through the roof and then crashing within a couple of hours. I don’t know how many times I’ve passed out because the tiniest amount of sugar was snuck into something, like a sauce or a salad dressing. But, supposedly high GI foods like bananas or potatoes (white or sweet) don’t have the same effect. I have confirmed this this my glucose meter over and over again. There is definitely more to blood sugar reactions than glycemic index. I tried doing low carb (<60g) Paleo, and within 9 months I was completely free of worrying about my blood sugar, but I was really underweight and stressed out and exhausted. My period disappeared completely. My hair was falling out and my thyroid became enlarged. I added in my safe Paleo carbs up to about 125g/day, and I seemed to have hit my sweet spot. I've been doing well for a couple of years now, no problem.
However, I'm not sure if the carbs are necessary in and of themselves. It is actually really hard to get all the calories that you are supposed to in a day on a high fat carb restricted diet because your appetite disappears. You just never feel hungry and you forget to eat. Maybe I could have continued low carb if I had force-fed myself a bit, but adding in more carbs hasn't affected me adversely, so there's no need to put myself through that. But, I can easily see how someone who is low carbing, and probably fasting on top of that would really stress their bodies out.
Also, as far as adrenal fatigue goes, I heard from reading Ray Peat that it is stressful on the body to eat proteins without carbs because proteins are insulingenic, so you have this huge release of insulin with no blood sugar to process, so you get this huge adrenaline response to push stored sugar from your liver into the bloodsteam so that all that insulin has something to process (gluconeogenesis). This feels very dramatic when you are low-carbing, almost like a panic attack. I mean, it basically is a panic attack, It works on the same mechanisms. But, I don't think that means that you need to eat a high carb diet. Just make sure you have a tiny bit with protein. I've tried to go back to higher carb because I was worried that low carb was dangerous after the horrible experience I had, but it really backfired on me. I think the lesson is to watch your carbs, especcially their quality, but not go to extremes. I've heard that other people also find their sweet spot in the same range as mine. I'm not an athlete, but I have a very active lifestyle, and 125g seems like enough. I usually get about 60% of my calories from fat, about 20% from protein and 20% from carbs.
thanks for saying what you did about not being hungry. It’s helpful to be reminded of that.
Don’t forget that protein provokes an insulin response, but it also provokes a *glucagon* response, which raises the blood glucose in response to insulin lowering it. So protein actually keeps things regulated pretty well. I’m not saying it’s a “bad” idea to eat a little bit of carbs with protein, just that it’s not necessarily *required.*
Think about it from an evolutionary perspective: Let’s say the tribe just had a nice kill. So there’s lots of protein & fat to be had (from the recently dispatched animal). Would they have chowed down as soon as it was convenient, or would they have said, “Let’s hold off until we gather some sweet potatoes or yucca to have with this antelope…”
Again, I’m not saying there’s a right or wrong way; I just feel like people focus so much on insulin and very rarely talk about glucagon.
Would you say higher carbs would then also be appropriate for a breastfeeding sleep deprived mom who hasn’t had a decent night of sleep (read averaging 3hr stretches. Sometimes I’m lucky and get 4/5hrs) in the last 13 months?
I’m just wondering if that is the reason I still have this stubborn bit of belly chub.
Definitely… I forgot to mention that breastfeeding moms absolutely need more carbs as well since you’re using more carbs to make breast milk.
Don’t worry about “belly chub” you just had a baby. If you continue with breastfeeding and find the nutrition and sleep you need, chances are the belly chub will fall away or you can address it more specifically later when you are feeling well and energetic. Sleep deprivation in itself can lead to belly fat. Plus, many women think their belly is “fat” when it’s just still stretched and soft post-partum.
I appreciate more and more articles like this, discussing the pros and cons of macronutrient ratios sanely – although I also agree with another commenter who noted that titles such as “Is Low Carb Dieting Ruining Your Health?” may be slightly off-putting! 🙂
When my husband and I began a gut-healing protocol four years ago, to begin recovering our then-six-year-old anorexic and ASD-symptomatic child, we were following a high-carb, high-grain, vegetarian diet.
For nearly four years, our GAPS-type diet became one that was very low in starch; gradually, over the past nine months, I’ve finally been able to add in more starch, mostly (I think) due to the effects of supplementing “resistant starch” and including more RS-containing foods in our diet.
I sometimes wish I had tried this approach two years prior. But hindsight is 20/20, and I was struggling with a child who for two years experienced severe digestive and behavioral symptoms just from eating a piece of fruit – so I pardon myself for doubting that he could handle a bowl of rice with much less difficulty! 🙂
It is interesting to think about “diets” not only in terms of long-term sustainability, but in terms of therapeutic potential. Despite the fact that Natasha Campbell-McBride, who created the GAPS protocol, has always said that GAPS isn’t forever…it took me a long time to believe this. I kind of forgot that along with healing comes…an ability not just to _tolerate_ new/different foods, but also, potentially, to _require_ them. Low-carb may re-jigger gut flora in a GOOD way…but then the same diet continued for much longer may continue the alterations for the worse.
Such is often the case with starch – difficult or impossible to digest in the acute stages of many gut diseases, but possibly necessary for most healthy or healed-enough people to consume regularly.
This means that it’s not always low-carb vs. high-carb in the Diet Wars – it’s more like…what diet could help my health NOW? And what about NOW? And what about a year from NOW? The answers may be different each time.
I’ve written down some of my evolving thoughts, particularly as they are relevant to my son’s healing, here: http://www.lifeisapalindrome.com/updates/thinking-about-gaps-resistant-starch-and-beyond . I’m so fascinated to hear what others are doing to heal themselves and their children!
Thanks for your and Chris’ continued attention to topics such as this! 🙂
Hi Laura,
good article! I would like to ask you: Is it possible to gain weight on a very low carb paleo diet? Everything is always about how to lose weight… I would so so much like to gain a bit. Now, regarding carbs, what I currently do is pretty much what you recommend: I tried out various levels of carbs. What I found was that I feel the very best if I eat as little carbs as 1 avocado or 2 tomatoes or an iceberg-salad for a meal. All the rest is herbs, spices, olive oil and coconut fat. Once daily 200g meat. And, as you mention it, oligosaccharides (1 pouch of Bimuno, that is 5.5g galacto-oligosaccharides). Now, what do you think, is there any trick to gain weight without increasing carbs? Fat and muscle, both needed and welcome. And, regarding oligosaccharides, you mention potato starch and FOS. Would that be good to add them or would that likely be too much together with the GOS I am taking? thanks a lot in advance for any suggestions!
Those of us with impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes have to follow a VLC diet. How can we mitigate the problems this can cause?
Interesting. I’ve done extreme low-carb, high carb, and everything in between. I think moderation is important, especially moderation in how much time and energy we put into thinking about, talking about, planning, and studying what to eat. Obsessing about it isn’t healthy.
I am a 19 year old male, and suspect that I have candida overgrowth. I have tried, just as you have, a low-carb and now I am eating a high carb- low fat vegan diet as I have been following the high carb-low fat vegan community and learned how terrible meat is for us. My symptoms are rashes, bloating, low energy..
The main thing that keeps me on this diet is the fact that I believe that we are able to get all our nutrients from plant based foods, therefore there is no need for meat. Is this true?
I follow Dr. John Mcdougall’s “starch solution” as it makes sense to me. Please give me some insight, I am very confused. I am getting into the unhealthy state, as you wrote, of obsessing over what I eat.. But I just want to stop the itching and I don’t know what to do as there is so much contradicting information.
All very informative. I still can’t figure out my % of (quality) carbs to eat. On LC Paleo – i felt great for a while, kept of the weight, adrenal and thryoid issues were resolving themselves…. and then bam! I crashed with no libido or energy. I added back in potatoes and white rice (Jaminet style) and my libido and energy came back but so did the belly fat –SUPER FAST. Ugh. How does one have energy/libido/health on moderate carbs without gaining copious mounts of weight?? This is a serious question I have not been able to answer. I feel confused now on what to eat on Paleo.
What is your physical activity like? Do you do weight training and interval “cardio” (e.g. sprints) regularly? That can help reduce belly fat caused by an increase in carb intake.
Hi Laura,
Good read there. I notice that I get somewhat tired and bloated after I eat starch (potatoes, rice). At the same time, because I am lean and exercise regularly (4+ days/week), I definitely notice a need for the starch.
My workaround has been avoiding carbs in the AM and concentrating my intake in the evening hours (6 pm and later). This has helped me stay mentally alert during the day while still providing the benefits of carbs (glycogen replenishment, hormonal balance, easier to sleep).
Is this a tactic you have used? Do you have any other ideas on this?
Thanks, Laura.
Sounds like the diet is a good strategy for managing the symptoms. But you probably need to address the bloating, sounds like there’s some gut dysbiosis that can possibly be addressed using antimicrobials and pre/probiotics. Have you had a stool test done to check for pathogens or bacterial imbalance?
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the reply. I haven’t done a stool test but I am certainly game to try. Do you have a recommended test?
I most commonly see Genova (used to be Metametrix) being run: http://www.gdx.net/product/gi-effects-comprehensive-stool-analysis-profile
Here’s a good video explaining the test: http://www.amymyersmd.com/2013/02/11/functional-medicine-comprehensive-stool-test/
Thanks, Laura!
I had the Genova test and it was not helpful for me personally; it did rule out a lot for me but didn’t help with the gut issues I was dealing with. Much more helpful to me were the Metametrix lab Comprehensive Organix organic acids test, and the American Gut project results. Also a few points from the SIBO conference early this year.
Wow; I’m so glad that someone is finally saying that maybe ultra low carb isn’t good for everyone. I started low carb (<30g/day) about 5 years ago when I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Ever since then, besides high blood sugar, I've had problems, on and off, with cortiso, very low T3 (high RT3) leading to fatigue that took me months to climb out of. I never had these problems before. The lower carb I went, the worse the problems (and my blood sugar) got. Under 15 grams of carbs per day had me almost comatose. I eventually figured out (through testing) that I have low insulin production; low carbing lowers insulin more, to the point where my glucagon runs uncountered, my cortisol surges, and my T4 to T3 conversion isn't right.
Just a few more carbs a day (a sweet potato or serving of beans; maybe up to 50-60 grams total carb/day) stimulates enough insulin to lessen the problems. You won't hear about things like that on most low carb sites.
Very interesting – T2D is usually a condition that low carb is frequently recommended for so it’s important to remember that even here there’s no one size fits all recommendations!
I don’t think I’m really Type 2 (not Type 1, either; tested negative for all the antibodies). I suspect MODY, but can’t afford genetic testing. So I just thrash around, looking for what works.
Hi Lynn
I had a very similar experience. Bit for me my insulin production was to low to raise carbs either.
Very good chance you are type 1 like me, my antibody test was negative but not all type 1 show positive antibody tests.
I set up a glucose tolerance test with insulin and cpeptide draws at each glucose draw: fasting 1 hr 2 hr and 3 hr.
Was cellar from that insulin production was very low!
I did test positive for thyroid antibodies which for me makes type 1 seem likely along with my physical condition … Athletic and even an 18 inch pizza along with candy and chips could not get me out of ketosis 🙁
MODY is by percentage far less likely than slow onset type 1, you could get tested for other antibodies there are at least 4 you can be tested for but again not all type 1’s show positive for the antibodies tested.
Why no comment of glucose management/diabetes?
I’m so confused. So, if I’m training for a half marathon AND I want to get pregnant soon AND I want to be as healthy as possible, what the heck am I supposed to eat? Just rice and potatoes??? I currently IF and eat Primal with RS and other specific supplementation, but the comments to this article made me fear that I was harming my fertility & health! HELP!
Short answer to this question for me is, “Absolutely, yes.Low carbing was ruining my health.” I’ll make the long version s short as possible. Now an extremely active and fit 65 year old, I have been a lacto-vegetarian for 45 years. Added in eggs about ten years ago. About 13 years ago, I dedicated myself to low carb living and have felt great doing so. I’ve been eating VERY low carb (probably less than 40 grams per day), with adequate calories, largely from fats, to maintain my weight ever since. BUT – my fasting blood sugars have been consistently high (103-107 range) for the past several years when I’ve had my annual medical check-up. My A1c has always been OK, so my doc always shrugged her shoulders and we both casually figured it had “something to do with” my weird diet. When my A1c was elevated to 6.1 this year, I became concerned. My doc’s comments were that if anyone simply looked at my blood work, they would assume that I was a diet-controlled diabetic – which clearly I am not. So the clearest explanation I found of what I’ve created in this amazing machine called the human body is physiologic insulin resistance, as explained here: http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2007/10/physiological-insulin-resistance.html Several other hits on the web allude to this same phenomenon, but the conclusions repeatedly run something like, “This is not a problem, a perfectly normal physiologic response, nothing to worry about AS LONG AS YOUR HGBA1C IS NORMAL” – which sadly now mine no longer is. I’m working on it. Been adding in more carbs over the past few weeks with progressively lower blood glucose measurements, as counter-intuitive as that seems. We’ll see if I can get my metabolism back 🙁
That’s a commonly seen paradox- low carb dieters with high fasting blood sugar. I’ve found that adding some carbs in at night in particular can help correct that. I’m not surprised to hear your BG is going down. Good luck and stay positive! 🙂
Appreciate the encouragement. Terrible feeling to think that years of conscious eating has actually been counter-productive. Am I likely to start gaining a lot of weight? I’ve re-dedicated myself to regular exercise, initially as an attempt to get my BG down, but now the endorphins feel oh-so-good 🙂
I wonder if that would help me? I have insulin resistance and Hashimoto’s and my BG is fine during the day but high in the a.m. I figured it was due to gluconeogenesis, so having some carbs at night should help with this? What kind of carb would be the best?
Your experience validates what my daughter, a Type 1 diabetic, has experienced. Ironically, the more fat she eats and the less carb, the MORE INSULIN she needs! Totally backwards to what we’ve been taught. She has recently increased her carbs to 50% and reduced fat to 30% and uses less insulin and has better blood sugar control.
“Your experience validates what my daughter, a Type 1 diabetic, has experienced. Ironically, the more fat she eats and the less carb, the MORE INSULIN she needs! Totally backwards to what we’ve been taught. She has recently increased her carbs to 50% and reduced fat to 30% and uses less insulin and has better blood sugar control.“
Hello Julia, why do you think this happens?I have diabetes type 1 myself.