How many grams of carbs a day?

LowCarb

Member
I've been doing low carb for a few weeks now - keeping under 50g carbs a day which all came from veggies/nuts/etc, no processed food - but I was wondering what you guys consider low carb?

I've been trying to find an answer online, but the numbers vary. I know Atkins is less than 20g at first, some diets less than 30, some 50, some let you eat up to 100g, some even go as high as 150-200g.

I don't just want to be low carb, though. I want to be in ketosis because I feel better and I lose weight. What kind of carb allowance do you give yourself? Is there an average amount that keeps you in ketosis?

The reason I ask is that now the weather is getting colder, I want to start eating oatbran for breakfast, but it comes in at about 20g carbs for 30g/2tbsp raw and that's before you add in sweetener to taste, nuts, fruit, etc. It's also the season for butternut squash as well which I love - especially roasted. But again, the carb content is quite high unless you only eat a piddly little amount. I find low carb harder in the colder months because I don't want to eat salads or anything like that. I want hot wintery food - like porridge and roasted veggies. But the carb content of the things I'd like to eat are so high!

I have been considering using ground flax/linseed instead of oatbran because I've read up that it makes a good, filling hot cereal. Has anyone else tried it? Does it taste awful?

Am I likely to knock myself out of ketosis if I give myself 75g carbs a day? Or should I just suck it up and keep to under 50g?
 
Everyone is different in terms of both daily levels plus what throws them out of ketosis.

Generally <50g is considered low carb but that may not be enough for ketosis. Atkins recommends first 2 weeks at 20g as most people will go into ketosis from that. He also removes trigger & other known problem foods.

Then most of atkins phases is to figure out what you can/can't eat in order to lose plus your own tolerance for carbs.

As an example, i need to stay at 30g or less in a day if i want to lose. Maintain at 30-50, I start putting on about 50g. That's really low for both. Some people can go up to 100! I also have to be careful not to get carbs all in one hit as that sets off an insatiable appetite.

So have an experiment and see what works for you:)
 
Ps for flax - try the golden version (flex flax if you can find it). It has a much lighter nuttier flavour than some of the darker ones
 
I'm trying to do around 60g as that is what most vlcd do carb wise (I know exante is) & 4 days in according to ketostix I'm in ketosis. Not sure how accurate they are though although I so have slightly stinky breath
 
I've managed to get into Ketosis at about 45g of Carbs.. I'm doing a VLCD shake/ 1 evening meal diet x
 
There are two ways into ketosis - low carbs or very low calories. Just be careful with low calorie shakes if also having food/more calories - they are sometimes high carb so you end up with neither one nor the other!
 
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