Do You Count Net Carbs or Total Carbs?
 

My local newspaper in Atlanta ran an article today on food labeling as it relates to the low-carb "craze". The article suggested that some nutritional experts believe that all carbohydrates act the same in your body, regardless of whether fiber, sugar alcohol, or sugar, and therefore that counting only net carbs for dieting purposes is somewhat of a fallacy. What do you all think? I have been sticking to 20-25g NET carbs, but if I were to add the fiber back in to my count it would be substantially larger. I'm not a power bar, LC candy type person so I don't worry too much about the sugar alcohols. However, if I were to try to consume only 20-25 TOTAL carbs per day, I think I'd have to cut out a lot of things that I currently enjoy, like nuts and some of the extra veggies. DANDR definitely says 20g NET carbs for induction, but it seems like some people on the forum have "upped the ante" to consume only 20 TOTAL carbs, fiber and sugar alcohols included. I guess I'm willing to try to get out of my stall, but I'm not looking forward to it!

The newer version of DANDR says cound net carbs.....the old version of the book from 1990 says total carbs....I'm using the old method...not because it's better than the other....it's just what I'm most comfortable with and what works best for me.

net carbs here and I stay under 20

Josiekat -- if you count total carbs, what is your carb limit for the day -- more than 20 (not sure if your are still on induction or not).

It would be real hard to eat vegetables if you count total carbs, alot of veggies are 1/3 to 1/2 fiber.
I doubt I could stay at 20-25 that way. It would only meat!

Hi everybody. My husband and I just started Atkins today. I was wondering . . . how do you figure out the net carbs in an item? The Carb Solutions high protein bars are confusing me. I thought we subtarcted the fiber from the total carbs to get the net carbs. If you do that with one of those bars, you're still with 14 carbs, yet the packaging says it has 2 net carbs. Thanks!

Di

ladydi_87, those other carbs are called sugar alcohols. Supposedly we are allowed to subtractt them to to give you an even 2 net carbs for the bar. However, they affect different people in different ways. You should stay away during induction. And after your body may react to them differently. You may find you have no problem at all and continue to lose, have some intestinal distress....eek or stall with them. I guess you have to try it and see. Good luck!

Hmm . . . I think I'll keep away from these bad boys for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the info Steph!

Di

I count net carbs of course. What's the point of being scared of indigestable fiber that helps the intestines working, preventing colon cancer etc. Fibers are our best friends. You don't get overweight from fiber.

(Sugar alcohols and frankenfood bars is a whole different matter.)

:)

Total carbs. I react to fiber carbs just like regular carbs.

Net carbs. At 30 grams allowed for the day if I went by total without subtracting the fiber, I'd be much more limited in the amount of veggies I could eat and my eating would become more meat and fat based than veggie based. I could also see some people chosing the lowest fiber veggies possible so that they could work in a larger volume if they had to go by total and not net.
I'd really like to see the research that suggests that a gram of fiber can cause the same reaction in your body as a digestible gram of carb since humans lack the necessary enzymes to digest plant fiber.
Sugar alcohols, OTOH, are a different matter altogether and it seems that some people digest them more readily (and therefore react to them to a greater degree) than others do which makes it difficult to determine how exactly they should be counted towards your daily total. When it comes to sugar alcohols, I personally feel it would probably be best to count the total amount unless you know for certain that they do not cause a slow down or stall in your weight loss.

I totally agree.

Remember people, we aren't AFRAID of carbs. Let's not make this controlled carb approach a low-fat witch hunt. THe idea is to keep our blood sugar balanced, the name of the game *is not* to militantly eliminate carbs.

That said, fiber simply does not contribute to a rise in blood sugar, since it contains *no* digestable sugar itself. It has no energy in it. If anything, fiber helps regulate blood sugar, since it prevents things from being absorbed too quickly.

If you eat a food with 10 gross carbs (5 from fiber, 5 net effective), and another food without the extra 5 fiber carbs and just 5 effective carbs, the food WITHOUT the fiber will be absorbed quicker and will cause your blood sugar to rise more sharply.

Plus, by counting the fiber as a carb, you are really really limiting your veggie intake needlessly.

I can't say I recommend doing this.

Thunbelina.....on induction I stay at 20 grams total carbs per day. I am staying on induction until probably the first week of Feb. This is the way I learned from the original version of the book. It wasn't acutally until I found this web site that I heard about net carbs. When I first heard that term here I went over my book with a fine tooth comb to find out what the heck it meant....well I couldn't find it because it wans't in my book. Asked the question here and got the answer. After induction, I will likely move to net carbs increasing my totals by 5 grams at a time. Will keep you posted as to how it's going and when and by how much I increase my carb intake.

Have a great evening!

Jo

I would never count fiber in my daily count. Adults need 20-30 grams of fiber a day. The average american gets 8-10. That is why antacid companies will never go out of business, and that is why IBS has a slough of drugs to help "cure" you.
We need more than meat and dairy!

What can I say except I follow it as written. I take supplements too numerous to list without going through my cupboard. I haven't had any problems and don't anticipate any as I continue to increase my carb grams on a weekly basis.