Should I be Counting Net or Total Carbs?

Diet and Nutrition
1

I’m following Christian Thibaudeau’s guidelines in Nutrition for Newbies.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1795045

I’m trying to stay between 2400-2700 calories a day. It’s actually hard for me to eat this many calories in a day, I seem to alternate between 1700 and 2500. Hopefully I’ll fall into a pattern soon.

The protein intake is the same for either of the plans, 250-300 a day. The Low Carb plan says to keep carbs “under 30” and the Balanced plan says to aim between 150-185. Should I be counting Net Carbs or Total Carbs? For example my whole grain lunch wraps are 18 carbs, 12 daily fiber, so 6 net carbs. Should I count that as 18 or 6? Other carbs I’m eating are also high fiber like broccoli, spinach and asparagus.

Thanks for your help.

2

You count the carbs in everything except for fibrous green veggies such as: aspargus, broccoli, spinach, celery, cucumber, kale and that type

everything else you count if you are following a plan of Thibs.

Do not subtract the carbs from nuts, or grains, or carrots (which shouldn’t be your first choice)

You can eat pumpkin and sweet potatoes, cheese, nuts

3

OK, thanks.

I’ve been eating turkey and spinach wrapped in La Tortilla Factory wraps for a year now, need to find a new lunch I guess. I’m avoiding grain aside from that. Just didn’t know if they counted at 18g or 6g.

4

[quote]synthetic wrote:
OK, thanks.

I’ve been eating turkey and spinach wrapped in La Tortilla Factory wraps for a year now, need to find a new lunch I guess. I’m avoiding grain aside from that. Just didn’t know if they counted at 18g or 6g.
[/quote]

I checked your profile and unless you have no muscle tone you aren’t exactly fat.

Is there a reason you are doing a ketogenic when it seems as if you are wanting to build muscle?

I am a keto girl which works for me so I am very pro-lowcarb, but if I wanted to put on muscle I would eat more carbs.

Thibs is not averse to Ezekial bread so you may want to check that out.

5

Count the wraps as 6 g, if the label says that of the 18 g total, 12 g is fiber.

Fiber never makes it to the bloodstream as carbs. But technically they are carbohydrates so the labels have to count fiber as such.

6

[quote]Bill Roberts wrote:
Count the wraps as 6 g, if the label says that of the 18 g total, 12 g is fiber.

Fiber never makes it to the bloodstream as carbs. But technically they are carbohydrates so the labels have to count fiber as such.[/quote]

well… there is soluble fiber
and he is following Thibs plan, if you know Thibs, Thibs is going to tell him to ONLY subtract the fiber in fibrous green vegetables

7

that was a lot of thibs in one sentence

8

[quote]NeelyDan wrote:
that was a lot of thibs in one sentence[/quote]

it was…

and Bill Roberts I apologize if that came across as snarky. I do know you are the qualified person to give nutrition advice, I was just repeating what anyone who’s read Thibs thread knows.

I have no argument or debate as I am just parroting

9

I’m at 22% body fat, I consider that high. I’ll relax a little when I’m at 15% or so then start bulking up.

10

Not the slightest need for apology, it didn’t sound snarky in the slightest. You stated a fact (let’s grant it as fact, I haven’t looked into it) that Thibaudeau would have said as quoted. Not the slightest thing wrong with pointing that out, nor in the way you did it. Not remotely an issue! :slight_smile:

11

Synthetic,

here is a list of carbs that Thibs had posted in his Q&A thread. I combined his preferred list of carbs and the glycemic index list.:

"Here is what I consider to be the order of carb sources that are ideal for body comp.

  1. Fibrous green veggies
  2. non-green veggies, but no starch (yams, potatoes)
  3. berries
  4. fruits with a low glycemic index
  5. other fruits
  6. yams or potatoes, but only post-workout
  7. legumes and beans in moderation
  8. grains (the most ‘‘natural’’ ones)
  9. other grains (if you have no choice)
  10. pasta
  11. sugar/junk

THIBS QUOTE ABOUT THE GLYCEMIC INDEX AND FOODS:
most of the day (IF you have carbs besides post-workout… which is a BIG if) you should get them from veggies (non-green veggies too) and fruits in the 2 meals post-workout.

Saying that fruits mostly restore liver glycogen shows a real lack of understanding of this process. YES fructose tends to refill only liver glycogen.

HOWEVER it is idiotic and reductive that all fruits are primarily made of fructose. In fact in several fruits fructose is actually only a small portion of the total carbs count.

Apricot, cantaloupe, avocado, banana, grapefruit, lemon, mango, peach, pineapple, orange all have less than 20% of fructose, sometimes less than 10%.

And even if they are ‘‘simple sugar’’ doesn’t mean that they spike insulin more than grains.

Of the fruits mentioned above:

Apricot has a glycemic index of 55 and a glycemic load (the real important thing) of 4.9

Cantaloupe has a GI of 65 and a GL of 3.7

Banana has a GI of 46 to 55 and a GL of 11

Grapefruit has a GI of 25 and a GL of 1.4

Mango has a GI of 41 and a GL of 6.2

Peach (Canadian study) has a GI of 28 and a GL of 2.1

Pineapple has a GI of 51 and a GL of 6.3

Orange has a GI of 31 and a GL of 2.9

Other common fruits…

Apple GI = 28, GL = 4.1

Grapes GI = 43, GL = 7

Kiwi GI = 47, GL = 5

Pear GI = 33, GL = 4

Strawberries GI = 40, GL = 1

Compare that to some grains…

Bagel GI = 72, GL = 25

Rye bread GI = 67, GL = 13

Gluten-free multi-grain bread GI = 79, GL = 10

Gluten-free white bread GI = 80, GL = 12

Oat bread GI = 65, GL = 12

Rice bread GI = 72, GL = 8

White flour bread GI = 71, GL = 10

Wonder bread GI = 77, GL = 13

Whole wheat bread GI = 67, GL = 11

All-bran cereal GI = 51, GL = 9

Muesli GI = 66, GL = 16

Oatmeal GI = 55, GL = 3

Shredded wheat cereal GI = 75, GL = 15

Amaranth grain GI = 97, GL = 23

Buckwheat GI = 54, GL = 16

Sweet corn GI = 60, GL = 20

Couscous GI = 65, GL = 23

Millet GI = 71, GL = 24

White rice GI = 69, GL = 26

Basmati rice GI = 58, GL = 24

Brown rice GI = 66, GL = 21

Etc. As you can see fruits tend to have a much lower glycemic index and especially a much lower glycemic load than grains which means a lesser insulin spike. "

12

Something to add to that is while fructose itself often comprises only a fairly low percentage of a fruit’s sugars, if so then sucrose ordinarily or perhaps always is at the same time a high percentage, and sucrose cleaves in the body to half fructose, half glucose.

If there’s a fruit that’s low fructose once considering the fructose content within sucrose, I don’t know what it is. I’ve made some effort to find one that was principally glucose and never did.

13

Thanks again. I’ll start pouring through the Thib’s Q&A thread at some point now that I know about it.