Carb question

From over 5 years of reading on the various boards, the successful vets count a carb as a carb - not net carb.  I count a carb as a carb. It keeps me more mindful of what I chose to eat especially as a snack. In order not to gain, I have to be very strict with my carbs.  I limit myself to one fruit per day, and if I want bread, it is usually 1/2 of a multigrain WW flatbread.  I use almond milk for my hot chocolate and protein drinks but 1% regular milk for tea and coffee so about 1 c per day.  I don't eat pasta, rice, potatoes and don't miss them.   I limit yogurt to a couple of times per week as carb count is too high. I definitely try to stay below 75 per day and often less than 60 but you have to find what works for you. When I first went into maintenance, any fruit would spike my sugars and I would gain the next day.  My body has now adjusted to the one fruit a day but I can't go above that.  So it's usually 1/2 apple or 1/2 orange or a couple rings of pineapple or 1/2 cup sliced berries. I usually have the fruit with protein like in my protein drink or with a small piece of cheddar or PB.  This help fill me and keep my blood sugar in check thus avoiding a sugar spike for me and a gain.

Were you ever diabetic or insulin resistant? I was and am now completely in remission on no meds since surgery. Carbs turn to sugar in your body and if you are sensitive to them, they can hamper your weight loss and maintenance but you probably already know this.

Good perspective to have.  I guess you are right about counting a carb as a carb.  Perhaps if I see it as having more room in the carb department, I might just fill up that "extra room". 

  It seems so hard to keep the carbs low.  I feel like I need them to feel well....but maybe that's the carb addiction talking.  I don't know if I would be able to do what you described above.  Perhaps I could start by making small changes.  Looking back at my Spark People pages for the past week, I generally fall into the 80-100 range.  The weekend was a disaster.  I did not go over in any other categories, but my carbs were well over 100 both Saturday and Sunday.

 Edit to add:  I was not diabetic or even close-thankfully.  Although, I did have gestational diabetes with my second pregnancI and had to take a small dose of insulin.  I also did not count carbs at all during my rapid weight loss phase and I lost quite a bit.   In the past, I have tried low carb diets (South Beach, Mayo clinic, Atkins), and always felt awful so I failed at them, but perhaps I did not stay with it long enough for my body to adjust. 

If you feel bad not eating carbs, then there's probably a reason.  I practically fell off my chair when the NUT told me to up my carbs and calories.  And this was a NUT with the clinic with a lot of experience with wls patients.  I've also heard of other people getting foggy on too few carbs.  Carbs are necessary to fuel our brains too!  Anyway, what the NUT said to me made a lot of sense.  (And my weight loss per week actually increased to 4-5 lbs/week from about 2lbs/week!)  But the key really is to make sure they are healthy carbs, and not letting those bad ones that turn immediately to sugar sneak in!

And I do believe that for some, carbs have to be kept low.  Everyone is different.  But listen to your body!

I'm not a fan of net carbs to be honest.  

I do ALL carbs. When I keep my carbs in the 50-70 grams a day range I lose long term.  Other than that, it can be hard to lose. I have to cut carbs out drastically out of my diet.  I aim for 20-25% of my diet from carbs using MFP's graph and I can lose. 

Dawn