Is a diet high in carbohydrates normal?

Question

I have been watching my diet very closely lately, and have found out that the vast majority of my calories come from carbohydrates. I have been able to bring it down from about 63% of my total calories to about 45%. Do think it's normal for a person to consume more carbs than fats or proteins? Do you think my fight against too many carbs is good since I am trying to lose fat and gain muscle?

Answer 1

Yes, it is quite normal for someone to consume more carbs than fats or proteins. Most people, however, consume far too many -- and the wrong kinds, as well. I don't think you should be fighting against carbs. Just keep carbs under control. 45% or so is a good percentage of carbs. Make sure they are good choices, however. Split the rest (55% between proteins and good fats).

Needless to say, keep total calories under control (without restricting) and make up the difference in exercise.

Answer 2

Most people eat more carbs than anything else. If you got all of your calories from proteins you would be overworking your kidneys removing all the extra nitrogen from your blood stream that is produced from breaking amino acid chains.

The point of watching carbs is to make sure that you get your carbohydrates from complex sources like vegetables, whole grains like oatmeal and whole wheat bread, and fruits.

Your body has to break carbohydrate chains into smaller carbohydrate chains and then into complex sugars before breaking those into the simple sugars the body uses in its blood to sustain you. Eating more complex carbs like vegetables instead of simple carbs like potatoes and sugars means that the body has to burn calories to prepare the food for digestion.

Simple carbohydrates cause a spike in blood sugar and that is bad for you so your body has to find a place to put that sugar right away. The only place to "put" something right away is into fat. You can use a certain amount of sugar for your daily routines, exercize, glycogen, etc, but beyond that it HAS to go into fat.

Make sure you eat two vegetables for every serving of meat. Quit potatoes, white bread and sugars for the most part and focus on getting all of your vitamin and minerals from foods instead of vitamin supplements. This will help you make sure your diet is in proportion. Human beings didn't develop our nutritional requirements over thousands of years of pill swallowing. If you're meeting your recommended daily values through the food you eat you're probably doing alright.

Answer 3

Yes it is normal for people to eat a higher percentage of carbohydrates than protein or fat.
Restrict your fat intake to less than 15% of total calories.
If you want to gain muscle and are doing intense training, like heavy weights then you need to consume 0.8 to 0.9 grams of protein for each pound of body weight.

Just make sure that most of your carbohydrates are complex and not processed.

Answer 4

The problem is not carbs, it is the type of carbs. Most of the time the carbs that are consumed are simple carbs or processed junk food. you need to consume complex carbs ie brown rice, barley, oats, quinoa, millet etc. Complex carbs contain the natural nutrients that are good for your body and the simple ones have had them stripped out of them.

Answer 5

In short, yes. Excess protein will cause you to lose calcium from your bones and stresses your kidneys. Excess fat--well, we all know that's very bad for you, right?

It really is good carbs versus bad carbs. If you avoid junk food and eat a good variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, you should be fine.

Answer 6

carbs is supposed to be our main source of energy. check out www.mypyramid.gov for the new guide, they changed it in 2005. Just make sure they are the 'good' carbs.♥

Answer 7

keep your carbs to a minimum but you still need them along with protein to gain lean mass. You need those calories.

Answer 8

no generally carbohydrates should be minimal if your on a diet, well for everyone, but especially people who are on diets