I'm new and I like carbs

Hi Timm
I am no expert on nutrition.  ( I could eat PB & Fluff 3 meals a day!)
BUT I have had success recently fueling myself with more protein and less carbs.  I too love carbs.  Not the good kind either...bagels, granola bars, crackers, ect.
It helps me to have healthy snacks to choose from that I pre make during the week.  I hard boil eggs and cook chicken breasts and keep them in the fridge for an inbetween meal snack.  I find that with 15 + hour weeks of training I can't eat enough.  Having almonds, yougurts, fruit, veggies and lots of cooked protein around helps curve my bread cravings.  Not that I don't still indulge on cookies, donuts & ice cream!  Why train if you can't have a treat now and again?!
Best of luck,
Gwen

What's wrong with carbs?
Carbs give you energy to train. They are essential.

 

Ditto.

What is WAY too much?

Way too many carbs by what measure?  Many differing views on the carb issue, but it's clear that athletes need a significant amount to train, improve and compete.  What pretty much every diet out there stresses (what doesn't seem to be very controversial) is that in general the best sources of carbohydrates for overall health as well as good athletic nutrition come from natural sources.  I happen to be a fan of the Paleo diet, which advocates primarily fruit and vegetable sources, except for during certain stages before/during/after workouts.  Many other diets stress complex carbs from whole grains and legumes.  Research and experimentation can be very useful in determining which work best for your body.

My advice is to worry more about keeping the quality of your carbs high and understanding the various needs your body will have before/during/after workouts rather than getting caught up in the numbers of grams.

BUT All that being said, and in the spirit of answering your question rather than telling you why you shouldn't be asking it here are a few meals I really like that might fight your bill: cut up and stir fry a bunch of chicken breast, then package the pieces in serving sized tupperware.  Day 1: roast broccoli lightly coated with olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes (brocc turns into candy when you roast it - YUM), add warmed up chicken.  Day 2: reheat chicken in stirfry with tons of veggies and a small amount of hoisin sauce.  Day 3: Mix cold chicken with small amount of homemade mayo (or low fat variety from a jar if you are ok with that), curry powder, nuts, grapes or apples, chopped red peppers and serve over romaine or other greens.  All are fast, easy and tasty.

Or, my solution to pretty much everything: make pesto!  It's easy, it all goes in the blender.  Use whatever herbs you've got, whatever nuts you like, add parmesan if you want to or don't - it doesn't matter - any other ingredients that sound good (capers, lemon zest, what have you) blend with olive oil.  A zillion variations, keeps for at least a week or you can freeze it (without the cheese, which I don't use anyway).  Add a little to basically any meat/veg combination and it will taste richer.  You'll miss the pasta, rice, bread less and it is delicious!

Edited by slkirsch 2009-07-09 12:00 PM

Thanks for all the help, guys.  I guess my issue is that I don't seem to be losing the weight.  I was looking at my nutritional values and the carbs stood out to me.  Diabetes runs in my family, (every last person but me,) so I've always heard about the evils of eating too many carbs.

Here is an average day for me:
Calories: 2671 From fat: 320.86 (33.39g, 12.01%)
Carbs: 1594.76 (373.37g, 59.71%) Protein: 755.38 (176.85g, 28.28%)

I'm probably not training as hard as most of you guys.  Is that too many carbs?

Thanks, daij!

If you're active a lot of the day, and you train 3-5x a week then that is fine.  If you sit at a desk for most of the day, limit your carbs to 300 MAX, and up the fat and protein. 

Those averages don't look bad to me.  Maybe increase your fats a bit (healthy ones, of course--nuts, avacados, etc.) a s a trade-off for some carbs.  If that is a true average over several weeks (counting EVERYTHING you eat & drink) and you are not losing weight over that period, then you could try cutting back a few hundred cal/day for a few weeks and see what happens.  Since it's not possible to accurately know what your "calories out" are, figuring out the right "in" is usually a trial & error process.

Carbs aren't "evil" by themselves.  But some people find a high-carb diet makes them more prone to feelings of hunger, which leads to overeating.  It's the overeating part that is problematic.

You carb percentage looks pretty good, if you're doing a lot of endurance training, you may even want to bump it up a bit. Of course, there are all types of Carbs out there, so if simple, refined sugars make up a large percentage of your CHO consumption then it doesn't matter that you're percentage is right because you're eating the wrong carbs. Your protein intake (`30% looks a little high).  Average individuals really only need 0.8g/kg body weight, with elite althletes needing to consume as many as 1.2g/kg (these are numbers from a few years ago back in college) - these needs can be adjusted depending on the type of event you're training for, but a good range for triathletes.

Hmmmm..... Maybe my problem is that I sit at a desk most of the day.  I never really know what my job is going to ask of me, so going into any day, I don't know how much time I'm going to get to train.  Should I lower my carb intake every day, just in case, or should I keep it higher?

Eat less on days you don't work out (save the 'fueling' for exercise until afterwards if you don't know what/if you will be doing later).  Eat a balanced diet every day.  Carbs are not the enemy.

Got it.  Thanks again everyone.  You have been most helpful.  I think after a week and a half of it, I'm learning the difference between good carbs and bad carbs.  I ended up losing 5 pounds last week, so I must be doing something right.