How Many Carbohydrates Per Day to Lose Weight?

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how many carbohydrates per day to lose weightDo you have any idea how many carbohydrates you should be eating per day to lose weight? Find your sweet spot for optimal fat loss.

Are Carbohydrates Even Required? No, but Yes

Of the 3 primary macronutrients – fat, protein, and carbohydrates, only fat and protein are essential to human life. You do not need carbohydrates to survive (you need glucose). However, your brain does need glucose, and high-intensity training like strength training uses muscle glycogen to fuel its function. So, if you don’t eat carbohydrates, where are you going to get this glucose?

It can get it from a couple of different places – protein or fat. Amino acids, which are what make up protein, can be converted to glucose by the liver through a process called gluconeogenesis. We can also derive glucose from fat. When fatty acids are released, glycerol, which is involved in fat synthesis, is released too. Glycerol can then be used by the liver to manufacture glucose. This also happens through gluconeogenesis.

All that being said, while carbohydrates aren’t required, it is still much more efficient to derive your glucose from carbohydrates, so you shouldn’t be afraid to eat them. While our society greatly over consumes refined carbohydrates, we greatly under consume whole food carbohydrates. The key is to eat the right ones.

Eating any of the carbohydrates from this list of 100 healthy foods would be a great pick.

Are You a Sugar Burner or a Fat Burner?

What happens when you eat a diet high in carbohydrates? You become more efficient at burning glucose. The enzymes needed for carbohydrate metabolism are up-regulated, and you in essence become a better sugar burner. This sounds great, except as a result, your fat burning enzymes will be down-regulated. Don’t we want to be efficient fat burners? Our goal is to burn fat, not glucose…right?

To efficiently burn fat, we need to train our bodies to use fatty acids for fuel. One of the ways we do this is by limiting (not eliminating) our carbohydrate intake so that we are only eating what we need. Anything more just promotes more efficient sugar burning, runs the risk of lowering your insulin sensitivity, and converts carbohydrates into fat via insulin when muscle and liver glycogen stores are full.

Read more about why your insulin sensitivity is the key to fat loss.

How Many Carbohydrates Per Day to Lose Weight?

All this leads us to the big question – how many carbohydrates per day to lose weight? For most people, an intake of around 150-200 grams (or 30-40 percent of calories) of carbohydrates should be sufficient to fuel their exercise and central nervous system function. At 4 calories per gram, that’s 600-800 calories worth of high-intensity fuel.

Chances are, you aren’t burning much more glycogen than that during your workout. And let’s not forget that when we exercise, we burn a combination of fat and glycogen. If you are highly active, you will probably need more than that (myself included). However, for the typical individual who exercises and then is sedentary and behind a desk the rest of the day, 150-200 grams is a good starting point.

The rest of your calories will need to be filled with healthy fats (I supplement with this omega 3 oil to get my essential fatty acids) and protein. Set your protein intake to .8-1 gram per pound of lean body mass, and fill the rest of your calories with healthy fats.

Once you have your carbohydrate and protein intake optimized to your activity levels, all you have to do is manipulate your fat intake to correspond with your goals. Want to lose 1 pound a week? Then just lower your fat intake by 500 calories per day (from maintenance levels) and use your body fat for fuel instead of dietary fat.

Read more about why losing 2 pounds per week isn’t realistic for everybody.

If you are having trouble losing weight, and you’re mostly sedentary during the day (minus your workout), and you’re eating well over 150-200 grams of carbohydrates a day, you might want to reconsider your intake to put it more in line with what you actually need. Doing so will help keep your insulin levels down so that fatty acids can more easily be mobilized and used for fuel.

MUST READ: The Definitive Guide for How to Lose Weight
FREE EBOOK: The 10 Forgotten Rules of Weight Loss
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About Tony Schober

Healthy living curator, blogger, foodie, certified personal trainer, husband, & step-dad to 3. Founder of Coach Calorie. Hates scales.

  • http://www.freefitnesstips.co.uk/ Tom Parker

    Great post Tony. I agree that as a society we do greatly over consume carbohydrates. The only problem with the low carbohydrate mentality I find is that it encourages people to avoid fruit and then they miss out on a lot of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. I personally try to stick to natural carbs and avoid the processed ones but I don’t beat myself up for eating an extra piece of fruit.

    Tom

  • http://coachcalorie.com khalilah

    Tom what exactly is natural carbs & can u give an example of some processed ones as well? Thanks

  • Chris

    I’m having problems figuring out just what quanitiy and quality of carbahydrates to lose weight. I’m 5’5 and weight 192.2 lbs. I’m very confused and would truely appreciate any advise you could give me. I’m really getting discouraged here. Thanks

    • Coach Calorie

      Chris, it’s hard to say without knowing your energy demands from your workouts. Generally speaking, you should be able to eat 50-100 grams per day of carbohydrates and lose weight. Maybe 100 on workout days and 50 on non workout days. Keep your carbs around your workout and have protein/fat meals the rest of the day.

  • Polly

    Are energy bars OK to eat and if so, which ones would you recommend?

    • Coach Calorie

      I don’t like eating them, although some are made from nothing but whole foods. Lara bars I believe are one of them. You could also make your own.

  • Lindsey Pollard

    When you say “limit carbs,” do you mean limit only the bread / grains type of carbs? Like Tom said, there are lots of benefits from eating fruits and vegetables, but I know that they are considered carbs. They are “complex” versus “simple,” so that is why I wonder about what kinds of carbs should be limited. 50-100 grams is not much at all, and I’ve read so much nutritional literature that discusses how important complex carbs (in the form of vegetables and fruits) are to the diet. Please expound on this topic. Thanks!

    • Coach Calorie

      With 100 grams of carbohydrates, you should be able to eat a lean meat, a healthy fat, a fruit, and a veggie in every single one of your 5 meals (if you choose to eat that many) without going over your allotment. Fruits and vegetables are healthy – no doubt about it. When I say to limit carbs, I mean to control them.

      I personally don’t do well with grains, but if you’re OK with them, you can eat them too. I prefer potatoes myself. There’s also legumes.

      • Rayca

        This answer is still a bit confusing. When you say 50-100 grams, I’m sure you mean starch, yes? Fruits, unless they are berries, are probably in the 20g minimum range, so no, you could not eat those at every meal + get your starch. You cannot sustain a workout, that is, weightlifting on fruits, vegs., and meat. You MUST have starch, i.e., grains, potatoes, rice, pasta, legumes, beans, oats. That would be the bulk of those 100g and like you said, it would probably be in the 100g range if lifting weights. Nowadays, people refer to carbs as “starch.” Fruits and vegs. are just extra food items, at this point. It’s the starch that people are concerned with and the starch that’s needed to fuel workouts. You would, however, need to add the fruit grams into the gram total, i.e. 50-100.

        • Coach Calorie

          Hi Rayca, starch is not necessary. Glycogen for your workouts can be synthesized from fruit sugar too, although about half of this sugar is fructose – which refills liver glycogen. That being said, I have no problems eating starch. Potatoes are a great food to eat post-workout to refill glycogen stores. Eat as many carbohydrates as needed to fuel your workouts, but try to eat no more than that. 50-100 grams is a guidelines I think will fit the majority of people’s lifestyles.

          • Nayive

            50-100 grams per meal or per day?

            • Coach Calorie

              100/day is a good starting point. You can always adjust from there.

  • Rayca

    Simple and to the point, which is exactly the way a diet should be. Whether you’re trying to lose, maintain or gain, the diet strategy should be simple so you can manipulate it easily. Plus it’s easier to stick to if it’s simple. Gives you more time to do life…Thanks, Tony.

  • Maryam

    hi. started the low carb diet. on about 20 -30g per day. is it impoertant to drink all 8 glasses of water for this to work?
    some days i can go by with just 1 glass, lemons and things dont help because i just dont want to drink it.
    (random days im gulping water down like i havnt drank for days – but thats rare)

    also do carbs work like calories? if you burn them off, do you get a leeway to eat some more? so, do you get exercise carbs like you get exercise calories? this question has been going round my head since i started last week.

    found you by accident but appreciate the fact that i can post straight away for advice. other places have been asking me to register and sign up first. keep up the good work.
    And thanks in advance.

    • Coach Calorie

      Hi Maryam,

      For weight loss to “work” you need a calorie deficit. Drinking water should be done regardless of how you’re eating. You need fluids, and 1 glass is surely not enough. You don’t have to force it, but have a glass with each of your meals at least. That should be easy.

      Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Carbs ARE calories. Whether or not you have “leeway” just depends on if you’re hitting your calorie limit for the day.

      I don’t like thinking of it as “getting” anything. You have what you burn in a day, and you have what you eat in a day. You have to eat less than you burn to lose weight.