As great as carbs are, excessively overeating or not having control over them can be harmful to your overall health, especially for those with diabetes. Hence, controlling how much you consume and counting your carbs for better health and wellness is essential.
You have landed on the right page if you recently heard about the 'count carbs' approach and wanted to know what it is and how you can count it. Hop on below to read all about it.
What is Carb Counting?
For any beginner, the best way to understand carb counting at a basic level is simply to refer to it as keeping a count of all the carbohydrates consumed during a specific period.
Counting your carbs helps keep track of all the carbs in your meals, including the meals, snacks, and drinks, which eventually enables you to match all your activity levels and medicines to the food you consume.
Counting carbs serves exceptional benefits, some of which include staying healthier for long, feeling better, and improving the quality of life. Moreover, it helps prevent or delay diabetic complications like kidney disease, eye disease, heart disease, and even stroke.
How to Count Carbs for Health and Wellness?
Now that you understand what counting carbs is and its benefits to an individual's life, the following approach would be to know how you can count carbs. Counting carbohydrates can seem overwhelming; however, once you get the hang of it, it can become one of the best ways to manage your health. Here is all you need to do:
Recognize Carbs and Where They Hide
The first approach when you start keeping a count on your carbs is to recognize all the carbs in the foods you eat. While many of us understand the essential carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, pasta, and cakes, we fail to realize that other foods, like many vegetables and even beans, have carbs in them, too.
Therefore, one needs to educate themselves about foods containing carbs and what might not.
Choose Quality Carbs
Another factor when picking carbs for your diet is choosing those loaded with nutrients and fibers. Consuming carbs that have empty calories would do nothing for you.
The best approach is to consume carbs with fibers, as fibers help to slow down the rate at which glucose enters the bloodstream. Hence, eating high-fiber carbs will have less impact on your overall blood sugar levels. Some of the best high-fiber carbs that you can include in your diet are lentils, fruits and vegetables, oats, and beans.
Set a Target
Now, the question is how much carbs is adequate for you to consume every day. This is one question many people have in mind from the day they decide to have control over their carbs. However, there is no right answer to this; the consumption of carbs for a person every day depends on several different factors. A few of these factors are gender, age, activity levels, weight goals, and personalized dietary needs.
Once you have all this ruled out, the following approach would be to think of how many calories, depending on this, you can consume. You can easily estimate this using tools like the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases' Body Weight Planner or the USDA MyPlate Plan.
Approach the Day with a Plan
Once you have determined your everyday carb intake through these tools, the following approach would be to target your daily carb intake. A carb serving is measured as 15 grams, but you should remember that serving carbs is not the same as serving regular food. Hence, according to the general rule of thumb, you should aim 3-4 carb serving per meal for women, 4-5 carb servings per meal for men, and 1-2 carb servings per snack.
However, while this is a general rule of thumb, it is not a set amount. These amounts can vary depending on a person's age, weight, individual health goals, BG targets, the level of physical activities they indulge in, and current medications.
Avoid the Math
If you are someone who doesn't like to count carbs using the mathematical way we mentioned above, then we have you sorted on an alternative, too.
Use the Plate Method
The first non-mathematical method to count carbs is using the plate method. In this method, divide your plate into two halves and then divide one of the halves in another half. This will give you a large section and two smaller sections.
Now, fill your large sections with non-starchy vegetables and one of the smaller sections with lean proteins. Fill the other smaller section with starchy foods like brown rice, sweet potatoes, or butternut squash. Remember, the best tip is to pick carbs rich in fiber.
Avoid Sweet and Starchy Foods and Sugary Drinks
Foods that are sweet and starchy and even sugary drinks are those carbs that do not have any nutrients. Hence, it is ideal to skip these kinds of foods entirely. You can always substitute the sweet and sugar indulges you get through fresh foods or consume foods like sweet potatoes, cauliflower rice, and whole grains.
Wrapping Up!
While we tried to help you understand the best ways to count carbs, you should know that counting carbs is a learning curve. Initially, you will not be perfect at it, but with time, patience, and enough practice, you will get the hang of it.
We hope your carb-counting journey goes well and that you make healthier and better food choices for yourself in the future. If you benefited from our guide, let us know if there is any other tip you'd like us to add here.
