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Introduction
Its safe to say that most carbohydrate recommendations that you will see are put in terms of percentages, you should be eating 45% of your calories as carbs, or 65% or whatever number is being used. As I discussed in Diet Percentages: Part 2, I dont like this method. Rather, putting nutrient recommendations in terms of grams per kilogram or per pound is generally more valid (with one exception I discuss below). The percentages are simply meaningless without knowing how many carbohydrates are being provided in terms of gram amounts. In that context, a typical ketogenic/low-carbohydrate diet might contain 0.5 g/lb (~1 gram/kilogram) of carbohydrate. An average moderate carb diet (such as The Zone or Duchaines Isocaloric Diet) might contain 1 g/lb (~2 g/kg) of carbohydrate or slightly more. A typical high-carbohydrate diet would, of course contain more than that (perhaps 2 -3 g/lb or more). Typical recommendations for endurance athletes are in the 3-4 g/lb (6-8 g/kg) range and carb-loading may require 5-8 g/lb (10-16 g/kg) of carbohydrate. Still, whether youre looking at carb recommendations in terms of percentages of g/lb (g/kg), there is still a huge discrepancy between different experts. Some recommend lots of carbs, some recommend medium amounts, some recommend almost none. Whos right? Well, I am. Because rather than giving some single carbohydrate recommendation (that cant possibly take into account all possible situations), I look at the individual and their needs to decide how many carbohydrates should be consumed daily. Which is what Im going to look at in detail in this article. The punchline, of course is that Ill end up concluding that how many carbohydrates someone needs (or should consume) daily depends on the same factors that affect other nutrient recommendations: goals, preferences, types and amounts of activity, and our old friend, genetic variation. By the end of the discussion, Ill have set both minimum and maximum intake values depending on different conditions that might crop up. Lets start with minimum amounts.
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2. Cant be made by the body. Quoting from my own Rapid Fat Loss Handbook: The second criterion is the reason that dietary carbohydrate is not an essential nutrient: the body is able to make as much glucose as the brain and the few other tissues need on a dayto-day basis from other sources. I should mention that the body is not able to provide sufficient carbohydrate to fuel high intensity exercise such as sprinting or weight training and carbs might be considered essential for individuals who want to do that type of exercise. Ill come back to exercise later in this article. But from the standpoint of survival, the minimum amount of carbohydrates that are required in a diet is zero grams per day. The body can make what little it needs from other sources. What, you ask, are those other sources? Read on.
Where Does the Glucose that the Body Makes Come from?
When carbohydrates are restricted completely, the body still has a small requirement for glucose (although this decreases over time) and the body has to find something to make glucose out of. That something is lactate and pyruvate (produced from glucose metabolism), glycerol (from fat metabolism) and some amino acids. Its the amino acid use that can be problematic since they have to come from somewhere. Now, if no food is being consumed (e.g. total starvation), that somewhere is generally muscle tissue (the body will also break down liver proteins); the body will readily break down body protein to scavenge the amino acids it needs to produce glucose. In doing so, the muscle released alanine and glutamine (produced in the muscle from the breakdown of leucine and the branch chained amino acids, so you know) which can be converted to glucose in the liver. This process goes by the unwieldy name of gluconeogenesis which just means the production of new glucose. Protein losses during total starvation are extremely high to start, gradually decreasing as the brain switches over to using ketones for fuel (this reduces the bodys glucose requirements which means less protein has to be broken down to make glucose). Even so, during complete starvation there is always some loss of body protein. Over long periods of time, this goes from harmful (because function is compromised from muscle loss) to downright fatal. Especially as folks get extremely lean and body protein breakdown increases. In this context, an under-appreciated fact of liver and protein metabolism (but discussed in detail in The Protein Book) is that over half of all ingested amino acids are broken down in the liver in the first place. A good portion of those can be used to make glucose and this is especially true when carbohydrates are restricted. Switching from starvation to dieting, this is fundamentally a big part of why protein requirements go up when folks are dieting, more of the ingested protein is being used in the liver to make glucose, meaning that more total protein has to be ingested to make sure there is sufficient amounts to support things like protein synthesis in skeletal muscle. I dont want to discuss this in detail here (since this article is about carbohydrates) but the topic is covered to some degree in nearly all of my books. My original Ketogenic Diet had a thorough examination of protein sparing on a diet and, of course The Protein Book discusses how protein requirements change during dieting in detail. Id also note that, as long as protein intake is sufficiently high (e.g. the diet is covering the increased breakdown of protein in the liver and elsewhere), the amount of carbohydrates which are truly required is still zero; this is the basis of my Rapid Fat Loss Handbook approach: eliminate all non-essential nutrients (including carbohydrates) and provide only those that are essential (in this case large amounts of high-quality protein and essential fatty acids) to generate the largest deficit and maximum fat loss per day. But, lets assume that you dont just want to eat massive amounts of protein, how many carbohydrates are needed to limit (or prevent) protein loss on a diet?
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diets. In contrast, individuals with insulin resistance often do far better reducing carbohydrates and that often means going to ketogenic levels. Finally, some people seem to have the metabolic flexibility to do well with either diet. I address this issue in more detail in article Insulin Sensitivity and Fat Loss. So what if people want to avoid ketosis? In general, assuming zero or very low levels of activity, an intake of 100-120 grams of carbohydrates per day will prevent the development of ketosis, just providing the brain with enough carbohydrates to function normally. So, for folks who want (or need) to just avoid ketosis, 100120 grams per day will act as a practical limit. Again, this wont quite work as a recommendation for people involved in high-intensity activity since not all of the incoming carbs will be available for the brain. So, summing up mid-article, the absolute requirement for carbohydrates is zero grams per day. However, depending on protein intake, a practical minimum for carbs lies between 50 grams/day (if someone functions well in ketosis) to 100-120 grams per day (if they dont function well in ketosis). Let me mention very specifically that Im not suggesting those numbers are a recommended level, Im simply using them to represent a practical minimum value. As a final note, before addressing the issue of exercise, I want to note that the above values above dont change significantly with body size (e.g. its one of the few places that an absolute number of carbs, rather than an amount set relative to bodyweight is appropriate). Most of the above discussion deals with the carbohydrate requirements of the brain which, for the most part, doesnt change massively with body size. A 120 pound female and a 200 pound male have roughly similar carbohydrate requirements for their brains because brain size simply doesnt differ that much between them.
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Summing Up
So lets sum up, looking at both practical minimum and maximum carbohydrate intakes under different circumstances. For illustrative purposes, after each of the g/lb recommendations, Ill give an absolute number of carbohydrate, assuming an athlete with 160 pounds of lean body mass. Circumstance Physiological Requirement PracticalMinimum to Avoid Muscle Breakdown
2
Grams for an athlete with 160 lbs. LBM 0 g/day 50 g/day 100-120 g/day
Practical Minimum for Individuals Who Function Poorly In Ketosis3 Additional Amount to Sustain Low Intensity Exercise Additional Amount Needed to Sustain Weight Training Average Recommendations in Bodybuilding Nutrition Average Recommendations by Mainstream Nutritionists Average Intake for Endurance Athletes Recommended Intake for Endurance Athletes Practical Maximum for Non-Carb Loading Individuals Maximal Intakes for Carb-Loading
1-3 g/lb.
160-480 g/day
320-480 g/day 320 g/day 480-720 g/day 640 g/day 1120 g/day
1. All values are in g/lb. To convert to g/kg, multiply by 2.2. 2. Note: If protein intake is sufficient, this amount of carbohydrate is not required. 3. All values above this line assume no exercise and do not change significantly with body weight. 4. Assumes a set length of 30-45 seconds. Clearly the above represents a pretty drastic range of carbohydrate requirements, depending on the specifics. For a typical male with 160 pounds of lean body mass, daily carbohydrate intake could range from the physiological requirement of zero grams per day to a near maximum of 1120 g/day during a carb-load. Which makes it no wonder that people are confused. Simply, the question How Many Carbohydrates Do You Need? has no singular answer. The goals of the person, the amount and type of activity, their individual needs (e.g. insulin sensitive vs. resistant, whether or not they function well in ketosis or not), their individual goals all determine how many carbs are ideal in the diet. Author: Lyle Mcdonald Source: bodyrecomposition.com
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