hello there, i am trying to balance my carbs and calories and am buying mostly foods that are low carbs now.

i bought some skippy carb control peanut butter with only 3 net carbs and some fat free carb options milk with only 5 net carbs.

the milk has only 70 cals so that is not too bad but the peanut butter has 190 cals. the bread has 18 carbs as well but the cals for the bread is 40 per slice.

so i am wondering how the heck does one balance calories with carbs? it seems i need at least 100-150 carbs a day with the majority of them being in the a.m. for my house cleaning energy i need or the delivery job i have.

i am talking about the good carbs here, NOT the bad ones like chips, junk food, potatoes, but the good one okay?

so can someone explain this to me? i know on a low carb way of eating you are not suppose to have to count carbs, but i can easily see how calorie count can get waaaya out of control with that option.

plus it has been a BIG debate on the news lately as well!

i just took my blood sugar level and it was only 59!!!
i am not diabetic either, i think it was from not enough cals or carbs???

this is thee other problem i have with the low carbs and not getting enough to eat for fear of taking in too many calories!

i was feeling very weak and shakie after eating my sandwich, low carb sandwich at that with a cup of low carb milk.

an hour or so later i got hungry again, well i never really feel full anyway eating this way, at least not very often.

so i was curious and with my last testing stick i took it and it was at 59, and that scares me!

does that mean i am hypoglycemia or just didn't have enough calories in for the day? does anyone know?

i also did 30 mns of cardio then another hour or so later did another 20 mns. i don't have alot of energy to do that without more carbs.

any suggestions?

That much activity on so little food is looking for trouble... you don't need to count calories!!!

Which book have you read? I see you don't have a plan listed, but it's still important to have a good understanding of what you're trying to do.

I suggest going to Atkins.com and reading up on that plan since they give pretty complete info there.

hi potato free and thanks so much for the reply!
i do understand that one is not suppose to count calories when doing low carbs, however i have been hearing so much media hype about over consuming calories at the sake of lowering carbs.

that is what i do not want to do either, so i try to at least watch the calorie intake along with the carb intake.

today i think i just did not get enough of either and had the low blood sugar drop then did the 30 mns of cardio then went back and did another 20 mns of cardio.

my goal is to do 500 cardio calories a day. i can do it, i use to do it for weeks and i counted 1500 calories a day as well and that was not i initally lost 30 pounds.

i still have a few to go mostly around the middle. not sure if i can even lose it though, it may be stretched out skin from babies, though my youngest is now 22, but i've never really lost that since then anyway.

tomorrow i am hoping will be better! i will eat more foods this time around...today mostly right now am craving some sweets, ugggh!

my hubby is on the south beach diet and has lost weight and inches but you cant really even tell that he has.

is there email notification of replys on here? if so how do i set it? thanks again for your help!

well, that is hypoglycemia for sure. i think you have to get out of hte mind set of carbs for energy, especially with your tendency to hypoglycemia. i struggle with it as well (31 at the 2 hr mark with a GTT). It is harder to make the switch from burning carb to fat for energy when your blood sugar is low because of the shaky etc. what i have found is that initially you will do better with less carb and more fat to get you thru. the sandwhich may have been too much in the beginning. once your body has started using fat for energy instead of carbs, you can then try to increase a little at a time. you will have more than enough energy once your body burns fat for fuel. you will no longer experience a 59 blood sugar. i don't know if you have read a book yet but atkins explains this in his book and unless you read the "why" behind the "what and how", you will be lost. this is the way to eat for people with hypoglycemia...no more shaking etc. also, initially, skip the exercise till your body has switched over to fat burning. this is important for hypoglycemics where as others may not find this to be necessary....i think you will be thrilled once you get started on this....keep us posted and best to you!! Kay

i'm sorry but i don't understand what you mean as i'm still not clear headed from that attack earlier.

are you saying that i should eat more fat for energy instead of carbs? the good fats of course, like maybe peanut butter, i cant think of anything else though.

what about counting carbs? i have read books on this like sugar busters and atkins and protein power but am still kind of confused about that issue because there is so much low carb junk food out there now that one can accumulate thousands of calories but not near as many carbs on junk food alone!

i could eat them ice cream low carb bars days and night, they taste so close to the real thing made with spenda, but at 170 calories i would be afraid to eat too many of them in a week but could eat a whole box in a day at only 3 net carbs i beleive.

as for the hypoglycemia, back in the summer of 2000 i developed a sudden onset of hypothyroid diagnosed by the hypoglycemia.

i would not of known probably if i had not gotten attacked with hypoglycemia symptoms.

each time i went to the clinic while symptomatic my blood sugar was within normal though low like around low 70's.

then i bought a kit for at home to test myself and while symptomatic at the worst my numbers were always in the normal range.

dr. said that proves i am NOT hypoglycemic and to drop it already cause i kept insisting that i was because i was very symptomatic.

i found another dr. that said i had gastric dumping, which means my food leaves my stomach too quicky leaving me feeling hungry alot and symptomatic.

i was to try pepci ac i think but it did not help anything.
a while back ago i did do this low carb thingy and got quite lean but soon went back to old habits of pizza once a week and couldn't stop at that after a while.

that is thee only thing i wont give up on low carbing is my once a week pizza, nor my hubby either.

we both leaned down so nicely and am hoping for that again. the other thing too was while doing that though i did not exercise for the first week or so because i was afraid i would not have the energy, by arms trimmed down so nice, and i looked quite healthy.

so am hoping to get back there again and stay there this time. i/we are not going back to the old way of eating but will still indulge in our weekly pizza, lol.

thanks for the feedback and the encouragement.
that 59 was thee lowest i've ever been!

so scarie too, i'm still not over it yet, am so wiped out.
i carry glucose orange flavored chewables with me and they work wonders too!

jamiejen, as for email subscription... if you scroll down to the bottom of this page you'll see a link that says "subscribe to this thread". Click on it and it will guide you from there. You can also find all your subscribed threads by clicking on the "profile" button on top of every page after you've logged in.

As for lowcarb/lowcal - no way Jose. I think South Beach is leaning towards calorie control, but on Atkins we don't count kcals - unless one has an eating disorder and/or _binges_ food.

If you stick to 20g netcarbs (total carbs minus fiber) and see to it that your fat% is around 70% of your total daily intake, you'll probably feel good and see results. Eat natural foods, avoid LC junk food (bars, shakes etc) and drink lots of water to help flush the ketones out.

www.fitday.com is an excellent tool for tracking your daily intake. www.atkins.com is a fenomenal source of wisdom about how to make this work. All for free. All it takes is some time of yours to endulge in the knowledge and then you're set to go.

Best of luck to you!

/gil

i seriously don't think i can go that low, 20g for carbs!
that is practically next to nothing!

i would not even know what to eat!
part of the problem is that i get too hungry and feel that only carbs can really satisfy me, like whole grain breads or milk, or some whole grain crackers like the triscuits.

though i am trying awfully hard not to eat too much of them...maybe after a week or sooner i can cut them back even more but for now i am still feeling the need if only psychologically for them.

though i think i did fairly well on my first real day of doing this again.
the only real carbs i had were from the triscuits and some real milk and that was only because my blood sugar was down to 59, if it had not been for that i would not of eaten them!

i will get atkins book from the library tomorrow and re-read it again. thanks again too!

Oh, sorry. I thought you were looking into Atkins Induction phase. (too into answering Induction questions, I guess...)

You might want to have a look at Atkins For Life, which is more generous with the carb count - or maybe pre-maintenance in DANDR and on the atkins.com website. There you'd be somewhere between 40-80-100g netcarbs a day...

However, I'd say it's the higher amount of carbs that will make you hungry or dizzy as your bloodsugar spikes and falls... The whole idea with lowcarbing is to level your bloodsugar and insulin level by avoiding those sudden spikes, and letting the fat and protein work for you making you full and content for longer periods rather than shots of carbs that will only "unbalance" you.

Well, just my 2 cents.

thanks for your "two cents", i appreciate it just the same.
i don't really have problems eating any carbs, just not eating enough calories.

i woke up ohhh soooo hungry this a.m. and made a fried egg sandwich and am still starving!

i do'nt eat the icky carbs anyway. i once in a while have a goodie but not too often.

if i gave into them temptations to have one every time i wanted one though i would be eating them on a regularly basis, LOL.

anyway, i am getting my thyroid (tsh) checked again today cause the last time i went through this hypoglycemia junk my tsh was way out of whack.

so thanks again for the replies i appreicate it very much!

That's just the thing, though..waking up starving and the feeling of being able to eat carbs like crazy if faced with temptation..the hypoglycemia..all are tied to too many and the wrong KIND of carbs.

If Atkins seems too low, there are many other less-restrictive plans that will control your symptoms beautifully! There is an overview under "What LC Plan is right for Me?" under Quick Links on the right-hand side of the page.

we have very few carbs in this house outside of veggies like carrots, peas and apples.

i keep the triscuit around though for emergencies mainly other then that i don't eat too many.

i have checked out the ones that you are refering too and they seem so outdated.

better for me probably to try medium carb diet which i thought i saw somethin on here for that but now can't find it anyway...but i will continue to look!

today i did much better, i started out with a fried egg sandwich and later had a taco bell (bad i know)!

but hunger took me over and i was going to get a chicken salad from subway and they were soooo packed in there and i did not have time to wait.

like bill phillips says if you fail to plan then plan to fail...so the rest of the evening i will be a good healthy eater to make up for earlier..

thanks for the reply!

What do you mean, outdated? Schwartzbein Principal, Protein Power, Carb Addicts Diet, Sugarbusters... all are valid, proven plans with many satisfied followers. Snoop around the forums for each, and you'll likely find someone with the same goals and requirements who are having a GREAT experience with them and would be happy to give you plenty of information on their personal experiences on them.

There really is nothing new under the sun... the flashy, overhyped "new and improved" plans coming out now are basically variations on a theme...