How to "count carbs"?

[DipsoHippo]

Morning all, hoping someone can give me a bit of advice, or point me in right direction.

I'm on the Dry June thread, so spent last week getting used to not having a glass or 2 of wine in the evening. As a result I need to cut back on carbs this week. I haven't been eating rubbish, but my meals have been very stodgy.

I can never figure out how to count carbs properly... I know that food has x amount of carbs on their labels, and I've read that carbs should make up 45%-65% of your daily calories (not sure how reliable that is?)

However, what I can't figure out is, what do I consider carbs? I know things like bread, porridge, potatoes, pasta, rice, pulses are carby. So I guess I should limit those.

If I eat a potato and it has 200 cals picked that figure from the sky do I say that's 200 cals of carbs? Is the entire potato a carb?

Or, if I eat something that I don't necessarily recognise as a Carb (e.g. an apple), how much of that do I count?

Please tell me I am overthinking it... is there a fool-proof rule of thumb like you can have porridge for breakfast and a potato for your lunch, but dinner should be carb free to balance it?

Also, I don't eat meat or dairy, so I use beans/pulses for protein, so I don't want to cut them out fully either.

Thanks in advance. I am looking at my food diary from last week, and while my total calories isn't too bad, there seems to be a lot of stodge!

I use My Fitness Pal when I'm looking at my carb intake as this counts it all for me, so I'm afraid I can't help with how to count them.

I will say though, almost everything has carbs in it - milk, fruit, veg... pretty much anything with any sort of sugar content. A standard banana contains 27g of carbs, which will quickly eat into your carb allowance if you are keeping it to 100g or so. I think you should make it easier on yourself by signing up to MFP and then manually adjusting your macros with a lower carb limit and higher protein and fat.

I used to use MFP, but didn't really like it. I have been using the Fat Secret app, which I find easier, but I don't know if I have it set up properly. I can set my calorie limit, but I must check it to see if I can set a carb limit on it.

I will play about with it at lunchtime. I might have to revisit MFP

Thanks helenahandbag

Are you wanting to eat a set amount of carbs a day? You might find this book quite handy.

Thank you Hexiegone that looks good!

I guess I am looking for guidance on how many to eat, and how to tally them.

I figured out via Google that I should eat:

1169 - 1559 cals per day to lose weight. I am trying to stick to 1300 approx

Out of my 1300 cals, Google tells me that I should eat 585- 845 cals worth of carbs

So it's working out how many cals are in a carb I am getting stuck on

You can edit the columns on fat secret to show carb grams. They're listed at the top of the food page.
If you're wanting to properly low carb it's usually 30g a day, mostly from salad and veg, however even at levels below 100-150g, avoiding sugar and refined carbohydrates, you should notice health benefits.
Good luck!

Thanks cathyandclaire