carbs

I am almost 4 months out and I am finding it reall hard to stay at 30g of carbs. I am still losing, but I average anout 50 or 60. I dont want this to hinder my weight loss in the future. I am about 30lbs from my goal.

Weight loss slows after the first months.  You should be able to still lose at least five pounds a month and reach your goal in about six months.  It might be sooner.

Thanks! I hope so!

My question for you is this: What makes it hard to stay at 30 grams of carbs per day? 

Everyone's answer to this question differs at least slightly. My goal during WL was 40 or fewer carbs per day. I know what made it hard for me on occasion to stay below 40 carbs, but what foods are driving your carb count up and is there a solid reason for choosing those foods? 

I'm not necessarily asking that you answer me directly, but it's something to think about to help you find YOUR answer about the carb level you are comfortable with and still maintain a weight loss that is satisfactory for you personally. 

That's a good question. I need to look at my food diary and reevaluate.

Yeah sometimes it can be hard to keep carbs low. Just like trying to get the most protein bang for your calorie buck, you'll probably have to do the same with carbs. Take a look at what you've been eating for the past week, you might be able to drop something that is carb heavy & either find an alternative, or maybe not have it every day. So some days will be closer to 30 & the others closer to 50.

Kairk has an excellent point about why your numbers are straying. If it is because you are stopping at SBUX for a latte every day, then that is a problem. However, if you are widening your diet some to incorporate a bit more fruit and veg, that's not such a problem, and indeed can be a big positive in the long term. My follow up question to consider is, what is special about 30g? Is that from your surgeon's program instructions, or something that you picked up on the internet (it's on the internet, so it must be true!) Overall, our calories are so low (if we are going to be successful,) that once we figure in our protein minimums, carb and fat grams are very low by any rational standards. In effect, our diets by default are both low carb and low fat, which is why WLS works as well with today's low carb mania as it did during yesterday's low fat fad (from my engineering days, we would say that WLS is overall insensitive to one's dietary style - the results will be much the same irrespective whether one counts carbs, fats or neither.) It's more productive to concentrate on what does matter (primarily caloric deficit and establishing healthy long term habits,) and not worry so much about what doesn't matter.

Carbs (fats, too) are very much a quality over quantity thing. There can be a big difference between your high quality carbs like fruits, veg and whole grains and your junk carbs like chips, fries and twinkies in how our bodies respond to them. It is primarily your simple and junk carbs that induce cravings and spike insulin while it is the complex carbs that provide much of the nutrition that we need and are much more slowly absorbed. There is also another category of carbs that can be termed "zero-carb" carbs - many of the artificial sweeteners have been found to create responses in our bodies very similar to real sugar - insulin spikes, cravings and addictive tendencies. So, if we can load up on these "zero-carb" carbs, as many do, what is the point of counting carbs in the first place, and what value does keeping to some arbitrary number like 20, 30 or 40 grams really provide?

As a side note, at around 4 months I selectively added more complex carbs (from around 70-80 to around 100-110) to my diet as a means of improving endurance, while maintaining the same overall average calorie level. My loss continued at a steady rate until I ramped up the calories to ease into maintenance; typically we see a declining trend in loss rate as we proceed toward our maintenance level.

If you are continuing to lose at a reasonable rate that is consistent with getting to your goal over the next few months, that's great - keep doing what you are doing and look to the long term.

Great point! Thank you.