I am aware that half of our calorie intake should be carbos. Who decides what our daliy calorie intake should be. My Endo. tells me that about 4 calories are in every gram of carbs… I pulled the amount of 150 grams of carbs., just out of the blue. Also out of the blue I pulled 1200 calories a day but, that was 20 years ago when I was working fulltime in a hospital. The 1200 Calories worked then when I was on Weight Watchers and keeping up with young adults. Now I am keeping up with 17 grand children and 3 great grandchildren and retired. Activity is not as active as it was due to mobility limitations, Copd and CAD. So, how do I figure my: carlorie limit, my daily carbs for a low carb. diet and who tells me. Endo gives no help and the CDE appears to have no clue what I am talking about with Dr. Bernstein’s Diet. Need help, so I can stay with it and set them straight. Besides I have already lost 1# since Tuesday. Thanks Chele.
Unfortunately, you are unlikely to get help with the Dr. B diet from you doctor or CDE. What I would tell you is that you probably should just ignore calories. You need to restrict your carb intake. Dr. B says 30 g/day. This is like Atkins Induction. In fact, you could just do Atkins Induction. The “New Atkins for You” book (http://www.amazon.com/New-Atkins-You-Ultimate-Shedding/dp/1439190275) is great and is available at most public libraries.
Frankly, I’ve found that calories (from fat) really don’t matter on a very low carb diet. And Dr. B basically agrees suggesting that if you want to lose weight, you decrease the protein in your diet. You basically become invulnerable to calories from fat. You might be able to eat a couple pounds of butter every day and not gain weight, although I don’t recommend that.
There are lots of free calculators out there that might give you a starting point only:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=calculate+daily+caloric+needs&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
In reality, I have had to experiment to find my own personal caloric need level based on the % body fat I am shooting for, total body weight, lean mass, etc. Everyone has different goals and outcomes that will influence what their daily numbers are.
I am not sure about your statement that says half our intake should be in the form of carbos that is not really in line with Dr. B’s eating regimen. My daily caloric ratios (which I track using an app on my iphone called fatsecret which makes it quite easy to track every single thing I eat) are 60-65% fat, 25-30% protein, and 5-10% carbs.
In line with Dr. B and bsc, protein converts to sugar at some percent. Dr. B uses the 3 oz. means of estimating, others use some old metabolic studies (check out the TAG group here on this site) which pegs it at 58%–fat too has a very small conversion to glucose (less then 10%). I think it would be very difficult to eat pounds of butter as the body would start saying “enough already”–fat causes a high degree of satiety for me at least and I have trouble eating when by body gets that sick feeling of overeating.
Personally, I don’t count up my macronutrients. Trying to apply a simple formula to something like workings of the human body just seems like a path to inevitable frustration to me. But I’ve found this ‘simple formula’ works quite well: “if it makes your bloodsugars spike up in short order, don’t eat it.”
I have found I only have had to calculate a few variations of meals and then just estimate portions off of those initial detailed counts. As long as I am in the ballpark regarding amount of protein, fat, and carbs I am pretty good at creating a dose that is based on all three but without detailed weighings any longer.
The statement that says half our intake should be in the form of carbs.,was in regards to the ratio of Carbs. to Calories. Published by Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Inc., titled ’ Counting calories and carbos '. Thinks for your additional info.