Why I eat carbs

Pasta, bread, cereal, starchy vegetables, sweet fruit;  I eat it all! I am not afraid of carbohydrates, but I do limit my portion sizes when I do have them, as you should with everything you eat.  I use measuring cups to mete out my portions for 100% whole grains.

Serving size for whole wheat bread: 1 slice, or one small roll. 
Serving size for whole wheat pasta: 1/2 cup, cooked. 
Serving size for cold whole grain cereal: 3/4-1 cup, depending on the style (flakes, O's, etc.).
Serving size for hot whole grain cereal: 1/2 cup.
A potato's serving size is 1/2 of a large 4" potato or one small red, new potato.


Eating a sandwich every day does not "make you fat," but eating a entire loaf of bread every day might.  It's all about portion control and moderation.  You can reduce your fat intake and lose weight.  You can cut your carbs and lose weight.  But the reason why you're losing weight is because in reducing your fat or carbs, you're also reducing your calories.  The almighty calorie -- that's all that matters when you're trying to shed pounds.

Here's the math:

Say you want to lose one pound per week.  You'll need to shave off 500 calories per day from what you normally eat.  You can do that in a few ways: You can eat 250 calories less in food and exercise off another 250 calories.  You can cut 500 calories in just eating less food.  Or you can exercise off 500 calories through working out and keeping your diet the same.

After one week (7 days) you will have burnt 3500 calories.  There are 3500 calories in one pound of fat.  This will result in your one pound weight loss.

All that matters to me is the almighty calorie, but I don't actually count calories, I count Weight Watchers Points+ values that have already figured in the calorie amounts for me.  This way, I can moderately eat the carbs, I can eat the foods that are not low fat.  This is why I love Weight Watchers: there are no "bad" foods!  If I want cake at a birthday party or pizza on family night, I can have it but I have to make sure I have enough Points+ values to spend on the cake or pizza by budgeting my allotted Points+ values.

For the past couple of days I have been craving pasta alfredo, which is traditionally loaded with fat and carbs.  Moderation is about making choices, so I had to decide which calorie-maker, carbs or fat,  I wanted to reduce in order to cut my overall calories.  Carbs (pasta) had to be cut this time because I wanted the awesome flavor that comes with alfredo sauce containing fat.  So on my grocery trip today, I spent the time to look over the different pasta sauces and used my Points+ calculator app on my phone to figure out which one had the lowest per serving. (Creamy Alfredo Sauce by Private Selection [a Kroger store brand] won out with 80 calories and 7 g of fat per 1/4 cup serving, and a Points+ value of 2.)

This seems like a lot of fat for so little food, right?  (The absolute truth is that we really don't need as much food as we think we do.)  If you want to eat the things that you really need to be moderate about, you have to be creative and innovate.  I had the serving of pasta sauce and combined it with 1 cup of broccoli cuts (adds filling fiber for minimal calories and 0 Points+), one serving of my favorite chicken-style TVP (no fat, lots of fiber, 2 Points+), and one bag of Shirataki noodles, which are calorie-free, fat-free, carb-free, gluten-free, and all fiber.  I used these "miracle noodles," not because I fear carbs, but because I wanted to shave calories off the meal due to using the full-fat alfredo sauce.  You have to be smart about eating smart!  The recipe builder/calculator at Weight Watchers put this very filling meal right at 6 Points+, so I got all the flavor of chicken alfredo pasta from a satisfying portion with reduced calories, a moderate fat content, and a low Points+ value.

I eat complex carbs because our bodies need them to stay regular and healthy.  And frankly, though I probably can live without bread, I don't want to!  That's the plain truth.