Does counting only "effective" carbs really work?

[Jefft77]

I started the low carb diet 5 years ago, lost all the weight (56 lbs) I wanted in one year and kept it off until now. I lived overseas for 3 years and stuck to my eating plan of low or no carbs with a "total" count of about 20 carbs a day. Then I moved back and saw how this low carb craze has gone crazy. I started getting the 1g "effective" carb candies (peanut brittle, granola etc.), 3g "effective" carb bread, 4g "effective" carb pizza etc.. The problem with this is that there's really more carbs in the products and now the idea seems to be subrtacting certain things from the carbs to get the net carbs. I tried this for my first month back and put on 10 lbs and have now gone back to my original plan and dropped 4 lbs of the 10 I put on. The Breyer's ice cream is great with 4g "effective" carbs but how many people only eat 125 ml of it? God, I almost devour half the container at a sitting and it brings my sweet tooth back. Anyone else find that even though it's lower carbs you end up eating enough for a week at just one sitting and it's costing a fortune? Just looking for any thoughts or opinions on all the new "low carb" foods.
Jeff

[wbahn]

It is not hard to find an air compressor that is advertized as being 6HP even when the most power that can be drawn from the electrical outlet it is attached to is less than 2.5HP. Marketing folks will lie without shame if they think it will sell more product.

In many ways the current low carb craze is doing us a disservice because it is bringing all the snake oil salesmen out of the woodwork. About the only form of carb that should be subtracted to get an effective carb count is the fiber. But since no guidelines exist on what "effective carb count" means, they can - and do - pretty much deduct any amount they want.

Stick to whole foods that are low in carbs naturally and the problem goes away.

[dreis1]

Most of the ones I see deducted are sugar alcohol grams, I thought those didn't count? This could be why I am not losing drastically but I am losing.

[lizwhip]

I have learned to count the sugar alcohols in my carb total, otherwise I don't lose. There's a good article around here somewhere about it, I believe it's a sticky somewhere -

Liz

[wbahn]

Every manufacturer (including Atkins) deducts sugar alcohol because it lets them claim a lower effective carbs. But, as many people can attest, sugar alcohols can easily cause a slow or stall. Some people are fine with them. I don't think they cause me any problems, but I sure don't like how they can give you diahrea, especially if you exceed the serving size by just a little.

[dreis1]

Thanks Lizwhip & Wbahn,

I did Atkins last year and seemed like I lost alot more quickly in the first month but since there are so many new LC friendly products, I gave in to temptation. I just didn't want to give up my chocolate.

[lizwhip]

Go to "Newbies Questions" to the "Low Carb Newbies Basics" thread and you will find a list of articles, one of them is about counting sugar alcohols. Very interesting article!

Liz

[MyJourney]

There are many threads about counting sugar alcohols. I count 50% of all sugar alcohols as carbs and that seems to work for me. I deduct fiber just fine. The only other thing I have is dreamfields pasta on occasion which I will count only 5g carbs per 2oz dry based on my personal blood test results.

Thats about it.

[bhcompy]

The Breyer's ice cream is great with 4g "effective" carbs but how many people only eat 125 ml of it? God, I almost devour half the container at a sitting and it brings my sweet tooth back. Anyone else find that even though it's lower carbs you end up eating enough for a week at just one sitting and it's costing a fortune? Just looking for any thoughts or opinions on all the new "low carb" foods.
Jeff

Well, you can't blame them for you not following serving sizes. As for the food, I had my stalls and my quick spurts of loss, but I ate the same the whole time. Added daily sweets as a means to boost carbs easily and never had a problem losing

[Moonwalker]

in my opinion you cant really subtract sugar alcohols, but you can definitely subtract fiber. Also, if you're maintaining you should be eating way more than 20 carbs a day!