How many carbohydrates can I eat if I’m trying to lose weight?

I can't tell you how many people tell me they are trying to avoid carbohydrates because "carbs make you fat." I tell them that yes, too many carbs in your diet can make you fat, but so can too much protein, fat or alcohol. Actually, the so-called “good carbs” - fruits, vegetables and whole grains - can help you lose weight, because they fill you up on relatively few calories. For instance, for 35 calories you can have five cups of fresh spinach or just one teaspoon of butter. And think how much more filling a cup of oatmeal is compared to 2 little sugar cookies; both have about 140 calories.

But when people talk about avoiding carbs, they’re mainly talking about grains and starchy vegetables (like potatoes) - those are the higher calorie carbohydrates. Here’s my advice: Know your servings. A grain/starchy vegetable serving has about 80 calories, and 15 grams of carbohydrate.

Examples of good carbs:

• Beans (such as black beans, pinto beans, white beans, garbanzo beans, lentils)
• 1/3 cup cooked or canned Brown or wild rice
• 1/3 cup cooked Bulgur wheat
• 1/2 cup cooked Cereal based on whole grain and/or bran 80 calories worth (check the label for cup measure). You can usually have about 3/4 cup of the flakey-type. Aim for at least 4 grams fiber per 100 calories.
• Corn, 1/2 cup or 5-inch-long ear
• Plain oatmeal (or other unsweetened whole-grain hot cereal)
• 1/2 cup cooked Popcorn
• 3 cups air-popped or no more than 3 grams fat
• Potato or sweet potato with skin, 1/2 medium potato or heaping 1/2 cup cooked
• plain Tortilla
• 7-inch Whole-grain bread one slice with at least 2 grams fiber
• Whole-grain crackers 80 calories worth and no more than 2 grams fat
• Whole-wheat English muffin, 1/2 muffin
• Whole-wheat pita bread, 1/2 of a 6-inch round

Know your daily limits. If you're a woman looking to lose weight, you can have about five to six servings daily. Men who need to cut back on calories can have six to seven servings.

Remember, you can have more than one serving at a meal. For example:

• Two servings at breakfast, such as 160 calories worth of cereal or two small slices of whole wheat toast.
• One or two servings at lunch. This could be two slices of bread for a sandwich.
• One to two servings at dinner.

To get a sense of how this advice translates to meals, check out the meal plans on the bestlife.com

People who have some knowledge of nutrition mistakenly assume that staples like fruits, rice, pasta, and potatoes raise your insulin and then make you fat. True, this may happen if you eat four cups of rice or eight cups of pasta. It doesn't happen if you eat a responsible portion. A normally functioning body is well able to process the right amount of carbs per meal. Carbs may also be a problem if you have prediabetes or insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, but even then, if you know how much of a food you can eat, you can control those biological responses.

Eating the right amounts of good carbs and protein throughout the day helps the body to not overproduce insulin and keeps your energy going. In my practice, hundreds have lost weight even though they had conditions like polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), prediabetes, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes, which all had insulin resistance. For example, Italians eat pasta as their first meal, and they enjoy a very small amount by our standards. Then they eat a healthy portion of protein and veggies as the main course. Here, we eat pasta as our main meal -- often a whole plateful -- heaped with cheese and meatballs. The same is true of rice in Asia. It is meant to accompany a nice piece of meat and some vegetables, not be served as a main dish.