Excaloricate
Protein got the hype. Fat got redeemed. Carbs are still walking around with a reputation as the thing you cut first when you want to lose weight. Keto, "no carbs after 6pm," swapping rice for cauliflower — the whole culture treats carbohydrate like a controlled substance. Most of that is misplaced. Carbs aren't the reason people gain weight; eating more calories than they burn is. Here's the practical version of how much you actually need.
The number, in one sentence
Carbs are the one macro without a strict biological minimum — your body can make the glucose it needs from other sources. But "can survive without" and "run well on very little" are different things. A reasonable working range is 3–5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight for anyone training hard, and roughly 2–3 g/kg for a mostly sedentary week.
The simpler way to think about it: set protein and fat first, then let carbs fill whatever calories are left. That's it. Carbs are the flexible macro — the dial you turn up on active days and down on quiet ones.
Why cutting them to zero usually backfires
Low-carb works for some people, mostly because it accidentally cuts calories. But going very low has real costs:
- Your training tanks. Carbs are your body's fastest fuel. Strip them out and hard sets, sprints, and long runs feel like moving through mud. Effort in the gym is where a lot of your deficit's results come from.
- You lose water, not just fat. Every gram of stored carb holds water. Cut carbs hard and the scale drops fast in week one — that's mostly water, and it comes right back the day you eat a normal meal. It reads like progress and then like failure, when neither is true.
- Sleep and mood can slip. For a lot of people, some carbs in the evening help them wind down and sleep. Zero-carb dinners can leave them wired and cranky.
Not all carbs behave the same
This is where the real difference lives — not in the amount, but in the type.
- Fibrous, whole carbs — oats, beans, lentils, fruit, potatoes, whole grains — come packaged with fiber and water. They fill you up, digest slowly, and are genuinely hard to overeat.
- Refined, low-fiber carbs — white bread, sugary drinks, most snack food — hit fast and leave quickly, so you're hungry again soon. They're not poison, but they're the ones that quietly stack up when you're not logging.
You don't need to ban the second group. You need to notice that a bowl of oats and a pastry can have the same calories while doing completely opposite things to your hunger for the next three hours.
How to set your carbs in practice
- Lock protein. Aim for roughly 1.6–2.2 g/kg — that's the one number you protect.
- Set a fat floor. Keep fat at 0.5 g/kg or more so hormones and satiety hold up.
- Fill the rest with carbs. Whatever calories remain in your target become your carb budget. On a training day that number is bigger; on a rest day it's smaller. Both are fine.
What to log
Log your meals as usual and glance at your carb total in context, not in isolation. A high-carb day isn't a problem if you hit your calories and your protein — you probably earned it with a hard workout. The thing to watch isn't the number; it's the source ratio. If most of your carbs are coming from drinks and snacks rather than food you'd call a meal, that's the lever, not "carbs" as a category.
The goal was never low-carb or high-carb. It's enough carbohydrate to fuel your training and your sleep, mostly from foods that fill you up, logged honestly enough that it fits inside your calorie target.