Learn how to count carbs on the go to stick to your New Year's carb counting goals! Thank you to EPIC Provisions for sponsoring todays post!

The Benefits of Counting Carbs

If you are starting the new year learning to count your daily carbs, this post is made for you! If you’ve been a carb counter for years now, this post is also for you because I’m sharing all about how I stick to 20 total carbs or less a day even while on-the-go! 

Learning anything new can be a challenge, but if you’re on a mission this year to change your food habits, then counting carbs can be a tool to help you achieve success. I’ve been counting carbs for a couple of years now and it gets easier and easier the longer you do it. Counting carbs is a whole lot easier than counting calories and more enjoyable as well. When you focus on reducing your carb intake you get to increase your protein and fat intake which can help with feeling fuller for longer between meals and keeps you more content and satiated.

How to Count Carbs

It’s not as hard as you might think. Simply use Google to look up the carb count of anything you want. Pure protein choices will have practically zero carbs or be very low in carbs. Every vegetable has a carb count per serving and all these can be found for free on the internet. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about anything else except the carbs of something you plan to eat for the day. Then either keep track in a notebook or your notes on your phone or use an app. Choosing how many carbs per day is completely up to you. I stick to 20 total carbs or less a day as I feel best and maintain my weight this way. Some people can lose weight eating a higher carb count than that. Some can also lose weight eating net carbs rather than total carbs. I have not been able to lose weight by tracking net carbs. My weight loss has resulted from counting total carbohydrates daily, but everyone is different and you just need to decide by experimenting with your own body.

Net Carbs versus Total Carbs

If you’re unfamiliar with the difference between net carbs versus total carbs, here’s a quick breakdown. Net Carbs are the difference when you subtract the dietary fiber from the total carbs of a food. For example, 1 cup of fresh broccoli is a total of 6 grams of carbs. Dietary fiber is 2.4 grams, when you subtract, you have 3.6 grams of net carbs. It’s a bit more work to count net carbs than total, but it allows you to have more carbs versus sticking with total. Like I said, some people can lose weight tracking net carbs, I have not had success with it and therefore choose total carbs daily. You can read more about my personal health journey with hypothyroidism in this post. 

High Protein Go-To Snack

Something else to consider when trying to stick to a daily carb count for yourself is the snacks you choose to eat between meals. What you choose between meals can make or break your daily carb count. High Protein Snacks on- the- go have been the biggest help for me as a busy mom of 3. I’m in the car shuffling my kids to their various activities more times than I can count each week. I used to grab nuts or nut butter packets, and while those are still a great option and are lower in carbs than some other choices, I found they weren’t really helping me feel satiated even though they have a higher fat content. I discovered that swapping a fat snack with a higher protein snack not only helped me keep to my 20 total carb count for the day, but also actually kept me fuller for longer.

When I choose any type of a go-to snack, I look at the list of ingredients and how it’s sourced. EPIC Meat Bars are convenient, real-food bars with ingredients sourced from the finest purveyors possible. The Chicken Sriracha and Venison Salt & Pepper protein bars have just 2 total carbs per bar, which are my go-to snack whenever I’m running around with my kids and for my post work out snack after an intense weight training session with my trainer.

Right now EPIC Provisions wants to help you survive the carb count this year by giving you 20% off their bars! Use code, SURVIVE20 at check out! www.epicprovisions.com