I'm a carb addict. I love breads, noodles, and potatoes in all their starchy goodness, but when I eat them I feel really loaded down and sleepy. I think it is because it all turns to sugar pretty fast.

The fewer starchy foods that I eat, the more the cravings go away. As soon as I start eating them again, thinking I can control myself, those cravings come back and I end up overeating.

I just feel better when I limit the number of carbs that I consume in each meal.

Carbs help in the release of dopamine and seratonin, which is why one gets sleepy, a good reason to get most of the carbs in at night (and no, eating carbs at night doesn't necessarily make you fat).

I think relatively low carb is good for most sedentary people, around 100g per day. For those doing heavy weight lifting (yes, we all SHOULD be :-)), or high intensity exercise then more carbs are required.

I found that when I went very low carb for a while, although I felt good, my sleep really suffered, waking in the night all the time.

Now I train in the afternoon and eat starchy carbs in my evening meal, I sleep like a baby!!

So true! I always feel better when I eat less carbs, I have so much energy, it blows my mind! But you are right, I have an addiction to them also, and it's better if I just try and stay away from the processed carbs altogether.

One starchy carb food that I have not managed to give up is potatoes. I limited them though.

They are relatively low in calories so I don't worry about that part of it much. It all depends on what sort of fatty thing you put on top of them.

Oh, but Jeans, the stuff you put on top is what makes it SO good! That's a problem for me because I drench them in butter and sour cream (and sometimes bacon!). Haha! So I find it better to just not have except for maybe once a month.

I don't know how anyone manages to control carbs over the long run.

Like you, Jeans, I find them addictive, and I feel better when I limit them --- a lot better. But the problem is, I can't seem to keep it up over time.

I've gone as long as three or four months straight doing low carb, then -- BAMMO! -- I will start nibbling on this, that or the other and the discipline I've built up over the weeks starts crumbling down as I slide into yet another carb binge that lasts anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, until I build up the resolve to get back on the low carb wagon.

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