How to Count Sugar Carbs on a Low Carb Diet

Although the initial phase of carb-counting on low-carb diets is rather tedious, your effort will be more than rewarded with substantial weight loss within a few months of beginning the plan. Low-carb diets differ slightly in methodology: some count all carbs against the daily limit, some ignore carbs from fiber, and some only count carbs from sugar. Regardless of the type of plan you are on, you will need to know the proper way to count and tabulate your carbs from sugar while on a low-carb diet.

Instructions

Counting Carbs from Sugar

1

Familiarize yourself with the rules of your low-carb diet so you know exactly which carbs to include in your counting. Some diets avoid counting grams of sugar from fruit, while others are more strict and require you to count all grams of sugar regardless of the source. Know your guidelines well or you end up with an inaccurate tally at the end of the day.

2

Use either the nutritional label or an online database to check the number of grams of carbs from sugar in your chosen product. This information should be listed on the side of the package on the nutritional information: underneath the heading marked carbohydrates, where the total carb count is provided, there should be two additional headings, sugar and dietary fiber. This will tell you precisely how many grams of sugar are in your product.

3

Use a food scale to properly measure portion sizes so you will have an accurate count. Never try to "eyeball" portions, as you will likely be incorrect unless you have a substantial amount of experience in first measuring out individual items. Remember that a low-carb diet is only truly effective where carbs are kept tightly in check, so do not make the mistake of growing lackadaisical and attempting to skirt the 30 seconds it will take to measure out a proper serving for accurate results.