A slight rant about carbohydrates & weight gain

So I'm back to a completely normal weight for my height and I seem to be hovering between 130ish to 136ish, which is healthy.  I seem to be addicted to carbohydrates though & it's making me feel really bloated/puffy like the Pilsbury Dough boy you see in the commericials.  I workout 5-6 days per week and mostly concentrate on strength training rather than cardio, so I know that all the carbs I eat isn't really doing my body all that good.  However, what the heck would I eat though if I didn't have carboydrates with my meals?!  I LOVE white rice, roasted potatoes, cous cous, butternut squash, peas, spaghetti, BAGELS and would be totally lost if I had to give them up.  For example, for lunch I might eat breaded chicken, butternut squash & peas and then for dinner I will have salmon, rice, and mixed veggies.  Seriously folks, what do people eat if they don't have carbs??!!  I'm just curious because I like to eat foods that are nutritional & will really benefit my body & I've been noticing that I've become rather squishy & puffy around my middle rather than sleek & toned.  Any ideas would be appreciated!!  Or maybe I should just add in more cardio & see what happens?

sounds like you're retaining water.if you do fairly intense cardio you could sweat out some water weight. if you think it's real weight then you might have to cut back on carbs, ex., have nonbreaded chicken and just one starchy vegetable  in the same meal.

My diet's pretty low-carb. My portions of rice, noodles, bread etc. are pretty much reduced. Eat more fish (protein is very good for you!) and leafy vegetables because they keep you full for a longer period of time. If I do exercise, I'd up my intake of carbs by just A LITTLE. I bloat very easily too, although I've never bloated from taking in too much carbs.

I pretty much follow this plan from Mary Hartley, our CC nutrition expert

1500 Calories in Six Meals-a-Day
Six meals may sound like a lot of food, but the portions are key and probably smaller than you think.

Since my ideal calorie range for weight loss is 1300 - 1400, I cut that much off by controlling portions or skipping a snack.  It's worked so far.

I'd take a look at your sodium intake and also the viable possibility of an intolerance (given your bloating problem) before you cut ANYTHING or restrict anything, given your history. Talk to your doctor on this one first, okay?

Carbs aren't bad for your body, and you shouldn't give them up. It's better to have unprocessed, whole-grain carbs, yes, but in the end it's just calories in, calories out. Your diet sounds quite healthy.

Thanks y'all for responding.  Sometimes I just need to be slapped back to reality!  You're right I shouldn't cut out carbs, but perhaps I can just switch them up a bit & have brown rice instead of white rice.  Couldn't do any harm, right?  In the meantime, I'm going to have to stay away from websites like figureathlete.com because that's where I got the impression that carbs are bad for you....

there was a study just posted in the NY times saying those who ate carbs think better, have a better memory, and perform better on tets bc the brain runs on carbs, you want to be able to think, rt??

re: figureathlete - before getting on cc and meeting people who are into body building, figure competition, and that style of training, I had no experience with that lifestyle whatsoever.  The more I look, the practices that people use to look like body builders and figure athletes seem very unhealthy when taken to a high level.

Weight lifting, strength, building muscle, having a relatively low body fat level are very healthy in moderation.  But the extreme diets and very low body fat do not seem all that healthy imo.