Do I Need Carbohydrates? - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. So it is definitely not recommended to avoid carbohydrates completely. Carbohydrate is a very important part of your diet. It provides the energy for your body to run and it is the preferred source of energy for your brain and spinal cord. So cutting out carbs, although it will cause you to loose weight really quickly, does not lead to long term weight loss, and it is definitely not healthy for you. So, the average person needs between 40 to 60 percent of their total calories to be from carbohydrate. So that means, if you need 2000 calories per day, whatever your calorie requirements are, you would need about half of that, so that would be 1000 calories from carbohydrate. There are four calories per gram of carbohydrate, so that would be 250 grams for the average person of carbohydrate per day. That may sound like a lot, but carbohydrates are in most food groups: they are in vegetables, they are in fruits, they are in whole grains, milk products, and so, it is really not that much. Mypyramid.gov has a my plate guide that helps you figure out about how much carbohydrate you need. So if you fill half of your plate with fruits and vegetables, then you will get your carbohydrate from healthy carbs, a little less than a quarter of your plate from protein, and a little more than a quarter of your plate with whole grains. They do recommend that half of your grains be whole. So you want to choose whole grains when you can; that would be like whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, but it does not have to be all the time, only 50 percent of the time. And then making sure that if less than a quarter of your plate is the whole grains, and then you have some low-fat milk with it, then you know you are getting your carbohydrates from healthy sources. You want to make sure and keep less than 10 percent of your total calories sugars: refined sugars or added sugars, meaning sugars that are naturally found in fruit or milk products; so less than ten percent of your total calories, that is less than twelve teaspoons a day. And then just limit your refined grains, meaning your white flour, your white rice and try to choose whole grains whenever possible.