How many carbs do you need per day? That can be a fairly complex question, but the US Department of Health & Human Services recommends that half of your daily calories come from carbohydrates. Therefore, if your daily calorie consumption is around 2,000 calories, then about 1,200 of those should come from carbs.

When considering how many carbs per day to eat, it's important to remember not all carbs are created equal. Nutritionists recommend getting healthy carbohydrates like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and legumes. Unhealthy carbs that you should avoid include sugary soda and processed foods like cookies and potato chips.

Thanks to popular diet plans like the Atkins Diet, many believe that decreasing your carb intake will lead to weight loss. However, experts say this is a short-term solution. Ultimately, a healthy diet should be within your recommended daily intake of calories and include both carbs and protein.

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I post often about the importance of eating the right carbohydrates. In fact, just yesterday I wrote about "good" carbs vs. "bad" carbs. Good carbs are those that are slower-digesting; they rank low on what is known as the glycemic index. Bad carbs, by contrast, digest very quickly, causing a spike in blood glucose levels -- which is why they rank high on the glycemic index. That all said, it's helpful to know when the best time to eat both types of carbs happens to be. And, yes, there is a good time to eat a bad carb.

When is that good time to eat a bad carb? Right after you've finished a resistance training workout. To help replenish your body and begin the rebuilding process, you should consume a source of fast-digesting carbs. Examples of such carbs are bagels, white bread, white rice, potatoes, and sugary drinks.

When is it a good time to eat a good carb? With every meal, really -- except for the one just mentioned. You may also want to avoid carbs of any kind in your last snack before heading off to bed, but that's up to you. Otherwise, strive to eat several servings of good carbs throughout the day. Examples of good carbs include beans, whole grains, and vegetables.

Don't buy into that "carb-starve" nonsense. Carbs are a vital part of a healthy, well-rounded diet. The key is to be discerning when it comes to which kind of carbs you eat and when you eat them.

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Years ago, carbs were an essential part of a well-balanced, if athletic, diet. Olympic gold medal runners would eat massive pasta dinners the night before a big road race, swimmers would carbo-load before meets, and everyday people went as far as taking carb-rich nutritional supplements to get them through a workout or two. BUT, then along came diets with strange names like Zone and Atkins, all claiming that carbs will cause you to gain weight. Soon, people were avoiding carbs like the plague and instead opting for extra sides of bacon. The madness ensued for quite some time, until the masses finally came around to the concept of "good" carbs and "bad" carbs.

But, there's some new evidence to suggest that "good" carbs (i.e. carbs that are not high on the glycemic index) are not only easier on blood sugar, but they may also lead to weight loss. The prevailing thought behind this assertion is actually quite simple: It takes longer to digest low GI foods, which therefore causes you to feel more full for a longer period of time, and also requires the burning of more calories to complete the digestion process.

In a related study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 129 overweight and obese people followed one of four reduced-calorie diets for 12 weeks. Two of the diets were high in carbs and two were high in protein, and of each of these two groups, one followed a low GI carb diet. The results? All groups lost weight (chalked up to the reduced-calorie diet itself), but the low GI diets lost nearly two times as much body fat.

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If you've been reading That's Fit for a while, you probably already know about Glycemic Index and good carbs vs. bad carbs. If you don't know anything about GI, here's a brief synopsis: each food has a glycemic index, which accounts for the impact it has on your blood glucose level. High GI foods (bad carbs, like white bread and sugary stuff) cause your glucose to spike and the drop dramatically, reulsting in an energy crash and renewed hunger not long after eating. Low GI foods (good carbs, like whole grains) cause your blood glucose levels to rise to a reasonable level and steaily drop off over the next few hours, keeping you full for a good period of time.

Because we all understand things better when we see it in pictures, FitBuff has posted this graph of what high and low GI foods look like in to your energy levels. As you can see, the high GI foods cause your energy levels to drop dramatically, where as low GI foods are more consistent. Check out the original post for more detailed information on timing your carbs.

I totally notice this good-carb/bad-carb phenomenon whenever I give in to my chocolate cravings at lunch -- by mid-afternoon, I feel like I've hit a brick wall of fatigue. Do you have the same experience?

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