How Much Carbohydrate is the Right Amount of Carbohydrate?

We just received a question about carbohydrates, how much is enough, and how much is too little.

Personally, I like to aim for about 30% of calories as carbohydrates, with as many as possible being whole grains, vegetables, and whole fruits.  Remember, the brain and nervous system run primarly on carbs and you can't completely eliminate them.

Doing the math, the amount of carbohydrates corresponding to common calorie levels are as follows:

Calories                            Grams of carbohydrate
1500                                      113
1600                                      120
1700                                      128
1800                                      135
1900                                      143
2000                                      150

BTW, just how important is your brain in the big scheme of metabolism? 
--A pound of fat burns 2 calories per day.
--A pound of muscle burns 6 calories per day.
--A pound of brain/nervous system tissue burns 109 calories per day!

Could be that this explains why we always want to eat when we're stressed...it's ramping up the metabolism.

Manage the stress, manage the appetite, lessen the carbohydrate need.