To attempt low carbing?

[VelvetSpoon]

My favourite foods (aside from chocolate, of course) are bread, pasta and potatoes. I eat at least one of the 3, some days all 3 (albeit not at the same meal!).

I need to lose weight because I weigh considerably more than I should. I am going on an activity type weekend in 3 months which will be pretty rough at my current size. I'm also going to a big wedding in 4 months and would love to have lost a decent amount by then.

Oh I also have gallstones which I'm waiting for surgery on. They are pretty quiescent as I'm careful not to eat cheese or butter, or anything deep fried, which tends to kick them off.

So if I low carb, stupid question but what do I eat? My eating is quite disordered and as a result of several SW attempts I tend to 'fill up' on pasta and potatoes.

I know the ultimate answer to losing weight is to eat less, but I do eat emotionally and compulsively so this isn't always easy. I also have a bf who does a lot of exercise and so doesn't really restrict what he eats (and he does virtually all the cooking).

So is it worth trying low carb especially with such a carb heavy diet as mine? Am I likely to be able to stick to it?

Thanks for the meal suggestions.

It's making me realise I'm quite a fussy eater. I don't eat yoghurt or ham. The thought of drinking stock makes me feel ill.

I know I need to drink more water (more generally, but more of what I drink needs to be water). On a good day when I drink a lot, I manage about 2 small cups of water, 2 cups of tea and (my own personal demon) 2 cans of Pepsi max.

I do try to drink more water, I find it has an odd taste, maybe that's whatever I'm drinking it out of though, although it always seems the same.

I don't bother with breakfast but have my lunchtime salad mid day. You can do a ploughmans lunch - ham, salad, celery, nuts and apple or hummus and veg which are substantial and filling.

This is probably the most extensive low carb resource on the web

www.dietdoctor.com/

Also, I don't bother with stuff like cauliflower rice. I just blanche some cauliflower florets, put in baking pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with seasalt, pepper, chilli and coriander spice mix... bake for 30 mins or so on high.

One word of caution. Although low carb high fat diets will help you lose weight, but there is also research which suggests in the long term it will cause you to be more by changing your gut flora:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4578152/

If you low carb you need to heat high or moderate fat for saiety. Probably not good for gallstones.

You said you eat main meal plus pudding every day. Ditch the pudding as a starting point!

I'm starting low carbing tomorow too!

Your diet right now would be easily modified. Cut out pudding (on weekdays at least), stop drinking Pepsi Max and cut down on bread and cereal - a sandwich is a really calorific lunch, and cereal is ridiculously full of sugar and carbs. Once you've done that start calorie logging with MFP or something similar. I lost a stone in four weeks by cutting down to 1100 calories a day during the week.

I feel for you with the gallbladder problems though. Before I had mine removed I survived on pears, brown rolls, grilled chicken breasts and carrot sticks.

Yes I can't eat much fat. Adding butter or cheese to anything is likely to set me off. So that might mean proper low carb isn't for me.

When I say dessert, it's rarely a proper pudding and can be just fruit. Sometimes I don't have anything. More often it is a slice of toast and jam or peanut butter. Last night it was a couple of slivers of cheese, a handful of grapes and 3 oat crackers.

I never manage to make my lunches so either buy a sandwich or else have a bought salad or a cup a soup. It's planning I guess. I do buy salad stuff at the weekend but it never lasts beyond Monday or Tues.

Hmm I would love to give low carb a go but also suffer with gallstones so all the cream/ high fat will make my stones kick off

A slice of toast with jam is as calorific as a lot of puddings. When I started counting calories, bread was pretty much the first thing I gave up because it's just not worth how many calories it is!

You won't stick to low carb, especially as you favour carby foods. It's hard enough at the best of times and proper low carbing requires you to eat lots of fat, which you can't do.

Get a Fitbit and use MFP. Guaranteed success if you stick to it.

Also I never manage to make lunch either. I usually have a couple of Ryvita (the seeded kind are very tasty!), a low-fat yoghurt and some fruit - easy peasy.

You won't stick to low carb, especially as you favour carby foods

This is not strictly true. I'm a carb lover but lost 3 stone apx 15 years ago in 4 months on (my version of) the atkins. The first week is spent experimenting with what you can be bothered to make for breakfast, and what you can literally £££ afford to eat during the day.

I found the thing that got me through the first month or so was the sudden permission to eat fat. Chicken skin, cheese, mushrooms fried in butter, the fat on steak, cream in your coffee ect. It made the diet exiting and satisfying. After the first month the carb craving had more or less gone, so had a fair bit of weight (which spurs you on), and also the urge to eat so much rich food had died down. This leaves you on a low carb, low calorie diet. I never looked or felt so good! The weight fell off.

The biggest word of caution i'd have for anyone giving this a go (and i'm starting again next week) is this: If you do use a lot of fatty food to keep you happy at the beginning: DO NOT 'CHEAT'. Because if you spend the day eating rich and fatty food with no carbs you wont put on weight, you will lose it. But if at the end of the day you cave in and up that day's carb intake - you'll be getting fatter pretty darn quick!

Here endeth the lesson

Cream is definitely not something I can eat regularly either. This is definitely making me rethink.

I'm not keen on ryvitas although the black pepper ones are just about bearable. I could manage those with some cold meat and pickles.

Tbh it's portion control more than anything that is my downfall. Slimming World with all the 'fill up on this...' mantras really didn't help that.

If it's portion control then perhaps you need to start to weigh everything, log it in My Fitness Pal, and start understanding what your current portions are in calorie terms.

As an example, "a chicken breast" could vary from 100g to 250g. That's 187 calories to 468 calories. If you guesstimate and don't weigh it, and it's a larger one, you've just added almost 300 calories to one meal.

That's the equivalent of 3 chocolate hobnobs.

Is that worth a try OP?

Why don't you exercise more?

And use smaller plates. I've started using side plates instead of normal dinner plates and it really does help with portion sizes.

With drinking water - try adding a squeeze of lemon/lime and some ice cubes. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning - seriously it works much better than a coffee. Then drink a glass about an hour before bed. That already will increase water intake.

Also is it just dairy fats which flare up your gallstones? What about vegetable oils?

Could you try the joe wickes programme?

All types of dietary fat are supposed to be linked to gall bladder problems getting worse. Not just dairy or saturated fats.

Best to get medical advice before someone scheduled for gall bladder surgery due to gall bladder stones embarks on a potentially high fat faddy diet.

If it were me, I'd be thinking about high fruit & vegetable diet, instead.

Unlike many people posting I had problems low carbing, my cholesterol shot through the roof , and if I go too low it will rise. I do a sort of lower carb medium fat which works for me

5:2 might work better for you.

Combining low carb and low fat is generally a no-no.

I've never properly counted calories, that's not to say I couldn't or wouldn't do it. However there doesn't seem to be a MFP app for my phone, which is a shame.

I take the point about low carb diets being high fat which is really something I'd prefer to avoid (I do eat oily fish and use some olive oil but that's mostly it). In my various GP and hospital appts I've been told just to 'eat healthily' or to reduce portions. No advice beyond that seems to be available. I have asked about low fat, no fat etc and just got the above answer.

I don't think I'd cope well with 5:2, I worry it would make me more likely to binge.

I do a little exercise now. I will exercise more when I'm a bit lighter, (prior to gaining weight recently I was going to the gym several times a week and walking 10-15 miles)but I do feel like I need to lose some weight first. Plus time is an issue - as a Ft working lone parent with a 2 hour commute each day (1 hour each way) I don't have a lot of spare time and am pretty knackered most of the time anyway.

Remember to eat some simple carbs (Sweet Potatoes) else you will grind to a halt, also check the effect of high protein diet on your stones especially if you use Whey powders and low carb diet shakes. Just moving away from bread and processed carbs helps rather than going full Paleo. Diet and exercise are a life changing thing don't expect it all to happen at once. Good to set a goal like marathon in 3 years or cycle Coast to Coast in a year or Peaks Challenge for charity to motivate your fitness.

I don't expect it all to happen at once. However having gained and lost the same weight 3 times in the last 6 years I'd like to find a way to keep it off this time.

I think for now I'm going to follow a path of moderating my food intake. I've had bran flakes this morning, will have some fruit for lunch then for dinner we're having chicken (breast, no skin) with lots of green veg and sweet potato. Going to try to avoid bread, pasta and potato where I can, and also work on portion sizes.

Not doing so well on the water. Only 1 cup so far today, and 2 teas.