Low carb or just low sugar and low processed carbs? Confused.

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

Am trying to shift two stone and generally cut back on the amount of 'instant' food we eat as a family (too many jars of pasta sauce, microwave meals, prepackaged sandwiches).

I'm confused about low carbing though. Do you have to cut out ALL carbs, or just the processed ones in bread, pasta, rice etc? There's lots of carbs in fruit and veg aren't there? I'm very keen to cut out processed sugar, as I've got a massive sweet tooth and all my snacks and drinks are sugary. But can I still eat fruit? Is natural sugar OK?

Meal plan for the day today is
Breakfast; banana and apple (fridge is a bit barren today)
Snack; handful of cherries, handful of carrot sticks with a bit of full fat humous.
Lunch; wholemeal wrap with falafal, salad and humous, apple, more cherries.
Dinner; grilled chicken (although this is a birds eye chicken breast thing from the freezer, so possibly not a good plan), salad, plain cous cous.

I look at that and think it's quite healthy (especially compared to my usual breakfast of Starbucks frapaccino, and snacks of snickers and chocolate buttons) but it's not really 'low carb' is it?

I'm desperately trying to give up bread as well, as (TMI) I think it's giving me really bad wind!

Sorry this is long and waffly. Think I'm just trying to figure out if what I want to do it actually low carb, or if it's low sugar and no processed/white carbs?

There are quite a lot of carbs in there - can you skip the cous cous and ditch the banana and apple breakfast in favour of scrambled eggs, also swap the carrot sticks for cucumber

Maybe Paleo/Primal might be easier to follow with a family. Mark's Daily apple explains most of the principles here
You can join us on the paleo/primal thread for support. :)

Whether you choose Paleo (naturally lower carb) or a lower carb diet, Humous, wraps and cous cous wouldn't be allowed beacause:a) too many carbs and b) gluten (which you have already noticed giving wind) and pulses are not that good for you.

Just as an encouragement, I have lost 4 and 1/2 stone on Paleo and I have now maintained for over a year.

That's an amazing weight loss Favadi!

I have lost the most amount of weight since I cut out all refined sugar and all processed carbs( bread, pasta, flour, most rice)I still eat fruit though. And exercise at Least an hour a day.. Not sure about the carbs thing specifically though sorry that's probably not much help!!

Thanks for the link, will be reading about paleo, looks more doable than no carb!