Low carb basics

[Bluebunny123]

Hi all, just after some advice. I've decided to try low carb but I have never done it before so need to know the basics. I could probably google but I always find it easier if an actual person explains!

So what carbs should I be avoiding or eating little of?
What can I replace carbs with?
What are the most common carbs - I'm get a bit confused by what's a carb and what isn't so would be good to find out what common foods I should try to limit otherwise I'll end up accidentally eating them

If anyone's got any general advice that would be helpful too

Sorry if these seem stupid questions but I really have no idea about this sort of thing! Thanks.

I’ve been trying this too. The main carbs I have been cutting out are potatoes and rice so I will have more vegetables or a salad instead. It’s definitely not as satisfying for me so will be interested to hear other people’s ideas!

In simple terms, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes.

More detailed, Google a food and carbs per 100g. Less than 5g is great for low carb diets, less than 20g should be used for variety but watch portion size.

Some veg is surprisingly high in carbs, and almost all fruit (because of the sugar). It's a shock at first but once you get your head around it it's ok. Have a look on diet doctor for some recipe ideas about "carb replacements" i.e. where you would automatically assume pasta or potatoes were an accompaniment.

Puy or other whole lentils make a nice and filling substitute for potatoes/rice with chicken or fish.

Thanks for the replies, I didn't even think about fruit!

I bought a spiralizer and used spiralised courgette carrot or squash instead of pasta and find it super.

@Crazycrazylady what a good idea! I'll have to search for one thanks

Almost all foods contain carbs. Some obviously like pasta, flour etc but carbs are also found in some cheeses, vegetables etc.
If you want to count your carbs you can download apps which will do that for you.
I'm low carb and don't really track now but when I did keto you need to track your carbs very carefully. It's very easy to go over your 20g a day.

In my early stages I started by cutting out bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and sweet things to see how I got on.

Bread ideas: a ham sandwich, two slices of ham with Philadelphia between them to stick them together
Celery filled with peanut or almond butter or Philly
Otherwise just eat the sandwich filling without the bread, ie some ham slices, some cheese.
No more jam, honey, Nutella etc!

Pasta suggestions: I often cook button mushrooms and use them instead of the pasta. Just cover them in the same pasta sauce the rest of the family is having.

Rice: I bought a handled grater (I'll post a link) and make cauliflower and/or broccoli rice multiple times a week. You can buy premade cauliflower rice which is ok but it's much nicer fresh. I shallow fry it in butter or olive oil and sometimes mix in some spices. I'll never go back to normal rice.

Potatoes: this is quite hard to replace but sometimes I just mash potatoes and cauliflower together so it's half and half.

Sweet things: I now pretty much only eat a square or two of dark chocolate (70%+) but it's hard to start with.

Other tips: full fat Greek yoghurt with 4 seed mix makes a great and very easy breakfast. Feels a bit like granola and yoghurt but no oats or sugar.
Eggs. Eggs. And more eggs.
Handful of plain nuts when you're struggling with munchies/need energy.
You should eat lots and lots of salad/green veg. At least one meal per day is a salad when I'm lose carbing but they are beautiful salads: some nuts, meat, all the trimmings really. Or salad on the side of a juicy steak or some lovely fish.

Once you get more into it and enthusiastic, you can start to look properly at low carb high fat stuff. You soon begin to learn to check anything for carb content. Essentially if something is in a packet check the carbs per 100g. You want it to be 5 or less per 100g for low carbing, but 10g or less per 100g is ok in moderation. For Keto you're looking to consume roughly 25g or less over a whole day.

Once you've got a bit used to it you can learn which fruit, veg, pulses etc you should be avoiding. Off the top of my head, most fruit should be avoided other than berries in small amounts. Green veg is mostly ok but sweet coloured veg like carrots, sweetcorn or sweet potato is a no. Oats, lentils, beans etc should be avoided. You can make things tasty and satisfying with butter, cheese etc.

I lost 2.5 stone low carbing but more than that it forced me to reconsider my relationship to food and nutrition. I now eat kind of normal food but much more thoughtfully and some habits have stuck - loads of salad for example. I also realised that I was bloated and uncomfortable a lot of the time and that went away.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0833ZJPWF/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5zonFbHZM14BS?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This is the grater I have, which has been used multiple times per week in the last couple of years.

Yes! I have been low carbing since May, and I feel so much more comfortable! My favourite swap is mashed cauliflower with cheese and Creme fraiche on top of a cottage pie instead of mashed potato! So comforting!

Spiralised courgette or carrot in stead of pasta

Cauli rice

You can make a wrap out of a beaten thinly cooked egg mixed with Parmesan

Just make sure if you are doing low carb that your protein is very high so you feel fuller!

If you're serious about low carbing it's really important that you understand what it is, what to do and what you should and shouldn't eat. People can give you some advice here, but it's no substitute for you learning about it yourself.

I'd recommend that you have a look at The Diet Doctor website it's really informative and explains very clearly what low carbing is all about.

But briefly - the carbs you should avoid all/most of the time:

• bread (any form - so including bagels, wraps, naan, pitta etc)
• potatoes
• pasta (brown as well as white)
• rice (brown as well as white)
• sugar (including honey, agave syrup, pomegranate molasses, maple syrup)
• balsamic vinegar (all other vinegars are fine)
• fruit juice
• fizzy drinks/squash (even those which are 'NAS', no added sugar or diet fizzy drinks are to be avoided as much as possible)
• anything made with flour - biscuits, cakes, thickened sauces etc, also includes cornflour
• sweets and chocolate (dark chocolate with over 70% cocoa is allowed occasionally)

All vegetables contain carbs, although most of them are acceptably low in carbs - and it's important that you eat plenty of veg as you do need to keep a careful eye on how much fruit you eat.

The veg to avoid (most of the time) are:

• potatoes (as above) and also sweet potatoes
• sweet corn (baby corn is OK)
• beetroot

Also, pulses and legumes are too high in carbs to include on a very strict low carb diet, so be careful about those - however, they are very good for you, so if your carbs aren't at the keto level (20g carbs per day or less) you may be able to include a small amount of these from time to time.

Fruit is a tricky one - many fruits are very high in carbs, so it's best to keep fruit to a minimum. Berries are the easiest to incorporate into a low carb diet. Avoid bananas!

What can I eat, I hear you cry?

Any meat or fish (although avoid processed meat/fish as much as you can)
Eggs - as many as you like
Most vegetables other than the ones I've talked about above, and also salad stuff
Butter
Cheese
Cream
Oils like olive/coconut/avocado

It's important to understand that a low carb diet is a high fat diet - so you need to get out of the habit of making everything low fat. And definitely never, ever buy anything lite/light/low!

Your aim is to keep your fat high, your protein medium and your carbs low.

Good books to read:

Escape the Diet Trap, by Dr John Briffa
The Diet Delusion, by Gary Taubes
The Obesity Code, by Dr Jason Fung
The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz

I hope all of that helps!

Oh, and if you go to the Bootcamp topic you'll find lots of recipe threads stickied there, which should give you a good feel for the kind of foods that you can eat and enjoy.

I couldn't low carb properly without the Carb Manager app - I wouldn't have the patience (or the mathematical skills) to work all the macros out myself!

@CeibaTree I’ve just downloaded that app. Looks really good.

I suggest downloading the app carb manager. You can log what you eat or what you want to eat and it will tell you how much carbs are in it.

I am doing the keto diet which is low carb. I try to stay until 20g of net carbs a day.

There are good pages on Facebook for keto that give you a lot of information ☺️

Good luck

I don't believe in low carb. Carbohydrate is a big food group that includes sugars as well as starches. Some forms of starch are as bad as sugar and some starches aren't. There are some forms of starch which when eaten in moderation don't make your blood sugar levels go high and then low. That's the thing you're trying to avoid.

Avoiding sugars is good. Avoiding potatoes is good too. Some people talk about refined starches but that's misleading because a potato is not refined but the starch is rapidly digested into sugars. Pasta on the other hand is refined but not much and is digested into sugars less rapidly. Especially if it is combined with oil or protein as happens with a good (sugar free) pasta sauce.