What do you eat instead of carbs?

[homarrrerr]

I'm trying to lose half a stone.

I have downloaded an app and logged everything I eat and it turns out that I eat around 3,000 + calories a day and most of my foods are carbs!!!

I can't think of what to swab these for?? What fills you up that isn't carbs?

What are you eating? What's a typical day for you?

I try not to eat grains during the day. I eat muesli for breakfast, then avoid grains until dinner time at which time I keep them to a minimum. I find bread type products are high in calories with few nutritional benefits, so I opt for salads, veggies, protein etc instead. I don't eat sandwiches, burgers, pizza, cakes, biscuits, rice or pasta dishes etc during the day. I manage with carbs from other sources (fruit and veggies etc), dairy, and lean protein, and that keeps me well and truly going during the day and keeps my calorie intake at a manageable level.

Lean protein (chicken and fish) and lots of vegetables is your answer!

Plus moderate amounts of healthy fats and unrefined carbs (lentils/legumes, quinoa, brown rice).

And exercise! Not necessarily to burn calories, but to motivate yourself. Try Lucy Wyndham Read and Growingannanas on YouTube. Use weights!

When you eat low carb you don't feel hungry. Nothing needs to 'fill you up' in the same way you are stuffed with carbs. Today I ate steak with sprouting broccoli and butter for lunch and pork and egg (sesame oil etc.) with spinach for dinner.

It is like a light bulb goes off and you aren't ever 'starving hungry'.

Just to say brown rice and quinoa are carbs and low carbers wouldn't eat them. Not to say that isn't also a good way to eat but it's not low carb.

Yes of course, but I did say moderate amounts.
I don't think it's a good idea to go full low carb without medical advice and checking kidney function.

@homarrrerr - you could also try intermittent fasting, e.g. 16:8, that is only eating between 10 am and 6 pm or 11 am and 7 pm, etc.

Starting each meal by eating the protein and the veggies before the carbs can also help with keeping carbohydrate consumption in check.

I think to lose weight you have to get away from the idea of "filling up". As pp said you won't be starving hungry but you won't feel stuffed. You just have to get used to being OK with that.

I entirely agree, @FrozenGhost.

For me the best way to obviate the need to feel full is to exercise, particularly abs and planks. If I've spent an hour exerting myself, the last thing I want to do is undo it all by stuffing myself!

Plus, having tight, strong abs is a great feeling. Very motivating!!

I'm low carbing.

Breakfast is often ham and cheese, or some form of egg dish of yoghurt (full fat Greek style) with nuts.

lunch / dinner is usually meat with veg so if I have steak I'll have lots of onions and mushrooms or salmon tray bake so a piece of salmon, asparagus tips, cherry tomatoes and peppers.

I'm low carb but not no carb so mid morning I usually have some fruit.

Other snacks include pork scratchings, olives, small pieces of dark chocolate, cheese.

I just don't bother with the carbs because the other stuff is tastier. Breakfast is bacon and eggs or an omelette. Roast veg alongside meat or with halloumi or feta is really tasty. I do have cauliflower rice sometimes to replace rice for example with a chilli. But you shouldn't feel that hungry.

Protein, eggs, veg, cheese, nuts. You will have cravings and maybe headaches for a week whilst your body adjusts to lower carbs.

Can I just point out that there is an astonishingly low number of diets or plans that are no carb? The only one I'm aware of is The Carnivore Diet and I doubt very much that many people follow this.

A (good) low carb diet or plan delivers carbs in the form of vegetables, salad and (some) fruit.

@FlowerArranger

I don't think it's a good idea to go full low carb without medical advice and checking kidney function

Why?! Would you advise someone going on a low fat diet or a low calorie diet to do this?! And what do you mean by full low carb?

Full low carb, to me, is a diet that severely restricts carbohydrates, cutting out grains and fruit, and limiting starchy vegetables, instead eating mainly protein and fat.

A low-carb diet limits carbohydrates — such as those found in grains, starchy vegetables and fruit — and emphasizes foods high in protein and fat. Many types of low-carb diets exist. Each diet has varying restrictions on the types and amounts of carbohydrates you can eat.

www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/low-carb-diet/art-20045831

A short term (2-4 months) very low carb diet may be useful to kick start weight loss but could be risky in the long term or if carried to extreme. I'm all in favour of eating mostly lean proteins but would not ever restrict intake of vegetables. A moderate amount of unrefined carbs and healthy fats such as olive oil are essential for energy and balance.

While short-term carbohydrate restriction over a period of a week can result in a significant loss of weight (albeit mostly from water and glycogen stores), of serious concern is what potential exists for the following of this type of eating plan for longer periods of months to years. Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14672862/

Diabetics and people with cardiovascular and renal disease have to be extra careful, which is why getting some blood work done is advisable if one is contemplating a very low carb diet.

On principle LowCarbHighFat (LCHF) means you swap your carb with fat, so at the origin people would use vegetables to scoop fat, eating tons of cream, butter, olive oil .. but over the years, there was a shift towards swapping the carbs with protein and this means animal protein since the plant proteins such as chickpeas, lentils, beans have carbs.
Most on low carb eat animal proteins for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks . This means, the health score is not as good, because

• We know eating a lot of mammal meat (beef, pork, lamb) increases risk of cancer. Even worse with sausages, ham, bacon
• We know eating a lot of protein raises mTOR and accelerates ageing, so much that all the longevity trends look at ways to reduce mTOR.
• We know that in the long term, eating low carb increases your risk of diabetes
• We know that on low carb diets you lose more lean mass so bone and muscle than on other diets

I would say @FlowerArranger is right to flag the health risks. It is a matter of honesty

We know that in the long term, eating low carb increases your risk of diabetes

Can you post studies? Because the ones I'm looking at say keto is good for diabetes sufferers. That it reduces weight and medication use in T2.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Unless one has diabetes, and I believe the OP @homarrrerr doesn't have diabetes, low carb diets can actually increase risk of diabetes.

Conclusions: A score representing a low-carbohydrate diet high in animal protein and fat was positively associated with the risk of T2D in men. Low-carbohydrate diets should obtain protein and fat from foods other than red and processed meat
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21310828/

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a higher adherence to LCD, mostly with higher intakes of protein and fat from animal-source foods, can increase the incidence of diabetes; however, a plant-based low-carbohydrate dietary pattern is not significantly associated with risk of type 2 diabetes.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33042230/

Conclusions: Diets high in animal protein are associated with an increased diabetes risk. Our findings also suggest a similar association for total protein itself instead of only animal sources. Consumption of energy from protein at the expense of energy from either carbohydrates or fat may similarly increase diabetes risk. This finding indicates that accounting for protein content in dietary recommendations for diabetes prevention may be useful
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19825820/

I think the problem with strict keto is that there is a risk of cutting down too much on healthy carbs and eating unhealthy amounts of animal based proteins and saturated fats.

Personally I feel that a Mediterranean diet is the healthiest for most people. High in lean protein, meaning not just meat and eggs, but legumes (lentils, chickpeas, etc) and protein rich vegetables (beans, peas, chickpeas, edamames, sprouts, etc), plus healthy carbs (including starchy vegetables, sweet potatoes, oats, yoghurt, legumes), plus moderate amounts of healthy fats such as EVOO and full-fat yoghurt.

Whoever said Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants had it about right. I don't think one go wrong by eating mostly vegetables plus a fair amount of healthy protein. Limiting booze and sweet foods is also extremely important.

I call it mindful eating... and not forgetting exercise.