Low carb - am I doing this right?

[Bluesheep8]

I've only just started trying to eat this way so please could anyone knowledgeable cast an experienced eye over a couple of example days from the last week?

B - 2 poached eggs with fried tomatoes

L - Spinach, tinned tomatoes, black olives and fried halloumi

T - chicken fajita x 2 (chicken, peppers, onions and spice mix) in 2 sweet potato wraps, sour cream, grated reduced fat cheddar.

Another day

B - strawberries and watermelon with plain natural yoghurt

L - lean steak mince with onions and peas, spinach, cauliflower and gravy

T - mixed salad, leaves, onion, peppers, spinach black olives, hardboiled egg and fried halloumi with dressing.

Am drinking tea and coffee with milk aswell...

I lost pretty steadily at 20-30g carbs a day. All those carbs came from green veg. Tomatoes occasionally.

No fruit (fruit has limited nutritional value compared to green veg and is mainly sugar). Certainly no root veg.

I used to eat anything that was less than 4g carbs per 100g and nothing with actual sugar in it.

proportions roughly 70% fat, 20% protein and 10% carbs.

How can this possibly be healthy? Yes, it may lead to weight loss, and if short term is unlikely to damage your health, but to my mind this is a recipe for disordered eating.

The key to eating healthily is cutting out sugar, and refined carbs as much as possible and avoid all UPF.

I strongly believe that the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat mostly plants, a fair amount of lean protein, and small amounts of healthy fats, complex carbs and dairy in the form of full fat yoghurt/kefir. The fibre contained in plants is absolutely vital for gut health.

If you want to lose weight, reduce the overall quantity of food, i.e. eat smaller portions, and increase the % of plants. If you want to build muscle, increase the amount of lean protein.

Current thinking is that fat isn't actually bad for you. Obviously not the kind you get in cakes, but olive oil and butter are fine

70% fat 20% protein 10% carbs
Hmm not sure those macros look quite right.
Fat lower and protein higher

2 things I learned which has got me back on track
Keep your carbs around the same everyday. The swinging between very low carb e.g. 15g one day and 40g the next puts your body in flux. Consistency is key

Sauces should be home made. Commercial sauces are full of sugar

My fitness pal will keep you honest.

The 'My fitness Pal' advice on carbs is not very accurate.

(They are more set up for calorie-counting and they count 'net carbs' so aren't easy to match with carb-counts on uk packaging.)

The fat in cakes is butter...

@SoftSheen Homemade cakes maybe, shop bought will be made with refined oils.

@SoftSheen I was thinking of the shop bought ones but should have specified. I tend to stick to butter, olive oil, coconut oil or goose fat for cooking.

Actually, I do agree with you about MyFitnessPal and their carb accuracy, to some degree (I use their carb counts for working out my insulin dosages and it doesn’t always work…) but generally they seem ok. I don’t ever eat any ready meals or prepared stuff, I think that’s when it tends to be inaccurate. Packaging labels on things aren’t always accurate either. I’m not sure there is any perfect carb counter, unfortunately, you just have to do your best with some trial and error.

Not all ketogenic diets were created equal and some high-fat versions are downright dangerous. Here is a good explanation of what a healthy Mediterranean-type keto diet looks like (includes a link to a list of suitable foods):

However, I think that most people will also want or need a small quantity of complex carbs, which is why I suggest adding half a cup or so of lentils, chickpeas or quinoa per day. By all means leave these out if you are satiated without them.

"Eat food, not too much - mostly plants"....... and lean protein.

I think everyone maybe understands now you are not a fan of this way of eating, I’m genuinely not sure repeatedly posting urging folks to eat carbs is going to get the result you wish. If you wish the evidence of this way of eating just spend some time with google?

Very well.
For the record, I am not "urging people to eat carbs".
I am urging people to think of their health and eat a healthy diet.
The kind of extreme keto advocated by some on this thread is not healthy.
But you do you.

It must be very disappointing to feel deprived and to have put on weight.
I think you will just have to consider this week a learning experience.
What you are last week didn’t work so you need to change it.

The foods BIWI mentioned need to go if you really want to do Low carb but other delicious food like butter, oily dressings and cheese can be added so you don’t feel deprived.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes it was pretty galling to have radically changed what I'm eating and gain weight.
Today looks like this...

B Greek yoghurt with a few raspberries ( I just can't eat it plain, with nothing)

L Salad leaves cucumber, spinach, sliced onion, olives, feta cheese and creamy House dressing

T Smoked salmon and tuna omelette with spinach

3 coffees, 3 peppermint teas and 3l water

Any thoughts?

Before last week, I would have had porridge for breakfast, a sandwich or ryvitas for lunch and a packet of crisps, 2 apples during the day and something with rice or pasta or potatoes for tea so it is a big change, just not showing the change I hoped for on the scales, sadly.

That seems fine to me

Looks good.
Check your yoghurt to make sure it is full fat.

Did you feel hungry?

Not looking bad at all.

If you can change your breakfast to something like egg and bacon or omelette made with cheese bacon mushrooms etc or the smoked salmon and scramble that would be better than the yoghurt and raspberries which still has sugar . Add a portion of green if you can.

Chicken salad or tuna Mayo salad was always my go to. Especially the rotisserie supermarket chook.

Dinners. So many options. I'd put the omelette as a lunch or breakfast.

I buy low carb bread so I can still have a sandwich or egg and toast. It is quite hard to get out of the cereal/toast for breakfast habit.

I use the continuous blood glucose monitor as I'm borderline diabetic and wanted to go low carb to improve my readings.

Interestingly going very low carb (what you appear to be doing) didn't work as well for me as introducing extra pulses into my daily diet.

Pulses and Wholefoods seem to level off the sugar spikes and make blood sugar much more stable. Then you are fuller for longer plus less calories than meat.

What was unexpected was if I do very low carb my blood glucose is high. Because the body makes carbs in the liver if you aren't eating enough.

There are so many factors to consider with low carb.

My advice would be to eat healthy fats, whole foods and vegetables, fish and dairy and moderate white meat. Try to avoid red meat or only eat occasionally.

So do more or less what you are doing but add in some tinned pulses.

Thank you to all who have taken the time to read and make suggestions - all really helpful. Tuna salad for lunch with hardboiled egg and mixed bean and chickpea chilli with spinach for tea

Is your yogurt FF?

Oops sent too soon, beans and chickpeas aren't low carb.

Unless you commit fully to LCHF you need to track your calories even if you are eating a lower carb diet overall.

I always ruin it with wine! Trying to do the same, though I'm aiming for 50g or less