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...

Yes, yoghurt is FF. I added tinned pulses as it was suggested by a PP...had mixed bean chilli with spinach and broccoli, instead of the rice I'd usually have, so at least its a reduction in carbs...grated cheese and sour cream.

What kind of plan are you following @Bluesheep8? I know you've been given a lot of advice on this thread, but a lot of it is giving you advice to follow a plan that isn't really low carb!

I hope it works for you - really - but I don't think you should be including beans/pulses if you want a low carb diet that will result in weight loss.

@BIWI I'm not following a plan. After doing a lot of reading I understood that reducing carbs was the best way to combat menopausal weight gain so that's what I'm trying to do. I've cut out daily porridge, potatoes, ryvitas, pasta, rice and weekend bread, crisps and chocolate. I thought that reducing carbs would at least have some small effect.

The thing is, we're all different in how we respond to carbohydrate - and some people can tolerate much higher levels of carbs on a daily basis than others.

So although you have cut down on your carbs - and the ones you are eating are definitely better than the ones you were eating! - you may not have cut them down enough to see any weight loss.

If you do find that you're not losing, then I'd strongly recommend that you take the beans/pulses/legumes out of your diet for the time being, and get your carbs instead from veg and salad (not potatoes, sweet potatoes or sweetcorn though!).

But good luck. I hope it works for you.

Fat Free anything is full of sugar, avoid it like the plague!

When they take fat out of food they replace it with sugar.

Reduced fat cheese is just as bad, you want the real stuff.

Beware the sugar in some dressings.

I suspect you might actually not be eating enough, especially fat and protein.

Avoid all underground vegetables (the devils banquet).

You are having milk in your hot drinks make sure it is full whole milk if you can’t go black.

The wine may be your biggest sin, get onto a nice spirit with a zero calorie drink instead e.g. vodka in coke zero.

@BIWI
@TheBabylonian and everyone else who has advised.
I think it's a case of try it and see. I've spent my 30s and 40s keeping my weight under control by eating fairly low fat but that's not working over the last year or so (late 40s) so I need to see if reducing carbs is best now as my body has definitely changed in what it responds to.

How does this look?

B - FF Greek yoghurt with watermelon

L - Smoked salmon, poached egg and spinach

T - fried chicken, salad, hardboiled egg, salad, olives, broccoli

I think only you will know if that's 'good' @Bluesheep8, based on the results you get! But it looks good to me - just one question, are you making sure you're getting enough fat? Remember that a low carb diet is one that is high in fat.

Also make sure you're drinking plenty of water.

Good luck - hopefully you'll see the results that you want.

Thanks for replying. I'm probably not eating enough fat...I'm coming at this from a lifetime of eating low fat so it's a big adjustment to make, trying to remedy that though.
Yes, plenty of water...weigh in tomorrow so we shall see

Fingers crossed!

(Yes, the fat thing is difficult - it's a real leap of faith)

Yes, the fat thing is difficult - it's a real leap of faith

After 30 years of watching fat intake, It certainly is! But with that in mind I swapped the smoked salmon for 2 eggs fried in olive oil and added feta and olives to my spinach for lunch. Will use the smoked salmon for an omelette for tomorrow's lunch.

Remember though that losing weight while eating fat, only works if your carbs are low. So don't be eating the fat and pulses etc

But how exactly @LadyBird1973 ? Because I was talking to people taking Ozempic and it crushes the insulin argument. Ozempic raises insulin and it is the only drug that was ever successful at making people lose weight, as in crazy effective. So how does insulin makes you fat if increasing it makes you lose weight?
Does it still make sense to believe in low carb ? I am all for leap of faith, but science seems to not go with it. I looked it up, and it says "Therefore, important aspects of carbohydrate-insulin model have been experimentally falsified suggesting that the model is too simplistic. " .
So I am all for faith, but I would prefer the science, hard data.

Honestly I'm not sure how it all works, only that it does, seemingly.
My dad's heart surgeon told him that fat passes through the body but sugar causes the inside of arteries to become rough, so that fat sticks to them. This is why when people had post mortems that showed clogged arteries, fat was blamed - no one really thought about the damage sugar did to the smooth walls inside.

Ive her. Doing this duet for a while and I don't believe it's more effective for weight loss than calorie controlled, but it does reduce hunger and I eat better quality food - the nature of it means eating fewer processed foods. But I know that if I eat carbs as well as the good fats, I put weight back on. If I stay off the carbs then I continue to lose weight. Probably @BIWI could explain the science, I just know that it works for me.

Maybe it's that the body chooses to burn carb before fat, so you need to force your body to burn fat by not giving it too many carbs. If it gets carbs snd fat you are going to store the excess calories. Just guessing though

Food quality matters for sure.

Going back to the question in my thread title - "Low carb - Am I doing this right?"
After my 2nd weekly weigh in, the answer is clearly "No".
Gained 2.5 lbs the first week, lost half a pound the second week. So I have to ask myself if the results are actually worth all the effort really.

Honestly OP, I would look at the bootcamp rules. If you think you could follow them, it's worth a shot. If you read them and decide it's too restrictive for your lifestyle, then I'd look at calorie control instead, but would try to make meals that aren't ultra processed, as part of that.
Tbh, I think either would work for weight loss, if you cut down on the food which has little nutritional value.

You have to commit to weight loss and go for the long term. Keep off the scales for longer and stick at it.

Fast 800 keto is a plan with a Facebook support group.

If you can afford it OP I would get a libra 2. They are about £50 and are made for diabetics to track their blood sugar.

I'm type 2 diabetic and used one not long after diagnosis.

For my bananas spiked my blood sugar. I know fruit has lots of sugar but I was still surprised.

I do protein for breakfast, have fruit mid morning and then another meal (nice side effect of the meds is reduced appetite),

So breakfast is bacon and eggs, ham and cheese, cheese omelet, eggs, full fat Greek yoghurt, the low fat has more sugar.

lunch / dinner I try not to have more than 20g of carbs, I found iceland do some nice potato and cheese croquettes.

I might make a chicken tikka kebab with salad and riata.

Steak with mushrooms and onions. I might add a couple of croquettes here.

Chicken or salmon tray bake.

Fish with veg in a cheese sauce.

Beef and veg stew.

If I'm hungry later I might have another piece of fruit or 2-3 crackers with cheese or pate.

But to be fair, @Bluesheep8, you’ve not been eating low carb consistently as you’ve been trying to work out what might work for you. Given that, I’d say that a half pound loss is a result. Keep going with the consistently low carb approach for another couple of weeks before you decide it’s not working.

The reason you've not lost weight is because weight loss comes from a calorie deficit, however you choose to achieve that deficit. You have to consume fewer calories than you use. And people will post that it's not that simple, etc., etc., but it really is. If you eat more protein it takes the body longer to process it so you'll feel fuller for longer. There is no need to restrict your diet by cutting down major food groups to minimal.

I would strongly advise that you do weight bearing exercise of some sort to help build muscle and preserve bone density. Both are important as we age.

Also the poster who stated fat free foods are full of sugar is wrong. Fat free Greek yoghurt and Skyr, for example, contain more protein. A lot of foods marketed as far free for weight loss are indeed full of sugar instead.

I would strongly advise that you do weight bearing exercise of some sort to help build muscle and preserve bone density. Both are important as we age.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I now weigh about 4 kg more than I 'should', but it's all muscle. I do 5 workouts with dumbbells plus 1-2 HIIT session a week. Caroline Girvan for the weights, Growingannanas for the cardio.

Never felt better - and I'm less tempted to make poor dietary choices.

I think you have been getting mixed messages.

You asked if you were doing low carb properly. You got some replies about low carb but also about people who think their way of eating is better than low carb.

You seem to be mixing and matching so you are not following one particular way of eating.

If you want to go keto, look up keto websites, track your carbs and do keto.

If you want to do low carb, look at the bootcamp rules here and follow them.

If you want to do low calorie track your calories.

But don’t do an ad hoc mixture. Your are trying that at the moment and the result is you are making a huge effort and not seeing results.

Honestly - an ad hoc mixture with a calorie deficit will result in weight loss.