The Unbelievably Good Low Carb Diet Thread

[QueenStromba]

The previous thread was getting a bit full so I thought I should start a new one while we could still link between them.

notsurewhyohwhy - if you include fruit, you won't be doing a low carb diet - simple as that! Low carbing is exactly that - low carbing. It is not no carbing.

Eat more vegetables and salad and you will get the same amount of nutrition but without the sugar. Sugar is sugar is sugar - regardless of where it comes from.

You should also not be eating low fat foods. This WOE (way of eating) is about high protein and high fat.

Quorn is 2g carbs per 100g, so it low-ish. Why not eat meat/fish/chicken though? Carb free and much better for you!

notsurewhy, what you are eating at the moment looks low calorie, rather than low carb. Fruit, particularly grapes & bananas are loaded with sugar & carbohydrate. Low fat yoghurt is also high carb too.
If you really want to low carb, as opposed to low calorie, then you will have to step away from the fruit, certainly all those ones you are eating at the moment.
This sounds so negative, but I think Quorn is fairly carby too.
Have you looked into any low carb diet plans - it may help you to get an idea if it is the right way of eating for you.

I don't like fish or chicken and I do eat meat but not that often!!

So basically me eating fruit is not going to work then

What do you eat for breakfast?

*notsureI you can build up to eating those kinds of fruits once you are maintaining your goal weight but initially if you are trying to get into ketosis then grapes and bananas will definitely stop you achieving that - they are way too high in sugar. If you really feel you want fruit in your diet from day one then pick berries and currants (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, black white and redcurrants can all be bought in mixed frozen packs and work brilliantly mixed with greek yoghurt and sweetened with splenda.) Also rhubarb is fine.

At this stage you would be better using full fat yoghurt as well, as anything labelled 'low-fat' will be higher in carbs than its full fat alternative. That includes milk!

X posts PBB !!

I think we need to tell you to RTFM notsure !

Honestly, it will make sense if you spend a bit of time researching it properly first - it's a lot to get your head around if you haven't fully understood why you can and cannot eat certain things. It would save a great deal of wasted time and effort on your part if you understood the basic principles first.

Breakfasts for me tend to be: scrambled egg with mushrooms or spinach, celery with peanut butter, low carb sausages, left overs from the night before, greek yoghurt with low carb syrup, chocolate poo (see further up thread), celery with cream cheese and at the weekends full english (minus baked beans & fried bread).

Breakfast for me is usually eggs of some description. Occasionally some full fat Greek yoghurt with stewed rhubarb (which I sweeten with a small amount of Splenda).

I keep forgetting to say hello, Hilly, now I know who you are!

I low carb for my PCOS and it has made a huge difference to my skin - I think it is affecting my hormones and settling them down. I agree that it would save you time and trouble to read some books about low carbing notsure. It may be that low carb just isn't for you, so just have a look round. If you're having success just watching calories then that could be your own solution for weightloss?

I started on a low GI diet (i.e. slow release carbs allowed) before going the whole hog and low-carbing (my PCOS responds better to low carb it seems). Even on low-GI diets fruit is dangerous territory as it often has a lot of fast-release sugar.

Breakfasts for me are eggs scrambled with spinach and some dill, or variations on that theme.

This site is a good one to start with

It's very quiet (especially compared with Mumsnet!) but there are lots of threads there with important information about low carbing that will help.

I've finally perfected my low carb ice cream recipe :)

215g double cream
215g 2% total greek yoghurt (this is the lowest carb variety)
100ml water
truvia to taste
25g cocoa powder

Mix it all together and then put it in an ice cream maker. It comes out lovely and rich and smooth and only 3g of carbs per 100g.

Queen - the full fat Total is the same amount of carbs, by the way!

That sounds delicious.

plucking that is very interesting. All my reading of Gary Taubes & Zoe Harcombe leads me to believe that low carb is better for the body, but it is one thing reading it & another thing actually seeing it happen! Great to hear it is good for your PCOS.
Queen - yummy sounding icecream.

Ah, I went for the 2% because it had more protein then - I don't think the fat content really matters when you're planning to mix it with double cream :)

The more fat the better, surely?

I have done no carbs before and was allowed 1 slice of bread per day, so thought that if I didn't have any bread bug had fruit instead it would be on...

My friend did the Duncan diet and lost a lot of weight and was allowed low fat yoghurt and low fat cheese!

So what I have listed is basically useless then??

Notsure the Dukan diet isn't low carb, it's perhaps "lower carb" but it depends on how much carb-rich low fat dairy you're having. If you were allowed one slice of bread a day that wasn't NO carb, it was perhaps lower-than-usual carb.

As we've suggested, read around and see what you think: you'd have to learn the carb values of foods etc to have success with a low carb diet. I had a diet partner who failed to lose weight on a low carb diet, and when we compared notes it turned out that she'd been including fruit occasionally (or low fat yogurt with fruit in).

As I said, perhaps you'll do better just counting calories? It's not worth being miserable unless you have dietary reasons for lowcarbing (like me: PCOS and insulin resistance/high risk of diabetes)

(not that I'm miserable on lowcarb - I feel much better doing it, but if you're feeling unable to envisage a life without bread/fruit then I just don't see how you could bear it!)

notsure - you may want to look at low GI diets too in case that might work better for you. If you don't eat much fish and meat I think you may find low carbing very hard. With low GI I believe you can have pulses in moderation which helps with the protein, and can also have some carbs (though usually brown rice etc.). It might be a little more tolerant of some fruits too, but if you want fruit I think your best bet is berries and avocados. Apples, grapes and bananas are all particularly carby I think.

I can recommend the John Briffa book and the India and Neris Idiot Proof Diet - both are good guides to what you can and can't eat when low carbing and the Briffa book explains the science really well.

I had a lovely lunch today - pan fried whole trout (never done it whole before, just fillets, so was nervous but it was great) with steamed purple sprouting broccoli, spinach and watercress and horseradish mayonnaise (2tsp mayo, 1tsp creamed horseradish, squirt of Jif lemon juice). It was super easy but looked really gourmet on my plate and the fish was luscious :)

Slightly more random tea - fried egg, creamy mushrooms and salad. The kids were having boiled eggs so I kept with the eggy theme!

Can anyone tell me what ketosis feels like? Wierd question I know, but today I have been feeling 'different' - not bad, infact quite good - but a wierd feeling! Also been weeing for England!

that sounds delicious. I'm going to attempt a low carb faux risotto with finely chopped up shirataki to imitate rice, mixed with some finely minced cauliflower, then some chicken stock, fresh parsley and .... lots of cheese. Will see what happens!
I'll put that with some homemade beefburgers as DH was busy making those last night.

Help - having bad day! Am in a foul mood, have just yelled at ds and really, really want to say SOD IT and attack the remainder of Whole Nut that's still sitting in the fridge from the weekend... I feel tired and bloated and utterly fed up.

I think I need a ketostix detox, I think. Apparently I'm not in ketosis atm, despite having been so this morning AND having stuck religiously to low-carb for the last 3 days. And that has really not helped my mood. I need to stop peeing on sticks, don't I?

Can anyone see what might have knocked me out of ketosis today?
B - cheese and blueberries
L - salad leaves with avocado, feta and parma ham
D - will be frittata with onions, mushrooms, asparagus and cheese
I've also snacked on a few hazlenuts (and I do mean just a few; it took almost a whole litre of water to get 'em down!) and one Herta frankfurter.
Water water water and one cup of nettle and peppermint tea

Too much cheese? I do only have little pieces at a time, I can't eat too much at once tbh.

AND, to add insult to injury, ds came out of school today absolutely beaming and handed me a paper bag. Inside was: one KitKat. One Creme Egg. One Tunnocks Teacake. And one enormous chocolate fairy cake with about an inch of gooey choc icing on top. All for me. It was cake sale day today and he'd bought mummy her favourites!

Ladies, I threw them away (not when ds could see though, obv!)

Ketosis will give you a burst of energy and a real sense of purpose and a clear head the first time you experience it. Then it settles down and you just feel 'normal' but with a reduced appetite and a sharper, less lethargic, sort of head on you!

tea - if you've been drinking loads of water that's why the ketostix aren't showing anything. Stop using them!

Nothing I can see there that would tip you out of ketosis - it all looks good. I would, though, be wary of the cheese. You can easily end up eating too much. Without knowing how big your 'little pieces' are, though, that's a difficult thing to judge!!!

Well done on not eating the chocolate, and how lovely of your DS to buy mummy's favourites!