What is the best low carb choice in a Thai restaurant?

[RadioSilence]

I am doing BIWI's low carb boot camp but will be out for dinner next week at a fantastic Thai place. I will obviously avoid the rice and noodles but what are my best choices in terms of starters and main courses?

I don't want to blow it, especially since it will be so close to the final weigh in.

I don't kow anything about low-carb diets.

What about srping rolls to start? I know they are deep fried but don't know if that's ok. The standard curries have coconut milk in them which is very fatty, could you have a thai salad? lots of fresh crunchy veg and some chicken with a variety of spices and herbs?

Thanks so much for replying. I am pretty new to it myself but it is working so I want to stick to it . Bizarrely for a diet, high fat is fine but it would be the carbs in the pastry round a spring roll which would make it a bad choice i think.

It would help to know which of the sauces is the best choice - yellow , red or green curry or massaman - if anyone wiser than me can help?

The main problem with Thai food and low carb is (I think) that there tends to be a lot of sugar in the sauces/marinades. I think the IPD book says Thai is a bit of a nightmare for low carb because of this.

Am not sure about the green curries etc tbh but spring rolls etc are deffo out! With low carb I always think it's best to go for the 'simplest' foods eg - a Thai beef salad would probably be ok?

Oh bugger -I thought as much :( . Salad just seems so ...salady.

Salads (green mango is delicious), soups (e.g. Tom Yam), curries without the rice (not massaman though as that has potatoes in it). But even then you are still dealing with the fact that most Thai dishes are loaded with palm sugar which is obviously high carb.

Spring rolls, dumplings and all the other deep-fried stuff obviously a non-starter as they are basically pastry. Chicken or beef satay would be fine, although there is still the issue of sugar in the satay sauce.

To be honest, if it's just one meal, I would just let it slip or make sure you do some interval training (e.g. a Tabata) the same day, the post-exercise afterburn will deal with any carbs you eat from a single meal.

Straight low-carbing is usually doomed to failure if you don't have cheater days - so why not treat it as a cheater day?

I thought I had to be "hardcore" for the first two weeks but if this is really going to be a total change to my way of eating then I guess the odd planned cheat is the best way, rather than just thinking that I have blown it and eating cake till I am sick.

I have lost about 9 stone over the last 5 years, but regrettably it has been the same 1 1/2 stone about half a dozen times. This time I plan to focus on making sure it is something I can do long term so that it stays off, so what you say makes sense and means I don't have to eat salad

Thank you for your help.

Well, I wouldn't want to put you off the salads: Thai salads really are amazing!

Diets that have a "hardcore" phase do so for psychological effect - there is no physiological proof that they work. Basically, they make you deprive yourself for the first two weeks so that you really feel like you are achieving something!

That's not to belittle it - the psychology of dieting is probably just as important as the physiology.

And of course low-carbing does actually work really well, although I've written on here before that the 'slow-carb' diet seems much more sustainable (and healthy) in the long run. i.e. cut out high GI foods like sugar, bread, pasta, rice but keep low GI stuff like pulses (and have a cheater day if you want to)

I eat a slow-carb diet by default as high GI food makes me bloaty and sleepy and it's a very easy diet to stick to longterm and not restricting at all (if you like pulses, which I love).

But... whatever works I suppose!

I think low GI will be what I adopt long term. It just makes sense to me and I found it quite easy to follow too. I may be asking you for tips on that in the future!

Happy to help! I can get quite boring about the benefits of low GI, high intensity interval training and weight training for women though so be warned :)

smalltown That is brilliant. I love pad thai and never thought about asking them to amend the recipe for me

malinois Bore away- if it stops me from putting it all back on again once I have lost it then I am in

Malinois why do you think slow carb is healthier than low carb?

Betty Low carb wouldn't work for me as I do 15-20 hours a week of weights, interval training, functional training and cycling so I would be in a permanent catabolic state and risking ketoacidosis.

However even for someone with a lower activity level you need a certain level of glycogen in order to support anabolism (tissue growth) - long term low/no carb is certainly going to make you skinny, but you'll also end up weak and with no endurance.

Slow carb (low GI) gets you the advantages of moderate amounts of carbs but without the insulin spiking associated with high GI carbs. And you really don't need very much - a handful of beans at lunchtime or some hummus and carrot sticks is easily enough.

Low carb - go for meat / chicken / seafood in coconut or peanut sauce. No rice or noodlesb but beanspouts ok. On low carb calories come from fat and coconut and peanuts both healthy fats.

Spring rolls not good as will be carbs in the rolls.

Malinois - I do have some carbs around 100g a day but from dairy and veg not beans. I used to think beans v healthy, since reading dr briffa not so sure and anyway they make me bloated and windy .

Have the soup (Tom Yam) for starter (not spring rolls! very fatty), it is yum and a treat and almost no cals.

have a Thai Beef salad or similar for main, very tasty and satisfying and fresh.

I think a bit of plain rice would do no harm, but I am not a believer in no carb stuff.

Thai food on the whole is yummy and balanced an healthy, so take your pick really :)

Malinois I would see a handful of beans and a carrot for daily carbs as pretty low carb anyway. I think I may have misunderstood.

The Gov's recommended daily intake of carbs is around 230g, are you suggesting less than 230g and by how much or suggesting you eat the full 230g but in a different form - like wholemeal etc?

betty the gov's carb recommendations are based on pretty outdated food pyramid ideas, which assume everyone is working on a building site or digging fields all day. I haven't added it up but I imagine I eat less than that each day: probably about 40g at lunch, 60g in the recovery drink post-exercise and 60g in the evening. Enough to maintain a reasonable glygogen store but not actually lay down any fat All as unprocessed carbs (except the maltodextrin in the recovery drink), so beans, root veg (no pots though), brown rice. I use a bit of flour as a thickener if called for but otherwise none, not even wholemeal.

If I'm going to have a big endurance exercise day (eg cycling or snowboaring) I'll probably have about 200g of carbs the previous evening otherwise I won't make it through the day.

I eat industrial amounts of eggs, cheese, oily fish, green veg (raw and cooked), tomatoes and drink gallons of milk though!

I know the Govs recommendation is outdated but still if you are eating a lot less surely it is still a lower carb diet? Your approach sounds very much like the maintanence phase of a low carb diet anyway. From what I've read the amount of carbs you can eat is pretty much determined by the amount of exercise/activity you do and you seem to do alot more than the average person so you can comfortably eat the amount carbs you do - for someone with a more sendentary lifestyle, they will probably need less carbs to maintain and of course the carbs you eat should be mostly of the "good" variety with lots of fibre and nutrients.

Sorry not trying to be argumentative but I can't see what's new or different about your approach it looks just like a different phase the last one - maintainence.

betty ah, maybe there is no difference then. The people I have know who have lo-carbed properly have basically eliminated all carbs from their diet, including all vegetables, resulting in permanent ketosis. This is what I associate with lo-carb but perhaps modern lo-carb diets are less extreme. My aim is to eat just enough carbohydrate to maintain enough glycogen reserves to fuel the next 24 hours, if this is lo-carb maintenance then I guess that is what I am doing!