Low carb vegetarian? Rose Elliot specifically.

[SuddenlyMadameGlamour]

Hi all! In my never-ending quest to finally shift the last half stone of baby (well toddler now really) weight, I am finally set on starting to low carb. I am a vegetarian, and whilst I have been lurking on the bootcamp threads, I have struggled to actually get my head around what I can actually eat on that one, though others success has been very inspiring!

I lost 2 stone on slimming world, but then stalled, and have been losing and regaining the same half stone for at least 6 months doing calorie counting on mfp, trying various calorie allowances, various nutrient ratios, various forms of exercise etc etc. I was running quite long distances not long ago, but an operation followed by a string of minor illnesses has scuppered that!

I have been inspired this weekend as I have been away with a couple of good friends who are complete foodies, been have lost lots of weight and look fab low carbing. We have been staying in a kosher vegetarian house and they have still managed to eat amazing food.

I am torn on the merits of low carb, but i really want to shift this weight now. I have just broken up from uni for summer, and want to go back a new woman! I have just ordered the two rose elliot veggie low carb bookson amazon, so hopefully they will be with me not long after I get back. They seem to essentially be atkin's adjusted for vegetarians.

I realise I am appealing to a small demographic as there are not that many vegetarians, let alone those that want to low carb, out there, but nevertheless it would be lovely if any of you out there would like to join me, or through in your two pennies worth! I don't want to distract from the other great threads running ATM as they're doing a gret job, but I do feel it would be nice to have one better suited to us veggies!

Can I ask a question about my fitness pal? I've just added the app as have never used it before. Is there any way to tailor it to counting carbs rather than calories? I don't think I can have the calories there and ignore the (very low) target!

I can see the carb count totals but the target is something like 165 g of carbs, which is obviously not what I'm aiming for .

I had a play around in mfp and I think you can change your goals etc but you need to customise them and not let mfp do it for you. You can then set your own fat, protein, carb percentages.

I will try and have a look in more detail later for you, I've just popped on to try and get some recipe ideas in preparation for a big shop.

I was in heaven last night. After a long stressful day I had some strawberries with a sprinkle of coconut and double cream. Beats the old habit of a slab of dairy milk after a stressful day

Only problem with setting targets on mpf for protein and carbs is that their nutritional information for many foods focuses on calories only - so you need to be really careful with your food entries otherwise your totals are going to be misleading.

thanks spring. I think I may have a look for a carb counting app then. Only had a quick play on mfp so far and I did wonder about the calorie side of things

Thanks ladies! You're right; I've spotted a few entries where people have only bothered to add kcals.

Im a veggie low carber. I did it to shift the bulk of the baby weight but got down to the last half a stone which has been disappearing and reappearing for the last year. It is very hard to keep up - especially when eating out or visiting others. This week I mde the decision to eat what I want when I want but drnik more water and up the exercise - so far so good 5lbs down! I do fluctuate so this could change in the next ten minutes but really I have had to think long term and I just want to be healthy and not be thinking about food all the time. I also think dd is getting old enough to pick up on the fact that Mummy is always obsessing over bread and pasta - not a healthy attitude for her to adopt. So anyway - that's just my take on low carbing. Good luck :)

Thanks for your take tapping! Tbh I'm in exactly the same position as you but with having done low fat/low cal. I lost 2 stone with slimming world and calorie counting but have been losing and regaining the same few pounds for probably almost a year now! Perhaps it happens with all diets eventually? That is why I'm doing low carb, to hopefully shock my body into starting losing weight again, which I guess is what has happened with you now you've changed your approach.

Well weighed in this morning and now 11stone 6.5lbs, so that's another 1.5lbs down, making 4.25lbs so far in 3 days!

So I must be doing something right! I know most of that is water, but I don't care, I haven't seen the scales move like that in ages!

Well done suddenly!

Thank you ghost!

Thought I was feeling ok so far but today I have felt a bit sweaty and light-headed. Round at my parents house for tea tonight and my mum has done me ratatouille and quorn sausages which is probably a bit carby for phase one, but I will eat it and not mention it as she's gone to the effort of trying to accommodate me! Thing is so far since I've got here I've been offered white wine which I have turned down , and my mum has made this lush rice that is one of her specialities, I've just witnessed her putting focaccia in the oven, there are homemade scones cooling on the side and she has also just made a batch of jam with strawberries from the garden. If I can make it through this evening I can make it through anything!

what is it with mums trying to feed you all these delicious naughty foods? If its any consolation mine still does it. I'm sure she does it more when she knows I'm trying be good as well!

I'm not weighing until Thursday at the earliest as I know I tend to get obsessed about a number that can fluctuate wildly anyway. Having said that my jeans feel loser :) oh and the sweet cravings have vanished.

todays food:
B coffee & cream with 2 coconut muffins
L Thai prawn coconut cakes (not keen on prawns so far but persevering)
D more of the prawn cakes and some coleslaw.
just had some strawbs and cream/yoghurt and feel stuffed.

I have done a huge batch of coleslaw to keep me going. I did a 50:50 mix of mayo and soya yoghurt which is very nice.

so far no nuts for me which is good as I lived off them last time

Omg coconut muffins sound lush! Is it as rose Elliot recipe? I need something "cakey" getting a bit fed up of grease - nearly gagged on my eggs scrambled with butter and cream this morn!

Have Greek yogurt with flax and almonds tomorrow as I am craving something fresher and "healthier".

Oh and I did resist all the treats at my mums, I had the ratatouille with 2.5 quorn sausages and some cheese. My mum felt sorry for me and kept apologising as they tucked into their cream teas! I did have a caffeinated coffee with semi skimmed milk, as there was only clotted cream and I figured that would be like putting butter in coffee! According to mfp I have only gone slightly over 20g carbs (and I think it's reasonably accurate as I logged everything yesterday and ate all recipes from the book, and it pretty much came up with the same values quoted by rose Elliot - just remember to subtract fibre from total carbs in mfp to get net carbs), so I think I did quite well in the face of such temptation!

Well I lost the pound again!

Can someone inspire me for breakfast? I haven't got the books yet so have had cheese omelette. Needs to be fast and easy as I am home alone with 5mo DD for 3 weeks! I usually have porridge or homemade muesli.

Well done by the way suddenly - I love homemade scones so couldn't have resisted.

I have a halloumi salad with spinach, pumpkin seeds, and roast tomato planned for dinner tomorrow - will that be ok?

I'm still breastfeeding so I do need to be careful, and I will crave fruit if I don't have the odd bit, but if I can cut down on the vast amount of bread, pasta, and potato I usually eat, I think I'll be onto a winner

Well done ghost!

Tomorrow I am having 100g live Greek yogurt with 2tblsp ground flax seed and 15g chopped almonds. I am going to add vanilla extract and sweetener I think. That adds up to just over 5g net carbs.

I posted a recipe for a hot cereal earlier in the thread but here is another recipe from the book for crunchy granola:

Mix 85g whole flax seed, 85g ground flax seeds, 55g unsweetened desiccated coconut, 55g pumpkin seeds, 55g chopped or flaked almonds and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and store in a sealed container in the fridge.
This makes 6 servings and is 4.7g carbs per serving.
Serve with hot or cold unsweetened soya milk, soya yogurt or water and cream. (and I would probably add sweetener too tbh!)

There is a recipe for halloumi salad in phase 1 of the book do that should be fine. The pumpkin seeds might raise the carbs a tiny bit, so might not be suitable for phase 1, but tbh if you are bfing you are probably better off starting at phase 2 anyway - in fact in think in the book she says it is safe to follow when pg or bfing from phase 2 or 3 onwards, but I can't remember and I can't find that place in the book just now! I'll try and find out for you and let you know. But anyway it sounds fine to me!

Just had a text from a friend I am meeting tomorrow and she tells me she has cooked banana bread!!! Argghh! I thought with being off uni for the holidays this diet would be easier, but in fact doing the sahm thing means that I am being exposed to a lot of cake! Looks like I'm going to have to attempt some low carb baking...

Ok so 11st 6.5 again today which is a maintain, which is hardly disastrous given what I've lost already! I think I may have to ease of weighing myself daily, though it is fun in the beginning when you tend to Los a lot!

Just getting up now to do first day of 30 day shred before dd wakes up. Hope I don't faint from lack of carbs!

Wow suddenly you're very dedicated, well done you .

The only time I've ever lost weight was not deliberate - I was at college doing loads of sport and training hard twice a day. Obviously I can't do that anymore so this is my first ever diet plan! But this time I do really need to lose it so I must get serious.

I went for a run yesterday, and have in fact lost another pound! So lowest weight yet post-baby. And that's only really with cutting back a bit and switching breakfast.

Thanks for the breakfast suggestions; I don't have much of that stuff in but will pick some up!

Yeah they're hardly store cupboard staples are they?! But once you get them in if you get the book she does use the same ingredients a lot.

Well done for getting down to your ore-baby weight, that's awesome!

And and btw I survived the shred - just!

Dd was awake in the end though. So I had to do it with her jumping round the living room copying me! Think I gave my abs a workout from laughing at her, very cute! Kept climbing on me while I was tryingto do crunches though...

Hello,

I am a newbie here although I have lurked on MN for a while :)

I am interested in doing the veggie low carb diet as I have around half a stone to lose to get back to the weight I feel comfortable with being at a smidge under 5ft 2" and of very petite build, my ideal wieght is 7 1/2 stone. Over the last few months I have slowly gone up to nearly 8 stone and it really shows on me...and NOT in a good way :(

I have been veggie (no meat or fish) since I was 11 and am now very nearly 35. Up until the last year I could eat whatever I wanted to, do zero excercise and not gain an once ...so lucky! but now I think middle age is catching up with me and my metabolism has slowed?. I have tried low calorie diets and they just don't work at all for me and I am starving all the time!

Soooo this lead me to think about veggie low carbing? Is this type of diet a good option for someone who only has a smallish amount to lose? I would like to get back my usual weight and then maintain it by changing my eating habits in the longer term and exercising?

I have ordered the Rose Elliot Low Carb book and waiting for that to arrive but please can I ask a couple of questions in the meantime?

What is the amount of carbs per day you are allowing yourself in order to see good weight loss? Based on my idea of what to eat daily (am struggling with this!) My carb amount is coming out at around 40 - 50g per day...yikes! that's too high isn't it?

What sort of things are you eating? Particularly interested in ready made things that I can pick up at the supermarket that require little prep/cooking time.

How about things for packed lunches for work? I really need some ideas please! Today I took in one vege burger chopped up (5g carbs) 100g of cheesy coleslaw (5g carbs) some cheese (about 3g carbs) and some pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top (3g carbs) Its too much carbs isnt it?

On top of that I have been snacking on cheese strings and pumpkin seeds. But I think this is all too much carbs? So any ideas you can share with me would be great!

Thanks in advance
Sadiemay

Hi sadie may!

My, I would love to be 8 stone! But to be honest that would be way too underweight for me as I am 5'6! My mum is 5'2 and 8.5 stone and she is tiny, but hates going up to 9 stone so I know it can show more if you are small and small framed.

Rose Elliot and Atkins etc suggest starting on 20g of carbs which is very low, but if you have less to lose it's fine to start a bit higher, considering on a normal low fat diet you would be eating well in excess of 200g.

I have been managing 20g since I got the book, but before that I was also only managing to get it down to 40-50g, but I still lost a bit of weight.

The books are really good so there will be lots of ideas in there for you. Convenience foods might be a bit tricky though, may just have to do some label checking, or make stuff in bulk yourself and freeze in portions?

For the last couple of days I have had goats cheese salad from the book, easy to pack, but don't add dressing until just before serving or lettuce will go manky. 85g lettuce, 85g goats cheese and 28g toasted chopped pecans, then serve with vinaigrette, shop bought or make your own with oil, vinegar (not balsamic) and Dijon mustard. I used a Paul Newman one as it was the only one I found that didn't contain sugar.

hmm goats cheese salad sounds nice

muffins were from here link sorry its not Rose Elliott, tell me off if I'm polluting your thread with tempting off plan items :)

My book arrived today so I'm going to start tomorrow, bit scared to weigh myself actually but needs must.