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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Low carb for those of us who aren't hardcore enough for Bootcamp/Atkins induction etc

679 replies

QueenStromba · 06/07/2012 22:02

This is a thread for anyone who wants to eat fewer carbs but has either failed on plans than start out really low carb or just doesn't want to eat very low carb for whatever reason. I'm of the opinion that the high carb diet recommended by the government is the cause of obesity and related diseases and that any reduction in carbs will boost health.

While the Bootcamp threads are fantastic, I think a lot of people find it difficult to dive straight into eating very low levels of carbs which leads to giving up by day five. I did this myself when I first tried low carbing last April. I wasn't even trying to eat induction level carbs, just cut out the obviously high carb elements of my diet (rice, potatoes, pasta, bread etc) and I still nearly killed my housemates. It was about six months before I tried low carbing again and I went about it in a completely different way and have ended up eating induction level carbs through preference.

First I cut down my carb portions slightly in each meal, waited a week or two then cut down the portions even further so I was only eating about half the starch element that I had been in each meal. The next thing I did was completely remove the starch from one meal - I think it was breakfast I did first. I had been eating a poached egg on a slice of toast with a slice or two of lean bacon and some mushrooms or spinach - all I did was cut out the slice of toast and replace it with more veg or an extra egg depending on how hungry I was feeling. Once I was happy with that I started on dinner. Instead of rice I had cauliflower rice, instead of potato mash I had cauliflower, swede or celeriac mash and instead of noodles/pasta I had either shirataki noodles or thin ribbons of courgette. For the first while I still mixed in half a small portion of e.g. rice with my cauliflower rice. I normally made enough dinner to have leftovers for lunch the next day. I lost really well on that without worrying about how many carbs were in veg and I still had milk in my tea and berries with yoghurt. I also had a couple of beers a week and the odd slice of cake or whatever. I only went very low carb after doing a lot of reading and deciding that eating a diet very low in carbs and high in fat (including saturated fat) is the healthiest diet for us.

OP posts:
pregnantpause · 31/07/2012 23:24

Breakfast - strawberries and 20ml cream
Dinner-leftover roast chicken salad with garlic butter
Tea- aubergine canneloni- mushroom onion and cream cheese wrapped in grilled aubergine, covered with tomato sauce.
Great day, oh- but then I had a bottle o wine.

Feel like I've ruined everything. Sad

NCIS · 01/08/2012 05:38

My DH has lost half a stone in just under two weeks and he certainly hasn't given up wine! He just doesn't eat potatoes. rice, pasta or bread apart from roast potatoes with Sunday lunch.
He thinks the diet is great as he loves meat.

obrigada · 01/08/2012 10:17

Finished my first week of attempting low carb and lost 1.5lb body weight, 1.5lb body fat and my BMI is down 1 so am happy enough with that, had wine at weekend and a takeaway on Sunday night so half expected to stay the same Grin
Read somewhere that you drink 1ltr of water for every 4 stone of weight, so that's what I have been doing consistently for the last week - 3 litres per day - so maybe that helped as well.
Saddo that I am, was in supermarket on way to work and felt the weight of 1.5lb in butter to give me an idea of what I had lost - was heavy enough Smile

squoosh · 01/08/2012 10:29

jollymary Just put some grapes in the freezer and a couple of hours later, frozen grapes!

Osmiornica · 01/08/2012 20:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

QueenStromba · 01/08/2012 21:06

Grapes are actually one of the highest carb and highest GI fruits so I definitely don't recommend eating more than say half a dozen in a day. Blueberries are quite nice frozen but they're also quite high carb for a berry so be careful with them.

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ILoveApples · 01/08/2012 21:24

Just finished first week of low carb eating, after reading this thread and John Briffa's book, and lost just over 2lbs. I have a really sweet tooth so am hoping that this WOE will eventually help with that although atm I still have to have a small drizzle of honey over my Greek yog, seeds & berries which I love. I tried cauliflower rice this evening with a stir fry and I have to say, as someone who hates cauliflower, it was actually v yummy so will definitely have it again. Can anyone please tell me though if it can be frozen either before or after cooking to save a bit of time?

QueenStromba · 01/08/2012 22:01

Hi ILoveApples - well done on the weight loss. The problem you probably have with cauliflower is its is absolutely vile when it's cooked to within an inch of its life. It has very little taste when it's not overcooked which makes it a perfect substitute for rice and potatoes. I've been wondering myself about freezing cauli rice. I reckon if you're going to do it then you should freeze it raw because it will cook while you're heating it up so would overcook and taste vile if it had previously been cooked. I'll give it a go the next time I buy a cauliflower - report back if you try it first please.

As for the sweet tooth, you'll probably need to phase out the honey in order to really stop craving sweet things. You don't have to do it all at once - just put slightly less on each day until you're not putting any on at all. Myself and Sprogged have both successfully used this technique for cutting out sugar in coffee and I'm pretty sure at this stage a latte would be too sweet for me.

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ILoveApples · 01/08/2012 22:42

Thanks QueenStromba, I'll have a go at that. Many years ago I cut sugar from tea & coffee with that method and it worked really well so will have go with the honey too. I do love fruit though, especially all the soft fruits around atm, but have cut back on them and have hardly had any apples either. One thing that I'm surprised about is that I'm not missing bread which is unheard of for me but it can be difficult at lunch time when I don't have time to cook so are there any "bready" substitutes that you can think of? One more thing - what if I eat a couple of nuts with an apple, will that help prevent an insulin spike do you think? Thank you for all you comments and help on this thread - much appreciated Thanks

QueenStromba · 01/08/2012 23:01

Have you got access to a microwave at lunch time? If so then just make extra at dinner time and reheat it the next day or the day after if you don't want to eat the same thing so soon. Another option is half cooking some veg the night before and microwaving them in a tupperware box with a bit of fish. You could also just bring a load of picky things. When it's a nice day me and my DP buy a load of things from the deli part of M&S like hot smoked salmon, mexican chicken pieces, olives, cheese, chorizo, salami etc and then we take it to the park. You could quite easily make a salad to bring or bring a load of low carb picky things in a box. Sticking to stuff like that will probably make it easier to stick to low carb in the long term but if you really want bread then you could try this recipe - I've not tried it myself but it does have good reviews and I've tried other recipes from that site and they've been good.

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QueenStromba · 01/08/2012 23:10

Oops - got carried away and forgot about the apple question. If you're having a small apple then it would probably be a good plan to eat it with some nuts because that will lower the overall GI of the meal. If you're going to have a big apple then it would probably be better to follow Zoe Harcombe's plan and not eat anything fatty within 3 hours of it.

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Movingforward123 · 01/08/2012 23:22

so today went mostly well

Breakfast - cheese omelette and 1 slice of bacon
lunch - sheek kabab and salad
dinner - pork loin and salad
snacks - vegtable soup at 11pm??? could that be a problem?
snacks - whole tub of yogurt Blush I was loacking in carbs and had a headache.

I've ordered my protein shake so should d o better tomorrow, but i think so far so good Smile

ILoveApples · 02/08/2012 00:03

I forgot about salami - I grew up on that (I'm half Italian) but have avoided it for so many years so will look forward to that again. Will take a look at the deli counter too; I think I really need to broaden my palate as I've been so used to being indoctrinated all these years so a trip to M&S tomorrow is definitely on. Thanks also for the recipe, I will give it a try but will omit the artificial sweetener if it's not necessary - not sure where to get flax seed meal though (health food shop?)

ILoveApples · 02/08/2012 00:07

...will check Zoe Harcombe plan too, thanks.

QueenStromba · 02/08/2012 23:09

Evening everyone. Hope everyone is still doing well and enjoying this way of eating.

Today I've eaten:

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with butter
Lunch: Mexican salad from this place
Dinner: Lamb and aubergine curry with cauliflower rice and saag paneer

The curry was nice but I made it with lamb breast which I hadn't tried before and it didn't have a great texture despite slow cooking it for more than 4 hours. I don't think I'll be buying that cut of meat again which is a shame because it's cheap. The saag paneer was leftover from the last time I cooked Indian, it was disappointing then but I added some more cream and spices to it and it was rather nice.

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QueenStromba · 02/08/2012 23:13

Oh and I bought 2kg of linseed in Holland and Barrett for £7.40. Their 500g packs are normally £3.69 and are in the penny sale (buy one get one for a penny) so I bought loads since it's so good in low carb versions of wheat products and is full of omega 3.

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janx · 03/08/2012 08:20

Weighed myself yesterday in Boots as I don't have scales at home. Have lost 10lb since April... Am v pleased as I don't feel I am really strict with my food... Even had a twix the other night.

quirkychick · 03/08/2012 08:51

Well done janx that's excellent!

I am enjoying all the yummy food too. We had chicken breasts in tomato pesto (care of waitrose special offer- though easy enough to make yourself) with veg: I had stir fry courgettes and mushrooms - delicious!

Thanks for that queenstromba I have just had a look on h & b's website and they do my milled flaxseeds cheaper! They also do some with other nuts in, so I might try some of those too. Does anyone know anything about chia seeds? They are supposed to be like linseeds with omega 3 etc. I don't know how carby they are, though.

Someone asked about green tea extract further up the thread. We drink a lot of green tea: we really like Jackson's Green Tea with mint or if you like floral tea: Twinings with Jasmine or Lotus flowers are nice. Not so bitter as plain green tea. No milk, either.

I have started having coffee with crean- yum! We have a dolce gusto machine so I have bought some espresso to have with cream. I think I might still have my latte occasionally - but their cups are half the size of starbucks.

NCIS · 03/08/2012 08:52

Lost 3 1/4 pounds this week. That's nearly half a stone in two weeks and have not felt deprived or really hungry. Loving being able to eat meat and cheese. Last night I had some melon and parma ham and a plate of various cheeses for supper.
I made a lovely comfort food dish which I would normally have made with mashed potatoes the other evening. I mashed cauliflower with spring onions and grated cheese with a little double cream and butter with lots of black pepper and browned it in the oven. Delicious!
Also still having wine. Smile

nappyaddict · 03/08/2012 09:21

What is considered to be low carb in g per 100g? My friend tells me it's 5-8g carb per 100g of food. Is that right?

nappyaddict · 03/08/2012 09:24

BTW this website is good for low carbing and so are his books :)

QueenStromba · 03/08/2012 12:12

It depends on the food really nappyaddict. I'd consider 8g per 100g low carb for nuts because most people wouldn't eat more than 50-100g in a sitting. Similarly, Lindt 90% is low carb at 14g per hundred because you're not going to eat a lot of it. Things that you're likely to eat in bulk like yoghurt or veg should ideally be under 3-4g per hundred so if you do eat some veg in the 5-8g range just be aware that the carbs can add up really quickly.

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LookBehindYou · 03/08/2012 13:24

Hi QueenStromba. Really interesting thread. Am slowly getting my head around it. I can't get out of the habit of counting calories.

squoosh · 03/08/2012 13:27

I was watching the Fat Hairy Bikers Go On A Diet last night and the dietician was just talking about 'calories, calories, calories'. Advice seemed to be along the lines of trim all the fat off your meat, don't eat more that 2000 calories a day etc. etc.

I think it will be an age before mainstream thinking gets beyond calories.

LookBehindYou · 03/08/2012 15:45

How many carbs is low carb? I log my food on mfp and average around 65.