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

[QueenStromba]

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.

What about pork ribs? They are 7.1g per 100g (of which sugars 6.6g)

Anything under 100g is low carb but most people need to get below 50g to get into ketosis which has the advantage of appetite suppression and a constant supply of food to the brain - the afternoon lull that most people experience is due low blood sugar leaving the brain short on energy if you are keto adapted then that's not a problem. Paleo, Briffa etc don't particularly encourage or discourage ketosis but if you want to go for the full on Atkins style covering everything in butter then you'll probably need to stay below 50g a day to lose weight. Out of interest, are you just logging fruit and veg generically or are you putting in say "Tesco broccoli"? If you are just logging these things generically then the nutritional information will most likely be American which means that fiber is included in the carb count so you would have to remove that to get the carb count that will actually affect your blood sugar which is what we care about. UK nutritional information counts fiber separately so we don't need to subtract it.

Pork ribs would be an enjoy in moderation food. The only natural meat that has a carb count worth reporting is liver because of the glycogen and even that is only about 2g per hundred. If you're having pork ribs then you are probably having them in place of something that is effectively 0% carb. Also, I wonder if they are including the weight of the bone in their per hundred grams making the edible portion much higher in carbs. If you are going to have them then make sure you have them with really low carb veg like mushrooms and spinach and that you don't have anything else particularly carby in the same day. You can also save the bones in the freezer to make stock with when you have enough.

That's really interesting. So I have likely being eating less carbs than I thought? My body is fighting back though - I can't stop thinking about having chips with my mushroom omelette tonight! I am logging brand names when they're available but otherwise using the generic choice. I can't work out what the carb content of mushrooms would be. It varies wildly depending on the website I'm looking at. Is theire a definitive website for this kind of thing? You're an incredible mine of information. Are you studying this?

It says on the labelling per 100g edible portion.

Is there a way of totting up the carbs on mfp? Is that in your daily total? I definitely try to use british nutrient info on it if I can.

I made the mistake of ribs nappyaddict and realised they had a sugary marinade. I tried to only have a few and served it with some chicken too.

Sugar is in so much.

I'm going to make some chicken burgers for dinner. Not sure what to flavour them with yet...

I have been not very hungry at all today. Just going to go with the flow.

I'm not officially studying this - I'm in my last six months of a PhD on a totally different biological subject and my procrastination is reading up on how a healthy diet is actually the complete opposite of what we've been told for the last 30 years. What we've been told is actually so wrong that you won't go too far wrong by just doing the opposite of what we've been told to. For example, the only fats that the mainstream have got right about being healthy are olive oil and oils high in omega-3. The vast majority of vegetable oils are actually really bad for you because of the high amounts of omega 6 which are pro-inflammatory and because of the rather horrible chemical processes they use to extract the oil. The only plant fats I'd actually recommend eating are coconut, linseed/flax (if cold pressed) and olive oil. On the other hand there is nothing at all wrong with eating lots of animal fat - butter is a natural food whereas margarine is horribly processed and full of chemical nasties.

There isn't any one repository of carb counts that I would trust - some things do just vary so wildly that I don't trust the carb count on the packet at all. I tend to check all of the UK supermarket's websites to see if they agree. All of the UK sites have mushrooms as about 0.5g per 100g as far as I know. Babycorn varies from 2.7g to 20g per hundred depending on who you ask and pistachios vary from 4g to 30g. With stuff like that I assume that the highest count is the real one.

Deary me, I keep falling off the wagon on this. Badly craving sweet stuff most days

Had lamb balls other day - mix 1lb minced lamb with teaspoon cayenne pepper and teaspoon brown pepper plus 1 egg to bind and some salt - and stick in oven for 45 or so minutes. Accompanied with peeled sliced cucumber mixed in a bowl of Greek yoghurt and crushed garlic, or any other spice you like to flavour, tastes really nice chilled for 1 or 2 hours first.

Today was probably quite carby, 2 large onions fried in butter with 400gm minced beef, a jar of bolognaise sauce which was so sugary I could smell it (although it said 7gms per hundred carbs it was a 500gm jar), a load of mixed frozen veg stirred in (peas, carrots, cauliflower) and 7 chunks of frozen spinach sat on top till the spinach cooked and the sauce evaporated. And half a bottle of wine :D

I think I could make this better if I used tinned tomatoes with loads of basil and cut out the carrots and peas. Was well nice though.

Sprogged, ready made sauces are the devil and it's really annoying because they're so handy. I've just roasted a ton of tomatoes to make my own sauces. Your food sounds delish though.

Hi Queen, just out of interest what is would be your healthy diet tips and where are we going wrong? I guess too many carbs are high on the list?

Thank Queen for your reply I have only just got back from my camping trip and other than a cream tea and indian take away I didn't do too badly.
I am having blue berries and G yogurt each morning and may be having too many berries?

Marking my place... Colleagues at work are also low carbing and the weight is dropping off so am inspired.

Today had mushroom omlette for breakfast and didn't feel hungry until 2pm! Then had tuna mayo salad with a hunk of cheese. Having lasagne tonight but am going full on low carb as of tomorrow!

Ideally would like to lose 3st but even 10lb before my wedding in October would be fab

Thanks LookBehindYou, how do you make yours?

Still loving the creamy coffees QueenStromba, especially with my eggs and bacon and mushrooms/scrambled eggs and salmon first thing.

Hubby's very most favourite website is this one wholehealthsource.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=hufa

He is trying to explain Omega 6 and saturated fats to me. So far over my head it's in the Pacific now

Fab incentive JobCar!
Your day sounds low carb to me already.

I skin the tomatoes and then cut them in half, cut the end of a bulb of garlic and sprinkle olive oil over the lot and then roast. I don't add flavouring until afterwards - basil, seasonings, maybe some spicey paprika etc. If I'm making aribiata (sp?) I make it in a pan with chilli.

Thanks, I'll try that next week. Does it freeze well?

Yes freezes perfectly. I'm cooking and freezing a load while the toms are ripe and tasty.

Hiya everyone, I've been doing really well, and sticking to it, but I really fancy some chocolate, which chocolate can I have? Which is lowest in carbs? And how much of it can I have?

I've got a protein shake which is chocolate, but I have already had it twice today, do don't think I have have it again can I?

No Moving step away from the shake. Really high % cocoa choc is good. Lindt do 90% but you might want to start with 70% only have 1 or 2 squares. I find I crave more carbs if my carbs have not been that low. The more protein/fat I have the less I want them. Have you eaten enough today?

I made yummy chicken burgers adapted from a googled recipe.
400g chicken breast
1 egg
1/2 onion or spring onions
3/4 grated carrot
herbs to taste and lo salt
milled flaxseed to set
I blended the egg with the onion, carrot and other flavours.
I blended the chicken pieces to make a paste.
Stirred in flaxseed as it was quite wet ( cunning way of getting dds to eat veg & flaxseed )
Oiled my hands and shaped onto baking tray with parchment and grilled. The burgers kept a really good shape under the grill.
We put bacon and a slice of emmental on ours.

For tomato sauce I use passata as it is sieved tomatoes.

Quirky - I got the 70% lint and eat a whole bar

Moving perhaps you need the 80% lindt. Or eat a few squares with some nuts so it is more filling? A whole bar is not low carb .

Plain, unsalted nuts are cheap in Aldi - I paid 99p for 150g of cashews.

Got this recipe off another thread. I think it's low carb?

500g mince
200g of the lowest-carb tomato pasta sauce you can find (I use Bertorelli's red wine & shallot)
200g of the lowest-carb white lasagne sauce you can find (I use Sainsbury's own cheese sauce)
1 packet of President Emmenthal slices
150g grated cheese
Parmesan to cover top layer

Preheat oven to 180C/Mark 4
Grease a lasagne dish

Fry the mince.
Stir in the pasta sauce and cook for 10 mins or so.
Ladle out half of it into the lasagne dish. Top with half the cheese slices, spread over 1/3 of the white sauce.
Put second half of meat on top, then cheese, then the remainder of the white sauce.
Scatter the grated cheese on top and sprinkle parmesan on top of that.

Bake for 30 mins or until golden and bubbling. Leave to cool a while before cutting, it firms up beautifully when cold and reheats nicely in the microwave the next day.

Can be tarted up with extra low carb veg added to the mince - butter-fried mushrooms, peppers, courgettes etc.

Would this recipe be OK if you replaced the lasagne sheets with emmental slices?

Salmon, celeriac and dill

Vegetable stir fry - not sure if all the veg is OK in this one?

I want to make the spicy steaker burgers on the Asda Get Cooking Facebook app. What can I use instead of breadcrumbs to bind them together?

Also I love Jamie Oliver's meatballs. What can I use instead of the crackers?