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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:
MakesCakesWhenStressed · 14/08/2012 20:51

Pork spare ribs and buttered broccolli for dinner. Yummy. Now full of meat

I did have half a nectarine for pudding. This is why I'm not hardcore enough fr btcamp.

Baby Cakes is teething and thought the rib bone was most excellent

QueenStromba · 14/08/2012 21:04

Thai creamed coconut - fine, better if you substitute shallots for the onion

Pork with Apples and Calvados - quite high carb due to the apple, caster sugar and cider

Hung Shao pork with steamed greens and fragrant rice - fine, swap the caster sugar for stevia or something similar

Spanish Braised Pork with Potatoes and Olives - quite high carb, if it's a favourite recipe then it would be ok but not great if you took out the potatoes and swapped the onions for shallots.

Pork Braised in Sherry with Tomatoes and Chorizo - fine

Entrecote Hongroise - fine

Cauliflower with Two Cheeses and Creme Fraiche - fine

Eggs en Cocotte - fine

Chilli Eggs with Grilled Peppers - fairly carby but ok if you've been very low carb for the rest of the day.

OP posts:
nappyaddict · 14/08/2012 22:32

How come sherry and brandy is OK but not cider? At first I thought it was cos cider comes from apples which are high carb, but sherry and brandy come from grapes and they are high carb too Confused

With the chilli eggs and spanish pork I leave out the olives because I don't like them and obviously the potatoes. What else makes those carby? Peppers are OK aren't they, especially the green ones?

Creamtea1 · 14/08/2012 22:43

Waves!
Am back from 2 week hol. Weighed in ASAP and am 0.3 kilos down! I was good, but there was some bread, lots of diet coke, a lasagne and a pudding one night. And those were my fatter weeks of cycle I think too.
Back on stricter mode now and glad to be reunited with with my scales Smile

FunnyLittleFrog · 15/08/2012 08:20

I'm back off holiday too. It was very hard not to eat carbs when eating out I found, though I tried my best. I know to be healthy it's about what I eat day in day out that matters - the other 351 days of the year so I'm not going to worry about it!

What I did find was that when I ate carbs I didn't enjoy them anything like as much as I thought I would. My energy levels dropped and my spots and psoriasis came back. Conformed that low carb is the right thing for me.

I also was amazed at breakfast buffet to see how many people loaded their plates with bread based stuff when there was a massive choice... made me think there's definitely something in the wheat addition theory. Why eat 4 slices of bread and jam when you could have bacon, mushrooms, omelette, roast tomatoes? Confused

Off work for a bit longer so looking forward to having time to do some experimental cooking - thanks for links! Grin

NCIS · 15/08/2012 08:32

I'm going to France in two weeks, self catering. Anyone got any ideas about what to eat?
I love french bread although am not fussed about croissants and pain au chocolat. I don't want to feel deprived yet don't want to undo all the good work.

QueenStromba · 15/08/2012 11:31

I've always found that restaurants are happy to replace the carb portion of a meal with extra veg or salad. Also, starters normally don't have a carb component - I often order two starters instead of a main.

NCIS - don't forget that France is also famous for it's cheese and they invented pate.

OP posts:
QueenStromba · 15/08/2012 12:07

Actually sherry is rather carby - I managed to scan over it because it was in a different font in the ingredients list. Brandy has no carbs because all of the sugar has been turned into alcohol.

OP posts:
QueenStromba · 15/08/2012 12:26

The chilli eggs have a tin of tomatoes (16g), jar of grilled peppers (15g) and an onion (4g if you replace with shallots) so it's more than 15g per portion.

The spanish braised pork is actually fine - I totted it up in my head and divided by 2 instead of 4.

OP posts:
NCIS · 15/08/2012 12:41

I can't wait, lovely camenbert , brie and pate. Two starters is a good idea, france seems to go in for salady things for starters.
Have said I'm going to make a big pot of green beans in a mustard dressing that I can pick at and have with BBQ stuff. Will possibly slip off the wagon a wee bit with french bread but try not to go mad.
I love moules frites, the chips are very skinny so presumably a few have fewer carbs than a few fat chips? Grasping at straws here. Grin

sparkybabe · 15/08/2012 18:17

Incidentally makescakes - you wont' get shouted at on the other thread. If you want to eat fruit and pulses - well it's your body, and your weightloss is in your hands, not anyone else's. You don't need to post everything you eat every day,although lots do.(and lots openly cheat. I do regularly)

What you will get is lots of advice and support, from BIWI and others (BIWI btw is still posting and supporting even while on holiday in Barbados!) - and lots of us thought the attack on her by QueenStromba was unwarrented and unnecessary.

QS you have your own thread now which is what you wanted. No need for snide remarks.

CrunchyFrog · 15/08/2012 19:56

I'm struggling a bit today.

Didn't get to bed until 5am (with 4 Jack Daniels and diet cokes in me!).

Had normal breakfast (omelette) at 9am

Bowl of berries and cream in the afternoon, and 4 squares 85% chocolate.

I quite simply do not want anything now. But I am working tonight, and will be out until probably 2.30am.

Should I eat something anyway? I could probably eat an egg or something. Don't want to get hungry in the pub, home of crisps and peanuts!

Has anyone else found previous addictions have become almost revulsion, by the way? The idea of bread or chips is turning my stomach! 3 weeks with 1/2 a slice of bread a week ago, and no chips at all (unprecedented in my life!)

MakesCakesWhenStressed · 15/08/2012 20:20

Had a really shitty day, but instead of gorging myself ob biscuits and pastries I just had 8 mint thins. Still bad, I know, but a huge improvement for me, esp considering how very very difficult today was. Other than that it was
b: full fat greek yoghurt anf 4 strawbs
1 espresso with cream
l: bacon, sausage, egg
d: roasted veg and mozzarella, today chicken and skin, glass of ff milk

NCIS · 15/08/2012 20:35

I needed something treat like today so I melted two squares of very dark chocolate in some double cream, let it cool a bit and then stirred it into some raspberries. Really hit the spot!

squoosh · 16/08/2012 11:13

Mmmm, that sounds really delicious NCIS.

QueenStromba · 16/08/2012 17:52

I'm having nappyaddict's Hung Shao pork for dinner tonight :)

OP posts:
NCIS · 17/08/2012 08:47

Today I tried on a size 12 pair of jeans and I can get into them!! They're not 100% comfortable yet so won't be rushing out to replace old size 14's but am still very happy.Smile

nappyaddict · 17/08/2012 09:44

How was it QueenStromba? I've not tried it yet.

Would you replace the sherry for something else in the Pork Braised in Sherry with Tomatoes and Chorizo?

Where did you get your values from for the chilli eggs? It would be helpful for me to able to use something to tot up the carb values when I'm not sure if it's OK or not.

nappyaddict · 17/08/2012 10:06

This white chicken lasagne looks good as long as you replace the lasagne sheets with slices of aubergine, courgette, spinach, peppers, pumpkin or butternut squash.

Also spinach lasgane

QueenStromba · 17/08/2012 10:18

It was nice. I didn't have any rice wine so I used a little bit of red wine instead which worked well. You could use a dry white wine and a little bit of brandy instead of the sherry.

OP posts:
nappyaddict · 17/08/2012 10:37

Thanks QueenStromba

Has anyone heard of Nashi pears?

janx · 17/08/2012 19:54

Do you aim for a set amount of carbs a day - ie grams? I think I am having too much dairy plus struggling when it's my period as my body wants sugar

quirkychick · 18/08/2012 07:48

janx I am logging my food on mfp and originally my % were set at 30:30:40 protein:fat:carb. I started to reduce my wholegrain/low gi carbs and I think my ratios are set at 30:50:20 but I eat more like 25-30% protein, and under 15% carb.

In grams that's 100g protein and under 50g carb. I can't remember how I worked out protein exactly something like 1.5 g protein per kg weight, I think but someone who knows better will probably clear that up. Yesterday my carbs were more like 28g as I have stalled due to 2 week period Angry, so I'm trying to lower carbs to kickstart myself.Though, I haven't put on any weight and I used to bloat up 1/2 a stone for totm.

Yesterday I had late brunch:
coffee and plain protein shake
smoked mackerel, scrambled eggs & mushrooms with green tea
Dinner:
prawn & chorizo jambalaya with extra chicken & pancetta (rice free), a little grated cheese, green salad
a very few strawberries and a small spoon of double cream, 1 square of 70% choc

Allowed myself "pudding" as skipped lunch. I am going to try once a week skipping 1 meal to see if that helps.

teenyweenytadpole · 18/08/2012 08:39

Hi all can I join in please? Have been lo-carbing all week, eating lots of good fat, no fruit and no wheat or rice or anything like that at all. Have only lost a pound but I do sort of feel less flabby. I also had terrible headaches for a couple of days but now feel okay. Drinking lots of water. I just want to lose some weight!! Am hanging in there. Yesterday had egg mayo for breakfast, cheese and walnut salad for lunch, homemade prawn curry (made with double cream) for dinner and a chicken drumstick as a snack! I did have one poppadom with my curry (made with chick pea flour, not wheat) and a gin and slimline. I think the weekends are hardest - normally I'm nibbling on crisps and drinking wine etc. I am convinced this way of eating works, I think my body is just being a bit resistant at the moment. What do you think - more water? exercise?

NCIS · 18/08/2012 09:15

I gave in to a packet of crisps last night in the middle of a night shift and had dreadful indigestion.
It seems like my body has got used to low carbs as I used to get dreadful wind (tmi) and now don't. I haven't had bread or pasta for over a month now.

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