How do you get enough fibre on reduced calories?

[DeftGoldHedgehog]

I tend to eat two meals a day, brunch and dinner, and cook from scratch but struggle to get 30g fibre a day on 1400/1500 calories. I eat lots of veg and I'm not veggie but only tend to have one slice of high fibre bread a day, and don't really eat cereals apart from a high fibre granola on the odd days I do eat breakfast. I like lentils and beans but get a bit fed up if I have them every day and don't want to add them to meals just for the sake of it. I like nuts but you have to watch the portion size. I know pears are good, but again don't always fancy them. My gut seems absolutely fine on 15-20g fibre a day, have a normal bowel movement at least once a day and I'm not constipated and not hungry. Does it matter that much?

For example today I had for brunch salmon, artichoke hearts and scrambled egg on rye sour dough with tomatoes and cucumbers. Tonight I've having bacon, gnocchi and peas in a creamy tarragon sauce, with tenderstem broccoli on the side, a naturally high protein yogurt and cherries for dessert, and medium conference pear for a snack.

It's only 21g or so of fibre. What else could I add/swap without adding too many more calories? I'd think a handful of nuts but it's only another 1g or so, and I'm already up to 1432 calories as it is.

My husband adds psyllium husk as doesn’t add calories. I add flaxseed oatbran and chia seeds (will add calories)

Swap gnocchi for brown pasta. Briwn rice for white rice. Eat meusli. Eat jacket potato skins. Beans are good - not just lentils. Brown bread with seeds. A few small changes and it’s easy. (Bran flakes if you need a top up).

I add seeds to most things and ground up flax seeds . And maybe it helps to think across a week, so days you have pulses balanced out by days you don’t…?

You can add beans and lentils to your recipes. I add beans to soups as a thickening agent instead of flour and lentils to stews curry and ragu. Berries and kiwi fruits, chia seeds in yogurt. To be honest I avoid bread and stick with fruit and vegetables.

Don’t sweat about fibre - it’s way over-rated imho. just focus on one thing at once and at the moment that seems to be reduced calories for weight loss? You could try adding hemp seeds which are also good for a bit of protein, but if it’s weight loss you are after then eating more protein will work better than anything else.

Have you got the protein - fibre balance wrong?

there has been a huge push to make people eat more protein than they really need and that mops up your calories.

have wholemeal pasta instead of gnocchi , replace the creamy sauce with a tomato and onion variety ? Switch the protein yogurt for something with fibre - fruit crumble ?

21g of fibre in a day is good! remember the guidelines are just that guidelines... you will be fine being a little bit on the lower end, especially if you aren't over eating on things like carbs which "bung you up", as it were... most people get a lot less than 21g of fibre in a day so you are doing well. have reasonable portions oats and berries for lower calories fibre options. avocados too they aren't particularly low cal but please don't worry about that, they're packed with fibre. vegetables of any kind will always have fibre even if they're not packed with it but they're obviously low cal so throw them in a meal if you can. i like eating cabbage and brussels sprouts for fibre too. and oranges and other citrus fruits are suprisingly good, as long as you eat the flesh of course. swapping potato for sweet potato adds fibre (potatoes do have some fibre too if you eat the skin). and if you do want to go for a handful of some nuts, almonds are among the best for fibre

Lentils
Quinoa
chia seeds, Flax seeds & small scoop of nuts on my morning yogurt.
25g chia seeds in a home made fruit & veg (not totally smooth and over blended) smoothie.
kiwi fruit -including the skin.

Make half your meal up of vegetables. You are eating fairly small amounts of veg, increase the leafy veg and you’ll get plenty of fibre without needing to eat cereals etc.

21g of fibre is very good. It’s pretty hard to eat 30g every single day. I remember someone started a thread & loads of posters were replying saying they easily ate 30g or more. Turns out the vast majority just couldn’t calculate it and it was a lot less!

I’d die if I ate that much fibre! What are you trying to achieve?

Fibre binds to many vitamins and minerals and stops them being absorbed. Especially B12.

Always eat the skins of potatoes.

I’d die if I ate that much fibre! What are you trying to achieve?

government guidance is 30g per day.

I like chewing so have celery sticks as a snack, which is pretty much just fibre and water. I put a couple of teaspoons of inulin into my morning coffee. I did try chia seeds but couldn't get over the frogspawn nature of chia pudding and when I made the chia seeds into a flatbread wrap it turned out that it irritated my stomach (and also tasted horrible).

I've never added up how much fibre I eat, but I'm fairly low carb to try to control type 2 diabetes and my carb is usually replaced with green veg or pulses so I imagine I have quite a bit of fibre.

Based on nutritional epidemiology.

How you feel is far more important.

How you feel is far more important

I didn’t argue otherwise

I had this exact conversation with ChatGPT today. It recommended a fibre target of about 20g for me and a protein target of 90-120g. For 1400cal diet

i also discussed this with my trainer who said not to focus too much of grams of fibre and instead just make sure I’m consistently getting 2 good portions of fruit and veg at every meal.

I have always thought that the amount of fibre you eat should be in proportion with how much you eat

Just like a strapping lad of 18, 6 ft 4, sporty and still growing needs more calories that a 5ft slim woman in her 80s who is housebound... one needs a lot of calories (a lot of food, a lot of fibre); the other needs a lot less calories (less food, less fibre).

Also I think men need more fibre than women. Generally I think most people (definitely me) need to aim for more fibre. But I don't think it's as simple as everyone needs the same amount.

You dont have any symptoms of issues with your bowel, are nice and regular and assume its nice and easy, so you're probably ok

If you did want to increase your fibre I would look to cut down equally with your carb intake (or change that intake to a brown version, bulgar/brown rice/oats/freekeh) and your protein intake. People are going mad with protein.

If you want something easy and quick, prunes and dates every time, although sugary.

You can buy fibre gummies too

I tend to take most of my fibre through my protein choices

Im not a huge meat eater, and I find if I make stew/curry/bolognese style meal I will add the beans or lentils . Last nights dinner was a lamb meatball kofta curry, with a tin of chickpeas, a couple of balls of frozen spinach, and peas, served on brown rice

I also take a lot of fibre from my fruit and veg

I tend not to use cereals or bread for fibre - too many calories wasted , Id rather have some more fruit or veg to keep me full

Its a good point, Ive just asked AI to create a meal plan on my current calorie amount to get me 60g of protein, 30g of fibre and be minimal food waste

Its very difficult and even AI admits some of the days would need to be topped up with that husk that I cant spell.

Plus the meal prep is intensive

I wonder if I do need the full 30g?

On the AI meal plans much of the fibre is coming from lentils/beans and seeds.

Put chia seeds on your yoghurt. They’re basically a third fibre. So if you want an extra 5g add 15g chia for 73kcal.

Extra veg, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach etc very low in calories.

Aside from the male/ female point this is irrelevant- bowels are the same size and even if you had a long or short one you wouldn’t know without a colonoscopy 😂 so fibre is unrelated to how many calories you eat.

OP if recommend all bran- 40g is10g fibre and about 145 calories. Food of gods

nb meant to say fruit and veg isn’t really that good for fibre - even the highest containing don’t have much. Beans and lentils are obv good- lentil soup is low calorie

Well... I discovered I was eating 55-65g fibre a day, much to my surprise. I do eat vegetables with everything, and aim for the 8/9+ servings a day... I love them and they are wonderfully filling.

But the real surprise was the frozen raspberries/blackcurrants I eat... I was easily eating 15g fibre in just 200g of raspberries!! Blackcurrants aren't much less at 12g or so for the same amount. And I was often eating more. And yes I do eat them every day - such a treat!