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What does a practical (and cheap) low carb diet look like?

Quinlan

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If you eat low carb, what do you have for breakfast? I can't imagine not eating cereal or toast of some sort. Bacon and eggs just doesn't seem right without that toasty crunch underneath. :cheese:

I eat out for lunch a lot so carbs are basically the main part of everything I eat because it's cheap and filling. Any ideas for eating out low carb?
 

prplchknz

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I don't buy bread, not because i hate it, but i only ever want it once in a blue moon. so my breakfast is sometimes a sausage patty and 2 eggs, I also like to crumbled cooked sausage patty sautee some frozen veggies, (whatever's in the freezer) add sausage and cheese than pour beaten egg over and cook til firm. I'm one of those people who craves protein more than carbs, but I don't try to do low carb, I just eat what I like.
 

Thalassa

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It's cheaper I think to do "good carb" rather than "low carb"...doing straight up low-carb is very expensive, and it's also bad for you. If you do good carbs or limited carbs instead you can eat:

lots of beans
nuts and seeds
milk or cheese
fruits and vegetables
meats and fish
eggs

You could eat eggs with some kind of fruit and/or vegetable, or an omelet with cheese and veggies for breakfast.

Carry nuts, seeds, and fruit with you for snacks.

Eating out you can always ask for "lettuce wrap" or no bun on any sandwich, and basically eat any sandwich without the bread. You can also eat fancy salads (as long as you leave out the croutons, tortillas, or other crispy things) and nice meat and vegetable dinners.

You can also eat the toppings off a pizza but not the crust.

Its also been suggested that a person can lose weight if they just stop eating white bread and sugar.

That means only whole grain breads (very whole grain, none of the cheap "wheat" bread at the store). It's actually best to mostly avoid bread and get most of your grains from brown rice and oatmeal or quinoa instead.

Of course you can have soups as long as they don't contain noodles, and there are low-carb snacks you can buy at the store.

OH also...sourdough bread has the lowest sugar content of any bread.
 

kyuuei

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Why would you want to do low carb anyways?? Are your motivations for weight loss, or do you just consume way too much of them?

I think when people limit themselves immediately, they're bound to fail and rebound to old habits. Your physical body goes from one routine to a drastically different one, and with eating, this tends to fail all the time.

You could start by switching to whole grains (examples: whole grain bread instead of white or bagels, and whole grain pastas) and brown rice, and cut back on sweets. (For example, instead of ice cream, we did shaved ice and put fruit toppings on top). Substitutions are easy, and not expensive, and they give your body some time to adjust to changes as well. I definitely agree with the oatmeal and brown rice bit -- barley as well, these are all great ways to go good-carb that your body needs and likes without sacrificing the 'feel full quickly' convenience. Beans are cheap and convenient - just throw them in a 2-to-1 ratio of water in a crock pot and add whatever meats you want.

Eggs are really cheap and versatile. They're easy to cook, and awesome, and can be flavored in a million different ways. Lean meats are not so expensive if you shop smart, and marinades keep the flavors changing and spiced up.

Finally, I suggest a big up-take of veggies. I don't care how you need to eat them (whether raw, like me, or puree'd to create a vegetable-y liquid to stick in spaghetti, etc.) but veggies are a key factor in reducing the carbs normally consumed.
 

Lady_X

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i did it years ago..it was expensive and it made me sad and i lost too much weight so i decided to stop but it works...screws up your metabolism tho for awhile...anyway...

i ate scrambled eggs or an omelet with some ham or bacon...or i just had a protein shake...sometimes i bought low carb bread and had a slice of toast with it...i also got low carb cereal and low carb milk...and would have berries...they're lower in carbs than other fruits.

for lunch i'd eat grilled chicken and veggies...or salmon...or tuna...sometimes i would make lil sandwiches with turkey and cheese and roll it up in some lettuce...basically any type of meat and green veggies...or salads...some soups...or a protein shake

dinner was the same...it can be good sometimes...steak with broccoli and cheese a lil salad...yum...and some red wine.

but it gets boring fast and it's just not the way i prefer to eat...i'd rather have yogurt or cereal then meat and cheese...ya know?
 

Thalassa

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Yes, it does get boring and all of the meat gets gross. I also don't recommend it if you're prone to depression or low blood sugar.

That's why I say "good carb" is much healthier than "low carb." Good carb is actually how you're supposed to eat...
 

Quinlan

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Why would you want to do low carb anyways?? Are your motivations for weight loss, or do you just consume way too much of them?

I'm not too fussed about my weight (even though I'm obese) but I just have a feeling that the bulk of what I'm eating is carbs and that it might not be doing me any good. I've been reading about some low carb research (Taubes) and blogs and they seem to make a lot of sense. My wife got gestational diabetes when she was pregnant and it was interesting to watch her blood sugar levels and what they responded to, interestingly before that apparently she was eating too little, she had to eat more (and more often) to get her blood sugar levels lower, seems paradoxical! So I got myself a blood sugar monitor out of interest and did that for a while, my levels were pretty good (higher than hers though! which was disturbing...) but I reckon they could be better.

I only eat brown or grainy bread but I do eat white rice, pasta and potato. For breakfast I usually have a bowl of wheatbix which is supposed to be wholegrain (but apparently in New Zealand just about anything can be labelled wholegrain). I would ideally like to replace these.

One time I had a skin test and I was allergic to wheat, don't know if that means I'm allergic to it in my belly too? I sometimes get itchy/dry skin and wonder if cutting out wheat would help it.

That's why I say "good carb" is much healthier than "low carb." Good carb is actually how you're supposed to eat...

So what makes wholegrain so good for you? It's still just sugar isn't it? I do like wholegrain food though. Grains in general just seem so unnatural, I can imagine a caveman hunting an antelope, or catching a fish, picking fruit, berries and nuts but I can't imagine them bending over and eating the grass.
 

Thalassa

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If you don't care about your weight in terms of vanity, and you just want to lose a little bulk, I would suggest just cutting out the pasta and switching from white rice to brown and eating potatoes more sparingly. Eliminate sugar as much as possible, except for maybe special occasions.

Whole grains are more natural and nutritious, don't spike your glycemic index as much, and contain more fiber. People's diets have contained whole grains much longer than they were ever carnivorous. We are not cats, and I don't buy the caveman argument. We need "good carbs" for healthy brain and bodily function, and our teeth are built for an omnivorous diet.

I suggest you do some reading on the difference between whole grains and processed grains or refined sugar so you can get a deeper understanding of why they're so much better for you.
 

Stanton Moore

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So what makes wholegrain so good for you? It's still just sugar isn't it? I do like wholegrain food though. Grains in general just seem so unnatural, I can imagine a caveman hunting an antelope, or catching a fish, picking fruit, berries and nuts but I can't imagine them bending over and eating the grass.

Wholegrains are good because they don't spike your insulin. they are actually harder to digest, so it takes longer, which means a steady stream of energy rather than a sudden rush from simple sugars like table sugar and corn-starch (although if you're an endurance athlete, these have a place too).
You might be interested to note that recent eveidence shows that humans were utilizing wild grains and grasses to make a rudimentary bread as long ago as 20,000 years BCE. So the so-called caveman may indeed have eaten grains as a staple, along with the typical hunted and gathered foods.
If you're overweight, remember that aerobic exercise is an appetite supressant to some extent.
Also, the brain needs a lot of carbohydrate to function optimally, so some carbohydrate at breakfast make sense...go for oatmeal. It's a great food for energy.
I lost 50 lbs by riding my bike a lot and watching what I eat. mostly I cut out simple sugar and anything oily, so no butter, peanut butter or fried things. I eat fruit and nuts, oatmeal, bread, meats (not cured - too salty). the weight fell off fast. Of course once things start to roll for you, you can cheat every so often, and the nice thing is that when you do eat something rich, it tastes so much better.
 

CzeCze

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Question - does low carb diet actually work? I thought it didn't work. My friends have yo-yo dieted with it (South Beach diet) but I can't see the weight loss myself and they say it makes them cranky and get into fights with one another (they're dating).

If it worked and didn't screw up your metabolism royally, I would try it.
 

CzeCze

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Question - does low carb diet actually work? I thought it didn't work. My friends have yo-yo dieted with it (South Beach diet) but I can't see the weight loss myself and they say it makes them cranky and get into fights with one another (they're dating).

If it worked and didn't screw up your metabolism royally, I would try it.
 

Thalassa

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Good carb diets (as opposed to low carb diets) don't screw up your metabolism and they work to keep you at a healthy weight. If you're overweight or obese, yes the weight will just fall off. But if you're already a healthy weight don't expect it to make you super skinny.
 

Lady_X

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it totally works...it's not working for your friends because they're yo yo'ing.

it did make me cranky tho and a bit depressed.
 

wolfy

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Low carb diets do work. Cycling low carbs with carb days works too. But in your case Quin, I just think just getting rid of most of the junkier carbs off the diet would help you feel better. Maybe you could taper your carbs with more in the morning and less to nothing at night. A lot of your carbs would be better coming from fruit and vegetables. There is a rule that the outside edge of the supermarket is where all the good stuff is, shop there mostly. You can also think about what is the best carb choice, kumara is better than potato etc. There are plenty of books on that, I saw a few good ones at the local library when I was back in NZ.

It's a hassle to get yourself to follow a diet, better to learn the principles so you can adapt them to what is available.

What do you normally do for lunch?
 

Quinlan

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Low carb diets do work. Cycling low carbs with carb days works too. But in your case Quin, I just think just getting rid of most of the junkier carbs off the diet would help you feel better.

So does junk carbs include white rice, brown bread, potato and pasta?

Maybe you could taper your carbs with more in the morning and less to nothing at night. A lot of your carbs would be better coming from fruit and vegetables. There is a rule that the outside edge of the supermarket is where all the good stuff is, shop there mostly. You can also think about what is the best carb choice, kumara is better than potato etc.

I love kumara, I remember eating Kumara chips did little to our blood sugar, yum.

What do you normally do for lunch?

Lately I've just been having a brown bread sandwich with bacon and egg or chicken but that's more poorness than anything. I like to get Thai, one favourite is garlic beef with veges and white rice (probably ok?) and the other is pad thai, all chicken and pasta/noodles with peanut sauce (probably bad?), I like sushi, chinese noodles with dumplings, fried rice and egg, sometimes have brown toast, eggs and bacon.

See what I mean about the carbs. :D
 

wolfy

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So does junk carbs include white rice, brown bread, potato and pasta?

Real junk carbs are obvious things like L&P, jaffas and chocolate fish. Think of carbs as being on a continuum from good to more crappy. All the foods you listed are reasonably high GI but I reckon they are okay during the day. Vogels would be okay as a morning bread I think. If you choose a moderate carb diet you need to try and keep the fat reasonably low as well.

Practically speaking it's a pain in the ass to be on a low carb diet. A moderate carb diet with tapering off the carbs at night is better over the long haul. I would just try having what you want for lunch as long as it is not too heavy in fat. Eating fruit in the morning, vogels toast and some kind of protein, scrambled eggs or something like that. And then for dinner keeping it as low carb as you can. Salmon and salad or something like that. Keeping your protein intake up helps in a lot of ways. Fruit is really cheap in NZ, it can cost a dollar for a kiwifruit here. Eat more fruit.

You don't want to get yourself in a situation where your thinking is really boxed. This is good, this is not good. Just try and keep it balanced overall. If you are ever going to go on a really low carb diet, decide on a time frame. But yeah, above all, learn the ropes so you can adapt and don't need to stick to any rigid plan. That gets old fast.
 

Lady_X

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totally agree with wolfie...i've done it that way as well and much prefer it..the point is just to burn more carb energy than you consume...so...at breakfast and lunch...it's alright to have some good healthy carbs but don't mix it with a lot of fat...and then for dinner stick to lean protein and vegetables....just learn to choose healthier alternatives...like balsamic over ranch...or a sweet potato over a white potato...grilled veggies or soup instead of fries...something like black beans, brown rice and grilled chicken is a good healthy carb meal for lunch...if you're working out you could use the energy...and don't have dessert everyday...or learn to be satisfied with one piece of really good chocolate or some berries and cream but not too much...just learn to not over do it and go for the healthier choice.
 
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