Just starting this diet and I’ve been on My Fitness Pal and I’ve been looking up foods and their calorie and carb values under their database by brand. Wow – what an eye-opener !

I hadn’t realised how ingrained my food habits had become. For lunch I may have eaten one of those Philadelphia mini pots of extra light cream cheese with a couple of crisp breads but now I see how mad the carb and sugar values are I realise why my weight has ballooned !

Can I ask how many carbs I should be aiming for a day – I’ve heard figures like 50g per day mentioned but maybe I should just aim to keep it low rather than worry about the maths ?! And should I be looking at the Total carb value and not the ‘of which x is sugars” figure ?

I didn’t want to get too obsessed with food recording and calorie counting but now I realise I’m probably going to have to .

I suppose following the recipes in the book will do the calculating for you but some of these I’d like to swap out if I’m not too keen on the ingredients.

Can anyone recommend any other good recipe books which will give the info we need ? I tend to cook most meals from scratch using mostly fresh ingredients so I’m looking forward to being creative with my own dishes – I’m just going to have to be more careful than I thought perhaps. I reckon my portion control needs keeping in check too !

Do you all log your food every day and if so do you find My Fitness Pal a good bet ?

Sorry – so many questions!

Hi Chocolate_ee
Welcome. Read & mark the BSD for salient points for you. I kept a daily food diary ( paper). I’m 12 weeks in & Type 2 Diabetic. 1 &1/2 stones lost but more to go.
The book only tells you protein advice, 45g women & 55g men daily. By consensus we have between 50 – 100g carbs daily. T 2 need to keep low to stop sugar spikes, we are trying to reverse diabetes.
Keep your fat intake up if you go that low with carbs. Very important to drink 2 – 3 litres fluid daily. You must do some reading to understand what & how to do on this diet. It’s good but you need to persevere & we will help with info.
Go to : Forum Fast 800, Topic Percentages ( Vicfish 37) page 8 dated17.2.16. Read my & others posts
Also : Fast 800, Topic Answers & info – how & why page 3 dated 11.4.16.
Look on line for low carb recipes & the fast diet recipe book & on here of course. I cook from scratch but did 5:2 so don’t count or weigh as I did all that & know what I’m doing. Maybe you should count calories & weigh until you are happy
Hope this helps you good luck

There is another website called dietdoctor.com which lots of complementary advice on low carb and some good recipes too.

Also, check out our thread called ‘what have you eaten today’, there are loads of recipe ideas on there. Quite a lot of people do use my fitness pal but I’m not one of them, I prefer to keep an old fashioned handwritten diary. It can be really useful to record everything especially in the beginning. It can help you get – and keep – your head in the right place. It can help you be mindful of everything you are eating – and what you don’t need to eat and also, its a record of what has gone right and gone wrong for you. Great fun to look back on after a few weeks!

The most important part seems to be to cut out refined cards – sugar, white flour (and everything made with it eg pasta, bread, cakes, biscuits) and white rice.

Thank you so much Eureka , Janet and Patsy . You’ve all been so helpful , I really appreciate your advice . Off to do some more reading . I do like the science behind all of this , it’s what drew me to it in the first place – the fact that it had been properly medically researched .

Hi Chocolate
Try reducing your carbs to 100g per meal. That should be equivalent to a small roll or 1/2 slices of bread. I was addicted to carbs and now replace it with a small serving of nuts, fruit and seeds throughout the day….

Hi Chocolate
Try aubergine with lamb and pomegranates. I love this meal and cooked it twice. Cook the aubergines for an extra 10 mins in the oven or until they are soft. Don’t worry if you can’t find the pomegranate!!

Hi Marcia, I thought it should be 50g of carbs or less a day? Or did you mean 10g carbs per meal?

The cottage pie with cauliflower mash on this website is also delicious!!! 🙂

Hi Hashimoto
Getting your carbs right can be very tricky and at times a constant juggling act. 100g per meal may not be good for everyone but it works well for me😊. When I talk about carbs I’m talking about pasta, rice, potatoes and biscuits At the moment I have 100g per day and do feel the need to have any carbs for lunch of dinner😊.

Will definitely try the cottage pie with cauliflower mash😊