Maybe I’ve missed something in the book. Should I be counting total carbs or net carbs?
Thanks

That is a question I have too. I have not been counting carbs as I have been following the menu plans and recipes in the book. I know they can be a bit out but today I had the beetroot and apple soup with white beans and a portion came out at 39 carbs which seems quite a lot considering I only have 11 left for the rest of the day. Fortunately, I had scrambled egg and mushroom (1 carb) for breakfast and will be having spiced duck breast with lentils, roasted red pepper and asparagus (23 carbs) which makes my total for the day 65, which is a lot lower than someone not on this diet. However, my calories are only 630 so will need to find something zero carb to top myself up to around 800. Start with 10gm very dark choc at 50 calories and 1 gram of carb. So I still have 120 calories to eat. Worked out I can have 30 grams of cheddar cheese for 120 calories and no carbs. So all good, but what a balancing act. I have a good carb counter but the carbs I have counted are total carbs.

As an afterthought I have just looked at the recipes in the book and it gives calories but not carbs, why not when we are counting both.

Think the recipes in the book and the meal plans are designed to keep the carbs relatively low without taxing you to count them, however, most of us go off-piste and mix and match dishes, design our own and put together our own menus, which means we need to be more aware of the carbs.

The first time I plateaued, I was advised to start tracking carbs, as a way of kick starting things again. Since then I have been counting total carbs and keeping around the 50g mark or lower wherever possible. It’s been working, so on the basis of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ I have stuck with this format.

Olive oil, a slice or two of cold meat or as you say, some cheese, would all offer more calories with little to no impact on the carbs. And if you feel full, it doesn’t matter if you are under on calories today, ‘cos in a couple of days time, you might well go over, so it all balances out over the long term.

Thank Sunny, I only decided to check on the carbs as I have gone off piste and started devising my own meal plans. Knowing now that the soup is quite high I will avoid it but now having that knowledge I could replace the lentils in dinner with something like cauli rice or courgetti. However, then my calories would be around 500 for the day. As I said, a real balancing act. I have ordered the official BDS recipe book (I just love to browse) and hope I can get lots more ideas whilst remembering to keep my own count. This diet gets more and more interesting.