Day 3 – struggling to get the carbs down

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  • posted by mouche202
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    Hi all,
    I have been using MyFitnessPal to plan my meals and have managed to stay under 1000 calories and 60g carbs so far. But I know I should aim for 800 and 50g carb, which I am finding very difficult to do. Here is my meal plan for today – can you advise me on where I could have cut back?

    Breakfast – Raspberry shake – raspberries (80g), almond milk (300ml), 5% fat Greek yogurt (70g), flaxseed (2 tbsp) – 199 calories; 16 carbs
    Lunch – Chicken and veg stir fry – chicken breast (half), stiry fry veg mix (300g), soy sauce (4 tsp), fish sauce (1 tbsp), oil (1tbsp), garlic (1 clove) – 326 calories; 16 g carb
    Dinner – Chicken Kiev with veg – chicken breast (half), egg (half), flour (1tbsp), breadcrumbs (10g), olive oil (1tbsp), clotted cream (10g), garlic (1/2 clove), lemon juice (1/2 lemon), green beans (100g) – 483 calories; 23g carb

    Day’s total: 1010 calories and 56g carb

    Now I know if I just grill the chicken without the egg, flour and crumb, it will be 13g less carb. But that is still 43g for the day. How do people get as low as 20g carb in the day?! I am really surprised at the amount of carbs there are in vegetables.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Watch the fish sauce, many contain added sugar, also it may be as easy as the veg in the stir fry. Peppers, peas and sweetcorn for example are quite carby for above the ground veg, so if they were in the mix it could be a factor, plus many shop mixes include carrot which is a root veg, and quite high in carbs. When concentrating on low carb (which isn’t all the time since getting to maintenance) I make my own from assorted dark green leaves, as big a variety as I can, mushrooms, and a chilli pepper for kick. I had one tonight, in the form of a simple shakshuka with a duck egg, it was lovely. Definitely try to do without the flour and crumb if you can. Almonds make a decent substitute coating if you need one. I rarely make 20g carbs though, even when ‘on it’ I usually aimed at 40g in 800 calories.

  • posted by mouche202
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    Thank you Mixnmatch. I think you are spot on with the stir fry analysis – it had peppers and corn so that’s probably why it was so high in calories. I also realised that I was looking at total carbs instead of net carbs which was making my carbs total really high. I have to be careful still as I believe these calculators are not very consistent with tracking carbs and net carbs but having switched to fatsecret for tracking I see that my net carbs are not so bad.

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi,
    The suggestions I would make to improve on your carb count is maybe switch out the smoothie in the morning for an omelette or scrambled eggs.
    Also I am not sure but isn’t 5% greek yoghurt the low fat version, if it is then that will have added sugar in comparison to the normal version. – Fat is our friend on this diet for helping people feel full. One trick is for a dessert is to put a handful of frozen berries into Greek yoghurt to create a low carb ice cream.
    There are lots of websites with descriptions of keto meals to help give you additional variety. But the biggest trick of all is that after a while of eating low carb you will get your insulin levels down, so that your body changes from only being able to burn what you have just eaten to being able to access your own fat stores. When that happens you will loose the cravings to have 3 meals a day and start to skip meals so your carb allowance only has to cover one or two meals a day.

  • posted by Verano
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    Hi JGwen the full fat Total Greek yogurt is now labelled as 5% fat. They also still produce the zero fat one too.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    Proper Greek yoghurt if you can get it is closer to 10% fat, which is far more satisfying. I like the stuff you get from Lidl and it isn’t even expensive although they don’t always have it.

  • posted by Verano
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    Further to the Greek yogurt question. I was surprised when Fage repackaged their full fat yogurt a few months ago and it’s now labelled at only 5% fat. I like the Lidl one too so checked that one out. The nutritional information I found, shows the fat content at 11% but the serving size is ‘a cup’ which they equate to 220g so they work out the same! Very misleading. I guess it all comes down to personal taste and cost.

  • posted by Mixnmatch
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    I always look at content per 100g, that is often a serving for me, and every food has that measure so it is easy to compare like with like. I haven’t looked at Fage closely since the rebranding though, I guess I really have cured myself of low fat brainwashing when that makes me discount a former favourite as a possibility.

  • posted by SunnyB
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    I agree Mixmatch, regardless of the product it’s always best to compare 100g values, so as to get a true comparison. It also gives you a picture of what you could ‘afford’ to eat as a portion and whether it would fit into your daily intake. I find this especially important when looking at carbs, as knowing the level of carbs in 100g of a product gives a real picture of whether or not the product is compatible with the BSD way of eating when you factor in the appropriate portion size.

  • posted by AnnieW
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    I’ve been buying Fage for a few years now, usually from Tesco, and it’s always been 5% but maybe that is just what they stocked. There’s now a 2% as well as the 0% on their shelves. Fage yoghurt does have live cultures in it which the Lidl one I used to buy (the one in the small bucket) didn’t but maybe Lidl have changed that now.

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