Hi – I have just worked out the carbs in this recipe and it totals 17.1 – which is quite high for one meal. So am a bit confused as to why its called no carb bircher – anyone understand this?

CARBS
50mlapple juice 4.5
2 tbsp ground flaxseeds 0.2
½ tsp cinnamon 0.3
1 tbsp raisins 10.5
2 tbsp plain yogurt 0.6
1 tbsp walnuts 1.0
TOTAL 17.1

I m assuming it’s no carb in the way we think of carbs as grains etc.
Penny

Oh ok – so its really a no oats bircher! Well that makes a bit more sense.

My hubby really enjoyed the No carb bircher Tuppence. We need to find some flaxseeds though.

Hippo

Hi Hippo

Holland & Barrett sell flaxseeds.

It does sound nice but I have found that carbs push up my blood sugars too much – even healthy oats – I think I must be really carb sensitive.

I’m hoping with time and clearing out my liver that it gets better!

Tuppence

Hi – I got flaxseeds (Linseeds) from Amazon – a kilo was only £5.60! I then put them in an electric coffee grinder and store them for use in the mornings . No carb Bircher is definitely the best breakfast as it keeps me full until lunch time. I have to use dairy free yoghurt. I’m doing this more for weight loss than to watch blood sugars. I’m sure I read in the book that the allowable amount of carbs per day was 17g – or I could have dreamt that bit up ! I have crohns disease and distal colitis and I have found since starting this way of eating my symptoms have reduced dramatically !

Hi Julia, Aldi sell flax seed already milled – some plain and some with dried raspberry, blueberry or goji seed added. I think it was £1.99 for 225g. Could be wrong about the price – it may be cheaper – but it would save you the job of grinding and then cleaning your machine.
Good to hear your symptoms are better on this diet. 🙂

Hi Hippo – Try Aldi – they’re ready milled 🙂

Hi Julia
I dont think it’s 17 g of carbs a day. 50 maybe. Very low carb diets are 20.
Penny

I had this for breakfast this morning but I added 1 tsp of chia seeds to it too…do you think that this would still be ok?

Hi Aquamarine, that sounds fine to me, if you are sticking to 800 calories make sure you add the cals of the seeds to your allowance 🙂

Are you coun ting total carbs as opposed to net carbs? You get the net carb figure by deducting the fibre amount. Fibre calories/carbs don’t count as the liver processes fibre differently and it has no adverse effect on blood sugar. That”s a very simplistic explanation but I hope you get my drift. I was confused about this too especially as my tablespoon of flax a day was using up my carb allowance. Now I use high fibre foods liberally. The fat secret app breaks all these foods down into fat, call, protein,fibre, cards and net carbs – very useful. Hope this helps

Thanks to you both….yes I am counting carbs and was hoping that the high fibre foods were free to use

I’m concerned about the calorie count in the Breakfast Bircher recipe. When I add up the calories each ingredient separately, I get a heck of a lot more than 180 / serve and I even used Fat free greek style yogurt and light cranberry juice instead of apple.

50ml Light Cranberry juice 10 cals
2 tbsp ground flaxseeds 60 cals
1 tbsp raisins 42 cals
2 tbsp no far greek yogurt 35 cals
1 tbsp walnuts 59 cals
Total 206

Anybody else add this up? Am I missing something ? It was delicious but not very satisfying. I was hungry again by mid morning.

I was hoping that I would get a few more calories to have a morning snack and not go over my 800 but according to me I get no benfir at all from the lo fat and light substitutes and I’m 26 cals up 🙁

Hi CazP1965 – we have been having the no-carb Bircher most mornings, for all sorts of reasons. I use coconut water from Waitrose instead of apple juice (too sweet for me) & chop up 1/2 Apple into it (shared between the 2 of us) for texture. After the initial bigger weight loss, I am now losing a steady 2lbs a week, husband is more or less doing that too. We BSD for 5 days a week pretty strictly, but have significant work related commitments which tend to scupper the remaining 2 days, (but we do try hard, rejecting bread & desserts etc, wine is another matter….) despite this we are still losing fat & our tummies are diminishing.

I honestly wouldn’t get too worked up about 26 calories, 200 calories, yes, I’d need to balance out the ‘food-book’ but 26 in the great scheme of things isn’t going to cause havoc with your weight loss goals.

You might find an egg based brekkie suits you better, from what I have read in the postings there’s all sorts of adaptations & modifications going on, people are changing foods around, swapping, experimenting – but still sticking to the food group principles. If more protein floats your boat, then I’d go for it.

Hi FiFiP

Thanks for that. I wasn’t actually concerned too much about the 26 calories but I was more confused about why I hadn’t gained any calorie intake for the rest of the day by using non-fat yogurt and light cranberry juice. I was expecting the calorie count to come out lower than the book but instead it came out higher so I was concerned that the book calorie count was incorrect and if that was incorrect, then were there anymore that were wrong.

I am trying to stick quite strictly to the diet but there are things that I just can’t eat so some swaps are necessary and I want to ensure that I don’t go too far over the 800/day because some counts are not correct.

I’ve only just begun this and I don’t want to scupper myself in the first week. I am staying away from the carbs though.

Thanks again

Hi caz
I agree. People have noticed mistakes like that in the recipes. In fact there’s z thread on it. Also 20 g carbs! Too high I think. Need to invent your own version.
Penny

Hi Caz
The other important thing is to eat full fat dairy and fat in general, or you will be hungry. So butter, cream, FF Greek yogurt, olive oil are all good. I think this is the most difficult part of the diet to grasp because of decades of low fat propaganda- and we can all see that low fat hasn’t worked but it’s hard to let go of. In the end we see what works, which is Eat Fat!
I go for 35-50 grams a day. – I use MyFitnessPal to monitor carbs and fat- any hunger, I eat some fat! eg some avocado with full fat mayonnaise. Or home made soup with plenty of olive oil and/ or peanut butter and tahini in it- which is what I had today. It had olive oil, peanut butter, and tahini in it! And some low carb veg of course. 3 hours later I’m still not hungry despite walking 5000 steps and doing some gardening. It’s about 50-60 cals per bowl, minimum carbs.
Starting the diet is a very steep learning curve for most of us- it took me weeks to really grasp how closely I need to monitor my carbs, I wasn’t losing much and didn’t twig why for ages. I m still a slow loser at carbs 20 – 30g a day, I think that’s just how my body is.
So keep on asking for help, eventually you ll find how it works for you.
Good luck
Penny

Hi!
I have just made this recipe for the first time – I really enjoyed it, but was slightly shocked that the Easy Diet Diary App (in Australia) works it out as 19.6g carbs and 311 calories!! I have found this with many of the recipes in the book unfortunately. I have now been watching what I eat for 8 weeks, but probably only officially tracked for the first 4. I lost 8kg in 8 weeks, which I was happy with as I didn’t keep to the 800 calories. I was mainly concerned with watching my carb intake, as I recently tested as pre-diabetic. Have managed to keep the blood sugar levels fairly steady (other than the odd indiscretion such as my son’s 7th birthday party …)
Melanie

This recipe evolved into something else for me and became a regular, so I wouldn’t have to plan breakfast. It ended up as:

50g frozen blackberries + 8g walnut pieces, with boiled water poured over to cover
Stir in 2 tbsp ground linseeds and 30g greek yogurt.

That way it wasn’t too sweet, and I calculated it at 200 calories. Sometimes I’d add greens – alfalfa sprouts or rocket.

Inspired by CazP1965, Zolou and others above i also have ‘tweaked’ the recipe a little, losing the raisins and apple juice (too sweet for me), and replacing with 50g berries (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, or blueberry) and I use 50ml Almond Milk (unsweetened). I make this 225 calories and 5-8g carbs per serving, depending on which fruit used.

50g fresh blueberries (28.5 cals, 5.5 net carb)
40g/2 tbsp Fage greek yogurt (38.4 cals, 1.52 net carb) – full fat Fage used only 3.8g carbs per 100g
20g/2 tbsp linwoods milled flaxseed (101.6 cals, net 0.6 cab) flaxseed has way more fibre than carbs not sure how you ‘net’ that?
7g/1 tbsp walnut pieces (50 cals, 0.2 carb)
50ml Unsweetened Almond Milk (6.5 cals, 0 carb)
pinch cinnamon

Total calories per serving 225, total carbs 8g. If you wanted carbs per serving to go under 5g you could use strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries – all lower in net carbs than blueberries. As a treat i like the idea of half a grated apple instead of the berries that sounds tasty too.

Loving the sound of this version, Ill be giving it a go next week.

Thank you