Low carb resources

[nannerl]

I know we've done this before, but I was wondering if anyone had any new ideas/sites that they were liking...

I've been working out 4-5x a week and tracking my eating faithfully since January, and despite making tweaks (upping intensity of workouts, raising and lowering calorie intake etc) my weight hasn't budged since early February. I felt like I was putting in way too much effort for zero return (even with nursing full time!), so I met with my doctor to run some blood tests. She was as confused as I was as to why the weight wasn't dropping. Results came back and most things looked good, except that pesky high fasting blood sugar thing that was with me through pregnancies 2 and 3 is still there. It's not out of control, but definitely elevated into insulin resistant territory. She doesn't want to try meds yet, but wants me to lose 20lbs, and so she's dropped my carb intake from 150-200g to less than 100g per day while she works on a plan to kick start my metabolism.

So I need little kid friendly low carb dinner ideas plus any snacks you guys might have come across. We have no restrictions other than the carb thing.

Oh, and DH said he wanted to drop some carbs too. I told him that to get on my program he'd have to cut out his breakfast bars, store bought yogurt, lunch chips, bread, beer, and dinner starch (cause under 100g of carbs per day is like an apple and a banana). He looked at me like I had sprouted a second head. But he did come home with light beer last night, so solidarity? 😂

[Deleted]

I have ideas lol. I've spent maybe 8 months of the last year doing under 30 carbs a day!

For snacks:
Nuts, most types are fine
Beef jerky if you like that sort of thing
Cheese, I eat a lot of string cheese and Baby bel
Peanut butter(I buy sugar free chocolate chips to go in it sometimes)
Raspberries/strawberries
Low carb yogurt (king soopets has a low carb version called carb master)

For treats:
Sugar feee chocolate chips
Carb smart ice cream by Brewers

Dinners/other foods:
Firecracker chicken (1 lb chicken cut into strips, 1/2 cup butter melted with 1/2 cup Franks's red sauce, cooked on the stove until sauce starts to carmalize)
Green veggies and onions are always good. Salad, green beans, broccoli, zucchini.
Fajitas with bell peppers, cheese, sour cream, and a low carb tortilla shell (most grocery stores has low carb tortillas with 4-5 carbs a piece)
I eat small amounts of black beans.
Chicken with garlic, butter, and cheese cooked in the oven.

Generally speaking, you can subtract sugar alcohols and fiber from the total carb count to get net carbs which is what matters to most low carb counting.

[Deleted]

I forgot breakfast. Costco has Premier Protein drinks and a kind of low carb breakfast bars that I used a lot. You can also do eggs, bacon, low carb yogurt, and cheese.

[sunshineluv]

My BIL is type one diabetic, and has been eating a low carb high fat diet for about 8 months. It has really helped him, he feels better, manages his levels better, etc.

My mom started the same diet plan to help her metabolism, and has lost 18 lbs so far (maybe 8 weeks?) and is feeling better too.

My sister who doesn't need to lose weight but always thinks she does, has been doing it for 2 weeks and has lost 8 lbs.

I don't know the exact plan they are doing, but I know the high fat (good fats) plays a big role. Olive oil, avacodo, nuts, things like that.

Good luck!

[nannerl]

@lindy, woohoo! That's great 😁Thank you! I'm using the Lose It! app for tracking my food, and I'm trying to keep my total carbs under 100 so I'm a bit lower once the fiber and alcohol is subtracted. I'm also having to up my protein to protect my milk supply, so this whole thing is more of a balancing act than the last time I did LCHF.

Have you tried fat bombs? Tons of recipes on Pinterest-- basically cream cheese with a little butter as a base with berries, chocolate powder, peanut butter, or other flavors blended in. Spoon into molds and freeze.

Also, I found these at Costco. Nice break from nuts 😁

[ktstorm]

I had/have the same problem after Elliot with elevated fasting and borderline a1c value.

Besides what @lindy mentioned -

Snacks -
Celery with peanut butter
Sugar free Jello
Parsnip chips (trader Joe's)

Treats -
Halo top ice cream is really good
1 T pb + 1 T coconut oil + sweetener to taste, pour into silicon molds and freeze
*I bought swerve to bake with and use as a sweetener. It doesn't have the bitter aftertaste I noticed with stevia

Meals:
Beef and cabbage stir fry aka crack slaw
Burger salad or lettuce wrapped - everyone else has theirs on rolls
Cauliflower/zucchini crust pizza
Bell pepper pizza cups
Zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash instead of pasta
Fajitas/taco salad - I normally don't eat a tortilla or chips.

Cauliflower "potato" salad, you can also make mashed cauliflower, and au gratin cauliflower instead of potato versions.

I like these two websites for ideas, especially baking/desserts other than the sweetener and almond/coconut flour they don't use a lot of strange ingredients.

Alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Ibreatheimhungry.com

I found a really good biscuit recipe that used almond flour and mozarella cheese, I'll see if I can find the link.

Breakfast is normally egg muffin omelets. The cream cheese/egg pancakes turn out decent if you're craving a pancake too.

[nannerl]

ktstorm, do you mind me asking what your plan is re: your higher numbers? I haven't run into anyone with this situation before-- during pregnancy the ladies in my group had their numbers get progressively higher while mine just stayed the same, and only fasting was ever affected.

[ktstorm]

May 4, 2017 18:57:57 GMT -5 nannerl said:

ktstorm, do you mind me asking what your plan is re: your higher numbers? I haven't run into anyone with this situation before-- during pregnancy the ladies in my group had their numbers get progressively higher while mine just stayed the same, and only fasting was ever affected.

sure. I've been having 6 month checks and blood work with an endocrinologist since Elliot was born. She checks my a1c rather than having me do any daily blood glucose checks. My a1c was 5.7 when E was 6 months old, which is the very bottom cutoff value​ for prediabetic. It didn't go down until this past summer when I actually started watching carbs. It's down to 5.4 now, and she said if I can maintain that value to the next appointment we'll go to an annual check. I'm hoping that also means that I can be a little more lax with the carb restrictions, because I love them. Oh, and the blood work includes a fasting number, which continues to be on the higher end, but acceptable.

[ktstorm]

Oh and there's a bunch of low carb spiked seltzers that are pretty good

[nannerl]

ktstorm, that's really encouraging to hear! My A1c was a 5.9 I think, but my Doc didn't want to put me on meds until we tried carb counting and losing some of the baby weight first. Hopefully that helps correct everything, but we'll see. I'm just glad we caught it early!

[laurensmomma]

ktstorm, can you tag me if you find that biscuit recipe? I'm interested in that! Thanks. :0)

[ktstorm]

nannerl, I hope it helps!It's really not too bad once you find a groove. There's a lot of options even if you go out to eat or get takeout. I'll order extra veggies or a salad to replace the carb.

[ktstorm]

May 4, 2017 21:01:10 GMT -5 laurensmomma said:

ktstorm, can you tag me if you find that biscuit recipe? I'm interested in that! Thanks. :0)

snapguide.com/guides/make-low-carb-biscuits/

This was it. They're not super flaky but they definitely reminded me of a biscuit. I used a muffin tin to bake mine. The structure of the pan is necessary to keep them from spreading out.

[laurensmomma]

Thanks, ktstorm!

[Deleted]

nannerl, I have not tried fat bombs, but I know they are really common in the low carb world! I'm too lazy to make them though lol. I LOVE those whisps

[imimahoney]

I was doing low carb for awhile (about 40 carbs a day) and ate:

Eggs
Almonds
Deli meat with spreadable cheese
Cottage cheese w/half an apple sauce
Proteins for dinner with low carb veggies.

I wish I was able to stick with the plan but the restrictions made me binge on the weekends. I dropped weight fast but it would right back when I ate carbs.

I am now doing weight watchers which is much more realistic for my life style. I'm losing (much slower) but because of the program design I am not binging from restrictions.

Besides some fruit (an apple, banana and a mandarin orange) I am also eating low carb, it is just designed a bit differently.

I want to drop 25 lbs and I'm down 5 so far in 2 weeks. So it is working.

[laurack]

My H tries to do this low carb diet, so I cook a lot of dinners that are "keto" friendly. He normally just eats a few pieces of bacon (or nothing) for breakfast. For lunch he has a big salad.

to be honest often for diner we just have meat and vegetables.

roasted chicken with roasted carrots & parsnips
steaks with sautéed green beans and mashed cauliflower
cauliflower fried rice
Tacos (he just has all the fixings on a bed of romaine)
meat sauce with Zoodles
Chicken topped with salsa and cheese
I sautéed ground beef and then mix it with sautéed peppers and onions, cover it with cheese and bake
Zucchini Lasagna (thin sliced zucchinis in place of pasta)
Stir fry (chicken pieces with mixed stir fry veggies
Chicken tenders dipped in egg, then a mixture of shredded unsweetened coconut and almond flour, bake at 425 for 20 min or so
Eggplant parmesan (bread the eggplant in almond flour)
pot roast (yes I use red wine but I don't think that's a ton of net carbs)

etc.

My husband feels if he sticks to this low carb diet, he feels better and loses weight. IT's hard to stick to though, because life doesn't make it easy. Everywhere you go the food is full of carbs ...

[nannerl]

It is a little rough, no doubt about it. I don't miss alcohol or bread really, and I'm ok even without rice and potatoes. I do miss pizza and ice cream-- I'm trying to find a good pizza crust sub and I'm making all sorts of frozen yogurt and fruit concoctions but it's not the same. Sigh.

But, I'm significantly down this week for the first time in over 8 weeks, so hopefully things are headed in the right direction!