Pasta replacements

janejellyroll

wilson10102018 wrote: »

It is disheartening to see the basic premise of calorie counting so easily dismissed. What I mean is that the therapeutic benefit of calorie counting is self-training, not losing weight. Anyone can lose weight. but, anyone can gain it all back plus some more. What lasts is making proper portion size decisions at the time of food preparation.

To me, that is what eating fake pasta is all about. Not eating less, just eating less calories. Old habits, new calorie totals.

Swapping higher calorie foods for lower calorie versions that one can enjoy long-term is another tool that many find effective for weight management.

Some people prefer to eat a higher volume of food. There's nothing wrong with that provided you can find a way to make it work within your calorie goals.

There's nothing inherently better about eating smaller portions of higher calorie foods instead of larger portions of lower calorie ones. It's strictly a matter of personal preference.

zeejane03

wilson10102018 wrote: »

It is disheartening to see the basic premise of calorie counting so easily dismissed. What I mean is that the therapeutic benefit of calorie counting is self-training, not losing weight. Anyone can lose weight. but, anyone can gain it all back plus some more. What lasts is making proper portion size decisions at the time of food preparation.

To me, that is what eating fake pasta is all about. Not eating less, just eating less calories. Old habits, new calorie totals.

I'm 6 years into maintenance at this point. I eat smaller portions of some things and then have swapped out other things with lower calorie substitutions-it's not a one or the other type thing, but a combination of figuring out what works best for me, for each food that I eat.

janejellyroll

zeejane03 wrote: »

wilson10102018 wrote: »

It is disheartening to see the basic premise of calorie counting so easily dismissed. What I mean is that the therapeutic benefit of calorie counting is self-training, not losing weight. Anyone can lose weight. but, anyone can gain it all back plus some more. What lasts is making proper portion size decisions at the time of food preparation.

To me, that is what eating fake pasta is all about. Not eating less, just eating less calories. Old habits, new calorie totals.

I'm 6 years into maintenance at this point. I eat smaller portions of some things and then have swapped out other things with substitutions-it's not a one or the other type thing, but a combination of figuring out what works best for me, for each food that I eat.

Exactly. And I'll even go back and forth between eating "regular" and lower calorie versions depending on what I feel like eating and what the rest of my day looks like. Sometimes I'm having regular pasta, sometimes zucchini "noodles."

mmerry5

I buy Fiber Gourmet pasta. Love it. It's nearly half the calories with lots more fiber and protein and tastes very much like regular pasta. There is a very slight difference in texture in some of the shapes, but it's still delicious. I really like their elbows and rotini. The spaghetti is good, but not as good as the Elbows. I prefer regular lasagna noodles, but for the calorie savings, I use fiber gourmet a lot. It's more expensive than regular, but worth it to me.

AnnPT77

whmscll wrote: »

Whole wheat pasta. Has tons of fiber and you get full with less. Plus overall healthier.

Whole wheat macaroni USDA UPC 767387556093: 180 cals per 2 oz dry, 6g fiber, 7g protein.
Macaroni, enriched USDA UPC 041512101304: 210 calories per 2 oz dry, 2g fiber, 7g protein.

The enriched one has slightly more micronutrients, but not by much.

Dramatic difference?

I like the WW better on taste, I admit, and ate a good bit of it back when I was obese, to "fill out a meal".

I rarely eat either white or whole wheat pasta these days, because I don't find it all that yummy or satiating personally (others may) and the amount of nutrients (especially protein) is too low for the calories for me (I'm vegetarian, BTW). I do use some of the legume pastas as mentioned on page 1, but often I just increase what I would've used on top of the pasta, making (say) a tomato-based veggie stew instead of tomato sauce for pasta, and skip the pasta part entirely.

Others' preferences and dietary situations will differ, for sure.

dorbz1961

I still enjoy pasta but I now follow the advice to convert it to a resistant carb to increase the fibre and reduce the calories. MFP don’t accommodate this on logging though
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/carbohydrates-and-diabetes/carbs-and-cooking?amp