No idea what I'm doing!!

Ishley26

so my doctor tells me I need to go on a low carb diet. He'd like me to be high in protein, as well as Fiber.I never grew up in a home where you paid attention to the nutrition labels or what is healthy and what's not. Therefore I have no idea what I'm doing. I would like any suggestions, ideas, recipes, anything you can think of to help me make better food choices. Thank you all in advance!

melaniecheeks

Low carb generals - avoid or reduce potatoes, rice, pasta, bread.
Protein is in meat, cheese and dairy, nuts, beans
Fibre is in fruits and veg (these will also have carbs, but not as much as the startchy stuff)

So a typical day might be

Breakfast - Eggs or Greek yoghurt with berries
Lunch - vegetable soup or a salad
Dinner - grilled fish or poached chicken with asparagus, courgettes, leeks, any veg really.
Snacks - nuts or cheese.

Ishley26

Thank you! So to be "low carb" how many carbs should my limit be per day? I'm very obese, and going to the Dr was just the kick in the pants I needed to make some changes!

tigersword

Ask your doctor to refer you to a dietician to set up an eating plan. "Low carb" is rather arbitrary, it varies from person to person. Some people consider 150 grams to be "low carb," others say it's 10 grams. There's no one size fits all answer, so I would recommend seeking medical advice for your specific situation, if a doctor recommended it, there must be a medical reason behind it, which means a forum is not qualified to give advice.

MeanderingMammal

Thank you! So to be "low carb" how many carbs should my limit be per day? I'm very obese, and going to the Dr was just the kick in the pants I needed to make some changes!

Rather than putting figures on this in thread has the doctor suggested a calorie intake for you?

If so then think about the balance of intakes within that.

As an alternative have a play with the calculator tool on the site, then reduce the carbohydrate balance a bit, as it's quite high for your needs.

To add to the commentary above, all foods have a balance of fats, proteins, calories and essential minerals, so cheeses bear fat as well as protein, nuts contain quite a high proportion of the trace minerals.

The other aspect is what fits into your lifestyle, and how much change can you tolerate. It's no good taking a suggestion that you can't live with.

Anyway, have a play with the calculators here and then that should help you work out a bit more about what you need to achieve, and then discuss how to achieve that.

melaniecheeks

There's no definition of "low carb", and carb sensitivity varies a lot from person to person. Fill in your diary for a few days, and see where the big carb-hitters are, then focus on getting those down.

100-150g carbs per day is a good starting target.

sarah456s

Track all your food in the diary here, and see how many carbs you're getting. MFP defaults to a setting of 55% carbs in your diet - you can change that in the settings section if you want. A lot of people recommend 40 carbs, 30 protein, 30 fat. I've left mine as the default but I vaguely try to get my carbs down to 50%. When I remember - I'm more focused on the overall calorie goal and getting my protein up, as I figure then the carbs will take care of themselves.

Anyway, the easiest thing is to track what you're currently eating, and see what takes you over your carb target and by how much, and work on reducing those food items. Usually it's bread, pasta, cake, cookies, candy, all those sorts of things. Replace with veggies, proteins, fats, and fruits, but don't go crazy on fruits as they're high in sugar.