Eating your calories without the carbs

Gwynnether

Hi everyone


I'm really struggling hitting my calories, without eating too many carbs. I'm trying to not eat more than 100g carbs a day, but if I stick with that I usually end up 200-300 calories short of my daily goal (which is 1330 calories, so not good!).

I guess, I just want to hear what you guys eat that's high in calories, but low in carbs. Anything I can use as a quick filler on days where I run short on calories, without overstepping my carbs

Any ideas welcome

thanks
Jen

jimmmer

Good quality casein shake is almost all protein and low carb. ~200 cals for 43g protein and about 2g carbs.

Scramble 2-3 eggs with butter for 200-300 cals which is all fats and protein (takes a minute or two in a microwave)

Wrap a chicken breast in bacon and oven cook for 30mins thats 200-300 cals and minimal carbs.

icrushit

I can understand where you're coming from, as I experienced the same. That said I find it easy enough to eat about 1800/ 1900 calroies while easily keeping under 50g of net carbs. I've just uppped my daily calories a little recently, and relaxed my net carb intake to 100g instead of 50g, and can easily enough fit in about 2200/ 2300 calories, while happily keeping to the 100g limit for carbs.

Anway, the above was just to illustrate it is possible. I don't have any added sugar in my diet or grains, and have just moderate amounts of anything starchy like potatoes for example. With those restrictions, what I tend to eat commonly includes nuts, seeds, eggs, meat (lean and fatty), lots of non-starchy vegetables, along with some milk, cheese and yoghurt. I'm doing a bit of dabbling at the moment, but a typical day for me not so long ago would have went along the lines of;

Breakfast: Full fat yoghurt, berries, chopped nuts, chopped seeds (600 calories)
Lunch: Spanish-style filled omelette w/ 2 eggs, vegetables, some cheese, and tuna/ smoked mackerel/ chicken/ turkey (500 calories)
Dinner: Meat/ Fish, lots of non-starchy vegetables, moderate portions of starchy vegetables (500 calories)
Snacks: Dark chocolate (80%+ cocoa), celery/ carrot & peanut butter, handful almonds (300 calories)

The above would be a typical 1900 calorie day for me, and would typically fall just slightly under the 50g net carb mark.

There's some good resources out there, and myself, I tended to lump foods into categories based on how many carbs they contained, so I could mix and match with relative ease. So for example, do your homework and see what foods are 0/ negligible carb, which are minimal carb, low carb, and moderate carb. Armed with that information, you can set about formulating your food for the day

mike_ny

Eat more fat (essential fatty acids). Many of us in the low carb camp get 50% or more of our daily calories from fat.

Assuming you're getting enough protein and nutrients in your existing diet, fat is a great fuel to fill out the rest of the calories. I prefer saturated or mono-unsaturated as the main fat sources and minimizing poly-unsaturated and totally avoiding trans-fat. Health and energy levels are great and blood lipid panels for the last couple years have been stellar.

Gwynnether

Thanks all for the great replies!

WadeLam

See my recipe post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1356012-blackened-dijon-chicken-220-calories

chocolateandbutterscotch

Cobb salad
Here is my recipe

2 cups iceburg cal 15 carb .4
2 cups romaine cal 15 carb .8
3 stips bacon cal 126 carb 0
1/2 cup diced chicken cal 116 carb 0
1/2 avacado cal 140 carb 1.75
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cal 228 carb 0
1/2 cup diced cucumber cal 10 carb 1
1 egg cal 70 carb 0
1/2 tomato cal 22 carb 2.1
total cal 725 carb 6.05

find a great oil and vinegar dressing recipe online and you got it made

Amandastan

Just eat whole grains. Carbs are where you get energy and i don't see why everyone is so eager to cut them out of their diets. Unless you are diabetic. But natural carbs are fine.

bybyadipocytes

Try coconut oil and butter. They are really yummy and carb free. You can even put grass fed butter and coconut oil in your coffee. It sounds weird but it is called bullet proof coffee. google it.

tjphelps73

Carbs can really be the devil. I eat 1200-1500 calories a day. I try to keep carbs from 120-155. My math tells me to eat about 30 carbs a meal since I eat 4 times a day, however not always happening.

With that being said, I eat, protein shakes for breakfast (24carbs), Snack is normally almonds, cottage cheese, yogurt, apples or a banana( less than 10 carbs, unless I eat a banana), and dinner is chicken, pork with a green veggie - whether it be a salad, green beans etc.(usually about 25 carbs)
Lunch - now this is normally all over the place - Chicken wraps, tuna wraps, salads, soup, pizza, bbq, tacos, whatever is on the menu, however I know if carbs are high at lunch, dinner will be low. It is how I plan the menu and yes, I put in eating out on the menu to help the planning.

Hope this helps. Carbs are tricky, as they tell you to eat whole grain etc., but if you grew up in the 30 years, most parents have not taught their kids the difference between good carbs and bad carbs. I know mine did not. I am still in the learning, teaching phase myself.
Good Luck

cwolfman13

You have three macro-nutrients, carbs/protein/fat....if you eliminate one or substantially cut back on one (in this case carbs) you have to up your intake of one or both of the others. Fat is the easiest since it is calorie dense.

Why are you trying to stay below 100 carbs? Is this a medical thing or are you just afraid of carbs...'cuz they're really not the devil they've been made out to be by the mainstream fitness and diet industry...they just happen to be to latest and greatest in a long line of dietary demons.

moodyfeesh14

la tortilla factory makes a tortilla with 6g net carbs and I think 10-12g of protein thats what helps me

meridianova

Just eat whole grains. Carbs are where you get energy and i don't see why everyone is so eager to cut them out of their diets. Unless you are diabetic. But natural carbs are fine.

fat is a much more efficient fuel source than carbs are, and eating fat promotes the burning of body fat. your body isn't constantly having to burn off all the blood sugar before it gets a chance to get to the energy stored in body fat.

and most people have developed diabetes because they've been ingesting too many carbs over too long a period (especially considering how much sugar is in most products), which causes them to become insulin resistant, which is a precursor for type 2 diabetes.

He1loKitty

My favorites, in random order, are string cheese, coconut oil, buffalo wings, hard boiled eggs, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, butter, hummus, parmesan crackers (made of parmesan cheese so there are no carbs), almond butter, bacon, avocado, cheeseburgers in lettuce wraps, dill pickles. I could go on and on.