Low carb question

TwinsRaGift · February 2014

OK...so before I get the old low carb is bad for you speech...I will throw out that my Dr recommended I do a low carb, lean protein, high fiber diet due to some health issues I am having. Anyway I have been counting net carbs and this seems to be working pretty well as I am not starving all day like I was on my low cal diet. My question is can I just add some powered fiber supplement into things like a smoothie to even out the carbs? For example if I made a smoothie that has 10 grams of carbs and put in 2 grams of some sort of powdered fiber can I count that as 8 grams of net carbs?

michellewelch2010 · February 2014

What are you making your smoothies from?

michellewelch2010 · February 2014

An apple has around 20 grams of carbs, a cup of berries has around 20 grams of carbs... Is your doctor telling you to cut back on ALL carbs including natural fruit? Because you should be "allowed" to have a couple low sugar fruit a day? No? In which case I would just eat your smoothie as long as it's made with plain yogurt and not worry about it.

lizpitts · February 2014

It's my understanding that you can only deduct the fiber grams that are in the food. For example if you eat a veggie that has 10 grams of carbs with 2 of those grams being fiber, you would deduct the 2 grams of fiber because your body doesn't use them as fuel. Adding fiber to a food won't negate the carbs that are in the food. BUT fiber will slow down the digestive process so the carbs are digested slower and don't raise your blood sugar as much. I'm diabetic and do low carb too and use psyllium powder to get more fiber.

MelRC117 · February 2014

It took me a little to get your example but it won't even out the carbs, it will just not add any net carbs to your smoothie since the smoothie will technically have carbs added due to the fiber. You also have to see how much sugar is in the fiber supplement.

So let's say your smoothie is 25g of carbs, but 10g of net carbs. If you add metamucil sugar free orange it has 5g of carbs, but 2g of net carbs. Even if every gram of carb is accounted for with sugar alcohols and fiber, it just essentially is 0g since that fiber is already deducted from the carbs in the fiber supplement, KWIM?

obmckenzie · February 2014

So the math is like this TOTAL CARBS - FIBER = NET CARBS. The net carbs are what counts... Sometimes it might be TOTAL CARBS - FIBER - SUGAR ALCOHOLS = Net carbs, but that really dpeneds on each person. Some people are affected by sugar alcohols.

I don't think the fiber powder may count as the fiber in math, since I've never used it, I've never asked the question. If you don't get an answer here you might want to try reddit.com/r/keto. They tend to know the answer to this sort of thing.

Tigredia · February 2014

I am also on a doctor recommend low carb. I eat only 25% of my calories in carbs. You can deduct the fiber to get net carbs, but only fiber not ( sugar alcohol) not sure if right word. I bought a bottle of ketone strips. I don't have to be really dark, only in the darker colors. Hope this helps.