Lower carb

petegamer10
petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
After a bad diebetes review (I’m type 2 hereditary), I could really do with some MFP friends that have a lower carb lifestyle. I’m not going keto, just a lot more healthy with no carb food swaps. I’m needing them tips, tricks, ideas and recipes. Add me please!

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,889 Member
    I don't know what you mean by "no carb food swaps"...

    Foods like baked goods and real ice cream tend to also have a lot of fat and a lot of calories. I'm eating way less of that, and way more fruit, especially berries.

    Foods made from flour don't fill me up especially well, so I don't eat a lot of them. For example, instead of bread (and butter) with a meal, I will have a 7 gram breadstick, or pass altogether. I do eat pasta, but have gradually reduced my portion size to about 100 g these days. I eat a lot of veggies and protein with starches.
  • bametels
    bametels Posts: 950 Member
    Here's a link to a low carb group on MFP. There are quite a few people in this group who are addressing their diabetes by adopting a low carb diet. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum. Here's another group https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/112055-the-low-carb-high-fat-recipes-group-lchf While the recipe group has not been active in some time, you can still access many of the recipes. There are, however, some dead links.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    My main tip is I put cacao powder in everything. :)

    So what carbs are most tempting to you? Without knowing that it’s difficult to make suggestions.

    Apart from food, timing your carb intake around your exercise so that your exercise uses your blood sugar makes a huge difference. After a long run I can eat 90g of carbs without a spike, normally my limit is about 45g.
  • petegamer10
    petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I don't know what you mean by "no carb food swaps"...

    Foods like baked goods and real ice cream tend to also have a lot of fat and a lot of calories. I'm eating way less of that, and way more fruit, especially berries.

    Foods made from flour don't fill me up especially well, so I don't eat a lot of them. For example, instead of bread (and butter) with a meal, I will have a 7 gram breadstick, or pass altogether. I do eat pasta, but have gradually reduced my portion size to about 100 g these days. I eat a lot of veggies and protein with starches.

    I mean alternatives to high carbs in a meal - such as veggie dishes or just swaps where the carbs are lower or the protein is higher. Just seeking recipe ideas really
  • petegamer10
    petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
    bametels wrote: »
    Here's a link to a low carb group on MFP. There are quite a few people in this group who are addressing their diabetes by adopting a low carb diet. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/394-low-carber-daily-forum. Here's another group https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/112055-the-low-carb-high-fat-recipes-group-lchf While the recipe group has not been active in some time, you can still access many of the recipes. There are, however, some dead links.

    Thank you. I’ll have a look at both :-)
  • petegamer10
    petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    My main tip is I put cacao powder in everything. :)

    So what carbs are most tempting to you? Without knowing that it’s difficult to make suggestions.

    Apart from food, timing your carb intake around your exercise so that your exercise uses your blood sugar makes a huge difference. After a long run I can eat 90g of carbs without a spike, normally my limit is about 45g.

    I’ve just grown up with pasta, rice or potatoes in everything so I’ve already swapped to smaller portions and brown versions of all and I’m avoiding the higher carb fruits - I’m basically just after non spiky swaps but I do like the idea of carbs after exercise - thanks for that tip
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    petegamer10 wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    My main tip is I put cacao powder in everything. :)

    So what carbs are most tempting to you? Without knowing that it’s difficult to make suggestions.

    Apart from food, timing your carb intake around your exercise so that your exercise uses your blood sugar makes a huge difference. After a long run I can eat 90g of carbs without a spike, normally my limit is about 45g.

    I’ve just grown up with pasta, rice or potatoes in everything so I’ve already swapped to smaller portions and brown versions of all and I’m avoiding the higher carb fruits - I’m basically just after non spiky swaps but I do like the idea of carbs after exercise - thanks for that tip

    Try a smaller portion of pasta and bulking it out with zoodles (zucchini noodles). I find zoodles by themselves to be unsatisfying but added to a small portion of regular noodles it tastes good and works better.

    Whole grain pasta in my experience, doesn’t really help my blood glucose at all, testing after eating, compared to regular pasta, plus it doesn’t taste good and has a bad texture in my opinion. Not worth it. But soba noodles (Japanese buckwheat) are an exception, they make a decent swap for spaghetti.

    Weirdly enough I can have huge amounts of potato without a spike, but everyone is different. If you aren’t already, try testing after meals and see what works for you.

    Rice on the other hand spikes me like crazy, and brown rice is not better. I tried cauliflower rice but didn’t find it similar enough to be satisfying, so I ended up just skipping rice in most cases.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    I haven't swapped completely, but I've made changes.

    If I do a stirfry, I mostly don't bother with rice or noodles. I put so much veg into the wok with my chicken/ beef / prawns/ whatever, that I don't need anything more.

    I reduced my pasta portions to the amount it suggests on the packet (75g, I think) instead of a mugful plus a handful because that didn't look enough! Often I have less, depending on what other carbs I've eaten that day, and bulk it out with courgetti. I've also started replacing all my pasta with wholewheat versions as I finish each package (I have multiple different types of pasta), largely because of the miniscule difference in fibre. I don't notice any difference with the taste, but I guess that depends on what you're having it with.

    I have bought brown rice but as I still have a lot of white rice left, I tend to cook 200g of each, mix them together and bag up in ~100g portions to freeze. It's not a lot of rice, but is enough to soak up curry sauce or whatever I'm having it with. If I fancy it, I bulk the rice out with grated cauliflower, which I roast with a spritz of oil, but I rarely bother with this.

    I still eat potatoes, but put less on my plate. Visually and psychologically, I find that potato wedges make one medium-sized potato seem a lot more than would be the case if I mashed it.

    However, I do now use sauted cabbage as the base for a lot of my meals. 200g of thinly sliced white cabbage, sauted in 7.5ml of oil and 10g of butter, with black pepper for seasoning, is tasty, filling, low in carbs and high in fibre. It's good with bolognese, chilli, baked chicken, curry, fish, meats etc.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I am lower carb and recommend the low carber daily forum group linked above (although I can't seem to log lately and have not been participating). If you want a thread with ideas for carb subs or how to lower carbs some, I'd be in. Tonight I'm having salmon, broccoli, and beets instead of a starch, for example -- I really like root veg/winter squash instead of starches and also do a lot with having only one starch per meal (bread or potatoes) and limiting portion size. I often have fruit as a replacement for starches, also.

    If dealing with pre diabetes, you will also just want to make sure you limit carbs per meal and eat them with protein and fiber (I assume your doctor gave you some info).
  • Megan_smartiepants1970
    Megan_smartiepants1970 Posts: 38,924 Member
    edited July 2021
    I am low carb and my diary is open ...You are welcome to add me :) I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2019 ..fast forward I am now considered pre-diabetic
  • petegamer10
    petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
    Strudders67 wrote: »
    I haven't swapped completely, but I've made changes.

    If I do a stirfry, I mostly don't bother with rice or noodles. I put so much veg into the wok with my chicken/ beef / prawns/ whatever, that I don't need anything more.

    I reduced my pasta portions to the amount it suggests on the packet (75g, I think) instead of a mugful plus a handful because that didn't look enough! Often I have less, depending on what other carbs I've eaten that day, and bulk it out with courgetti. I've also started replacing all my pasta with wholewheat versions as I finish each package (I have multiple different types of pasta), largely because of the miniscule difference in fibre. I don't notice any difference with the taste, but I guess that depends on what you're having it with.

    I have bought brown rice but as I still have a lot of white rice left, I tend to cook 200g of each, mix them together and bag up in ~100g portions to freeze. It's not a lot of rice, but is enough to soak up curry sauce or whatever I'm having it with. If I fancy it, I bulk the rice out with grated cauliflower, which I roast with a spritz of oil, but I rarely bother with this.

    I still eat potatoes, but put less on my plate. Visually and psychologically, I find that potato wedges make one medium-sized potato seem a lot more than would be the case if I mashed it.

    However, I do now use sauted cabbage as the base for a lot of my meals. 200g of thinly sliced white cabbage, sauted in 7.5ml of oil and 10g of butter, with black pepper for seasoning, is tasty, filling, low in carbs and high in fibre. It's good with bolognese, chilli, baked chicken, curry, fish, meats etc.

    Loving all of them ideas and swaps. Thank you.
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    I am lower carb and recommend the low carber daily forum group linked above (although I can't seem to log lately and have not been participating). If you want a thread with ideas for carb subs or how to lower carbs some, I'd be in. Tonight I'm having salmon, broccoli, and beets instead of a starch, for example -- I really like root veg/winter squash instead of starches and also do a lot with having only one starch per meal (bread or potatoes) and limiting portion size. I often have fruit as a replacement for starches, also.

    If dealing with pre diabetes, you will also just want to make sure you limit carbs per meal and eat them with protein and fiber (I assume your doctor gave you some info).

    I am not pre diabetes but type 2 and they are still tweaking my meds as my readings are still a bit high.

  • petegamer10
    petegamer10 Posts: 14 Member
    Megan_smartiepants1970 wrote: »
    I am low carb and my diary is open ...You are welcome to add me :) I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2019 ..fast forward I am now considered pre-diabetic

    Excellent and well done. I’ll add you now x
  • russellholtslander1
    russellholtslander1 Posts: 285 Member
    I am very low carb, and control my diabetes with it. I think if you go low enough, most people don't need meds to maintain normal blood sugars. That varies by person.. some people can eat quite a few carbs and still get good BG numbers.. others have to go very low, like me, or I have a 500 BG.

    I would suggest tracking what you normally eat, seeing how many grams of carbs you have, and what that does to your BG numbers... then HALVE the number of carbs.. cut the starches.. grains, pasta, bread, starchy veggies, like corn, carrots, potatoes.. replace them with fats.. butter, mayo, olive oil.

    Eat moderate amounts of meat, and get the carbs you DO eat from mostly veggies, berries, eggs, nuts, seeds, cheeses, maybe some beans, and fill in the remaining calories with the fat.

    See the results after 2 weeks, and then you decide what you want to do going forward. I took the plunge all at once, but half the carbs, should show much lower BG numbers.. then you can figure out that, lower carb, higher fat will lower them even MORE.

    At that point, you just have to decide what level you are willing to drop to.

    As far as meals.. I think stir fires are awesome.. chicken, fish, shrimp, beef with olive oil, and veggies taste awesome. Or you can do some chili.. Ground beef, mushrooms, onion, tomato, and maybe some beans. For breakfast, try omelets.. add some veggies, and maybe some ham or sausage links. You can have some fruit, if you are eating quite a few carbs still. For lunch, maybe a Julienne or Cobb salad.. watch dressing.. I use olive oil & vinegar dressing. You might want snacks to just fill the middle of the day.. 2 ozs. of cheese, a serving of nuts etc. At half the carbs, you can still have a LOT of carbs.. just choose better carbs.

    If you DO decide that LC is a long term solution, then I would suggest embracing it, and do NOT look for alternatives to carby meals.. faux mashed potatoes, zucchini noodles etc.. which simply remind you of what you can't have.. and learn to love new foods.. but those are decisions for later.

    For now, just eliminate the carbs which spike BG the most, and enjoy the rest, and see what happens. Good Luck! Enjoy the food.
  • motherofcats2020
    motherofcats2020 Posts: 8 Member
    I'm starting a lower carb lifestyle as my cardiologist recommends. If you want to be MFP buddies, just let me know. There are a lot of low carb bread options online, check out Amazon or places like Sprouts. Just leaving it out all together is ideal but it's hard so just ween yourself off. You can sub hotdog buns for a low carb tortilla (it's a hot dog wrap). I use lettuce leaves instead of a hamburger bun or just eat my hamburger with a knife and fork. For pizza, I just scrape off the toppings and have a pizza bowl.

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