Carbs?

I very rarely have carbs with dinner. I have a rule about carbs in general (well the basic bread, rice, pasta, potato etc)... If I have bread for breakfast, that's it - none for lunch or dinner. If I have rice for lunch, none breakfast or dinner. Keeps me from having the same thing too often, then getting bored with food, then eating bad food and making bad choices). I only eat potato for dinner if I'm having a roast, or if I have heaps of extra calories left over and feel like some mash with my lamb! I don't worry about the incidental carbs in dairy/fruit/veg either.

veg/fruit carbs are not incidental, you can end up consuming more carbs in a serving of fruit then you do in a slice of bread. that being said, I do choose low carb for dinner, usually turkey breast or fish. scrambled egg whites and half a cup of asparagus.

I tried to cut them out of my dinner....... and was successful for awhile and lost a good amount of weight. But it kind of backfired on me because even though I was eating protein at dinner..... I was still left feeling unsatisfied later in the evening and would want a snack. Now I will allow myself a carb with dinner IF I feel hungry for it..... but I try to have it be on the healthier side..... whole wheat pasta, quinoa, etc.

i try not to exceed 120carbs per day...its not that easy, but imo...has helped with my weight loss and plateau breaking.

I'm a low carber, but a solution to cutting out your veggies at dinner, would be to have them in the morning. I love waking up every morning to my omelet made with broccoli, celery, zucchini and mushrooms. There's lots of creative ways to get your veggies into your diet without blowing up your carb intake.

I think what most people mean when they say they are cutting carbs is they are cutting the processed white carbs like bread, pasta, white potatoes etc.

I was brought up with the potatoes, met and veg type of meal and felt I was been deprived if i didn't have what looked like all the elements on my plate, so came up with a few tricks. I found a nice carrot and swede mash to replace mashed potato or I'd cut turnips in roast potato shape for sunday dinner.

I'd also sometimes cut parsnips into chips and have them with unbattered fish and green beans instead of battered fish, chips and mushy peas. Sometimes I like sweet potato chips with that meal instead.

I still love my curries and chilli con carne so instead of rice I'd get a cauliflower, whizz it in processor to rice/cous cous size then steam it in the microwave then it would go under my healthy curry. which consists of loads of veggies peepers, mushrooms, onion, then either prawns, turkey, or chicken. I chose a lower calories tomato based curry sauce with a bit of heat, (rogan josh, balti etc) use half the jar and top it up with water and leave to simmer, no cream.

I prob have more carbs in my meal that way than I would have had with a small portion of rice, pasta or bread but they are all healthy complex carbs that my body has to process to make into energy and which uses energy doing it!

I incidentally found I may have an actual wheat intolerance so I cut out bread and pasta completely. I did miss my toast so found a gluten free sliced loaf to have a couple of slices of toast a week. It's expensive think was nearly £2.50 for the loaf! so I freeze it and have couple of slices a week as i like scrambled eggs on toast at the weekend. Then it lasts about 6 weeks so doesn't work out as bad price wise if only buying a loaf every 6 weeks instead of every week!

I also get packet of gluten free pitta breads and use them for healthy kebabs or pizza bases for small taste of pizza for lunch!

I allow corn tortilla's and use them in place of chapatti's, naan bread, and wraps with salad or chilli in.

I've lost 32lb, 13" off tummy and 7 " off waist. My water retention has also improved massively both monthly amounts and daily fluctuations. Today I'm only up 1 lb from yesterday as I haven't been to bathroom yet, it usually goes up by 1 lb a day until I go, previously went up 3-5lbs per day. Monthlies I put on around 4lb extra, previously was 6-10lb extra!

I allow a treat meal once a week most weeks, twice the week before my TOTM starts cos of the cravings I don't usually lose anything that week but when they end and water comes back off I usually lose another 2-3lbs ontop of that.

This seems to work for me combined with exercise.