Question I am nearly at the end of the two week trial of LCHF which I must say it has been one of the best tasting and easy plan I have ever followed.
Do I now try and go it alone and work out how much carbs I meant to be following for myself or do I sign up to the diet doctor site and follow that .
I have lost around 4/5 pounds so far and want to lose more but my only worry is that my weight loss will stop if I don't have a plan in mind . I have read up on how if you stay to low it can have a adverse effect. I also dont want to start to pay for something that I might not use and end up wasting my money.
All tho I do love the recipes I have a cupboard full of books that I no longer use
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I'm quite wedded to my phone, so I like using an app called myfitnesspal which keeps an eye on my carbs for the day and does neat piecharts of my macros for me.
But I appreciate apps aren't everyone's cup of tea.
Perhaps it makes a difference whether you're going for very low carb / keto rather than just low carb? I haven't used a book, and I am enjoying just totting up the carbs and eating without a plan. I am taking it very slowly, though (have lost 12lb in 9 weeks), but am happy with my progress.
How low did you go with carbs , and how did you build it up , want to get a better understanding before I go down the wrong road , been doing it 11 days now and lost 4lb but that was in the first few days but nothing over the last few
I didn't do the two week induction, just cut down to around 20g a day. After a couple of weeks, I settled on between 30g and 40g a day. I don't count calories.
I had a disorganised week-end just gone, and didn't plan properly, nor did I sleep or eat well, so I did gain a pound this week, but it's the only time. Otherwise, I've managed to stick to it because 30g a day is very doable. However, I think the biggest difference, and what I suspect accounts for a large proportion of the loss, is that I am eating very well at meals and not snacking.
For example, to-day I've had egg salad for a late-ish lunch (2 boiled eggs, full fat mayonnaise, plenty of lettuce, a handful of baby plum tomatoes). I was nicely full. (If I don't feel like breakfast, I don't bother. If I do, I have egg and bacon, or a sausage, plus fried mushrooms and/or tomatoes. After all that, I'm usually fine till dinner time.)
This evening for dinner I had a thick lamb rump steak with most of the fat on, mashed cauliflower, a heaped tablespoonful of stringless flat beans, the same amount of sliced carrot, plus a little lamb gravy made with meat juices and flour. The veg was lightly salted and lightly buttered, plus I've had two coffees with milk in.
That's plenty of calories and no hunger. Carb-wise, of course all veg contains some carbs, especially the carrots, plus there was some in the lunchtime mayonnaise and the gravy. But overall, the carbs are outweighed by the ease and convenience, which makes it practical and sustainable.
The night is young in terms of snacking potential, but because of my week-end blip, I can be strong. To be honest, rather stuffed after all that dinner, so there's no desire to snack.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope that gives a little insight into my way of doing it. I am sure it's not as low-carb as many can do, but it suits me, and seems to be yielding slow but steady results.
Very best of luck to you, however you decide to do it.
The first month's membership after the free two week induction of Dietdoctor is free. I took that free month, then paid for a month because I had gained so very much from their site. Then when I came to cancel, it turned out that if I filled in a few feed back tick boxes they offered me a further free month, which I am currently in the middle of.
No way ,what's the catch ,there is always a catch , I want to continue to follow the LCHF but don't want to end up spending loads of money and been caught out . How do i sign up for the free month after the two week plan please
The day after the two week induction trial, which I confess we didn't feel ready to follow, I received an email from Dietdoctor entitled, 'What's next after the Keto challenge?' About ⅔ of the way through that email there was an option to 'click' on Join free for a month, which I did. I really don't think there is a catch!
Of course Diet Doctor would like more paying members as the membership fees pay the employees, but there is enough information free to learn exactly how to follow LCHF without paying. With membership you have access to yet more. Full films, presentations, interviews, courses etc. I have read the Diet doctor about us page and they seem a really good organisation with a mission to improve the health of many. They take no money from pharmaceutical companies, or food companies and they don't use advertising to raise revenue.
If you just want to follow LCHF, then get recipes from the internet, and get a list of foods with hidden carbs - pasta, rice, bread, etc., are all obvious - but I was shocked to find I had to ditch carrots, for example.
I wanted to go keto but couldn't be bothered with counting macros and following weird American food plans that include foods we can't get here. I lost the weight off my belly in a couple of weeks, anyway, so couldn't see the point - not with feeling so rough being off my meds for testing. I'm quite happy being LCHF, right now. It regulated my blood sugar levels and stopped me having migraines, so that's the main thing.
I just eat stuff I normally like but without the carbs - courgetti instead of spaghetti, or layers of aubergine in a lasagne instead of pasta, that kind of thing. I made burgers with Portobello mushrooms as the bun, for example.
I start the day with a tweaked smoothie. I've had to drop the banana and some of the berries, so it's smaller than I used to make, but I also add lots of coconut cream, coconut oil, and full fat coconut yogurt, so it's a very high fat meal. Then I splurge most of my protein allowance on poached eggs and bacon, with sautéed mushrooms - with loads of butter.
I have choccy fat bombs throughout the day (I make them myself, so no sugar or nasty stuff), a massive salad drenched in olive oil dressing (I put nuts in it to add to the fat intake). I snack on small cubes of pate, as I've found my ferritin is low, and dinner last night was aubergine lasagne, made with lots of butter and 15% fat beef mince.
I find the result very keto-like, as in I'm rarely hungry. When my tummy growls I realise I haven't eaten in a while - before this I was constantly carb-hungry.
I would like to try proper keto at some point, but I'm very happy with the LCHF diet and the way I'm doing it is very easy. It's mainly knowing the hidden carbs to dodge and replace with other things, and getting your fat intake up - which was the hardest for me, as you need so much.
But I just scouted the net for info, most of which I knew from being on the Specific Carb Diet for bowel disease, and picked up some ideas. Dropping fruit was the hardest thing for me.
It's a keto thing. Because it's a lot harder than you think getting enough fat - healthy fats, anyway - people make fat bombs. Little snack that are really high in fat. Obviously, since people love the stuff, chocolate is very popular as a fat bomb.
The downside is, you have to make the choccies yourself for them to be healthy and keto-friendly. It took me ages to perfect the choccies but OMG they are now delish. I love chocolate orange, so that's what I make. I can knock them up in about 10 mins, now.
I’d like to see that recipe! My treat occasionally is Montezuma 100% cocoa chocolate bar flavoured with orange oil - but it’s a bit expensive to cook with
This isn't cheap, as I use top notch ingredients - but then, it's always cheaper to do things yourself, and once you have the essences and moulds, it's pretty much replenishing the cacao butter.
Here you go:
Chocolate orange recipe
30g cacao butter
7g (or 3 buttons) dark cacao solids
Melt together in a Bain Marie
When liquid, add a tiny pinch of salt and stir. Remove from heat.
Stir in 4 drops of stevia, 15 drops of orange essence, and 20 drops of vanilla essence.
Stir well and keep stirring as you add the chocolate mixture to the moulds (as the stevia and essence can separate from the chocolate and you get choccies that are too sweet, then some with hardly any sweetness at all.
Stick them in the freezer for about 10 mins and that's it. Keep in the fridge if possible, as they can melt.
You can experiment with flavourings from this basic recipe.
*Am I allowed to put links up to where I buy the ingredients, or is that classed as advertising?
Thanks very much for that. I’ve mentioned previously where I’ve managed to buy things and no one seemed to object (presumably other supermarkets are available 😃) Are dark cacao solids the same as cocoa nibs?
Similar - but the ones I buy are like large buttons.
Here's where I get my stuff (sorry! It's mainly Amazon and I hate myself for it - but I'm too tired and fuzzy brained to search out the stuff elsewhere):
I sent this to a friend who loves my choccies, but since then my new stevia arrived and I think it isn't as sweet as my normal one. You may need to add one more drop.
I've also added the white version of the Pink Sun buttons to my shopping list instead of the small pot of cacao butter - I'm getting through the stuff on a massive scale! I have to make them daily or I scoff the lot in one sitting, and I've been making them for friends, too.
Dietdoctor is only $9 a month so roughly £7. Also we dont need any carbs to live a healthy life. People who are carnivore are on zero carbs with no ill effects. Depends on how low carb you want to go.
When I signed up for free membership you have to fill in your card details for $9 to be taken if you dont cancel. The above link by moreless shows that amount.
A related free option is to join the Weight loss NHS forum and check out the Daily Diary which will have menus from many keto followers.
My weight went down and down quite quickly until I reached a lean body mass, and now, without changing anything in my (lc/keto) diet whatsoever, I have stabilised at that weight. I'm 5'9" 70 year old male. I was 14.1/2st (38" waste), now down to 11st 11b (32" waste) and stuck at that. My weight stays very steady, within a lb or two at most, which is something new. I suppose my fat and water content used to vary at lot, pass?
So it seems to me that I have lost weight until I reach my natural weight (as I was 40 years ago) and just stayed there without any change; same Keto diet, same quantities and eating well.
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All in the mind ?
I’m a idiot!!!!
Keto questions
The time has come (the walrus said)