High Protein, Low Carb Diet

My Dr put me on meds and a High Protein, Low Carb diet last week. (Medical reasons)

I'm having a hard time focusing on things that I can eat.  It's only been seven days and already I'm bored and starving!!! (Which is strange, right!?)  Anyway, I've basically been living on eggs and bacon, burgers, some veg (Carbs ) Steak and chicken

Any suggestions? I can have carbs (Low obviously) as long as I have protein with it.  But NEVER alone.

Any ideas on how to liven this up a bit would be very much appreciated. 

I looooooove lowcarb. Its what i'm doing right now for that Biggest Loser challenge I'm on.

i've never taken veg out of my low carb diets, they are just too important and it has never not once stopped me from losing weight. i avoid fruits except for berries and i eat those abundantly.

for instance - having strawberries with a mix of activia vanilla yogurt blended with cream cheese is a Real dessert, and i don't feel guilty for it.

My favorite recipe is a broccoli salad:
raw broccoli tops
cherry tomatoes
cooked & crumbled bacon (streaky/american)
chopped red onions

and all of that mixed with a dressing I don't measure, i just do it to taste:
mayo
1/2 T of balsamic vinegar
a dash of splenda or sugar

i eat that like a broccoli-eating wolf.

Also:
mozzarella cheese sticks
cashews
macadamia nuts with almonds

If you just eat meat, you'll get sick of it and it won't work in the long run. When I'm losing weight I'm mainly kicking out breads, pastas, rice, and sugar... but when i'm eating healthy and "maintaining" my weight i eat all my carbs in the morning for breakfast, but make sure they are something healthy like steel cut oats. So i guess in maintenance it is a bit more "south beachy".

Hi Stacey,

I'm doing something similar now that my medication has been sorted for my thyroid I'm able to diet without banging my head against a brick wall. I've basically been trying to follow the Southbeach diet; it was recommended by the nutritionist  I see.

Good luck, it's not the easiest of things to do.

Here are some of the sites I use for recipes

http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/

http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/

http://www.fatsecret.com/

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/collections/low+gi/

Maureen

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html (very good resource.  Tons of menus and recipes)
http://forum.lowcarber.org/

It really depends upon how low you need to go with your carbs.  Greens, salads, low starch veg are all rather low in carbs and there are a ton of them.  Some lower carb fruits are rhubarb, most berries including cranberries. True nuts and seeds are great in moderation. If you read about a particular low carb diet (Atkins, Protein Power, Paleo, Neanderthin), they will likely give you an idea of what you can work with.  There's a lot of food that people don't realise are low carb (for instance, coconut cream) that can add variety.  Make sure you're getting enough fat.

It really helps to follow a plan for a little while until things become more like second nature.

I've been struggling lately because I'm really off most meat, and I don't eat non-fermented soy for health reasons.  I am a bit limited to what I can eat, but I've found ways of being creative even though I can't stomach things like pork or most chicken (or even some beef) lately.  (EDIT: There are some low carb Quorn products if you can tolerate them).

Good luck.  Unless you've been told to eliminate all carbs, low carb does not equal no carbs.  A good, but weighty read on the subject is Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" ("The Diet Delusion" in the UK).  It won't give you recipes, but it will help you understand why there is such controversy around diet, and why more and more medical treatments are relying upon carb restriction as one aspect of the treatment.

ETA:  I would really suggest either the active low carber or low carb friends forums that have been suggested to you.  If your GP hasn't given you a specific plan, you can always run one of the diets out there by him or her.

The easiest I've found is to avoid most processed stuff when you're low carbing (sugar alcohols are the devil for some people).  After a few days I rarely feel hungry if I am eating enough protein and fat. It's not that you don't get hungry.  You do.  It's a different sort of hunger than what people who have problems with carbs have and it only happens when your body is actually needing food.

You might be having hidden carbs or you might be taking longer to transition into ketosis (it happens with some people).  Those forums are your best bet.

Thank you so much!!!  I will read through everything later. (I need to go to bed )

BUT, in terms of how low carb.  I need to go pretty low.  I have PCOS, and am on Metformin.  Basically the more carbs I have, the worse the symptoms from the meds are.  My Dr said to go as low as possible.     I will not cut them all out, I couldn't do that.  At least my real carb cravings seem to be curbed at the moment. (Which he said would happen)

something that might help is to fiddle around with spices, too. I'd do a green salad with grilled chicken on it, but that is a whole lot better with a jamaican jerk spice on the chicken. it might help keep the "boring basics" a little less boring if you are trying to be really strict about it.

You probably need to stay under 30 g of carbs a day.  This is a very low carb ketogenic diet.  Some people can go higher than that and stay in ketosis, but most people are in ketosis on that level.  Once you are in ketosis for a while, your appetite will be really curbed.

Remember, you can subtract fibre from your carb count because your body can't break fibre down into sugars.  In the UK it's a little harder to figure things out because the sugar listing isn't the same as in the US. I find the easiest thing to do is to use fresh/whole ingredients, and look up the carb counts on the web or in a carb count book.  I may have one around here, and if I can find it, I will send it to you if you'd like.

For instance, a huge, high protein, low carb salad could give you really minimal carbs:

1 HB egg
1 cup shredded lettuce
3 slices streaky bacon or pancetta
1 oz blue cheese or Roquefort
1/2 an avocado
2 oz chicken breast (add more if you're hungry)
2 cherry tomatoes

Total carbs: 13.05 BUT taking out the fibre, which your body can't break down into sugar:
6.86

These counts were taken from the Active Lowcarber myplan tool which you can use if you register with their forums.

Notice I didn't add dressing to that.  That's a personal choice.  If I were making that salad, I'd make dressing with the blue cheese (instead of just adding it) and add the carb count.  On many salads, I'd just add oil and salt and pepper, but I love blue cheese dressing. If the carb count is still too high (it shouldn't be), you can take out the avocados, but you really need the fat if you're not going to be eating carbs.

When I first started low carb, I'd eat a salad every day for lunch.  Even when I was making something like tuna or egg salad, I stick it in a bed of low carb vegetables.

Tuna mixed with sprouts, mayo, garlic, salt, pepper and a low carb crunchy bits (seeds, nuts, and there are others) is one of my favourite low carb snacks.

Stuffed tomatoes (basil, cottage cheese if it's ok on your plan, mayo, nuts mixed with the insides of a tomato then stuffed back inside)

Grilled onions (wrap an onion in foil with some butter stuffed in, throw on BBQ with meat or in oven along side it, salt when done.  It's sweetish and not oniony at all)

Homemade Kebabs

Pizza without eating the base

Burgers wrapped in lettuce

There's muffins you can make with flaxseeds, cream of tartar, and eggs, but I can eat them for the same reason I can't eat unfermented soy.  Hormone positive breast cancer runs in my family, so I have to avoid phytoestrogens.  People who can eat them seem to love them.

Good luck.

1 HB egg
1 cup shredded lettuce
3 slices streaky bacon or pancetta
1 oz blue cheese or Roquefort
1/2 an avocado
2 oz chicken breast (add more if you're hungry)
2 cherry tomatoes

OK, I could eat this everyday!!!  Basically a cobb salad, and I love everything in it!!!  

Marlespo, That dessert sounds great!  And if I can substitute broccolini (Or is it tender stem?) I'm in for that salad!!!

Thank you all for such great links, I've bookmarked them all. 

30 g seems so low to me. (I think I'm freaking out now because of it, LOL!)  I should call my consultant to make sure. 

I had it in my head that it was the protein you subtracted not fiber to get the net carbs.  Thank you for explaining that! 

I think I have carb count book, thank you so much for offering!!!  I'll be in the US for two months starting Thursday, so it might be easier for me in the beginning.

Just wanted to thank you all again!
I tried the yogurt dessert yesterday and it was great!

Just about to eat the salad. 

I have not been hungry and feeling really satisfied.

Thank you again!

Best of luck with it.  I am glad it's going better.  I just got a book out of the library called "Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet--How we lost ten stone" by India Knight and Neris Thomas.  It's a really basic low carb plan and it's pretty funny to read.  It might be worth getting it when you get back from the States.

LOL!  I actually have that book!  Cool!  (Shows you how much I pay attention to all the diet books I buy)  Will bring it with me to NY.  Thank you!

The salad ROCKED!  Wow, I didn't realize how much 1 oz of blue cheese was! 

Should be about 2 tablespoons (which is a lot now that I think about it  ).  I am careful with cheese because it's one of those foods I am a little addicted to.  With other cheese, it's about a slice.  I used an ounce because I always think of it as the standard serving of cheese.

I try to keep it at a slice or two (at most) a day.

I have a WW scale that I'm just using to measure now.  At least that was not a waste!

My sympathies Stacey!

I've recently been diagnosed as a hypoglycemic so I am now on a low carb, sugar free, alcohol free, caffeine free, vegetarian diet. Or at least I am TRYING to be.

Are you tracking your food anywhere? I am using Sparkpeople and it's pretty fun but I keep getting to the end of my day and not having any carbs left. 

Hang in there. You can do it!

Legs~ That book sounds good!

One of my firm favorites is that for tuna salad or tuna salad sandwiches, I use John West canned red (or pink) salmon instead -- flakes up just like tuna but I like it even better than tuna. This may seem strange or off-putting for early morning eating, but I often have this kind of "salmon salad" sandwich on a single open slice of bread for my breakfast, as the protein seems to give me a better start to my day physically than eating cereal, which can make me feel sluggish and tired.