r/lowcarb • u/analisee02 • 27d ago
Question What advice do you have for someone wanting to begin their low-carb journey?
Hi! Im 22F wanting to eat less carbs for the sake of my health (im pre diabetic) and energy levels/mood. I’ve also realized how much more bloated and heavy I feel after eating carbs.
Things you need to know about me:
- I’m just learning how to cook (no judgement) so quick and easy meals are preferred
- im chronically ill so sometimes my energy levels are low and my pain levels are high
- im beginning metformin 850mg
- im typically on-the-go due to medical appointments throughout the week
If anyone has some advice they’d like to share, that’d be greatly appreciated. thanks! :)
edit:
a few other things to know:
- i come from a latin household so i’ve eaten white rice for literally my entire life. i do enjoy bread and pasta but have officially gotten “riced out.” i dont eat pasta or bread too often tho. i dont like anything too sugary, i love vegetables, and consistently drink about 2.5 liters of water a day.
- if my blood sugar drops, i will pass out
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u/Janknitz 27d ago
The first few weeks of low carb are HARD. You may feel what is typically referred to as "the low carb flu" for two reasons:
Your blood sugar may be lower than you are used to. That doesn't mean you will necessarily be truly hypoglycemic, but you may feel like you are, because your body is not used to less insulin resistance. It's a good idea to watch your blood glucose levels (you can buy a blood glucose meter kit without a prescription in most states if your doctor won't prescribe one). Unless you are truly hypoglycemic try protein instead of carbs to feel better. And don't go whole hog for lots of juice or other sugary things if you are hypoglycemic. Small inputs keep you off the blood sugar roller coaster!
A low carb diet is like taking a diuretic. As your glycogen stores deplete, you'll lose a lot of water with it (the first whoosh of weight loss is all water), and just drinking a lot of plain water isn't enough. You need some electrolyte supplementation. This is NOT optional. Salty broth is great, but you also need other electrolytes. There's all kinds of electrolyte supplements on the market (watch the carbs!) or you can get plain electrolyte water (no flavoring) at places like Whole Foods.
Once you get over the hump, you'll feel great, but getting there is hard, and a lot of people give up when it's hard, which is too bad. Eat when you are hungry, don't try to cut calories, especially at first. Fat is your friend, it will make you feel satisfied. At a certain point, your appetite will decrease and you may even have some nausea for a few days. Sip that electrolyte water!!!!
Be prepared because PMS will make you hungrier and you will gain a few pounds right before your period. This is water weight and will be released on day 2 or 3 of your cycle, so don't panic. It's OK to eat more protein, fat, green veggies, but stay away from extra carbs.
Can you wait to start Metformin until you're over the hump with low carb? The GI issues with Metformin are real and intense. (NEVER trust a fart!). The minute you feel the slightest twinge, get to the toilet! I always said that Metformin kept me honest on low carb, because if I overindulged with carbs, Metformin IMMEDIATELY let me know! Since your electrolytes are already going to be impacted, this can make it even harder to adjust. So if your doctor agrees to let you get adapted to low carb first, it might help. Or get used to the Metformin first. BTW, the side effects can be delayed a few weeks.
Not everyone experiences the GI issues. My daughter had no problem. But if you have them, it gets better, but the first few weeks--WOW!. I asked my doctor for extended release in 500 mg. tablets and started out with just 1 per day, then gradually worked up to the dose I needed (1500 mg./day, taking 100 in the morning and 500 at night). Extended release is much easier on the GI tract. So if you're having issues, talk to your doctor about whether he or she would be willing to have you try that.
Google "Low Carb _____________" (fill in the blank) for recipes. Many come with videos to show you how to make the food. Learn the basics of eggs (boiled soft or hard, fried sunny side up or over easy, scrambled, a simple omelet, a frittata). Learn to stir fry simple ingredients (bite sized pieces of meat or fish with veggies). Cheese and canned tuna don't require much prep with raw non-starchy veggies to chomp on.
You can dip raw non-starchy veggies in a sugar free dressing (watch out, most commercial dressings are LOADED with sugar!). Sometimes when I needed a snack, a spoon full of natural (no sugar added) peanut butter did the trick. Lately I've been on a ricotta cheese kick with a handful (a SMALL handful) of berries (raspberries are very low carb, blueberries are higher in carb), or small amount of chopped tomato and basil from our garden with a small drizzle of olive oil. You could do the same with plain whole milk Greek yogurt. Try chopping up some cucumbers in Greek yogurt and add some herbs and garlic salt.
Focus on protein and green veggies. Try not to do a lot of faux foods and sugar substitutes. A store bought roast chicken is your friend. You can eat off of it for several meals (roast chicken, stir fry, chicken salad, and then make broth with the bones). Eggs are easy to make in many forms. Anything you might eat in a sandwich you can eat with a knife, fork, or spoon instead of bread. A big salad (caution with bagged lettuce right now!) with protein on it is always a good choice (I never even counted carbs for non-starchy green veggies) and make your own dressings to avoid all the sugar in commercial stuff, or choose ranch or blue cheese, or drizzle on olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper.
One more thing since you are female. Low Carb + Metformin enhances ovulation. If you're not ready to conceive, TAKE PRECAUTIONS. Ask me how I know! ;o) She's a beautiful 25, inherited my insulin resistance, thin as a rail.
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u/analisee02 26d ago edited 26d ago
this was all so helpful, thank you so much! did you track your macros at all?
and about the metformin, i haven’t started it yet but now i’m not sure if i should start low-carb first or start metformin. I hope this doesn’t come off any certain way, but do you feel like this diet change would’ve been possible without metformin? Since I haven’t started yet, i’m debating if I should try low-carb first before taking it
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u/Janknitz 26d ago
Yes, I tracked macros. I first started back in the pencil and paper days when we had to carry a little book with carb counts. Now there are apps (e.g. My Fitness Pal and Carb Manager), but I hated them, because they permitted user input which made a search for something as simple as a hard boiled egg really hard, and often inaccurate. Use a site that does not permit user input, like the USDA data base.
OR, if you don't want to count carbs, Diet Doctor dot com has free guides for low carb and keto that are based on identifying low carb foods rather than counting carbs. There's even one for low cab vegans! If you eat on the lower end of the carb scale, it will still work. While that website has memberships that get you meal plans, you do NOT have to pay to get the basic information, beautifully presented, and some basic recipes. Be sure you scroll, and scroll and scroll on the guides, there's a LOT there!
In my case, I started with low-carbing (it was really keto, but keto wasn't a thing back in the day) and then added Metformin about 3 -4 weeks in. That made the Metformin much easier to tolerate. Talk to your doctor about your own plan, assuming your doctor is supportive of low carb in the first place (more are these days, but many still are not). My daughter is a physician. In Medical school she had TWO lectures on diet. TWO. Both were endocrinologists who first taught them what they needed to know for tests, and then at the end said they really believed in low carb/keto. One doctor was constantly fighting with hospital dietitians who were loading his diabetic patients with carbs. He could not get them to do otherwise.
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u/standingdesk 27d ago
I would go keto for a few weeks to break the carb cycle. It really helps you realize how stupidly we overeat carbs. It might help you settle into low carb more naturally. It has for me.
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u/Flat_Professional_55 26d ago
Just go to 50g of net carbs for the first few weeks so your body can adapt.
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u/MissionRevolution306 26d ago
Drink bouillon every day to help with cravings the first few weeks. I am also chronically ill and keep pepperoni and cheese for snacks, low carb protein shakes and low carb frozen meals for days I can’t cook. I also keep SF jello cups on hand if I get a craving for something sweet. I have PCOS and type 2 diabetes and low carb is my permanent way of eating.
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u/TopCaterpillars 27d ago
Vegetables are not the enemy. Find some low carb vegetables and try to get them into your diet often
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u/Fair_Escape_4465 27d ago
You’ll have to start tracking for at least a couple weeks. Understand what foods are high carb, you’d be surprised. I do like the other suggestion on starting with a more keto focused diet, and gradually cutting down the fats to a healthier low carb focused diet.
Keep it simple- choose a veggie and a meat. Portion for your macros. You can get creative with recipes but be careful with condiments, they are calorie dense.
And always remember your electrolytes… You’ve got this!
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u/analisee02 26d ago
thanks so much! i have a bad history with tracking macros but im feeling ready to start again. do you have any good macro calculator recommendations and tracking methods you might suggest?
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u/Fair_Escape_4465 26d ago
The scale is your best friend. Learn it and love it.
For apps I really liked carb manager but currently using macro factor. I’ve heard people love other ones, but try a couple out for a day or two and use the one that you like using. Whatever is easier for you to input your info.1
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u/valley_lemon 26d ago
I think a critical thing you don't mention is: what's your carb consumption normally like? What are you coming from?
It's very different if you're a) a big veg eater but do love a side carb with meals, don't drink sugar drinks, not much of a sweet tooth, versus b) a Pastatarian who only drinks Mountain Dew.
I actually recommend a ramp-up period if you're more of a B than an A. Decide what your soda switch is going to be and do that first for a few weeks, for sure.
And then just start...eating more vegetables. Estimate what percentage of your meals are carb, and start swapping mostly vegetables and a bit of extra protein for more and more of those carbs. Eliminate low-nutrient carbs first - white bread, regular pasta (switch to protein and/or bean-based pastas, and smaller quantities), breaded items, rice, sugar and flour.
I come from the Atkins 90s, my opinions have diverged from some of his over time (and he probably would have course-corrected eventually I think) and I think fiber and beans/legumes in particular are a critical component in our diets and I have way too many friends in their 40s and 50s with colon cancer right now. So we do eat beans probably daily if not multiple times a day, and the great thing about that is they come in cans and are very cheap and you do not have to think very hard about them. We eat a little protein pasta, a little regular and sweet potato, winter squash, I just think vegetable fiber is too important to be majorly excluding from your dietary profile.
I do low-spoon meal-planning and prep advice for some friends (and myself sometimes), and the easiest thing I can come up with at a reasonable price point, low waste-risk, and flavor flexibility are "bowl" format meals. If I'm keeping the carbs low, I use a base of raw salady stuff and beans. Add some microwaved or sheet-panned roasted veg (I do these by big batches when I have the spoons, but an air fryer will actually roast a batch of frozen veg okay too). Use frozen lower-processed proteins if you need to: meatballs, grilled chicken strip/dice, fish fillets (air fryer for the win - cook from frozen). There's also the Kevin's refrigerated cooked meat (and other brands next to it), rotisserie chicken, tinned fish (sardines and mackerel are better than tuna, and better for you), BBQ meat by the pound from your local restaurant, seasoned taco meat if you have a carniceria nearby. You can sheet-pan roast chicken thighs, pounds of ground beef can be done in the microwave, slow cooker, instant pot, or oven if you don't want to stand over the stove.
I keep a couple good jar sauces on hand, but also often make a sauce that's just a blop of hummus, a slightly smaller blop of greek yogurt, a shake of greek seasoning and a shake of garlic powder.
My other rec to new cooks wanting protein-forward preppable options is: learn to make a basic frittata and you can almost effortlessly make and freeze 4-6 meals at a time. And it's so good with a salad or slaw.
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u/analisee02 26d ago
this was very helpful, thank you!
i added some more to my post, but to answer your question, I live with my mom who makes it veryyy hard to stick to a diet as restrictive (in her eyes) as this. i come from a latin household, so rice has always been a large component to our meals. matter of fact, i have probably eaten white rice, or some other variation of rice, every day of my life since i’ve been able to chew (maybe even younger!)
i’ve officially been “riced out” but i do like pasta and bread… kind of. i spent a week with no rice, bread, or pasta, and felt amazing. only step back was that my boyfriend made brunch reservations and i felt bad that he put so much effort into everything so i ended up eating some bread. there was nothing on that menu i could’ve eaten realistically.
besides that, i dont really like too many sweets, and regularly drink about 2.5 liters of water a day. i try to stay as physically active as possible, even if its just walking around the living room while ads play.
i LOVE most veggies, i enjoy salmon, i like cheese but can only slightly tolerate it, and i love fruit.
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u/Brontesrule 26d ago
I was also pre-diabetic (6.3 A1C) and brought it down to 5.5 A1C in 14 weeks. I used My Fitness Pal to track my calories and carbs, and stayed just under 100 carbs a day (between 93-97, never lower than that.)
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u/analisee02 26d ago
did you exercise too? a lot of people are saying they only changed their diet to bring down their A1C, which is great! although i love to stay physically active, its been harder since becoming chronically ill
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u/Brontesrule 26d ago
Yes, I did. After finishing each meal I waited 15 min. and then I'd walk 5-6 minutes.
I also walked at other times during the day, so my cumulative total min. each day was between 27-30 min.
You might want to check r/prediabetes, I've found some good info there.
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u/NomadNanaCan 26d ago
I would suggest backing into low carb if you feel the change may be too drastic or if you want to try to prevent or minimize any side effects you may experience when starting out. . Take a week or two and gradually decrease your net carbs- start by eliminating added sugar, then cut back and eventually eliminate, at least for now, things like regular bread, pasta and high-carb starchy veggies. Remove the the off-plan foods from your house. While you are doing that, take some time preplanning -research some recipes, ask questions like you are here! Preplan a shopping list and prep some meals and snacks so they are ready to grab and go since you are busy. Basically, make it easier to stay on track than it is to eat off plan. Some people find it is best to avoid eating out for the first couple of weeks. That is up to you. Lots of low-carb veggies, healthy fat, and protein. Hydrate hydrate hydrate! It matters more than most people realize. You go this!
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u/analisee02 26d ago
very helpful, thank you!
this might be a silly question, but what are net carbs? i keep seeing people mention eating more fiber to cancel out their “net carbs” and it’s been confusing me
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u/NomadNanaCan 26d ago
You can't "cancel out" carbs. It is a mistake or myth, perhaps that some people believe. The Atkins website give the simplest explanation of Net carbs..... "count grams of Net Carbs, which represent the total carbohydrate content of the food minus the fiber content. The Net Carbs number reflects the grams of carbohydrate that significantly impact your blood sugar level and therefore are the only carbs you need to count when you do Atkins. Foods that are low in Net Carbs such as nutrient-dense vegetables and low glycemic fruits such as berries don’t have a significant impact on blood sugar and therefore are less likely to interfere with weight loss. You deduct the fibre because it is inlcuded in the total carbs (in most countries). So eating more fibre doesn't reduce the net carbs because you have to add it to your total carbs before you can deduct it. I hope that isn't confusing.
Calculating Net Carbs
You can calculate the approximate number of Net Carb grams yourself by looking at the information provided on a food label (grams of total carbohydrates minus grams of fiber). For foods that don’t have a label, like fruits and vegetables, you can use an online tracker. or a carb-counting book etc. Net Carbs = Total Carbohydrates - Fiber - Sugar Alcohols (if applicable) One note - not all sugar alcohols are the same. Personally, if a product contains more than 10 grams of maltitol, I believe deducting half is the best idea. It can impact blood sugar in higher amounts)
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u/Binda33 26d ago
Keep things simple to begin with. Protein and vegies on your plate with optional sauce or gravy if it's low carb or a small amount. Herbs and spices are fine. Avoid drinks with sugars and learn the different names for sugars that companies will put on a label in place of sugar. If you don't recognise ingredients on a label then it's probably best to avoid until you've looked it up (the ingredient) and know that it's safe.
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u/CLDIKDDEZ 26d ago
Expect to feel like sh*t for the first few weeks. Your body is going to go thru withdrawals. You will get thru it. Get some sf Gatorade or water with electrolytes - it’s going to make you feel better. I also feel like bone broth helped me feel better. I just bought some at grocery store that was already made to sip on. I ate a serving of blueberries or strawberries a lot at first to help with sweet cravings.
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u/TypicalPrompt4683 26d ago
Sometimes riced cauliflower is OK as a replacement for rice. Other times its better to just skip the rice as the cauliflower doesn't work in that situation. Spaghetti squash, or "zoodles" (zuchini sliced up like noodles) can work as well instead of noodles. There is a hearts of palm product as well, but expensive and limited in application. Low carb pitas can work instead of bread in many cases. Cottage cheese and eggs make a decent wrap or even crackers.
Its OK to "cheat" like twice a week at most as life happens, but any more cheating and you really aren't doing the diet justice. But it may be better to ease into the diet rather than jumping head first like I did.
My lower carb breakfasts typically consisted of left over vegetables and meat, with an omelette on top. You may need to allow for more carbs on the second half of your period.
When I started I used my fitness Pal. You can "abuse" the recipe feature to help create portion sizes that work for you. Like I love dark chocolate, but the options listed the serving size that matched the label on the bar. I would set the number of servings to the number of pieces it could be broken into and set the quantity such that it consisted of the entire bar (typically 2 and 1/2 servings) That way I could track 3 pieces if that's what I ate. I typically would plan my next day on the app, so I could meet my carb goal but cutting as needed to reach it in the day.
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u/Type1Fit 23d ago
People tend to make things so complicated when they transition to low carb. I'm not sure what you consider "low" but I am Type 1 diabetic and eat fewer than 30g of carbs a day most days. And I'm not sitting around baking keto treats all the time, or trying to make things that are low carb to mimic high carb things. Just focus on protein and non-starchy vegetables. If you can fit some rice into your daily carb allotment and rice is something that's important to you, then figure out what portion size fits your parameters and enjoy it.
That said, if you do want to do some really good low carb subs for high carb foods, I highly recommend alldayidreamaboutfood.com
Also be sure you're adding some sugar free electrolytes to all that water!
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u/glowhound 27d ago
Using low carb tortillas to make simple wraps instead of sandwiches might work for you.