High Fat-Low Carb eating

And sugar Gill, don't forget added sugar. I'm limiting fruit to one sensible serving per day (today it was raspberries with double cream).

For breakfast

Correct Anya. I dont eat much fruit anyway to be honest as the acid makes my teeth ache, but I shall have to cut out bananas for a while. I like bananas as really filling........and inside a crusty roll.......Off to Sainsburys now to buy a few pots of full fat yoghurt to have with raspberries, a few avocados and salad stuff. And eggs.

We did not follow a book and did not cut out coffee. We have stuck with home-made muesli with full fat yoghurt for breakfast (and egg and bacon on Sunday) with one small slice home-made spelt bread as toast with butter. Lunch is home-made soup or salad (smoked salmon, tuna, chicken, ham etc with avocado, leaves, toms and anything else carb-free that comes to hand. Two pieces of fruit each. Dinner is low-carb, but we use things like chickpeas, new potatoes, pearl barley where necessary about three times a week in very small quantities (less than 50g each). This week we have had roast chicken with roast veg, cold chicken with aubergine parmigiana, baked vegetables with eggs, roast turbot with chicory, chicken curry with courgettes. Tonight is moussaka with mozzarella to avoid a flour based béchamel. A couple of glasses of dry wine, three or four times a week.
On this diet we have lost about 1lb a week over a year. We have had two puddings, one Christmas day and one anniversary. No cake or biscuits at all.
I am now in maintenance mode and have increased portion size slightly, but I can honestly say that it is not a diet on which I feel hungry. It is a way of life now and we enjoy it.
I hope this helps. We do love cooking though and I think living in France makes it easier. We never set foot in the patisserie.

Gill I wouldn't worry too much about giving up bananas. My breakfast for two of the five days was a small banana plus yoghurt, and I still lost weight.

Mamie I like the idea of home made muesli for breakfast, as an alternative. There are lots of recipes for this, but is there one you recommend?

We buy a five cereal base; oats, rice, wheat, rye, barley. We add mixed dried fruits; sultanas, goji, dried cherries, cranberries (unsweetened), cashew, brazil, almonds and walnuts.
Obviously the dried fruit contains natural sugar.
I think cutting out fruit juice at the start of the diet probably made a huge difference to us.
Actually re-calculating in lbs, over the year I have lost 35lbs, not quite 1lb a week!

Thanks Mamie I'll use that as a guide for my muesli.

I'm not adverse to a little fruit sugar for breakfast only and never drink fruit juice anyway. Like Gill I have very little fruit in my diet unless you count fermented grape and juniper berries!

I love fruit and gorged as normal on our strawberry and raspberry crop last year. In winter it is normally apples and oranges. I could never give that up and actually in the sugar programme last night they said that sugar in whole fruit didn't count.
My rhubarb patch is completely redundant, I can't think of any rhubarb recipes without sugar. I will give it to my neighbour for her market stall!

I make bechamel with half-skimmed milk and cornflour, with herbes de Provence and pepper- for lasagna or endives au jambon (chicory with ham) etc, works very well.

I wonder how much we all weigh. No one ever seems to say.

But we're talking low carb jura so cornflour is no go.

Yeah alright. Ignore that then.

You start us off then jings - reveal all!

I just reduce cream and grated cheese to make a sauce for lasagne.

The Hairy Bikers method of using blanched leeks unrolled into sheets instead of pasta is absolute genius!!

10 stone 1 and three quarter pounds. I want to be 9 stone anything, but I can't shift that last 1 and three quarter pounds.

You are actually willing to spend time unroling leeks?!

that went wrong. unrolling leeks

I'm 9 stone 11 pounds (62kg).

I struggle to keep under 10 stone - am conscious of everything I eat!

It's dead easy, jingl. Blanch the leeks (whole) to soften them a bit. Cool them quickly under cold water, make a slit down one side and carefully unroll them. Voila!

After a year of low-carbing I am 9 stone, BMI 21, size 12.

Anyone tried crispy kale? It's nearly out of season but takes a few minutes in the oven and tastes like a healthy version of chinese fried 'seaweed'.

Over 3 years I've gone from 69kg to 61kg (9st 8lbs) size 12.
That's with increased exercise, portion control, and reducing sugar as much as possible.
I still eat some carbs but low GI - brown bread rather than white.
Still eat ordinary pasta and white rice though, but in smaller quantities than I used to. I tried brown rice but it just wasn't the same and the flavour didn't seem to 'go' with the dishes I cook. I rinse the white rice thoroughly before cooking and that removes a lot of starch anyway.

I think I have a high fat and a high carb diet. I weigh 50kg. Portion size is what makes the difference to one's body weight, I reckon. Nothing else. I realise that is an unfashionable view to hold but it is the one I hold, nonetheless. Works for me.

I tend towards a low-carb diet but bags is right it's all about how much of anything you eat.

There was a research doctor who lost a lot of weight eating only 'fast food' burgers, chips, etc - he monitored the portions and kept within a certain calorie intake.

It's about controlling your appetite. Yes, portion size is very important, but you can obviously eat a bucket load of salad compared to a much smaller portion of nearly everything else.

One way to stick to smaller portions is to eat something satisfying that seems to 'fill you up' and signals to your brain that you have had enough. Sugars and high GI carbs don't do that by themselves.

There's been too much grazing encouraged in recent years, which, while they may be smaller portions, are often unneccessay.