Lower Carb Diet Tips

In the first post ever made on this blog, I spoke about my weight loss (22 pounds and maintaining) using a lower-carb diet as put forth in Bernie Taub's book. To see the post click HERE. The scientific research showed overwhelmingly that people on lower carb diets lost more weight and were more likely to keep it off, with no detrimental side-effects.

I thought I'd give out a few tips for what I actually use on an everyday basis that works well. Remember, you have to eat 60 grams or less of USABLE carbs a day for this to work. Usable carbs are calculated by subtracting grams of fiber and grams of "other" carbs from the total carbs listed on the nutrition labels of foods. If you look at the nutrition label shown here, take the 31 grams total carbs and subtract the three grams fiber for a total of 28 carbs. Also make sure you pay attention to serving size or you may go way over what you think you are eating. Use measuring cups to make sure.


Two foods that are excellent are the Sara Lee 45 Calories and Delightful bread. Each slice is 9 grams of total carb - 2 grams dietary fiber = 7 grams of usable carbs. If you have a sandwich with two slices of this bread, you have eaten only 14 grams of carbs for that meal. Add in some chicken salad (1 carb per serving) and lettuce for crunchies ( 0 carbs and adds fiber which keeps you full longer) and you are at a total of 15.

Even better, a new low carb product from Mission are the Carb Balance Soft taco size low carb tortillas. They are flour totillas and taste better than the regular, in my opinion. They are 0 trans fat too. Wrap some lettuce around meats and cheese, or egg salad, or chicken salad and you have a great lunch. Each tortilla is 18 grams, but with 11 grams of dietary fiber. With one tortilla for your "sandwich" roll up, you eat only 7 grams of usable carbs. Again, they taste great so this is a win-win.

Don't forget that eggs are o.k. too, and they have the good kind of omega-3 fats. I'll post a few recipes next time.