<p>Not to be a wise-guy, but the real answer is “fewer than you have been eating”. Honestly, the place to start is to look at what you are eating and decide where you can cut some carbs out of of your diet. Obviously stop drinking carbs (sugar). Obviously stop eating any junk carbs (candy, pretzels, chips, crackers, cake, donuts, etc.)</p>
<p>From there, look at the pasta, breads, cereals, potatoes, and rice that you eat and decide where you can cut something out. For example, I imposed a rule of pasta or pizza only one time per week (and reasonable portions). I was happy to replace baked potatoes and rice with broccoli and spinach. I stopped buying corn flakes. If you have sandwiches five days a week for lunch, switch to soup or salad three days. Skip the toast at breakfast a few days. Most of us have no trouble at all finding several hundred extra carb calories a day to get rid of, often without any great sacrifice. I mean, did it really impact my quality of life to not sit on the couch and inhale a bag of Doritios?</p>
<p>Everyone has different limits, but those simple steps, without doing anything fancy at all, will be enough for an awful lot of us to start losing weight. It’s certainly going to be a good start.</p>
<p>The number of carbs you should have is different for everybody. That’s why in Atkins you start with 20 per day and work your way up until you find the number where you won’t gain any weight. I’m a 49 year old woman and I keep it under 60 and I’m still losing a little. DougBetsy is right about the 300 - not sure if it’s the RDA or the average number that people eating a standard diet eat but that’s a lot of carbs. If you cut it down to below 100, you would probably be losing. In fact, the Atkins book says you don’t have to start the diet with induction, which is pretty harsh, if you don’t want to.</p>
<p>I found the whole carb thing to be like a big science experiment which was very interesting. The more you read about it, you start learning about insulin resistance and the effects of hormones on your weight, especially as it applies to us women as we approach and go through menopause. When hormones are involved, there are a lot more variables than just calories in, calories out.</p>
<p>Reading those nutritional numbers for oatmeal versus eggs & bacon for breakfast is stunning. Eggs & bacon sounds 'bad" and oatmeal sounds smugly “healthy” in terms of choices, and yet the calories (depending on execution, of course) are so similar.</p>
<p>The danger is the morning you give up your eggs & bacon and sacrifice for that healthy oatmeal, you may feel like you have been ‘good’ and then sin more the rest of the day, in the same way that people eating foods marketed as low fat or low cal end up eating more items in total.</p>
<p>Yes, and that’s three scrambled eggs and three strips of thick slice bacon – a very large, filling breakfast. Two eggs and the three strips of bacon brings it down to 300 calories, or a little less than the half cup serving of oatmeal and 1% skim milk.</p>
<p>Tracking calories is really an eye-opener. A lot of the things we think we know don’t always prove to be so.</p>
<p>Before H and I started forcusing on calories etc., our idea of a “light” dinner was one of those gigantic Arby’s deli sandwhiches- BLT or something similar. Turns out those are enough calories for about a day of eating! We truly had no idea. Add in the french fries that we split and a beer…</p>
<p>I usually eat oatmeal for breakfast–I am not a morning person, and cooking eggs and bacon is more than I am capable of first thing. I am currently eating the Quaker Weight Loss oatmeal- it has 29 g of carbs, 6 g of fiber, and 7 g of protein. I add 4 tablespoons of flaxseed to increase the fiber and protein, and top with a cup of berries.</p>
<p>This summer, I have been eating my eggs for lunch–egg salad (in a bowl; no bread) with sliced tomatoes and leftover grilled chicken.</p>
<p>Nothing is sillier than Subway marketing itself as being a good choice for fat loss. If I had to pick the worst imaginable foods for packing on the pounds, it would probably include a steady diet of sub sandwiches. Those sub rolls are like instant belly fat.</p>
<p>My RDA on carbs (196 pound male) is 278 grams. My June carbs (June 1 - 15) are: 109, 135, 95, 125, 173, 104, 118, 84, 97, 129, 114, 55, 63, 84, 60. All over the place in general but quite low this week. Stress levels are down somewhat right now and last week I had an experiment with beans - boy can they crank up the carbs. I think that I’d do well to keep the daily level under 100. It’s not always easy as many already know.</p>
<p>If I eat oatmeal for breakfast I am starving at lunch time. If I eat eggs I’m not. So I eat eggs mostly. (My cholesterol levels are excellent, or I might have to reconsider.) I could also try adding nuts to the oatmeal, but that would up the calorie count.</p>
<p>I haven’t kept up with Livestrong (probably ought to go back to it, to keep myself honest), but I’m 5’-6" and was aiming to eat about 1400 calories/day. I found that I generally had 60-120 grams of carbs and lost about a pound every other week. </p>
<p>My older son ate at Subway nearly every day. He still looks pretty good. He mostly ate wraps and walked about 3 miles every day.</p>
<p>I like oatmeal better than eggs, too, I just thought I was being ‘better’ than DH with his eggs & bacon. I was the smug one :(</p>
<p>I do like the ability to track daily on livestrong, then see the daily sub-category totals, both by day & by week. Over a week I can do pretty well on the numbers, compared to one day. With 1000-1500 calories, it is easy to be off track on the numbers on any given day.</p>
<p>Yes, my boys can eat anything too. I am feeling sorry for my son who is home for the summer here at our low carb house. He has his own little stash of mac and cheese and bread for pbj. I have a batch of Paleo Fudgy Brownies in the oven and I’m not sure he’s going to be impressed.</p>
<p>Well, having been in and out of town and about to go out for an early fathers day and multiple bday’s dinner tonight, I will plan to get back into monitoring intake on livestrong tomorrow. Its been hard to do with all the dining out. Tonight we are going to one of those brazilian “meat on a stick” places, and while its high protein, I am considering just doing their salad bar. Havent decided yet. I have been exercising but am still nursing a knee/calf thing of some sort. </p>
<p>I reread that "good carbs"article listed above (thank you) but still cant get my head into it easily. I am not a huge meat eater, and fish gets boring. Suggestions for good low carb meals?</p>
<p>Now that it’s summer, our meals are mostly a hunk of meat and some veggies thrown on the grill along with a salad, but some ideas that I made in the winter that aren’t too meaty are: vegetable frittata, crustless crabmeat quiche, shrimp with a butter/garlic sauce served over a bed of spinach instead of pasta, a thai red curry soup made with chicken thigh meat and cauliflower rice and a chicken and mushroom pasta sauce served over spaghetti squash. I bought some Dreamfield’s pasta to make to put pesto sauce on when our basil is ready but there is some controversy in the low-carb world about whether it really is low-carb or not. My suggestion is take your favorite recipes and make changes to them to make them low-carb. I will say I spent a lot of time on this diet in the early weeks because I really did not want my husband to go off it (he had a serious case of induction flu) but now it is like second nature. </p>
<p>Also, that cauliflower rice (shredded in the food processor) is very tasty if you like to cook asian food. Makes really good fried rice.</p>
<p>Okay. So, the Omelet for breakfast kept me full most of the day. Had a snack of some sliced turkey rolled up with cheese and hummus (yum) which tided me over until the post-graduation dinner at Chilis, where I had that Chicken Caesar salad, and left the croutons on the plate. Nice Job, me!</p>
<p>(except for those darn Presidente Margaritas…hmmmm)</p>
<p>I’m going to write the next fad diet book and make a million dollars. Better than the blood type diet. Better than the Atkins diet. Better than the “Zone.” Better than the Beverly Hills diet. This will be the diet book to end all diet books.</p>
<p>It’s based on my new theory that you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight provided that for every meal you eat only foods that rhyme with each other, such as steak and cake. A food item that does not rhyme with anything, such as an orange, cannot be eaten.</p>
<p>Of course different foods will rhyme in countries where they speak something other than English. But that’s okay. The rhyming way to weight loss is universal and works with any ethnic cuisine as well. If those foods rhyme in the local language that’s good enough. The pounds will still melt away.</p>
<p>I’m going to call it “Poetry in Action: The New Science of Rhyming Your Way to Health, Wealth, and Popularity.” You all will buy a copy, won’t you?</p>
<p>PS: Now that i think about it, weight loss and religion have a lot in common. In both cases the topics are emotional, the real products are intangible, and the profits are considerable. So I’m going to start a new religion to go along with the diet. I’ll call it “The New Jerusalem Church of Elvis Slim and Triumphant.”</p>
dinner at Chilis, where I had that Chicken Caesar salad, and left the croutons on the plate. Nice Job, me!</p>