Carbs in Salads and veggies

(Megan K) #1

Hi Guys,
Sorry for the dummy question. I log all my food in my Fitness Pal app which is super helpful. I cant however seem to get my carbs under 20 grams a day. An avocado on my fitness pal is like 12grams of crabs. Last night I had a broccoli, kale and cabbage soup with some shredded chicken and the meal totalled like 15 grams of carbs. I know there is a difference between net carbs and carbs, How do you work that out? Am I crazy to be eating an avocado and big green salad a day? My average carb count on the app is coming out at around 45-50 grams of carbs a day. Can someone please advise if I should be cutting my greens down?

(German Ketonian) #2

MFP usually isn’t very accurate. No standardization of total/net carbs. I’d recommend counting net carbs (for multiple reasons). Then, a whole avocado is around 5-6 carbs. Always check the internet for further reference about carbs and fiber and subtract the latter (= net carbs)

(Megan K) #3

Thanks for your response!

(German Ketonian) #4

You’re welcome! It can be confusing in the beginning. But don’t let MFP fool you. Always cross-validate to be sure. KCKO!

(Mandy) #5

I have the loseit app for tracking. They have a feature that counts net carbs for you. It’s some simple math but it’s helpful for the app to do it for you. I csnt recall if you need to be a premium member as I’m a lifetime member. I love the ability to put meals into the app days ahead of time… Yes, I might be a control freak.

Edit: I’m a month into keto and I’ve never been kicked from ketosis from salads and veggies(or anything else for that matter). YMMV but net carbs has worked for me and many other.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #6

I use MFP too. That the only trouble I have with it. There is no setting for net vs total carbs. So I kind of do total carbs by default, but I also don’t sweat it if I’m in the 25g range because I know my net carbs would put me back under. And if by chance they didn’t, watching total carbs keeps me in check too, because I would start to really worry if I got over 25g.

(charlie3) #7

I use cronometer for tracking. It’s database includes net carbs and has global settings for carbs, fats and protein to help with tracking keto. My dinner is a very large leafy green salad with calories provided by olive oil, avecado, or cheese. According to crono the net carbs in those ingredients is low enough for me to stay at 20 net carbs including a lunch.

#8

Are you in nutritional ketosis? The 20g of carbs is only a general starting guide.

Are you generating ketones in your urine, on a pin prick blood test, or on a breath ketone monitor? Testing your own body response is a better guide to nutrional ketosis than an online app.

No, sounds delicious.

A keto rule of (green) thumb is to always eat your greens with some fat (or olive oil), and I reckon add some salt to get much needed electrolytes.

50g of total carbs might be fine to drop you into nutritional ketosis. Do the testing to find out what works for you.

(Pete A) #9

One must make choices each day on where to get the carbs, I.e. on days when I eat dark chocolate (7 grams) I may not want to have italian sausage (7 grams) as then I’ve lost room for error.

I only eat .25 cup of green veggies a day, and for me, foregoing vegetables in general has been fine.

But again, choices…

Good luck!

(Mandy) #10

I find this topic pretty enlightening … Net VS total carbs that is. Looking at my totals for past days, I’ve always stayed under 20 net but I have days where my total is 40 or so. Interesting to say the least.

(German Ketonian) #11

MFP HAS net and total carbs. The trouble is that people who enter stuff into it don’t do it standardized. Some use the American (Carbs are starches, sugars and fiber = total carbs) some the European (Carbs are starches and sugars = net carbs) labeling. It’s the users’ fault, not MFPs. It all depends on the entries!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #12

When I use the bar code scanner, it goes to total carbs. Is there a setting for net, because I haven’t found one.

(German Ketonian) #13

No you didn’t get me. MFP depends on the entries the users make to classify the food: Americans use it like this:

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They see carbs and think “Oh, ok let’s type it in, then”. Alright, so you end up with total carbs (and sometimes fibre isn’t even entered as most concentrate on the three big macros)

In the American label, the section “carbs” INCLUDES fibre. In Germany the label is differently structured. It looks like this:

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Fibre ist listed as a total different entity here, not even amongst the “carbs” category. Thus, I think there is some sort of induced net/total carb fluctuancy there, depending on the user entries

(LeeAnn Brooks) #14

I would have thought the manufacturers would set up the entries for bar code scans.

(German Ketonian) #15

Sometimes, if the manufacturers are providing the data. But even then its flawed often times. I just scanned a package of hazelnuts, and got stats for (Polish) labelled walnuts… It’s a “wiki”-type systems with maaaaaany, many horribly wrong entries. Always cross-validate, people!

(German Ketonian) #16

And obviously, that doesn’t mean the label on the package is wrong - the MFP entry/barcode linkage is!

(Todd Allen) #17

Many of us make a distinction between good fats and bad fats, ie butter and olive oil vs soy and corn oils. Likewise there are better and worse carbs. Bad carbs are ones that digest super fast and are more likely to spike your blood sugar and trigger a larger insulin response, such as processed foods made with refined sugars and starches. Liquid sugars such as sodas and fruit juices are problematic too.

The carbs you listed such as salad greens and avocados are good carbs. They digest slowly and typically produce a minimal insulin response. They can still be problematic for some, especially those with severe insulin resistance and high basal insulin struggling to become fat adapted. But many find them almost impossible to eat to excess.

Having a muscle wasting disease my carb tolerance is probably worse than average but going by measurements of blood sugar and ketones via breath and sometimes blood I find I sustain a moderate level of ketosis, 0.5-1.0 mmol/l, and acceptable blood sugar, 80-100 mg/dl, below 50 g net carbs when the carbs are from good sources. But we are all different and you should experiment with varying degrees of strictness to see what works for you both in terms of results and what you find sustainable. Many get drawn to keto by the possibility of very fast weight loss but finding a way of eating you can sustain without excessive effort and stress is a better goal.

(Megan K) #18

Thanks for all the comments. I feel hugely relieved that I can enjoy my avo, guilt free. I have also done the calculations on all the net carbs I have eaten in the last couple days and am now coming in around 25 grams of net carbs, which is almost half what I was coming in at before. The formula I will apply going forward is carbs- dietary fiber - 1/2 sugar alcohol = net carbs, which makes me feel so much better! grin:

(German Ketonian) #19

Good! And just listen to your body if in doubt. It’ll tell you if you had too many carbs.

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #20

I use this called MyNetDiary, it has an extra section below for net carbs.
I really like this app. I am not sure if it’s with the paid version though as I have a yearly subscription. Well worth it in my opinion.

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