I've binged on cauliflower

#1

Hello!

I’ve started low carbing about 12 or 13 days ago. Say, between 10 and 13. What pushed me was my last fasting blood panel.

I don’t need to lose weight (BMI < 24) and I’m 50 years old. My TG/HDL-C = 0.97. But my last fasting blood sugar was a 102mg/dl. I need to change, before it gets worse.

Well, now to the reason of this post. I’d so greatly appreciate your help and expertise to help me navigate the change of diet. I was kind of low fat, low-ish calories my whole life, maintaining my weight. I usually lose weight in summer, then put it back in winter, but 99% of the time my BMI is < 25. I watched my food half of the time healthy (veggies), the other time eating junk (candy bars, crisps, ice cream).

Today I had a few nuts at about noon and a few pieces of 100% and 85% chocolate. No more than 6, or 7 walnuts and no more than 20g chocolate.

At about 3 in the afternoon, I’ve made a keto 90s microwave bread with butter, 1 egg, about a tablespoon of coconut shredded and about a tablespoon of chia, plus garlic powder, curry powder and less than a teaspoon of baking powder.

I ate the whole bread with about 50g of spinach and <0.5g carb mayonnaise from the grocery store.

At about 6 in the evening, I shredded about 300g of cauliflower and 100g of broccoli and had it wit mascarpone cheese, 150g shrimps and mayonnaise. I wasn’t going g to eat the whole preparation. But I ended up binging on it. I should have had only half. It was the first time I’ve made this and it was so good, I was surprised and just kept eating.

Now, I feel I’ve gone over 20g of carbs and I’m disappointed with myself. The huge amount of food feels unpleasant in my stomach and I’m not going to the gym.

I also had two stevia squares with two huge teas, cinnamon in my tea, olive oil on the food.

My question: please, could you help me calculate the carbs of today? So that I learn and do it myself in the future?

I think it’s like this (approximately):
100g broccoli: 4g
300g cauliflower: 6g × 3=18g
Coconut: 6g/2=3g
Chia: 1g
Spinach: 1g
Baking powder: 2g
Mascarpone (100g): 3g
Chocolate (20g): 4g

Total: 36g

Do I need to be in ketosis if I don’t need to lose weight? I want to be healthier.

Is low carb at about 50g carbs ok?

Thank you very much for your help!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

Stick around for a while. Use the forum search function. Read a lot. Learn how to use the USDA nutrition database. Use an app like Chronometer to help you keep track of what eat. Whatever happens today, tomorrow is a fresh opportunity. Best wishes.

#3

@Corals
Hi and welcome! I don’t know but it sounds to me like you really have a sweet tooth and your carbs were way over 20g from the getgo. Do you know that cauliflower and broccoli also contain a lot of carbs? Well not a whole lot but carbs are there.
But if you dont have any weight to lose, I wonder how many carbs you can allow yourself to eat without GAINING weight. Because Keto is so fat heavy, without keeping your carbs low you can gain a lot of weight. The thing about keto is that we are switching our bodies over to burning fat instead of carbs for energy. As long as the body has enough carbs to do that job, it wont burn the large amount of fats we eat or better yet- our body fat. I would suggest for you to go to cronometer.com to track your macros - or what you are eating in % of fats proteins and carbs. Maybe that will help you figure it out. But it sounds to me like you would be fine with a low carb diet and not keto? My blood glucose was prediabetic- but I am overweight and I ate LOTS of sweets before keto. Now I eat keto and 3 months later my blood glucose was normal. But I live totally "sugar free" - only using stevia or erythrit to sweeten foods, and no bread or pasta or potatoes either. I track the carbs in everything I eat to make sure I dont go above 20g ( or about 10%). I have lost 7 kilos in 3 months and hope to continue to lose the excess weight.
Good luck on this journey!

#4

I’ll check that app. Thank you!

To be honest, I was hoping it wouldn’t involve counting so much.

I have a sweet tooth, but I’ve already noticed I’m not craving sweets. The reason I have the choc with me is only because I still don’t know what else to take to eat on the go, when I can’t cook. The easy thing was nuts and chocolate.

That’s a fear I have and you talked about this: if I’m not low carb enough, then eating lots of fats could be bad. But then I think that if fats are good for us, as long as I don’t exaggerate, it should be possible to keep my weight… I wonder. I’m reading in the forums to try to find an answer to this problem.

It’s very confusing, because lots of information is for people losing weight. What about maintenance? I read people increase their carbs. Then it could be that about 50g would be ok for keeping the weight.

I’m very confused.

Thank you for your help!

#5

@Corals
When I went to my doctor last year, she told me to stop eating chocolate and cake. LOL That was to get my blood glucose down and out of the prediabetic range. I did what she said- only eating fruit instead of hitting the bakery, and my glucose did go down to normal. If this was the only thing you are interested in, you could go this route. ( I only lasted around 3 months eating fruits or low fat yoghurt though.)
Yeah- I dont do any counting either. I let cronometer.com do it for me. Its free and easy.:wink:

#6

I’m happy for you that your blood glucose went down!

#7

@Corals
Well I am just saying that you dont have to go keto to lower your blood glucose. My problem was sugar addiction. Not eating sweets can be very hard then. Insulin makes cravings. Keto can break that.

#8

I’ve just used the chronometer app and it said… 35.9 g net carbs! Wow, I had calculated 36 g! On the money!

I want my blood glucose to be normal, but that’s not the only thing. I want to be healthier, in general. I think I don’t eat enough fats, for instance, with everything low calorie, low fat. I want to eat more normal foods.

It may be coincidence, but since starting this change my menopause symptoms are much better. I hope it isn’t just a coincidence, because they were really bad.

Eventually, I’ll learn how to do it right.

The app is really nice! Thank you!

(Susan) #9

Welcome to the forum, Corals =).

Basic Keto is 20 grams or less of Carbs a day, adequate proteans and healthy fats, drink enough water and electrolytes, no sugar and a lot of us also have issues with any sugar substitutes as well (so myself and others totally avoid them too).

If you have any questions, ask away, there are many helpful, friendly people here, and we all want to see you succeed in your Keto journey!

#10

It’s safer to keep yopur carbs low first. But if you can’t do it comfortably, you can try low-carb. I couldn’t do keto for 2 days right after high-carb, it was horrible so I stopped. I did low-carb, find an important carb limit that made a huge difference, I felt so much better, stopped overeating and lost fat because I needed those too. But I really felt way better and never could go back to high-carb, not like I wanted. It was 80g for me and I needed around 40g or less to be in ketosis. Our ketosis carb limit is individual but 20g is pretty safe, usually, it works for most people and it’s a general advise to start there and play with the number after fat adaptation. I obviously did the opposite, I am always a weirdo woe wise… So if you really struggle with 20g, you might try a higher number, maybe it works for you. Maybe you can lower it later as I did. I often eat 5-10g net carbs now (typically total too as my carbs are from animal products) but I came a long way. And even my 40g keto was useful as I got fat-adapted at some level and it did good to my hunger and satiation and even my fasting window got bigger and it has benefits. But many people should go lower for that.

I thought little can surprise me about carb content but… Baking powder has so much carbs? Whoa.
I stopped using it ages ago, I use baking soda, a pinch is usually enough for a small baked stuff. I used baking powder similarly, just a pinch, I don’t know why there is such a huge amount in recipes but I am sensitive to the taste and a pinch does help with the dough. I don’t use them in egg heavy things as the eggs alone do the trick. Whole eggs only, yolks badly need it.

Cauliflowers aren’t that carby, use net carbs - or total if you want that approach, net matters to me but even total isn’t 6g for 100g, it’s around 4g according to multiple sources.

(Jane) #11

My 86-yo Dad has lowered his blood glucose and a1c by eating less than 50 g carbs per day, which isn’t keto but he’s getting the benefits of low carb, no seed oils and no processed foods.