How To Cut Carbs For Weight Loss - I Am Strong And Lean

How to cut carbs for weight loss and make good protein choices?

Carbohydrates are not totally bad for you. They actually provide you with energy to get you through the day.

However, for some people reducing carbs is a faster way to lose unwanted weight. And they can do that without having to feel like they have to give up a lot of their favorite foods.

A problem that leads to weight gain is most people get far too much carbs, a lot more than they use it for energy.

Some people might even consume mostly carbs for their diet, not enough protein. That results in not feeling satiety and they will be constantly snacking throughout the day.

By doing that the pounds add on quickly. Typically a day of meals for carb-laden diet is something like this–heavily sweeten cereal breakfast, a sandwich with chips for lunch, and pasta with tomato sauce (heavy in sugar) for dinner.

This kind of diet has very little protein, so one who eats like this will always be hungry. Thus reaching out for more food.

How To Cut Carbs For Weight Loss?

You Can Reduce Carb Intake

So what can you do? You can try reducing your carb intake to under 100g per day. When reading a nutrition label, you can focus on the net carbs only, because they're the carbs that are absorbed by the body.

In order to get net carbs, you subtract the fiber from the total number of carbs in the product.

Total carbs – fiber carbs = net carbs.

Swap Out Some Foods For Low Carb Options

You can swap out certain foods for low carb alternatives. For example, if you like to make a burger at home, switch the bread with the portabella mushroom.

Or you can switch to low carb bread which you can order online. Low carb bread does not taste as good as regular bread but the sacrifice is worth it in terms of how many carbs you can cut down.

Or you can try to make your own low carb bread. Here are 15 low carb bread recipes that you can check out, it's actually fun to make your own bread 🙂

Eat more carb-friendly veggies such as broccoli, kale or spinach. These greens are high in nutrients but low in carbs. You can also eat berries which are one of the low carb fruits and they are also high in antioxidants.

Include a lot of protein in your diet. You don't have to worry about fat content very much as long as they're good fats.

You can include plenty of cheese and butter in your low carb diet. With a low carb diet fat isn't your enemy. And fat is really good at providing a full sensation which will help prevent you from snacking on high carb foods.

If you love dessert there is a lot of low carb dessert recipe you can search up online. Try making your own low carb dessert, you can get the ingredients easily online or at grocery stores.

14 High Carb Foods To Avoid

How To Cut Carbs For Weight Loss?

Eliminate Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

Sugary drinks are not only unhealthy they are also high in calories. A 12 oz can of soda contains 38 grams of carb, and the carb is mainly sugar carb.

You can try substituting with some freshly squeezed lime juice in water with some low calories sweetener. Or better yet, try to herbal tea with low calories sweetener like stevia.

More Ideas For Substituting Carb Heavy Foods

Instead of eating cookies or crackers as snack, try switching to low carb ones like nuts, seeds or cheese. They are also more nutritious than the high carb snacks.
Instead of cereal or bread for breakfast switch to scramble egg or hard boiled egg, it's nutritious and high in protein.
Eat your protein dinner with a side of veggies instead of potato or bread, it's low in carb and high in fiber. The roughage is good for your digestive system too 🙂
Bake with almond or coconut flour instead of wheat flour. 100g of whole wheat flour contains 61g of digestable carb, 100g of almond flour contains less than 11g of carb.
Instead of drinking milk in the morning replace it with sugar-free almond or coconut milk. Even though cow milk is nutritious it is fairly high in carb because it has a type of sugar called lactose.
Don't eat starchy vegetables like carrot, corn, sweet potato and beet. They're moderately high in carb.
Choose plain yogurt instead of fruit flavored or sugar loaded yogurt.
Use healthy fats such as virgin coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil to flavor food. For example, you can add virgin coconut oil into your morning coffee instead of milk. These fats have many nutritional benefits and also make you feel full longer.
Use sugar substitutes such as stevia, erythritol or xylitol to sweeten your food. These sugar substitutes are low in carb and have many health benefits. They may not taste as good as regular sugar but as you adapt to the unique taste you will get used to them.