Low Carb Breakfasts
When you have to give up biscuits, toast, waffles, and pancakes, breakfast can seem impossible, but there are plenty of good ideas for low carb breakfasts.
Ideas for Low Carb Breakfasts
While it's true many popular breakfast options revolve around carbs, protein and fat-based choices also abound. For many people, protein breakfasts are actually more filling than their carbohydrate counterparts.
Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs
While eggs are severely limited or even eliminated on low-fat or low-calorie diet, they are welcomed, and even encouraged, on low carb diets. You can eat whole eggs, too, instead of just the whites. It's hard to find a food more versatile than the egg. Scrambled, fried, boiled, or poached, options are limitless. Here are a few ideas for dressing up your eggs.
Omelets
You'll find a basic recipe at Diet Articles Recipes. This recipe may be adapted to your taste:
- Add a variety of allowed veggies, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, onions, and peppers.
- Add meat, such as chicken breast, steak, ham, bacon, or ground beef.
- Get creative and add seafood. Lobster, crab, oysters, and shrimp are especially tasty options.
- Try different cheeses. Cream cheese with spinach and mushroom offer a decadent twist on the basic omelet, while sharp cheddar with steak strips, peppers, onions, and a dollup of sour cream offers Southwestern flair.
Eggs and Corned Beef
Make sure your corned beef is low in carbs. Simply melt butter in a pan, add crumbled corned beef, and stir until slightly crisp. Pour in lightly whisked eggs, and stir until eggs are done.
Scrambled Eggs
Plain old scrambled eggs are great, but they can get boring after a couple days. Dress them up for a new and different taste every time! Simply saute meat or veggies in a pan, pour in whisked eggs, and scramble as usual. Tasty additions include:
- Ground beef, onions, and tomatoes
- Chicken breast, peppers, and onions. After cooking, top with cheese.
- Tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers
- Cream cheese and oysters
- Salmon and cream cheese
Fried Eggs
Once you've mastered the basics of how to fry an egg, you can make changes and additions for a new taste:
- Miss fried egg sandwiches? Top with a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, and a touch of mayo, and eat with a fork.
- Saute veggies or meat in butter until just done. Carefully crack egg over the veggies or meat and cook slowly until egg whites are set.
- Top with sliced tomatoes
Boiled Eggs
Boiled eggs are perfect for quick and easy low carb breakfasts. Simply boil a batch of eggs and store in the fridge until needed. Add some string cheese and turkey, and breakfast is done.
Low Carb Specialty Items
If you really have to have your typically carbed out breakfasts, you can have them... sort of. Thanks to the proliferation of low carb specialty items by companies such as Atkins, you can find low carb versions of bread and tortillas and mixes for pancakes, muffins, bread, and waffles. These items are not cheap, though. They are also not suitable for use during the weight loss phase of your diet as their carb content is still higher than needed for ketosis and fat burning. Once you've reached your ideal weight and are maintaining, these items can be added into your diet as desired.
Dinner as Breakfast
There is no law that says that breakfast must consist of traditional breakfast foods. Some low carbers mix things up by having traditional lunch and dinner fare as breakfast. Have leftover steak? Eat it for breakfast! You can either eat the steak as is, or combine it with breakfast foods for a more traditional breakfast. For example, a slab of steak on the side of fried or scrambled eggs is divine. Alternately, you can thinly slice the steak and saute it with mushrooms, peppers, and onions. Add the mixture to eggs and create a delicious steak fajita omelet.
Another quick and easy dinner food that tastes great for breakfast is chicken alfredo, minus the pasta, of course. Combine 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup cream in a sauce pan. Stir over low heat until butter has melted. Stir in parmesan cheese and season to taste. Pour over cooked chicken breast.
Low Carb Diet Fast Food Menus
In this fast-paced life, following a low carb diet to the letter can be difficult, but low carb diet fast food menus make it a little easier. While not all fast food restaurants offer a dedicated low carb menu, most can be tweaked to suit a low carb lifestyle.
Low Carb Diet Fast Food Menus: the Basics
As you scan the menu at a typical fast food establishment, you are overwhelmed by carb-filled choices: tortillas, buns, bread, chips, and fries. It's a simple fact that wraps and sandwiches are easy to eat on the run, making them ideal fast foods. They are also the death knell for low carb diets. If you must eat out, though, the following adjustments will help:
- Order sandwiches and burgers without bread or buns
- Order chicken grilled or broiled, not fried
- Do not use creamy salad dressings
- Skip the rice, tortillas, and chips
- Skip the shrimp and fish, as these are usually breaded
- Have a side salad instead of French fries
Restaurants With a Low Carb Menu
Luckily, several fast food chains have jumped on the low carb bandwagon. As the number of low carb dieters continutes to rise, expect even more restaurants to join the trend. As you order your low carb goodies, keep an eye on condiments and beverages. Sauces, dressings, soda, juices, and "regular" ketchup sometimes have enough sugar to derail your otherwise perfect eating plan.
Blimpie
Blimpie has an extensive "BCC", or Blimpie Carb Counter, menu. The menu utilizes the theory of "net effective carbs", or carbs that impact your blood sugar. This theory is discussed in detail in the book Protein Power. The BCC lists the net effective carb count of every food item Blimpie sells, including condiments, meats, seafoods, vegetables, desserts, cheeses, and breads. This allows low carbers to make educated decisions in creating sandwiches and salads. In addition, Blimpie offers the following low carb concoctions:
- Durango Roast Beef & Cheddar
- Baja Turkey & Cheese
- Buffalo Chicken
- Tuscan Ham & Swiss
- Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Sicilian Salad
- Blimpie Carb Counter Chips
- SoBe Lean
Hardee's
Hardee's is one of the few chains still offering clearly designated low carbohydrate options. One favorite is the Low Carb Breakfast Bowl, which consists of egg, bacon, sausage, ham, and mixed cheese. For lunch or dinner, try the Low Carb Thickburger, a bunless beef patty topped with cheese, tomato, lettuce, red onions, pickles, ketchup, and mustard.
Subway
As fast food goes, Subway is usually much healthier than the alternatives, and this holds true for low carb dieters as well. Although Subway is no longer offering the Atkins wrap, any of the sandwich options can be made into a salad. Tasty options include:
- Chicken breast
- Steak
- Turkey breast
- Ham
- Roast beef
- Salami
- Bacon
- Pepperoni
- Tuna
- Assorted vegetables
Simply add oil and vinegar for an ideal low carbohydrate dressing.
Burger King
In many locations across the country, Burger King offers a low carb burger on its menu. This is, of course, a burger minus the bun and sugary condiments. Even in locations that do not feature a devoted low carb menu, Burger King prides itself on offering customizable food options. Order your burgers and grilled chicken without buns and ketchup, and you're well within your low carb limits. Order a garden salad with either shrimp, steak, or grilled chicken; skip the croutons and creamy dressing.
Conclusion
Eating at home is always your best bet when it comes to controlling fat, carbs, and calories, but it is possible to maintain a low carb lifestyle while eating fast food. Simply choose non-breaded protein and vegetables, and forego the creamy dressings, bread, French fries, chips, and tortillas.
Atkins Diet Positives and Negatives
Note:
This discussion of the positives and negatives of Atkins is apart from those of low-carb diets in general. People whose bodies are suited to low-carb eating tend to feel better on them, be less hungry, and have positive health responses (lower triglyercides and blood glucose; lower blood pressure, higher HDL, among others ).
Positives of The Atkins Diet:
The thrill of eating "forbidden foods" - Atkins dieters are often very happy to find that steak, butter, and cream are back in their diets. They should note, however, that Dr. Atkins advocates eating a variety of fats, and not neglect olive oil and Omega-3's.
It`s relatively simple to catch on to - After you learn what foods to eat and some basic carb counts, you donï ½t have to think about it much.It emphasizes finding your own carb level ½ To me, this is the biggest strength of the diet. I do think it`s clear that different people have different levels of sensitivity to carbohydrates, and it ½s a big plus to attempt to help people zero in on that.
It`s popular and therefore easy to find support and information. There are a lot of Web sites devoted to Atkins, and your library probably has quite a few of the books.
Negatives of the Atkins Diet:
It`s popular. Everyone has heard of it and almost everyone seems to have misconceptions about it. If you talk about your diet, you may get to feel that you`re defending it a lot.
It requires counting the carbs in everything your eat.
Induction - The most controversial aspect of the diet is the Induction phase, and it has become so identified with Atkins that many people think it IS the diet. Induction has several difficulties Carb Crash Some people have a negative reaction to the diet around days 3-5. Although the cure is easy (eat more carbs) and the reaction would transient in any case, people have a lasting memory of this feeling I have met many people who were turned off low-carb diets altogether by this reaction. More on Carb Crash Getting all necessary nutrients on an extremely low amount of carbohydrate. This wouldn`t be so bad if Induction truly only lasted two weeks, but many people extend it, and Atkins says that some people who are extremely metabolically resistant`swill need to stay on a very low-carb diet permanently to lose weight or maintain weight loss. Although vitamins and minerals can be replaced with supplements, phytonutrients cannot, to the detriment of long-term health.Boredom - For all but the most creative, a very low-carb diet such as Induction gets very boring very quickly another thing that turns a lot of people away from low-carb diets.After Induction, the main negative is that it takes a lot of fiddling to figure out what carb level is going to work for each person. I don`t know many who actually stick precisely to the rulesï adding exactly 5 daily carbs every week, for example. On the other hand, it really does take some experimentation for many of us to figure out what works best of us, and it`s nice that Atkins provides some guidance.
"Beginning with Induction is your choice -- you can begin Atkins at any of the four phases. However, Induction will jump start your weight loss as you cut back significantly on carb consumption."
In Dr. Robert C. Atkins' original books, he makes it clear that the Induction Phase is an essential part of the Atkins Nutritional Approach (also known as The Atkins Diet). Now, Atkins materials are making statements such as the one above, indicating that the Induction Phase is not absolutely necessary. Is this because Induction seems to draw a lot of criticism from anti low-carb health professionals and other critics? I don't know, but I do have some thoughts on the whole question of Atkins Induction.
What Is Atkins Induction?
Induction is the first phase of the Atkins Diet and is meant to last for two weeks. It is highly restrictive, limiting food choices mainly to proteins and low-carb vegetables. A maximum of 20 grams of net carbs is allowed. (Note that the books and the website even differ in the amount of vegetables allowed during Induction.)
The Positive Side of Atkins Induction
This phase is meant to kick start the diet by forcing the body to convert from using carbohydrates for energy to using fat. It also tends to cause a large amount of weight loss. Untold numbers of people have found this to be helpful in starting them onto a new low-carb way of eating, and I am not going to be one to question their experience. Anything that helps people make a healthy change to healthy eating is wonderful in my book.
The Negative Side of Atkins Induction
On the other hand, it's clear to me that Induction isn't for everyone. My heart sinks every time I hear someone say that they tried Atkins but quit because it was "too hard." I think, "there goes someone else who could have been helped by cutting carbs but was turned off by an approach that is very restrictive." The fact is that most people don't need to cut carbs this much to get the benefits, and there is nothing wrong with starting the Atkins Diet at a higher carb level, as the quote at the top of this page attests.
Further, I think that the way Induction is described in some of the books is even more restrictive, and even confusing, than need be. For example, the books usually restrict vegetables to three cups of salad, or two cups of salad and one cup of non-starchy vegetables. Without further explanation, this could be unnecessarily low in carbohydrates, as one cup of shredded lettuce contains about half a gram of net carbs. The new instructions on the Atkins website say to get 12 to 15 grams of net carbs from vegetables, which is much clearer.