STILL confused about carbs...

[dimar97]

I am really confused about carbs and natural sugar and added sugar. Now, I understand that some foods have natural sugar and other foods have sugar added to them in processing – that much I got! BUT what is the difference as far as my body is concerned? Does my body know the difference or is a carb a carb a carb? For example, if I am eating a serving of cheddar cheese that has 1 gram of carbs in it - with no added sugar – how is that different from eating salad dressing which has 0 crabs listed on the nutrition label but has sugar listed in the ingredients? I am trying so hard to keep all this straight and do the right thing but I feel like I am never quite getting it right. I’m afraid to move out of induction as I don’t feel I’ve even done it “clean” yet! Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

[not2late]

Added sugars are a little bit different than naturally occuring sugars, because these added sugars tend to be highly processed, like high fructose corn syrup. These highly processed sugars are thought by some to be a health hazard.

Natural sugars are the sugars the food naturally contains. For animal products like eggs, these natural sugars are used as a part of their normal energy use. Also the animal products have proteins and fats, which help to slow down the digestion of these natural sugars. For plant products, these sugars are present along with some protein, some fat and fiber. Fiber helps to slow down the digestion of these sugars too.

When you add sugar to a food, you make it sweeter. For example, about a 1/2 cup of strawberries has about 5 net carbs---from naturally occuring sugars. If you add a teaspoon of sugar (4-5 carb grams), you bumped up the 'net carbs' of those strawberries to 10.

The salad dressing rule is no more than 2 carbs per serving and no added sugar. Typically a serving of salad dressing is 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup). That's a pretty large amount of salad dressing if you measure it out. If you use that amount on a 1 cup salad, the salad material will be swimming in the dressing!

If you come across any product that says 0 gram carb per serving, you need to look at the serving size. For the most part, as long as you stay within that listed serving size, you can count that serving as 0 gram. However, if you use more than that serving, then it's a good idea to start counting "hidden" carbs. So if a serving of 'sauce' is 1 teaspoon and has 0 carbs per serving, then if you use 1 measured teaspoon of 'sauce', you can count that as 0 net carbs. However, if you use 2 teaspoons of 'sauce', then you should count that second serving as 1 net carb---to be safe.

[dimar97]

ok, so there is a difference and it is better to have natural carbs than added sugar and no carbs. I am finding it VERY hard to find salad dressing (in particular) with no sugar in the ingredient list so suggestions would be great. Sad to say I am not savvy or motivated enough to make my own! My head is spinning bad enough as it is trying to keep all of this straight...Shopping has been a challenge to say the least!

Should I NOT go to OWL if I have gained during induction? I had lost 4, then went back up 1.5, then back down 1... These baby steps are killing me btw!

[not2late]

I'm not a fan of store salad dressings, so I tend to make my own. And since I'm not really a fan of those creamy dressings, I typically just splash the vegetables with a bit of oil and a squeeze of lemon or a bit of red wine or rice wine vinegar. But you can look around the cooking forums for salad dressing recipes.

You have an 11 pound weight loss goal and you've lost about 4 pounds. That's about 30% of the weight you need to lose, so you're doing great! During Induction we can expect to lose between 5-10% of the weight we need to lose. So a person with 100 pounds to lose can expect to lose 5-10 pounds and a person with 10 pounds to lose can expect to lose 1/2 to 1 pound. You lost 4!!!!!!

I would recommend you move to OWL phase and go through the Carb Ladder, adding 5 net carbs. Then I suggest that you move to Pre-Maintenance and finally go to Maintenance Phase.

Congrats on your loss!

[dimar97]

Thanks so much - I was not looking at it that way at all! So anxious to just be at goal, ya know?!?
I'm movin' on!