Help with the veggies ......please!!!

[cinnycinda]

Ok, so I'm on day 3 of induction doing good but have a question.
I've been measuring my veggies with a measuring cup. I do no more than 2 cups of the salad veggies listed in the book ( usually at lunch) and one cup cooked at dinner. Now, this is where I get stuck. If I do it that way then I'm going by the book, but I never know the correct net carbs for the veggies. Does that make sense? I'm trying to keep the induction very simple and clean. I'm only having about an ounce of cheese a day. the rest has been meat ( chicken, tuna, hamburger,) cooked with only basil and garlic and a little olive oil if needed. Also eggs and have been counting one egg as one net carb each. Drinking lots and lots of water.
I think I'm doing ok, but do you guys have any feed back?

Thanks
Cindy

[cleochatra]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

I use fitday.com and it is such an invaluable tool. Like you, I like to know precise amounts, and this free service has been such a boon, I downloaded it to my own computer (The program costs if you download, but it ha been worth it for me) to keep track of everything from carb counts to fat/protein/carb ratios. It's faboosh!

[Georgiana]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

I never know the correct net carbs for the veggies

Why not? Are you using FitDay?

You can also weigh your vegetables, if you want to be accurate.

And don't choose the vegetables lowest in carbs. For your health, you don't want to be cheating yourself of nutrition.

eggs and have been counting one egg as one net carb each

Why don't you use the actual carb counts?

FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

[mitzimarie]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

I love, love, LOVE this list: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...CARB_COUNT.pdf

This is located in the FAQ forum of this board, and has been a wonderful tool for me. I'm kind of a perfectionist, and it really bugged me that I didn't know if I was measuring an accurate "cup" of veggies or not. I mean, it would be a breeze if all veggies were regularly shaped. But they're not! This list tells you how much a cup of each veggie weighs, and gives the nutrition facts, as well as which rung each food is allowed. I printed it and have used it a LOT. I use an inexpensive food scale from Walmart, and it has really helped.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

and it is free on the net

The issue is what veggies you pick from that list. if you picked a cup of pumpkin from the one cup list it has 19.8 grams of total carbs and 7.1 grams of fiber for a net of 12.1 carbs then you pick sweet red peppers from the salad veggies and can have 2 cups of those and be inside the allowed veggie amounts but over on your carbs because they have 18 total and 6.3 net for a total of 11.7 net add those eggs cheeses and any spices or herbs carbs and you are at almost 30 for the day so it is important to not only stay within the volume allowed but the carb amount also

[cinnycinda]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Thanks mitzimarie, great list I just put it in my favs! My scale doesn't measure in grams so do I need a digital one? Why would they word it in the book that way if you can't just measure with a cup. This has been my frustration in the past that's why I quit. But, I'm determined to get it figured out this time.....with the help of all you mor experienced ones.
2big....I follow what you say , I THINK, but my garlic basil said no carbs, Also, you all may think I'm crazy but fitday is confusing to me. I did a search for eggs ( simple huh?) niot so fast....I never found what I was looking for and gave up. Really I'm usually not retarded but if I don't get all this figured out I'm going to go nuts because I know this can work I have to do it right.....

Thanks for the help
Cindy

[2big4mysize]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

I understand they give you every darn egg product when you search for eggs. use the word RAW before your eggs and you get just eggs or just the veggie you are looking for.

[cleochatra]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

I use a digital scientific scale, but I'm an uber girl geek. Here's a gram conversion table for ounces and grams.

Ounces (Oz) to Grams (Gr) Conversion - How many grams in an ounce?

[Skeptika23]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Hi Cindy...

I use a home cooking scale - a pretty basic model - and I measure in ounces, and I just use Fitday to figure out my exact carb counts. I know DANDR uses "cups" but I have a hard time figuring out what that really means (because I am somewhat cooking impaired )

Yes, Fitday can have some entries that are confusing, but always choose the raw or uncooked version of what's there when using it, that way you'll be most accurate in terms of carbs (and I like to watch my fat/protein/carb ratio AND monitor my sodium there too).

Also - if in doubt, I look up foods and enter them in custom foods so I know I'm accounting for them correctly.

[Georgiana]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Why would they word it in the book that way if you can't just measure with a cup.

Well, you can measure some veggies in a cup. On the other hand, if you want to have things like asparagus without cutting it in pieces and you have no scale... then things get complicated.

garlic basil said no carbs

All spices have carbs: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ts-spices.html

In the US, if the carbs are below 0.5 g, they are rounded to 0.

Also, you all may think I'm crazy but fitday is confusing to me. I did a search for eggs ( simple huh?) niot so fast....I never found what I was looking for and gave up.

It takes some practice to get used to FitDay. And the foods you use often will be saved in your favorites, which makes things easier.

[cinnycinda]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Ok everyone....just had a small revelation! Went back to fitday and entered all food for today. It worked! The bad news is that I had 23.3 carbs for today....Guess I can't do anything about it now. I'll do better tomorrow....Thanks for all the advice and suggestions it really helped!

[mitzimarie]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Ok everyone....just had a small revelation! Went back to fitday and entered all food for today. It worked! The bad news is that I had 23.3 carbs for today....Guess I can't do anything about it now. I'll do better tomorrow....Thanks for all the advice and suggestions it really helped!

Did you remember to subtract the fiber from the total carbs, in order to get your net carbs?

Fitday used to frustrate me... so much so, that I have most of my foods entered as custom foods. Even a lot of veggies! It's a pain to have to sort through so many possibilities to find something that should be simple. So if I can't find something easy, I find info that I do like somewhere else and enter is as a custom food. I've gotten a lot of my info from that Spreadsheet I just posted about, and some from www.calorieking.com, among others. I also sat down with my laptop in the kitchen and entered info from every jar, can, box, label, of anything that I ever use. Yep, a big pain in the butt to do that, but after it's done, it really makes Fitday easier to use.

Another thing that makes Fitday easier - when there is a recipe for something that you use a lot, you can enter the whole recipe as a custom food. This what I do to enter a completed recipe into Fitday: go to a day that has no other food entered (you can go into the next day's log). Enter all of the ingredients, and write down the total number of calories, fat, carbs, fiber, and protein on paper. You can then delete those foods, so you can go back to having a clean slate for that day. Next, go into custom foods and create a new food using the information you wrote down. It really does save a lot of time for me to be able to just click on "MUP" now, instead of having to enter the pumpkin, cream cheese, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, and almonds each time that I had it for breakfast.

[JulieB]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

Ok everyone....just had a small revelation! Went back to fitday and entered all food for today. It worked! The bad news is that I had 23.3 carbs for today....Guess I can't do anything about it now. I'll do better tomorrow....Thanks for all the advice and suggestions it really helped!

23.3 Net carbs or Total carbs? Remember, we count Net Carbs on Atkins, which is Total Carbs - Fiber

Fitday does not do this for you. Take the total of the carbs from the "grid", scroll down near the bottom for the fibre number & do the math

[2big4mysize]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

actually you can measure any veggie by the cup if you use the water displacement method.
you will need a 4 cup measurer. just fill it to the 3 cup mark and then add your veggies until you reach the 4 cup mark. pour off the water and you got 1 cup of rinsed off veggies. you can do that with your berries when you get OWL too.

[Georgiana]

Re: Help with the veggies ......please!!!

actually you can measure any veggie by the cup if you use the water displacement method.

The only problem is that you're actually eating more (in grams) than you would by filling a cup "dry", because there is no air left in the cup.