Being diabetic aint cheap :O

fendertele said:

It's the reaction i get from eating things with yeast or rusk etc.. I'm getting tested for it but I had really bad heartburn and pain when swallowing food for a very long time that disappeared when I dropped carbs completely so being diagnosed as diabetic also led to figuring out I have a slight intolerence to gluten or whatver else is in bread as the feeling of eating glass disappeared once i dropped all carbs.. must be a similar reaction to when someones skin comes into contact with stinging nettles.

I had been eating sausages and beef burgers at the start of my lchf journey and realised i was getting the same issue whenever I ate either of them and read the label and saw it contained wheat/rusk/gluten etc. whatever it is they use to form the sausages and hold them all together.,

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Lots of the better sausages and burgers have no gluten either. Specifically I can say this about the Lidl and Sainsbury’s ones I eat. The cheap carby ones are the ones with these ingredients.

fendertele said:

I think my fats are already high I eat tons of mayonnaise, dark choc, greek yoghurt, egg yolks everyday Im hitting my levels fine on my current diet the post was just to figure a way to keep doing what im doing but cheaper.

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whole chickens are much cheaper than joints. A big slow cooked brisket of beef, is cheaper than steak and you can slice and freeze portions, so only have to do a roast or slow cook once or twice a week, plus you get the stock for broths. Same for a whole leg of lamb or should er lamb, or a big pork joint. Some butchers do deals if you but more than 2 or 3 kilos of something. Most places also do discount for quantity - do you have a freezer? If not, a cooked joint of meat will keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days.

fendertele said:

I think my fats are already high I eat tons of mayonnaise, dark choc, greek yoghurt, egg yolks everyday Im hitting my levels fine on my current diet the post was just to figure a way to keep doing what im doing but cheaper.

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might be worth recording how many of your calories come from fats. Butter and whole milk are also proteins as well as high fat. This might help with keeping up your calorie intake.

fendertele said:

Energy and calories I need to maintain certain number of calories to either bulk or prevent muscle loss... when im knowingly cutting calories to burn fat I then need to maintain a certain amount of protein to prevent too much muscle loss.

So right now im not trying to lose weight or gain weight (gain muscle) i'm maintaining.

To maintain I need to hit 3000 cals for example and within those calories I still need to hit a certain % in protein just like when cutting to maintain muscle.

Sorry i'm confused by the the last part about dark chocolate ? I'm eating Dark choc to avoid my craving for milk chocolate and the sugar that comes with it so I eat 90% dark chocolate and 2 pieces at a time gets me past this craving.. which i have twice a day.

This means I go through a bar in 2 days.

Are you telling me to increase the percentage of the dark chocolate ? or how much of it eat ?

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As you’ve discovered by way of your bgl meter - not all calories have the same effect on your body. I totally get you need fuel and energy though but as you’ve changed drastically the composition of your intake to much more nutritious foods it may be that the number of calories required isn’t the same. Empty calories such as sugar have got to have a different effect on your gym work than proteins and fats haven’t they even if the calorie count is the same?

yes increase the cocoa %. Sugar cravings should pass the longer you’re on low carb. Or is it a mental craving? I’m not judging I eat a fair bit of it too.

I would add in more fat, oily dressings, etc. to keep up weight instead of so much protein.
When I first went low carb I did spend extra, but that settled once I was used to low carb foods and had a selection of menus.

I buy minced meat to make my own meatballs and burgers, and as you don't need to spend extra on the lower fat mince this is the cheapest meat. I am making a tomato and veg sauce for meatballs, to have with spiralised courgette this weekend.
I make meatballs just with mince and herbs or spices, not even egg to bind it - not needed if you just roll the meat in your hands firmly before shaping the meatball or burgers.
I also make chilli with mince or a cheap cut of stewing steak.
And I have a meatloaf recipe, which I vary with different spices. It is good cold with a green salad or hot with cauliflower mince and green veg.
Other than that I mostly eat chicken, or cheese with egg, I have loads of chicken recipes so I can make a different meal with chicken every day for weeks. I buy the cheaper cuts or whole birds for stews made in the slow cooker, then recook the bones for a chicken and veg soup. I rarely just buy the breast/fillet as that is the most expensive cut.
I don't make my own sausages, but buy the very low carb ones when on special offer.
(In fact when deciding what to buy or planning meals I always check the offers first.)
The biggest extra expense is the 85% chocolate instead of the cheap stuff I used to eat. But I splash out on things like kohlrabi when it's cheaper (makes a good potato substitute) and salmon when on offer.

fendertele said:

Any tips how to eat lchf but a bit cheaper ?

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If you can’t have additives, then making your own burgers or using plain, cheaper meats such as mince, cheaper cuts such as shin of beef/oxtail etc are all options. Similarly, bulk buy more expensive options (steak etc) when they’re on offer and freeze.

I prioritise protein too so get that. I often do buy more expensive cuts but reckon I could live pretty cheaply off things like mince, eggs, tinned tuna/corned beef if needed. It helps that I only eat twice a day, but fresh food needn’t cost the earth.

Eating low carb is definitely not cheap ... When my roommate eats tons of pastas and rice, I snack on almonds and macadamias which are way pricier

Something I have found after 9+ years of low carbing is that once I had broken the carb habit and desire to eat them, my appetite fell dramatically. My body is getting proper nourishment. Eating carbs makes people hungry quickly, and they want to keep eating. I eat twice a day, less if i dont feel hungry. Calorific value has little to do with nourishment and saity.

@fendertele - in this household (just the two adults, with hearty appetites) we are fortunate to have a flexible budget for food, but I feel positive we don't spend as much as you do, on a day-to-day basis.

In terms of meat, we only buy from our local butcher, whose meat is excellent quality, and cheaper that supermarket meat.

Do you ever make a roast? We have a roast at least every Sunday, with an informal rotation of beef, pork and lamb (MrB isn't excessively keen on chicken). Curiously, we were discussing the average price of our Sunday Roast just this morning. Our boneless leg of pork joint for tomorrow was c£6, and will give us excellent crackling (calories++), plus cold cuts, probably on Tuesday. A beef roast (Salmon Cut) is about £8, with boneless leg of lamb usually £12-13.

Once you get to know your butcher, he/she will tell you of anything they have that's particularly good, plus any offers. When the butcher does offers, I'll often buy extra for the freezer.

Chickens, we we do have it, I always buy whole, so have the whole bird at our disposal - at least 4 portions, plus the carcass for stalk and carcass picking into soup.

Pork belly is delicious and nutrition dense. Cooked in a slab, it makes an excellent roast, or strips cut, the grilled or BBQed can be staggeringly good.

An omelette with diced chorizo, or bacon lardons, with added grated cooking cheese near the end, the melted unde the grill is very filling and again nutrient dense. Cooking cheese in Lidl is under £4 for 900gr. I grate the whole block at once, then freeze in 100gr portions, so that I am not prema welded to the grater.

I make my own yoghurt - 2ltrs at a time, using UHT milk (the process is just simpler with UHT), and starter from the previous batch. 2ltrs of UHT is under £2. It keeps very well in the fridge. It might seem a lot of faff to home make yoghurt, but the majority of the magic happens as we sleep.

There are a few albeit fairly aged threads on here about living low carb on low income. Could be worth a search. There could just be some helpful ideas on there.

Chicken legs are cheaper and more filling than breasts.
All meats cook well in a slow cooker, especially the cheap ones. Mince, casserole beef, pork etc. Easy to cook more than you need and freeze in portions
This week I bought 16 chicken drumsticks at Lidl for £2.50, that's 4 -6 meals (I had 2 for breakfast this morning) at roughly 40p to 60p
Hardboiled eggs are cheap and filling

I get most of my meat from Costco or Makro. Have to spend more upfront but significantly cheaper than Tesco/Asda

I think if you ‘shop wise’ it doesn’t need to cost significantly more

fendertele said:

Ill need to look around for a costco/makro near me never seen them around glasgow but ill defo have look into it as im sure it can be bought cheaper and i dont mind buying in bulk it just gets frozen.

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costco and makro are membership stores.. costco is easier to get membership

fendertele said:

No I need the actual calories to prevent being in a defecit and lose muscle... weight loss/weight gain is calories in/calories out... If i'm working out hard then this means I need to eat more to prevent not being in too big a defecit and lose too much weight/fat too fast etc.

I dont fancy going any higher than 90% dark chocolate tbh lol

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Wrong. CICO is a hugely oversimplified and too easily accepted theory that assumes perfectly even and equal metabolic processes. Which few of us actually have. Weight loss and gain is also about the ability to utilise the calories you eat. If you can’t use them (carbs) then they don’t actually count for energy but overcount for storage and if you can use them (protein and fats) then they do. And vice versa. Type 2 can’t use carbs properly so you need more to feel full and have energy from than if you swap those same calories for something you can access the energy from. Google cico myth for loads more info, including in bodybuilding.

No I wouldn’t go higher than 90% either. Is it a psychological need ? Could you swap it for something else cheaper?

fendertele said:

weight loss/weight gain is calories in/calories out...

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You may find it helpful to have a look for threads on here on the subject. I am afraid Calories In/Calories Out (CICO) is not correct. Particularly for type 2 diabetics.