List of Low Carb Foods
Foods Low in Carbs for Fat Loss

This list of low carb foods is great for fat loss. No hunger with foods low in carbs! Just pick what matches your fat loss needs.

• Please note that this is not our low carb Paleolithic Diet page. If you are looking for our free fast-track Paleo Diet (which is 100% natural, and even lower in carbohydrate), please click here: Natural Weight Loss Diet Otherwise, please continue.

In this section of our website we have the following pages:

• Low Carb Diets, Part One
• Low Carb Diets, Part Two
• Low Carb Foods (this page)
• Low Carb Paleolithic Diet
• Fat Burning Foods that Speed Up Metabolism
• Carb Count for Vegetables Chart
• Carb Count for Fruits Chart

Foods Low in Carbs

Unprocessed low carbohydrate foods

Whenever possible eat completely unprocessed low carb foods. Eat organically grown foods. Eat non-allergenic vegetables and fruits. The greater the variety of vegetables and fruits eaten, the less likely you'll be to develop food allergies and intolerances.

Eating your favorite foods daily can lead to food intolerance and addictive or masked allergy. This can seriously interfere with your ability to lose weight.

Especially if you have a leaky gut (abnormal intestinal permeability), it is much better to rotate foods, in other words, wait at least four days after consuming a kind of food before having it again. This also helps to promote variety in the low carb foods you consume.

When digested, all carbs are sugars. So, think of eating carbs as eating sugar.

Moreover, think of eating refined (processed) carbohydrates as eating concentrated sugar.

Your body can make everything it needs from proteins and fats. The only carbs you should consume are the natural carbs that are in plants such as fresh vegetables and fruits. If you don't eliminate all processed carbs, at least severely restrict them.

List of Low Carb Foods: Rule 1

Pick foods low in carbs that work for you

The task is to find good low carbohydrate foods that work best for you.

Some selections from the favorable (recommended) list of carbohydrate foods may not work well for you, and some selections from the less favorable (questionable) list of carbohydrates foods may not hinder you. The following lists of foods low in carbs are initial guidelines.

You are unique. What works well for someone else make not work best for you. Even if only for a few weeks, keeping a written record of exactly what you eat and how you feel can be extremely helpful.

The first goal is to get your daily intake of carbs down to between about 50 to 70 grams and keep it there in order to lose body fat.

If you trouble yourself to do that and follow the exercise program presented here at our free website, you'll quickly be on your way to natural weight loss.

Once you are where you should be in terms of body composition (in other words, your percentage of body fat), you may raise your carb intake to about 100 grams daily (or even a bit more) but continue to restrict or eliminate all processed carbs.

It is important that you get all or nearly all of your carbs from natural foods such as vegetables and fruits and not from processed grains.

It is neither necessary nor desirable to eliminate dietary carb intake or to reduce it much below 50 grams daily.

A 15/35/50 combination is a good place to start. Always limit calories from proteins to a maximum of 40%. Get the remaining 60% of calories from good fats and unprocessed carbs.

For more about combination in relation to fat burning foods see our web page now or return to it later:

to Fat Burning Foods

List of Low Carb Foods: Rule 2

Recommended foods low in carbs

In general, the best low carb foods from plants are non-starchy vegetables.

Especially important are the leafy green vegetables like spinach. Other good foods low in carbs are asparagus; lettuce; mustard greens; beet greens; turnip greens; parsley; kale; collard; bok choy; broccoli; cauliflower; celery; cucumber; green, red, or Chinese cabbage; mushrooms (unless you are following an anti-candida diet); sweet or hot peppers; yellow summer squash; and zucchini.

Other foods low in carbs are beets; carrots; red or yellow onions; watercress; kohlrabi; turnips; avocados; pumpkin; radish; and brussel sprouts. The stems and leaves of vegetables may often be used in salads.

If you can afford the carbs, other possibilities from plants are:

Seeds or fresh olives.

Tea, especially green tea.

Coffee (without sugar or cream), but not over 4 cups daily.

Fresh fruits (unless you are in the initial weeks of an anti-candida diet) such as melons, bananas, tomatoes, figs, lemons, limes, apples, pears, kiwis, plums, and all kinds of berries as well as citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruit, pineapple, and tangerines.

Fresh coconut and unsweetened coconut milk.

Fresh garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and other antioxidant, anti-inflammatory culinary spices.

Oregano, dill, thyme, and sage and other herbs.

Soy foods and soy protein powders (but not allowed on an anti-candida diet or, of course, if you are allergic to them).

Brown rice and rice protein powder (but only if you can afford the carbs).

Foods from animals:

Eggs (but not more than 1 yolk daily) and egg whites.

Fresh fish two to five times weekly—especially wild caught salmon, Alaskan halibut, orange roughy, sardines, anchovies, Chilean sea bass, trout, and mackerel. Shellfish (such as shrimp, crab, clams, oysters, and lobster) is fine about once a week (although shellfish are common allergens and may also accumulate toxins).

Lean red meat (such as grass-fed buffalo) or wild game (such as deer, elk, or rabbit) once or twice weekly.

Grass-fed beef that hasn't been treated with hormones or antibiotics.

Wild game birds (such as duck, goose, pheasant, and quail) once or twice weekly.

Domestic poultry is acceptable if it has been range-fed and not treated with hormones or antibiotics.

Rabbit.

Goat. Internal animal organs (such as liver, heart, pancreas, and bone marrow) are fine once or twice weekly.

Pickled herring (unless you are following an anti-candida diet).

Alcohol: wine (especially red, unless you suffer from migraines triggered by red wine) is acceptable (but no alcohol if you are following an anti-candida diet). If you drink alcohol, it's unwise to have more than one drink daily if you are female or two drinks daily if you are male. Only unsweetened alcoholic beverages should be consumed.

With respect to oils, use liberal amounts of omega-3 fatty acids (for example, from deep water fish or fish oil supplements) and omega-9 fatty acids (for example, from cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil). Use a more restricted intake of omega-6 oils (for example, many vegetable oils). Canola, flaxseed, and walnut oils are acceptable.

List of Low Carb Foods: Rule 3

Questionable foods low in carbs

If you use these at all, use them moderately and only if you can afford the carbs. You may be able to eat one of these as an occasional treat (in other words, once a week).

Tuna (which may contain high concentrations of mercury). Sausage and cold cuts. (However, unless you make your own, sausages and cold cuts are usually full of additives and/or sugars.) Dairy products: nonfat milk, low fat or nonfat cheese or cottage cheese, low fat sour cream, low fat cream cheese, or plain yogurt (without sugar). (Our hunter-gatherer ancestors never consumed any of these.)

Legumes (beans, peas, peanuts, and so on). (Our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not evolve eating these.)

White onions.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams.

Corn and cornbread, brown rice, amaranth, buckwheat, and quinoa. (Again, our foraging ancestors never ate these.)

Nuts and nut butters. (However, peanuts and peanut butter are common allergens and cashews are higher in carbs.)

Commercial dressings and condiments.

List of Low Carb Foods: Rule 4

These foods low in carbs are to be avoided

These are good reasons to avoid these foods even if some are on a list of low carb foods.

Avoid all trans fats, which are found in all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, oils, and margarines.

Avoid all foods that have been canned, frozen, milled, irradiated or extracted such as canned vegetables, frozen dinners, and packaged cookies or cakes. Such harsh processing destroys nutrients.

Avoid large fish such shark and swordfish because they may contain high concentrations of mercury.

Avoid all foods containing refined (processed) carbohydrates.

These are such things as breads, pastas, rolls, muffins, crumpets, pastries, bagels, pretzels, doughnuts, cookies, cakes, corn chips, most Mexican food, pizza, croissants, white (polished) rice, soft drinks, granola bars, breakfast bars, and most cereals. Avoid white flour and sugar. None are low carb foods. Think of these as bad carbs.

Avoid gluten-containing grains such as wheat, rolled oats, triticale (a wheat-rye mixture), rye, barley, spelt, and kamut. It may also be best to avoid corn, rice, wild rice, teff, millet, sorghum, sugarcane, and cane sugar.

Avoid grain fed beef and grain-fed buffalo.

Avoid meat from feedlots where animals are treated with antibiotics.

Avoid sweetened dairy products such as frozen yogurt. Avoid full-fat dairy products.

Avoid all sweet fruits and dried fruits.

Avoid candy.

Avoid all sweetened foods including drinks and desserts.

Avoid sugar and especially "hidden" sugars.

For a short tutorial on how to read food labels and spot 'hidden' sugars, see weight loss tip number 4 on our web page: Top 10 Weight Loss Tips. You will find that page listed on the navigation buttons.

sidebar quotation from Melissa Diana Smith: "Grains may seem the staff of life, but they're really scythes that insidiously whittle away most people's health. . . To stay fit and free of disease, all of us should eat fewer grains. Some of us should eat no grains at all."

Foods Low In Carbs: Which Diet?

Foods Low in Carbs: Fruit & Veg

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Web www.lasting-weight-loss.com

List of low carb foods: additional reading

• McCully & McCully, THE HEART REVOLUTION
• Braly & Hoggan, DANGEROUS GRAINS
• Allan & Lutz, LIFE WITHOUT BREAD
• Smith, GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

Rethinking is the first step toward permanent weight loss.

Great resource for low carb recipes

This completes this section of foods low in carbs and list of low carb foods.



From foods low in carbs, list of carbohydrate foods, and list of low carb foods, to the lasting natural weight loss homepage