How To Cut Carbs: 10 Easy Ways To Reduce Carb Intake

There are many ways to reduce carb intake and live a healthier life. So here are ten easy-to-follow tips to cut carbs and lose weight fast.

Whether you are following a low carb diet or just looking to lose a few pounds, reducing your carbohydrate intake might be the hardest thing for you. And since there are good and bad carbs, things can get even more complicated.

These ten ways to reduce carb intake are easy to follow, so you’ll get rid of those extra pounds without too much of a hassle.

How To Reduce Carb Intake

Here are our top tips for those looking to ditch bad carbohydrates and replace them with healthier alternatives:

1. Ditch Soda To Reduce Your Carb Intake

Sweet soda drinks taste delicious, I know. But a single can of coke packs 39 grams of carbs, and all of them come from sugar.

If cutting down your carb intake is something you want to do, eliminating sugary drinks should be the first thing to do.

They are not just full of calories, they are really unhealthy too. These sodas are high in added sugar which is linked to increased insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and even obesity when consumed in excess.

If you craving a sweet beverage, you can add to your club soda or iced tea some lemon or lime. And if you really need a sweeter taste, you can add a small amount of low-calorie sweetener.

2. Avoid Eating Too Much Bread

Bread is something that we are all having on our table and in our daily eating habits. But the bread we are eating is really high in carbs and low in fiber.

This is especially the case when it comes to eating wheat bread. This bread is made from refined grains, which can have a negative impact on your weight and health.

When the grains are refined, pretty much all of the fiber, the vitamins, and the minerals are removed. This means that some of the products end up being enriched with synthetic vitamins after processing.

Even when you are choosing nutritious bread like rye you are still consuming about 15 grams of carbs per slice.

Although the whole grain bread contains minerals and vitamins, you can choose other foods that have the same amount of nutrients but fewer carbs. Some of the healthy foods you can enjoy are nuts, vegetables, and seeds.

Giving up bread entirely can be tough, so if you find it difficult, you can try to make your own bread. Find yourself a low carb bread recipe and avoid the excess carb intake. These recipes are easy to make and the bread will turn out delicious.

3. Use Sweetener Instead Of Sugar

When you are following a low carb diet, sweetening your drinks and foods with sugar is not a healthy option.

One tablespoon of brown sugar or white sugar has 12 grams of carbs in the form of sucrose, with 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

Choosing honey may sound like a healthier option but it is even higher in carbs. One tablespoon of honey has 17 grams of carbs with almost the same percentage of glucose and fructose as sugar.

The best thing for all of us to do would be to learn to enjoy the natural flavor of our foods without adding any sweeteners to it. But that is not the case, right?!

If you are enjoying your sweet taste, these are some sugar-free sweeteners that you should try:

• Erythritol – is a sugar alcohol that won’t raise your insulin or blood sugar levels, and it tastes like sugar.
• Xylitol – it is another sugar alcohol that will help you fight the bacterias that cause tooth decay.

4. Reduce Carb Intake By Avoiding Fruit Juices

When it comes to fruit juices, they are a big NO. Unlike the whole fruits, these drinks contain almost no fiber and are filled with sugar.

Despite the fact that they provide you with some minerals and vitamins, they are no better than those sugar-sweetened drinks when it comes to carbs and sugar.

Just as a reference, a 350 ml 100% apple juice will contain 46 grams of carbs, most of which will come from sugar.

The best thing for you to do is to avoid drinking juice completely. An alternative to the juice is flavored waters.

Try to flavor your water by adding slices of orange or lime to it. You can even get more creative by adding other flavors to it.

5. Eat For Breakfast Eggs And Low Carb Food

Even if you are consuming a small number of certain breakfast foods, they are often high in carbs. These can be the worst things you could eat for breakfast.

Just half a cup of granola has 30 grams of carbs in it, and this is before adding milk to it.

Eggs, on the other hand, are ideal for breakfast when you are trying to reduce carb intake. Each egg contains less than one gram of carbs.

Eggs are also an excellent source of high-quality protein, which will help you feel fuller for hours and eat fewer calories during the day.

And the best thing about eggs is that you can prepare them in various ways. So when you don’t know what to eat for breakfast, just boil some eggs and you are good to go.

6. Opt For Low Carb Snacks

The intake of carbs can add up very quickly when you eat pretzels, chips or crackers. And if you choose to eat these foods, you can’t really satisfy your hunger.

If you’re feeling hungry between meals, the best thing to eat is some low carbs snack that also contains protein.

One study says that women ended up feeling fuller and ate 100 fewer calories at dinner when they ate a high protein snack, compared to a snack that was low in protein.

These are some snacks that contain less than 5 grams of digestible carbs in one serving of 28 grams, and also have some protein:

• Peanuts have 6 grams of carbs, 2 grams being fiber.
• Hazelnuts have 5 grams of carbs, 3 of which is fiber.
• Almonds have 6 grams of carbs, 3 grams of that being fiber.
• Pecans have 4 grams of protein and 2 of them being fiber.
• Cheese has less than 1 gram of carbs.

7. Switch To Almond Or Coconut Instead Of Regular Milk

Yes, milk is very nutritious but it’s also high in carbs because it contains a type of sugar we call lactose. A glass of 250 ml of full-fat or low-fat milk contains 14 grams of carbs.

If you want to add a tiny amount of milk to your tea or coffee, that is fine. But if you are drinking lattes, shakes or milk by the glassful, you will end up consuming a lot of carbs.

The good news is you can find several substitutes for it. The most popular ones are almond milk and coconut milk. But you can find other substitutes that are made from hemp or other nuts.

Calcium, Vitamin D, minerals, and other vitamins are often added to these drinks to improve their nutritional value.

These drinks are mostly water so their carb content is very low. Usually, they have 2 grams or less of carbs per serving.

However, you will find that some of these beverages contain sugar. So before buying them, make sure you are checking the labels.

Take a look over the ingredients list to be sure that you are buying a low carb drink that in unsweetened.

8. When Eating Out, Ask For Veggies Instead Of Bread Or Potatoes

When it comes to eating out, you can find it challenging to stick to a low carb diet.

Even if you are ordering fish or meat without any gravy or breading, you can still end up with a starch on the side. These can be potatoes, bread or pasta. And they can add up to 30 carbs or more to your meal, depending on the portion size.

To avoid the extra carbs, you can ask your server to substitute the high carb foods with low carb vegetables. If your menu already includes a side of vegetables, you can even have another serving, if the vegetables are the nonstarchy kind.

Your non-starchy vegetables can be eggplant, cucumber, celery, mushroom, onion, peppers, spinach, zucchini, cabbage and more.

9. Use Low Carbs Flour Instead Of Wheat Flour

A high carb ingredient that is found in bread, cookies, and muffins is wheat flour. This is also used in coating fish or meat prior to frying, baking or sauteing. Even the whole wheat flour has 61 grams of carbs in 100 grams.

But there is an alternative you can use when baking. And it will not add those carbs in your food. You can buy flour made from coconut and nuts.

For instance, 100 grams of almond flour will contain less than 11 grams of carbs, and 100 grams of the coconut flour contains 20 grams of carbs.

You can use the flours for sauteing or counting your food, and even in recipes that require wheat flours.

But one thing that you need to know is that the texture of the finished product won’t have the same texture because these flours don’t contain gluten.

The coconut and almond flour work best in recipes like pancakes, muffins or similar soft baked goods.

10. Eat Healthy And High Protein Foods

If you are trying to lose weight and reduce carb intake, eating a good protein source at your meal is what you need to do.

When you are consuming proteins you will trigger the “fullness hormone” (PYY) that will reduce hunger, fight with cravings, and protect your muscle mass when losing weight.

Make sure that you are including at least one serving from this list of low-carb high-protein foods at each meal:

• Meat;
• Fish;
• Poultry;
• Eggs;
• Cheese;
• Nuts;
• Greek Yogurt.

Leading a healthy low carb lifestyle is not that easy. When you don’t know what to eat and how to substitute certain foods, it can make the process even more difficult.

These few tips are exactly what you need to guide you to a more healthier, less carb, and even fewer pounds lifestyle.

Just start by taking these steps that will reduce the carb intake from your diet, so that you can enjoy healthy foods and lose weight effortlessly.