As the name suggests, following a low carb diet involves eating meals with reduced carbohydrates. People who follow this diet instead focus on consuming healthy fats, vegetables, some fruits and lots of protein-rich foods.
Low carb is not as restrictive as other diets like the ketogenic diet or the banting diet. Yet, despite being easier to follow, eating low carb by removing carbohydrates and highly processed foods is a healthy way to support weight loss. If you're interested in diving into the the science, around carbohydrate restriction and weight loss, you can read more here.
Because the low carb diet involves restricting carbohydrate rich foods, creating a meal plan with this structure can feel overwhelming for some people. While there is some flexibilty, the vast majority of people who follow low-carb avoid foods like: bread and pasta, pastries and foods with added sugars.
Hands down, the main reason most people follow a low carb meal plan is to help with weight loss. However, many people use LC to help with other chronic health issues such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. While the science is far from settled, many reputable scientific studies report promising results managing type-2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome using a low carb diet protocol.
Eating low carb isn't as scary as it seems at first glance, trust us. The main thing to focus on is changing refined, processed carbohydrates for healthy unprocessed options.
By doing this alone, you're already eating a vastly different diet from the typical 'Western' or American diet which is largely composed of processed, prepackaged foods. Below is some guidance about what to eat and what to avoid on this plan.
It's tempting to take a black and white approach with this plan (just like any diet). We're not aiming for zero carbohydrates here, the aim of the game is to significantly reduce overall carbohydrate intake and end up with a very low carb diet overall. When you do consume carbohydrates make sure they're inside protein rich foods which aren't highly processed.
Because of it's restrictive nature, following a plan to start with can be very helpful for many people.
A good meal plan will give you all the recipes you need (compatible ones, of course), as well a full shopping list.
Ultimate Meal Plans gives you a fully customizable meal plan to suit your needs. You can choose the number of people you're cooking for, exclude ingredients to suit taste or dietary requirements and we'll give you a fully customized set of recipes and shopping list to match.
By the way, don't worry if you find that low carb lifestyle isn't right for you, you can always chose another meal plan like keto, paleo, AIP or banting once you're inside our meal planner app.
Here's an example shopping list covering a typical week's ingredients for this low carb meal plan that assumes you're cooking for a family of three.
Want some ideas to start cooking and living out this lifestyle? Below are some sample recipe ideas to get your tastebuds rumbling.
Keto Coco Coffee
Sausage and Spicy Dip
Coconut Pancakes
Sausage Scramble
Crispy Prosciutto Salad
Prosciutto Rollups
Tuna Bites
Shrimp Scampi
Steak Bites with Cheese Sauce
Thai Shrimp Saute
Want to learn more about the low carb diet? Below are some great references we've collected from our articles and from around the web to help you.