Are You REALLY Counting All Your Carbs?

By Sami

One of the most common causes of LCHF diet failure or plateaus are caused by the dreaded hidden carbs. It's basically just what it sounds like. You might look on the back of an egg carton and note it says "0" for the carbohydrate count, but an egg really has .6 grams. Also food companies can get away with calling something "Fat Free" or "No Trans Fat" as long as there's less than one gram per serving. I know, it's crappy and unethical. But they do it, and you need to be aware of it.

And you may say, "so what? that's such a minuscule amount it doesn't matter." You might not think it adds up. But it does. Take my breakfast for instance:

2 coffees with 1 tablespoon heavy cream and 1 packet Sweet 'n Low each
3 eggs scrambled in butter

Okay, coffee and eggs. You might look at this and think it's a perfect zero-carb breakfast. But when you add up the "minuscule" amounts of carbohydrate in these items:

2 cups coffee = 1.6
2 tablespoons heavy cream = 1.2
2 packets Sweet 'n Low = 2
3 eggs = 1.8

That "zero-carb" breakfast suddenly turns into a 6.6 carb breakfast. That makes it a lot harder to stick to something like Atkins Induction Phase when you have to count the carbohydrates in these things as well as vegetables. If I added onions and peppers into my egg scramble, that carb count could easily creep up to over 10.

This can be especially bad if for instance, someone uses heavy cream in large amounts, say for low-carb ice cream or pots de creme. Because even though for one tablespoon it lists the carbs as zero, the .6 it really contains can add up. Here's a list of the "hidden carb count" found in some foods you probably eat:

Cream: 0.6g per tablespoon
Cheddar Cheese: 0.5g grams per ounce
Swiss Cheese: 0.9g per ounce
Eggs: 0.6g per large egg
Sugar-Free Jello: 1g per 1/2 cup
Coffee: 0.8g per cup
Most Artificial Sweeteners: 1g per packet
Hellman's Mayonnaise: .2g per tablespoon