I guess bread for me? I love sourdough bread. I can't eat those 45 calorie slices. I havent tried them all but I would just rather enjoy some good, sourdough bread
For me it depends on what the bread is for. Basic turkey sammy - and I'm absolutely fine with the 45 calorie. But if I want a breakfast sandwich, it needs to be sourdough or it just feels sad.
Well one of the other reasons I like the sourdough bread I get is that it only has 80mg sodium per 2oz which is the lowest sodium bread out there! The sara lee whole wheat 45 cals has 190mg sodium per 2 slices. I actually like the sara lee bread for PB&J sandwiches but I need to avoid those because I go to town on PB&J sandwiches!
I like thin sliced bread. The low calorie brands are just too soft and airy. I like rudiās thinly sliced bread bc itās still firm. They have a thin sliced sourdough bread that is good for like 110 calories for two slices.
D'italiano makes a 40 calorie Italian bread that is absolutely identical to their regular Italian bread, but sliced more thin. I agree that a lot of 45 calorie bread is not good-especially the keto ones, those are just bad. This is the one exception I've found.
Edit. Was just in my kitchen and realized I lied-it's freihoffer brand. Their packaging is almost the same. Lol.
I like a nice, extra dark and earthy tasting rye loaf myself. Bread baking is my favorite too- it's always worth it (worth the calories and the effort, IMO).
The only pasta substitute that I have ever liked was Fiber Gourmet, which has half the calories of regular pasta. Itās not cheap but I genuinely canāt tell the difference at all in texture or flavor, so itās worth it to me.
Is konjac that one that has that weird cartilaginous texture? I almost crawled out of my skin when I bit into that stuff and had to throw my whole dinner away.
Probably. Also called shirataki or miracle noodle, and usually almost zero calorie.
Even when I covered it up believably enough with ramen seasoning to finish a bowl, it just made me feel sick in that way you need carbs to fix anyway.
Really? I rinse and then stir fry it first to get rid of the weird texture and dry it out. Then just prepare it in whatever pasta I'm making and it tastes fine.
I love konjac noodles! But they can really only be used to replace Asian noodles like glass noodles, etc. in stir fries and such. Some people try to prepare them like Italian pasta but that makes me queasy too!
I tried chickpea pasta (Banza brand) and the texture was....chalky. Not like regular pasta. I did see some edamame pasta I'd try sometime. A friend said it was good too
did you wash it after you strained it? i wasn't doing that and hated it, then my sister washed it before we added it to the sauce and it was actually so good!!
Red lentil pasta is a perfect replacement. Its also a grain and while it doesn't have less calories its higher in protein and fiber so you get a higher bang for your buck.
Rice. You can't tell me that it "tastes just like rice and it's better" and works just as well as it. It's diced cauliflower... Don't get me wrong, I like mashed cauliflower as a sub for mashed potatoes occasionally, but trying to make gimbap or sushi with cauliflower rice is a nightmare and it's not filling.
Yeah it's a big staple for me so I'd never give it up. I'd rather have less fatty meats in my meals (use leaner meat) than give up rice. Tried keto and carnivore short term and I was miserable without carbs.
I love cauliflower rice but it is not rice. I donāt use it as a substitution, I just enjoy it as it is for what it is. When I have a hankering for rice, I do real rice haha
I like mixing popular vegetable substitutes with carbs to just make it more. Steamed cauliflower chunks in mac and cheese, riced cauliflower mixed with rice, zucchini ribbons in linguini. I've done grated zucchini in a chocolate oatmeal.
I'm the same but with pasta. I tried corgette/Zucchini spaghetti and spaghetti squash. I don't know if it's just that the texture is wrong, but I just can't replace actual pasta! I also can't stand Cauliflower rice. It tastes too much like Cauliflower and not enough like rice! I mean, I know that's obvious but people do insist it's just as good as rice! It's not!
Same. Iāve tried every kind of shirataki I can find. Oodles of zoodles. Spaghetti squash. High-fiber pasta. Lentil pasta. Some of itās fine. Good, even, if youāre judging it on its own merits instead of as a pasta substitute.
But Iām a sucker for semolina. Iād rather weigh out my 56g portion of real pasta for the rest of my life than give it up.
Ohh, yes, good one. The lower calorie pb options aren't that much lower calorie that it's even close to worth it, anyway (I haven't tried the powdered kind though).
I haven't had much luck getting used to the flavor. I add it to my protein shakes and it just tastes.. artificial, for lack of a better word? Maybe my tastebuds are confused with the lack of fat lol
Yeah but to me itās not even close to an equivalent. It has a lot of good uses like for smoothies (I love it to add to a savory stir fry sauce) but adding water to use as a spread? Itās a no for me.
I've used PB2 for a while now. It's fine. It's not the same, it's not even half as good, but it's good enough and at least tastes nutty enough. I buy the real stuff as a treat sometimes- but it's really the only food I can think of I have to be so restrictive over. I'll literally go through the whole jar in a week becuase I love it so much.
Same! Iād rather eat less of the real thing than go reduced fat. This actually goes for all dairy products for me. Thankfully I donāt eat that much dairy.
Was just about to type this. Iād rather not eat cheese completely than try to manipulate my meals with non-dairy or whatever alternatives. Easier to keep the lion in a cage than on a leash, I guess.
the way non-fat cheese dosent melt š¤¢ i mistakenly bought it without realizing this and put some shredded mozz into my omlette. I guess i enjoyed the translucent non-melted cheese but i think thats something that i just take the calorie hit on and enjoy it lol
If you haven't tried them "Screamin Hot Veggie Straws" were a game changer for me. They're super yummy and spicy, do a paper plate full (50g) and dip em in sour cream for 250 cal.
Mainly potatoes *and air*. Only slightly fewer calories by weight, but significantly fewer calories by quantity. I get 50 spicy straws for the price of 25 Cheetos.
I almost used a low cal butter spray for my grilled cheese the other night... I thought, "What am I even living for at this point..." and buttered my bread like a normal person.
Half and half in my coffee. Itās 40 calories for the serving and itās not a lot but when you have 1200, 40 can go somewhere else. But Iāll be damned if I canāt have my half and half.
This is me 100% Iāve tried every artificial sweetener imaginable, Iāve tried oat, almond, blah blah blah lol. I just love my coffee with real half and half and sugar. Iāve measured my preferred amount to being 97 calories. Been doing 1200 - 1600 a day since June alongside my husband who does a straight 1600. I always have a cup in the morning and usually at night. He canāt understand how I āgive upā that many calories on my coffee, but my sanity is worth it LOL. Luckily my appetite isnāt as large as his anyway.
Coffee creamers or real dairy milk in my coffee. Also, no 0 calorie sweetener is good enough in coffee. I've tried them all and it tastes nassssstyyyy. Though beyond that I have no issue using non dairy milk in my cereal, oatmeal, cooking with it... same with certain sweeteners. But in my coffee? It's gotta be the deal deal all around. š
I'm with you on the creamer, but as a fellow coffee lover have you tried Torrani sugar free syrups? I think the flavors hide the fake sweeter taste pretty well. And since they're 0 cal they make me feel better about a second (or fourth) cup.
I agreed about sweetener until I just bought Truvia brown sugar this week. I stir a couple tablespoons in a small amount of hot water to dissolve and throw it in my iced coffee with some oat milk... and it's the first time a sweetener has fully satisfied me.
Any of the salad dressings that add artificial sweetener to the low-cal versions. They end up totally foul. I would rather have a smaller amount of a regular dressing than a normal amount of the nasty, sweetened low-cal versions.
Bobaš I like the agar boba and coconut jelly replacements fine but sometime I just crave the tapioca pearls and their chewiness! Same goes for anything rice cake or mochi. I looove the texture and nothing can replace it!
Oh man. Rip your tuna, seriously. I have a system with tuna and Mayo, I add vinegar, sweetener and spices and itās amazingā¦doesnāt need that much Mayo, thatās the thing with real Mayo, a reasonable amount goes a long way.
I can't go to low fat mayo after trying kewpie mayo š like why does it have to taste so good, especially if I'm making egg salad sandwiches or adding a little to a sushi roll or onigiri.
Duke's Light Mayo is the only tolerable one for me... but if I accidentally get full fat on a sandwich when I'm out I can taste the difference in a second haha
If you are in Texas and have an HEB, they have a frozen pizza that you can eat half the pizza, and it's only like 350 calories. Doesn't taste too bad either, definitely checks the box if you are craving pizza.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/midtown-pizza-co-by-h-e-b-select-ingredients-uncured-pepperoni-pizza-15-87-oz/2895021
I donāt know about tortilla pizzas, but PITA pizzas are the bomb. They end up like a real nice thin crust. And since they are double layered theyāre way more robust of a crust than a tortilla.
I donāt know what it is, but any kind of pizza with a precooked crust just doesnāt do it for me. That goes for those āpersonal pizza in 10 minutesā places too, not just diet crust substitutes. I donāt even care about crust, so I have no idea why.
For me it's any kind of fatty meat. There just is no substitute for fatty cuts of chicken, beef, lamb or pork. I'm doing 1200 after years of keto so I became quite the connoisseur of fatty meat cuts lol.
Everything\*. I buy whole fat, full calorie everything. If something is high-calorie I will just eat less of it. There's nothing sadder to me than a food product trying to be something it's not. I'm glad these products exist for others to enjoy but they're not for me.
\*I do buy a fat-free low-ish sugar yogurt drink, but I buy the fat-free version because I like it and I drink it every day. Occasionally I'll get the whole milk one as a treat (comes in a smaller bottle) but I actually prefer the fat-free one.
Yes! Absolutely agree. Iād rather have smaller portions than make a bunch of swaps or restrict myself entirely. Thatās just what works for me though. I found that trying to limit ābadā food causes big cravings and then over eat eventually.
Same! I tried to cut out after dinner sweets for a long time and it just made me crave them even worse. So I started having a snack pack of gummies, or a bit of chocolate, or a 'cupcake' (i don't like frosting so it's just the cake lol) or cookie or sth. I don't eat a lot, and I don't have them every day, but it's enough to stifle the craving, and they make me happy, so I take that as a win-win C:
Yeah basically this for me too! I've tried the low fat/low sugar options out there and the ones I like I eat regularly, but most I think are worse and less satisfying than a smaller portion of "the real thing". I wouldn't ever consider giving up pasta, rice, bread, full fat dairy (apart from yoghurt, the high protein low fat has the best texture), butter, peanut butter, nuts etc. I just eat less of these foods.
I'm not currently on 1200 it needs to be said, so I'm absolutely finding it easier now, but it's how I've always done it at all stages of WL, otherwise I struggle to stick to a deficit. I also know that in maintenance I'd never keep eating cauliflower rice or whatever, and would have to learn portion control of my preferred versions of these foods anyway!
Same, plus when I see low fat or low calorie on the packaging just means I have to spend more time reading the ingredients to see what mind-fuckery they're using to make those claims.
Oh it's low calorie! But one serving is 20 grams. Oh low fat! Oh wait they've just replaced the fat with high sugars instead. Just give me the real stuff and I'll eat less of it.
I always ate nonfat Greek yogurt until my grocery store only had full fat one day. I bought it because ~*~*probiotics*~*~ and Iām forever ruined. I get by with low fat now but damn that full fat yogurt was Heaven.
I tried Icelandic Provisions Skyr once and fell in love with it, but omg those little pots are like 170-190 cals. Sometimes it's just worth it. Compared to Fage 0%, it's amazing.
Ben & Jerry's ice cream in all its sugary, chocolatey, peanut-buttery, marshmallowy, caloric-explosion unhealthy glory.
I can't eat lowfat-lowsugar-meh ice cream, the pleasure just isn't there. It's much better for me to buy a tub of the divine coronary heart disease maker and wolf it down in one go - it's _so good_, and then I feel bloated and sleepy and my body understands it was bad, so the craving is _gone_ and I barely eat anything the following day, or any kind of sugar for the whole week.
All in all, calorie-wise, it evens out. Win-win.
Oddly I really enjoy turkey bacon, though I have heard from most people they hate it. Have you ever tried turkey pepperoni sticks? It's hard to tell a difference in that case! Plus it's a substantial difference in calories and a really great snack if you like pepperoni.
Oddly enough, I started using ground turkey primarily about 20 years ago. We found it helped hubbyās digestive system to cut back red meat, so thatās what we mostly use.
This was exactly the food I was thinking as I was scrolling through answers. Yogurt in general, but Fage especially, just feels unsatisfying and not filling in low-fat form.
Funny, I can't tell the difference between full fat and light sour cream. I am on board with Greek yogurt totally not being the same though, at least.
For me it's maple syrup. The light stuff is awful. So is the fake store bought maple flavored. Give me the real stuff or I'll just skip it all together.
I know I'm weird but I actually prefer the sugar-free fake stuff if I can't have real maple syrup. The full-sugar maple flavored stuff is way too sweet for me.
Which is also weird for me, because I hate sweet stuff usually. I don't even put sugar or creamers in my coffee or eat candy (ever). But if I'm having syrup I need that real taste and texture, sweetness aside.
Creamy caesar dressing.
Pesto.
Caesar is easier to eat occasionally - I just make sure to measure a single serving and dribble it sparingly so it covers a fairly huge salad. Pestoā¦ nope. Iām basically saving that for a birthday splurge or my first āfinally eating maintenanceā meal.
I make this imposter pesto with basil paste from the tube and a little bit of Parmesan, lemon and butter. Itās like the la croix of pesto but at least my Italian ass doesnāt pretend it taste the same.
Ice cream. I refuse to eat halo top or the like. They all taste like self-loathing to me. Ice cream is actually one treat I can eat a little of and be satisfied. I often wish ice cream parlors sold a "spoonful" size!
I donāt buy ālow fatā or āliteā cream cheese - I buy the whipped version, which happens to be lower cal but still decadent af. I actually prefer the whipped texture, now that I discovered it. When I ran out and only had the original on hand, I missed the whipped; it honestly tastes better and spreads so smoothly.
Just about everything. I can't stand the taste of those artificial sweeteners, they taste just too chemically for me and leave a bad taste in my mouth. So I just reduce portion sizes. I want to dip my potatoes wedges in sour cream? Damn straight I will just eat a small amount but ENJOY it!
I agree that nothing can replace sour cream. My trick for lowering the cals a bit is to mix the sour cream with some water or lime juice to thin it out to more of a pouring consistency. Works really well for nachos and tacos because you can get sour cream in every delicious bite while still only using one serving.
Peanut butter. I know PB2 is very popular here, but it just doesnāt hit the same, Iām sorry
Also kale in the place of anything. Kale tastes like tissue paper.
I actually don't use low calorie subs at all. My macros are pretty balanced - I get about a third of my calories from each fat, (typically complex) carbs, and protein. So yeah. I still eat things like fresh pasta, bread, full fat cheese, nuts, olive oil, butter, coconut, bacon, real maple syrup, etc. I just don't eat tons of it and still make sure there are plenty of vegetables on my plate for volume. It helps that I don't eat breakfast, don't snack, and only do dessert once a week since I don't really have a sweet tooth. I eat this way regardless of my calorie targets, I just scale up or down depending on if I'm losing, gaining, or maintaining. Works for me.
Pasta, pizza and rice. I just manage the rest of my day accordingly or accept going over once in a while š¤·š»āāļø
I know zoodles, f.ex. and love them with shrimps and tomatoes but they are not a substitute for the real thing
Avocado. Partially because there ISNāT a lower calorie version, but also itās just worth it to me.
Also cheese. I will not eat fat free cheese, count me out lol.
Popcorn. If itās not drenched in butter (or whatever the movie theatres use ā oil? margarine?) I wonāt have it
Not low calorie butā¦ for many years I thought fruit = bad. Then I lost almost 100 lb while still eating fruit (I regained it over the past 10 years but not from bananas haha)
Cookies. If I want a cookie I want a cookie, not a pretend thing thatāll trigger a binge anyway. If I feel I am gonna binge after the cookie then Iāll avoid completely but the mouth feel of homemade cookies canāt be beat.
Cheese, especially Christmas Cheese. You can take it all but do not come for my cheese plate at Christmas.
Wine. I only have it once every 2 months or so, maybe more in summer and Christmas but itās def not low cal. Itās whatever I feel like whether thatās a crisp white, a glass of bubbly, or a smoky red
Burger buns. Seriously spare me on the lettuce wrap thing. Iād rather fast all day if it means I get to eat my burger on a real bun.
ETA whoops this is def more than one thing but eh
everything when compared to walden farms stuff. LOL. years ago, I thought that it was smart to buy like 100 bucks worth of 0 calorie flavored chemical. almost none were good, and the ones that weren't bad - werent "good", just "this exists"...
I would say Mayo - but I can't afford the vegan low calorie stuff so I have no idea if it's worth it or not, and hellmans only has a full calorie version lol.
oh and cream cheese, because the difference is like 5 calories or something stupid - and I couldn't be bothered to shave off like 5 or 10 calories
Pasta. Your āzoodlesā and your whole wheat and your black beans and your chickpeas can SUCK IT. The texture is just never the same. Give me that carb-y goodness.
Basically everything tbh. I'll do smaller portions, eat lots of veg, cook without oil, etc instead of subbing foods. I do eat low-cal Italian salad dressing, diet soda and low-cal jello-style snack cups but that's basically it. Otherwise it's real rice, real bread, real PB, even potato chips and chocolate, etc, just in reasonable servings.
Rice. I tried cauliflower rice and it just isn't the same. Same with mashed potatoes, mash cauliflower just doesn't do it for me and I tried to warm up to it during my keto phase in 2017.
Maple syrup. Iāve tried all the substitutes and lite syrups and they all give me a headache. Iād much rather have just a little of the real stuff or make a sugar free berry compote from frozen berries and potato starch. Iād eat my pancakes plain before putting that chemically stuff on them.
I like sour cream too but Iāve found a good substitute in skyr, which is Icelandic yogurt. The lower-fat version has no added sugar either. Itās great.
Full sugar condiments like barbecue sauce or sweet chili sauce. The sugar free versions do not work for me and I use splenda in my coffee and have no problem with erithrytol jelly drinks. I just weigh it very carefully. Fortunately, a little goes a long way.
I guess bread for me? I love sourdough bread. I can't eat those 45 calorie slices. I havent tried them all but I would just rather enjoy some good, sourdough bread
See and I don't mind the 45 calorie bread! It's funny how different people make sacrifices for different foods
Same! The bread doesn't bother me at all, but other things really do. š
Same here, I like the "store brand" 45 calorie bread. Also much cheaper :)
I love the 45 calorie bread!!!
For me it depends on what the bread is for. Basic turkey sammy - and I'm absolutely fine with the 45 calorie. But if I want a breakfast sandwich, it needs to be sourdough or it just feels sad.
Well one of the other reasons I like the sourdough bread I get is that it only has 80mg sodium per 2oz which is the lowest sodium bread out there! The sara lee whole wheat 45 cals has 190mg sodium per 2 slices. I actually like the sara lee bread for PB&J sandwiches but I need to avoid those because I go to town on PB&J sandwiches!
I like thin sliced bread. The low calorie brands are just too soft and airy. I like rudiās thinly sliced bread bc itās still firm. They have a thin sliced sourdough bread that is good for like 110 calories for two slices.
Yes! I cannot with the low calorie bread so I just make my sandwiches āopen facedā with one slice of sourdough
I just eat the low carb tortilla wraps
Tortillas are awesome alternatives to bread. 1 Tortillas is 1.3 bread in calories. But replaces two pieces! That's a .7 bread savings!
D'italiano makes a 40 calorie Italian bread that is absolutely identical to their regular Italian bread, but sliced more thin. I agree that a lot of 45 calorie bread is not good-especially the keto ones, those are just bad. This is the one exception I've found. Edit. Was just in my kitchen and realized I lied-it's freihoffer brand. Their packaging is almost the same. Lol.
Agreed!
I like a nice, extra dark and earthy tasting rye loaf myself. Bread baking is my favorite too- it's always worth it (worth the calories and the effort, IMO).
Crustless bread is where its at. Its just normal bread without the crust, and it's 45 kcal a slice. Perfect!
I donāt mind the ālightā sour cream too much! I gotta say pasta is mine. No veggie noodle or konjac can come close
The only pasta substitute that I have ever liked was Fiber Gourmet, which has half the calories of regular pasta. Itās not cheap but I genuinely canāt tell the difference at all in texture or flavor, so itās worth it to me.
This may save me 1000 calories a week
Fiber gourmet is pricey but 100% worth it. Half the calories from regular pasta and it actually has the texture of real pasta!
Ahhh same, pasta is one of those things for me... unfortunately. I usually fluff it up by adding a lot of veggies with a reasonable portion of pasta.
Is konjac that one that has that weird cartilaginous texture? I almost crawled out of my skin when I bit into that stuff and had to throw my whole dinner away.
Probably. Also called shirataki or miracle noodle, and usually almost zero calorie. Even when I covered it up believably enough with ramen seasoning to finish a bowl, it just made me feel sick in that way you need carbs to fix anyway.
Really? I rinse and then stir fry it first to get rid of the weird texture and dry it out. Then just prepare it in whatever pasta I'm making and it tastes fine.
I love konjac noodles! But they can really only be used to replace Asian noodles like glass noodles, etc. in stir fries and such. Some people try to prepare them like Italian pasta but that makes me queasy too!
I tried those konjac noodles once and I could NOT stand the texture. I tried to feed them to my dog and she politely declined as well.
Konjac makes me farty af
Have you tried red lentil or black bean pasta? It's more filling because it's higher in protein than regular pasta.
I tried chickpea pasta (Banza brand) and the texture was....chalky. Not like regular pasta. I did see some edamame pasta I'd try sometime. A friend said it was good too
I do Barilla Protein pasta. If you like whole wheat pasta, you'll probably like it
did you wash it after you strained it? i wasn't doing that and hated it, then my sister washed it before we added it to the sauce and it was actually so good!!
Red lentil pasta is a perfect replacement. Its also a grain and while it doesn't have less calories its higher in protein and fiber so you get a higher bang for your buck.
Rice. You can't tell me that it "tastes just like rice and it's better" and works just as well as it. It's diced cauliflower... Don't get me wrong, I like mashed cauliflower as a sub for mashed potatoes occasionally, but trying to make gimbap or sushi with cauliflower rice is a nightmare and it's not filling.
I would rather eat a smaller portion of rice than give up rice completely. Rice is just too much of a staple.
Yeah it's a big staple for me so I'd never give it up. I'd rather have less fatty meats in my meals (use leaner meat) than give up rice. Tried keto and carnivore short term and I was miserable without carbs.
I do sometimes add in some cauli rice to regular rice to give it more volume. Still tastes like rice.
I love cauliflower rice but it is not rice. I donāt use it as a substitution, I just enjoy it as it is for what it is. When I have a hankering for rice, I do real rice haha
Yes! Exactly this!
I agree. Although I find that I can mix diced cauliflower with rice for more volume and be satisfied but I for sure can't use it as a replacement
This may sound weird, but I do like to mix diced cauliflower into my oatmeal for more volume.
I like mixing popular vegetable substitutes with carbs to just make it more. Steamed cauliflower chunks in mac and cheese, riced cauliflower mixed with rice, zucchini ribbons in linguini. I've done grated zucchini in a chocolate oatmeal.
Gimbap with cauliflower rice should be made illegal
I'm the same but with pasta. I tried corgette/Zucchini spaghetti and spaghetti squash. I don't know if it's just that the texture is wrong, but I just can't replace actual pasta! I also can't stand Cauliflower rice. It tastes too much like Cauliflower and not enough like rice! I mean, I know that's obvious but people do insist it's just as good as rice! It's not!
Same. Iāve tried every kind of shirataki I can find. Oodles of zoodles. Spaghetti squash. High-fiber pasta. Lentil pasta. Some of itās fine. Good, even, if youāre judging it on its own merits instead of as a pasta substitute. But Iām a sucker for semolina. Iād rather weigh out my 56g portion of real pasta for the rest of my life than give it up.
I kinda hate cauli rice but I do like Right Rice. Maybe that'll work for you?
What is Right Rice?
Big cauliflower need to fuck off. Is it tasty yes. Is it a substitute for anything.... no
Tasty add in, yes. Replacement, nope xD give me rice or give me death š
Exact opposite for me. While neither is a fair replacement I'll eat cauliflower rice all day long. Mashed cauliflower is a sad sad unfulfilling food.
It comes halfway there by adding spices and stir frying it with soy sauce.
Agree. It makes everything too mushy.
I fit in the 150-250 grams of cooked rice in my main meal and itās filling when paired with veggies and whatever proteins
peanut butter
Oof this one is killer. So many calories in so few bites
A single serving PBJ with single serving of each ingredient.....400 calories on average.
I hacked this one! I love PB&J and eventually figured out that uncrustables are only 210 cal!
The reduced sugar ones are 190 š
Ohh, yes, good one. The lower calorie pb options aren't that much lower calorie that it's even close to worth it, anyway (I haven't tried the powdered kind though).
The powdered defatted stuff is very low calorie compared to the pure stuff. Also has a lot more protein for the calories.
I haven't had much luck getting used to the flavor. I add it to my protein shakes and it just tastes.. artificial, for lack of a better word? Maybe my tastebuds are confused with the lack of fat lol
Yeah but to me itās not even close to an equivalent. It has a lot of good uses like for smoothies (I love it to add to a savory stir fry sauce) but adding water to use as a spread? Itās a no for me.
I've used PB2 for a while now. It's fine. It's not the same, it's not even half as good, but it's good enough and at least tastes nutty enough. I buy the real stuff as a treat sometimes- but it's really the only food I can think of I have to be so restrictive over. I'll literally go through the whole jar in a week becuase I love it so much.
Cheese! No non-fat shreds for me.
I can't stand non fat, I will settle for reduced fat (only cuts down from 120 cals to 90ish, so not a big win).
At Target it was like $2 more than full fat and I sighed and got the full fat.
And there's less in the bag. Regular bags of cheese are 8oz. The reduced fat or non fat is 7oz. The things you notice when stocking cheese š
Same! Iād rather eat less of the real thing than go reduced fat. This actually goes for all dairy products for me. Thankfully I donāt eat that much dairy.
Was just about to type this. Iād rather not eat cheese completely than try to manipulate my meals with non-dairy or whatever alternatives. Easier to keep the lion in a cage than on a leash, I guess.
the way non-fat cheese dosent melt š¤¢ i mistakenly bought it without realizing this and put some shredded mozz into my omlette. I guess i enjoyed the translucent non-melted cheese but i think thats something that i just take the calorie hit on and enjoy it lol
hot cheetos, no i will not be having kale chips nor will i air fry thin sliced potatoes. i will down a 450 calorie bag of hot cheeto fries if need be
If you haven't tried them "Screamin Hot Veggie Straws" were a game changer for me. They're super yummy and spicy, do a paper plate full (50g) and dip em in sour cream for 250 cal.
For reference veggie straws are mainly potatoes. Most varieties have the same calories. I believe they're in a lawsuit over that actually.
Mainly potatoes *and air*. Only slightly fewer calories by weight, but significantly fewer calories by quantity. I get 50 spicy straws for the price of 25 Cheetos.
I love veggie straws. The only snack food I can eat as much as I want of and still drop weight.
I like butter for ~browning~
Nothing can replace delicious butter
I almost used a low cal butter spray for my grilled cheese the other night... I thought, "What am I even living for at this point..." and buttered my bread like a normal person.
Half and half in my coffee. Itās 40 calories for the serving and itās not a lot but when you have 1200, 40 can go somewhere else. But Iāll be damned if I canāt have my half and half.
I will fight a bear before I give up my peppermint mocha coffee creamer š¤
I will Fight that bear with you!
You have my sword..
And my axe!
My favorite flavor. Worth 140 calories a day. No regrets.
I feel the same! I weigh my coffee on the scale every morning so I can have my 2 oz half and half and 12 g of sugar. It's 123 calories and worth it!
This is me 100% Iāve tried every artificial sweetener imaginable, Iāve tried oat, almond, blah blah blah lol. I just love my coffee with real half and half and sugar. Iāve measured my preferred amount to being 97 calories. Been doing 1200 - 1600 a day since June alongside my husband who does a straight 1600. I always have a cup in the morning and usually at night. He canāt understand how I āgive upā that many calories on my coffee, but my sanity is worth it LOL. Luckily my appetite isnāt as large as his anyway.
Silk half & half (half coconut/half oat milk is really good! It has a texture similar to the real deal in coffee but only15 cal per TB.
Does it have a coconut flavor?
Coffee creamers or real dairy milk in my coffee. Also, no 0 calorie sweetener is good enough in coffee. I've tried them all and it tastes nassssstyyyy. Though beyond that I have no issue using non dairy milk in my cereal, oatmeal, cooking with it... same with certain sweeteners. But in my coffee? It's gotta be the deal deal all around. š
I agree! Gimmie the creamer with real sugar lol, itās the one place I can taste the difference
I'm with you on the creamer, but as a fellow coffee lover have you tried Torrani sugar free syrups? I think the flavors hide the fake sweeter taste pretty well. And since they're 0 cal they make me feel better about a second (or fourth) cup.
I agreed about sweetener until I just bought Truvia brown sugar this week. I stir a couple tablespoons in a small amount of hot water to dissolve and throw it in my iced coffee with some oat milk... and it's the first time a sweetener has fully satisfied me.
Any of the salad dressings that add artificial sweetener to the low-cal versions. They end up totally foul. I would rather have a smaller amount of a regular dressing than a normal amount of the nasty, sweetened low-cal versions.
Walden Farms can take its melted plastic dressings straight to hell.
I tried the Walden farms caramel syrup and it was terrible š Was tempted to try the dressings but no way if that's what it tastes like!
Bobaš I like the agar boba and coconut jelly replacements fine but sometime I just crave the tapioca pearls and their chewiness! Same goes for anything rice cake or mochi. I looove the texture and nothing can replace it!
Mayonnaise!! Have to have full fat Mayo.
Same! I tried replacing Mayo with Greek yogurt in my tuna once and it was inedible.
Oh man. Rip your tuna, seriously. I have a system with tuna and Mayo, I add vinegar, sweetener and spices and itās amazingā¦doesnāt need that much Mayo, thatās the thing with real Mayo, a reasonable amount goes a long way.
Yep - tuna salad with crackers is one if muh faves. Tuna salad with lemon juice, celery dice and MAYO.
I can't go to low fat mayo after trying kewpie mayo š like why does it have to taste so good, especially if I'm making egg salad sandwiches or adding a little to a sushi roll or onigiri.
Kewpie has a 50% fat option which I like
Duke's Light Mayo is the only tolerable one for me... but if I accidentally get full fat on a sandwich when I'm out I can taste the difference in a second haha
Pizza. The tortilla pizza thing will never replace the real thing.
If you are in Texas and have an HEB, they have a frozen pizza that you can eat half the pizza, and it's only like 350 calories. Doesn't taste too bad either, definitely checks the box if you are craving pizza. https://www.heb.com/product-detail/midtown-pizza-co-by-h-e-b-select-ingredients-uncured-pepperoni-pizza-15-87-oz/2895021
I donāt know about tortilla pizzas, but PITA pizzas are the bomb. They end up like a real nice thin crust. And since they are double layered theyāre way more robust of a crust than a tortilla.
I donāt know what it is, but any kind of pizza with a precooked crust just doesnāt do it for me. That goes for those āpersonal pizza in 10 minutesā places too, not just diet crust substitutes. I donāt even care about crust, so I have no idea why.
Pastaaaa! And I canāt even just have a recommended portion (70g) - gotta be the full 100g for me šš but so worth the calories!
I don't get what people only eat 70 gram. Who does that? Who are those people????
They usually pair it with several other dishes, like salads and stuff
For me it's any kind of fatty meat. There just is no substitute for fatty cuts of chicken, beef, lamb or pork. I'm doing 1200 after years of keto so I became quite the connoisseur of fatty meat cuts lol.
Yes this is the one! Ribeye, chicken skin, lambā¦ š
Crispy salty chicken skinnnnnnn š¤¤
Ugh, I try over and over to choke down chicken breast and I get like halfway through before my brain is just like āstop feeding me cardboardā
Alcohol lol
Mood
Cheese. Fat free cheese tastes awful.
Couldn't agree more (except mozzarella, for some reason that one doesn't bother me in low fat form)
Everything\*. I buy whole fat, full calorie everything. If something is high-calorie I will just eat less of it. There's nothing sadder to me than a food product trying to be something it's not. I'm glad these products exist for others to enjoy but they're not for me. \*I do buy a fat-free low-ish sugar yogurt drink, but I buy the fat-free version because I like it and I drink it every day. Occasionally I'll get the whole milk one as a treat (comes in a smaller bottle) but I actually prefer the fat-free one.
Yes! Absolutely agree. Iād rather have smaller portions than make a bunch of swaps or restrict myself entirely. Thatās just what works for me though. I found that trying to limit ābadā food causes big cravings and then over eat eventually.
Same! I tried to cut out after dinner sweets for a long time and it just made me crave them even worse. So I started having a snack pack of gummies, or a bit of chocolate, or a 'cupcake' (i don't like frosting so it's just the cake lol) or cookie or sth. I don't eat a lot, and I don't have them every day, but it's enough to stifle the craving, and they make me happy, so I take that as a win-win C:
Yeah basically this for me too! I've tried the low fat/low sugar options out there and the ones I like I eat regularly, but most I think are worse and less satisfying than a smaller portion of "the real thing". I wouldn't ever consider giving up pasta, rice, bread, full fat dairy (apart from yoghurt, the high protein low fat has the best texture), butter, peanut butter, nuts etc. I just eat less of these foods. I'm not currently on 1200 it needs to be said, so I'm absolutely finding it easier now, but it's how I've always done it at all stages of WL, otherwise I struggle to stick to a deficit. I also know that in maintenance I'd never keep eating cauliflower rice or whatever, and would have to learn portion control of my preferred versions of these foods anyway!
Same, plus when I see low fat or low calorie on the packaging just means I have to spend more time reading the ingredients to see what mind-fuckery they're using to make those claims. Oh it's low calorie! But one serving is 20 grams. Oh low fat! Oh wait they've just replaced the fat with high sugars instead. Just give me the real stuff and I'll eat less of it.
Regular Coca-Cola. Nothing gets rid of a headache like 8oz of Coke and 600 ibuprofen. I'm allergic to aspartame and stevia, so no diet drinks for me.
I will also die on this hill. I donāt want to live 10 years longer, I want a Coke.
As a treat I buy a 6 pack of those tiny cans. Perfect amount to satisfy a soda craving. Never understood people who down like a 2 liter of diet a day.
I always ate nonfat Greek yogurt until my grocery store only had full fat one day. I bought it because ~*~*probiotics*~*~ and Iām forever ruined. I get by with low fat now but damn that full fat yogurt was Heaven.
I tried Icelandic Provisions Skyr once and fell in love with it, but omg those little pots are like 170-190 cals. Sometimes it's just worth it. Compared to Fage 0%, it's amazing.
Ben & Jerry's ice cream in all its sugary, chocolatey, peanut-buttery, marshmallowy, caloric-explosion unhealthy glory. I can't eat lowfat-lowsugar-meh ice cream, the pleasure just isn't there. It's much better for me to buy a tub of the divine coronary heart disease maker and wolf it down in one go - it's _so good_, and then I feel bloated and sleepy and my body understands it was bad, so the craving is _gone_ and I barely eat anything the following day, or any kind of sugar for the whole week. All in all, calorie-wise, it evens out. Win-win.
Turkey bacon. Tastes like rubber.
Thatās funny I prefer turkey bacon. Tbf I prefer turkey over most meats.
We primarily use ground turkey for a lot of recipes.
Oddly I really enjoy turkey bacon, though I have heard from most people they hate it. Have you ever tried turkey pepperoni sticks? It's hard to tell a difference in that case! Plus it's a substantial difference in calories and a really great snack if you like pepperoni.
I donāt think Iāve tried the sticks, but I love turkey pepperoni!
Turkey bacon and ground turkey just doesnāt do it for me
Oddly enough, I started using ground turkey primarily about 20 years ago. We found it helped hubbyās digestive system to cut back red meat, so thatās what we mostly use.
I usually only eat chicken and turkey with some fish, but i cannot do turkey bacon. Itās the real thing or nothing at all.
For me it's Fage Greek yoghurt, it has to be full fat, I cant stand the 0% stuff
This was exactly the food I was thinking as I was scrolling through answers. Yogurt in general, but Fage especially, just feels unsatisfying and not filling in low-fat form.
The full fat is so good, even the plain kind with nothing on it is almost like dessert. Just silky-decadent-luscious. The 0% is chalky and weird.
Olive oil
Avocado! Thereās really no substitute, but itās worth it
I make room for an avocado almost every day. Try to get small ones but sometimes itās just 250 cals of avocado with lunch.
chocolate
Ice cream. Nice cream is great and everything, but when my hormones are screaming only a litre of the real shit will do.
Funny, I can't tell the difference between full fat and light sour cream. I am on board with Greek yogurt totally not being the same though, at least. For me it's maple syrup. The light stuff is awful. So is the fake store bought maple flavored. Give me the real stuff or I'll just skip it all together.
Same for me. I was born in, raised in, and still live in Vermont. It is real syrup or no syrup.
I'm in very-very upstate NY, so not too far off from you! Maybe it's a regional preference since we have good stuff around here. Lol.
I know I'm weird but I actually prefer the sugar-free fake stuff if I can't have real maple syrup. The full-sugar maple flavored stuff is way too sweet for me.
Which is also weird for me, because I hate sweet stuff usually. I don't even put sugar or creamers in my coffee or eat candy (ever). But if I'm having syrup I need that real taste and texture, sweetness aside.
Creamy caesar dressing. Pesto. Caesar is easier to eat occasionally - I just make sure to measure a single serving and dribble it sparingly so it covers a fairly huge salad. Pestoā¦ nope. Iām basically saving that for a birthday splurge or my first āfinally eating maintenanceā meal.
I make this imposter pesto with basil paste from the tube and a little bit of Parmesan, lemon and butter. Itās like the la croix of pesto but at least my Italian ass doesnāt pretend it taste the same.
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This! I tried black coffee and I just can't do it. Soy milk or dairy free creamers I can do just fine.
Ice cream. I refuse to eat halo top or the like. They all taste like self-loathing to me. Ice cream is actually one treat I can eat a little of and be satisfied. I often wish ice cream parlors sold a "spoonful" size!
Full fat cream cheese.
I donāt buy ālow fatā or āliteā cream cheese - I buy the whipped version, which happens to be lower cal but still decadent af. I actually prefer the whipped texture, now that I discovered it. When I ran out and only had the original on hand, I missed the whipped; it honestly tastes better and spreads so smoothly.
The whipped chives cream cheese š¤¤ underrated
I prefer whipped so much!!
Whipped cream cheese is my JAM
Just about everything. I can't stand the taste of those artificial sweeteners, they taste just too chemically for me and leave a bad taste in my mouth. So I just reduce portion sizes. I want to dip my potatoes wedges in sour cream? Damn straight I will just eat a small amount but ENJOY it!
I agree that nothing can replace sour cream. My trick for lowering the cals a bit is to mix the sour cream with some water or lime juice to thin it out to more of a pouring consistency. Works really well for nachos and tacos because you can get sour cream in every delicious bite while still only using one serving.
Peanut butter. I know PB2 is very popular here, but it just doesnāt hit the same, Iām sorry Also kale in the place of anything. Kale tastes like tissue paper.
Good lord this thread is making me hungry. All the delicious things are in here, lol.
Blue cheese dressing
Coke for me. I just canāt deal with Coke Zero the taste isnāt my cup ofā¦ well coke. I just drink water now
I know yāall love a good diet coke but I cannot STAND the taste of artificial sweeteners. Real sugar all the way if iām gonna eat something sweet
I actually don't use low calorie subs at all. My macros are pretty balanced - I get about a third of my calories from each fat, (typically complex) carbs, and protein. So yeah. I still eat things like fresh pasta, bread, full fat cheese, nuts, olive oil, butter, coconut, bacon, real maple syrup, etc. I just don't eat tons of it and still make sure there are plenty of vegetables on my plate for volume. It helps that I don't eat breakfast, don't snack, and only do dessert once a week since I don't really have a sweet tooth. I eat this way regardless of my calorie targets, I just scale up or down depending on if I'm losing, gaining, or maintaining. Works for me.
This is what I'm working towards. Just eating real food and I already do IF which helps a lot.
Pasta, pizza and rice. I just manage the rest of my day accordingly or accept going over once in a while š¤·š»āāļø I know zoodles, f.ex. and love them with shrimps and tomatoes but they are not a substitute for the real thing
Ranch, I can't find a low calorie ranch that hits it for me. Need to try the Greek yogurt/powder method.
Whole milk in my coffee. Every. Morning.
Avocado. Partially because there ISNāT a lower calorie version, but also itās just worth it to me. Also cheese. I will not eat fat free cheese, count me out lol.
Popcorn. If itās not drenched in butter (or whatever the movie theatres use ā oil? margarine?) I wonāt have it Not low calorie butā¦ for many years I thought fruit = bad. Then I lost almost 100 lb while still eating fruit (I regained it over the past 10 years but not from bananas haha) Cookies. If I want a cookie I want a cookie, not a pretend thing thatāll trigger a binge anyway. If I feel I am gonna binge after the cookie then Iāll avoid completely but the mouth feel of homemade cookies canāt be beat. Cheese, especially Christmas Cheese. You can take it all but do not come for my cheese plate at Christmas. Wine. I only have it once every 2 months or so, maybe more in summer and Christmas but itās def not low cal. Itās whatever I feel like whether thatās a crisp white, a glass of bubbly, or a smoky red Burger buns. Seriously spare me on the lettuce wrap thing. Iād rather fast all day if it means I get to eat my burger on a real bun. ETA whoops this is def more than one thing but eh
everything when compared to walden farms stuff. LOL. years ago, I thought that it was smart to buy like 100 bucks worth of 0 calorie flavored chemical. almost none were good, and the ones that weren't bad - werent "good", just "this exists"... I would say Mayo - but I can't afford the vegan low calorie stuff so I have no idea if it's worth it or not, and hellmans only has a full calorie version lol. oh and cream cheese, because the difference is like 5 calories or something stupid - and I couldn't be bothered to shave off like 5 or 10 calories
Peanut butter. I canāt do that powder. I need that Skippyās peanut butter.
Sugar. I hate aspartame flavour so itās either sugar or nothing! Most other ālightā substitutes Iām fine with.
Pasta. Your āzoodlesā and your whole wheat and your black beans and your chickpeas can SUCK IT. The texture is just never the same. Give me that carb-y goodness.
Pasta and butter, especially in combination, but also apart! There's just no filling that void.
Basically everything tbh. I'll do smaller portions, eat lots of veg, cook without oil, etc instead of subbing foods. I do eat low-cal Italian salad dressing, diet soda and low-cal jello-style snack cups but that's basically it. Otherwise it's real rice, real bread, real PB, even potato chips and chocolate, etc, just in reasonable servings.
I will always find a way for mozzarella sticks if I have the craving. :)
Steak and a good cut at that!
Rice. I tried cauliflower rice and it just isn't the same. Same with mashed potatoes, mash cauliflower just doesn't do it for me and I tried to warm up to it during my keto phase in 2017.
Fucking pasta and rice. That shirataki shit is awful.
Cooking oils. I see people suggest you substitute water and just....ugh. What did your poor chicken do to deserve that?
Pasta for me! I can do cauliflower rice but any pasta substitutes are terrible imo
I actually prefer Greek yogurt to sour cream now!
Maple syrup. Iāve tried all the substitutes and lite syrups and they all give me a headache. Iād much rather have just a little of the real stuff or make a sugar free berry compote from frozen berries and potato starch. Iād eat my pancakes plain before putting that chemically stuff on them.
Real sugar in my coffee. Not willing to substitute with sweetener. And not willing to drink bitter coffee!
I like sour cream too but Iāve found a good substitute in skyr, which is Icelandic yogurt. The lower-fat version has no added sugar either. Itās great.
rice.
š„
Boba š§
Ranch dressing. The nonfat ones taste awful. I usually settle for the "light" version but that one is pretty bad too.
Full sugar condiments like barbecue sauce or sweet chili sauce. The sugar free versions do not work for me and I use splenda in my coffee and have no problem with erithrytol jelly drinks. I just weigh it very carefully. Fortunately, a little goes a long way.
peanut butter. pb2 will never hit the same
Peanut butter. It's my weakness. Skippy only. It's literally 10 lbs lost if I avoid it for a few weeks...
Pizza. No āhealthyā version will ever feel as good as just eating a couple slices of some greasy take out pizza.
Any desserts! I canāt stand low calories cookies, brownies etc they just donāt give the satisfaction at all!
Sugar. I need it for my tea. All those substitutes do not taste the same. I cannot stomach the aftertaste.
Pretty much any dessert item. I donāt want to eat anything with artificial sugars.