The basics of a Banting Lifestyle

Banting has become a real buzzword the last few years, but you have wondered if it really works.

Here are things to consider:

The B anting diet is based around a LCHF (Low carb high fat) diet.

One thing to make note of it that the Banting Diet is not a diet at all, but rather a way of life, we eat real food while losing weight.

The Diet works best for people people who are Carbohydrate Intolerant.

Signs that you may be carbohydrate intolerant..

  • If your weight fluctuates all the time
  • If you struggle to control those nasty sugar and carbohydrate cravings
  • Are you one of those that gain weight extremely easily?
  • Do you find you are Starving the first thing in the morning?
  • Would you categorize yourself as an emotional eater?
  • Do sugary and starchy meals cause you to feel foggy or sleepy?
  • Do you find that you feel extremely irritable in the evenings?
  • Do you feel a lot more emotional prior to having your periods?
  • Do you gain weight around your waist instead of your hips and thighs?

Then this DIET lifestyle is for you!

Check our Lists page to downloaded the RED GREEN and ORANGE foodlists.

General Foods Allowed:
Avo, low carb fruit, any dairy (yes even cream), leafy green vegetables, eggs, meat with fat and fish.
General Foods to Avoid:
Potatoes, high carb vegetables like pea, anything artificial, sugar, bread, oats, pasta.

A Typical day meal guide:

Breakfast:Bacon and eggs with spinach and feta
Lunch: Chicken and Avo salad, tomatoes, seeds, nuts drizzled with olive oil
Dinner: Grilled pork ribs with eggplant & feta salad
Dessert: Strawberries and cream

Banting potion guide
Here is a guide how to potion your meals

Tips and Tricks

Learning and adapting to the new lifestyle can be difficult at first, but there are many tips on how to succeed in this lifestyle.

Take away the Temptation: First thing you want to do is replace your normal house hold snacks into foods you are actually allowed to eat. Remove all sweets and chips and replace them with healthier snacks that taste just as good like nuts, biltong, cream cheese, pickles, olives and the sorts. There are thousands of options to snack on, make them quick and easy to kill any cravings that might arise.

Keep Occupied: Boredom sparks cravings, it has and always will. If ou recognise this it will help you control it, when you find you are bored and hunger slowly creeps in, find something to keep you busy, these is even more important in the beginning stages when those carb cravings will be at their worst. Dehydration also causes hunger, make sure you get at least six to 8 glasses of water in daily.

Eat Before you go Shopping : Ever walked into a grocery store while dying for a packet of chips? Chances are you’ll throw that first bag of chips you see straight into your trolley. It’s simple to avoid this, have a big hearty meal before stepping foot into that grocery store. Full up on a nice juicy steak and egg with a side of broccoli and cheese sauce.

Avoid “Low fat” Items at Grocery Store: Its nothing but a clever marketing strategy, companies will sell off their food as “low fat” but forget to mention that the reduction of fat is replaced with more sugars, when shopping you want to avoid these foods because they tend to have the most carbs in them. Look for items such as “full fat “or “full cream”, these are the more organic items of food filled with the fat you’ll need to sustain your metabolism through the diet.

List of Healthy cooking oil in order:

  1. coconut oil (Should be your first option, can be used for extreme heat cooking)
  2. Butter (Burns easily with high heat, great for low heat cooking)
  3. Olive Oil (Do not use for frying, use for low heat cooking)
  4. Animal Fats (Varies between animal types, organic raised animals tend to be better for cooking)
  5. Palms Oil
  6. Avocado Oil (Generally the same as olive oil)

Avoid these oils at all costs! : Fish oil, flax oil, canola oil, vegetable or seed oils, blended olive oil (certain percentage is sunflower oil).

Butter is Great: We’ve been bought up being told that margarine is healthier than butter, this is just not the case! Butter is a lot healthier and filled with nutrients than margarine is, margarine is made from processed seed oils that contain very little nutritional value. General rule of thumb is use butter!

Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t be afraid to eat fat!

Growing up we have always been told that fat makes you fat, the most difficult thing to come to terms to is that fat is not the main culprit for weight gain, the problem is carbohydrates. Since you are eliminating carbs, your body needs another source of energy, and on the banting diet this energy comes from fat therefore it is important that you get enough fat while being on the diet. Not getting enough energy can be detrimental to your metabolism and hamper results.

Be aware of hidden Carbs.

Many people forget to count carbs that could be found in sauces, spices and other foods which unfortunately usually has a very large sugar content. It may be easy taking this account when making your own food, but it’s much more difficult when eating out at restaurants.


Tips from seasoned Banters

  • stick to the green list while you trying to lose weight
  • fruit from the orange list can sabotage your weightloss, so limit it or don’t touch for now..
  • Protein is mostly meat but to much protein is also not good as your body only burns so much protein for energy and the rest turns to glucose and stores as fat, so a palm size steak, same thickness as your palm or a hand size fish and depending on what piece of chicken u can have a piece or 2.
  • Your plate should visually be 70% veg and or salad that’s your carbs which you should keep under 25g a day, 20% meat(protein) and 10% fat which is part of what you cook in, add butter to veg or even drizzle olive oil over veg and salad. It is important to eat fat with every meal.
  • Be careful of too much dairy, a lot of woman do better without dairy. Use cream instead of milk as milk is higher in carbs and lactose, which is a form of sugar.
  • All the veg on green list is measured as 0-5g carbs per 100g so you can have a lot of green list veg.

Any advice given here is not by medical practioners but people who have experience with the lifestyle. Please consult your GP before partaking in this lifestyle.

Download the updated banting shoppinglist on my Facebook page or the link at the top of the page.