Having trouble getting into ketosis?  Or your low carb WOE just doesn’t seem to be working?  It may be because you are unaware of the hidden carbs that can be found in condiments.

Why you need to watch out for hidden carbs

In order to lose weight, you need to keep your carbs low.  If you are following the Atkins diet you want to stay under 20 net grams of carbs a day.  If you are following some of the ketogenic diets you want to stay under 50 net carbs.

When you follow a low carb woe, you put a lot of time and effort into making sure your meals meet the correct macros,  but then there are these sneaky little things called hidden carbs.

The hidden danger that can be found in condiments

Do you add ketchup to your burger?  Did you know ketchup has 4.5 grams of carbs per tablespoon?  Did you measure how much you put on your burger?  Or did you just add as much as you like?

Yes, you cut out the bread and put the burger on lettuce leaves or you used low carb bread to make the sandwich, but then you turned around and added 2 tablespoons of ketchup!  So you need to add 9 grams to your carb count!

If you are following a very low carb WOE, that’s is nearly 1/2 your daily allotment!

Other places to look for hidden carbs

Ketchup isn’t the only place you will find hidden carbs.   Be wary of foods like:

• Salad dressings –  Even though their carb count is clearly marked on their bottle, people often forget that the average serving size is 2 tablespoons.
• Sauces – Read the package, again at first glance its low in carbs, but then you see that 1 serving is considered 2 or 3 TSP!   Who is putting 2 TEASPOONS of sauce on anything!
• Nuts – have you ever actually counted out the number of nuts you can eat?  Or do you just grab them out of the can by the handful?

That’s where hidden carbs get you.  At the end of the day, you think you have eaten less than 20 grams of carbs but thanks to hidden carbs you are actually closer to 50-60 grams.