I already posted this on Stallqueen's "I finally lost inches" post, but I am posting it again, along with a link explaining it too.

http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/yogurt.html

AND

Here is a quote from Jonny Bowden's book "Living The Low Carb Life"

anything the author put in italics, I put in CAPS.

"In the case of fermented milk products-again, kefir, yogurt, and buttermilk- you do NOT count the carb count on the label. This is now widely accepted on the Internet support boards for low-carb dieters, even those not following the Go-Diet, and the explanation for it is credited to Drs. Goldberg and O'Mara. For those who are interested: the government standards for calculating carb content involves MEASURING EVERYTHING ELSE THAT'S IN THE FOOD (including water, ash, fats, and proteins) and then assuming that the rest is carbs. That's usually true. But to make fermented milk products, bacteria are implanted in the milk; these bactera basically eat up all the carb milk sugar (lactose) and convert into something called lactic acid, which is what curdles the milk and gives it its unique "fermented" taste. The process the government established counts the lactic acid as carbs, but it's really not. Goldberg himself did the measurements in his lab and concluded that 1/2 a cup of plain buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir yeilds only 2 grams of carbs; 1 cup counts as 4 g carbs. The Go-Diet recommends at least 8 ounces (1 cup) of kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk per day. "

Needless to say I stand by it and I eat a cup of yogurt a day. It fits into my 20g just fine. And I even had a nice whoosh today. 1 pound a half!

I guess I better go buy some more yogurt.

Be careful, Lily. If your boys can't see you it might be scary for them and if you lose any faster you'll be invisible

Your so funny! Invisible sometimes is good. Maybe that way I can get some rest.

I eat Greek yogurt (yogurt that has been strained multiple times) and it is amazing! It has the consistancy of whipped cream cheese and is very rich. And, the best thing about it is that 1/2 cup is only 4 grams of carb. I pair it with some berries... heavenly! I buy the Fage Total brand from Trader Joe's.

Is it like the custard yogurt? I don't eat the custard yogurt now but I use to love that stuff.

That sounds yummy....is the greek yogurt in the yogurt section or the cheese section?

I don't have any health/whole food stores near me. My profile says Atlanta but I really live about 30 minutes west of the city.

Harry's Farmers Market in Marietta may have it.

I'd say it's more similar to the custard yogurt than "regular" yogurt. It is very thick and smooth - also no tangy aftertaste.

At TJ's it's with the other yogurts.

There has been several post reagarding this issue, it's kind of "works for some not for all"
For me I've eaten plain yogurt with my own fruit added since early OWL with no problems at all.
Just dont' overdo it as with anything you add to your diet
Everything in controlled servings

KAthy

Yogurt is a great food, and there's no reason not to work it into OWL, but that lowcarbluxury article and what Bowden says is inaccurate. They're both quoting the GO diet that that's what's misleading.

You could subtract all those carbs IF - and only if - the yogurt was FULLY fermented. This is not the case with store bought yogurt. Fully fermented yogurt would be face-twistingly sour and probably pretty runny. See Doreen's post, The Truth About Carbs In Yogurt for details.

So go ahead and enjoy it, but I wouldn't assume 4 g carbs per cup.

I have also enjoyed yogurt through OWL. I do however count all the carbs. Getting stoneyfarm whole milk yogurt, or making my own from carb countdown makes counting all the carbs not so bad. When you just have a half cup serving you would get around 6-7g net from the store bought yogurt. The carb countdown yogurt has 3g net for a full cup. For slightly more carbs you can mix in half and half or cream with the milk.

While there may be some validity behind the arguments to nto count all, I feel the best idea for me personally is to count everything but fiber. With all the net carbs, sugar alcohols, and so on it is really easy to start rationalizing away extra carbs.

I would add yogurt into the OWL or maintainance phase, not in the beginning of your dieting.

Thanks for the info Paris. I excited to find a subsitute for custard yogut. I just hope I can find it here in Texas.