BakeBakeBake

That bread looks amazing, and I would like to avoid sugar where possible, so if you could provide the recipe that would be great. Thanks so much.

This.

I plan to eat as little bread as I can, because I know that even the best bread is never going to be ideal, but my husband works as a retail manager at the moment and more or less has to rely on sandwiches or meal bars for the meal he has to eat on shift, because he never knows when what should've been a thirty minute break will turn into two minutes, or he won't officially get one at all. So for him it pretty much has to be portable, and stable at room temperature. I realize there are good/decent meal bars out there, but it didn't seem like the sort of thing you should once or twice a day, every day, for 5-6 days out of the week, which is what his normal work schedule would require. So I was hoping to be able to find/make a good bread that he could make into sandwiches a couple of times a week for the sake of variety if nothing else, while still improving his overall health/diet.

With regards to the plan, it's called Travis Martin's Thrive! and it probably is a little bit shady on some of the science. If what I've heard about it is true, a lot of it comes from trial and error on the founder's part - figuring out what worked for him and what didn't, etc. We are mostly doing this plan because my father also needs to loose weight rather badly for his health, and he and my mother had done this together once before, so it's something he's familiar with. He isn't very good with calorie counting, doesn't like to try dramatically new foods, and only sort of knows how to cook, so know that mum's gone it has to be something simple enough for him to follow on his own when the best support I can offer him is doing it with him so he doesn't feel so alone in his efforts, advice over the phone, and occasional shipped care packages. And it worked for him when he did it before (it is at least meant to be a lifestyle change, not just a diet), he just gave up on it when my mum died, so right now that's helping to motivate him. In his mind, it was either this or go back to Atkins, which I am personally against for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that I was concerned about a man nearing 60 with a heart condition and blood pressure tablets consuming that much fat on a regular basis.

I probably added to the confusion with my quick, oblique references to the program's rules. I wasn't trying to give too much of an info dump about the program itself, since I know that isn't what this community is for - just the relevant part. It isn't so much that the program suggests that eating more fiber directly removes fat. It's more, the less digestible carbohydrates you eat, the less sugar available to the system, and thus the less likely you are to experience insulin spikes, which are bad from both a blood sugar perspective and because (at least according to the program) the release of insulin is one of the things which triggers the body to store nutrients (especially fat) rather than burn it. The program is designed to encourage your body to burn fat for energy rather than carbohydrates without cutting them out completely, because that can be very difficult for some people, and because your body needs certain nutrients that are most readily found in those foods. So it emphasizes eating lots of vegetables and lean proteins, complex carbohydrates only occasionally and in small quantities, minimal fats, and no/very little sugar.

My nutritionist disagrees that weight loss is strictly a calories in/calories out numbers game, and recommends reducing net carbs, since insulin converts carbs to fat. Reducing my carb intake for the past 16 months is the first "diet" I've ever been on that has worked for me and hasn't involved reducing my caloric intake so much that I go to bed hungry every night.

This is the sort of thing (recipe formulation) that makes me geek out (I'm currently working with a chef mentor on commercial recipe formulation, which includes a LOT of "we need X to be less than 10g, but Z should be as high as possible without the production cost being over Z")... but I know it can be rough on a lot of other folks (I spent a good deal of my study time in pastry school tutoring other people in how to use Excel).

Couldn't get your question out of my head so I cobbled up a couple of quick examples from stuff I've worked on before.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwruI42F2fyET1JyU2hvQzdIWWM/edit?usp=sharing SHOULD (I have not publicly shared a Google Doc before) show you a table comparing calorie & fiber contents for various flours/meals/powders. I tried to only include things that are easy(ish) to find (online at least). I added a column that helps visualize the ratio of fiber to calories. The value of 1 denotes 1 gram of fiber per 10 calories. More than 1 is more fiber/cal, less than 1 is less fiber/cal. It definitely illustrates how crazy difficult 1g fiber per 10 calories is!
NOTE: Psyllium Husk powder technically has 34 calories, but your body cannot digest/absorb them since it's basically solid cellulose. The way they calculate calories (setting stuff on fire) doesn't reflect this feature of digestion. :)

On the top row, I included the formulas that I used to automate the calculations.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwruI42F2fyER0J1WGZhaGgyWUE/edit?usp=sharing is a basic recipe nutritional calculator. I used the formula that moi_blues gave above.

I hope this helps.

That is all fascinating, and very helpful, thank you. I don't know if I'll be up to it right away (like many people, numbers, formulas, and tables sort of scare me in this irrational way), but it's great information to have and I can take my time to familiarize myself with the whole process before I need to use it. this way.

Ooh, interesting! The first chart in that post is just for the psyllium; scroll down all the way to the blue table for the bread, which doesn't meet the requirements (only 4g fiber/83 cals) BUT you can see how charting the ingredients is very helpful because you can see where the calories are coming from and make adjustments to add more fiber and reduce calories.

Cutting the milk down to 1% (or switching to water) from whole, replacing some of the whole eggs with whites/flax gel/applesauce, or removing some of the seeds would all probably help, but keep in mind that the leaner (less fat) your bread, the 'drier' it's going to feel (fat helps things taste rich and moist, which is why I imagine there's so much in a recipe that only has psyllium and flax for a base).

I put Chia seeds in my porridge every morning, and sometimes my boyfriend stirs them in with juice. They're really quite good :)

I'm not a cook at all (I burn stuff), so I can't help, but I really want to learn to bake...

I've looked at their website, and while it does look pretty good, there aren't currently any retailers in my state or any state close enough to drive to. Thanks for the suggestion, though, as I wouldn't mind finding a healthier product that also fits the bill for those days/weeks when I just don't have time to bake and tinker around with things.