Week 3 Low Carb Bootcamp - Where we stand at the crossroads ...

[BIWI]

Morning everyone.

So, we enter the fabled week 3.

This week you have a choice. You can either continue with Bootcamp or you can move on to Bootcamp Light:

Rules of Bootcamp Light

Or you can do a hybrid - Bootcamp during the week and Bootcamp Light at the weekend. Totally up to you and what you find is working for you the most.

Don't forget to enter your weight on the weight tracker - today you should see your graph appear! Or if you prefer, here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

And now - a word of warning!

It is very, very, very common for weight loss to slow down/stop altogether in weeks 3, 4 and/or 5. This seems to be entirely normal. It's probably to do with your body adjusting to low carbing. You will have junked the glycogen stores and a load of water, and will now be burning fat. From here on, weight loss will - and should be - around 1-2lbs a week

Good luck everyone!

Morning (yawn).

I am STS, so suppose this is the 3rd week 'adjustment' period BIWI talks about. At least I like to think my body is bustling about on the inside resetting things, and tweaking other things, and generally making preparations...

Jake, I understand what you mean. I've stopped diving into bad food and wine as an emotional response, but only because I've stopped through determination, not stopped through understanding. But eating like this does make me think more - for e.g., I'm only my third coffee with double cream this morning when I should be out and about. I LOVE my first coffee/cream in the morning - it's what gets me out of bed. But I'm realising that the second and third ones are more about keeping that feeling going ('oooh, what a nice way to get up'), rather than because I want or need any more coffee...

• on, not only

I have had some success with finding alternatives to emotional eating. So instead of ice cream I have double cream or extra thick cream or clotted cream. When I feel like opening a bottle of wine I have chamomile tea instead. Chocolate is still allowed so I have two squares of 85% although this is my biggest downfall and I sometimes have four squares. I try to think of it as the foods I 'think' I want are still there, I can have them if I want to but I use these alternatives first. So if I have a chamomile tea and afterwards I still want a glass of wine then I can have one but most of the time I don't. I suppose it's akin to the old dieters trick of having a drink of water when you feel hungry.

Another thing that helps is that the junk food becomes less rewarding the longer you eat clean because you aren't physically craving the food fix, even if you are emotionally craving it. Before I went low carb I used to have a beer and a curry chip when I wanted to cheer myself up. But last time I had a curry chip, although it was from my usual chip shop and I enjoyed it, it wasn't satisfying a craving any more so it didn't provide the same feeling as it used to when I was hooked on carbs and my blood sugar was shooting all over the place.

Has anyone else got really sore boobs? Mine are killing me and I am wondering if it's to do with my diet. I'm not dye on for another week and a half.

Last night's foray into carby twatdom was amazing. I won't regale you with what I ate and drank but I am ready to get back on it today.

Food will be:
B: the worlds biggest fry up
L: might make mushroom pate if I can be arsed
D: steak, swede chips, creamy sauce

Had my meal out last night and managed to stay low carb

Had tomato and mozzarella and basil salad to start (drizzled with plenty of olive oil) and then had spicy rolled pork belly with garlicy spinach (which is what they gave me instead of roast potatoes). I shared a 250ml carafe of wine with dh (who had garlic focaccia followed by a creamy, crumbled Italian sausage pasta plus some of ds' Italian sausage pizza )

I'll gloss over the two small glasses of prosecco that I had on the way there when we stopped off at a friend's (noticed too late that she'd topped my glass up).

Re white wines: some white wines (and even some red ones) will be higher in carbs as they will have higher Residual Sugar, ie not all the sugar has turned to alcohol (sweet wines are an extreme example of this). Disclaimer: I'm not really a wine nerd but dh is studying to be a Master of Wine

Morning all.

Gatorademebitch - when the 8 weeks are up, I just post an ongoing thread, rather than a week-by-week one. There are always lots of us who still want to chat/keep going. So no need to panic!

Germangirl - brilliant loss. Now will your trainer believe you? Incidentally, I've finally got round to buying a book that I've recommended several times, "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance". It's really, really good - it might be worth getting a copy. When I've finished it, I'm going to give it to my trainer. He sort of half gets low carbing, but still talks a lot about calories and low fat! We sort of agree to disagree at the moment.

Morning BIWI, morning everyone

Chester I do! Bastard sore, am due on next week, but never had it like this. Except of course in early pregnancy. So painful in bed and had to put barbed wire round them to fend of DH last night.

But upthread I did read about why this is likely. I'll have a trawl in a mo. What was said made sense.

Tenement crazy cocker is a needy princess she - not a rough tough he! Athel you are of course correct, the doe eyes are an expert manipulating tool.

Heir what a gorgeous springer! I grew up with a springer (and rottweilers) and love them. I was tempted to get a springer but figured that a cocker may be marginally less bonkers. I'm not sure that that was a correct supposition.

Ooh Hugh I hope you can get a dog. Ours is a needy nutter but we adore her and she brings us so much love and laughter.

Hope and Chester welcome to the Bootcamp Cocker Club (that just sounds wrong, somehow...).

Precious I hope you enjoyed your Indian meal. What did you have in the end?

Much as I love to take any credit/gratitude floating around it was Steel who linked to the Briffa response to the Horizon programme. Very interesting it was too, thank you Steel.

LittleMiss an 11 week old Newfie puppy. Oh my! Irresistible! Hope you're feeling less nauseous now. Any improvement?

Great post about skin concerns Willie.

Durham that menu sounds fabulous! As willie wisely said, as long as you're eating mindfully and enjoying every mouthful, an off piste treat on an occasion like that is absolutely fine imo.

Notso what a cutie! Is that a Spitz/ Lapphund?

Sayra I've never tried sugarless custard. Did you give it a go?

Yay Germangirl on your loss - i hope you blew a big fat raspberry at your sceptical personal trainer.

Sarah in that case you must just have dromedary tendencies.

Stunt that's a really interesting point about satisfying the craving. I was a smoker for years and then gave up but would occasionally have the odd one when drunk. I eventually realised that when you crave/ fancy a cigarette, the pleasure in it comes from relieving an addiction, basically. When there's no addiction left to relieve, the idea of a cigarette/chips whatever is much more pleasant than the actual reality. The fag just tastes revolting and polluted and makes me feel sick, rather than the blissful relief when you're still addicted to nicotine. I wonder if there's an element of this with carby stuff. Certainly when I gave myself carte blanche to be a carby twat over xmas, I found that my expectations of all these foods often didn't match up to the reality when I ate them.

Chester sore boobs could be to do with oestrogen being released from fat cells putting your hormone levels a bit out of balance.

Had a curry last night, tried to make good choices but i don't really like the dry tandoori type things, so I did have saucy ones. (And an onion bhajee. Whilst I know they're v carby, it was a conscious choice as they are better than bread/rice and serve the 'mopping up' purpose quite well) could tell this morning though that I'd had too many carbs, I farted AND my stomach rumbled this morning (apologies, but we do like to share after all!) neither of those things have really happened since LCing. Still, another pound down this morning so now below where I was before the week 3 gain, just had my lovely eggs with butter, and I'm ready for the day.

Slightly worried about tonight, going to a friend's for 'drinks and takeaway'. No idea what but think it might be pizza. Don't really know what to do, really don't want pizza but also don't want to be that person who takes a salad to a pizza party...

Sounds like a gorgeous meal, Prettybird

SarahBeeny, it was amazing, the singing was just out of this world and the acting brilliant too (except for the 'star' billings, Kerry Ellis, who was very miscast as 19 yr old Mimi - although kudos to her for jumping around like that 3 months after having a baby! - and Rory Taylor from 'Superstar' - amazing voice, just too camp, bald and stocky to be Roger for me).

Bonus was not going to the hyper trendy bar we'd first decided on as it was too packed, but heading down a side street to a very odd looking pub that turned out to be gorgeous and most of the cast were drinking there after the show! I stuck to water...

Still feeling a bit sore headed this morning. Have to take DD to trampolining soon so will stock up on water to sip at throughout. Will need to make a packed lunch as I'm set-building this afternoon and normally it's biscuit and cake city!

Crabby You are so good at replying to everyone, do you have a really good memory or a wee notebook?!

No I didn't try it because last night after dinner I decided that actually I wasn't hungry and my kitchen was messy and I hate cooking in a messy kitchen

I need to go to work today but when I come home I will tidy up and try it. I thought that with double cream it might be very creamy and I seem to have lost my taste for sweet things so I might like it and no one else will!

Gave my mum some of my berry almond crumble and she screwed her face up while I thought it was lovely and sweet

Will let you know once I've tried it.

I need help Bootcampers. I've been low carbing since the 6th of Jan, haven't really posted as rl has been very busy, but I've done it before and have lost 10lbs. According to me wii fit that I use to weight myself on I am now in the ideal range and no longer overweight. Great.

Then DH and I watched the horizon programme. He's been doing it too and has lost about the same although needs to loose a fair bit more than me. It scared us both, clearly it wasn't the great a programme but the findings with regard to insulin/diabetics and muscle loss made us think that we ought to be eating some carbs. So we decided that we just heat healthily. I felt reluctant and the lc works well for me, so my plan was to have a few carbs but not great bowls of pasta.

A couple of days have gone by and I'm really not convinced that is is right and I want the low carb woe to work for us. Is there anything that can persuade us and DH more than me really that scientifically there's no basis to worry about insulin etc? The argument that the programme was anti l/c won't wash with DH.

I did notice that there wasn't much talk of the high fat eating twin eating veg, so could it be that really he was no carb?

I don't know Crabby, she is utterly bonkers and listens to no one...

I am enjoying a smoothie for breakfast - 6 frozen strawberries (big bag in Lidl is about £2.50) blitzed with yogurt and a dash of cream. It is gorgeous and feels like a real treat!

Chicken curry for dinner, with spinach and a tiny bit of coconut cream. Yum.

Happy weekend to everyone xx

Hello all. I know that brain fog features in the symptoms of carb flu (which I haven't had at all this time around) but has anyone else had trouble with brain fog after exercise on this WOE? The last few runs I've done, I've felt like my brain is barely functioning afterwards. Can barely string a sentence together for about half an hour. I've never had this before with exercise - only in the last few weeks, so I'm guessing it must be diet-related. Any thoughts?

I had a leftover salmon fillet for breakfast, followed by Rachel's Kitchen greek yogurt and a spoonful of coconut oil.

I'm a bit concerned that I'm only at a six pound loss after nearly two weeks. I started at 17 stone, so I hoped the weightloss would be better than that. It seems like a low loss for someone of my weight, compared to some of the other peoples.

gatorade I've had shite losses so far and was tipping 18 stone. I have in the past had similar experiences, but was measuring myself as well and in the weeks when I didn't lose weight I lost inches. There are scientific reasons to do with fat cells emptying and filling with water which weighs the same until the body dispenses with the cells and you get a big loss in one go. Plenty of water made an immediate difference to me. I can't wait to see if it has continued this week.

mrsjoehart ultimately only you can decide what's right for you and your body. Upthread the links to Briffa's site and another are worth reading, especially the comments bit, which demonstrates how unscientific Horizon was and how biased and unfair the tests were.

Actually, continuing from my last post, I'm wondering if it could be dehydration. I'm still finding it hard to drink enough water, and my Saturday runs are first thing in the morning (so I obviously haven't drunk all night and can't drink toooo much right before the run). Would this give me brain fog?

OK, I will try and drink more water I've been finishing a two litre bottle everyday, but I don't drink anything else (like coffee) so maybe I need to up it by another litre.

MrsJoeHart

How on this fucking earth can a 'test' that uses just 2 people be scientifically valid? The whole basis of that programme is so seriously flawed that it's shocking. No self-respecting scientist or medic would come to any conclusions on the basis of the 'findings'.

Read "Escape the Diet Trap" by Dr Briffa, or - if you're more scientifically minded - "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" for proper explanations, with scientific references to support them, about low carbing and why it's better for you than a high carbohydrate way of eating.

And if your DH chooses to ignore that based on Horizon, then he is a very foolish man. Ignore him and do your own thing!!!

Checking in. Still having problems sticking with the low carb; had a major breakdown last night with it and ate half a box of chocolate mint sticks and 4 biscuits.
Today - first fail = hot chocolate this morning in lieu of breakfast.
L - scrambled egg with mushroom and turkey
D - lamb chops with veggies (forgot the added butter, just realised, curses!)
next fail - had a choc mint icecream.
S - cheese and apple
and final fail - prawn crackers.

I WISH WISH WISH that my cravings would just fuck off. They're not, to my knowledge, emotional - but I get to a point where I REALLY REALLY REALLY want something salt/crunchy/biscuity/chocolatey and I will eat other things to try and avoid that "want", but it makes no odds. I don't stop wanting it until I've eaten it. BUT - how much I "need" is reduced dramatically. So before, I'd probably eat at least half the bag of prawn crackers - tonight, I've only had a handful and that's been plenty. This IS good, but not as good as not wanting to eat them at all of course.

This morning (yes I know) I was actually down to 12st1lb. Which amazed me, given that I'm not doing so well at this - this eve back up to 12st4, but that's where I've been most eves so I'm not unhappy, although I really need to keep the losses going so need to STOP cheating.

Must get back on the straight and narrow...

Thumbwitch - the only way to stop the cravings is to stop giving into the carbs!

When you talked about bananas earlier it made me - it seems like you've embraced the idea of low carbing, but you're not really following through in terms of action.

Get rid of all the carby stuff in the house. Stop buying biscuits and chocolates. Throw the hot chocolate stuff down the sink/in the bin.

More importantly, plan some lovely low carb meals - dishes that you know you love and which seem indulgent to you. Steak in a creamy mushroom sauce or grilled king prawns with a garlicky salad - whatever floats your low carb boat.

Ultimately no-one can stop you putting sugary shit into your mouth.

If I could come over there and stop you I would but it's up to you.

MrsJoeHart I have some questions re the Horizon programme I posted on another thread here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/1982152-Horizon-programme-sugar-v-fat?

Interesting that hyperinsulinaemia, where the body produces too much insulin, can lead to Type 2 Diabetes, as the adrenals are exhausted. The twin who did the sugar diet had raised insulin levels, which the programme said would be bad long term.

So if you are producing too much insulin, it would be a good idea to bring it down a little, on Bootcamp for example. Having too much insulin in the blood can cause us to be fatter as it promotes storing fat rather than burning it.

However we do need insulin to prevent our blood sugar becoming too high. As the body will metabolise muscles, if there is not enough for aerobic respiration, it makes sense to not let your levels dip too much, to prevent muscle loss. The body can utilise ketones, which are made from burning fat, the heart and brain uses these but will still metabolise muscles if the blood sugar dips too far to prevent hypoglycaemia.

Thus it makes sense to come out of Bootcamp, once insulin levels are more normal and eat a few more fruits and veg. Remember though the twin on the programme did practically no card, even on Bootcamp you eat vegetables!