Maintaining weight & cheaters confessional

[EvaTheOptimist]

Thanks to BIWI's bootcamp I've lost loads of weight. I'm determined not to put it all back on. So I am now consciously trying to maintain my new weight.

I finished the last bootcamp on 150.8lb. My aim is to stay below 11 stone (154lb). Since bootcamp I have weighed between 149lb and 151.6lb. I think this roughly counts as maintaining!

My plan or experiment is to see whether basically eating bootcamp style, but with 3-4 off-piste moments per week (eg chocolate, toast, special treat meal etc) will do the trick of maintaining.

Post here to share your experience of maintaining the low carb way.

Also feel free to confess any cheating here, offload and wail in a safe space!!

Trash my own Internet researches inform me that the only way to sort out the tummy is by getting your body fat very low, e.g. 18%. One way to do that is by dieting to reduce fat but another way is to build muscle. Hence the exercise kick. But it has also been great for my mood.

Thank you for indulging me Eva and BIWI

Eva I think in some ways aerial silks are easier than pole, I was watching closely thinking I could probably do that. The silks support your weight whereas in pole you have to support it....if I try it I will report back. Don't think back is related to pole, I had a class on Thursday and I've not done anything since, back first felt sore on Sat evening.

stunt how feasible is it for a woman to get BF down to 18%?, men can go lower than women can't they. Not that I can ever imagine being in that situation with my current BF somewhere in the region on 45% (scales won't work for OH and I think its cause his BF% is too low).

Lost 2lbs this week so very pleased, not sure where the extra 1lb I lost the other day has gone but I'm sure I'll find it again

Mad busy weekend and now Monday am - but back later .
Kisses -mwahh
Great to see you trashy

Well, my new scales aren't being very nice to me

However, I have taken what they have told me and put it on the spreadsheet. Looks like I have some serious work to do this time around. And I only have 10 days before DH and I are off to San Sebastian, for some seriously foodie eating!

Ah well. All part of life's rich tapestry and some such cliche ...

Boo, bad scales. I weighed myself on my parents scales when I was there at the weekend and I didn't like what they said so I jumped off and ignored them!

Must go to work, I made a new May resolution to be in work earlier until I finish all my lab work....its not been going too well

Sayra if you scroll down a bit on this page you'll see 18% is a very lean athletic physique without being ripped and obviously muscular. As I weigh 60 kg and have approximately 24% body fat my fat mass is 14.4 kg. Assuming a complete preservation of lean body mass I would have to lose 3.6 kg (8lb) to achieve an 18% body fat percentage. I don't think this is easily achievable through diet alone, and it probably wouldn't look nice either: thin but 'soft'. However by increasing my muscle and hence my lean body mass I can improve the body fat percentage without necessarily losing weight, maybe even by gaining weight. I have been exercising more for 2.5 months and in that time my weight has been stable but I can see improvements in muscle size so I think it's already working.

At the end of the day I realise I may never lose that stubborn c-section tummy shape but either I'll succeed - no more flabby tummy, or I'll be lean and toned but with a bit of a tum. It's a win either way in my opinion.

Can I join you all please. I've been pretty much maintaining for about 2+ years... I follow bootcamp to keep me on the path and to find more suggestions/ideas! I have 1-2 off-piste moments a week and as long as I don't go above that, I can keep quite steady weight wise, however, if I go above that I do find I bloat up/put weight on quickly. I'm not fussed about most higher carb veg/fruit nor am I bothered about breads but baking for the kids IS my downfall...

I don't weigh myself that often but focus on how my clothes fit. I struggle to exercise (more than short walks) due to Fibro so I am noticing lack of muscle tone which is a bit depressing as I was always really active.

Anyhow, just looking for encouragement to keep going!

stunt I weigh nearly double!

sayra my lovely friend does aerial silks. We have a brilliant local circus skills community in Newcastle. She won't mind at all if I post a picture here of her twirling about in the air. She's amazing. She's around fifty years old and as strong as an ox There we go!

Morning peony - can you bloody believe I am a shit arse cunting pound up this bastard week? I blame my tits. Dp said they are shockingly swollen. gonna do a selfie on the main thread later today....

daisy helloooooo!

and she has had five kids!

Sayra 2lbs off! Brilliant. Good luck with the resolution.

BIWI my sympathies. Don't dwell on that nasty number! Having 10 days ought to concentrate the mind, on creating a bit of wriggle room for whatever happens in San Sebastian.

Stunt you sound amazing, like a superhero (or stunt-woman?)

Hello Daisy! Its really great to hear that bootcamp plus 1-2 off-piste moments does work to maintain weight. Doing that for 2+ years is great too. Do you plan your off-piste moments in advance or just take them on impulse?

Trash! your friend is amazing. Amazing stomach too for someone with 5 kids. BAD NEWS about that 1lb. What on earth IS going on with your breasts then?

holy guacamole...... I am so behind ! I am a bit like a rabbit in the headlights on the other thread now - its too much..... I can't cope drama queen

trashy a) I cannot believe you took trashpup ( loves pictures) into your handbag to a restaurant - that is so incredibly ace . Don't think I will get away with that when Peonymassivepupster gets here. ( slightly anxious at mo - as still only a few weeks and the breeder says they have all gone to the vets with flu like symptoms and he hopes it not RAT poison ...aaagghhhh stupid fucker, how dare he let my precious baby near anything like that.....)
b) re- friendship turmoil...... I had a similar friendship - we were incredibly close, she had breast cancer and I was with her every step of the way. we became like twins/ sisters - she came though all fine, but sadly fought like siblings too and she became very very bossy ( big sister like) and selfish... We lived a few doors from each other and our children are similar ages.... In the end I wrote her an email telling her the facts as I saw it- we didn't speak for about 3 months.... but now - a few years later it has all settled down - some proper face to face chat did happen in the middle somewhere and now all is ' normal' - but much less intense.

sayra - I think we need some photos of you doing you amazing pole things - I am very much in awe of that.

I am 2lb off this week - I thought it was 4.... but the scales have changed their mind - I think I had better stop doing tomato sauce on things.

Right off to brave the other thread........

and can I say I can't imagine I will ever have 18% body fat... unless I chopped off my legs perhaps.

and looking forward to nearly naked selfie pics.

peony just for you

I've found a aerial silk class...I'm going on Saturday for a taster will come back and reply properly later.

Wow Sayra - I need to have a go at that, I keep seeing flyers for classes, need to google aerial skills as well now

I've just posted a couple of pics on the food thread from my phone twas dead easy and can't believe I've faffed around loading them onto the PC before but will go and have a look at the other pics cos they were too tiny to see.

2lb off for me commiserations to those with naughty scales. Need to go and brave the other thread to log my weight.

Trashy its hard when a friendship goes that way. I just wrote something about a similar problem I had but realised I didn't have a solution. We started drifting apart when DH told her he was going to propose she stopped answering calls/texts and when we met up a year later it was like bumping into an old colleague/neighbour and I felt like everything we'd gone through and there'd been a lot had all been forgotten. Up til then I'd really missed her but I came home and when DH asked how it had gone I just said I did live in Texas I got closure but sometimes our lives change.

Daisy welcome to the madhouse, you need to share pics of any pets.

Peony hope pupster is ok. Need to find a new name for psychopup because she's 3 today how did that happen, she was a little pup the other week. Going for a walk to meet her doggy friends I've got liver sausage for a treat

Fuckity fuck sayra that is totally amazing . I mean really really amazing - look how strong and toned you are jealous

notso all 12 pups & mum dog (as only 5 weeks) are at the vet .... Breeder / gamekeeper very non plussed ... Whereas I want to go and sleep at the vets ! We haven't even chosen which one we are having yet !

notso you should go to classes, it is so much fun, you work all sorts of muscles and improve quickly. I'd recommend trying for a "pole fitness" class. The first classes I went to were run by a stripper and we were taught to "wank the pole" etc etc

Thank you peony toned I don't think 222lb people can be toned! I did a much more impressive move the other night, if I get a photo of it on Wednesday I will post it (as long as no one minds?) I won't be offended if you say that you mind. Hope puppy is ok.

Yes Sayra STRONG and TONED I can't hold my body weight on one arm!! or by my ankles!! A M A Z I N G

Peony I will never have 18% body fat either. But I'm really really happy with the size I am now. I barely exercise - though losing fat through this WOE has revealed tiny muscles where you'd have thought there were none (eg in my arms). I think I'm a different ecto/endo-morph to BIWI and Stunt - so my tummy doesn't suffer from being the last reservoir of fat. (Though it is just one giant stretch-mark after 2 pregnancies.) My fat reservoir has always been hips and thighs, but it seems to matter less there, and anyway they are still as slim as they've ever been at the moment.

It is shameful to report that my willpower is broken this evening. After having such unbreakable willpower for so long. Its a mixture of being in this "partial permission" zone of maintaining, previous treats weakening the elephant cravings, and having been given a load of stress from 2 kids at an after-school club I co-run. They were so out of control the cleaner (!) is reporting us to the head (!!). I know its all rubbish but no-one likes being reported to the head (it does bring back very odd school-days feelings). Almost certainly, we will tell the parents of one of those kids that he can't come to the club again.

However I have also been shamefully thinking that Trashy encountered much much MUCH MUCH worse stresses last bootcamp and didn't cave. So what a wuss I am.

Trash how is your oldest DS these days?

Hi everyone

Am I ok to join this thread as well? I'm boot camping at the moment because I want to lose a bit of weight, but I'm actually pretty close to maintaining territory and I'd like to gain knowledge and understanding from learning along with you all before I get to that point.

I lost three stone last year through low carbing, in response to a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Was SO CHUFFED at fitting into size tens again (was a very slim teenager and young woman) but went off piste at Christmas and never really got back into the swing of things although i did pretty well until about mid-February time. After that it was a pretty quick slide back into carby naughtiness. Including peanut butter and Nutella eaten off the teaspoon and LIDL pretzel rolls which are pretty much crack to me, it seems. It was quite upsetting recently to get back on the scales and find I'd put a stone of weight back on. But more than that I just don't feel well on that kind of eating.

Thankfully it looks like my weight loss and the change in diet has reset my body a fair bit and I'm no longer in the diabetic range even after a couple of months of eating a fair bit of carbs quite regularly. Very glad about that. Now it's just a matter of getting back to where I'd got to last year and maybe getting rid of just a little bit more on top.

I've learnt a whole lot from lurking on earlier boot camp threads and I would really like to be able to learn from this one too if that's ok with you all. Thanks

Hello holger yes anyone is welcome here. A lot of us are from the last BC and didn't want to cause a riot on the new thread. I am miles away from maintaining but I like to come here to chat to the people I "know".

I'm sure I will soon get to know people on the new BC thread too

And thank you eva I am hoping that there are muscles underneath it all and when I lose the fat I'll be going "da da! look at these muscles" Long way to go but I think pole helps with the weight loss and toning and as I get lighter it will be easier.

(I won't get offended if you'd rather keep this thread for those of you who know each other a bit better though)

Also, I hope I haven't stepped on anyone's toes on the other thread. People ask questions and I'm so eager to be helpful because I don't want anyone new to feel hopeless or discouraged that I might have seemed a bit of a busy body newbie...

Oh thank you Sayra, that was a nice x post

I think anyone is welcome, Holger! We only 'know' each other from previous Bootcamp threads, so you're one of us anyway

Welcome welcome Holger. What brilliant and interesting news that eating lowcarb for a long while has re-set your body out of the diabetic range. How great. How intriguing too. Good luck with the bootcamp, how are you finding it psychologically to get back to strict low-carbing and not stray like me ?

Sayra you're going to go from "toned" to "sculpted" my lovely!!

Thank you for the welcome

It is really good news about my blood sugar levels. I am still what they call pre-diabetic but it's definitely a huge leap in the right direction.

It hasn't been hard this time (yet) because I was in the right headspace to give it my best shot. I tried in feb and joined up to boot camp but I kept falling off the wagon. Not sure what changed, really, except I guess I knew that if I didn't get ahold of myself quickly I'd soon be back where I started. I suddenly found that my lovely coat that I'd bought for winter -size ten! - wasn't fitting all that well. I remembered how wonderful it felt to be 'me' again and be able to walk into a shop and just try things on without worrying so much about how they would look and whether or not they would fit. I didn't want to lose that.

I have a very hard time when I'm sad. Yesterday I was sad and I probably would have given anything for one of those gorgeous pretzel rolls from LIDL. But I got through it.

Today I'm feeling positive. I wish more people knew how easy it is to lose weight, and feel so much better in body and mind, on this WOL.

< guffaws madly at holgers lidl crack >

sayra you fuckin' hot sexy strong sexy mofo!!!! I had to wrestle the ipad off dp who was very taken with your poleyness definitely post more they're bloody brilliant!

eva I had a stress on your behalf when I read what happened in your club. Little bastards! I've said it before and I'll say it again. I despise children, I don't know how you do it.

My eldest (who is 18 in August) 36 is still young 36 is still young is still alive and sane. His poorly face has healed beautifully! Better than I could ever have hoped. It sort of looks like a little acne scar (even though the little git is entirely zit free elsewhere) just in the corner of his mouth. Fortunately most of the wound was inside his mouth, but really it's remarkable how young skin heals. Even with the lifestyle choices he makes.

He's still in the hell house, but has been accepted onto a waiting list for a council/social housing property.

He's very charming and delightful whenever I see or speak to him, and an artist friend of mine is trying to get him involved in something musicy that she has funding for, which could be ace if he can get it together..... He's extremely gifted on the piano nothing I can take credit for, his estranged father is of musical pedigree

Oh god I just feel ludicrously short of time and life mojo right now. Dp and I are off to do some more telly watching now. True detective.

Night night all xxxxx