Week 2 - Low Carb Bootcamp - The First Weigh-In!

[BIWI]

So how did you all get on?

Just in case you've lost the link Here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I hope that your first week has been rewarded by good news on the scales.

Good luck for the next week

Sayra thanks for working that out.

I eat yogurt at the same rate you do, that's a big saving. I buy cheaper carbier Greek yogurt for the rest of the household so that's an extra cost/saving too.

Hmmm, think I'll have a wander round Lakeland next week.

Just bear in mind I litre of milk makes 1 litre of natural yogurt. If you strain it to make Greek yogurt you get half that quantity. It still tastes great as natural yogurt though.
You can also save money by buying basic natural yogurt (55p a pot?) and then straining that, voila Greek yogurt! And you can make yogurt in an oven with no machine required if you don't want to fork out money, the machine just makes it even easier.

Good day today. Eggs for breakfast, salmon and salad with olive oil for lunch. I felt pretty rotten for the alcohol, my mouth felt all furry this morning, I had forgotten sugar did that to you! Gained. 0.4 lbs for drinking it so at least the damage isn't too great. No desire for more right now though.

I was going to post this next week but seeing as CB asked...

The Week Three Stall

The dreaded week three stall doesn't happen to everyone when starting a low carb diet but it is very common. The best thing is to keep doing what you've been doing, and the scales will start moving again, usually by week five.

During the first couple of weeks of your low carb diet a number of things have occurred. You have depleted the glycogen stores in your liver and along with the weight of glycogen lost, you have lost three or four times that weight in water. You have also been using up your fat stores. So if you have lost 10 lb then approximately two of that is glycogen, seven of water and one of fat stores. By using up your glycogen store you have forced your body to turn to other sources of energy. Your body has been producing new enzymes to process the different diet and your brain and muscles have adapted to using ketones instead of glucose.

At three weeks your body has adapted to the new diet and your metabolism has changed from carb-burning to fat-burning. Your muscles have switched over to burning the free fatty acids that are continually released from your fat cells when insulin levels are low. But don't think you can rapidly lose a few pounds and your body isn't going to notice! Since you have also lost a lot of water your body releases a hormone (vasopressin antidiuretic hormone if you want to be precise) which is usually released during dehydration. This causes your body to retain water. So while you are still burning fat, maybe half a pound up to two pounds a week, your body is hanging on to water and this will mask the loss of your fat stores. One way of helping is to keep drinking lots of water. Once your body recognises that it isn't dehydrated the hormone levels go back to normal, the retained water whooshes away and the scales start moving again.

Just to reiterate, a stall in weight loss in weeks three and four is normal, expected, and you are still using up your fat stores even if the number on the scales isn't changing.

I'm making the idiotproof spanish chicken for dinner today. I don't have a covered dish for the oven though, so I'm going to hope it cooks well in a large stockpot on the hob.

Actually I think I'll brown off the meat then just put it all in the slow cooker now. #anxiouscookproblems

Puts down chocolate!

Thanks

B - 2 eggs scrambled with butter and splash of double cream
L - broccoli, cauliflower and Stilton soup (tasted too good to be 'diet' food)
D - undecided. Probably chicken salad with asparagus and roast cauliflower

Mmm roast cauliflower.

I'm doing chicken Kievs for the kids tonight (I'm just having a roasted chicken breast) so while the oven's on I could do a cheeky roast cauliflower too.

Mmmmm.

Ds in hospital since last night, have managed 2L water, and just bought some cheese and butter portions.

Also got a packet of seeds, is that not too bad? They haven't got anything else in the cafeteria that'd be semi allowed.

hangs head in shame

So, I went out with my parents last night and completely blew it. I had beer, wine and a curry! The curry was a creamy chicken one but I had half a poori bread with it. I'm going to BC for the next two weeks anyway as I have a party to go to at the end of the month but how much damage have I done?

trash thank you for the advice. I think portion control might be an issue so I'll see how the weigh in goes tomorrow and look at amending portions next week

Hope your DS is ok Hissy, I'm sure the seeds are ok in an emergency situation.

For everyone mentioning ice cream I'm half way through making coconut cream ice cream. I just whisked some coconut cream with some double cream so it was a bit thinner then put it in a container in the freezer. Every half hour or so I've been mixing it so it freezes evenly and isn't a solid block. It's looking and tasking a lot like ice cream .

Hissy they usually have a breakfast kiosk in hospitals so you can have eggs/bacon/mushrooms or if they have a sarnie place, tell them what you're doing and ask them to sell you fillers - egg mayo/prawn mayo/cheese/salad/cold meats/tuna mayo

Good luck, drink plenty and hope ds is ok

Thanks for info lowcarb I didn't think it would reduce that much with straining. So seri just ignore what I said above then!

We are barbecuing the evening which actually seems to work week , chicken, for us and burgers as well for the boys plus we have got some black farmer sausages with lots of salad .

I'm a saint.

Had 2 birthday parties today. The first was okayish and not too hard to stick to water.

Second was a bbq and my god, the food. The food had to be seen to be believed. Especially the puddings

But I did it, I ate a pile of sausages, burgers (both 95-97% meat), loads of cheese, then had a bowl of extra thick double cream with just 2 strawberries. I had 3l water and 5 cans of diet coke so I don't feel deprived at all!

I'm also due on, so 1lb is back on and I look bloated enough to be mistaken for 4 months pregnant but whatever

Please can I join? I did low carbing by myself for two years and lost 17% of my body weight by last December. But it has started to creep back since Xmas and I would be so grateful for the support of this group to get back to where I felt healthiest. I do know the major reason for the backsliding - it's wine.
I truly love Xmas but it is so bad for my health!

Hi everyone,
We're barbecuing here, I got us a butterflied leg of lamb as I have been dying to try that on the BBQ and it was reduced from Ocado. Marinated in mint, oil, bit of garlic, salt and pepper. Am going to have roasted veg with it, DH will have potatoes too. Mmmmm.....
Was out at lunchtime today and managed to stick to plan in an Italian that I love - had salad of parma ham, rocket and small amts mozzarella and tomato. But it wasn't a big salad like I'd make at home and I am soooo hungry.

Hissy emergencies are different, I hope your DS is ok. Can someone bring you some things including some food for you? Not many hospitals have food on a Sunday evening.

Sayra you've started something fab with your yogurt making!

trashy SO glad you're recovered from your bug. Hope you keep feeling better and your normal self

readyforno2 not sure what you mean by eating too much fat? As in a percentage of what you're eating? Or as in eating too much altogether? You can certainly still overeat on this WOE and eating beyond hunger is usually emotional and will still impede weightloss. But in terms of a % of what you eat it is really very hard to push the fat too high - mostly it's likely that all of us would benefit from pushing it higher than we are. Don't worry about how much fat you're eating, it won't be too much.

x post MIL welcome!! The support here is fab and keeps us on the road to losing and keeping hopeful.

LMD thank you :-)

Checking in after a week of annual leave involving camping, rushing around and even a work meeting . Hope everyone has been enjoying the lovely weather. It's just taken me forever to catch up on the thread!

I've had a really mixed week food wise. Low carb camping was a challenge - I took loads of swede mash and bought meat to cook and ate lots of babybels and pepperamis. All good but not very inspiring and nor did it taste nice! I would take the indonesian chilli chicken off the recipe thread next time and let it defrost in the coolbox. (Note to all - 40 year old coolboxes and not a good plan! I came home with quite a dodgy tummy )

Jean how did the gro clock go? It took some perseverance for us!

Today's menu
B mushrooms fried in butter with tea
L roast chicken leg with swede cabbage broccoli cauliflower with butter
D egg fried in butter and 3 aldi sausages that were 2.6g carb / 100

Still same on scales been a week now but I think I thought I lost weight after tummy bug last weekend when it was just water loss and I've made that back up now. Also totm started today. Hoping for the whoosh sometime soon

Thank you StuntNun re the choc & Sayra - that ice cream sounds amazing! All this BBQ talk is also v inspiring, sounds delicious.

I need to do this, ice cream or no ice cream though, my mirror at home is quite flattering I think, but the sight of me in other mirrors today is not pleasant There are so many yummy things I CAN eat I need to focus on them

Think I did OK today.
B - eggs in a cup & coffee w cream Potluck type lunch so had a bit each of chilli, chicken casserole and pulled pork, with lots of salad and salad dressing & moved around during pudding & no-one seemed to notice what I was/wasn't eating. I hate having to explain I'm on a diet.

Haven't eaten yet but making celeriac dauphanoise and will keep in the fridge during the week. Was still same weight on scales this morning as have been all week - so hoping for a woosh overnight!

Hello all, just checking in for the day. It's been glorious here and I've done some vigorous gardening so with a big of luck that will help shift the mass.

B eggs in a bowl with butter, Greek yog, coffee with coconut milk (quite nice).
L ham, salad, teeny bit of Aldi coleslaw.
D - version of cottage pie with leeks, yellow pepper, tinned tomato, quorn and mashed cauli on top. Quite nice except I had to make the real thing as well for DH and a sausage version for DS who hates mince so I am now shattered. At least they washed up.

S coffee with cream, 1decaff earl grey tea. Might have some more yog later.

Not doing so well with the water today, only 1 litre so far.

Gosh this thread moves fast!

Hissy, sorry to hear about your DS, hope he's on the mend soon, and hope you've got family/friends around you for support.

Hello Never! funnily enough, we have just been doing our family tree and have discovered we have family from around your neck of the woods...

Sarahbeeny - gro clock was not so successful, we had a 5am start today . However, I made a point of sitting with DD at 6.30 to watch the sun 'wake up' and have done the story and clock again tonight. I'm persevering!

Do you know, today was the first day I've felt confident enough to go without make-up for years. A side-effect of no sugar, low carbs and no alcohol - not only am I losing weight but my skin looks amazing. Am so pleased! BIWI I could kiss you