Helloooo! StuntNun here filling in for the lovely and dedicated BIWI who is off on her hols. So how are you all getting on? I'm sure lots of us are seeing the scales go in the right direction fingers tightly crossed for a pound off myself this week but please don't worry if the scales aren't budging, it's pretty common for there to be a weight loss 'pause' as your body adapts to a low carb diet. Please post your progress and say whether you're continuing on Bootcamp or Bootcamp Light. And if anyone has any questions please ask as it's great to get into the science behind low carbing so we have some ammunition against accusations of being on a fad diet.
As always, the rules are on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness and you can track your weight on the cunningly named Weight Tracker.
By way of inspiration I've put together some info on how we got into this mess in the first place...
Why do we gain weight?
Before I started low carbing I wondered about squirrels. Yep, squirrels. I've never seen a fat squirrel, have you? But squirrels, as I'm sure you know, hoard up huge quantities of nuts and seeds and store them in little caches all over the place. So why don't they eat them all? I assume squirrels like nuts and seeds and yet they manage to resist the urge to stuff their admittedly cute little faces until their food is all gone. Humans on the other hand... humans are rubbish. We eat too much, we know we eat too much, we feel bad because we eat too much, and yet we keep doing it. So why are we so rubbish compared to squirrels? The paleo/primal nutters like me community will tell you that it's because we're eating a diet that is too different from the diet we evolved to eat and that the biggest problem of all is too much carbohydrate.
When you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal, your body releases the hormone insulin to signal the muscles and liver to store carbohydrate. On a conventional diet, however, our muscles and liver are constantly kept at full capacity. Since these glycogen stores are permanently full, any glucose that can't immediately be used by the body is stored as fat. Another action of insulin is to shut down the release of fat from our fat cells so our own fat stores become inaccessible. Then when we get hungry again we eat yet more carbohydrate and the process starts again, more and more glucose is stored as fat and the weight piles on. Worse still, the constant bombardment of our muscles and liver with insulin when their glycogen stores are already full causes them to become less sensitive to the effect of insulin, or insulin resistant. The pancreas responds by releasing more and more insulin and our blood sugar levels start to drop too low as the body frantically clears glucose into its fat stores. Eventually we find we are hungry all the time, starving only two hours after we last ate. And because our blood sugar levels are low, what do we crave? Yet more carbs. So we end up trapped in a viscous cycle of carb addiction, hunger and weight gain while our ever more ample fat stores are unusable.
Hopefully this has described the process by which the weight creeps on. In next week's thread I'll put together some info on how a low carb diet reverses this process, allowing us to use up our fat stores and achieve the weight we want to be at the same time as improving our health and our energy levels and reducing our risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
Good luck all for the coming week. Onwards and downwards!
Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.
Low-carb bootcamp
Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Keep on keeping on
StuntNun · 26/05/2014 05:14
Thanks stunt I saw that explanation when googling as well. I don't know what it is but on googling I found that lots of people have had this happen after starting a LC WOE.
I've not lost a huge amount of weight compared to what I need to lose, lost 1.5 stone, need to lose at least another 5 
so don't think that is a factor for me.
Anyway, its not really a bad thing as I felt more drunk when I was out that I usually would and felt so awful the next day that when I do drink it will be much less that before!
Maybe I should write the rule about eating a lot of fat in bold, and in capital letters?! 
Loving our very own Game of thrones style trashytheenforcer !!
she's right though - it's not worth it, stop cheating .....
pisses
lookingforhope - I am really sorry to hear about possibility of redundancy, I was made redundant 4 times in the last few years and know how that uncertainty can affect you 
teawith me me - I devised the marmite fat bombs
.... All my school reports in the 1800's said , should pay attention more ....
Hi all, just checking in to say I survived the hangover but my god, what a waste of a day. I was good for nothing. This WOE has now apparently succeeded in making me teetotal as well.
Am dreading the weigh-in tomorrow. Had a sneaky peek today and seem to be 1.5 lbs up. Drinking lots of water tonight, just some salami for supper and an early night to hope for an overnight whoosh.
Can't really complain if I do go up a bit. DH has been home for half term, he's working away in Oz at the moment and we haven't seen him since Easter. Consequently this week has been a flurry of activity, visiting family and lots of eating out. Have mostly made good food choices but have had to have occasional wine to celebrate him being home. He's back on a plane tonight so I'm back to the lifestyle of a nun
Hoping to lose another few pounds before he's home for good at the end of June. A great motivation.
Everyone please pile on over to the
Week 5 chat thread
I can't wait to see how people are doing. 
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Had a bit of a wobble food-wise this week but have hauled myself back into line. I'm sticking with BC for a while longer. 1lb down this week so I can't really complain. I don't seem to be able to add it to the spreadsheet though...
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