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
I now don't buy into the I-have-to-eat-or-cause-offense thing, or "socially obligated sugar" because this actually says far more about other people than it does about me. By nature, I too am a feeder, so I can see the other side. But if I put my self esteem in people liking what I feed them and they reject my food and I feel rejected (which I used to) then I need to find a much solider basis for my self-esteem, tbh. And so do the other 'feeders' in my, and your, life. Tough love, maybe, but love is at the root of it.
So true. I really struggle with people like this. I have actually had to distance myself from a friend like this. One time she couldn't cope with me refusing (politely) a slice of cake at her house. You would have thought I'd punched her in the face. It was when I was on Slimming World and she kept going on to the other people there that I wasn't having cake because I was on Slimming World. The other people hadn't even noticed or cared. It was really embarrassing. In fact any eating at her house was fraught. I now realise she is a feeder.
I am noticing that I know a few people like this. They HAVE to feed you. And if you refuse it is very awkward.
My DH agrees with you LittleMissD, and says that it is their issue. And I know I am the only one who puts food in my mouth but I still find this difficult.
I am going for a cream tea on Saturday which I don't want to eat (I don't want to go at all but that's another story!) It's in a stuffy stately home and I will be expected to keep my 2 boisterous aka normal girls quiet for the duration. Plus spend £14 on titchy sandwiches and cakes that none of us want. It's time to be brave isn't it 
Blimey it's quiet! Morning everybody, I hope we're all just lurking, with our heads down and getting the thing done? I am definitely on the mend - got actual housework done yesterday, and have a houseful of customers dogs today, so must brave the pissing rain in a bit and take out six dogs. I've got a staffie and chihuahua (mine and dps) a lurcher, a bedlington terrier mix, a bichon frise and a staffiexlurcher. Fortunately the dcs are off school, and I am babysitting their little pal for my friend/neighbour, so I'm going to employ a bit of child labour and make them help me as I'm not at full strength and am prone to weak spells/gut ache periodically.
We've been eating out/ getting takeaway an awful lot, as I've not been able to cook, and dp works full time, and has done an awful lot, so I've been carbinating like mad all over the place. Yesterday we went to The Toby Carvery 
It's a bit like Mos Eisley imo but I had all four meats, cauliflower, and some red cabbage. The dcs and dp went nuts and had all the carby trimmings, so I was subjected to a volley of terrible farting all the way home in the car by the dreadful bastards.
At first if I had takeaways on this WOE I'd put on weight even if I chose the foods very carefully. What I realised is the portion control goes out of the window for me, so I'm extremely mindful whenever eating takeaway food, and I serve myself what I think is a tiny portion (consoling myself that I will be able to eat the leftovers for breakfast/lunch) then I make sure I eat very slowly, chewing each mouthful, and putting my fork down between mouthfuls and all that malarky. It really works - I'm full enough by the end of the dish, and I feel so good afterwards - nourished but not bloated, and with no guilty feelings.
I'm going to brave some scrambled eggs later. My stomach has been turning at the thought of them, but I think I've got a bit of lactose sensitivity at the moment, because yoghurt is leaving me crippled.
Aah that's more like it. stunt keep the science coming woman.
LMD I've got nothing yet! still waiting for results.... Excellent post though, my lovely
locarblil my go to response when I don't want to talk about my WOE but I have to say something, is to say that I've developed IBS type symptoms, and I'm better when I don't eat xyz. If I do eat xyz, I'm getting bloating/cramps/farting/the runs/constipation/gut rot (whatever you feel it's acceptable to say.
That way, you're set for life, and it's unchallengable. If people make helpful suggestions about how to tackle it, I nod, smile and make soothing ah sounds before changing the subject.
stringy I am waiting to hear from the docs re meds... 
curse the bank holiday!
lowcarbforthewin that's an incredible achievement! Well bloody done!
On the subject of blood sugars... here's an interesting lil' factiod. When the lovely ambulance men came to drag me from my pit of doom up to the hospital, I had eaten nothing at all for four days. I'd drunk very little in the 24 hours preceding, and when they tested my blood sugar levels, they were 6.4..... perfectly normal. I was too ill to speak but I remember thinking to myself 'I bet that's cos I'm in ketosis and living off me hump'
Just had the most delicious lunch (I work weird hours so have an early lunch) of courgette fritters. Added a tiny bit of chili powder to the recipe.
Now thinking that these would be amazing with the spinach balls from this I love pasta giardiniera at Carluccio's but let's be honest the pasta is just a vehicle for the flavours. Yum!
Loving the science talk. Am so non - scientific but it gives me confidence that this is a healthy WOE.
Trashcan - I love the idea of unmentionable gastric problems. That would certainly put the in laws off asking further. They're quite proper & I sometimes feel v uncouth as it is. Genius.
Glen - I have said 'no thanks' a couple of times to foods (not enough) and weirdly enough the world didn't end, or the sky fall on my head, as I stupidly appear to believe will happen 
. Will keep trying for the liberated feeling!
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I have got my results back - it is campylobacter! I'm almost grateful at this stage. I've got antibiotics to collect and take. Hoo-fuckin-raaaaah
Yeay hissy that's brilliant news, and congratulations on sts through such bastard trauma.
pingu - (I have somehow nicknamed you 'pinge' in my head I'm so chuffed for you - it's like starting to turn a heavy wheel, and then suddenly, you're off, and it's the best feeling
weshould I'm always asking for menu changes, and I do it really quietly and discreetly, and I have never had a problem - if people raise an eyebrow I use the old guts problem - 'it just suddenly started happening...' Bunless burger, with greens instead of chips, or swap bits from one dish to another. If the wrst comes to the worst, and they absolutely can't, I'll order a set meal, and then add some sides I know I can eat, like a green salad, and when the food arrives, quick as a flash, I'll dump the salad on my plate, and stick undesirables on the salad plate, and quickly cover it with a napkin (or give it to the group dustbins)
Weshould - just say you are experimenting with giving up different things to see how it affects your digestion. If you do not make a big deal, but just do it matter of fact, its likely that most will not notice. Or pretend you have just decided to become high-maintenance and you want things your way!
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