Week 8 - Low Carb Bootcamp - Come on Andy!

[BIWI]

Welcome to week 8 where hopefully the tennis will distract us all from England's performance in the World Cup!

Come and register this week's weigh in on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness or on your own Weight Tracker

And just a reminder re rule 6 - because I'm a bit of a broken record about telling you all to drink more - here's how much you should be drinking:

6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day.

The more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink. This is from another low carb website

Water is essential to weight loss for those who eat low-carb. The minimum consumed in a day should be:

Your Weight----Litres
140lbs-----2.5
160lbs-----3.0
180lbs-----3.0
200lbs-----3.5
220lbs-----3.5
240lbs-----4.0
260lbs-----4.5
280lbs-----4.5
300lbs-----5.0
320lbs-----5.5
340lbs-----5.5
360lbs-----6.0
380lbs-----6.5
400lbs-----6.5

High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects: aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in-turn will reduce breath odour.

However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb diet we can eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it. Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt.

In this hot weather, remember that you will also be sweating a bit more, so you may need to try and squeeze in a little bit more if you possibly can!

So cauli rice, meh, nice sometimes.

Cauli egg fried rice, holy crap. Gooood! It tastes like the real thing too. Will be making that again lots and lots.

Well done StoneTheFlamingCrows what a brilliant accomplishment,what a long way to run. hope it feels good now you've had a bit of rest

FFS. Went to kids carnival yesterday. Lots of friends, cans of strong bow and lager being consumed (I had three) and a bag of chips on the way home because I was feeling the effects big time and absolutely starving. Am 3lbs up this morning!!!! I don't think the WEIGHT of what I ate was 3lbs!!! I'm going to have to eat like this forever and ever. I already eat less than 30g carb every day and most days less than 20g. And still I struggle to lose a pound a week. Am now feeling genuinely scared that if I ever deviate I'm going to regain all the weight overnight. Actually cried this morning.

Pingu that is a classic reaction to eating carbs when on a low carb diet. It's water. It will disappear in a few days. It isn't a gain of fat, so don't panic

If you deviate in future, yes there will be a blip, but it soon rights itself. Lots of people following this long term have cheat days planned, or relax at parties, and they maintain their weight just fine. You just have to be aware it spikes up for a few days, but a few strict days puts it right.

pingufan - don't cry! What you have learnt is something invaluable. You have learnt that you are sensitive to carbs. I know it feels like it sucks right now, but you have learnt what it is that makes you gain weight - and therefore you know what to avoid.

That doesn't mean that you can never have them. Of course you can! When you reach your target weight it's a completely ridiculous notion that you will stay that weight all the time and never deviate from it.

The more sustainable thing is to know what you 'desired' weight is, and then to make sure you never go more than, say, 7lbs above it.

So you keep your eye on your weight, and what you're eating. You can do this from the advantage of knowing what your body can and can't tolerate. Does 3 cans of Strongbow and a bag of chips sound like anyone can eat them without any ill effect?!

I know it sounds such a huge overreaction. It's my own fault obviously, I've jumped straight back on the wagon today but I can't believe how intolerant of carbs I am. I'm scared that my tolerance will get lower and lower and eventually I won't be able to eat even 20g a day. I'll be living on oil..lol, I have to laugh or I'll cry.

I've felt like that too Pingu, it is really hard. When my heads in the right place I'm brilliant but then if I slip up I feel like I've ruined everything but you just have to keep going, these things happen.

Food has been ok this weekend but I have only eaten 1 or 2 meals a day.

I have also just done Jillian Michaels Six week six pack abs workout on Youtube after ordering a dress for a wedding in a few weeks. I'm going to try and do it as often as I can. I really miss being fit

Pingu it was water. You can't gain three pounds in a day I promise. If you were drinking Strongbow and eating carbs then you will have stored glycogen and lots of water and the alcohol has probably upset your water balance. It will come off again in a few days. Watch out for carb cravings over the next day or two, I always get them the second day after a carby meal. Having a 'carby tear' moment, as it was called on a previous Bootcamp, isn't great for weight loss as it takes you a few days to get back where you were and then for weight loss to start again. But so long as you don't keep at the carbs for over a day then it will only be glycogen and water, you won't gain a significant amount of fat.

Doh stoopid spellcheck, that should have said 'carby twat'!

Thanks all, common sense tells me it's back to business and ill get past it, just so gutted to be so ultra sensitive to carbs that any indiscretion means an almost immediate gain. Sitting amongst slim women yesterday happily scoffing burgers, drinking etc I looked around me and silently wondered how they managed it...genetics I guess.

Anyway, todAy's food
b - bpc
L roast chicken leg, Swede, cabbage, broccoli and butter
D ham with 2 poached eggs and butter

Aww Pingu! Don't panic!

As far as I remember, replacing your glycogen puts on around 4lbs so all of us who low carb lost 4lbs to start with that isn't actually fat. Anytime you over eat on carbs you will put that 4lb back but its just glycogen and water. As long as you get back into the zone it will go again in the next few days. The fact that you feel so crappy is a statement to how carbs affect your mood. I tried carb re-feeds for a couple of weeks but stopped because I couldn't deal with the mood change and the way I feel so yuk. I don't think the alcohol will have helped. Having done low carb for a long time I find that I only need to sniff the bottle now and I'm away with the fairies! When your brain is ticking over nicely on ketones it doesn't seem to like booze.

Maybe delay your weigh in a day or so till you've piddled away all those carbs!

And only 9.5lbs?! I'd kill to have lost that this Bootcamp

Me too Biwi! I'd like to have lost that much this year!

Week 9 chat thread

Did anyone watch that healthiest diet in the world programme? Interesting how the winner was Iceland where they eat very little fruit and veg, mainly fish and dairy. The only carbs there was a very high fibre rye bread. A village in Italy was also up there where they eat mainly olive oil. But yet we are still told low fat is best!

If I ever needed convincing this woe is best for me, I don't after today. I have been on a big carby roller coaster.

After falling of the wagon yesterday, I was feeling optimistic and had boiled eggs for breakfast. Had an induction at a new summer job which provided lunch. It was sandwiches and nothing else. So I had sandwiches. And then biscuits. And coffee when I have recently been drinking decaf.

By the end of the day I felt so ropey I bought pizza and garlic bread for dinner. Then got a spectacular migraine. Then ate crisps and chocolate. I am horrified with myself - I was out of control! But at least it goes to prove how addictive carbs are! And I have actually felt like shit all day. It has made me realise how good I have been feeling before. I hadn't had a single migraine whilst lcing.

Please no one follow my example, but take it from me do not fall off the wagon or you will regret it!

I am not sure if biwi approves, but I am doing an atkins style fat fast from tomorrow - I feel I need to do this to get myself under control. I have planned my meals and have everything in! I know I will probably get carb flu again, but it will be nothing compared to how shit I have felt today anyway - only since I have been eating carbs though, I felt fine before lunch.

They've moved to the new thread, biwi linked to it in the post above yours.

So I will be with you pingu - getting back on it! We can do it!

I was up 2lb thus morning and will be even more tomorrow.

I guess 9.5lbs is ok, but I have a fair amount to lose, my BMI is over 25 and I want to lose another 1.5 stone.

Sorry to fill the thread with stories of my horrible cheating, but I have been really good up until now, and I hope I tell a cautionary tale, rather than bragging about how I ate a bag of doughnuts and still managed to lose 5lbs!

Oops!

Never mind, it was more if a confessional anyway, just needed to get it off my chest!