Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - the final weigh in!

[BIWI]

Good morning everyone!

I hope you're all still with us, to come and add your final weigh-in to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Or, on the Weight Tracker

It seems like there have been some really good losses on this Bootcamp, and so for you all!

Hope you all have a very good week

Mo that's me too, on it or off it! I went to an offsite meeting yesterday morning and had a latte, then when I got back to the office someone had sent me some chocolates and I ate one - after sticking with it through thick and thin for 10 weeks! That's it, I have to stick to being 'on it' throughout, until I've lost all the weight, and according to the calculator I just did, that is 3 stone, so it's going to be a long haul.

at BIWI hologram!!!

But you and Charlie make a very important point - maintaining the weight loss is, IMVHO, much harder than actually losing the weight in the first place.

You have to find a way of eating that stops you craving carbs all the time, but allows you to eat things you want to and means you don't feel deprived. Because everyone has different levels of tolerance for carbs there's no easy way to do this - you have to work it out for yourself.

Dr Briffa's view is that you follow the 80:20 rule - i.e. 80% of the time you eat low carb and 20% of the time you eat off plan. That corresponds nicely, in my view, to eating low carb during the week but eating as you like at the weekend.

However, I still don't think that means you can revert to carby twatdom on your 'days off'!

Biwi is sooo right! In the past I have lost and regained but that was doing low fat. I find LC just gets easier as you go on. Your body adapts to not having carb and you will get some times when you really regret going diving into a heap of sugar because you will find that, not only do you not really like it anymore, but your body will kick up a right stink for several days afterwards!

I think those of us with a lot to lose have the edge in some respects, (provided we climb back on the wagon that is), because we get more adaptation time. Often the 80:20 rule works simply because knowing that you have given yourself permission to have something at a specific time takes the attraction away. What about BC Light or even Extra Light over the Christmas/New Year period with the three main days to have anything you fancy? You would still be in control and you wont be back to square one in January. Theres loads of luscious stuff out there that is pretty much carb free.

If the fat free gang sneer at you for being low carb just sit and smirk whilst buttering your veg and pouring a carton of cream over your berries and into your coffee (which you will sip whilst enjoying a square or two of posh, dark chocolate). That will twist the knife as they ponder on whether they can afford the calories to have dressing on their salads!

Humphrey when I stopped breastfeeding earlier in the year, two or three pounds fell off almost straight away.

miffy unfortunately I have found that if I eat cream and yogurt I gain weight. What I've lost on bc works out at around 2lb per week, which is great, but I've had to stick rigidly to the plan, and cut out all dairy to get this loss. If I went extra light over Christmas I would gain, and for me that is too demoralising, losing the same 2lb over and over again just doesn't work for me. We're all different, I am very envious of those who seem to be able to have treats here and there but I don't seem to be able to do it. My goal is to sts until Jan 2 so I think I might get away with a bit of roast parsnip on my Christmas dinner!I need to up my activity levels but this is a very stressful time of year for me at work and I'm suffering badly for that at the moment, exhausted and in constant pain.

miffy the fat free gang trolling made my day, i had one of them for a coffee today. She had shaking hand when pouring gold top milk into her coffee as we don't buy any other for DD, the she "applied" one sweetener tablet (which I keep only for her) and looked at me in disbelief when I scooped coconut oil into my one. Then I was given a lesson that black coffee is lethal to our stomachs (hmmm I feel pretty ok so far) but just to keep her happy I packed two tbsp of clotted cream in my cup. Then we discussed or weight lose progress. (I know i just complained about mine to you my lovely bootcampers but poker face to fat free gang haha). So friend is doing incredibly well apparently only during weekend she couldn't resist half of baking tray of cake because she was hungry...And I should stop using so much salt and all that pork bellies full of fat if I don't want to die.
Talking more serious I discovered that I must be lucky one. I don't want to resign from bootcamp woe as normal food is not tempting me anymore. Interesting and lucky as I said. No more gluten anyway for me. I may introduce some berries and maybe more yoghurt.

Charlie I will be pretty much eating to my usual BC as well but there seemed to be a lot of people who had done really well and were in danger of just falling back into heaps of carb just because its Christmas. I thought maybe some strategic planning might help them. I've often found that if I tell myself I can have something on a certain day or at a certain time I end up not bothering. It loses its attraction if you don't feel its out of bounds.

rybka13 lol! Shame your friend doesn't realise that fat is only a problem if you mix it with carbs. You just have to keep quiet and toddle on though don't you? You can't change the mindset once they are that brainwashed. At least we can say that if the fat kills us we wont go feeling hungry!

There is a woman in my office on SW - brings in pot shots or whatever they're called and mullerlights and calls it a healthier diet than my avocado for breakfast and salad with home made mayo for lunch. Madness!

Miffy49 and Rybka13 I will have to admit to looking the fat is bad crew straight in the eye and tell them that as it was a certain I was going to die at some point anyway I'd rather have food that tasted nice. The look of abject horror was amusing.

I have just fallen into a 200g bag of salted peanuts. I was stuck in snow earlier and it was a bit testing on the nerves. Thankfully escape was just a matter of waiting for it to stop snowing and melt a bit. A good job that the stash of food for ds that is normally kept in the car was empty otherwise it would have been way too easy to slip into carby twat comfort eating.

I am allergic to milk, can't overdo the dairy anyway. My downfall is nuts; but so far, i have been losing inches, so happy enough. But I seem to be stuck now; and being tired and fed up due to other factors, really tempting to let carbs creep in.
But I am also allergic to wheat and it is amazing the difference having no grains at all; skin is better, no bloating etc.
I did read that low carb diets are not good for depression, though - does anyone know if this is true? I am on fluoxetine for anxiety which is one reason I feel my weight went up, as it affects your metabolism. But I read that starchy foods help your brain make serotonin, and now I am worried my mood is on the floor because of low carbing. More likely that my mood is on the floor because of other things, but I can see where the comfort food came in before.

The only counter argument is that I was on Prozac before I changed my way of eating, not after.

Does that even make sense?? Maybe I need to get more creative with the low carb cooking.

And I definitely would not go back to fat free!

I did a quick google Romey some of these might be worth a look at?

www.sott.net/article/276507-Can-a-ketogenic-diet-really-fight-depression-Low-carb-high-fat-foods-shown-to-drastically-improve-mental-health

www.examiner.com/article/high-fat-diets-can-alleviate-depression-and-mood-disorders-say-scientists

Romeyroo I've never been diagnosed with depression but since changing to this way of eating my mood and emotions have dramatically improved. I find that I rarely have the down days and I'm much happier and more patient and nicer all round now tbh. My fiancée has noticed a big change too and he comments that he always knows if I've had carbs because I get all irritable and grumpy . I'm much less anxious now too and just feel much better in myself both physically and mentally so for me, personally, I would say that low carb actually has had a very positive affect on my mental well-being as well as my physical health.

Christmas wise, were going to family for the main day but I'm confident I can stick to a lower carb time, I'm more than happy to just eat the meat and veg and miss out the potatoes and I'm bringing pudding so will be making low-carb ones and just not letting on that they aren't carby. It's the chocolates and little treats that will be a challenge and I generally find these days that these things are either far to sweet or that I'm satisfied with only a really small amount so I'm not too worried about falling off the wagon as long as I remain vigilant. Helps that I don't really like alcohol so won't be drinking much either.

Thank you so much; I look forward to reading the articles later Bitchy once I have got DC to bed. It will be nice to read something more positive than what I read!

Bird, yes, on reflection I feel better physically and in some ways mentally; it had got to the stage where I was pretty much going from one carb fix to another just to get through the day. It is nice to be back to be back to more control. And yes, there are fewer mood swings; I noticed it most when I had my period. The thing I notice most is not being exhausted by 8pm though. It is probably the nature of things at the moment that I am feeling flat; I was just worried it was the low carbs after reading that article about low serotonin. But I think sugar is a temporary fix.

I did eat a gingerbread shape earlier just bearing in mind what Bibi said about not feeling deprived, and I agree, it tasted very sweet and rich. Lovely but I did not want more than one. Very happy with that!

Biwi, I mean!

romeyroo I'm not a doctor but from my personal experience I can say nothing helped me more in my struggle with depression and generalised anxiety disorder (both diagnosed in early twenties now I'm forty) than removing Mirena coil and changing diet. I started with Weston Price then primal type and now low carbing. I have never felt better in my whole life. And that from person who tried all possible medication available, countless psychoterapies and Cognitive Behavioural one on the top. Not to mention SAD lamp normally being on that time of the year. Previously I would be sobbing at every advert on TV whole winter... Such a jolly girl I was. I have to admit even I'm totally surprised how good I feel on very low carb diet. No medication, no lamp, no crying...

Romey I actually found one article that was suggesting that perhaps it was unnaturally high levels of serotonin that was responsible for depression. It is controversial and I didn't have time to look into more (which is why i didn't link to it) and I don't want to take the report on face value but it was an interesting alternative view point.

I am another that feels better for being on low carb but am still feeling emotionally low. However, if I am honest it is not surprising with what has been going on around here. Also lack of sleep is my biggest problem and that does have a big impact on mood so I suspect that if I can get the sleep under control actually sleep then that will perk up hugely. I can cope with a whole heap more crap better than I used to though. Which helps.

Thanks; I think the combination of low carb and fluoxetine has helped my insomnia. The first day I started low carb, I honestly was worried I would be hungry and wake up in the middle of the night. I really sympathise with the not being able to sleep; earlier this year, I was really struggling with insomnia, then on Prozac I felt drugged, but it seems, I hope, to have levelled out.

Yes, I have an SAD lamp in my office. I have it on most of the day, this time of year. This conversation actually prompted me to remember my vitamins, including iron, though I am eating more green leafy veg than in my whole life!

Off to do my reading; interesting point about seratonin. After all, I grew up with the low fat orthodoxy and Atkins seemed heretical; the idea that you could have too much serotonin feels the same - now low carb makes complete sense to me. Anyway, I don't want to hijack the thread, but thank you, I am feeling less like I am counteracting the medication now.

Romey it is not a hijack it is an issue that will have concerned several people in the back of their brains. The fact you were brave enough to say it means that potentially someone else out there who has been considering the same thing. And i have done a fair bit of research on the serotonin issue as it is linked to a lot of meds that I have been having some very bad reactions to. I actually found the pathway by which serotonin and melatonin were created when research 5htp which someone recommended me for insomnia. Incidentally not recommended with the drugs you are on because it could lead to a complete excess of serotonin. I need to do some more research on the whole matter so I will get back to you if I find something more out/clear up my thoughts and understanding of the whole lot.

Eating keto has really made a difference to my moods. I went through all the different antidepressants that are prescribed in lower doses for pain relief but all had dreadful side effects. I settled on St John's Wort (with my docs blessing) and have been on it years. Recently I have felt so good I have been able to reduce it. Normally in the winter I would be increasing it! I have seen a lot of references to keto for various forms of depression but haven't followed it up. I will check out those links. I can say though that my energy levels are great eating like this. I sleep a bit better, although I still don't achieve really restful sleep, but the best thing is the improvement in my mental clarity and the improvement in a lot of the cognitive problems I had been struggling with. Obviously I still have bad days but far less than before. As I've said before, I would really like to get my weight lower but even if I don't lose another pound I will never change the way I eat now as its pretty much given me my life back.

miffy, that is such a positive story, I have only been on this way of eating for two months, but am going to stick with it as well. It sounds like it has a lot more benefits than weight loss. Plus, the first couple of weeks were so difficult because of the sugar withdrawal, i am not going through that again!

Bitchy thank you for your kind words. Maybe I should have started a new thread, but my thinking was a bit too garbled. I read the articles last night, really interesting and am now working my way through an overview of ketogenesis (sp?) It makes sense to me that humans evolved over millions of years on a ketogenic diet, though my brain is now spinning with the implications of this for our over-populated globe. But yes, please do share any helpful findings and if I find anything, I will let you know.

I am going to try to be organised with my menu planning too; I have found the lists and discussion on here useful. I was doing well with that till I hit a stressful patch but it really helped me feel more organised.

Don't worry about it Romey The BC proper is finished and we are just keeping each other going now as so many of us are permanent B/Campers. Anyway, I haven't found it to be one of those groups where you are continually being blasted for not following obscure forum protocols. Wouldn't survive here if it was with my addled brain!

As has been said before, you don't need to be fully in ketosis if you just use LC to lose weight. If you are looking for improvements in neurological or auto-immune problems then its really worth investigating it. Its one of those things where you need to understand a bit of the workings to get the best out of it as everyone has a slightly different threshold. Don't be put off by some of the books though. You can achieve it quite effectively without massive amounts of calculations and without the various very expensive monitors that are hitting the market now!

Interesting isn't it. For years the marketing was to get us away from it. Now they have found that they can make money by merchandising it Oh the consumer industry is fickle and not really doing things in our best interest sometimes.

Struggling today, terrible PMT cravings, no sleep and a hyper four-year-old who wants to bake!

afternoon all, been lurking a bit whilst trying to get rid of cold no3 bloody kids , am just happily plodding onwards.

Not sure what I'm going to face this Christmas as I suddenly realised, whilst listening to my friends office party story, I'm a bit repulsed by the thought of some of the food and especially drinking to excess.
Seeing miffiy's comment about being permanent boot campers has really struck a cord and I think I would be happy to stay this way.