Week 7 - Pre-summer Low Carb Bootcamp - our last four weeks ...

[BIWI]

Morning all

As usual, the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

No time to chat this morning - an early start at work - but hope you all have good results

I lost half a pound this week, which I'm quite happy with after a two week stall.

B- coffee with cream. Was out so half a small bag of nuts.
L- home made Piri Piri chicken with salad
D- salmon steak and salad.

S- 85% dark choc square with a smear of whole earth peanut butter. My own little reeses pieces.

0.5lb down this week. KOKO.

Overeating today - brexit sorrow. But added it up on mfp and still 1800cals not so bad given I can eat double that if carb bingeing

A good day, avoided the post-Brexit wine/munchies, so hoping I'm back on track.

B: scrambled eggs with cheese/cream, avocado
L: salad with mozzarella and prosciutto in lemon Olive oil dressing
D: coconut lime chicken curry with cauliflower rice
S: FF Greek yoghurt with double cream, macadamias, blueberries, and vanilla powder

Lots and lots of water, was so thirsty today

Hi Biwi,
you're right I do realise that.
The reason I find LC more of an effort is that its harder to find suitable food for breakfast and lunch - both of which I have at work in an office.
When I'm calorie counting I can have a cereal like bran flakes or Weetabix with skimmed milk and lunch is soup and ryvita. I don't eat salad.

So when I LC i've been bringing in yoghurt and berries and making things like a frittata or curry. But when I don't have time to do that its harder to find options that suit in Pret or Eat etc. I think its easy to find lovely LC to cook for dinner but harder when out and about or at work.

Anyway i'm KOKO for a bit. No wine today. Well done me

By the way someone up thread was suffering with side of shin cramps. I had exactly the same and was advised magnesium but could only get a multi vit st the time. I've been taking that and upping the salt and have had no cramps. Might be coincidence though but it's worked for me.

175lbs if someone can add that for me please (on phone so can't access spreadsheet)

I'm happy with that given the amount of gin I had over the weekend.

Back on a more focussed plan this week - 3 weeks left, doesn't feel like Bootcamp been going on for 7 weeks!

Can I say a big thank you to BIWI and other boot camp members that are managing the forum and encouraging progress.
I'm now 0.6 of target 11 stone.
Started in September 2015 at 13 stone doing 2-1 diet from January have used low carb as new way of eating. This is were I have seen the greatest difference and it is more noticeable in the way that clothes are way to big.
Still wearing size 16 but will fit lower size just have to change my mindset and do some trying on. No difference to bra cup size but band is too big.

Keep KOKO setting a new target of 10 stone 7lb aware this will be a long and slow process.
**Please may someone add 154.6 kg to spreadsheet.

Lovely message mumofgirls.

Perhaps a few ounces off here but I'm not going to record it. I'm going to try and step up exercise.

Fantastic mumofgirls!

flyright

^The reason I find LC more of an effort is that its harder to find suitable food for breakfast and lunch - both of which I have at work in an office.
When I'm calorie counting I can have a cereal like bran flakes or Weetabix with skimmed milk and lunch is soup and ryvita. I don't eat salad.^

I'm just like you - in an office 5 days a week. No need to think about 'suitable' food for breakfast though - eat whatever you want! It's only the cereal manufacturers that got us into thinking that breakfast was a time to eat specific foods. Yoghurt will be perfect - assuming you don't have a dairy issue - and you could always add some nuts and berries (in moderation!) to that. Or - just bring in leftovers from dinner the night before, if you have access to a microwave to heat them up.

Alternatively, if you're properly fat-adapted, which you should be by now, then just skip breakfast. It's a form of intermittent fasting that can be very helpful for weight loss.

But when I don't have time to do that its harder to find options that suit in Pret or Eat etc. I think its easy to find lovely LC to cook for dinner but harder when out and about or at work

Is that all you have nearby? Pret do a protein pot, two hard boiled eggs and some spinach, as well as a couple of salads that are all low carb. But why don't you eat salad?

Low carbing isn't easy because the world isn't made for low carbers. It's still stuck in the rut of high carb and low fat, both of which we're avoiding. So it does mean you have to plan a bit more.

Buy a week's worth of stuff for work or plan a week's worth of food that you can take with you each day.

I know it's tough. But there's no way around it really - you have to plan ahead.

I think the toughest thing is finding LC snacks that one can eat on the go - without cutlery etc. Hard boiled eggs ideal, but quite smelly…. Nuts great, but not super LC. I have been doing mini baby-bels, but it is easy to overdo those.

Are there any obvious ones that I've missed?

Last week I took celery & a tub of full fat Philadelphia to work.did use a knife to spread but equally I could have dipped the celery into it.
Mozzarella balls & salad finger foods

Celery and dip is an excellent plan - thanks.

I guess taramasalata is fine (gets excited)…..

If you're properly fat-adapted, you should actually need to snack in between meals.

Are you snacking because you're hungry? Or because it's a habit?

If you're hungry then it's a sign that you're not eating enough fat/protein at your main meals (or possibly not drinking enough water).

If it's a habit, then you need to be aware that it's potentially a costly one - from the point of view of impeding weight loss or encouraging weight gain - especially if you end up snacking on things like nuts.

So, a question: After the ten weeks of bootcamp what happens? Do you reintroduce carbs or not? If you do, surely the weight goes back on. I'm never going to eat refined, processed carbs again but I do lilke an apple now and again.

Actually, I wasn't so much meaning snacking as eating on the go (when not at a nice table/flat surface in peace for lunch, say). So something not that antisocial to eat in that situation.

BIWI - I drink lots of cold green tea - is that ok to substitute for water do you think? Unsweetened and no milk or anything, obv

eleven59 I'm not in this group but I am a low carber so I can answer your question from my own personal view. I lost 24 lbs last year and kept it off until Christmas well you can guess what happened there right!! I've put 10 lbs back on and am now struggling to lose it again though I do believe I've lost 3 lbs in the last few weeks (wildly fluctuating scales).

I obviously didn't eat sensibly at all and it was relentless once I'd started up again with the carby foodstuffs!! You can have an odd piece of fruit when you are keto adapted HOWEVER you have to allow for everything carby and keep your eye on your carb count.

Please don't anybody do what I did, it's so NOT worth it

Well done you are all doing great and it's not easy in a world where everywhere we look is high carb food!!

Thank you Nivea. That's as I thought. I'm just going to keep eating this way. My belly is gone (well getting there) and I don't want it back.

OK, hopped back on scales this morning and it looks like I am back to having put on 1-2lb max after my drinking afternoon. Am going to record that and get on with it.

Out to Wimbledon this week (totally outs self) and so am making lots of lc food to take with me.

Have had pork belly slices slow roasted with olive oil, thyme, vine tomatoes and salt/pepper for the last couple of days. Served with cauliflower mash (once with nutmeg, once with horseradish) and green beans slathered in butter. So good.

B - creamy scrambled eggs
L - chicken fried with courgettes, spinach and cream
D - LC sausages, spinach salad, feta and cherry tomatoes
S - fage yog. celery

I am sooo pissed off at myself eleven59, I bought some new clothes in a TK Maxx sale just before Christmas and 2 items still have the tags on as I can't get into them now, I remember parading around in my bedroom admiring myself in the mirror.

You have to look at it as a lifetime thing not as a diet. Now I knew that but that evil little gremlin is always on my shoulder telling me otherwise. You know "just one piece of cake won't hurt" and of course it's won't OCCASIONALLY but it's doing it over and over until it becomes a daily thing and I'm not disciplined enough to jump right back into it!! When I am back to where I was at Christmas and I feel the need to have cake or whatever I'm going to bake a low carb version myself. Hopefully I've learnt my lesson this time.

Nivea, use your pissed offedness (new word ;)) to keep you on track this time. I'm sure you will.

I'll have to be strict with myself and stick to this way of eating as I have next to zero willpower - its all or nothing. I used to smoke and could never do the social smoker thing - I either smoke nothing or twenty a day.

Yes I'm the same with smoking too, I tried the social thing a few years back and was soon back to 20 a day. I've managed to quit 3 times now lol and I just cannot have one. End of.

I think it's something to do with endorphins or one of those brain chemicals, if I eat cake or chocolate I get a warm fuzzy feeling but that only lasts for a short time and my brain might like it but my body sure doesn't!!

Sorry everyone, what I meant to say, of course, was:

If you're properly fat-adapted, you shouldn't actually need to snack in between meals.

eleven what you do after the 10 weeks of Bootcamp is up to you, but obviously it depends where you are in terms of reaching your target.

If it's going well, but you still have some weight to go, then continue doing what you're doing.

When you reach your target, though, this is where it does actually get difficult! I know it seems difficult getting the weight off, but trust me (and Nivea!), keeping it off is harder.

If all that you do is to revert back to how you were eating before you started low carbing, then it's absolutely guaranteed that you'll put the weight back on. Carbs are what made you gain weight in the first place after all!

Unfortunately it's impossible to give you an idea of how many carbs you can eat on a daily basis, as everyone is different. This is why Atkins advocates a very gradual reintroduction of carbs - 5g increase per day, until you reach the point where weight loss stops or you start to gain weight. However, this does mean that you have to start weighing and counting all your food, which is a pain in the backside!

Dr Briffa, ("Escape the Diet Trap") recommends that for maintenance you should aim to eat no more than 100g carbs per day, and to try and make sure that each meal doesn't exceed 30g carbs. Although that seems quite a lot - especially after Bootcamp! - it soon gets eaten up (excuse the pun) if you revert to pasta, rice and bread. A standard sandwich can easily be over 40g carbs, I think.