Week 8 - Low Carb Bootcamp - lucky number for some!

[BIWI]

Xin nian kuai le!

Happy Chinese New Year. We're in week 8, and 8 is considered a lucky number in Chinese, so hopefully this week will be a good one for us all

Here's the spreadsheet

A very cold week is ahead of us, so hope you all stay warm and safe

Keeping my eye on your menu promise, Almahart, so far so good. Slightly worried about your shrinking hamsters, though.

your back hamsters, Alma?

My next mini goal of being into the 150s and the top of a healthy BMI (159 for both) is really starting to seem in my grasp. 4 lbs to go, which I would love to achieve by the end of this bootcamp, but is probably slightly ambitious. But hopefully will be there by 1 April. It still doesn't really seem possible that I've done this. I have a question though (stuntnun BIWI). Will I just eventually stop losing weight? People are starting to ask me when I'm planning to stop the diet. My answer is 'never'. I have had to make peace with the fact this is for life, and that means that while food can and should taste nice, it's has to be sans carbs. They then look scandalised and ask how much more I plan to lose. While I have 145-150 in my mind, thats a wish rather than a set in stone target, and I imagine there will be a point where I will stop losing anyway? I don't have to 'stop the diet' as such, do I? I will just reach an optimal point, either a bit below or above my magic 145, and then stay there? People seem to imagine I will fade away, but I can see that the curve is slowing down of it's own volition.

Posting very quickly to get this onto TIO.

Sorry, not been around much. Lots to do before I start my new job in 4 weeks so been pretty busy.

cherries, I'm not sure I know the answer to your question, but what I think would happen is you will eventually stop losing weight, or the weight loss will be very slow. If at this point you want to avoid losing any more, then I think the sensible thing to do would be to increase your carbs very slightly without altering the WOE too much.

So maybe increase quantities of things like nuts/berries/dairy, or introduce some slightly carbier veg (e.g. carrots, parsnips). Something that still contains useful nutrients and is real, fresh food.

What I wouldn't do is suddenly start eating refined carbohydrates.

Morning, all!

Was worried last night as I had another chocolate craving. I didn't give in but I was concerned that it was the second day in a row (considering that, up to now, I've seriously craved chocolate about 3 times since last May). However, my period came on this morning, unexpectedly (to me, at least, I was convinced I had another week to go but that was just me being silly) so I'm happy that that was the reason behind it.

I have gone back to wanting something to eat when I get home from work, which I put down to the cold I have, but, looking at BIWI's comment above I realise it's actually because I've stopped having so much fat at lunchtime. If I make myself a proper salad I'll put oil over the top, but the last wee while I've just been putting large chunks of veg in a tub, and the thought of oil over, for eg, a whole tomato just doesn't appeal. I need to get back to doing it properly and upping the oil level again.

BIWI , thanks - I think the fat content is ok - I use plenty of butter when I stir fry the veg, and I'm not feeling hungry between meals, but I will keep an eye on it.

Saw 12.0 stones on the scales this morning....so close to the 11s! Hoping it'll stick for next Monday, but five-mile walks with the dogs are suspended for the moment with the snow. Dogs not interested in going out in it, both have burrowed under my duvet and refuse to move. Wimps.

Will I just eventually stop losing weight?
Yes. You will reach a point where your appetite matches your body's needs and you will stop losing weight. If anything, you are more likely to stall before you reach your ideal weight and need to make further changes to get there (increasing fat consumption / introducing intermittent fasting / adjusting portion size.) While there are people that are naturally thin (or perhaps have an underlying health problem) and struggle to get up to a normal weight, I think we can be reasonably sure that no-one in this group has that particular problem.

People are starting to ask me when I'm planning to stop the diet. My answer is 'never'.
Good answer. We call this a way of eating rather than a diet because it is supposed to be permanent change. It becomes easier rather than harder. When you're at maintenance then you can have a cheat meal every so often but you will likely find that you don't want to. My idea of a cheat now is having a roast potato with my Sunday lunch. Maintenance for me looks very similar to how I ate when I was losing weight. The main difference is I don't worry about whether there's flour in gravy, or whether sausages are low carb when I'm eating out.

Thanks Stunt, that's more or less what I hoped/expected. I couldn't imagine that I was ever going to fade away, but the way other people are carrying on with 'don't take it too far' I was starting to feel concerned that maybe I needed to take some action. As I said, my weight loss curve is levelling off a lot in any case. Although I still do lose every week, it's usually half a pound now, whereas 6 months ago it was 2-3 every week.

Cherries it doesn't help that people are losing touch with what a healthy weight looks like. When I got down to 60kg (right in the middle of a healthy BMI for me but I have a small frame) my MIL and her sister basically staged an intervention because they thought I had lost too much weight and shouldn't keep losing. They soon shut up when I pulled up my shirt and showed them that I could pinch quite a bit more than an inch.

Stuntnun that's so true. I also think the bigger everyone else gets, the easier to say "well I'm not as big as X, Y or Z are" and lose sight of still being way above a healthy size. A bit like my Mum justifying her poor mobility or technophobia by citing examples of contemporaries who are worse than she is.

alma and athel I'm laughing at the back hamsters of Richard Gere!

Athel it's interesting to hear about your insight. I did wonder when you posted in advance that you would be off-thread for a while, if you were also planning to be off-lchf too. if there's nobody to see/hear/know what we eat, plus an emotional trauma on top, then its almost a free pass to carb bingeing. God forbid you have another stressful emotional period (and your cat stays ok) but if you do, then please do stay on the thread so we can support you and help you avoid derailing yourself. the horrible regret and guilt afterwards is totally avoidable. Dont forget we are here for you! and for everyone in a similar situation.

StuntNun, I think you are right about people losing touch with what a healthy weight looks like. The following article suggests that more than 60% of adults in the UK are either overweight or obese. If more than half of all the adults we see walking around are overweight, then we are going to see that as normal.

I have also had a friend say to me "Oooh, you don't want to lose too much." I could understand her concern if I was starving myself or only eating cabbage soup/diet bars/two teaspoons of cottage cheese and a lettuce leaf. But I'm eating normal quantities of fresh, healthy, filling food. There seems to be some strange idea though that if you're restricting carbs (restricting, not avoiding altogether) you are "cutting out an entire food group" and that that's "unhealthy".

Sorry, forgot to post the article!

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-UK.aspx

SoMuch that description of Britain being the fat man of Europe strikes a chord with me. We were at Disneyland Paris a couple of weeks ago and I commented to DH at how slim everyone seemed to be. Yes there was a range of sizes but it was very different from walking down the high streets of Surrey. I'd like to think it's partly self-selection because very overweight people can't go on some of the rides, but I suspect that doesn't explain much of the difference if the rate of obesity in Britain is over one and half times that of France.

Last time I lost weight I was surrounded by people saying 'oooooooh, don't lose anymore!' when I was at the highest end of a healthy BMI (which on a tiny frame does not look compact in the slightest). I had jiggles and wobbles and my thighs chafed badly in the warmer weather, but because I was less than the office norm, I was considered underweight and therefore must have some sort of eating disorder to want to be slimmer.

Thanks, YoLo, but I honestly wasn't intending to go off-track when I skulked away - in fact, I couldn't eat at all for a couple of days soppy ninny that I am - since I usually do not eat for comfort, so that really caught me by surprise. Drinking for comfort, oh yes...

I agree on the healthy weight image thing. You're either too thin or you're overweight. People struggle with anything edging towards low end of bmi .

My daughter is tall and slim. She's five nine and a size eight. Every older woman comments on how tiny she is, yet when you see her in her underwear or bikini there are no bones on display. You can't see her ribs. Her hips just jut out and no more. She has a rounded tummy, She just has a very narrow frame like myself. She also has a large bust like myself and is a d cup.

She's a healthy weight for her size. I can see it in her undressed body. But if I respond to a comment saying "no, she's not really tiny, she's a healthy weight" I get a bit of "hmm, yeah ok ". Always from older heavier women. Who seem to forget that sometimes as young women we are slim hipped, we can be a perfectly healthy weight, and aren't too thin just because we aren't a size twelve plus.

I also got it as well, I'm five eight, normally a ten and I have lost count of the amount of women who have said "god you're tiny". No I'm not and never have been. I've never had visible ribs. I've never been thin. Slim, yes, but never thin. Slim can be healthy, yet so many people just can't see it anymore.

I's interesting to see how much obesity levels have increased in the last 30 years. I don't think it's because people have made a conscious choice to be overweight, but I think it's harder and harder for people to avoid it, because society is set up in a way that makes us lazier and encourages us to consume more.

For example, many more jobs are now desk-based rather than physically active, more of us drive, so don't walk to work/shops/bus stop/railway station, we shop more online so don't go out to shops, tvs all have remote controls so we don't have to get up off the sofa, ready meals mean we don't spend time slaving over a stove, and most information is available at the click of a mouse/swipe of a screen so we don't need to go anywhere to find it. Ds and I were talking the other day and he mentioned those Alexa things. "Ah yes," I said, "Something else to make us all lazier".

Food is generally quite cheaply available, and the cheapest and most intensively marketed stuff is the high carb crap. There's also quite a culture of snacking and "treating yourself" these days, to the extent that if you refuse a carby treat being offered round, you are seen as being a bit joyless or holier-than-thou (at least, that has been my experience). It's actually quite hard to eat well and move a lot, unless you make a conscious decision to do it.

Nuh-uh SoMuch it's the low fat movement that has fuelled the diabesity epidemic. Eat less move more, calories in calories out, fat clogs up your arteries, eggs give you heart disease, fat makes you fat so let's replace it with sugar... That's where it all went wrong.

Oh I agree that the low fat/high sugar thing has been a huge factor. And one of the reasons that has happened is that the large companies want to make money out of their high sugar, low fat, "healthy eating", "diet" foods. Those are the things which are aggressively marketed and pushed at people all the time.

People think they are being healthy by buying low fat yoghurts (full of sugar) diet fizzy drinks (full of sweeteners) and low fat (sugary) cereal bars.

Trouble is the government gets a lot of financial support out of many of the companies making these things, so I doubt if the NHS advice/guidelines will change any time soon. Not that I'm sceptical or anything.

Last time I lost weight I was surrounded by people saying 'oooooooh, don't lose anymore!'

That’s one of my Top Five Fantasies. (Can’t tell you the other four.)

at shag 'n athel

Back hamsters still missing!

So appreciate you lot keeping me on track - I feel a whoosh coming on! Will post today's food in a mo

athel not soppy at all. I would be the same.
I am actually an emotional eater. In a crisis I dont lose my appetite and go all gaunt and wan, I stuff my face full of carbs and pile on pounds. Well, not any more. But my general point to everyone is that in a time of crisis, this thread should and will help you thru it, so don't take a BC sabbatical when there is so much support here. Even about non food stuff. I've learned that it's never really about the food!

shagme I'm afraid you are going to have to tell us about the other 4. It's BC rules. Check the spreadsheet tabs.

Breakfast - 3 slices Gouda, one bacon, mushrooms, creamy coffee
Lunch roast chicken leg flgv
Dinner - low carb chilli, avocado with chilli flakes sour cream and grated cheddar

Snack......I discovered dark chocolate at 16gm per 100gms in Hema. I had one square, which I think was 1g of carbs.

It wasn't that nice, but was pleased to be so restrained

B: IQS coconut granola and Greek style yogurt. Did keep me full until lunch; wasn't sure what to expect, but it was full of butter and coconut oil and did the trick!
L: Savoy cabbage carbonara
D: grilled pork steak, mashed swede, Brussels and broccoli with butter on the veg.
Two hot drinks with milk, not there with water yet.

I didn't do dry Feb but only had 2 glasses of wine, which is VERY low for me, about 50 units lower than Jan