Week 4 - Low Carb Bootcamp - where we're KOKOing!

[BIWI]

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for you

Just a reminder to you all that week 4, like its evil twin week 3, can be a difficult week where weight loss is likely to be minimal or even non-existent.

Please don't despair if you don't see any movement on the scales - this does appear to be quite normal at this point in Bootcamp.

Keep going, keep following the rules - stay away from the chocolate and bread! - particularly make sure you get enough water and fat - and you should see things get going again very soon.

Here's to a good week for us all

I thought the restrictions sounded awful, threedots, but it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought. Why not try it for a few days? Focus on all the lovely stuff you can eat - I'm now addicted to proper cream in my coffee first thing in the morning. Have a look at the recipes in the top four threads. I particularly like the veggie ones.

If it's not for you, you can always bow out then, but give it a whirl.

Thank you for the vote of confidence guys!! I think I am just scared of failure. I've been reading the recipes, some are absolutely mouth watering, and I have subsequently made a shopping list for the weekend.

So it looks like I will give it a go then. Eep!

Good for you.

There's loads of support on here - and lots of great success stories

I had a graze protein bite earlier on - 13g carbs - oops

Haven't had lunch yet, the canteen usually had some meat on offer - jerk chicken or something like that, I will get it without chips. Next week I need to organise myself with bringing in lunches from home.

Thinking lamb chops and asparagus / long stem broccoli for dinner. This okay?

What can I snack on / have for supper? I eat my dinner fairly early (5pm) so I can eat with DC and I am usually peckish at around 8pm. Maybe this is a routine I need to get out of. I generally don't have breakfast so I eat my lunch early. Therefore HANK by 4pm.

I can't see anywhere on the threads how many grams of carbs I can have a day? Also, I have My Fitness Pal on my phone - any good with this WOE?

also, probably a silly question - am I allowed good carbs, so brown rice for example?

Sorry for all the questions I feel bad because the info is already somewhere here and I am asking you to repeat yourselves!!

Loss of about 1lb, for this week. which puts total loss to about 8/9lb for the whole thing. I'm annoyingly close to being less than 11st. Shit day the last few days, but off shopping now, so going to get lots of nice bits.

*ilovecherries

lonesurvivor, I never make or eat low carb ‘treats’. I really don’t want to see that kind of food AS a treat to be honest. I never make deserts, even for guests. I occasionally (and I mean once or twice over the last six months) make chocolate dipped strawberries and Brazil nuts with 90pc chocolate, but that’s*

Sorry lovecherries only saw your reply now, this thread moves so fast.

Trying to incorporate treats has hugely contributed to my weigh gain and failed attempts at other diet plans. I know if I go down that line I'll be on shaky ground. I'm enjoying not been dictated to by cravings anymore.
I occasionally have 85/90% dark chocolate but that's it.
I wouldn't mind making something for an occasion to share but so far I haven't felt I needed to.
I'd love to be one of the people who can make treats and only have them occasionally but still for now I think if it's there I'll eat it because it's allowed.

threedots welcome! Once you are fat adapted you won't get the afternoon slump, even if I don't have breakfast I'm usually fine on 2 meals in a day as long as I have plenty of fat. I do try to have a creamy or bulletproof (butter and coconut oil, black coffee, blended) coffee if I can't do breakfast. Same with evening snacking, I don't get hungry in the evening as much but after the first two weeks a handful of nuts would be good, walnuts are great as they are really good for you but not moreish enough to binge on.

No brown rice. No any rice. Cauliflower can be made into 'rice' though. I had buttered spinach with my curry last night.

threedots - sometimes it can take time for the habit of snacking to disappear I know I have been guilty of that in the past

One of the things we try to encourage on this WoE is to eat if you are hungry - but make sure it is low carb. You will find that over time and as the habit of snacking dissipates you generally find that you are not hungry.

There isn't a carb limit per se - as long as you follow the rules, even though you should be eating a FLGV ("Fuck Load of Green Veg") in plenty of butter/cream/oil (as long as they are from the lower carb end of the list on the spreadsheet, you should be ok. The point about this WoE is that you don't need to be counting your carbs, calories etc. In practice though, I think it ends up usually being under 50g per day. Some people do use MFP but you need to be careful with its macros and sometimes the values in it are a bit suss. Also, it encourages you to obsess - whereas the whole point of this WoE is its simplicity.

The supper you are proposing sounds good. At this time of year, I enjoy the abundance of asparagus. In winter, I gorge on brussel sprouts. I have introduced a few other BootCampers to the joys of microwaved-in-butter brussels!

I am the same Lonesurvivor - it's all or nothing with me. Hating this 3/4 week stall though. KOKO all.

@threedots welcome! I know it can seem daunting at first, and it goes against everything we've been taught we 'should' be doing, but LCHF (low carb high fat) is a much healthier way of eating than what we're all advised to follow.

Read Bootcamp rules, but more importantly read some of the resources on the spreadsheet (which is linked to in the OP of each chat thread) so that you get a real understanding of what it's all about.

Thank you everyone!

I am feeling more positive now.

Have had a chicken thigh and some salami and cheese for lunch after a quick weekend shop. I bought lots of cheeses and meats. Eggs and mushrooms for omelettes. Smoked mackerel (thats okay, right?) for snacking. Gong to have that mousakka from the recipe thread, tomorrow.

Will struggle with no alcohol this weekend. Am I okay to have a couple of glasses of wine or g&ts?????

oh and i really like the thought of not obsessing about counting etc

But I do worry that if I have a moment of weakness and have pasta/bread/rice, I will just give up.

In fact, the thought of not eating those things ever again does make me feel like I wont be able to do this...oh no, here I go with the doubting!!

How am I going to have my delicious stir fry without noodles or rice???

prettybird can you share your microwaved Brussels sprouts recipe, I love them and really haven't had them much, I don't know why!

threedots I've used myfitnesspal for years and have been doing so up until now to track my macros as I couldn't trust myself not to over/under eat or have things for the sake of it. It's not recommended or necessary for most people on this plan.
This is my 6th consecutive week of LCHF and logging and I'm starting to find I don't need it as much anymore. I did feel I needed it very much up until last week, it was helpful for making me realise how easily carbs in certain things like onions and peppers could add up and to find alternatives. But as I'm writing this I'm realising I don't need it much for the diary function now. I'm not going to record this week and see how I go.

Thanks lonesurvivor

I have adjusted MFP goals so that my carb allowance is 50g per day.

So far I am up to 14g for today so I am doing quite well i think? I will continue to use the app until I find my feet with it all.

Its so weird because it feels so wrong to be eating this type of food!!

threedots - you can get carb free noodles from big supermarkets - I think that they are called Naked Noodles. Just rinse them well as they can smell a bit fishy, but they taste fine in a stir fry (dh and ds didn't even notice the difference

Or you can spiralise courgettes - which helps you get in your FLGV.

Morning everyone.

71.4 today (Im a daily weighed - it's absolutely not for everyone but works for me).

This is basically my weight as of January. It's been frustrating BUT I suppose it's better than increasing. The 60s feel bloody far away, almost like i sabotage myself when I get nearly there. DH has lost 10kg in that time BARELY dieting...

Aaargh don't know what's wrong with me today. I've had the first week woosh again and it's amazing (2.5kg!) so I shouldn't be feeling hopeless. I WILL get there.

Ooh thank you prettybird

Hi @threedots, good to see you!
I know just how you feel, I was just the same when I first started, but you do adjust to this way of eating and now I find I don't miss my rice or noodles at all, which I would never have believed before.
As @prettybird says though, you must eat fat!! This was the hardest habit for me to break actually, as at 57 years old, I've lived through a lot of years receiving the message 'fat is bad', but if you go low carb AND low fat you'll be hungry and miserable and your body will hang on to its fat stores.
Substitute your noodles and spaghetti with spiralised veg such as courgette, stir fry them in butter with a pinch of salt, chuck some cauliflower or broccoli in the food processor to make 'rice' and cook the same way. The different textures are really good, even DH yaffles it up and he generally won't touch them.
There's loads on the Internet, I often Google 'keto' in front of whatever recipe I fancy and an alternative will come up. I've also watched a lot on you tube, Keto Christina seems to have done a lot of research and I've found her very interesting, she lost over 100lbs by eating lc, which is more than impressive.
Anyway, welcome! give it a go, see how you get on!

Thanks waswittyonce some very good advice - from you all actually, thankyou for making me feel welcome and also capable to actually doing this!

I googled Bare Naked noodles and they also do rice?? Is it advisable to stay away from these products? Seems too good to be true!

@threedots
"In fact, the thought of not eating those things ever again does make me feel like I wont be able to do this"

I felt exactly this too. The thought of not having a nice pasta dish, pilau rice with a curry or just a shop-bought sandwich (at least for the foreseeable) is extremely daunting. BUT I'm one month into LCHF now and tbh I don't even miss it anymore. I find I'm actually looking forward to my oily salads and I enjoy swapping the pasta/rice/potatoes for extra veg. My body is thanking me for it too, both in weight loss and energy.

@threedots you just get to have more of your delicious stir fry in lieu of rice/noodles. That's what I love about this WOE, you just generally eat more of the delicious part of your meal and swerve the pointless carb fillers.

I was like that too, in fact I had a thread on here and at the start of May was moaning that I missed having carbs like wraps or potatoes with my meals and would always miss them.
In less than a week I'd turned things around simply by accepting the high fat part of this diet. I don't miss anything, I enjoy the meals I'm eating but inbetween there's no thoughts of "forbidden foods" my interest has gone. Even when I felt hormonal earlier this week and wanted to just eat I couldn't think of one thing that tempted me because I wasn't hungry.

I'm sure at some point I'll introduce some carbs but right now not only am I enjoying the weight loss I'm enjoying food having lost it's hold over me. That's keeping me on track every bit as much as wanting to lose weight.

Welcome threedots, lots of fab advice for you here. What I’d add is that when I started this woe last October I was sudden eating things I’d avoided for years; cheese, cream, butter, full fat yogurt and mayo, that I’d didn’t feel like I was restricting myself. Yes I wasn’t eating bread and pasta etc but rediscovering all those yummy, previously avoided things. I’ve lost two stone and am feeling better than I have in so long.