Week 5 - Low Carb Bootcamp - the end of the first half

[BIWI]

Morning all.

A very early start to this week's chat thread, as I'm 8 hours ahead of the UK right now.

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness one more time

Hopefully by now, low carbing is starting to become a habit rather than a hardship. We're out of the dreaded weeks 4 & 4, so for those who haven't seen much movement on the scales, things should start to get going again now (although don't expect to see huge losses from here on - around 1-2lbs a week is a normal and healthy rate of loss)

For those who aren't seeing any movement in the bathroom make sure you're eating plenty of fat - see how you can find ways to add more fat to your diet. Similarly water. And look at what you're eating, and be sure that you're getting your carbs in the main from veg and salad.

I have noticed that there's a fair bit of slippage cheating starting to creep in, and I'm calling you all on that! Remember that this isn't an especially forgiving way of eating, and if you cheat, you won't lose!

But good luck for the rest of the week

One bag has lasted me ages as you only use a couple of tbs at a time. It's a gelling agent so you can use it for lots of stuff. Makes great substitute wraps or crackers.

Right, I am so over arsing about with this last 10lbs. It’s been weeks (months!) now. I’m 157.75 this morning. So in the last three weeks I’ve lost the grand total of 0.25 of a pound. I go on my first holiday (am very fortunate to have three on the horizon) in 6 weeks and I need them gone by then. They are boring me and they are keeping me stuck between two dress sizes, so nothing fitted is fitting well again. So - I need to somehow get them to piss right off. I have a 10k in a month, so till then I am committing to my training plan, strength work and logging every mouthful that passes my lips. I never ever stray off LCHF but clearly I’m eating too much of something.

Why don't you try a carb re-feed? @StuntNun can advise you on that.

ilovecherries agree with BIWI, it may shock your body back into losing/shake it up a bit.
I'm hanging around my last stone and also between dress sizes, it's slow and painful. I, however, do not need a carb refeed as I haven't been as amazing as you thus far!

Too much cream and not enough veg today. But I'm either PMSing or withdrawal from too many days on painkillers and in an awful mood, so it could have been worse. Koko.

Fathers day tomorrow, usually ends with fish and chips on the beach. I'll either have chicken or I'll pop to the kebab shop and have a kebab instead (salad, no pitta). Having a picnic in the woods for lunch, cheese and chorizo probably.

No proper advice cherries other than it will happen, I'm sure someone knowledgeable will be along soon.

Thanks to the poster to suggested egg omelette type things to use as wraps, I enjoyed chicken fajitas with them tonight and it well and truly filled a hole.

Cherries I agree that a carb refeed for a leptin reset may well be the way forward in your circumstances. My favourite for a carb refeed is a big baked potato with your favourite filling. It's a carby treat but a healthy one so much less likely to trigger a fall off the wagon.

You think it might work? I find the thought quite scary. My strategy throughout has been one of zero tolerance, the thought of deviating from that is frightening after all this time.

Any more info/articles on carb refeeds?
What's the right circumstances to do them under? Is it a one meal/day/week event, ideally should it be with healthy carbs?

I'm not considering one for myself, I just love gathering info

Thank you @Iamnotacerealkiller

Try this one, he does give an explanation of the science of it if you scroll down a bit
www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-should-i-increase-carb-intake-for-weight-loss/

Actually he explains it better in this one www.marksdailyapple.com/carb-refeeding-and-weight-loss/

My sugar free "meringue" roulade was a great success.

My "ordinary" pavlova is in the background. Guess which one finished first! Next time I might use slightly less cinnamon (used 1.5 teaspoons this time, with 8 egg whites, c.4 tbsps of erythritol and some cream of tartar). Next time whenever that might be I might try done ground almonds or hazelnuts to make it a wee bit chewier.

Having had a dispirited mope about how far I still have to go, and wondering if I am ever going to get there, a good before and after cheered me up somewhat. . Can’t believe I was already nearly a stone down in that first photo. And I will think very carefully about a carb re feed as it does sound as if it might be the answer.

I have to remind myself that I should admire and love the woman in the first picture, because she was doing the very best she could. She didn’t have a moral failing. She wasn’t stupid. She wasn’t ugly. She was exhausted and hopeless and yet every day still got up and did whatever needed to be done to get by. Just like every other woman who has struggled with her weight, and the diet industry and doctors who tell her that everything from her ingrown toenail to her dodgy mole is down to her weight.

Amazing before and after cherries.

I was wish I had the mental fortitude to even take the before photo! I only have some of me right after the birth of my son. You look good now even if you feel like you still need to lose so I hope you are proud!

I usually struggle at the end because my main motivator is my own self loathing. Once that balances out when I start to 'like myself' again it gets very hard. It's been interesting this time as the weight gain was necessary so I feel I can excuse it more. It means I have had to find an alternative motivation. And that is to feel confident in photos and to make my son hubby and myself proud. It's always nice when family notice too.

So I have been reading all this and thinking about the hard week I feel like I’ve had. I’m not keen to weigh-in but I will.
I have enjoyed reading others experiences this week. It helps to know we are not alone. And there are some great ideas here.
So, I am tired (exhausted), I’ve also had tooth issues and may get a permanent tooth removed very soon. It’s agony. (I don't want a root canal, and the crown hasn’t worked). I struggle to drink the required water. I think I got out the habit. We are not on the town supply water and our water out the tap is yellow! I have to buy in big containers of water nearly every day. It’s no fun - it’s very heavy to carry in fact, but Im getting used to it. Anyway I think I have lost the habit of drinking water. I need to find a tactic to turn this around. Our water advisory might change soon. It has in other areas around us so we may get tap water again soon.
So yeah my week sounds like one big moan, but I CAN celebrate not eating grains, sugar or fruits that I shouldn’t. Nor have I had wine, and we hust had a family party. Typically I’d love all of the above. So I did talk myself out of eating and drinking items not on plan. So that’s good but scary too, as it was the first time I properly thought about eating something I don’t really want to eat (I know it’s not good for me so I am holding onto that reality). Anyways no matter the weigh-in, I will celebrate and koko. That’s important to me right now. I hope everyone else is encouraged in the knowledge that we are in this together. Keep on everyone.

Go for it summer. How long have you been on plan without weighing??

Thought I would share this great thing.

height-weight-chart.com/

It's a bmi chart populated with photos of actual people in each height/weight cats gory. It's actually how I chose my goal. Found a look I liked and decided I would aim for that weight. It's great to see what the bmi is before and after without the problem of it being YOU in the picture so it great to get some perspective perhaps of how other people may see you as slimmer then you are.

X

Oh I have been weighing in since I started bc (so I think that’s about a month) but not much before bc. I just don’t fancy weighing-in this week .

I am going to look at that chart. Thanks iamnotacerealkiller (I like your name btw).

Cheers. Thought it was appropriate for this thread. It's actually a play on the title of a favorite book by Dan Wells.

LoneSurvivor we don't generally recommend carb refeeds on Bootcamp but there are circumstances where it can be useful. As you've noticed weight loss tends to happen in whooshes a few weeks apart rather than consistently week to week. If your weight has stayed the same for several weeks then you can sometimes trigger a whoosh by having a carby meal or by having a couple of alcoholic drinks. The reasons we don't recommend this method are that it's not easy to tell that you're due a whoosh so you could just as easily be scuppering your weight loss; also a carb refeed could cause a fall off the wagon; finally the whoosh will happen anyway, you're only bringing it forward by a matter of days.

It's a bit different in Cherries's case because she's in a normal BMI which can make weight loss harder work. One cause of this is leptin resistance. Your body fat produces leptin which signals the brain with how much fat is stored. Temporarily overfeeding on carbs will produce a burst of leptin to signal the brain that it can continue with metabolically demanding processes rather than trying to conserve energy and resources. I usually only suggest carb refeeds when people are within 10lb of their goal weight. Also note that it is a carb refeed rather than a cheat meal. It's not an excuse to binge on doughnuts, rather it should be high carbohydrate, low sugar, and relatively low fat compared to LCHF. My suggestion is a baked potato with your favourite toppings but if there is a high-carb food you're particularly missing the use that one instead.

Gammeldragz and stunt thanks for the info. It's not something I need to even consider doing for a long time as I've still loads to lose but very interesting to see the reasoning behind it.
I tend now to look at my weight over a month rather than a week who is this woman as I'm finding a week or even two usually captures a really bad or really good picture. Over a month it's much more balanced.

cherries that is amazing progress, you are very slim, as a pear shape, I'm envious especially of your lovely legs.
You also looked lovely in your before picture, very true what you say about the you of that picture. You're right to be proud of her.

OMG Cherries, that's bloody slinky!

And wise words too x

Amazing progress photos ilovecherries and I love what what you said about the first one, what a lovely way to talk about yourself. How did you pick a goal weight?

Those height/weight photos are interesting, I definitely can't use them to pick a goal weight though. Some of the women at my height are slimmer when a stone heavier, interesting to see where we carry our weight differently.

My gain from yesterday has gone, along with a bit more, so hopeful for weigh in tomorrow and determined not to fall for the Fathers day carbs.