The final weigh-in - Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

Good morning all, for the final Monday of this Bootcamp.

Here's the spreadsheet for its last outing!

I hope very much that the last ten weeks have been successful for everyone - whether that's on the scales, seeing your clothes fit better, better health and general enjoyment of your food!

I'll keep this chat thread going, and when it's full, will start another one until we start the next Bootcamp, which will start in mid-October.

Hello everyone. May I join? Two weeks into low carbing and thus far I'm finding it a challenge - didn't lose any weight the first week so I decided to start tracking my calories. No bloody wonder I didn't lose weight as I was eating about 1800 a day! My BMR is only around 1400 so really I can't be having more than 1200 which is really difficult even on low carb. Anyway, by and large last week I stuck to that and have dropped 2 lbs. But I'm always hungry. I see so many people saying that a bowl of greek yoghurt or whatever gets them through to lunch - I have a bown of FF greek yog, 10ml of double cream and some berries at 9 and I'm already starving. Can't understand how people say you don't overeat on this diet - I could eat high fat foods til the cows come home!!!

Anyway, I'm sticking with it for the time being. Any advice or words of wisdom welcome :)

I know some people don't eat berries at first but I have got to otherwise I get severely constipated (yes I drink enough water, yes I eat enough veg, yes I have linseed and magnesium!). I am aiming for under 50g carbs a day. Nice to be here!

Bloodylovepotatoes do you want to list out what you are eating? See if there's anything we can suggest. I found that my hunger started to drop around week 3. I don't count calories as it's a very quick way for me to fall off the wagon so I can't comment on that I'm afraid, I have no idea how many I have in a day!

I can't quite believe the last week's loss.
I was down to 134 pounds before my holiday. 1 pound from target of 133.
Went on a carb fest on holiday for 2 weeks, resulting in a gain of 8lbs when I weighed myself last Monday.
Over the past week of really knuckling down again, I've lost 6.6lbs of that holiday gain. In 1 week. So, I'm back down to only 2 lbs to lose to my target of 9.5 stone. I'm so glad I didn't have a 'fuck it’ reaction to the gain and KOKO.

BTW, I don't recommend this, as I had to endure carb flu again, which was horrendous.

So a typical day would be:

Breakfast: either greek yoghurt with cream and berries and some linseed (berries and linseed needed to make me poo!) OR scrambled eggs (3, scrambled with butter and spinach)

Lunch: Usually a big salad made with loads of lettuce, tomato, avocado and tuna, cheese or other meat protein. Dressed with olive oil. Or I'll sometimes have scrambled egg and avocado.

Dinner: Varies, but generally some variety of meat, veg (no potatoes, no butternut squash, no carrots, no parsnips etc) and fat. EG tonight I'm having a skin-on roast chicken breast with broccoli and cabbage fried in butter.

If I have snacks I have macadamia nuts, almonds, a bit of cheese or a slice of meat etc. I weight out my nuts as I know they are quite high calorie and carby. I still have milk in tea (can't stand any form of non dairy milk in tea and I really don't like coffee) but have massively cut down to about 2 cups a day and am still well within my carb count.

I think I am being quite good!

I do hope to get to the point where I don't count calories, I just felt I needed to as I lost nothing in the first week.

Justmuddlingalong Great loss, well done! a bit jealous

Bloodylovepotatoes that sounds pretty good to me, someone more knowledgeable might come along soon. I'd probably swap your nut snacks for boiled eggs or some veg, purely as you are counting calories and they are a quick way to boost that so if you had something else you might be able to have a lot more and therefore not be as hungry iyswim.

Welcome bloodylovepotatoes (you'll need to change that username ).

Honestly, you shouldn't be counting calories and yes, you can have more fat.

Stuntnun and BIWI explain it better than me, but as I understand/visualise it, once your body is keto adapted, then as long as you are eating plenty of fat, then your body thinks, "OK, I don't need to lay that down for future stores, I'll use some of the fat that I'd made earlier" .....or, as someone on Boot Camp once said, it decides to "dine in"

It's only when you get close to target and you might no longer have (in Blue Peter mode ) "some fat you made earlier" hanging around your body that you might then need to reassess how much fat you are having.

wow @justmuddlingalong - that's SO good (though, not the carb flu bit). But just so good for you to know that you can go off-piste for a fortnight and lose most if it again really fast. I don't think I'd be the same - my one day of carbs has set me back and I've still not lost as much as I'd thought. Still, it's good to know that too!
@Bloodylovepotatoes - what type of berries? Some berries are better than others. And what type of nuts? Again, some worse than others. I've noticed that different brands of salted peanuts vary massively in terms of carbs - some double the carbs than others. No idea why but I didn't realise that at first.

And how much water are you having? It's a function of your weight (as described in the Rules on the spreadsheet) and is an important part of this WoE. It also helps with keeping you regular! (Which, BTW, might not be every day! )

Thank you all :)

I'm having 3-4 litres every day and I generally only eat raspberries. Nuts are almonds and macadamia. I really don't like hard boiled eggs unfortunately 😔

Still the same as last Thursday for me. Am back in a normal routine now so keeping on plan is much easier. Where I am (south east) it looks like it will be much cooler from Wednesday, even shock horror, rainy!! There's no way I could even contemplate running let alone in this heat!

@bloodylovepotatoes hmmm, I have no idea why not working, in that case. Maybe it's just taking a bit longer for you to fat adapt- 2lb loss in a week is decent amount but it's a bit of a worry that you feel so hungry. You definitely shouldn't on this WOE. Hopefully someone else will be along to offer more advice soon.

Good plan with the running buggy 3stone, never done it but I think @rayna does?

Welcome bloodylove! You def will lose the desire to track calories.

Well done for koko justmuddling

It's not so much that it's not working, but you read of people losing 10lbs in 2 weeks on this diet and that just hasn't happened for me.

I have huge issues with binge eating and emotional eating so I'm always aware of the chance that I'm not hungry, I just want to eat. We'll see. Early days.

Bloodylovepotatoes If I remember correctly ilovecherries has always had 1/2lb losses since she started this WOE and has lost 5 stone so I really wouldn't worry that you haven't had a woosh, every 1lb down is 1lb closer to target.

Not everyone loses lots in the first 2 weeks. Some people do it more gradually and evenly.

In fact, in your case the big loss in the first 2 weeks is even less likely because you're not following the Rules as you're having berries, nuts and linseed (even if you have good reasons )

Welcome @Bloodylovepotatoes

Hello everyone. May I join? Two weeks into low carbing and thus far I'm finding it a challenge - didn't lose any weight the first week so I decided to start tracking my calories. No bloody wonder I didn't lose weight as I was eating about 1800 a day! My BMR is only around 1400 so really I can't be having more than 1200 which is really difficult even on low carb.

We don't count calories (or carbs!) on Bootcamp. Eat enough to satiate your hunger - don't go mad but certainly don't deprive yourself. This is not a WOE which is about starvation!

Anyway, by and large last week I stuck to that and have dropped 2 lbs

That's great!

But I'm always hungry. I see so many people saying that a bowl of greek yoghurt or whatever gets them through to lunch - I have a bown of FF greek yog, 10ml of double cream and some berries at 9 and I'm already starving. Can't understand how people say you don't overeat on this diet - I could eat high fat foods til the cows come home!!!

This suggests to me that you're not eating enough fat or protein - and that you're not quite fat-adapted yet. When we low carb we're essentially keeping our blood sugars level, which means the three key hormones (insulin, grehlin and leptin) are in balance. These hormones are what control your hunger (not an empty stomach!). Once you're fat-adapted, your body isn't using carbs for fuel, and your blood sugars will be more stable - and your appetite between meals will greatly reduce.

One thing to be aware of, however, is that many of us snack out of habit or because it gives us emotional comfort.

Anyway, I'm sticking with it for the time being. Any advice or words of wisdom welcome

See above!

I know some people don't eat berries at first but I have got to otherwise I get severely constipated (yes I drink enough water, yes I eat enough veg, yes I have linseed and magnesium!). I am aiming for under 50g carbs a day. Nice to be here!

Hmm. Not sure this is really true - think this is a justification for eating berries! And as I said above, there's no need to count carbs either - just follow Bootcamp rules.

One thing you haven't said is how much you currently weigh/how tall you are.

@Bloodlovepotatoes:

It's not so much that it's not working, but you read of people losing 10lbs in 2 weeks on this diet and that just hasn't happened for me.

We're all different, and it's not a competition! In reality, there aren't that many people who lose that much in the first two weeks.

I have huge issues with binge eating and emotional eating so I'm always aware of the chance that I'm not hungry, I just want to eat. We'll see. Early days.

This is the real concern, I think. It's a really difficult one to tackle as well. But have a read of some of the resources on the spreadsheet, and learn more about how low carbing works, and how it's good for your overall health, not just weight loss - this might help you.

Thanks BIWI.

No I'm serious about the berries I'm afraid - I did LCHF a few years ago (before I got pregnant) and lost 2 stone but I actually had to go to hospital as my bowels were that severely obstructed - linseed and berries are the only things that sort me out. I don't even like raspberries much (honestly!) but if I don't eat them then my digestive system is fucked, I really have no idea why as I do eat lots of veg. I grew up on a mediterranean diet so we have always eaten LOADS of vegetables.

I'm (as of today!) 11st2 and 5ft3, so I'm fairly overweight. I was 12st7 after I had my son 2 years ago. I'd like to be about 9st7 :) And I get married in January so I'd like to lose a fair whack of weight before then.

Spill the beans Cherries what rubbish advice do you find on low carb sites? I see a lot about calorie counting, low carb baking, and artificial sweeteners, none of which are bad per se but can be a complication to newbies.

Bloodylove it takes a while for the appetite suppression to kick in. If you're still hungry after this then you'll need to cut carbs further or eat more. I need to stay below 25g carbs per day or I'll be eating constantly. If you've been dieting recently before going low carb then you may well need to eat more to allow your body to replace lost muscle mass and perform maintenance that has been on hold so it can be helpful to let yourself be guided by your appetite rather than the amount of weight you're losing. There's no one-size-fits-all approach though, you have to find out what works for you. And here's another way of looking at it - some people lose 10lb in the first couple of weeks because they were eating really badly beforehand!

LeapinLizards it depends on your metabolic flexibility. Some people are able to switch straight back into fat-burning after a carbfest whereas others need a lot longer to re-adapt. On the peanuts front do some have sugars such as dextrose in the ingredients?

@stuntman how do you know if you straight back to fat adapted? After my carb fest, I was out of ketosis but I didn't feel at all hungry & was able to get my diet back to HFLC without any trouble. I know you don't need to be in ketosis to lose weight but I gained a lot from a few hours of carbs & still not lost it all a week later. I suspect that means I'm not lucky enough to have metabolic flexibility.
Good question on the peanuts. I have no idea - I just check all packets & leave the high carb ones on the shelf - but next time I'm in a shop I am going to look & I'll report back

bloodylove yogurt and berries wouldn't get me through to lunch either. Everyone is different and I think it's important to listen to your own body. I find a mid morning snack of avocado or a hard boiled egg or pork scratchings works for me. My fave breakfast at the moment is a two egg omelette with cheese which does keep me going to lunch.

Fathead pizza. First time I’ve made this, was super easy and very delicious and totally scratched an itch I was having for bread. With a huge green salad it served 4 hungry adults (and really, had I been quicker, I could have put a half portion aside for lunch tomorrow).

I didn't fancy chicken so I had beef instead. Fried beef mince and courgette in butter and olive oil, added paprika and salt and pepper, chucked in spinach to wilt, lemon juice. Ate with tzatziki (home made). It was LUSH but I ate too fast and felt stuffed after. Must've had 200g mince!!

The one thing is I notice when I feel stuffed on lchf it passes quicker and I just feel pleasantly full, whereas when I feel stuffed after binging on pizza or whatever, I feel bloated for hours after.