Week 2 - Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - the first weigh-in!

[BIWI]

Morning all!

I love this week. It's my favourite week of the whole Bootcamp, because it's when people are finally convinced that it works!

And already I see some great losses - yes @TightPants that really can be true. No your scales aren't wrong, and presumably you'll be changing your name very soon?!

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness to record the first week's loss.

Looking forward to hearing more great results

Evening all...Everyone seems to be doing really well! Survived another occasion with biscuits sweets etc, it is getting easier.

Still getting a stonking headache by the end of the day, 3 days now. Keep glugging water but still think it might not quite be enough, reckon I'm managing about 2 litres and should be about 2.5 I have been using salted and salted butter but just comes on by the end of the day.
B. Scrambled eggs
L. Pumpkin soup, so happy to find I could have this!
D. Sausages, found some at only 1g of Carbs, plus courgettes and leeks in butter.
Going out for lunch tomorrow in town, will have to see what I can find. Bought yummy steak for dins tomorrow, already looking forward to that!

@prettybird , thanks for the list , that makes it easier to check ( and it’s quite amusing)
Still off the wine , though I’d love a glass right now ( looks at water 🙁)
Find I can’t eat my normal plateful of food in the evening , very unusual for me
Roll on Monday and the scales of truth 👍

@prettybird that list is really useful, thank you for the link I'm using it for planning what to grow in the veg patch next year!

@DianaT1969 I tried your celeriac recipe with the anchovies tonight and it was lovely, a big hit with DH and DS too.

B: Yoghurt and coffee with cream
L: Egg and tenderstem broccoli with some grated cheese on top
S: Piece of cheese, celery and some pate
D: Homemade burgers with creamy mushroom and celery sauce, celeriac bake and savoy cabbage
Had about 2.75 litres of water too.

any long term low carbers here to give me advice r.e breastfeeding? since we started my supply has plummeted. my baby is nearly nine months old so im in two minds about whether i should stop bootcamp. i was planning to carry on bf until a year or so but i really want to lose weight too. im already doing bootcamp light as it is :(

prettybird that list's really helpful - thank you.

I'm persevering with BC and now the dogs have both convalesced from their respective operations we've been able to be back out with our dog-walking group, which is a relief to us all. We've been out with them five of the last seven days, two hours and five miles each time at least, and as well as wearing out Hooligan Dog, I'm hoping it might just help to start shifting those scales, which are still stubbornly sticking at the same weight. I didn't expect a stall quite so early in BC

Today (which is pretty typical)

B: Coffee with cream
L: Homemade chicken soup
D: Roast tenderstem broccoli (loads) with crispy bacon

If I don't see a loss on Monday, I'm going to be pretty chuffing fed up...

Iamnotacerealkiller - @stuntnun is the woman for you I'm sure there have been other breastfeeders but she's the expert

@stuntnun

Help:)

milk supply falling what do i do??

currently power pumping and have ordered mothers milk (even though clinical trials show nothing helping, maybe it will help via placebo or the extra fluid or something!)

I’ve identified that my trigger point is being hungry, which is pretty obvious, but i’ve been keeping note of when I want cake/toast and i’m at my weakest when i’m hungry. If I shove some cheese/peanuts in my mouth then the cravings disappear immediately. This is helpful as I know I can stop the craving and so I don’t need willpower (which is my failing 😂).

iamnot that’s a pain about supply. I stopped low carbing during pregnancy and feeding so I can’t help, but I wonder if it might level out at some point. Would be interested in the science. That’s interesting about mother’s milk and clinical trials though, my supply was terrible and that was the only thing that even vaguely helped, I wonder if it was placebo!

Gave you tried adding more fennel to your food and/or fennel tea (which is after all Boot Camp compatible ) Iamnotacerealkiller ? (dragging up memories of when I was feeding ds - but I did do so successfully for 13 months despite a very slow literally start)

...I did a lot of expressing too as I was back at work from when he was 4 months old (all the maternity leave you got back then if you wanted to go back to the same job). I'd actually started expressing from when he was 2 weeks old to supplement as he wasn't gaining weight so I was in the habit already (even once we decided he was on his own growth curve and to stop angsting)

Hi know nothing about bf except it's a lchf meal in liquid form. Got prof Noakes a lot of attention that turn out to bite the accuse

Cerealkiller eating low carb shouldn't affect your supply. Are you eating enough? Can you list out a day or two of meals for me. Without seeing your meals I would say you need to increase your calorie/fat intake. If that doesn't help then add in some healthy carbs such as fruits, higher carb veggies and potatoes. Could there be any other reason for your supply tanking such as frequency of feeds. With DS2 my supply dried up at 9 months because I was back at work and not able to feed/pump often enough. Power pumping can work very effectively so that's definitely worth trying.

Morning. Went out last night, ended up at a Mexican restaurant which turned out to be rubbish for low carbing: the choice was tortillas, fajitas, enchiladas or tacos, lol, or a chilli with rice and beans. I think i amused them by asking for a chicken fajita without the fajita, or the rice. Anyway they cobbled something together for me but I won't be going back whilst low carbing!

I have seen a fair bit of negative press recently about lchf / keto and lowered life expectancy / increased heart issues. My family has a history of heart problems (heart attacks in the late 60 age range) is it safe? Stuntnun/ BIWI?

Yesterday's food
Breakfast Greek yogurt
Lunch scrambled egg with butter in and smoked salmon
Snack coffee with cream
Supper chicken, pepper and onion, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and guacamole
Plus 3 glasses wine (yes, bad me).

Hi StuntNun,

last two days eating

Breakfast 3/4 tablespoons natural yog/egg mayo and bacon
Lunch prawn mayo salad/homemade chicken tikka massala with spinach
Dinner biggest meal of the day usually. BIG helping chilli beef with tomato salsa sour cream and chedder. Last night i had my phyllum husk pizza so ground almonds mozzerella and egg for the base with more cheese plus tomato mushrooms on top. ate two of these each about the size of my hand.

Dont think quantity is an issue, i pump twice each evening which is where i have noticed the decline as we give him a bottle of expressed milk before bed. the rest of the day he feeds from me. Relatively small amounts as he has a good appetite for food so has decent quantities at breakfast lunch and dinner. im sure this has contributed to a drop as he isnt feeding as much from me but this latest drop has coincided with low carbing, last bc i had a drop too.

@prettybird

I have read lots of anecdotal evidence of these things working but what few trials they have done are inconclusive, perhaps ot works for some and not others. All the advice says to pump too so perhaps its just that! Im hoping it will work somehow anyway. lots of the advice says that these things have been used world wide for centuries by women so it seems od that they wouldnt work.

I have tried a high dose of fennel and it did nothing for me (other then make me smell weird)

Thanks i will try the fennel idea. Is there a supplement i can take or should i look up fennel recipes?

Im determined not to give up low carb, i keep avoiding people taking photos of me and i don't want my son to grow up seeing me ashamed of my body/to go swimming etc so now he is weaning im less concerned about all that. i'm going to pump like a demon for a few days and see if it makes a difference. I simply pumped for longer last night and that got 90ml of the 170 i need.

oh god i mean i have tried fenugreek, contradicted myself there!!

Cerealkiller - are you having enough water? I'm not the expert, but given that you are producing liquid that is not pee to leave the body, then you should be having more water than the Spreadsheet Rules.

Not to do with HFLC, but I found that it helped to maintain my supply of EBM if, when ds dropped a feed, I kept it going by expressing at that time. He'd slept through from too very early (I'd actually had to wake him to feed him ) but later, when he dropped his 10pm feed, I used to express at that time for my freezer stores.

Well I'm feeling quite pleased with myself...I had a night out last night and stuck to sparkling water all night 😇

@lost5stone Thanks for the lowcarb cocoa powder idea on previous thread. Plain yoghurt is a bit boring .

@Iamnotacerealkiller years ago when I breastfed twins, just upping the water intake (tea, water, milk) helped me with milk production massively.. but on BC you drink a lot already?

So, lowcarb Halloween food - is there something like that?

Thanks CerealKiller your food looks pretty good. I assume you're eating until full and not subconsciously restricting your intake. You could try adding in one or two tablespoons of olive oil (or the equivalent) and, as others have said, make sure you're drinking plenty of water. Have you noticed that he's fussing on the breast at all? It could be that he's getting enough milk but that pumping isn't working so well for you anymore.

OldBirdy most news stories are sensationalised and you need to look into what the study said. That story you mentioned defined a low carb diet as about 30% of carbs. This is a completely different situation, metabolically speaking, from Bootcamp which is about 5-10% carbs. Zoe Harcombe has a good discussion on her blog.

Oldbirdy well done on swerving carbs at the Mexican restaurant!

Iamnot is your little one settled after feeding, inbetween feeds?
Or unsettled? And do they have a cold at moment?

B: Greek yoghurt, coffee n cream, slice of mature cheddar
S: slice of mature cheddar
L: left over chicken curry with cauliflour rice

Loving cauliflour rice at the minute, makes me feel like I'm not missing out and getting more veg in😃👍

Iamnot another couple of questions...how old is your little one?

Sorry if you've already said, I'm catching up with all posts

Ignore that last question iamnot just seen you said 9 months.

Somebody else has mentioned the fluids. Increasing them sounds very sensible

Although at 9 months with a good appetite it's natural for milk supply to drop substantially. You'll be surprised at how much your little one gets from a breastfeed in a short amount of time.

It's trial and error to find what works for you and family. Couple of ideas that may or may not help....

Change the room your pumping in or change the time...have a shower beforehand. Put up a YouTube video of 'babies crying'

Altering feed times may be effective. Do what your doing with food for meals etc through the day and give a breastfeed before bed and breakfast.

to the poster a few days ago asking about red wine in boeuf bourgignone—just wait until Monday! After two weeks of strict bootcamp you’re allowed alcohol and the red wine required for that recipe wouldn’t be a big deal.

And even though alcohol will be allowed, everyone keep in mind it’s not particularly encouraged. Your body will burn the alcohol before burning fat, so you choose what you want burned!

I’ve been doing great—3lbs off last week and was down 1lb by Thursday but just had a dirty weekend in London and teetered. Damn you serrano ham croquette at the King’s Cross tapas place KOKO