Pre-Christmas Low Carb Bootcamp - our 8th week!

[BIWI]

Morning campers! And what a dreary, grey and foggy day it is here.

So we start the last fortnight of this Bootcamp today. Just two more weeks to go. Still time, therefore, to drop a few more pounds!

here's the spreadsheet once more

I hope everyone is staying well and that lockdown isn't too miserable

Good luck for this week

I have been to Buchinger which is a beautiful resort in Germany where they facilitate extended fasts. I fasted for a ten day period - but this included a two day ‘refeed’ period at the other end as if you fast for longer than a few days it’s important not to break your fast with a large/unhealthy meal. You are closely medically supervised there with daily doctor appointments and blood tests, and they give you vitamins (like potassium) as fasting for that long can be dangerous without them.

I wouldn’t fast for that long outside of Buchinger and weirdly struggle with IF because I enjoy my food routines, but I do like extended fasts. At Buchinger I found that it totally divorced me from food. I was hungry for the first day but then totally stopped thinking about it. It helped that it was gloriously warm and they offered lots of activities like painting and silent guided walks in the countryside. It made me realise how much time I spent thinking about food or using food to regulate my mood. I felt very cerebral. I wouldn’t say that mentality stuck, unfortunately, but I still do like fasting for short-term benefits.

This is entirely subjective but I ‘feel’ fasting improves my metabolism - mostly because I feel energetic and physically warmer when I fast.

I’m not doing it at all right now, though, and have lost weight entirely well without it. I’m finding LC has had an unprecedentedly good effect on my relationship with food and I am seeing few cravings and am able to exercise well regardless of when I last ate. So happy with where I am.

That sounds like an amazing experience Lyrata. And there's no need to fast at all, even 16:8 unless you want to, I only mentioned it to WitchWand because it's the one way I know of to get rid of loose skin that doesn't shrink naturally with time after you lose weight.

StuntNun It was, although I definitely saw it as a ‘quick way to lose most of a stone’ at the time and then merrily went back to after work drinks four times a week and lots of junk food. (Surprising that the benefits did not stick). I think I would get more out of it now.

I can’t imagine fasting for 10 days. One pound off this morning. I am delighted as I am working very long days, 6 days per week with no time to shop. I have been conscious of portion size. It is the first day of Advent. If you would like a low carb advent calendar look up Advent Of Change. There is a donation for a small charity behind every window. I even got crackers from them this year. This is the their third year. Sit down, have a special tea, open a calendar window and feel a little bit of Christmas spirit

@Pleaseandthankyou what a lovely idea! I'll look them up. My DC have haribo calendars but it would be good for them to also know we're doing something for charity, and it's a nice thing to do regardless!

Do people think you have a natural body "set weight" that you sometimes need to push past? I was thinking about this the other day as I spent a month of this BC yo-young around the 70-71kg mark, which was the weight I was for a long time (a few years ago mind!) and now the weight seems, fingers crossed, to be falling off faster without my changing anything to my food. If that's the case, my next body "set point" should be 68kg as that's what I weighed for a very long time. Hmm...

Yes definitely Mimosa it's 65kg for me.

Comparison picture for the last two weeks - despite the scales not budging even a fraction of a pound, there is a slight difference in the amount of muffin! I still have to lie down to get them buttoned up, but the zip will do up halfway now, which it wouldn't before. Due on in the next couple of days, so hoping for a whoosh on the scales afterwards.

I haven't done my "belt" picture yet this week - I'll do it later (currently in exercise gear as I have a Pilates class shortly).

That progress is brilliant VeryLittleOwl - just goes to show how shape changes for the better even when the scales aren't moving

That's brilliant VeryLittleOwl it won't be long before they do up comfortably. Your photos illustrate why we shouldn't get too hung up on the number on the scales and really need to measure as well. We can be losing fat without losing weight.

That’s great VeryLittleOwl. Your thighs are noticeably slimmer in the second photo too.

Fantastic @VeryLittleOwl! It would be really good if you did a montage of all the photos you've taken since you started!

Well done on the weight losses.

I gained a little this week again. I’m finally feeling better after a horrible cold so hoping to get back on track.

Love the photos zig and owl. I’ve also wondered about body having natural weights, I’m aiming to get down to the weight I was about 5 years ago and a BMI of 25.

Well it’s the 1st December, so at some times during this month normally there would be lots of Christmas food temptations, but I suspect that there will actually be very very few of those for me this year. I am therefore far more in control of temptations than ever before!

So pleased that this boot camp runs for this week and then 2 more as I’m hoping that will keep me on track. I have already realised that the mince pies that are calling me were actually purchased by myself , I have frozen them to stop any grazing. As someone said on a previous thread, they realised that the snacks were actually being bought and consumed by themselves and not other people.

Today
B Greek yogurt
L cauliflower soup
D Thai green chicken & cauliflower rice
2 coffees & loads of herbal teas

@BIWI - I'll try and dig them all out and zip them together with the weights on each.

@NotwatchingSpooks - I've just finished reading Why We Eat (Too Much) by Dr Andrew Jenkinson, he's a bariatric surgeon and he talks about the body having a set point for weight that it tries to stick to. I don't agree with everything in the book, but one thing I thought was interesting is his theory that the reason people tend to gain back a bit more if/when they put weight back on after dieting is because the body thinks there's been a famine and therefore shifts the set point upwards a bit so it's got more reserves available for the next time there's a famine. He reckons the way to move the set point downwards is pretty much Boot Camp - eat real food, don't eat bread (though he says potatoes and rice are okay) and don't starve yourself.

Missed lots of days - due to work and packing, and generally rushing around. On the plus scales this morning read 12st on the button, so that's a plus.

Can't remember who advised but have gone caffeine free for 5 days now. Maybe that's the difference, only have two coffees a day and had always felt I needed my wake up caffeine hit to function - it appears not!!! Would love to see an 11 on the scales before Christmas!!

Currently living surrounded by boxes and trying not to pack stuff I need!!!

Great losses though, and that picture is great @VeryLittleOwl very inspirational!

I seem to recall my dad (a medic) saying that if you lose weight, you need to work to maintain that new weight for a year before your body recognises it as your new "set" weight.

Prettybird that's based on analysis of the data from the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. When the volunteers were allowed to eat freely they gained up to 145% of the lost weight back again, however after a year their weights had returned to within 5% of their original weight before starting the experiment. So the theory is that the mechanisms controlling weight stability stop working in response to weight loss but gradually come back into operation. However that doesn't prove that a year after losing weight your set point will have been reset. There isn't any real evidence for any of the theories around set point but it's something that a lot of people seem to experience.

To be fair on my dad (and despite me saying that he was a medic but a radiologist, not a nutritionist ), I think he was saying it more from a general perspective rather than any research and it was to support my mum so that she needn't think she'd have to diet "forever".

We were fortunate (maybe it's a generational thing ) that we always ate well, with eggs regularly for breakfast and mum, even though she, unusually for the 60s and 70s, was a student/worked full time, cooked from scratch most of the time. She was a very good and adventurous cook - I can only aspire to follow her example.

She was also a very good baker, but maybe I'll gloss over that on here

From what I've read on the (limited) set point research, participants eat a v restricted diet then return to what they were eating previously. That strikes me as very different to bootcamp, where even between boot camps or at maintenance, people have fundamentally changed their eating habits and lifestyles.
I can't imagine a world where I would go back to eating a giant bowl of cereal for breakfast, a jacket potato for lunch and then a giant bowl of pasta with bread for dinner!

0.2lbs off for me this week, which I'm immensely pleased with as my husband had a big birthday this weekend, and whilst I was pretty good about food, I thoroughly enjoyed far too much champagne.

I've decided to weigh in on Tuesdays, I don't think I'm drinking enough on the weekend and my Monday weight is always a disappointment 😂.

I definitely have a set point with weight, just over 14st, I can eat whatever I want (really pig out) and always return to that weight, losing weight however is painfully slow for me, 7lbs in 8 weeks... At least it's going the right way!

@gillyweed Please don't be disheartened, losing 7lbs in 8 weeks is impressive. Think about a newborn baby - that's how much weight you've lost!

Agreed. 7lb in 8 weeks isn't too bad. If you continue at that rate you'll lose over 3 stone in a year.

@Hopeislost

From what I've read on the (limited) set point research, participants eat a v restricted diet then return to what they were eating previously. That strikes me as very different to bootcamp, where even between boot camps or at maintenance, people have fundamentally changed their eating habits and lifestyles. I can't imagine a world where I would go back to eating a giant bowl of cereal for breakfast, a jacket potato for lunch and then a giant bowl of pasta with bread for dinner!

Yes I agree. I only stay down to this weight if I keep my carbs lower. I watched that Micheal Moseley program about losing a stone in 3 weeks and there was a section on that where he spoke to people he’d help lose weight. They said they had to monitor it regularly and pretty much stick to it forever. That’s why this is doable because the food is actually nice and I’m not bothered about eating like this forever (I allow up to 100g carbs a day from veg/legumes and some fruit and sweeteners when I’m maintaining). It’s a little less convenient, and less great for the planet I suppose but on the whole I am happier with this diet than any other I’ve had. I always thought my natural weight was 12st 7 (because when I yo-yo calorie controlled that’s where I’d always end up bac’ to) till I lost weight on bc and I am now at 11st 5 and it feels much more comfortable and natural for me.

Been too busy to weigh this week so will try to remember tomorrow. But I feel really good. It might be my new iron tablets but this is the first period I’ve had in 2 years where I haven’t felt exhausted and sick.

Loving this chat about set weight. I'm good at losing weight but awful at maintenance so that's going to be my big challenge btn boot camps. If I can stay at a "set weight" between them, I'll be utterly delighted.

Happily, DC is Covid negative AND we've been able to rebook our holiday flights for a week later for free... so I've celebrated by buying myself a silver bikini. All bodies are beach bodies! Woohoo! I grew up by the sea and really miss it so even though our holiday will be a bit shorter, assuming no one falls ill between now and then, I'm thrilled that it's even a possibility. I've slipped a bit (a lot) today with a bad case of the fuckits but this news has cheered me right up and I have a bikini to get into!

Onwards and downwards.