Week 6 Low CarbBootcamp - the second half

[BIWI]

Morning campers!

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness for you to confess all

We're half way through now. Hopefully by now we should all be getting used to a low carb way of eating, which will mean we should be fat-adapted.

I hope you've enjoyed the recipe challenges, and I really look forward to reading more recipes.

I especially hope that the challenge has lured the lurkers out! Please post your recipes!

And, of course, here's hoping that we all have a good week ahead

Jenga there's often a brief pause in weight loss between week 3 and 5 after going low carb so that could explain your weight staying the same for a few day. Weight loss is never linear, it bounces up and down and stays the same then suddenly drops seemingly overnight. So don't get bogged down in the day to day and concentrate on the big picture. You'll need to ditch the honey as that's going to mess things up. Try a little vanilla essence or a sprinkle of cinnamon or a spoonful of double cream to sweeten your yogurt instead. Watch out for nuts, especially peanuts which can be calorific. Also bear in mind that a bottle of wine is 600 calories which can easily slow down your weight loss. At the start of Bootcamp we say no nuts or alcohol to help get weight loss going.

Welcome @JengaCupboard! Looking at your day suggests to me that a) you're not really doing Bootcamp (not sure if you want to be, or if you're just looking for help though) and b) you're probably eating too many carbs. But here's my critique, for what it's worth:

So the first week I dropped to 12st 5.3lb which was great (although I get the whole water loss thing etc) and then period week went back to 12st 8lb which I read was normal. Weighed myself after – back to 12st 5.3lb… and then every day since I’m back to 12st 7.5lb, then today, 12st 8.5lb – although I had had coffee!??!

Coffee won't be the reason for re-gaining the weight. Other factors will be at play here

Typical food (I work a 9.5 hour desk/site job) breakfast – 10% fat Greek yoghurt (2-3 tablespoons) with berries and about 8-10 walnuts and about a teaspoon of honey just to take the sour edge off

Berries and walnuts will be adding too many carbs - and honey is absolutely forbidden during Bootcamp - actually even if you're trying to low carb generally, the combination of fruit, nuts and honey adds up to too many carbs!

One of the key principles of Bootcamp is to re-train our tastebuds, so that we don't want sweet things. By adding the fruit and honey you're just 'feeding' that. Honey is just sugar. And sugar has no place in a low carb way of eating!

I drink black coffee with or without sweetener throughout the day or sugar free squash

Again, you're using sweeteners to enable a sweet tooth. Artificial sweeteners are also not allowed in the first two weeks of Bootcamp, and are generally advised against.

Maybe something egg-based at the weekends…

Perfect low carb/Bootcamp food!

Lunch would be some sort of cheese/ham/cold meet/egg mayo/avocado/boiled egg salad situation (not all at the same time!) and dinner would be either meat and veg or salad (broccoli/green beans/cauliflower cheese) (chicken breast with bacon and cheese/chilli/curry made from scratch/sausage with swede or celeriac mash/steak…etc) very little snacking

All this sounds great but doesn't give me any indication of how much fat you're eating - Bootcamp/low carbing is a high fat way of eating - so hopefully you're frying food in either butter, lard or oil and adding butter to your veg and oily dressings to your salad?

^Maybe some cherry tomatoes or a few salted peanuts/some biltong…
Few glasses of dry white wine over Friday night/the weekend (a bottle max)^

Nuts aren't allowed in the first two weeks of Bootcamp and neither is alcohol.

Trying to stick to 50g carbs a day but to be honest I think I’m usually under this? Or maybe I’m not!!?? Either my expectations are wrong or I’m doing it wrong… either way, any advice would be great.

Firstly, on Bootcamp we don't count the carbs (or calories). By following Bootcamp rules you should be losing. To be honest, it sounds to me like you're eating too many carbs - whether or not that's 50g or more. The thing you need to understand is that we all have different levels of carbohydrate that we can tolerate. If you're not losing, then it suggests that you need to go lower.

As you all know, this is quite a big lifestyle change and as much as I’m 100% up for it, the lack of results is a little disappointing… thanks

OK - here's what I suggest:

Cut out the fruit, nuts, alcohol and honey.

Ditch the artificial sweeteners
Make sure you're adding/using plenty of fat

And finally - water. How much water are you drinking? At your weight you should be drinking at least 3 litres a day.

Hope all of this helps you - but jump on board and we will all be here to support you!

Just reading back my comment re: keeping weight off I realised I said I’m a moderator, which doesn’t at all make sense in the context! I’m absolutely not a moderator! Abstainer all the way, so I am much better off toeing the line pretty strictly and I do aim to do that quite consistently, with the odd six months to a year here and there of being pretty relaxed about it (however I’ll be changing that going forward, as I mentioned - I have no wish to tackle actual, permanent weightloss anymore and will be looking to maintain indefinitely from now on).

Notwatchingspooks that's just proves the point that it is a loss of water that causes a whoosh, rather than an overnight loss of 1.5lb of fat. Which means you were burning that 1.5lb of fat over the preceding week or two and your body was sneakily replacing the fat weight with water weight. This phenomenon was also observed during the famous Minnesota Starvation Experiment, that the volunteers wee'd a lot on the day before their weight dropped. Incidentally the "starvation" phase of the experiment was 1,560 calories per day which is a far cry from today's Fast 800 approach to weight loss!

@BuffyTheBuffetSlayer just saw your question about batch cooking/freezing. Will explain what I do as soon as I can, just getting some stuff done now.

Hi @JengaCupboard

On bootcamp, we mostly follow the rules that are on the spreadsheet at the very top of the thread. For the first two weeks, we don't have nuts, berries or alcohol. Looking at your menu, the obvious areas are:
Breakfast- that could be up to 20g carb depending on the brands/portion sizes you're having. No to honey and the berries and nuts should be an occasional treat.
Squash- we don't use artificial sweeteners. Others will better explain the science, but a large part of making this sustainable is retraining our taste buds!
Water- how much plain water are you drinking a day?
Fat- you might not be eating enough fat (especially given your reliance on salad at lunch). What are you cooking with?

BIWI and others will advise in a more fulsome way!

Oh shit, it took me so long to type that the grownups have turned up!
I wish there was a delete button

Sigh, obviously not quite with it this morning - only had one coffee, and had to get up very early this morning as have got builders in...

Meant to say I have no wish to have to tackle actual, permanent weight GAIN ever again in the future, so my aim will be to maintain indefinitely going forward.

Sorry to hear that @MilesJuppIsMyBitch.

-----------------------

^ That's the line that we've drawn under it and we'll not speak of it again

She's not angry @MilesJuppIsMyBitch, she's just disappointed [grin[

I have a small quandary. I will be having an outdoors (lovely heated garden room type thing) Sunday roast at my local on 18th April. I am excited beyond measure. However, this will be in the first week of the next bootcamp. So, would it be too strange just to keep going as I am now (even between bootcamps) and then plan for that one sainted Yorkshire Pudding in two months' time? I promise I've not even moved onto BC light in the past six weeks.

@Onelittlepiglet I understand that slow progress is very frustrating - but

• focus on the fact that you've lost almost a stone since the start of the year
• your weight is still going down, albeit slowly!

Try not to stress about it - stress doesn't help anyone! - and make sure you're really focused on following Bootcamp rules. If you've moved to Bootcamp Light, why not try doing strict Bootcamp for a few days?

The other thing you could try is 'Uber Bootcamp' - look at the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. This is 3 days' worth of carb-counted meals to keep your carbs very low. Three alternate plans - one with meat and eggs, one with meat but no eggs and one with fish.

should be here

@nowlook

She's not angry *@MilesJuppIsMyBitch*, she's just disappointed [grin[

I have a small quandary. I will be having an outdoors (lovely heated garden room type thing) Sunday roast at my local on 18th April. I am excited beyond measure. However, this will be in the first week of the next bootcamp. So, would it be too strange just to keep going as I am now (even between bootcamps) and then plan for that one sainted Yorkshire Pudding in two months' time? I promise I've not even moved onto BC light in the past six weeks.

One Yorkshire Pudding sounds like a fine reward to me ...

@nowlook I would do exactly as you’ve said - keep going between (as many of us will) and then plan for a mindful treat.

I've been a bit out of it the last couple of days feeling grim, but just wanted to add my voice to those saying how great you are @Ninkanink. I also cheered you on on that salmon en croute thread, although had to stop reading it due to the usual 'eat less, move more, end of' brigade! If we can't take mindful pleasure in good food then where would we be? I'd be very miserable.

I've had my whoosh, although it does just take me back to slightly under where I was before Valentine's Day - so my overall weight loss remains not exactly stellar. I'm hoping that the weight will carry on going now though, fingers crossed.

Food over last two days, thanks to weird mystery bug:

Monday: nothing at all
Tuesday: nothing until 9pm, when I suddenly got my appetite back, and had a whole melted camembert with celery, cherry toms, yellow peppers and saucisson dipped in.

Both days drank at least 4l of water.

Not even eating nothing for a day caused me to lose weight yesterday morning, so it was a very stubborn plateau.

FYI @nowlook using Delia's recipe for Yorkshire puddings would give you 14.3g of carbs. That recipe makes one large pudding, so I'm guessing probably the equivalent of 2 individual ones.

Therefore, as long as you keep the rest of your meal/day low in carbs, you should be fine.

Excellent- thanks both!
The biggest challenge will be not to have wine. I've told myself I'll have a glass of champagne once I've had been vaccinated and not before. Some days are easier than others...

Thanks so much for all the info, that's really useful. I do feel that I need to research more, as I confess I don't fully understand i.e. I think I understand the principals but adding butter to steamed broccoli for example feels wrong (even tho for this exercise it isn't!) I also think I will need to prepare more foods in advance, as yoghurt/fruit etc. is kind of my go-to desk breakfast in an office where we literally have a fridge and a kettle and that's it.

Sometimes I am site-based and other than coffee I sometimes eat nothing until my evening meal, would this be bad especially? On the road and on construction sites there is usually nothing suitable apart from picking the bacon out of a sandwich from the canteen...

I knew the wine was pushing it...that's obvious in any case... I shall abstain completely at least for a few weeks, won't be too much trouble; DP doesn't really drink and it's more habit than anything. I shall also ditch the squash and try to drink more water. Generally I cook everything in olive oil or goose/duck fat if roasting.

I worry about portion size and calories, as I'm consciously opting for the high fat choice... I'm just hoping to not sabotage unknowingly through lack of knowledge! I'll take a look at some of the recipes too.

Sorry I'm not sure how to tag you all, but I have read all of your very knowledgeable responses!!

Buffy the one that came with the kit is top right. It’s for gel. The other three are my other corals, which clockwise range from a pinky coral an orangey coral, and—the best match for the one I’m wearing—a truer coral. It’s Rimmel 415 Instyle Coral. I have no idea if it’s still made, but I’d look for as true a coral as possible.

Food today: again I have absolutely no idea. We even had a Tesco delivery yesterday yet I feel wholly uninspired by the options I see. Sigh.

Off to drink some water and ponder the mysteries of my stomach...

@rollspegasus well done on your 2 stone loss. Are you doing Bootcamp or keto or just adapting it for yourself based on research.

The eating window sounds similar to intermittent fasting. I think for many of us eating this way naturally leads to this. I’ve never bought into the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” bollocks anyway!

nowlook “ She's not angry MilesJuppIsMyBitch, she's just disappointed” — that brought me my first huge grin of the day. Thanks for that.

@ShagMeRiggins and @StuntNun I do wonder if my slow weight loss is down to eating too little - my fasting gurus! I've been a lifelong breakfast ignorer - much to my mother's irritation in my younger years - but it's been years since I routinely more than one meal a day often. I just don't get hungry - don't snack either. I do eat when hungry so will eat lunch and dinner if I want to.

I did get a burst of hunger at the start of bootcamp and eat twice a day, but that's died away now. I was told at the start that one meal might not help me lose weight, but eating more is so hard when I forget about lunch when working, or feel too full for dinner if I've had a big lunch at the weekend.

@JengaCupboard if you go to the spreadsheet you'll find (on the tabs) a whole load of resources to explain low carbing.

Please don't worry about the fat or the calories! If you read up more you'll soon see why we've all been totally misled about fat and its apparent 'dangers'.

@rollspegasus

Hi Everyone . just joined your mumsnet. I have lost approx 2 stones in a year doing the low carb lifestyle. My progress nearly grind to a halt, so I did some more research and included a restricted time eating window. Last meal 6pm. 7am one square of 90 percent coco dark chocolate. first meal between 1030 1130. Bingo. The restricted eating window produces more autophagy. but only works properly once fat adapted. Best advise to anyone taking this journey. Research research research

Welcome.

Definitely agree that research is important!

But just to say, fasting isn't a part of Bootcamp. Some people choose to do it, and @StuntNun has started a thread for those fasting, that you may want to have a read of.

Dailyhand have you posted about what you’ve done to mix it up?

Aside from this week’s blip your loss was looking really steady to me.

Sorry, I know all the names and I read all the posts but never keep great track of who’s done what!

@ShagMeRiggins Ah, as I've said to BIWI, my carb-filled final weekend pre-bootcamp makes my loss look better than it is! I've basically lost about 6lbs in the last five weeks, and it's taken me ten days to get back to where I was before eating a small amount of potatoes, a chocolate tart and some fizzy wine on Valentine's.

I am KOKO after notorious weeks 3 and 4, and hoping that this week sees me start moving downwards more consistently (and I knocked the cheese on the head at BIWI's suggestion and apart from last night have only had very moderate amounts) but I do wonder whether I'm just not eating enough most days.

@JengaCupboard it's funny, often these threads are full of posts giving ideas of what to eat for breakfast and lunch while working out f the home. For some strange reason that doesn't seem to be happening at the moment...

Some suggestions of food to eat on the go (and I'm sure others will add their inspiration): boiled eggs; avocado; mini sausages - with low carb dips; salads with a pot of mayonnaise / oily / creamy dressing. I like St Agur Creme for an easy option; meat loaf (I posted a recipe recently on the meat recipe thread); ham and cheese rollitos (a slice of cheese and a slice of meat rolled up); the low carb almond muffins with ham, or cheese, or peanut butter; previous day's leftovers - cold meatballs, cold courgetti lasagne, cold chicken stuffed with cheese and wrapped in ham (depends on what you ate the day before though!); maybe soup in a flask...

Also, don't be constrained by trying to have 'breakfast' foods. I sometimes have soup for breakfast.

@Lyrata I've been eating low carb for a few years. My main motivation was to reduce my extraordinarily high blood pressure. Over a period I lost almost 3 stones, felt lean and healthy and had reduced my blood pressure meds to zero. My weight fluctuated a bit but within a tolerance that felt OK. My long term maintenance was 90% lchf because I really love this way of eating, it appeals to my foodie nature with butter and cream and all things rich and delicious, and I found it possible to eat out in restaurants a distant dream and still keep to the principles. Once every week, or two weeks I'd have a meal which had higher carbs, beans or lentils or butternut squash, and very, very rarely anything that had sugar in it. I'm lucky in that I don't really have a sweet tooth. All that worked well for me. Then coronavirus hit!

For 9 months the stress and uncertainty saw me return to unhealthy habits. Plus dh has been working from home, bringing with him a constantly replenished snack cupboard full of crisps, nuts, bread-sticks and hummus; biscuits. All added to by boredom-based fridge grazing (high fat). A stone and a half back on . But now back on this, half the weight gone and looking forward to a summer back at maintenance life-style.

Food today:
B - coffee with cream, almond muffins with peanut butter
L - sardine salad
D - shakshukka