Jan '23 Low Carb Bootcamp - Week 2 - how did you get on?!

[BIWI]

Evening all! I'm posting the week 2 chat thread this evening, as I know how keen everyone will be to post tomorrow. As I'm retired now, I no longer have to set an alarm to wake up, so I don't want to keep everyone waiting tomorrow morning to post.

I love this week. It's when we see how much people have lost, and it can be a significant amount. It can be a real leap of faith for anyone who hasn't low carbed before, and all those who really don't believe you can eat that much fat and still lose weight!

I'm really hoping that you've all had a good first week, and that your commitment 'to the cause' has been rewarded with a good result - be that on the scales, with your tape measure, or the currently-too-tight clothes that you've been trying on.

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

I hope very much that you've had a good first week, and that you're feeling supermotivated for the rest of Bootcamp.

However - if you haven't lost, or you have even gained, please don't be downhearted. We're all different, and there may be lots of reasons why this is the case for you. It's also really important to note that it's not a competition. We all lose at different rates - plus, anyone who is bigger will lose more/faster than someone who is smaller.

Hopefully there are other benefits to this WOE that will keep you on track - at the very least, I hope that you have been enjoying the food, and that you don't feel deprived, like you would be on a low calorie/fat diet.

Hello @BIWI and thank you for getting us started on week 2 (and for bootcamp generally). Looking forward to hearing how everyone is doing

I've being weighing monthly rather than weekly so won't have results as such. I do feel well in myself and have had to buy another size smaller of the high waisted leather look leggings I have been living in this winter because the once I had were getting a bit baggy. so pleased.

Link to "Master" thread of the different recipe threads

Links to the Boot Camp Low Carb Recipe threads http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/lowcarbb_bootcamp/4676617-links-to-the-boot-camp-low-carb-recipe-threads

shameless placemark

I had to get MNHQ to repost all those links today @prettybird, as - for some reason - only three of them worked! But hopefully they do now.

I think there is a degree of flakiness on MN especially since the "upgrade" with links working on the app and not on the browser and vice-versa - even when it's been a straight C&P via the "share facility"

W2D1 - I fell off the other thread because it was moving to fast for me, but not bootcamp.

I've lost this week, but a little disappointed as I also got my period part way through and I suspect most of my loss is actually down to that. Still a loss is a loss, and I started on 1 Jan so wasn't expecting a whoosh.

Hope this week goes well for everyone!

Food plan for the day:

Breakfast - Portobello mushroom air fried with butter and mozzarella

Lunch - Thai cauliflower soup

Dinner - Omelette

Snacks - olives

This is the first time I've been in the office since I've started so managing that is my main challenge for the day.

Good morning! Up early as Iris decided to wake the whole house up and I was the only one who responded

Good 4 1/2lb weight loss this week.

Plan today is

L veg curry soup and a low carb roll with lots of butter (nice winter food to keep warm)

D will be lamb chops with crispy fat, FLGV with melted butter and cheese.

No point me going back to bed so catching up on news and getting started on my water with an herbal tea!

Have a great day campers!

-2lbs, could have been better but I caved with the period cravings a little!

Morning all

Thanks @BIWI for the thread and @prettybird for the recipe link. I'll have a nose later :)

-10.6lb off for me this week which is fantastic. I've forgotten how much this WOE works for me.

Todays plan
B FF Greek yogurt
L leftover gammon with coleslaw and salad
D pan fried spicy chicken thighs with loads of buttery green cabbage and brocolli

Have a great day everyone

Good morning! Rushing for school / work run but 3lbs down since last week and 5lb since worst ever weight post Christmas. I'll take that! We had Raclette last night - a kids' favourite and they were having too much fun to notice my cheese was only on broccoli / cauliflower / rocket and I wasn't touching the potatoes and cheese. My appetite's shrunk mercifully and I now need just not to get complacent, because I know this week will probably mean little progress judging on former attempts at low carbing. Good luck to everyone else!

3lbs down and weighing in at 64.6kg.
New goal is 63kg and then being able to maintain that weight.
Looking forward to Greek yoghurt, chicken salads (and a long swim) today.

Delighted with my loss so far,thank you @BIWI for doing this!
Just had a rather delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with a couple of slices of chorizo. Highly recommend it!

Not weighing, but checking in to cheer on those of you who are.

A Non Scales Victory for me is that I bought a pair of jeans in the sale a couple of weeks ago and the button and button hole were a good inch off meeting. Last night I tried them on and got the button done and the zip up! Not quite wearable yet but it’s progress.

@moleeye - that’s a brilliant loss! You must be really pleased.

Well done on the losses everyone.
@moleeye wow!! 10lb is incredible!

1.6 off for me . I started 1st of Jan and that brings me to 5lb total so pleased with that.

Morning campers. Only a pound off for me but given I’ve had a few eating out sessions Im not too surprised (stuck to the rules but hard to know exactly what’s in stuff). I need to up the veg and fat and the water this week. KOKO!

Hi all, well done on the successes! And lots of engouragement vibes for the rest of us!

I'm feeling quite disheartened. I'm titrating off meds I was started on two years ago for PND and it's given me GI upset since Thursday last week. At first I thought I had diarrhoea from infection and I had a bowl of rice. Then figured out what was going on. Trouble is I don't feel like all the yummy, fatty foods - avocado, chicken skin, macadamia and olive oil, cream, cheese - all felt too much. I thought I could switch to Bootcamp lite as yoghurt with nuts and seeds felt ok for a few days. I'm back to full bootcamp again yesterday and today.

• steak with coleslaw at the pub last night, their "veges" turned out to be half a plate of chips and I DIDN'T EAT A SINGLE ONE!! Which I think is the first time in my life I've resisted chips.

• scrambled eggs and cheese for brekkie, followed by fried brocolli and fennel (fried fennel not as good as I was hoping)

• lunch of beef stir fry with shallots and zucchini, plus shallow fried crispy tofu

Water, rooibos, Earl Grey tea.

We'll have guacamole and crustless quiche with eggplant for tea.

Still feels like I'm forcing the rich food down, rather than lapping it up. I'm definitely not getting the benefits from being in fat-adapted metabolism. I'm losing weight with the GI upset but I can still feel the inflammatory pain in my joints that went away when I was bootcamping last year. I think that is to do with mono-fats, although someone on last weeks thread wrote about their inflammatory pains going after a week of eating mostly meats, so maybe saturated fats does the same - I'll have to look into it. So, limping along, here.

Morning everyone

4lb off for me which I'm amazed with as my sneaky weigh last week showed a gain.
I suspect it would have been more but my period is imminent.
So to not end up heavier just before is incredible.

Morning! 7lb loss for me, I'll take that!
I did get my period around Wednesday last week so some of this loss will be due to that too.

I'd love to lose 1lb a week from now to bring the overall loss this bootcamp to 1 stone. Obviously more would be fantastic but I'd be really pleased with that.

Going shopping once I've dropped dd off at school so will post today's meal plan then. Good luck in week 2 everyone!

Replying to @DryWhiteagainW question on the previous thread about why we need to eat more fat:

The reason we need to eat more fat on this way of eating is simply because we've cut down our carb intake. Your macros before going low carb were something like 50% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat. We keep protein intake at a similar level when going low carb since a high protein diet (above 40%) can be bad for the kidneys. If we reduce our carb intake from 50% to 5-10% of calories, on a 2,000 calorie per day diet this would be from 1000 calories a day to 100-200 calories a day, then the only option is to increase our fat intake to make up the missing calories. So we change our diet from, say, 50% carbs, 25% protein, 25% fat to 10% carbs, 25% protein, 65% fat. On a 2,000 calorie per day diet, this means increasing our fat intake from 55g fat per day to 145g fat per day (which is equivalent to 7 tbsp olive oil more fat per day.)

A key point is that the 145g fat in this calculation includes your own body fat that you are using for energy. To the cells of your body, the free fatty acids that are released by your fat cells into your bloodstream are indistinguishable from the free fatty acids that are released by your digestive system into your bloodstream. So on any given day, 20-55g of your "fat intake" will be coming from your fat stores and not your dietary intake.

You may wonder why replace the carbohydrate calories at all? Why not ditch those 800-900 calories entirely and go on a low carb and low fat diet. Quite simply, it doesn't work. You would lose weight at first and then your weight loss would slow right down or stop entirely. Drastic calorie reduction is terrible for weight loss as your body will reduce its metabolism to match the calorie intake by reducing your amount of non-exercise activity thermogenesis, lowering your body temperature, stopping cell repair etc. We've seen this before on previous Bootcamps where someone is eating 1,200 calories per day but stopped losing weight. Counterintuitively, they have to increase their calorie intake to lose weight. I personally would recommend never going below 1,400-1,500 calories per day depending on your height. When I reached my weight loss goals on Bootcamp I was still losing weight while eating 1,800 calories per day. Very low calorie diets are only good for short-term weight loss.

One reason Bootcamp works so well is that it is essentially not calorie restricted, and that's why we tell you that you don't need to feel hungry and, if you're hungry then eat! By eating low carb we open up the exit gates on fat cells so any calorie shortfall in your diet is made up from your own body fat (so long as you aren't dramatically underrating.) Your calorie intake will naturally reduce by 200-500 calories per day which will be made up from your body fat stores. Compare that to a low calorie high carb diet where insulin keeps those gates on the fat cells closed so you feel like you're starving hungry because you can't access your body fat.

One exception to the low calorie=bad rule is fasting. No calories is actually better for weight loss than reduced calories. When we get towards the end of Bootcamp we will talk about introducing intermittent fasting for those that are interested. This involves having a longer overnight fast of 16 hours or more. It's completely not necessary for weight loss but it can be beneficial for people that have insulin resistance such as diabetics, or as a way to manage weight in the longer term. There's a separate thread in the Fasting topic for anyone interested in combining intermittent fasting with a low carb diet. https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/fasting_diet/4158937-Combining-fasting-with-low-carb-1

@DontGetEvenGetEverything that was me with the carnivore stuff. It definitely does something good to my joints and inflammation and although it's not as dramatic, I don't find low carbing miserable after a few days like carnivore. I did a week of it to clear as much as I could then switched to this. It's amazing what difference having creamy cabbage and an oily salad can do to a steak on a plate.
After frustration at the scales not moving this week, they eventually did, in fits and starts and after 9lb off that carnivore week, another 3.5 is off now so I'm really pleased. I am still a bit untrusting of all the fattiness and creaminess and I felt like I may be eating too much of it to lose as I've eaten a lot of rich foods but I've been really strict with the big carbs so far, which is not at all like me! Thanks so much @BIWI and all the others who post - this feels like the hand holding and accountability of Slimming World & co without the cost and with a much more sensible WOE.

4.4lb loss here, hoorah.

Well done everyone.

I hope this week is a more enjoyable one for you @DontGetEvenGetEverything and that you are feeling better soon.

B:egg Mayo and crispy bacon (made it yesterday to get ahead)
L: roasted celeriac and cauliflower soup (has a good splash of cream and lots of cheddar in it too)
D: fish curry with cauli rice and cucumber raita.

Half a stone off like magic - I know it will slow down, and I still have a loooong way to go, but still dancing around the kitchen this morning. Now just need to not get too upset when the rate of loss slows down to a more sensible pace!
Well done everyone on getting through Week 1 and remember to keep drinking the water!

Well done on all the losses everyone and @moleeye amazing!!

I lost just over half a pound. Pissed off doesn't come close to how I'm feeling but I will of course KOKO and trust the process.

This was week 2 for me and I didn't weigh when I started so I suppose I could be coming off a big loss last week and not even realise it.

I also have an under active thyroid so losing weight is not easy for me. That said, half a frickin' pound - waaaaaahhhh!!!

Anyway, todays plan:

B: Greek yogurt and cream
L: omelette
D: chicken breasts stuffed with Boursin and wrapped in Parma ham, veg in butter.

Morning all! 3lb off (I'm not on the spreadsheet) this morning which I'm very happy with. Still feeling achey and tired but not so miserable. Plan today is to plan meals for the next three days! I have weightlifting again tomorrow which I'm tentatively looking forward to but I think I'm going to do a bit less as last week's broke me.

Just trying to gather the energy to go outside in the wind rain and cold and give my horses some hay 😨

Congratulations all on your losses and NSV.

Feeling a little deflated as I stayed the same this week. I’ve been low carbing for a few months and only 4lbs off target now so trying to remember it’s not entirely unexpected.

Need to up the fat this week. DHs cooking last week meant a lot less fat and therefore more snacking.

Onwards and upwards or should that be downwards?