Week 5 - Pre-Christmas '24 Low Carb Bootcamp: the second half

[BIWI]

Morning all!

Apologies for the lateness of the new thread. I have a weekly online class which has shifted to first thing on a Monday morning, so I totally forgot to start the new thread
Anyway, here we are.

Here's the spreadsheet

Hope everyone has seen good results this morning - and here's to a good week 5. Hopefully we're out of the doldrums that are weeks 3 & 4!

Sorry you've been struggling @Thesoundofmusic23 - but I totally understand. It's a difficult time of the year to lose weight with so many temptations around us! Hopefully see you in the New Year. (Although you can still check in here if you want?)

My scale hasn’t budged the last two of weeks but still enjoying this way of eating. I just feel so much better and it’s life changing to be free of cravings. I wish I would have discovered it sooner!

1 lb down this week which I’m happy with . Unfortunately my weight loss ( approx 1 1/2 stone since the end of September) has done nothing for my liver enzymes which are steadily increasing .

Sorry to hear that @Floralnomad - do you have any idea why?

No , my FIB-4 is indeterminate so I may have fibrosis but apparently I’m being referred . Just another disease to add to my growing list .

Sorry to hear that @Floralnomad 💐

Sorry to hear about that @Floralnomad Hope they get to the bottom of it.

I'm still resolutely sticking at just about 12st 10lb, despite having stayed strict. I have a suspicion that I maybe didn't have enough water yesterday so I'm going to work on that today.

Had a lovely leek and shallot frittata last night - a regular Wednesday night supper. Have some left over, so that will be my lunch.

Someone earlier in the thread said about difficulty drinking water in the cold weather, and I'm definitely feeling that now we're at Sub-Zero mornings!

I agree. I really must make myself drink more rooibos (which I can drink black or is it red? ) rather than too many cups of tea, which I have with milk

I think I'm about to break bootcamp rules...can we discuss tracking food (calories and macros)? I haven't lost any weight (according to scales) since starting this WoE in March, but I have lipoedema, and have found it's greatly improved my painful legs. I also agree with your cutting out cravings comment @Pash01 it's worth following for that alone! However, the vain side of me would quite like to have smaller calves and less lumpy thighs...so I've been tracking since Monday, keeping to 1500 calories (I'm tall), and have been really surprised by how easy it is to get to 100g of fat per day. I've just been including 1 portion of nuts, 1 of cheese, then usual meat and veg (inc avocado), 1 portion of yoghurt etc, haven't added any significant oil, butter or cream (sometimes a small amount of oil for cooking) and am hitting 100g of fat (which I think is around the right amount for a LC diet?). I'm keeping my carbs to around 40g (I'm using the free version of MFP, so I don't think this is net, but if anyone knows, please shout). It's too depressing weighing cucumber and kale, so I won't stick to this for long (I'm hoping to estimate in future), but I thought it might be of interest to some of you!

I do also wonder whether I've lost the normal fat and am now down to just the abnormal lipoedema fat, and whether it's completely resistant to even a low carb diet, but that's probably a discussion for another thread...

I am genuinely so thrilled to read about all the positive experiences people are having with this WoE. It really is life changing!

@BIWI no idea at all but I have multiple issues and my list of conditions is ever expanding . I’m late 50s and have the ailment list of your average 80yr old despite on the face of it being very healthy 🤣

@Floralnomad sorry to hear about the growing list - hope you get some clarity soon.

@prettybird I'm with you on the fluids, been resolutely stuck for the last couple of weeks despite compliance - I am also wondering if I actually need to eat a bit more. Finding it really dispiriting to achieve either a zero or 1lb loss each week when I feel that I've been 100% on the programme. Two years ago I had a really successful bootcamp and reached my target with consistent loss each week; trying hard not to compare but just a bit frustrated. Anyway 1lb down this week and staying positive. Water ++ incoming.

Gosh yes, I'm with everyone who is the feeling stuck and trying to drink more water. And herbal tea. I succumbed to the temptation of a few potatoes in a delicious bowl of creamy Cullen skink after swimming yesterday . I'm sure it could be made boot camp compliant though with more smoked haddock. But had a salad instead of bread = win. The cold weather is definitely making me feel hungrier or is it just psychological? I also craved a glass of white wine yesterday but amazingly I didn't really like the taste and put the rest in the lamb stew! I do hope this moderation is a permanent lifestyle change ! . I couldn't face the aqua class this morning and parkrun is looking pretty unlikely, the forecast is dire, so I'll need to get on the exercise bike tomorrow and get my mojo working! Good luck KOKO over the weekend everyone.

Also finding the hunger pangs are coming back in the cold weather! Drank lots of hot water either lemon this morning and then blasted out my little office heater so much this afternoon that I went back to the cold water... Good luck everyone!

Very much approaching hiberation mode, so got the Slow Cooker out this morning and used a Bored of Lunch recipe for Tuscan Chicken (using chicken thighs instead of breasts), served just now on a bed of stir fried cabbage.

Will be mainlining the herbal tea tonight as the scales are proving very stubborn this week!

Made a parmigiana tonight and added grated tofu to the tomato sauce to up my protein. So yummy & easy thought I'd share! Ate with rocket & more Parmesan 🧀🍆🍅🍃

@somanylights As a fellow lipoedema-er I absolutely echo that low carb curbs the pain in my legs. I think you're right about the normal fat going and leaving the lipoedema fat behind. There's interesting anecdotal accounts of massage guns being beneficial but who knows? I've seen lots about weight loss injections reducing inflammation too but I'm keeping a wide berth!

I've been lurking! I tried the frozen Aldi lobster tails this week. They weren't very good and I was a bit disappointed as I felt they might be a real low carb treat!

Brrrr it's chilli outdoors, had to scrape the car windscreen this week, so it's back to making hot water-with-lemon in a thermos at night to drink in the car on my way to work.

Long time bootcamper, still get a bit concerned for my monthly weight in but STS so it's all good here KOKO

@CrystalTits

Finding it really dispiriting to achieve either a zero or 1lb loss each week when I feel that I've been 100% on the programme.

We're in week 5 and you've lost almost 6lbs. You've lost every week, even though you say you haven't!

And (from the spreadsheet) it doesn't look like you have much to lose. So I think you're doing really well. It's always the case that the less you have to lose, the slower it will go. So I think a bit of perspective is required here!

That looks absolutely delicious @NoCarbsForMe! I love aubergine parmigiana, that's inspired me for the weekend.

@somanylights I'm afraid I don't know anything about lipoedema, but this article on The Diet Doctor site is helpful (apologies if none of that is new to you!)

I'm wondering, having read it, if you aren't keeping your carbs low enough? There's no one hard-and-fast rule about how many carbs we should eat on Bootcamp, but generally on a strict keto diet it is 20-50g carbs per day. You're eating 40g, which is at the top end.

I'm also a bit concerned about the amount of fat you're eating - what percentage of your macros is the 100g? And what proportions are you eating daily?

Roughly speaking, fat - on a low carb/keto diet - should be the largest proportion, followed by protein, followed by carbs. 70/20/10 is often quoted (although sometimes the fat is even higher).

Another one getting the slow cooker out today!

I'm cooking pulled pork - adapting a recipe from the Fast800 recipe book, which is a low carb version. Hoping it will work in the slow cooker, rather than the oven, as I'm aiming to use the slow cooker a bit more.

Here's the recipe (which is also on the recipe thread)

Perfect Pulled Pork

This is from the Fast800 recipe book:

1kg pork shoulder joint, trimmed of fat I keep this and make it into crackling

Marinade:
45g tomato purée (about 3tbsps)
30g chipotle paste (about 2 tbsps)
juice of 2 medium oranges
juice of 2 limes
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground black pepper

• Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large non-metallic bowl
• Take any string off the pork and add it to the bowl and cover in the marinade; cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours
• Pre-heat your oven to 170/150 fan/Gas 3
• Place the pork and its marinade in a medium casserole, cover and bake for 3-4 hours, or until the pork falls apart when prodded with a fork
• Transfer the pork to a board or warmed platter and shred with two forks. Serve with a little of the spicy cooking juices spooned over

Serves 6 (3g carbs per serving/171 cals per serving)

@BIWI I do pulled pork in the slow cooker a lot - if I have time/can be bothered, I'll pop the shredded meat in the oven for 20 mins to get some bits crisped up and the juice/sauce to thicken, especially if the oven happens to be on for something else by that point.

That sounds like a good idea.

Making a note of that pulled pork recipe and I've been obsessing over aubergine parmigiana recipes since Flatiron this week. Maybe next weekend.

Big family weekend away so there'll be more carbs than ideal but feeling good to have solidly dropped 5lbs this bootcamp; his and downs, but back to 123.4lbs after a 4 imperfect days Sat-Tues. I reckon I can see 120 before Christmas.