I've been low carbing for nearly three weeks

[EhricLovesTeamQhuay]

But I had the weekend before last off (visiting family who are carb fiends) and also one day last week (hangover)

I haven't lost any weight. I have stayed exactly the same. I'm not particularly upset by this as I haven't found the way of eating to be onerous but I'm wondering whether I could tweak it to start losing. I am vegetarian so I'm eating a lot of cheese (some with every meal) and I don't think I could cut that down easily without dying of boredom, because otherwise it's very limited.

I have enjoyed the feeling of not being bloated or carb-hungover and have noticed that happening on the occasions that I ate carbs. I am also less hungry between meals and snacking less. So I'm wondering if anyone has any advice to get the scales moving? I'm not sure how much longer I will give it (though if I go back to calorie counting I will keep some of the low carb habits for sure).

Hi ELTQ, you don't mention how much exercise your taking, if your not taking any I would definitely recommend that you took some. Walking briskly is great. There's some great apps for your phone that would encourage measuring your distance.

Hi Ehric, have you had a look at the bootcamp threads? The linked spreadsheet has a low carb ubercamp over three days which can maybe get things going again.

the main things with low carb though are are you eating enough fat and drinking enough water; you should aim for around three litres a day.

From what I know, falling off the wagon, especially in the early days, can really muck things up and you won't lose

Hi, thanks for replying!
I don't exercise much, but I always try to get out with DS at weekends for a couple of miles walking/him riding his bike. And I've got study leave coming up over the summer so we cycle/walk to nursery every fine day. That's about all I do.
I have been on the bootcamp threads, ubercamp looked a bit hardcore but it is probably worth a try to kick start things! And no falling off the wagon! From what I understand of the science behind low carbing you need a regular, steady low carb diet and sticking a few in here and there will halt the ketosis process. I think.

ehric as daisy says, how much water are you drinking, and how much fat are you eating? could you list out a few meals?

as you say though, this way of eating is pretty unforgiving as you can replenish your glycogen stores very quickly and appear to have put on several pounds overnight if you have a wagon-topple

also, do you have lots of weight to lose, or are you less than a stone or so off your goal weight?

I drink water and herbal tea, probably not 2l though. 1-1.5. I have two stone to lose to get to healthy BMI so not insignificant! I'm going to go have a glass of water now...

So meals...
Fried egg with cheese for breakfast, sometimes with mushrooms
Salad with cheese for lunch, maybe some olives as well
Dinner is usually more salad with vegetables, cheese, and something like a veggie sausage or veggie burger. They are higher in carbs (around 7g/100g) than ideal. I use butter on my veg and olive oil on my salad.

your meals look ok, and as you say it would be difficult to get the variety without cheese. you could possibly drop it at breakfast time though and have more eggs cooked in butter?

i think the key thing though would be upping the water - try and get closer to 3L (or more) if you can. when fat breaks down it releases ketones into the blood stream, which need to be flushed out by plenty of water. if they aren't flushed out and the ketones remain at a high concentration in the blood stream the body is less likely to break down the fat as it doesn't want to increase the concentration of ketones further. so do try getting more of the water in.

as you increase water you do need to keep an eye on your salt levels though, and don't let them get too low and be aware of it if you start to feel a bit funny (dizzy etc). do you like avocado? it's good for increasing potassium particularly, and an excellent source of fats

Thanks a lot for that. I will make more effort with the water and cut down cheese at one meal. Avocado is a good idea, I hadn't thought about it much.

I know this won't help you much as you are veggie, but I simply cannot tolerate cheese.

When I did atkins a few years ago, after the initial 5lb water loss I stalled totally - it turned out it was because of dairy (aside from butter). So I cut out the cream and cheese totally and started losing right away.

This time round I have not touched any at all and lost steadily.

I'm sure it's to do with the amount of cheese. But this way of eating will only work for me if I can eat plenty of cheese!

Do you like mayo? I like egg may for lunch, maybe that would be a meal so you could cut down on the cheese a little?

I do, but I can't tolerate eggs more than once a day! Getting a bit sick of having them every day as it is!

HI I'm almost veggie (occasionally eat fish) and low carbing,

I think you're going to get bored pretty quick if you don't try a bit more than the salad (which will kill any enthusiasm! not speaking from experience at all oh no!)

Have you tried courgette frittas (some feta cheese in them but very tasy (I serve with a spinach and avocado salad (dressed).

How about leek sliced lengthways (like tagilitelle) cooked in butter with mushrooms add cream and black pepper (I do have this with smoked salmon in it which obviously won't work for you)

Maybe do eagg mayo in lettuce wraps (I use tuna but on reflection my fish consumption has gone up since I started this.

For breakfast I just have plain yougurt from lidl (the high fat low carb one you can buy in huge tubs)

Ehric - have you got a copy of Rose Elliot's book "The Vegetarian Low Carb Dietbook"? Lots of lovely low carb recipes in there that should get you away from just eggs and cheese!

Some observations I would make/questions I would ask:

Taking time 'off' - especially at the beginning of low carbing - will not do you any favours.

When you say you haven't lost any weight - is this overall, or have you lost and then re-gained weight?

How often are you drinking alcohol? Your body will use alcohol as its first source of fuel, before even fat, so if you're carrying on drinking, then this is what your body is burning. It won't be helping you to get shot of any fat.

Are you eating enough? Your lunch doesn't look like very much.

And you certainly aren't drinking enough water. You need at least two litres a day.

It sounds to me like it would really be worth trying a few days without cheese, to see if this is what's causing you a problem. There is honestly no need to get bored!

So here's an example of a day, including recipes from Rose Elliot's book that are all dairy/cheese-free:

Breakfast - eggs of some kind, whatever you're happy with (but something different each day so you don't get bored!)
Lunch - green salad with toasted hazelnuts (also includes artichoke hearts or avocado, and celery)
Dinner - Thai curry with cauliflower 'rice'

This would give you 17.4g carbs, so it's still a very low carb day - would allow you to add some extra veg to your breakfast, e.g. mushrooms or a couple of tomatoes

Thanks both
Some good ideas there, I will need to put a bit more effort in I think. My salad is huge with plenty of cheese and I love salad, I was eating it every day before trying this anyway. I don't get bored of it! Biwi I don't drink often, no more than once a week, sometimes less, and rarely more than two glasses in one go (last week was an aberration)
Problem is that I'm on my own and cook dinner just for myself so I usually go for the easy and quick option especially during the week. I will have an experiment this weekend I think! I drank more water today, 1.5l so far and will have another litre over this evening. I also snacked on nuts and cherry tomatoes today.

And my weight hasn't fluctuated at all. I didn't bother weighing after the booze/carbs but weigh most days and it has stayed exactly the same. I found that interesting in itself and assumed I must be retaining less water?

If no fluctuation at all, then I'd definitely try cutting the cheese out for a few days to see what happens. Whilst at the same time upping the water.

BTW - this is how much water you should be aiming for, depending on how much you weigh:

Your Weight----Litres
140lbs-----2.5
160lbs-----3.0
180lbs-----3.0
200lbs-----3.5
220lbs-----3.5
240lbs-----4.0
260lbs-----4.5
280lbs-----4.5
300lbs-----5.0
320lbs-----5.5
340lbs-----5.5
360lbs-----6.0
380lbs-----6.5
400lbs-----6.5

This comes from this website

I have a good low carb vegetarian book by Celia Brooks Brown, but it must be out of print as they are asking £25 second hand on Amazon. Maybe try the library?

Think you will have to embrace nuts and tofu as protein sources. I'm afraid I am an ex-vegetarian, and think I would really struggle with low carb otherwise.

Well, I managed 2 litres of water yesterday (plus decaf tea) and this morning I saw the first movement on the scales! 1lb downwards, so I'm encouraged. I'm going to cut out cheese at breakfast (one benefit of eating so much of it is it is getting a bit boring, which I never thought possible) and go for mushrooms and eggs in butter. I will also try to be more creative at dinner. I love cauliflower rice, total genius. I am going to look for a low carb curry recipe and see what I can find. I'm not going to buy a cookbook mainly because I'm broke and it's £10 but also because I am a real creature of habit with my meals and I never use recipe books much anyway. I think I can find enough online.
Thanks for your advice!

I'm a veggie who is low carbing. I don't rate the rose Eliot book at all. My favourite recipes are low carb pizza, and Aubergine rolls. I found both online. We also make 'spaghetti' using courgette. I'll find you the pizza and Aubergine recipes.

pizza

Aubergine just leave out the breadcrumbs.

Thanks they look good!

Lurking here - I've also been low c for nearly three weeks, I've lost 10lbs - that's with a major throwing up session this week because I went to bed to early after eating a rich mushroom dish (you can overdo it on this diet!) I have religiously drunk 3l water a day, have been v strict. You really have to be in the zone to see results.