Week 8 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - Only 3 weeks left!

[BIWI]

Morning campers.

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

So only three weeks left. I know that things have been moving quite satisfactorily for some of you, so hopefully these last three weeks can see a few more of those pesky pounds disappear.

I had a bit of an altercation with some sticky toffee pudding this weekend (at the PILs) so I've got my work cut out over the next few days to undo the damage!

Off for a run shortly ...

I like to add prawn cocktail to my avocados - yum!

Loutwenty - when is your op supposed to be?

I need to have it before August. It's private, so I can be more flexable with dates, but i need it before Aug for health reasons.

It's my own fault, I gained 3 stone in 2 months (!) eating through depression. I lost a baby in early April and it floored me, I just sat and ate all day.

Lou - so very sorry to hear that.

Loutwenty I'm so sorry for your loss, how awful for you.

I can confirm the 3-4 week "slow-down" but now I have visible loss again (I've done 6 weeks so far.) I feel sure that the weight will start to melt off you again pretty soon, especially if you are nearly at week 5 and as you haven't cheated at all.

- so sorry to hear that. Please be very, very kind to yourself.

Thank you. I am ok now, still the odd burst of tears from nowhere, but I am getting there. The diet helps, I have something to focus on, and as I cant ttc again until after my op, that's why I am getting so frustrated. I could have the op next week if I wanted (if I were a lower weight).

So sorry Lou
Not sure what to advise re rapid weight loss by August...

I could kick myself really. I need the op sooner rather than later, and the surgeon who is doing it is fully booked or not available late aug until november! It's something I have been seeing him about for a few years and I trust him.

That's why I am thinking shakes.....I love low carb and I will be changing my lifestyle for good and carry on, but I am torn now. I know a VLCD isn't healthy, but I was thinking that on 500 cals a day, I can't fail to lose.

Why not give it another week before you make such a drastic switch? You haven't really been doing low carb for that long, and it is important to give your body chance to properly transition into fat-burning.

The other thing that you could consider, which would work well with low carbing, would be intermittent fasting, or 5:2 fasting. The low carbing will help you because you will have your appetite more under control and will be able to go for longer without food.

I usually do a form of intermittent fasting now, which essentially means that I no longer eat breakfast. I do if I'm hungry, but quite often I can get till lunchtime without eating - the overall benefit being a reduction in daily calories consumed, but because the rest of my meals are high fat/low carb, I'm still eating the right proportions of nutrients.

And for your loss - you need to be kind to yourself. Which also means not putting yourself under unnecessary pressure re weight loss!

BIWI, that's a good Idea. I am rarely hungry now. I have to leave it until Sunday anyway before considering starting shakes, as PIL are down on sat and they are obsessed with an Indian restaurant near us. If I do a diet, I do it to the letter, and I can't sit there and have a shake, although I can pick at a tandoori mixed grill or some spiced lamb if I am low carbing.

Hi Lou, am also so sorry for your loss x

Welcome aboard and well done so far with your weight loss. I've only recently joined the thread too and I am so grateful for everyone's help and support with this eating style. Have you measured yourself as you may still be losing inches rather than lbs at present? This might reassure you that things are still going in the right direction until you see another drop in lbs on the scales.

Daisy, I whizz up avocado, fresh coriander, tomato and chillies to make guacamole dip for celery, cucumber etc or to have as topping on homemade burger with melted cheese, yum

{{{{unmumsnetty hugs}}}} Lou - I agree with BIWI, when I lowcarbed (before I fell off the wagon), I could go 3-4 weeks between dropping weight - very disheartening but the weight was coming off. Are you losing inches/ noticed any differnce in fitting of clothes?

Prawn cocktail and avocado or guacamole dip sounds yum.... prawns and coriander on shopping list.......

Before I forget.... I looked at the peanuts in Lidl... the 'new' cheap simple range of salted nuts (48p) were very high carb whereas the branded but expensive range was much lower.. I wonder if that's where my problem was (I had middle of the range last time & no values on the packet)... it's worth double checking every time x

Quick question, are sardines okay for a snack? I had a tin of them in brine before lunch but maybe I should try and get ones in olive oil.

I did initially go from a 16 to a 14 - but the 14 are still quite snug, the same as when I bought them 10 days ago.

I am going to give this until sunday anyway, due to PIL visit.

Daisy - when you lost weight again, was it a bigger amount, or just a lb or two?

I have been scrutinising my diet, i add paprika to the burgers, quite a lot (about 6 tablespoons to 800g of mince), but that would be max 20g of carbs split between 8 burgers, so I am not going over 20g a day on the days I have one.

stuntnun, they should be absolutely fine, but if you're worried it should show the carb values on the tin (tesco own brand says only trace carbs per 100g)

loutwenty i'm sorry to hear about your loss, not surprised that's thrown you. i think that another 14lb by august (ish) could possibly be doable, but with all these things YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Loutwenty so very sorry for your loss. I think there's a few of us combining some kind of intermittent fasting with low carbing - BIWI is right, the appetite reduction consequent to low carbing is a big help when trying to 'fast'.

Negroni - After the first week I'm finding 5:2 quite easy (the first week was a bit white knuckle!) - as I mentioned, I normally only eat two meals a day (big breakfast, average sized dinner), so it's not really that much of a push to go to one meal of 500 cals or less on the 'fast' days. I just hold out for as long as possible on the fast day - yesterday I ate my meal at 4 pm - then that holds me until I go to bed. The following day I try to eat a late breakfast (today it was at 12), and then have dinner as normal in the evening. I do Mondays and Thursdays, so it doesn't interfere with the weekend. The other days I stick to low carbing, as before - it's become a way of life now and I only ever deviate if I'm going out for something really special - so maybe once every 2 months or so. My deviations aren't too bad - something like 2 small slices of French bread with my starter and/or a creme brulee for dessert is about as extreme as it gets, and I can handle that once in 8 weeks. Think I've done it 3 times since I started this (oh, and then there was the drunken evening at home when a bacon sarnie somehow leapt into my mouth, and the jam and clotted cream on toast incident - but we'll draw a veil over those!).

I'm no saint, but I really do appreciate the smaller appetite and sense of control that low carbing gives me (too much vodka will negate this, I can report!).

Lou - sometimes I would loose 3-4lbs in one go, others it was just 1lb... I'd plateau for 3-4weeks then drop, then plateau and so on.. I had to keep at 20g or less to keep this loss going. It took me 18mths to go from 11stone to 8st2/8st4... from talking to various low carbers, it seems the closer you are to your goal weight, the slower it comes off (sadly).

Loutwenty - I had two MMCs after having ds (so he ended up an only child ) so I feel for you and understand how it would have floored you and absolutely understand why you went through a period of comfort eating (not that anything actually does comfort you).

To give you a bit of positive moitvation, I lost over 2 stone in the New Year Boot Camp - yet I too had the Week 3 "Stall".

After that, I managed to lose a steady average of 2lb per week, and ended up going from 13stone 2lb on 7 January to 11stone 1lb by the end of the 10 weeks.

Apart from following the rules (and after the initial Boot Camp, I did partake of wine, berries, nuts and the odd square of dark chocolate mostly at weekends), the other thing I noticed really helped was getting plenty of sleep . I believe that this is also mentioned in Briffa's book but I've never read it

Every time I've stalled, I've noticed that it has more of a correlation with how much sleep I've been getting than how much I have been going "off piste".

Don't tell me that Prettybird, I have a seven-month-old baby with reflux - sleep is completely up the left!

Loutwenty in your position I would probably go with the liquid diet to rapidly drop the weight you need to lose then come back to lc to maintain or lose more weight. If you've done it before then you'll know what you're letting yourself in for so if you can cope with it then it will get you to shed weight fast. I MCd in December 2011, seems like such a long time ago now, but I found closure very important and it sounds like this op would give you that closure.

Stuntnun : not only is my ds now 12, even when he was a baby, he slept through (I had to wake him up to breast deed him ) so I've never had to suffer sleepless nights that are caused by a baby!

I do however lack self-discipline and have a bad habit of watching TV far too late which drives dh, who is an "early-to-bed-early-to-riser", up the wall

prettybird it is possible to go off some people.

My heading towards being 10 faster then i would like cos then i would have to accept the possibility i might be getting old still doesn't sleep through the night unless he takes his sleep meds.

*ds that is.

Just waiting for dinner to cook ... mushroom stuffed prok rolls in a cream sauce with roasted cabbage with fennel seeds. It smells delicious!

Tried oil pulling today. Was weird, will see if it makes any difference to my teeth (sensitive and could do with brightening up!). Anyone tried it?