Hello! Day One Done - anyone want to join me?

[SharkSkinThing]

Just wanted to say hello and see if any other new starters wanted to buddy up for support and advice?

I've got 3 - 4 stone to lose, all gained AFTER having my DS who is now - god help me - 5. All down to long-term sleep deprivation and sugar reliance, and forming terrible habits. And wine to help me cope with the sleep deprivation,

Anyway, hoping to finally turn things around now that he's finally sleeping (sometimes until 5.30am!). Would love to chat to others who are finding that this WOE works for them.

xx

Also can anyone recommend the nicest tasting alternative to milk for tea? Currently having it black which is ok.

Cream. :) Or coconut milk

FitFat generally American sizing is different and a uk 14 is an American size 20. Could that be the case

Cake I tried them all on their own and in tea and the one I like best is coconut dream which is a mix of coconut milk and rice milk. Before they brought that one out I had plain rice dream.

Think I'm going for the courgetti carbonara tonight. Yummy. Plus a return to (85% of course) ...I'm celebrating - 13st 6. today so bring on the vegetables. Always, Amelia Freer looks great, thanks.

Thanks Blods! Adding it to my online shop. Coconut milk too thefit, so will try both.

Will, I'm very passionate about Carbonara as it is one of the traditional dishes of my birth city -a staple in the Cacao's household.
Your recipe is not Carbonara! In no shape or form would a Carbonara be low fat: it's all about the fat, 'bout the fat, no rebels... fa t,fa t,fa t!!

Can I rename your dish ''Listarelle di Zucchine (courgetti) con straccetti di pollo (thin strips of chicken) allo yogurt e bacon''? :P

I gave up on sizes a long time ago, fit. Size are just random these days, not I ever found clothes ever fitted me properly before!

Cake, coconut oil works well in coffe -it smells of the coconut but doesn't taste of it.

I feel great today: I've managed to up my exercise regime, almost back to where I was before injury. :)

Brunch:
Stir fry pesto courgettes and salmon with a little bacon.
The new batch of bacon/pancetta came out of its cure this morning, so had to try some to know whether it would make a good pancetta (edible raw, if dry cured), a lovely bacon or a cooking bacon.

I've found you all again

I lost the post off my 'I'm on' list and am on the phone at the moment due to broken iPad.

Great to see everyone doing so well. I've been extra good since I went back to work on Monday, I've eaten lots of meat, lots of veg, some dairy and a little bit of fruit.
I'm feeling full and satiated, I don't feel deprived at all and that's key for it to be a success for me.

We've just booked a holiday for 9th Feb so I have five weeks to look fab.. not really long enough but it'll keep me motivated!

I've low carbed a few times but have yet to try a bulletproof coffee. Someone is going to have to convince me

Sorry for lack of posts...been beavering away finishing an essay. All submitted now so will take it easy for a few days and catch up here tomorrow. Xxx

Hello, is it ok to join in here? This thread was recommended to me by favi on another thread. I am trying to eat low carb (not NO carb) in order to lose weight. I've got 2 stones to shed. I've been reading this with interest.

One of my problems is that I have very little time at home to prepare food - full time job, and two hours at the gym each evening. Plus we have teenage sons who eat. and eat. and eat. So I can't just have a pasta/potato/rice/bread free kitchen.

I'm hoping to get lots of inspiration from everyone here.

Hi Used. I have lost 2 stone this year eating paleo/low carbish and I have a DH and 2 adult children. I buy all the usual food for them but for me I just leave out the carby stuff. If I do a stir fry they will have noodles and rice whereas I will have just lots of veg and beansprouts. With casseroles I don't have the potato but will have mashed swede and cauliflower etc. My cereal can be blitzed nuts, seeds, coconut and banana. Its really not hard.

Hi Favi Lovely. On Reload days you can bet my carbonara is just eggs, pancetta and parmesan. Cooked by the heat of a mountain of pasta and covered in a liberal dusting of coarsely ground black pepper. The last time I was in Rome I had one in a place called something like Enzo's (well that's not right obviously) in Trastevere. Wow.

But for a meal that you can eat without a thought about calories, and still step on the scales without fear the next morning, the courgette, chicken and yoghurt replacements do actually do a surprisingly 'ok' job. I won't go further than that . It's the bacon that just about makes the connection. Even if it doesn't deserve the name!

Hello pax, lovely to meet you and welcome!

Just to second what always has wisely said, really! I have a DP and DS who are carb monsters and on top of work, studying, life etc (like all of us), I don't have time to make different meals! I'm also veggie, so I often have salad and an omelet whilst they wolf down spag bol!

I weighed yesterday (making Fri my weigh in this time) and am the same as before Xmas, 13.10. This is not due in any part to restraint over the festive period! Just couldn't face weighing before!

How is the job news, cake?

Glad to hear you are feeling better, fav and getting some exercise in too.

Nice to see you again, Durham, and hi to will too.

Have lovely weekends everyone....I shall be soaking up the new David Bowie album!

Thanks everyone. I have now been trying to eat low carb for 10 days and have lost 6lbs. I know that will be mostly water, and it will slow down, but it's a start. Only another 28 to go!

I haven't found it too bad so far, although struggle with what to eat for breakfast. I don't like avocados, and also don't have time in the morning to do stuff like bacon and eggs.

My risky time is when I get home from work, when I'm really hungry and there is a huge temptation to pick at stuff. Im trying to ensure that there are hardboiled eggs in the fridge so I snack on those.

Used you could make some breakfast the night before, I sometimes do a batch of bacon, sausages or mini egg muffins and then just reheat the next morning. Failing that I eat my breakfast when I get to work, however I know that's not possible for everyone.

Good to see the thread moving again, the amount of weight loss people are reporting is so good, I never loose weight that quickly but it is going down so I stick to it. Plus it's a pain free way to lose weight so I don't feel like I'm missing out.......although when I walk past the cafe with my favourite cake this afternoon I might feel differently

Have a good weekend

Shark I listened to the new album yesterday, I was picking my friend up to go to another friend's house and I did a huge detour so that we could listen to as much of it as possible. I like it already but need to listen to it again today so that I get to know the songs.

Let me know what you think

Welcome, Pax. Well done on your loss.

Teen boy, who just eats and eats and eats, here too. Like Always and Sharks, I just add the carbs to ds's plate. Dh eats low carb too for medical reasons, not to lose weight. He has the same meals as me just bigger, plus snacks such a whole camebert, celery and homemade mayo...

All pasta sauces and curries go very well with a lot of different veg, courgette and cauliflower in particular; aubergine makes a lovely and quick pizza base; swede and celeriac are lovely substitute to roast potato; oven-baked kale and savoy cabbage strips are gorgeous 'seaweed'/crisp (add a little yeast for a twiglets' taste); I second the cauli mash.

Quick breakfast/snacks ideas:

Pancakes (batter=1 egg+30g cream cheese) and ham or smoked salmon -ready, eaten and washed up in ~5 mins.

Raw mushrooms stuffed with flavoured cream cheese. My favorite: 50g cream cheese, 10 olives and 1 sundried tomato -all blitzed together. Other successful flavouring are the classic garlic and chives, thai green curry paste, pine nuts or hazelnuts and parsley. Quick to make in batches and store well in the fridge.

Welcome back, Durham Happy New Year, I hope you enjoyed your girls during the holidays. :)

Thank you, Shark. It's really nice to being able to exercise properly again. :)
Well done on your weight maintainance. I fluctuate too much around AF (up to 10lbs), so I'm not paying attention to the scales but the tape measure says a lost a little around the lower hips and thigh.

Will, I understand your fasting days with an emphasis on protein to keep you satiated; to that effect I appreciate the chicken and courgette substituting the spaghetti but I really don't understand why you are going low fat. I see the yogurt as an attempt to recreate the creaminess of the carbonara as there is no pasta to cook the egg -you can cook the eggs (beaten with parmesan and peepr added) over a baigne marie.
Are you skimping on the bacon to make the dish low fat or because of the nitrates?
If the latter, bacon is super easy to make: 1tbs coarse sea salt per 500g belly; place in a zip-lock bag taking as much air out as possible and place into the fridge for 3 days per 500g meat; take out of bag, rinse, pat dry wrap in a tea towel and place back in the fridge -it's ready to use but for more flavour let it dry cure (in the fridge) for 10 days or more (pancetta will take a month or two). Fit, Lamb breast works very well too.

Glad you enjoyed Rome, maybe you ate Dar Poeta or Da Trilussa and in his honour:
Pollo der poeta co' pancetta e alloro

Lardons/lard/olive oil/fat of choice
Chicken thighs (deboned)/breasts wrapped in streaky bacon
Garlic
Bay leaves (poet laureate crown)
Lemon juice

-In a pan with a lid, cook lardons over low heat until almost melted
-Add garlic and bay leaves, let the garlic golden
-Add chicken and cook for a couple minutes on all sides
-Add lemon juice and place lid; simmer until chicken is fully cooked (~10-15 mins); if it starts drying out add a little oil or more lemon.

Oooh, like the sound of all of that, Fav. I'm definitely going to try the home cured bacon. And the Pollo der poeta co' pancetta e alloro.

And yes, the point about the fat is just about weight loss. I'm a big fan of fat, and natural, un-mucked around with food in general. So, of course, for example, butter every time, and never anything out of a tub. And I totally understand that fat doesn't make you fat in the way that we were all told for the past forty years.

But when it comes to actual weight loss, as far as I understand it... we know that protein is less calorific than fat, that protein has a much higher thermic value than fat and, at the same time, that protein also gives you the same satiated feeling that fat does.

And it comes down to experience. I love pork belly, and a good belly needs a good inch of fat - not like the stuff you find in a supermarket. Pork belly roasted above a tray of red cabbage is especially gorgeous as the cabbage cooks in all the delicious dripping fat. But if I compare that with a roasted chicken breast and some steamed cabbage, then the next day I'll have lost weight after the chicken and cabbage, but it's not so likely after the pork. (I am only a sample of one, so clearly this is not proof! ).

So my thinking is that fat is good, but just not as powerful as protein as a weight-loss fuel. So eat as much as you like on Reload days, eat some on Burndays - it is a vital part of our diet. On Fastdays virtually none, but then that's fasting, for you, and not to be done for long.

So in a word, yes, the yoghurt and chicken is just a way to swap some (but not all) of the fat in exchange for protein.

I'm really interested in the the fat myth though, and would love to hear your pro-fat thoughts.

By the way, Everyone, I'm also struggling with a dry weekend. Anyone else going without ? You can read about my small (and very partial!) attempt to cope with it here. Good luck with it.

Will x

Happy New Year Fav I had a brilliant yet chaotic and messy Christmas with my girls, what about you? hope it was a good one

Will I don't drink so not a problem haha!.

With regard to fat, protein etc. I don't believe that protein in excess is good for me nor fat in excess. If fat comes naturally with food than fine but not a fan of adding extra fat too things. Seems too much like doing the opposite of "low fat" eating and prefer to find a balance in between.
I eat to be the healthiest version of me that I can so no dairy (too high in oestrogen and growth hormones and meant for calves not humans) loads of fruit and veg (aim for 20 portions a day but happy with 12). Small amounts of chicken, fish and occasionally red meat. Medjool dates are my thing. Like chunks of caramel. Eat nuts, legumes.

It is interesting how we all have different ideas of what works for us.

usedtobe

Sometimes for breakfast I have blitzed nuts, seeds and flaxseed meal with coconut flakes and berries with a little coconut milk. Gives me the cereal feeling.

As a personal experiment of n=1, I find, calorie for calorie, I lose more weight with high fat/moderate protein (~1-1.3g protein/kg of lean mass) than low fat. Don't take me wrong, I lost 12kg in under 8 weeks using low fat high protein last year but it was a punishing regime, as well as an inventiveness culinary task, and what's more I've haven't been able to keep it off; in fact it brought me back to the old times 'lose 1 kg, gain 2 back'. The 30 kgs I lost that I haven't put back on, were lost slowly but steady, on high fat/medium protein.

My fast days happen naturally, I'm just not hungry (hence the brunches). There are days I don't even need dinner, just as there are days I can't stop munching. I can't give you a definite answer, especially now I hit the perimenopause!!!!!

Across the years I have noticed a few details:
-high protein can stall weight loss unless eaten in a low fat context -indeed I regained some weight over Christmas; (alcohol had no effect at all!!!)
-dairy fat (cream and young cheeses) will slow weight loss;
-coconut oil and olives don't seem to count -I can have a 400g, drained, jar of olives or spoonfuls of coconut oil plus meals and still lose weight;
-Pork cracklings and eggs don't count, if anything they have a very positive effect on both weight loss and skin moisture;
-Homemade mayo (recipe up-thread) has a positive impact to weight loss

Thermogenic nature of protein is only relevant in the context of moderate intake: protein in excess will be converted to glucose and, if in excess still, into stored fat.

I'm bowing to ds's pressure and handing the computer over!

Sorry, Durham - It was lovely! We seem to have adopted a friend of dd's. :) Ds is physically removing me from 'puter.... Happy w/e, all

Favadi you shall have to get yourself your own one then

Found what you said really interesting. Didn't know you had posted a mayo recipe. Will go back and look.

Favadi I am in menopause (as it can last for many years) and find eating lower carb and naturally fasting really stops the hot flushes. Insulin response I guess. I have not taken anything for it just eaten as cleanly as possible. Seems to have worked with no symptoms at all for me.