Anyone following Zoe Harcombe or done it before?

[shinecrazydiamond]

I decided to give it a go on Wednesday, so am on day 3 today. Astonishingly, I have lost 6lbs in those two days... and I am not particularly overweight. I have maybe a stone or so to lose.

I am finding it hard going but doable... I think that by the end of the 5 days I will be maybe 8 or so lbs down.

Anyone know if it all then goes back on?

What is it?

Well, it's a moderate carb plan. You do a phase one for 5 days and during this phase you eat meat, fish, tofu, eggs, all veg, natural live yogurt, Kallo cereal, brown rice, water, herbal tea and NOTHING ELSE.

After phase one you go to phase 2, and you add back in lots of other foods. I find it trickier as I am a vegetarian but she does a plan for that.

Seriously, the results are startling! I could understand this more if i was very overweight - but 6lbs in 2 days is quite some drop. And I do not suffer water retention/bloating or anything so it isn't that..

So low carby then. God, I'd love to be able to do low carb but I cannot because I love bread more than my children

Have you done low carb before? If not the big wqeight loss might be because of the Golden Shit.

GOLDEN SHOT not shit.

Actually snorted there!

A golden shit would certainly weigh 6lbs.

Jesus.

I have been mildly low carbing for a few weeks before starting this. I always said I couldn't do it - have a weakness for cake. Actually it is more than a weakness. But I want to be size 10 more.

I am struggling to lose a single effing pound and it's infuriating. I'm exercising and eating dust healthily and WEIGHTWATCHERS SUCK THE PROVERBIAL.

I think it's giving up the fags.

You say "ALL VEG" but that is a lie because I bet you can't have delicious potatoes. But then again on WW you can'#t really have potatoies anymore either.

sorry - all veg bar potatoes and mushrooms.

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Just 5 short days of hell

Why not mushrooms? What did mushrooms ever do?

So. Give me an example of what you're eating then. So what did you have yesterday.

And is that you, you or a different you, like all the different yous that there were the other week?

It's me - Shiney. Posting on innocuous threads.

No mushrooms as they feed candida - and ZH works on the assumption that we all have candida, a food intolerance or low blood sugar... or all three. I kinda think I don't have any but meh.

So, yesterday.... < I warn you, it is depressing >

Breakfast - large bowl of Kallo puffed rice cereal with natural live yogurt

Lunch - 2 egg omelette [ no milk added ] with asparagus, red pepper, sugar snap peas, stir fried

Tea - Tofu marinated in paprika, olive oil, salt, pepper, pinch of chilli flakes. Served with green veg.

So, obviously I was dead at the end of the night.

But MATE ... 6LBS?

Weight loss for the first 5 days is between 5 and 17lbs.

Yes, someone really lost 17lbs in 5 days

So, it's Atkinsey, but with vegetables? I always HATED the fact you couldn't have veg on Atkins. Is that low fat yoghurt?

Don't you miss milk? I would so, so be ill what with not being able to have coffee - because I BET you can't have coffee, and honestly? If I have to cut one more thing out of life I am going to go on a despair fuelled rampage around town.

Serious.

6lbs though? That's proper mad. I might give it a whirl on Monday - did you buy the book - is there a book?

I don't drink any hot drinks so it's no biggie for me. No milk for 5 days. I don't have much of it anyway - besides, you can have it from day 6. I bought Waitrose low fat natural live yogurt... you can have full fat though if you want.

I have ALWAYS been anti low carb and have based every meal in the past on pasta/noodles/bread/jacket potatoes etc... I always said that I couldn't low carb as it's just impossible for me as a vegetarian. And I couldn't do more than these 5 days.

But i wanted to tell MN, for some short term pain, the results are worth it.

Yes there is a book. Google it.. I have it on the kindle, it's as dull as any other diet book but necessary

It would be interesting if you totted up the calories in that lot, shine. Doesn't look like more than 500 to me!

Ah yes! This has crossed my mind! She says eat as much as you want, do not think of calories. However, there really is a limit to how many sugar snap peas or natural yogurt I can eat.

Calorie cutting by stealth, possibly.

I don't feel particularly hungry though.

Although I would still like some cake

I had to give it up by 10PM on day 3. The headache was intolerable. Made myself a bowl of pasta and had a cup of tea and felt like a new woman by 10.45.

I think her principles are sound though - simple carbs are the devil's work.

Sounds good to me right now- I'm on a VLCD, so most of my food comes in little shiny packets. Plus 200g from a list of veg- interestingly, mushroom is on it. You have 3 packs a day plus 100g protein, or 4 packs a day. I just had a huuuge salad with shallots and chicken, yum yum.

Will have to check the book out, I'm looking to switch to a low-carb plan when I get closer to goal. A while to go though, still got 4st to lose.

Right OK, if I download the book I will give it a whirl. I just did my first run of Couch to 5K and would quite like to do a death now.

It works. I went from 13 8 to 12 1 in about 2 months. I'm not joking. It kind of stays off too if you keep up the generally low carb options as a choice. Christmas knackered it for me though so I am 12 5 now but looking to start it again. Tried yesterday - porridge, tuna salad, spinach omelette. Then had wine and two fairy caks. Oh dear.
How's the weight loss going OP?

Hi! Thanks for thinking of me

Yes, all going in the right direction. I lost the will to live after the end of phase 1 but am now following low carb principles, iyswim. So, I didn't get chance for breakfast this morning but have just eaten a brunch of endame bean stif fry with quorn slices and small cubes of feta cheese. This will keep me going until 3pm and then I will probably have an omelette.

Low carbing has resulted in a loss of 23lbs for me in just less than 2 months and I agree - it works if you stick to it. I still eat fruit etc but no longer eat bread/rice cakes/ryvita/noodles/rice/pasta...anything like that.

Are you going to do phase 1 or just low carb?

Shiney - found this thread by searching for Harcombe info. How is it going? I've just ordered the book. Think I may have candida as well as coeliac

I love Zoe Harcombe and I follow her plan. It is much easier than pure low carb (I missed porridge).

Basically, once you have passed the 5 day phase 1, the principle is that you don't eat carbs and fats in the same meal. If you do, the body stores the fat and uses the carbs as fuel. You need to eat one or the other and leave 3-4 hours between meals.

I have the book which is great and the recipe book which clearly outlines what you can have with what and also what you can eat with both fats and carb meals.

My friend lost 3 stone on Harcombe and has kept it off.

I just started the Zoe Harcombe diet yesterday, day 2 of phase 1 for me today!

I've ordered the book but not got it yet, so going by the free download 10 days you get when you sign up.

To be honest I thought giving up tea with milk and sugar would be hard but not been too bad so far, I'm drinking whole lakes full of peppermint tea.

is it worth buying the recipe book as well as the diet book? I CAN cook but am useless at coming up with ideas, so much easier to bung Youngs frozen fish in the oven. Not now of course though ...

I guess if I don't get some recipes I'll be living off tuna salad and pork chops with veg for the rest of my life and cooking separate meals for the rest of the family! No fun ....