The Unbelievably Good Low Carb Diet Thread

[QueenStromba]

The previous thread was getting a bit full so I thought I should start a new one while we could still link between them.

Brilliant, encyclogirl!

I was so good today, had lunch out while in London and I chose the Chef salad with goats cheese and roasted squash with spinach leaves. It was delicious - didnt eat the lovely bread accompaniment - let the kids devour it.

Having Indian food tonight, cant wait as I am so hungry, but my dish consists of meat, spice and more meat.

yum!

Wow, that's impressive encyclogirl!

I have already had my first wobble. DS2 picked up a sweet he wasn't allowed (sugar coated) and I took it off him...not knowing what to do with it (as we weren't at home) I threw it in my mouth I don't even bloody like sweets! I thought 'oh I can't do this I give up' after a whopping 9 hours on the diet but quickly gave myself a shake I can do this I hope

BIWI I have the IPD cookbook so will look it up. Thanks for the offer [busmile]

well done whip and encyclogirl and welcome mylife

A fairly uneventful day here, just seem bloody hungry today so am eating lots of fatty things.

Breakfast was a almond and flax mim with nut butter.
lunch was roast chicken with salad and half an avocado with some mayo
tea was 2 bratties with sauted courgette ribbons and cheesey cauli mash
snack was cheese.

Does anyone know if having a flax mim every morning could cause a problem with weight loss?

I'm still wanting to know the score with MiMs too -are they bad? And how do you do flax/almond - is it just half and half? Because I do find the mims have a wierd taste..
Have had a good weekend food wise, no chocolate apart from some g&b 85% and tonight's dinner was tandoori mix grill (take away) with salad. But then boom - there is the naan bread calling out to me...!

Well done Encyclogirl. That is a really impressive loss.

Hello MyLife. You can do it. :)

I find a MiM every day causes me to stall but my husband and MIL don't have any problems at all. I think it is one of those things that you have to try and see. It's easy enough to drop them to every other day or once or twice a week if your weightloss seems to be affected.

cream yeah it is just half and half. I find the half n half ones nicer and lighter but they are slightly higher in carbs due to the almond flour

ilovemyteddy - the IPD recipe will be slightly lower in carbs as it uses double cream rather than yoghurt.

Just be aware though - I find that if I eat that much cream and cheese, it impedes weight loss. That's why I'm cutting right back on dairy.

Morning all. Survived the Easter break.

Was tricky as took the DCs to stay with my parents & my mother refuses to get low carb. Spent the whole weekend trying to force feed me fruit poached in syrup (which she had "prepared specially because of course fruit is fine"). We have come to blows about this way of eating in the past. Grrrr. Anyway, managed to avoid the poached fruit, but did have to eat peas, carrots & parsnips just so that there wasn't an almighty row at the table. I sometimes wonder if I am 42 or 14!!!

Does anyone else have problems with people accepting this way of eating?

Thanks guys, no doubt this weeks loss will be somewhat more realistic!

Good start to the week, two soft boiled eggs for brekkie. Salad planned for lunch and dinner is a beef stew.

Feeling strong I have to say, my carb addiction is beaten for now anway.

BIWI, how much have you lost in total? Can I ask, how long have you been a l/carber? I lost about 2 stone 4 years ago and managed to keep it off for about a year. I've been re-gaining that weight ever since, losing a bit, then regaining it again.

I am a bit scared to try the MiMs! They sound exactly like something I would completely go overboard with.

ilovemyteddy - I wanted to do IPD moussaka but DH still hasn't quite got his head round low carbing (he isn't doing it as he's very slim and healthy so doesn't need to change his diet) and was really worried about the amount of cream in the recipe, so we compromised with yoghurt. It was yummy, and the DCs loved it too.

Anyone find it difficult if there are non low-carbers in the family? DH is worried about the amount of fat his diet now includes given he still eats lots of carbs, but he is slim and healthy so doesn't want to low carb, but equally doesn't want to find that my fat loss just shifts over to his bum! I'm not so bothered about the children as they are 4 and 18mo and need lots of fat still, plus are skinny little things anyway.

PBB - I haven't come across anyone actively sabotaging my diet yet (except myself over Easter!) but DH does find it quite difficult to understand. He thought low carb meant eating a small portion of pasta/rice with lots of fruit and veg rather than it being no pasta/rice, no fruit and even some veg being bad, so I think he is finding it more restrictive than he thought (he initially suggested it to me!) And we love cooking and eating together, so he was really worried I would get very faddy and eat very differently to him, and that the pleasure of meals would be lost. But he is making a big effort to cook low carb and we are compromising on things where I don't think they will hurt my diet too much (e.g. switching cream and yoghurt in moussaka). Having said that, I am visiting my parents in a few weeks time and I can pretty much guarantee that they will be trying to feed me bread, potatoes and cornflakes and not understand that I don't want to eat those things any more. It won't be deliberate sabotage so much as thinking that a few days of that won't matter so why should I fuss. And I'll probably revert to being a pliable 14 year old, like you!

lemniscate, with your DH, I know men aren't often into reading books about stuff like this, but Gary Taubes "Why do we get fat & what to do about it" is not long, is a bit sciencey but still easily digestible & it might help you DH to stop worrying about the fat.

The thing with my mother is very irritating. She absolutely categorically refuses to believe that fruit is full of sugar & carbohydrate. I tried to explain to her before but she just will not have it. Unfortunately because we have disagreed on this, it is a bit like a red rag to a bull now & on the 4 occasions we have met up since I started low carbing again in January, she has prepared poached fruit in syrup - especially for little old me!!!!!!!!! Resisting the urge to be stabby is difficult.

Hi all, Easter was a disaster, lovely but a disaster. I had pizza/roast with all the trimmings/macdonalds/wine/chocolate and all other manner of bad things

The scales are showing I have stayed the same weight but I am dubious about this and am expecting a huge increase soon...however if not YAY!

So inspired by the bootcamp talk I am doing my own from today. I have just had scrambled eggs/ham and tomato for brekkie. Have a chicken leg and salad ready for lunch and pork belly with veg for dinner. I have also bought some butter/oil/cream to up my fat content.

I managed to Shred everyday last week so will be back to doing that today too.

Is balsamic vinegar ok to go on my salads with oil does anyone know?

I think balsamic is a no go- its sugary or something. According to P2T.

Yes, sinister is right, balsamic is one of the highest carb vinegars - so probably best avoided Kandinsky.

Kandinskysgirl I think balsamic vinegar is a big no-no on low-carbing as it has sugar in it.

I think the MiMs may be stalling my weight loss as I haven't lost anything in almost a week now, and have been eating them every day to try and keep 'regular' (sorry if TMI!) I'll cut back on them and see if it works.

My DH is also one of those who freaks out about the amount of fat in the low-carb diet. He has managed to lose 18lb by cutting out biscuits, cake etc but that doesn't work for me longterm which is why I tried (and love) low-carbing.

I have a routine health check tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how my cholesterol is with this WOE.

Yep, my dp just doesn't get it at all. Or at least he says he does, and then acts surprised when I politely decline a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes! He is addicted to carbs, it's so obvious - he's never more than a foot away from a bar of dairy milk or a bag of crisps and he's knackered all the time. But as he's tall and skinny he doesn't see the problem. He did scoff down the low carb moussaka I made on Friday though!

When I was very seriously low carbing last time, which was back in around 2008, I had reached 9 stone 3 - just 3lbs away from my target.

Then we went on holiday with my DB and SIL. My SIL is vehemently opposed to low carbing, because

a) she is a trained Weight Watchers leader
b) she thinks it's a faddy diet

In an effort to avoid any potential rows, I abandoned low carbing for the fortnight, with the very predictable results. And from then on, my weight just crept up and up until I reached 11.5 just after Christmas. And at 5 foot 2, that's way, way too much.

And I wouldn't mind, but my SIL (who is lovely, to be fair to her ) is at least a size 20.

I have vowed that I am not going to let anyone sabotage my best efforts. Ever. Again.

This time I really am going to get to my goal, and then work on the hardest bit - maintaining it!

ilove do tell us if your cholestrol changes, that will be very interesting to see. It looks like I will be having a sts at WI tomorrow if todays sneak peek is anything to go by. Maybe it was the vodka over the weekend although I did weigh before saturday and was still the same.

Does anyone know when the best time for me to move to OWL would be? I have been doing induction, staying at 20g carbs and occasionally having nuts and full fat yoghurt. I am not having any fruit yet or any different veggies but my weight loss seems very sporadic and slow really. I had an initial loss of 3lb my first week then i recently had a stall for 3 weeks, then last week lost 2.5lb now this week looks like a sts again. I am not really sure what my goal is as I have a weight in mind but may want to lose more when i get there. I am 9lb off the weight I have in mind but 1st 2lb off my dream weight (which may be unrealistic).

I know I have to move through the stages to be able to maintain properly for life but with the weight loss being sporadic I don't want to increase carbs and it slow even more because then I will get disheartened but I also want to make sure I am set up for lifetime maintenance. I was going to try adding an extra 5g carbs next week but because it looks like I haven't lost agin this week i'm not sure what to do.
Any ideas from experts?

PBB My mum doesn't know I am low carbing but will probably notice I have lost weight when I next see her. I also expect a few disapproving words about doing it and how unhealthy and dangerous it is etc. She was doing WW in the 70's and 80's and can't get over the low cal low fat thing. My dad is diabetic (type 2) and I suspect this WOE would be very good for him and it would probably help my mum lose some weight too before she ends up diabetic too but it's abit like teaching a dog new tricks.

Ahhh have been having balsamic now and again...that might explain the stalling..will keep away from it.

I have had a few comments about cholesterol issues with high-fat...but to be honest I was eating a lot of rubbish before so I can say factually I am eating a much healthier diet regardless of whether people agree with high fat or not.

BIWI That's interesting. 9stone is my ulitmate goal, (9st7lbs is my medium term goal).

I definitely listened to too many low carb detractors the last time (all of whom were significantly heavier than me!)

"You'll kill yourself on that thing, you're seriously gonna give yourself a heartattack"

In the end I just gave up. Not this though. I know this is working for me and i feel so much better already just one week in.

Hellooooo. I haven't checked in for a while, but I'm still firmly on the low-carb wagon. I did however allow myself the odd Hot Cross Bun at the weekend (I do so love them) and bizarrely I was 2lb down when I stood on the scales this morning (9st 3lb).

We had a family lunch on Sunday; interestingly, I noticed both my Dad and BIL were looking rather svelte, and guess what? After pooh-poohing low-carbing, and pouring all sorts of scorn on my efforts over the last two years (ditto BIWI/encyclogirl about "low carb detractors"), they both admitted they have given it a go, and the weight has been dropping off ever since. Ha. Not a word of thanks, though.

A few of you have mentioned almond butter - is this some sort of peanut butter equivalent? Sounds delish - where do you get it from?

cointreau yes it is equivalent to peanut butter, you get it from proper health food shops, it is not full of added sugar then