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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

At last - here it is! BIWI's 2 week Low Carb Bootcamp - starts tomorrow - sign in here

999 replies

BIWI · 15/04/2012 22:36

Lots of you have said you want to do this - now it's time to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

Oh, alright, it's free. Grin

The plan is that we have two very strict weeks of low carbing. Which is why, doh, it's called a bootcamp.

There are 'rules of engagement' for the fortnight - but they're different if you're carnivore or a vegetarian. I shall post the rules for us carnivores, and flipflopflap will post the rules for those of you that are vegetarians.

Sign in with your starting weight - in pounds, stones and pounds, kilos or - if you don't want to reveal your weight, with 100 as an index - and what you're wanting to achieve in the two weeks. I know that not everyone is doing this for the purpose of weight loss, so you don't have to do this if you don't want to - but tell us what you want this fortnight to help you achieve.

The Carnivore Rules

1.Eat three, proper meals a day.
You must eat breakfast. It doesn?t have to be a lot, but you must have something. For the rest of the day, if you?re eating enough food and you are in ketosis then you shouldn?t be hungry. But if you are hungry, eat something. (Hard boiled eggs make a great snack)

2.Avoid processed food
Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals ? meat/fish/eggs. Things like sausages, ham, bacon, pre-prepared burgers etc should be avoided as much as possible. You can have them, but just not every day. Avoid foods marketed as low carb, e.g. Atkins Daybreak bars.

3.Eat lots of fat.

Eating fat helps you to burn fat. Honestly! Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though, as this is too sweet), add mayonnaise where you can (just check the carb count on your mayo first). Eat fattier cuts of meat ? e.g. pork belly, roast chicken with the skin on and/or eat the fat off your lamb chops. Absolutely no low fat/light foods of any kind!

4.Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food ?
This is where your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list. You don?t have to weigh/count carbs ? this is one of the great joys of this WOE (way of eating), but if you?re new to low carbing it can be helpful to weigh your portions of veg in the early days, just so that you know how many carbs are in the sort of portions that you like to eat

*5.Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited). It can impede weight loss for some people. If you are still drinking tea/coffee with milk or cream, try to restrict yourself to max 2 cups per day. You may eat cheese, but don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. Total Full Fat is the best.

6.You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day.
The more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink

7.No alcohol
If you really can't do this - at least try and restrict it to the weekend. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine.

8.No fruit
Really. Seriously. Honestly. None at all. Zilch. Nada.

9.No nuts/seeds
Whilst these are really good to snack on later - it can be too easy to start snacking on these - and before you know it, all your carbs have gone on nuts. Seriously - in bootcamp - don't do it to yourself.

10.No sugar or artificial sweeteners

OP posts:
greygirl · 17/04/2012 14:11

*and you CAN'T PINCH a bit of bread...etc

greygirl · 17/04/2012 14:14

oh and you wee more on a high protein diet because the ketones cause you to wee, so you are drinking water to replace the water you are weeing out.
So going every half hour is because of the ketones, not because you didn't drink enough before. If you didn't drink a lot you would go every half an hour still but end up VERY dehydrated (and eventually in renal failure).

BIWI · 17/04/2012 14:18

I don't get bored of the food - but you raise a key point there, greygirl - you do need to make sure that you're not just doing the same dishes over and over again. Like anything, you need the variety.

And, in reality, there are many, many dishes that you can eat on this way of eating.

(Trying to keep it positive!)

OP posts:
cardoon · 17/04/2012 14:20

I get shiratake noodles in chinese supermarkets, lovely,rubbery little things

I thought good fats were meant to be solid at room temperature, is liquid coconut oil OK?

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 14:22

ilovemyteddy I will go and put the mackerel recipe on the low carb recipe thread, such as it is!

Re spreadsheets geek alert I am just creating this now (slow day at work). How many weigh in days shall we have? Shall we have 2 a week? Or just one a week?

GlitterKitty · 17/04/2012 14:22

Hello BadCat!

Please post recipes on the recipe thread so I can make them all. V V grateful ta.

What can I dip in Tzatdkidiki stuff? Not lamb. Dont like lamb much.

ilovemyteddy · 17/04/2012 14:25

I just bought two pairs of size 16 straight-legged jeans for a tenner each in Matalan and THEY FIT perfectly. Big whoop!! Just remember I was 16 stones 13 weeks ago and a size 20-22. I also have some size 14 jeans which were wrongly labelled which I can get into - the difference is that I can breathe out in the Matalan ones Grin

For those of you who have a lot of weight to lose (my target was and is 5 and a 1/2 stones), and think that it seems like a long haul, just keep at it! It really does work. I've lost 32lb as of this morning, and have averaged 2lb a week for the last 11 weeks after the big initial weight/water loss in the first two weeks.

I haven't got fed up of the food on this diet at all. It does help to plan ahead and vary what you eat, and it is easier after the bootcamp phase where you can add berries and nuts. And eggs are the most amazingly versatile food.

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 14:32

ilove please can you link to the lo carb recipe thread for me Smile

I can't find it on active convos and I don't know what tiopic it is in.

Hepsibaaah · 17/04/2012 14:33

Afternoon all! Have just made two batches of oopsie rolls and am hoping these will be the answer to my carb-cravings prayers.
Was quite shaky after training run, ate LC brekkie and huge salady L but still feeling a tad off and now beginning to wonder what my blood sugar levels normally run at??!
Hope those also feeling unwell are better soon, cutting back on comfort food is grim at the best of times, and must be even harder when you feel grotty :(

Creamtea1 · 17/04/2012 14:37

Am I the only one who is freezing? Heating is on plus thick hoody and still frozen. But cheeks feel flushed/warm. And totally no hunger - had to make myself have lunch. Could that be ketosis?

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 14:39

I am freezing. But it's not ketosis in my case, it's just bloody freezing in Wiltshire today (and blowing a gale).

ToryLovell · 17/04/2012 14:40

Sounds v much like ketosis to me creamtea, I always get freezing but then once out the other side I am fine.

TheGoddessBlossom · 17/04/2012 14:50

that's interesting about being being cold - I had a jumper on in bed last night under my duvet, and my towelling dressing gown over the top and was still cold.....

ShirtyKnot · 17/04/2012 14:51

I've got a question.

I saw frozen soya beans in the supermarket and (I ADORE THEM) and when I looked at the carb content per 100g it was 4g, but the fiber was something like 4.6g per 100g...

how does that work then? And does it mean that if I eat those soya beans that I will actually be minus carbs? Wink

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 14:53

I think the labelling must be american in nature, so it will mean the fibre is 4.6 and the carb (sugar) is 4 - so total carb count (as we would look at it in the UK) is 8.6.

I may well have made that all up though. Sad

moonmother · 17/04/2012 14:55

Another one here with 'the headache' . As a first time LC least though I know it's working (staying positive).

Meals today
Brekkie- 2 chipolatas with mushrooms - got these from our local butcher, he makes gluten free sausages to order ( Dp is Gluten intolerant) and virtually all meat.

Had a pepperami mini as a 'snack' at about 11.45, as I work in a school at lunchtimes and didn't feel hungry enough for my lunch before I went .

Just eaten my lunch which was a small bowl of butternut soup with crispy pancetta chopped up in and some cheese 'crisps' ( cheese piles melted in the oven to make crisps)

Dinner will be cottage pie with celeriac mash and loads of steamed veg on the side.

Will have some celery , late evening if I need a 'nibble' on something before bed.

Finding it alot easier than I thought I would , even with the headaches.

On the wonders of Celeriac - I cannot eat any cabbage but love coleslaw , so I replace the cabbage part with grated Celeriac , it's really yummy . I got the idea from when we went to France, they eat a lot of Celeriac out there grated in dressings.

ShirtyKnot · 17/04/2012 14:55

Hmm, after a short google I have found this

So they're 5.6 carbs per 100g then and thus they are DEAD TO ME.

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 14:58

BIWI will shout at you.

Beans? Are you mad?

LackaDAILYcarb · 17/04/2012 14:58

Going ok so far today. Ham and eggs for brekkie with two little cherry tomatoes, Chicken with thinly cut leeks strips and courgette pasta for lunch (I confess to a tablespoon of tomato pasta sause (no onion, just tomato, oil and garlic) over my chicken, and I had a swig of milk from the bottle Blush It was down my neck before I realised what I had done, honest guv!
I was getting some fruit for DS, and almost popped a grape in, but realised in time. I'm beginning to realise just how much snacking that I actually do!

also had a snack of boiled egg and a dollop of mayo.

I haven't felt any major carb flu symptoms (unless an overproductive bottom is a symptom, but I'm blaming the spinach), apart from a not quite a headache feeling on Sunday evening at work. Maybe because I had a gradual wind down of them? who knows. I do actually feel less bloated today and think some weight has gone already....I was 83.6kg two weeks ago when I got weighed at the rheumatology clinic, and was 81.5 yesterday. I know it's different scales etc, but my jeans definately feel looser, and started falling down on the school run earlier Grin

Glad to hear that Black farmer sausages are allowed....I assumed sausages would be out, but I suppose that's because most have cereal in them...never thought I'd be greatful for my gluten free diet, lol.

I did struggle a bit at breakfast today; I slept late, and had to force myself to make the ham and eggs. I can see the novelty of ham and eggs wearing off quite quickly so off to research other breakfast options!

I am definately craving things like tomatoes, milk and bananas, but trying to keep it in check. Any tips for keeping the cravings at bay much appreciated!

Oh, and I did have a coupke of soother sweets last night. I have problems making enough saliva, and need to suck on something. I looked at sugarfree sweets yesterday, but their carb count seemed much the same os full sugared ones. I hate the fact that they might be sabotaging my losses so if anyone has any ideas for a low sugar/low carb lozenge type thing I'd be really greatful.

I had thought of a spreadsheet, or at the very least alphabetising the list to make it easier to find my name, but I have a presentation to prepare and my keenness for organisation is really just a form of prevarication :o

teaandthorazine · 17/04/2012 15:03

This is an interesting blog by a Swedish doctor, about the science behind low-carb eating.

If you've got an hour to spare (!!) it's worth taking a look at the video of his lecture; some scary facts about the obesity epidemic/'bad fat' propaganda etc. And another recipe for the famed oopsie rolls too Grin

ShirtyKnot · 17/04/2012 15:03

She won't KeepOrf because a) I didn't buy them, 2) therefore I didn't eat them and iii)OH MY GOD SHE'S GONNA MURDERIZE ME!

Creamtea1 · 17/04/2012 15:09

Lol @ shirty 'THEY ARE DEAD TO ME'

RatherBeOnThePiste · 17/04/2012 15:12

still sloshing here

noddyholder · 17/04/2012 15:14

I am feeling a bit 'heady' and like I have a cold this is usually where I jump ship but am determined to get past this. Think it lasted about 5 days when I LC before