I'm doing everything right and losing nothing!

[MissRepresentation]

Ok, its only been three weeks, but surely there should be some difference?
I've gone from eating baguettes and jam for breakfast to mixed fruit with natural yoghurt and rye bread,
from sandwiches and crisps for lunch to fresh salads with crab or chickpeas or tuna etc
from massive bowls of pasta and curries to brown rice and lean meat or piles of veg with a small piece of lean chicken etc.
I've cut out biscuits and mars bars, though I do have the odd piece of homemade pie or cookie, I log it into mfp and am still usually under my limit once exercise is added in.
I've swapped beer for sparkling water!

I'm running and walking and going to the gym 3x a week for a full hour, clocking up 4-500 cal burns plus a few weights.

So why have gone from 11st7 to 11st5 to 11st8, in three weeks? And I haven't lost inches either.

Any advice? I feel like rebelling and eating a family size pizza as this is depressing me so much. I thought I would have dropped a couple of pounds at least?

do you stick to no fruit and no sugar for good? And do you get through an awful lot of eggs?

Nope, not for good. I eat berries, and 70%+ dark chocolate. Not every day, but when I want to. They're both low in sugar, comparatively.

I'm not saying I've not eaten a single piece of cake in the last 3 months but the idea of Bootcamp is to break sugar cravings, and stabilise your blood glucose. Then the sweet stuff just isn't that big a deal any more.

I don't miss fruit. I eat TONS of veg now, waaaaay more than I ever did before low-carb.

Oh yeah, eggs are the perfect food! But you can eat as many or as few as you like.

It is so confusing when you read so many different types of diets/WOE's. Low carb, no carb, low fat, hi fibre, low cal, atkins, sw, ww, etc and for each one someone loves it and someone hates it!

1200 quite low

It is terribly confusing, and in the main part because we have been fed (sorry, no pun intended!) the wrong information over the last 50 years. Fat is not the villain of the piece. Carbohydrates are.

We are currently advised to eat a diet that, in terms of proportions, should be carbohydrate:protein:fat. Whereas in reality we should be eating a diet that is fat:protein:carbohydrate.

Carbohydrates are implicated not only in weight gain, but also obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

I wouldn't allow myself any extra food based on exercise done, personally, unless you've got some kind of elite athlete programme going on. I guess an hour on the bikes might earn you a few biscuits but that's about it

I wouldn't allow myself any extra food based on exercise done, personally, unless you've got some kind of elite athlete programme going on. I guess an hour on the bikes might earn you a few biscuits but that's about it

well thats how mfp works and its very popular. And its "extra" only in that its above the very basic minimum of 1200, which is incredibly low. Even with the added exercise allowance its only 1700 a day, which is not excessive, and must be 500 a day less than I was eating before.

I heard somewhere that you are supposed to 'trick' your body, so it never knows what's coming and therefore doesn't slow down the metabolism. So, eat low calorie for a few days, then surprise it by having a highish day. The metabolism doesn't get used to rationed food and so stays fast.

might be crap, but might be worth a try.

Why only small piece of lean chicken? Why eating rye bread?

Try and eat at least 120g protein each day. BIWI says more fat, I say more protein (and less carbs)! As I just said on another thread, I don't think low fat diets are way to go, but cut the carbs (60g-80g a day), up the protein (120g-150g a day), and then add fat if you need more calories to stop you front feeling hungry. If you can fit one piece of fruit into your 60g carbs then ok as long as you eat the protein.

MissRep - counting calories doesn't work though. Your metabolism slows right down, so that when you reach your target and start to eat 'normally' you put weight back on, and end up putting more weight on because you aren't burning it as efficiently as you were before you started dieting.

Here's a blog from Dr John Briffa on the subject

Firstly, exercise is pointless as a weight-loss tool. It does other good things for you, but just eating one less slice of toast does more for you than half an hour of running.

Secondly, changing your diet to healthy options is not enough. You also need to cut down on portion size.

Thirdly, you need to get the balance right between protein, fat and carbs. The same number of calories in carbs make you feel hungrier more quickly than the same number in protein and fat.

Finally, you need to keep a food diary and rigorously include everything that passes your lips. A cup of white coffee counts.

Basically you need to be eating 12-1500 calories per day to lose weight (depending on your start weight), and such restriction is more sustainable if those calories fill you up for longer.

Ok, thanks for all that. Can anyone tell me where I can source a simple list of foods for a low carb kick? All of the numbers and grams and things confuse the hell out of me, if I could have a simple list that says "eat any of these" and "eat fuck all of these" if you will, I could make a stab at it.

I'm a bit of a simpleton when it comes to these things and need it in a "for dummies" manner!

MissRepresentation - my Bootcamp is designed to be as easy as possible! No counting or weighing of anything (unless you especially want to). Just 10 rules to follow, and a list of allowed veg.

Here's the original thread with all the rules/allowed veg