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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.

Week 1 - New Year Low Carb Bootcamp - And We're Off!

999 replies

BigStickBIWI · 07/01/2013 07:40

Morning, soon-to-be-losers!

Come and confess all on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Here is a reminder of the rules of Bootcamp:

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, and 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. Avoid foods marketed as low carb, e.g. Atkins Daybreak bars.

3.Maximise your fat intake.
Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though), 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.
But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list (see below). 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.Minimal dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited).
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 only in small amounts.

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

8.No fruit

9.No nuts/seeds

10.No sugar or artificial sweeteners

OP posts:
littlemissstan · 09/01/2013 09:09

Well done everyone! I just wanted to say how lovely it is to be sharing this with you all, you're all a lot funnier and nicer than anyone from my SW group ever was Grin

Still going strong and went to a spin class this morning, though felt really weird part way through, all light headed and fainty. Is this a sign of something or am I just horrendously unfit??

EwanHoozami · 09/01/2013 09:09

cathyandclaire well done on the 2lb. BIWI posted a really inspirational bit for second-timers about pre-maintenance and how we should be looking to lose nice and slowly. I'm clinging onto that nugget as weigh-in day approaches!

B: Greek yog
L: something exciting with three chicken thighs (I like to open them, batter them flat, fry them and use them to make 'bread' for melted cheese sandwiches - 'tis YUM)
D: Hold your horses, it's PIRI PIRI CHICKEN LIVER!

herecomesthsun · 09/01/2013 09:18

Dr Eades also says that he would expect people to feel quite tired in the initial phase, so didn't reckon on them doing a lot of exercise at that point (good excuse!)

He lists the supplements he routinely prescribed from his clinic to low carb new recruits magnesium, Coenzyme Q etc. On the one hand, I'm tempted to see if they might help but on the other hand I took lots of vits when trying to conceive and it became an effort to get the wretched things down my throat...

skandi1 · 09/01/2013 09:19

Ewan. I just need to get off my substantial arse and go when DH gets home from work. I eat dinner with the DC most nights anyway as DH often is home after 8pm (7:30pm is the earliest we see him) and given the DC have lunch just before noon, I cannot wait that long for dinner.

So I could easily just run out the door when he gets in. The gym is open till 11pm so I have nothing but excuses and lack of motivation.

I would ideally like to go the three mornings DD is at pre school but I can't have DS howling till he is sick because I need a workout. He will grow out of it and at 18mo it's peak time for seperation anxiety anyway.

herecomesthsun · 09/01/2013 09:39

link to site I was quoting. I don't have any connection with this, I just found this link on one of the threads here and like having an attempt at a scientific justification for what I'm doing!

MissNJE · 09/01/2013 09:42

Skandi: does your little one sleep during the day? I had the same problem with my LO and I would go to the gym at around his nap time and put him to sleep in the buggy. That would give me at least one hour to work out and when he woke up he would be fine with the staff.

mawbroon · 09/01/2013 09:42

I feel great this morning. Ever since I was a child, I have felt sluggish and almost ill in the morning. Today, I got out of bed no bother despite going to sleep an hour later than usual last night. I walked the 2.6 miles uphill to school and back with ds2 in the backpack and am sitting enjoying the buzz from the exercise. Normally I hate exercise of any sort!

I am going to cut the kids' carbs. I see ds1 is the same way in the morning as I have been for so long. DS1 hardly eats any protein, just carbs carbs carbs and he's hungry all the time. I think if we cut out bread, pasta, sugar etc and only giving the kids carbs from limited fruit and plenty veg might make a big difference to them. Hmm, what to put in a packed lunch though... I don't think they police the lunches at school but they have been teaching them that fat makes you fat

BillComptonstrousers · 09/01/2013 09:46

Ok week one done, 4lb off, and 3 inches off waist (which was a shocking 37 inches)
No booze since 1st jan, and exercise done every day. Even though the new Davina intense workout nearly finished me off yesterday as I have no energy. Not sure if it's carb flu or the cold I have. I have low blood pressure anyway and have been feeling decidedly dizzy and lightheaded the last 3 days.

B: ham, cherry toms, half avocado, babybel
L: tuna and mayo salad
D: grilled pork chops, some kind of creamy mushroom sauce with Philly, broccoli

2 litres water

vnmum · 09/01/2013 09:47

coco stress and cortisol is linked to weight gain especially around the middle. I am off to work now but may have time to find a link tonight unless biwi or other regulars on MDA and other paleo blogs can find one. I think rob wolff mentions it too.

Valdeeves · 09/01/2013 09:50

Fab weight losses! Well done guys - I'm on day three - just had eggs and butter cress again for breakie.
The smoked salmon rolled around Philly is a good lunch tip - I'm on it!

OTTMummA · 09/01/2013 09:55

Thank you for the lovely support!
But after breakfast i have had the most awful squits Blush
TMI ALERT,,
It was watery, but with formable poo inbetween, and it was yellowish ( i am presuming that this is because of my higher fat intake than normal? )
I don't feel sick, just awful bowel movements.
Is this normal? and if so, how long does it last?

Jacaqueen · 09/01/2013 10:01

OTTMummA this diet is like a detox for our intestines. Your body is just adjusting to the lack of sugar and getting rid of a lot of crap. Literally!

EwanHoozami · 09/01/2013 10:02

coco there's a great piece here on MDA about stress, cortisol and insulin resistance.

herecomesthsun · 09/01/2013 10:07

This article is the other way around (they found that women with larger waist-to=hip ratios produced more cortisol in response to stress)

hurricanewyn · 09/01/2013 10:07

Morning Losers Grin

Well done on all the losses so far - everyone's doing fab! On a late shift today, so had a very civilised breakfast of sausage and egg with a caffetiere of Starbucks Christmas blend, while watching Frasier. Not strictly bootcamp, but the sausages were from a Polish shop in town & only 1g of carbs per 100g and v v tasty.

Lunch will be a nice omlette thing with salad and I'm planning on making a fish pie made with smoked cod in a cheese sauce, with celeriac mash.

OTTMummA · 09/01/2013 10:13

Grin yes i suppose that makes sense i have consumed an awful lot of crap in my lifetime!
Well think i may step down from the eggs today,, (smelt a big eggy to) and will have some tuna salad for lunch, then we have pork loin steaks with mushrooms and butter.

skandi1 · 09/01/2013 10:17

Herecomesthesun. That link was really interesting. Thanks

MissNJE. DS will only nap in his cot. He has never napped in a stroller or car seat. This means we stay in between 12 and 2 for his nap time which is fine. My DD was exactly the same.

I know it's better to exercise in the morning but its still better to do it at night than not at all.

I think the main problem isn't so much going at night. That's an excuse. My main problem is that DSs poor sleeping over the last 9 months has left me with insomnia so I rarely get more than 4 broken hours a night.

I did read that if you suffer from candida over growth from a high sugar diet, that it can lead to insomnia. So perhaps I will soon start to sleep better after a few weeks on a low carb no sugar diet/woe. Something which is quite motivating as I mostly feel so tired that I can't speak or think clearly.

slatternlymother · 09/01/2013 10:18

OMG I've lost 5lbs since Monday! Only on Day Three as well! Really happy it's working Smile

B: Plain Yoghurt
L: Egg mayo salad
D: Roast chicken thighs, butter braised cabbage and green beans

Doing some sausages tonight in the oven for breakfast tomorrow to dip in cream cheese/mustard.

Really interesting about the cortisol - sugar link coco and I think you're right. If something's gone wrong at work, I'm the first to march over to the vending machine and slot in a large portion of my wages Blush

troyandabedinthemorning · 09/01/2013 10:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AuntieMaggie · 09/01/2013 10:54

Coco Cortisol stuff makes sense to me. Theres some link between cortisol, insulin and hormones that my endo/gynae told me about which is why some women with pcos hold weight around their middle (as if the other stuff isn't bad enough!) Naturally I'm an hourglass shape (with huge boobs and bum) but when one of the three is off I put on weight around the middle. This WOE really helps with that.

Having said that I had a sandwich last night :( I was in bed ill so dh made it and I ate it not because I wanted it.

Anyway onwards and upwards...

Working at home today and finding dps stein glass really useful for drinking my water allowance!

BF: bacon, egg, tinned toms, mush.
L: prawns mayo salad
D: meatballs veg

OTTMummA · 09/01/2013 11:17

ugh, can't stop going to the toilet,, my poor bottom! Biscuit

BigStickBIWI · 09/01/2013 11:24

Unless you know you have an allergy/intolerance to eggs, I wouldn't think so, OTTMummA. More likely to be the wheat in the flour.

Hopefully it's just your body adjusting, and you should feel better very soon.

Slatternly - brilliant! Thanks

troy - don't worry. Our weight fluctuates naturally day by day. Leave it until the end of the week and see where you are. Why don't you list out your daily menus for this week, though, and see if there's anything obvious that might be getting in the way?

OP posts:
mawbroon · 09/01/2013 11:29

OTT, from what I have read about gut healing, the gut flora that live off sugar and grains start to die off when you reduce carbs. The GAPS diet which I am going to do when my book arrives, is big on probiotics to help restore the "good" flora in the gut.

With IBS, I would be willing to bet that your flora is not well balanced and what you are experiencing is what they call "die off" as the flora which has been starved of food is leaving your system. Even a small amount of grain can sustain this bacteria so avoiding grains completely may be the way to start to heal your gut. There's more to it than that, but cutting grains is a good place to start.

troyandabedinthemorning · 09/01/2013 11:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bulletwithbutterflywings · 09/01/2013 11:46

Argh! I'm on day 2. I thought this was going to be easy after yesterday! I didn't miss carbs at all... Today I am craving something sweet Sad
I had some Asda Extra Special coleslaw (4.6g carbs is that ok?) with some meatballs (home made by DP last night - yum!) just now and I'm having a green tea but what I really want is a big builders tea with a sweetener in it! Ah well, trying wedding dresses on on Saturday so hopefully by then I will have lost some of the xmas bloat...

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