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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:
NellVarnish · 07/01/2013 13:23

Just checking in (175 posts already! I will never keep up!).

Shock at hazchem's SPIDER! Now I certainly will NOT be tempted by them.

Went to Sainsburys this morning and stocked up for the week ahead - recipes on here sound great. Going back to read thread properly now as I espied biscuit's courgette carbonara and other delish things.

Hope everyone's doing ok. Smile

Lavenderhoney · 07/01/2013 13:24

I've only had water all day today. I have a headache since lunchtime and I felt so exhausted from a few hours today. I usually only have one weak Nescafé surely it can't be coffee comedown?

Breakfast - mushrooms, fried egg, one rasher bacon
Lunch - leeks and mushrooms pan sauted in butter
Supper- lamb chops, cabbage.
Snacks- few olives, 2 cherry tomatoes.

Does this look ok? I am so tired, is the normal? I'm not hungry though, all the water I expect:)
Thanks!

FurryDogMother · 07/01/2013 13:28

Lastyearsmodel - a slice of toast could take you out of ketosis, yes. There's a difference between 'sins' on a low fat/low cal diet and a low carb one. Think of it this way (not my analogy, but one I read somewhere) - it takes a few days for your body to switch from burning glucose to burning fat for energy (the side product of which is ketones). Putting easily-accessible glucose (ie simple carbs) back into your body reverses this process, and it will take another few days of low carbing to get back into ketosis.

You can imagine this as a walk through the desert, over sand dunes. It takes a lot of effort to climb up to the ridge of a dune but staying up there is fairly easy-going. If you slip... well, it'll take you a while to climb back to the ridge again.

The advantage of being in ketosis, other than more rapid fat burning, is that it also acts to reduce your appetite, so that you lose your cravings, and find you're satisfied with smaller portions. If you eat simple carbs, you lose his advantage, and it makes the entire process that much harder. This is what stops me whenever I'm tempted to deviate - I need all the metabolic help I can get, since I have the willpower of a gnat.

FurryDogMother · 07/01/2013 13:33

Lavender - that sounds like 'induction flu' to me - and it's perfectly normal (a good sign, even!). It's the way you feel when your body is switching to fat-burning mode - and it only lasts a few days, after which many people report a surge in energy levels and sense of well being. Drinking 'broth' (as the Americans call it) - which could be Bovril, Oxo, Knorr stock cubes etc. in hot water - is supposed to help. I just take a paracetemol or two for the headache, and put up with the yucky feelings because I know they WILL pass. Hope you feel better soon!

Suttyshotty · 07/01/2013 13:36

Day one and doing well so far, bacon and mushroom omelette for breakfast and tuna salad for lunch, and water, water, water!!!

Xenia · 07/01/2013 13:38

I'm very encouraged that people are eating like this as I've been saying for years this is the way to eat and yet a lot of diabetes and NHS advice and even sports' teachers advice is very different. Paleohacks is quite a good site too. We ate like this for 2 million years until about 10,000 years ago we settled down in the Neolithic phase to agriculture, wheat etc. Apparently our height dropped 4 inches at that stage.

Obviously the last 40 years of processed foods have been even worse as well.

cathyandclaire · 07/01/2013 13:41

Mmmmmm courgette carbonara, sounds gorgeous biscuit

On a bit of a side note I've been doing the household budget (dontcha just love it after Xmas?) and a bit of belt tightening is required! I've been spending STUPID amounts on food (ooohh that looks lovely in Waitrose...yummm I may try that in M&S.) New Years resolution is to be more careful (maybe then I can afford to buy some clothes that fit my low-carb body Grin)

2+ adults and 2 teenage girls what's a reasonable weekly supermarket budget for a low-carber?

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 13:43

Hi all!

That was a fucking epic workout. I might have nearly died. The Insanity Programme is punishing, but I feel much better for doing it. I feel like I'm sweating out some of the blueberries from this morning and putting myself back on the right track. But seriously though, my rolls of fat were awful. I mean, God. Where did they come from? I am a size 14 bottom and although I've been bigger, I am so ready to change. I'm somebody's Mum. I don't want to be the fat one at pickup Sad

Smashing my way through this chicken salad. Slightly regretting my lack of dressing, but the chicken is from last night's roast so i imagine there's some fatty juices running through there. To bulk out the lettuce leaves, I've used raw spinach leaves. Sounds horrid, but they're actually really crunchy and nice and full of iron so they keep you strong, and a big bag is only about £1 and lasts ages.

Glugging the water down, I need 3L a day apparently. Should I add more for exercise? Can I still drink tea or coffee? I only have a dot of skimmed milk and I don't take sugar or sweetner.

TheSandstoneCat · 07/01/2013 13:43

Hi all,
are we still underlining questions? :) I want to buy some ketostix but live abroad. I am being asked silly money to have them sent to Europe from the UK - are there any other low carbers overseas who have a European seller they can recommend? thanks.

coldethyl · 07/01/2013 13:43

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for personal reasons.

Collywibbles · 07/01/2013 13:45

Please can you add me back onto the spreadsheet - I am in the Archive? I started in Oct and then have had no laptop for months so couldn't update. Got a shiny new one last week so am good to go! I was exactly 140lbs this morning. I do a lot of exercise and have got abs for the first time in my life! Bizarrely I have put on 3lbs but lost over 12 inches - go figure!

I have been LCing for over a year now but still eat too many nuts and don't drink enough water.....

B- scrambled egss
Snack - handful nuts (I KNOW but I was on the floor after exercise. I think I just need not to buy them then I can't eat them - must hardboil some eggs for snacks)
L - salmon / avocado / Cuc / mayo
Supper - TBC possibly M&S 97% pork sausages & cauli mash

Exercise - 5 mile run and boxercise class (very sweaty)

Good luck everyone - I am now going to catch up on threads - I may be some time!!

BillComptonstrousers · 07/01/2013 13:51

Biscuit, I have just made your courgette carbonara, and it was FUCKING DELICIOUS! Garlic, streaky bacon, cream, courgettes and Parmesan. With an avocado side salad Grin

BillComptonstrousers · 07/01/2013 13:53

And another thing! Lunch at 1.30?? I'm normally clamming for something by 11.30am

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 13:56

is Helmann's mayonnaise low carb?

uberalice · 07/01/2013 13:57

I'm joining. Will weigh myself tomorrow morning.

Biscuit357 · 07/01/2013 13:58

Glad you like it!

I had it last night as a side dish to a salmon fillet and it was one of those moments (when looking at my husband's beige plate of breaded fish, baked potato and beans) where I wanted a naysayer to come in and judge who had the 'healthiest diet'.

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 13:58

I know Bill, but I was working out over lunch so had to eat at my desk after. Besides, the plain yoghurt curiously enough filled me up this morning. I didn't even have to have an emergency cup of tea!

My teeth feel a bit odd, but I think that's the spinach and its funny texture. I'm HAVING to have chewing gum. Sorry, but I've given up fizzy drinks, cordial, sweetner, mints and fruit. The gum stays.

mel3714 · 07/01/2013 14:00

Hello Everyone, Im new here so thought Id say hello and ask a couple of questions if that's ok? Im getting married on the 3rd of May and am now desperate to lose some of this weight. I need to lose about 6 stone but have to be realistic and would settle for 3ish. I've got my dress but it doesn't fit yet! The thing is I suffer from low blood sugar which makes me feel rubbish most of the time and results in me constantly overeating. I've reduced carbs before with some success but never cut out fruit etc. My questions are what to eat for breakfast without fruit and if eggs make you feel sickly in the morning? Also what do you drink, I normally just drink tea with milk or squash, I find water really hard in large quantities. Hope you don't mind me joining in? Mel.

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 14:00

Arise, Queen of carb-lite-ness. Thou art holier than thou's (thine's? thee's?) husband, who eatest the breaded products. Eth.

Rooobs · 07/01/2013 14:01

slatternlymother Hellman's is 1.5g carb per 100g, which I think is fine. Some other mayos are much higher.

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 14:03

Mel I had plain yoghurt this morning and that was delish. Other low carbers have had sausages, bacon, mushrooms etc in a kind of fry up quest. Cheese and ham? TBH I work FT (not that you could tell from the amount I'm posting) and I need something to grab and go in the mornings, so a dish of plain yoghurt is fab for me.

TooImmatureMincePies · 07/01/2013 14:03

Right, have at least skimmed the thread now. Weighed in this morning at 139.25, so 1.25lb down since Saturday, hurray! Please can someone put me on the spreadsheet?

Was chatting to a friend today who I haven't seen in months. He's lost 33lbs doing Lighter Life, eating meal replacement shake things and lunching on Cup A Soups. He claims to be doing low-carb but really he's doing calorie restriction (600 cals a day, yikes!) and eating lots of processed crap. I pointed out that for lunch, he would be eating a Cup A Soup while I would be eating yummy fish pie with swede mash topping and cream sauce. He's still not convinced, though. I think the trouble is that he's been brainwashed by the Lighter Life folk. To be fair, he's losing 5-7 lbs a week rather than an average of 2, but at what cost? Plus, a friend of my mum's lost 4 stone on Lighter Life and promptly piled it all back on again when she went back to eating normally. I think the trouble is that things like Lighter Life don't teach people how to eat in a sustainable way, whereas I could carry on low-carbing for ever (with possibly the occasional cheat, but when I finally hit goal weight that won't matter so much).

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 14:04

Thanks Rooobs Thanks

slatternlymother · 07/01/2013 14:06

Plus, a friend of my mum's lost 4 stone on Lighter Life and promptly piled it all back on again when she went back to eating normally. I think the trouble is that things like Lighter Life don't teach people how to eat in a sustainable way

tooimmature that's your answer. It isn't sustainable for life. You're surely not meant to starve yourself? I mean, I want to be able to go to a resaurant and be able eat. I imagine he's had to cut more out of his life than just calories.

Rooobs · 07/01/2013 14:06

mel3714

for no eggs breakfast, how about cold meats and a bit of cheese? For example, sliced ham rolled up with full fat philadelphia in the middle?

or leftovers from the night before (not for everyone, but I love it!)

or full fat natural yoghurt

or a protein shake (don't know how BIWI feel about this! IPD recommends them)