Week 5 - New Year Low Carb Bootcamp - We Reach the Halfway Point!

[BIWI]

Sorry for the late start to this thread. I had an appointment at my gym for an induction this morning.

If you haven't already, put yourself on the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness

Good luck for the week!

Keep going Black, we're all rooting for you! TMI Alert----agree about needing a poo meaning weight doesn't move. I find peppermint tea really good for bloating, and I wonder what people think of Senakot? It works for me when I get really desperate.

Ive only lost 1/2 a pound this week, but I know it's due to nuts. At the beginning of the week I was eating far too many, by Fri I'd put on a pound. I have been very strict since Fri- no breakfast, low carbs plus exercise. I will be keeping away from nuts this week.

5LBS OFF!!!
It is my first week, so I did hope to have a decent weight loss but literally everything I have ate for the last 7 days has been so ,so delicious.

I love this WoE!

blackaffronted i'm sorry you're feeling down. i'm surprised that you're feeling bloated and not sleeping well, it's very much the opposite for most people on this WOE

re the spotting, could it be anything else other than the diet? not to try and worry you or anything, but when this WOE is so radically different from the usual advice we can ascribe symptoms to the diet that have a different cause. i would just keep an eye, that's all

the other thing is (and please note i am not a biologist or medical type at all) but i have a feeling that hormones are all tied up with body fat, so if you're losing weight it can muck about with your cycle in the same way that gaining weight can

I do sympathise though with the misery of constant bleeding - i had a copper iud fitted a couple of weeks ago and it has caused spotting after years of very very regular periods which has been pretty irritating, and uncomfortable as you say. obviously the cause of my spotting is different, but still, i know how frustrating it is

you say you have a lot to lose - well i've halved my bmi to now around 20, for the most part with this WOE (I was initially doing a kind of low carb/low fat thing of my own devising, which worked in terms of weight loss but made me miserable and didn't stop the binging/starving cycle i was already in, and i was close to giving up). sometimes i lost every week, sometimes i didn't, but i'm now about 4-5st lighter than i was this time last year

for pooing, are you feeling like you need to go but can't or it's painful? or do you just not need to go? if the former, others have found psyllium husks can help, and personally i had to reduce the dose of magnesium supplement i was taking as it was making me poo twice a day

Ive tried senna, flaxseed, sugar free sweets etc and nothing has made me "go" :(

Oh and Im on 500 mg of magnesium a day too. I dont feel the need to go, but I do feel full and it does hurt to go. I drink 4 litres of water a day.

I will keep at it, it has to work at some point surely? My sleep was fab the first 2/3 weeks on this woe, I loved the deep sleep I was gatting! I had fab skin too. Im now spotty and waking a lot, failing to drop off properly at night I seem to be the opposite to everyone else doing this

Go to Thornton's and buy some sugar-free (diabetic) toffee. Eat half a bag. (Don't, don't, don't, whatever you do, eat the whole bag!).

If that doesn't get it shifted, then nothing will!

The other things that have been talked about:

• high strength vitamin C (try one of those effervescent tablets)
• strong coffee
• lot of water
• a bit of exercise
• rolling a tennis ball around your stomach

Willie, you have done so well! I hope to have yoru ind of success! Did you struggle with it so much at the start of bootcamp? I find the low carb part very easy, I have always loved cooking, I just wish the scales showed how good I am being!

I dont drink coffee, but I do have Zumba this evening and will try the tennis ball thing :)

oh dear, are you sure you're not poorly, or especially anxious about anything? taking steroids? (wrt to sleep?)

BA tbh i lost pretty steadily at first, but since then i have had times where i've been really really 'good' and no weight has shifted for a few weeks, followed by a 'whoosh' quite often of 3-4lb off in a week. sometimes this has been related to periods, sometimes no conceivable reason at all!

honestly, over the past year there have been times when i've felt like giving up, but in fact other than christmas (planned cheat) and the occasional excessive consumption of technically 'allowed' foods (e.g. nuts, cheese, 90% chocolate - not bootcamp obviously but better than doughnuts and french bread!), giving up just hasn't seemed worth it, and in the end a little more weight has shifted

No stress, not anxious, not on any medication! Im thinking maybe hormones, as mine are obvioulsy a mess just now - the only 2 periods ive had in years were when I started low carbing (this is my 2nd attempt). I do have suspected PCOS and possibly insulin resistence, but I thought this woe was good for those?

One thing is for sure, Im much more chilled out eating this way :)

this woe is good for pcos and insulin resistance, but i know others have reported messed up cycles initially before things have settled down - hopefully that's all that's going on for you

good to hear that you're more chilled out, too

BlackAffronted, I have a theory on the period thing - it is all my own & only based on research that I've done & my own experiences.

With this WOE you lose body fat, unlike the calorie restricted diets where you often lose muscle tissue you first, with this WOE you lose a bit of water & then body fat. Body fat is oestrogenic (not sure I've spelt that right) and when you lose it, I think it may release estrogen into the blood stream & hence mess with your menstrual cycles.

As I say, just my own theory - but may explain your period issues.

This WOE is good for PCOS & insulin resistance, but like all things you have to give it a bit of time. A month is nothing when you think of the number of years you've been eating lots of sugar & carbs.

You guys rock

Post, you make sense, Ive read that fat cells hold a lot of estrogen. It would explain why I am bloaty & bleeding constantly. I cant wait to get out the other side of this!

More water!

marking my place

Hello everyone

Marking place.

No loss again for me for the third week in a row.

It's unfair, I have only had one teeny tiny slip in bootcp and that was yesterday. Argh.

So far today:
B: omelette. Coffee w cream
L: Greek yog w vanilla powder and two spoonfuls of peanut butter.
S: eating pork crackling at the mo while DC eat dinner.

Two more coffees w cream.

Off to fill my glass for third litre of water.

Well done to all the losers. And who had 10cm off their waist!!??! That's amazing!! That is what I need! Pleeeeaaaase tell me your secret

Last night I dreamt my tum was normal again just like it used to be. Needless to say this morning was a particularly rude awakening!!

Just checking in to shiny new thread and wanted to say 'we're routing for you' to blackaffronted.

My day:
B: 2 eggs and butter
L: Out for lunch. Had a goats cheese salad in a restaurant which was probably a bit carby (roast tomatoes and some red pepper), but I switched balsamic for olive oil and had masses of rocket and spinach.
S: chunk of cheese
D will be: haddock and prawns in a creamy mushroomy parmesany sauce with some leftover greens from yesterday's dinner (turnip, broccoli, cauli) and some wilted spinach,

1lb on for me I'm afraid. Would a kind person be able yo go the honours on the spreadsheet for me please?

Am keeping faith and drinking water. Well done yo all the losers and huge hugs to all the STS or gainers.

Can I join in? I've been lurking on here for a few weeks now and am about a week and a half behind everyone else. I've lost 11lb since the 12th of January without much stress, a planned "cheat"or two (is it still a cheat if it's planned...) anyway I've pretty much been working with Dr Briffa's book and doing lots of reading. DH is also low carbing and has lost a stone since the same date. I'm finding this woe straightforward - I work away from home a lot so lots of cooked breakfasts but even eating out hasn't been a struggle. I'm also pleased with how much more energy I have, my mood is better and my skin is loving all the water.

So far so good, though I can understand the struggles others are having with motivation, feeling a bit stuck etc. I'm sure my turn will come!

Of course you can! Welcome, and well done!

skandi1 - where is your veg? You're not eating enough there!

I'm having a massive wobble today. I'm in work, I feel dreadful...I'm shaky, shivering, every part of me aches, my head hurts and I feel queasy. What I want more than anything in the world is some comfort food...fish fingers, chips and beans, a cheese toastie and a cup of tea or fish and chips.

I have genuinely never felt this inexplicably awful in years...and I can't face LC tonight, I haven't got the energy to cook a suitable substitute like celeriac gratin or mash...I can barely stand for longer than a few seconds and its no exaggeration when I say that I keep thinking I'm about to black out.

The only reason I have stayed in work is because I'm a part timer and I have booked a few days off over the course of the next couple of weeks. If I left early them somebody would have to cover my position and that seemed unfair.

Help me please. Will all my hard work be blown out the water if I have a carby comforting meal tonight? I cannot face salad...urgh.

The good news is I'm down from 139 to 125 as of this morning. I've been good today as well.

B - FF total, 5 blueberries, spoon of linseed
L - Massive salad with prawns, egg, cheese and mayo (I really struggled to enjoy this :()

Sorry to hear you feel so poorly

But please don't do it. You will not make yourself feel any better, and you will re-gain weight.

I think, too, it's indicative that you talk about LC foods as substitutes - which means that LCing isn't how you see yourself eating.

You don't have to have salad! Have something simple and easy. How about scrambled eggs? Or bacon and eggs?