6 weeks achieved

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  • posted by Trinder
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    6 weeks into challenge and lost 2 stone 1 lbs so 29lbs in 6 weeks which I wouldn’t have thought possible. In swing of things now albeit temptation rests its head now and again but only 5lbs to get healthy BMI so hopefully by week 8 that will be achieved

  • posted by Jennie10
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    Hi Trinder
    It’s great to hear you’re in the swing of things and good on you for keeping temptation at arms length.
    More than 2 stone lost – that’s a fantastic achievement over 6 weeks. You must be absolutely thrilled with that, and it just makes it so much easier to keep focused when you’ve done so well, doesn’t it?
    Getting to the top of a healthy BMI is a great target, hope things go well over the next 2 weeks and let us know how you get on.
    Jennie xx

  • posted by CinBlue
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    Wow! It’s great you’ve seen such results. I’m at 5 1/2 weeks in and – nothing.

  • posted by Birdy76
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    Ah CinBlue I am sorry to hear that. Tell us what you have been doing and we can see if we can tweak what it is and get you the results. If done with a modicum of correctness this way of eating does work hun❤️ Ok are you drinking up to 3 litres of water a day? This is very important. Have you been sticking to non processed carbs? Have you been having low carb, moderate protein and high good fats?? These are the game changers. Don’t be shy and don’t worry just tell us what you have been doing and we will do what we can to help you sort it out. Birdy💞🦜

  • posted by CinBlue
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    3 litres of water – easily. Exercising regularly as usual (injuries prevent too much).

    Approx. nutrients:
    Carbs: 60-65g a day
    Fat: 40g a day
    Protein: 60-65g a day

    Lacto-ovo vegetarian so have been eating dairy, such as yoghurt (plain, unsweetened) and limited cheese. Carbs are vegetables (+ salad) and fruit (limited).

  • posted by sixturkeys
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    Hi Cinblue. As Birdy says, this forum is so helpful! I am no expert, but most find that a max of 50g carbs is the required amount, with some needing to go down to 20g to kickstart and overcome the insulin resistance. And protein is again generally 0.5 to 1g per kg of target weight. I am one of the slower discarders on here (because of the number of blips…) but I used to stuff myself with bad carbs. Those days are gone, and it has really not been painful! I am sure that with just a little bit of tweaking you will soon be sailing! And a reminder too to measure yourself – as I just posted, I am getting smaller inch wise but if I just went by the scales I would have got bigger!

  • posted by CinBlue
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    Hi Sixturkeys. As a vegetarian I’ve found it just too hard to do keto (20g carbs). I tried Atkins doing that and it was the quickest way to ensure failure. I’ll try to get the carbs down another 10g but I find the fat count tends to go up when I do that. At least the carbs I am getting are good ones, no white/beige ones and no ultra-processed ones.

  • posted by CinBlue
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    Okay, so my post wasn’t posted.
    Trying again…

    Basically, 20g too hard for vegetarian. Did that on Atkins – guaranteed to fail.

    If I down the carbs, the fat will go up. How much fat is too much?

    No ultra processed carbs, no white/beige ones either.

    Clothes that were tight before are still just as tight. Clothes that fit before still fit.

    It’s frustrating because 800 calories of good healthy food should result in weight loss. 🙁

  • posted by sixturkeys
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    Cinblue, there are a number of vegetarians on here and I am sure that someone will be along very soon! This will work for you!

  • posted by Birdy76
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    Ok CinBlue JGwen is a vegetarian I don’t know the exact carbs she has but I am sure it is below 50g.

    Your carbs should be between 20g and 50g if 20 is too low try 50g and see what happens as that will be a good 15g below what you are eating now. Protein is what 6T said and you should gage it on the weight you want to be not the weight you are😉. I go for 50g or less but I never drop below 40g as I love meat!(sorry). Good fats are to be the highest in your ratio and I go for 60-65g of those a day and it works for me. As I said before everyone is so so different so what works for one may not work for another. Fasting is a big help too. Even if it is just time restricted eating at first. My usual day is I don’t eat from 7pm the previous day until 12-1 the next day then I have my two meals before 8pm. So I think that is a ratio of 16-8. The first fast I did I managed 23 hrs the second 36 hrs and then the I did this week was 46hrs! A good book to get is Dr Fungs complete guide to fasting. There is a lot of Dr jargon in it but I skimmed that and still understood what I had to do. There are also some nice recipes in the back. I always work nights which can play havoc with your body and mess with your circadian/melatonin levels, but I plan plan plan what and when I will eat and it has helped me discard 3 stone as I said👍

    A great way of doing this woe is using MFP which you do. But what is best is to plan your day of food. So in the morning before I eat anything I put all that I am going to eat in my diary. If my numbers look bad I tweak it until they are on point and I don’t have to worry as I haven’t eaten a thing so no damage is done. I am sure JGwen will be along and I am sure she will be able to help with the veggie side of your diet. Hope this helps ❤️ 💞🦜 Birdy x

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi, CinBlue,
    First of all scales are a very poor way to measure progress. – As others have already mentioned the tape measure and fit of clothes is better. Also our bodies tend to loose from the last places they put on the bulk, so many people have dropped shoe sizes, lower legs have slimmed down, and collar bones emerge before any change to the spare tyre. –

    As others have said I am a veggie. I had a lot of weight to loose so started off cutting out the main carb sources and that started the weight dropping rapidly. However, that rapidly indicates that it was stored water. Our bodies have to store extra water to process carbs.

    Then I started to use the fat secret app to log everything I was going to eat, and tweak the carb levels down. I started on under 50g, and worked on reducing that to under 30g. – I agree with you that under 20g is difficult for a veggie.

    Unless you get your carb levels right down your insulin levels will remain high so your body can not access your fat stores, 65g of carbs will definitely be too high. An elite endurance athlete when training would be only a little more than that.

    Also no artificial sweeteners. While they technically are no carb, the taste of anything sweet causes our bodies to raise insulin in prep for a carb hit, so are just as bad as having carbs.
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    The recommended protein levels for a woman are between 0.6 and 0.8g of protein per KG of target weight. Too high on protein and our bodies react to the surplus in the same way as if we have eaten carbs.
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    All the rest of your calories come from healthy fats. There isn’t a limit on the amount of calories from healthy fats, in fact the secret to successful maintenance is to increase the calories from fat, rather than increasing the carb intake. –

    The bottom line is that we want to be in ketosis, so that our bodies are in fat burning mode, then our bodies make up the difference between calories from fat eaten and fat burned from our body fat.
    ——————————

    After I got down to 30g of carbs a day I found I often wasn’t that hungry, so delaying breakfast to lunch time became the norm, and then I moved on to eating in a 6 hour slot some days, then 4 hour slot some days, before moving on to fasting.

    You may not need to go so far. My feeling is that as I have been a veggie all my life, I have been on a high carb diet all my life, which means Insulin Resistance. – To help reverse that I need to fast to help my body to reset the background Insulin level and response.

    ———————————

    One of the reasons that the scale is a bad way of measuring progress is that if you are following a time restricted eating program or fasting your body will be producing more growth hormone. This is the hormone that helps to maintain bone density, and muscle strength, but it is switched off by high insulin levels. – Obviously stronger bones and muscles will weigh more. Which is why your weight may not be changing but there could be other changes happening.
    ————————————–
    Thank you Birdy for reminding me that weight loss is more rapid if you consistently drink a couple of litres of water a day. Its something I forget about some days, and end up reaching for coffee more than water.

  • posted by CinBlue
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    Thanks for all the support. After 6 weeks I lost 0.8kg – all in the final week. Doing another 6 weeks because it could be that “magic switch” has begun to flip.

    Realised I miscalculated the carbs, which are actually around 40-45g per day. (MyFitnessPal has become less accurate over time. Really have to double-triple check the items.)

    Water is not an issue. Living in the subtropics you learn to drink plenty. I easily get 3 litres a day.

    Fasting is something I’m keen to try and I will give it a go once I’m off medicine that has to be taken 3x day with food, which should happen with sufficient weight loss. Fasting (5:2 or 6:1, with 16:8) is definitely in the long-term plan for weight maintenance.

    Clothes are not fitting any better, which is annoying as I only have limited clothes for my current size. And obviously, I’m not prepared to buy more because this darn weight will come off. 🙂

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi,
    I do use one of the cheap breathalysers to monitor for ketosis. – I am finding that even 30g of carbs in a day is enough to kick me out of ketosis. – So I would recommend trying to get under 20g of carbs each day to help with the fat loss.

  • posted by CinBlue
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    I know trying for under 20g carbs a day is a way for me to fail. It’s also a way for me to obsess more (OCD) and it’s not a route my therapist advises (the obsession). It’s why I haven’t been weighing myself – the obsession overtakes my brain, and I’m already obsessing about getting exactly 800 cals at day. I don’t want to push myself to the point of failure (because that gets me nowhere, in reverse in fact) so I’m going to have to stick with 40-45g carbs and see what happens.

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