Hello, I am new to this board.

I have been low-carbing for quite a while now, lost the excess and have hovered around my goal weight for about a year, although last year saw a gain of about 10lbs, which I have now got rid of!

I was so pleased to find a UK board where more people will understand what I am talking about!

I hope I can chat to a few of you and get some advice, and maybe share some of what I have picked up over the past years.

Looking forward to posting...

Dottie

Hello to you

Yes, I too was delighted to find a group of people who would understand what I was on about. And it is odd how we get a sense of what people are like from their posts. I have my favorite posters.
How frustrating for you to have put on 10lbs, but at least you know how to get rid of them.. Are you following a plan or do you just keep the carbs as low as tolerable. That is pretty much what I do, though I have just started using fitday. It is interesting, though slow. I find it hard to fit what I eat to the categories they have. I need to keep labels and input things as custom foods. But life is short, so I do the nearest I can see....

So what helped you in the past..top tips??

Hello Lucy,

Well, I kind of just moderate my carb intake, I pretty much know now what I can and can't eat and what makes me gain. It does get so much harder to lose now I have low carbed for a while though, I remember the good old days when three days of chicken and salad would shed the extra, these days it is much much harder!

I am sure I could get to my goal weight but it means giving up what i consider "treats" such as milk in tea, cream, cheese etc, and so I just kind of accept the extra 5lbs. I gained the 10lbs as went to live in America for 7 months and I still don't think I was eating more, and also worked out for nearly 2 hours, 6 days a week! I still couldn't fit into my clothes. Must just have been different foods...or stress.

I guess my top tip for girls is never underestimate the power of hormones as they mess up that scale reading. I gain at least 5-8lbs at that time of month. I can even see the difference on me...

Food wise, I love Atkins Soy Flour pancakes (v. relevant for tomorrow) which I will have with no added sugar peanut butter.

I think that Regucol from H&B is great to keep the digestion going, I don't include it in carb counts, I am not sure if I should, but as it keeps things regular then I couldn't give it up anyway! Non habit forming for long term use too.

Last weekend was a washout as had a free weekend at a v. posh hotel with the most amazing food, so I ate whatever I wanted. Sometimes (esp. TOM) I don't sweat it as much as I should.

Sorry to have garbled on so long,

D

Hi Dottie and welcome to this forum

It is great to have new members who are experienced low carbers and use the experiece gained, with time, to keep those unwanted pounds off.

I love this life and have been low carbing for 19 months now and have just shed my first 50 pounds. I agree with you about the hormones thing. For me I do not have the TOM problem, never had, but did go through the menopause last year and until I went on HRT it stopped my weight loss dead for two to three months.

I hope that you will participate in the forums and offer advice to new members.

Look forward to seeing you around. Drop by a few people's journals to make extra friends.

There's also a good low carb message board for the UK at:

http://www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/

It is nice to have a little corner of England here. But also reassuring that we can gain as much from our international friends by the magic of the internet.

Canada aand the US are certainly further ahead in the availablity of low carb products. We have Carblife but in the US many supermarket chains sell Atkins products on the shelf.

But never fear you will, on these pages, find where you can buy the lowest carb sausages and rediscover the delights of pork scatchings