Day Four.

Oh.  My.  God.  I.  Want.  To.  Eat.

I have had a hellish day in terms of wanting to eat.  So far I haven’t, and I think now I am over the worst, but it has taken so SO much to stop myself.  I know I’m in ketosis by now, as I’m fucking freezing all the time, which is a side effect.  Unfortunately though, I don’t seem to benefit from the loss of hunger feelings you are meant to experience when in ketosis, which makes things very hard.

I have mostly been putting off eating by reading threads on minimins, only because it can be distracting.  Some of the threads are vaguely helpful, people encouraging each other, success stories, words of wisdom etc.  However, a lot of threads are about people falling off the wagon, and there is even a whole section for ‘restarters’ which doesn’t fill me with confidence.  There’s even a thread asking how many people who have restarted VLCDs have actually seen them through to completion after previously failing, and there seemed to be only 2.  I know that the success or failure of a bunch of internet strangers does not directly affect how well I cope with this, but it is hard to trust something entirely when you see so many failing.  It’s a bit like getting on a rollercoaster after watching 3 people fall off it.

The first time I did LL, I had sod all idea about it really.  I went to the classes, I bought my foodpacks, I took what my counsellor said as gospel, and stuck to it 100%, and it was so easy, the whole 9 weeks.  Since coming off it and doing Atkins, and researching various things, it is SO hard for me to stick to, because I know more than I should.  Ketosis is a result of having a very very low carbohydrate intake.  LL foodpacks are very low carb, and this is what puts you into ketosis (which allows you to lose weight quickly), not the low calorie intake.  To be in ketosis and losing weight at the same rate when doing Atkins,  you have to restrict your net carb intake to about 20g a day (net carbs is the carbs (g) minus the fibre (g) in the product).  Things like meat & poultry contain pretty much no carbs (unless you buy processed shite), and dairy very little.  This is why Atkins works, despite the fact that people eat large amounts of fatty foods.  When I did it, I existed mostly on chicken and bacon salads, low carb chocolate, bacon and eggs, german salami, and full cream in coffee.

I’m not sure how much carbohydrate there is in the LL foodpacks, I can’t find the nutritional values on the internet anywhere, and they aren’t printed on the packs.  I know you can get the nutritional values on a sheet, I had them last time, but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were.  Still, regardless of how much carboydrate is in the packs, the point is that you could add more protein to the diet without coming out of ketosis.  As the foodpacks total about 500 calories a day, and most ‘normal’ diets recommend reducing your daily intake from 2000 to 1500 calories in order to lose weight, just nibbling a chicken breast, or a piece of ham, or some bacon, would really not much affect your weight loss.

It is knowing this that makes it harder to stick to.  Plus the fact I am more cynical now than the first time I did the diet.  When I started it was £44 a week.  The company was set up by a couple of people who were desperate to lose weight quickly, conquer their food issues while doing it, and live happily ever after.  Apparently once they did this, setting up LL was merely because they wanted to share this wonderful diet with other desperate people.  Since the cost went up to £66 a week, I have lost the faith that this is a company that really want to help people, they are just grabbing as much money from desperate fatties as possible.

Another thing that would seem to confirm this point is the restrictions placed upon you during the diet.  You are allowed foodpacks, black tea or coffee, water, tablet sweetners, and that’s your lot the whole time.  However, should you find water boring, LL have 2 water flavourings you can use.  They cost £9 a tub.  They also have savoury drinks which cost about £8 for 7 sachets or something.  It’s basically boullion.

We are told not to drink soft drinks because the citric acid in them MAY knock us out of ketosis.  Last year when Coke Zero came out, I happened to read the ingredients and nutritional information.  Obviously it’s pretty much calorie free, as are most sugar free soft drinks.  It is also carbohydrate free, and indeed citric acid free.  So, I emailed LL head office to say I had found that Coke Zero had no carbs and no citric acid, and was it OK therefore, to drink it.  The replied with a no, as it MAY knock you out of ketosis.  I replied to them asking what it was that the Coke Zero contained that would affect the ketosis, and they hilariously replied with ‘we don’t know, it might be the citric acid’.

I am therefore convinced that the main reason you are told not to have soft drinks is because then you will buy more of their water flavourings.  With up to 12 people in one group alone, buying a tub at £9 each, every other week, that’s a nice extra profit on top of everything else they already get.  I find it quite horrible really that desperation is so badly exploited in this way.  It also makes doing the diet very hard.  I would like to stick to it completely, but knowing everything that I know, I have been allowing myself a dash of milk in my coffee, as the carbohydrates and calories are negligible (unless I start drinking 15 cups a day), and I have a bottle of Coke Zero in my car boot.  I haven’t touched it yet, as I haven’t fancied it, but if I do, I will have it.  Perhaps this is a mistake, I don’t know yet.

If any people on LL are reading this, I certainly would not encourage you to tinker with the diet.  It is most likely easier to get through your 100 days if you just do as you are told.  I am just very cynical, and spend too much time looking up things on the internet.  I know too much for my own good.

I may now have one more glass of water and a ciggie before bed.  A better day tomorrow, I hope.