Week 1 - New Year Low Carb Bootcamp - And We're Off!

[BigStickBIWI]

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

[BigStickBIWI]

The idea behind Bootcamp is to make it as easy as possible for you to follow a low carb WOE (way of eating). There is no need to count carbs, as long as you stick to the rules, and focus on eating veg from the allowed veg list.

Here is the list of allowed veg:

Veg (raw)Carbs per 100g
Mushrooms0.4
Watercress0.4
Spinach0.8
Celery0.9
Broccoli1.1
Asparagus 1.4
Cucumber1.5
Lettuce1.7
Fennel1.8
Courgettes1.8
Cauliflower1.9
Avocado flesh1.9
Turnip2
Pumpkin2.2
Runner beans2.3
Swede2.3
Celeriac2.3
Bean sprouts2.5
Carrots2.5
Green pepper2.6
Baby sweetcorn2.7
Aubergine2.8
Leeks2.9
Okra3
Tomato3.1
Mangetout3.3
Shallots3.3
Brussels sprouts3.5
French beans4.7
Cabbage5
Yellow pepper5.3
Carrots6
Orange or red pepper6.4
Ginger (peeled)7.2
Butternut squash7.5
Onions7.9

If it's not on the list, see if you can find out how many carbs it has - or ask on this thread.

Focus on eating those veg that are 3g carbs per 100g or less for the next fortnight.

[BigStickBIWI]

That's a great start, coldethyl!

[BigStickBIWI]

Here is a piece about water and how much you should be drinking. This is taken from the Carblife website (www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/:

"Water.
Water is essential to weight loss for those who eat low-carb. The minimum consumed in a day should be

Weight-----Litres
140lbs-----2.5
160lbs-----3.0
180lbs-----3.0
200lbs-----3.5
220lbs-----3.5
240lbs-----4.0
260lbs-----4.5
280lbs-----4.5
300lbs-----5.0
320lbs-----5.5
340lbs-----5.5
360lbs-----6.0
380lbs-----6.5
400lbs-----6.5

High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects: aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in-turn will reduce breath odour."

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

Yes, we are off!

Morning BIWI, morning evvvvvveryone

[BigStickBIWI]

Grr. Link fail! Carblife

[DharmaBumpkin]

Moooooorning! Checking in, am 3 kgs down from my starting weight this morning! And that's in less than a week! Am also feeling much better after a shaky start.... 'Carb flu' has gone!

[ILoveTIFFANY]

Can I join?

Done this before but kinda gave up! Lost a fair amount tho.

How does cottage cheese and tinned tuna fare? See bacon and ham are not good... Has that changed?

[Porkster]

Hi BIWI, can you add me please? I can't seem to add myself, maybe because I'm on my phone.

152.5 this morning , having been a greedy pig over Christmas.

Dh has just made me scrambled egg & black tea.

[skandi1]

Morning.
Day 1 for me. Breakfast was egg white omelette and one coffee with splash of double cream.

I see I need to drink 3l of water. I will be sloshing around later.....

I have not managed to add myself to list or spreadsheet but will attempt again later.

[Brianstorm]

I'm here - scrambled eggs and black coffee this morning. I'm not a great morning eater so getting eased in gently. 'Big shop' after school run for lots of nice meals coming up!

[MissNJE]

Good morning!

I am full of energy and motivation this morning. I am already showered, my hair is blow-dried and I have make up on. I haven't managed that for over a year. I can't believe it. For breakfast I ate smoked salmon and a salad with egg, red pepper, feta cheese and cucumber. I drank green tea with it. I can't believe how much I am supposed to drink... 3l. I weighed in at 181.4lbs.

[BigStickBIWI]

Porkster - you're on the list!

ILoveTIFFANY and skandi1, you're on the spreadsheet too (down at the bottom for the moment, but hopefully Willie will re-alphabetize it later), but you haven't given a starting weight. Do you want to let me know what it is so I can add it for you? If you don't want to say the actual weight, you can start at 100, and then drop by 1 for every pound you lose.

ILoveTIFFANY - tinned tuna is perfect. Cottage cheese is OK, but it does have carbs in it, so check the side of the pot. Oh, and full fat please - none of that low fat stuff on Bootcamp!

[EwanHoozami]

Thanks BIWI

New week, new start. I'm only 2lb from festive cheatage but that's still the wrong direction so I am now totally on bootcamp message

My brief history - I've lost 20lb nice and steadily since last August. What sounds more exciting is that I've gone from slightly strained in a size 16 to wondering if a 12 is getting too loose.

I know that these last few pre-maintenance pounds are going to be quite tough. I know that I won't be getting the thrilling losses of those early days and will be really happy with a pound off a week.

Time to start up my water score-chart and hard-boil some eggs. Size 10 jeans, I'm coming to getcha!

[skandi1]

Thank you BIWI.

Weight is (sigh) 185lbs this morning.

Final aim is 150lbs which will get me back to my pre DC weight and BMI of 21.

[Porkster]

Thanks BIWI.

[Vagndidit]

I'm in. Was down about a stone lc-ing on my own before completely derailing over the festive season. Am bloated and ready to fit comfortably into my jeans again...and perhaps downside a few.
Good luck to all!

[BigStickBIWI]

Ewan - I was re-reading Atkins recently, about maintenance, and I'd totally forgotten that he has a 'pre-maintenance' phase, where you are supposed to up your carbs so that you lose really slowly - less than a pound a week - for up to 3 months. The idea behind this is that not only does this allow you to work out how many carbs you can eat (beyond induction levels) but it also enables you to come to terms with how you need to eat once you reach your target weight.

So slow loss is good!

[BigStickBIWI]

If anyone is unsure about the science behind low carbing, or you're being told by friends/family/colleagues that all the fat we are eating will be bad for us, then

It's about 45 minutes long, but really worth watching. If you don't have much time, watch the first 10 minutes. The statistics about the rise of obesity in the US, once low fat eating was championed, are startling and horrifying.

[barleywood]

Marking my place...always get lost with the different threads.

Always slightly difficult when I have a strenuous day outdoors planned...and a lack of toilets.

Been following this WOE for around six months now...and I love it!!

[EwanHoozami]

Sounds like exactly where I am! A couple of really strict weeks to lose the Christmas naughties and then I'll take the rest really steadily.

[barleywood]

BIWI..I loved that video. As a scientist I was almost embarrassed to admit I was eating high fat low carb. The statistics in the video validate this WOE although I was interested in the relationship between simple and complex carbs and whether the real culprit was sugar.

Still much easier to reduce all carbs.....and lose weight!!

[BigStickBIWI]

I think the difficult thing for many people is getting their heads around the fact that so-called healthy foods, like an apple or a yoghurt (as per in the video) can have such a negative impact.

[prettybird]

Checking in. 13 stone 2lb this morning. That was better than I expected so I didn't move the scales to reweigh and try to get a "better" result

2 boiled eggs for breakfast and no OJ Better go and drink some more water.

Need to go and buy some cauliflower and turnip so that I can make low-carb shepherd's pie for supper.

[barleywood]

Didn't you just love the packed lunch at the nutrition conference?