HappyCamper I put hard avocados in the fruit bowl with bananas to help ripen them.
Justonemorethread welcome. I don't think the spreadsheet is up and running at the moment for recording weights (I know Sayra spends a lot of time on it when BC is actually running) but here are the rules
THE RULES
These are the BC rules for the first two weeks.
- Eat three proper meals a day.
You must eat breakfast. It doesn't have to be a lot, and it doesn't have to be absolutely first thing, 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 between meals. But if you are hungry, eat something. (Hard boiled eggs make a great snack).
After the first two weeks of Bootcamp we will relax this, but these two weeks are critical in terms of helping you switch easily to a low carb way of eating - and if you start to feel hungry, it makes things much harder! Eating this way will ensure that your blood sugar levels are kept stable, which will mean that you are much less likely to experience hunger.
A typical high carbohydrate diet can mean that snacking is a routine part of your day. Once your blood sugar levels are stable, by eating low carb, you should find that you no longer want to snack. But the rule of thumb here is ‘if you are hungry, eat!’. (Just make sure you are only choosing low carb snacks, of course!).
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. You can have them, but just not every day. Avoid foods marketed as low carb, eg. Atkins Daybreak bars.
- Eat lots of fat.
Eating fat will not make you fat. Honestly! But it will keep your appetite satisfied, and it sustains your body’s energy requirements perfectly. Fat does not provoke an insulin spike, unlike carbs which do (a lot) and protein (a little). Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though, as this is too sweet), 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!
- Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food.
This is where your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list. Make sure that you focus on eating those vegetables that are 3g carb per 100g or less, and this will ensure that your carb counts are kept low. 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.
- Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited).
Dairy can impede weight loss for some people. If you are still drinking tea/coffee with milk or cream, try to restrict yourself to max 2 cups per day. There are a lot of carbs in milk, so if you are having several cups of tea/coffee per day, you will quickly rack up your daily carb count (e.g. 1 medium latte contains more than 12g carbs!) You may eat cheese but again, don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. Total Full Fat is the best
- 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. This is from
www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/. Water is essential to weight loss for those who eat low-carb. The minimum consumed in a day should be:
Your 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. However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb diet we can eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it. Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt."
- No alcohol.
Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for the body to burn, so it will always use this first before it starts to burn any fat - which is why you need to restrict it, especially in the first two weeks of Bootcamp, when we are encouraging the body to stop using carbs for its source of fuel and turn to fat-burning instead. If you really can't do this - at least try and restrict it to the weekend. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine.
- No fruit.
Really. Seriously. Honestly. None at all. Zilch. Nada. After Bootcamp you will be able to introduce certain fruits, but at this stage fruit is simply too carby. We are also trying to break the addiction to sweet things, so cutting fruit out is part of this process. If you are getting all your carbs from vegetables and salad, you will be getting all the nutrients and fibre that you need.
- No nuts/seeds.
- No sugar or artificial sweeteners.
Sugar is an obvious ‘no no’, but artificial sweeteners are also an issue. One of the aims of this way of eating is to eat pure and natural foods, so including sweeteners is not recommended. Some people find that artificial sweeteners can impede their weight loss, and there is some suggestion that your body can respond to sweeteners as if they were sugar, by releasing more insulin - and therefore laying down fat. Given that the aim of Bootcamp is to help us lose our sweet tooth and addiction to sweet things, then it is a good idea to avoid sweeteners altogether in this first two weeks.
THE RULES BClite
After the first two weeks some of the rules are relaxed slightly, I have listed the changes here.
- Eat when you’re hungry - if you’re not hungry, don’t eat
In Bootcamp, you should have been eating three meals a day. The point of this being to ensure that you got used to eating proper meals, and so that your blood sugar is regulated and stable. Having achieved that, you can now relax this a little bit. If you find you’re not hungry - which often happens, because ketosis suppresses your appetite - then don’t force yourself to eat. But don’t let yourself get so hungry that you make inappropriate choices! Always make sure you have plenty of low carb food to access quickly, if you need to.
- Avoid processed food
- Eat lots of fat
- Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food
- You may eat some dairy
You should aim to include plenty of butter on this WOE. Fry with it and add it to your vegetables. And if you know that dairy doesn’t impede your weight loss you may eat cheese, but don't overdo it. Full fat yoghurt is the best way to include dairy in your diet - but beware, it does contain carbs. Total Full Fat is the best.
If you’ve been cutting out tea/coffee, you can re-introduce this – but just be careful how much milk you end up drinking. You can end up adding a lot of extra carbs this way.
- You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day
- You may drink some alcohol
But restrict this to once or twice a week max. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine. Absolutely no beer/lager, cider, liqueurs, cocktails or full sugar mixers. You can drink spirits with artificial sweeteners, but bear in mind that we are attempting to avoid all things artificial!
Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for your body, and it will use this over and above anything else that is available to it. Therefore, even if you’re following the diet absolutely to the letter, including alcohol can prevent weight loss.
- You may eat some fruit
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and rhubarb are all fine. But please – only once a day at the very most, and keep an eye on your portion sizes. Just for information – these are the carb counts:
Rhubarb – 0.8g carbs per 100g (but don’t forget you will need to sweeten this – and not with sugar!)
Blackberries – 4.4g carbs per 100g
Raspberries – 4.6g carbs per 100g
Strawberries – 6g carbs per 100g
Blueberries - 6.4g carbs per 100g (although this is a bit controversial - I have had differing carb counts from various sources - some saying as much as 12g carbs per 100g)
- You may eat some nuts/seeds
Nuts/seeds can make a good snack. BUT it is incredibly easy to overdo it, and you can end up eating your bodyweight in carbs. As an occasional snack they are great, but keep it occasional and keep the portions to a small handful at most.
Macadamias are not only luscious, but they are very low in carbs. Sainsbury’s sell little bags of roasted, salted Macadamias that work out at around 4g per bag.
Here are some carb counts – BUT – check the back of your packets as I don’t know if these are for raw or roasted nuts:
Brazils 3.1g carbs per 100g
Walnuts 3.3g carbs per 100g
Pistachios 4.6g carbs per 100g
Macadamias 4.8g carbs per 100g
Hazelnuts 4.8g carbs per 100g
Pecans 5.8g carbs per 100g
Almonds 6.9g carbs per 100g
Peanuts 7.1 g carbs per 100g
Cashews 18.1g carbs per 100g
- Avoid artificial sweeteners
The aim of Bootcamp was to help reduce the stranglehold that sugar has on us – and to curb your sweet tooth. But it does make some things difficult, e.g. desserts at a dinner party, and it is undeniable that it can be enjoyable – occasionally – to eat something sweet. However, restrict such goodies. For some people, artificial sweeteners can impede weight loss.