Our last week - Spring Low Carb Bootcamp

[BIWI]

So our last week! Here's the Spreadsheet for its penultimate outing

One more week could see another couple of pounds off.

Fingers crossed, and good luck!

Was my menu ok today?

Spinach, pancetta and onion omelette - cooked in olive oil

Halloumi and sausage salad (Aldi finest so 97% pork)

Cauliflower curry (coconut oil, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, spices, tin tomatoes) with Greek yoghurt

Olives in pesto and oil to snack on.

Hi Bibs, I'm not expert but i have been doing this bootcamp since it started in February so have picked up a few things from the gurus on here.
I think you need to watch the onion. It's relatively high in carbs. Best to substitute it with shallots which are far lower.
Sausages can be surprising too, even naice ones. Black Farmer ones are better if you can get them-they're available in supermarkets.
And lastly, tinned tomatoes can be fairly high. It's ok to use them (I'd be lost without them with my cooking style) but just watch how much and how often.

Thanks I'll get shallots tomorrow.

Another 1.5lbs down this morning!

Well done!!

Oh dear, this article about saturated fats and heart disease is causing rather a stir. I wish the tide was turning more.

Oh for gods sake!

The research they are referring to is Keys et al, where he studied saturated fat intake in schizophrenic patients on a ward in the 1960's. He fed 60 inpatients a totally liquid control diet with varying levels of sat fat. The study showed that total cholesterol increased with increased sat fat diets, but that LDL lowered and it was HDL and triglycerides that increased and even that was marginal

His methodology was massively flawed and the entire study made no mention at all of demographics like age of the patients, gender, weight, height etc and he also omitted 60% of his data that didnt fit his conclusions.

It makes me so so SO angry when bad science is not only used to support a point, but is then also misquoted! And the guys who said there's no evidence to support that sat fat isn't bad for you. There's actually 23 double blind, peer reviewed and published studies that i know of:

1.Foster GD, et al. A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.
Details: 63 individuals were randomized to either a low-fat diet group, or a low-carb diet group. The low-fat group was calorie restricted. This study went on for 12 months.

Conclusion: There was more weight loss in the low-carb group, significant at 3 and 6 months, but not 12. The low-carb group had greater improvements in blood triglycerides and HDL, but other biomarkers were similar between groups.

1. Samaha FF, et al. A low-carbohydrate as compared with a low-fat diet in severe obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.

Details: 132 individuals with severe obesity (mean BMI of 43) were randomized to either a low-fat or a low-carb diet. Many of the subjects had metabolic syndrome or type II diabetes. The low-fat dieters were calorie restricted. Study duration was 6 months.

Conclusion: The low-carb group lost significantly more weight (about 3 times as much). There was also a statistically significant difference in several biomarkers:

Triglycerides went down by 38 mg/dL in the LC group, compared to 7 mg/dL in the LF group.
Insulin sensitivity improved on LC, got slightly worse on LF.
Fasting blood glucose levels went down by 26 mg/dL in the LC group, only 5 mg/dL in the LF group.
Insulin levels went down by 27% in the LC group, but increased slightly in the LF group.
Overall, the low-carb diet had significantly more beneficial effects on weight and key biomarkers in this group of severely obese individuals.

You can find a bunch more here for low carb.

And here's a further 5 on sat fat specifically:
satfat

1. Hooper L, et al. Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Systematic Review, 2015.

Details: This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, performed by the Cochrane collaboration – an independent organization of scientists.

It is probably the best review you can find on this at the moment, and includes 15 randomized controlled trials with over 59,000 participants.

Each of these studies had a control group, reduced saturated fat or replaced it with other types of fat, lasted for at least 24 months and looked at hard endpoints, such as heart attacks or death.

Results: The study found no statistically significant effects of reducing saturated fat, in regard to heart attacks, strokes or all-cause deaths.

Although reducing saturated fat had no effects, replacing some of it with polyunsaturated fat led to a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular events (but not death, heart attacks or strokes).

Conclusion: People who reduced their saturated fat intake were just as likely to die, or get heart attacks or strokes, compared to those who ate more saturated fat.

However, partially replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat may reduce the risk of cardiovascular events (but not death, heart attacks or strokes).

These results are similar to a previous Cochrane review, done in 2011 (2).

1. De Souza RJ, et al. Intake of saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids and risk of all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. BMJ, 2015.

Details: This systematic review and meta-analysis reviewed observational studies on the association of saturated fat and heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and death from cardiovascular disease.

The data included 73 studies, with 90,500–339,000 participants for each endpoint.

Results: Saturated fat intake was not linked with heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes or dying of any cause.

Conclusion: People who consumed more saturated fat were not more likely to experience heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes or death from any cause, compared to those who ate less saturated fat.

However, the results from the individual studies were very diverse, so it is hard to draw an exact conclusion from them.

The researchers rated the certainty of the association as “low,” emphasizing the need for more high-quality studies on the subject.

1. Siri-Tarino PW, et al. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010.

Details: This meta-analysis reviewed evidence from observational studies on the link between dietary saturated fat and risk of heart disease and stroke.

The studies included a total of 347,747 participants, who were followed for 5–23 years.

Results: During follow up, about 3% of participants (11,006 people) developed heart disease or stroke.

Saturated fat intake was not linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks or strokes, even among those with the highest intake.

Conclusion: This study did not find any association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease.

Keys is literally the only researcher in history who has skewed his data sufficiently to show satfat has an affect on heart disease risk factors, and the guy was a quack. Somehow though he stirred up such a revolution that we based 40 years of nutritional advice on his awful, awful science

Sorry, i went off on one a bit. I'm a total science geek so bad science really irks.

Funnily enough, I just came here to post the original article !

My question is WHY do the Guardian publish someone saying it's not evidence supported when in the actual article they cite 10 separate studies?? Why do they report on the backlash for the article but not on it's merits??

It just feels like they are trying to continue the idea that low carb, high fat diets are a dangerous fad, rather than an acutely effective answer to a lot of obesity problems.

Also:

" ‘let them eat nuts and olive oil’ with no consideration of how this might be successfully achieved in the UK general population and in people of different ages, socioeconomic backgrounds or dietary preferences,” she said."

We managed to get everyone eating sugar filled, low fat alternatives pretty easily so what's changed?

Also, we're skint but actually spend £40 A WEEK less on food these days compared to my WW days, so she can bugger off with her socioeconomic bullshit

Sorry, i have the rage

I've just stumbled across this thread, you are all so inspiring! I just wondered if you anyone could please give me some ideas for work lunches...

Swirlysunshine work lunches were a sticking point for me too, i really struggled and ended up with protein shakes at the start

It depends if you want to pack up a lunch and take it with you or have stuff in the work fridge ready.

For pack ups:
Salads are awesome - egg mayo, tuna mayo or avocado mixed with bacon and tomatoes and yes... mayo

Also if you have a microwave, take 3 eggs and some butter and some smoked salmon - crack eggs, plop n the butter and microwave for 3 mins. Top with smoked salmon and feel rait posh

I personally prefer to have food ready in the work fridge because i forget to take in packed lunches. I do a shop on Monday mornings. This week I bought:

300ml double cream
Cooked chicken mini fillets
A pot of finest hummus
2 avocados
1 pack gravadlax
2 bags of salad leaves
1 pot cougetti
1 pot of finest pesto
1 pot of mozzerella/ sundried tomatoes antipasti.

That makes: 2 x chicken salads with hummus and avocado
2 x smoked salmon (gravadlax) salads
1 x cougetti and pesto "pasta" with mozzerella and sundried tomatoes.

5 x creamy coffees for breakfast.

£15 for 5 days of lunches and breakfasts from Tesco :)

Oh! also, if you need something micowavable because you're going mental for a hot meal and dont have a lot of time to prep something, all supermarkets do a ready made cauliflower cheese and the top-end, finest range ones are always made with double cream and cheese rather than flour and milk, so are lower carb.

Check the label, but you can generally get ones where the entire thing is about 6g carb :)

[b]Hesdeadjim[/b] thank you so much for taking the time to type all that out. I like the idea of taking it all in to work on a Monday morning I think there's a better chance of sticking to it all week. I might copy your list to get going.

Swirlysunshine no problem, just have a wander around the supermarket and see what you can cobble together :) Remember if it's under 10g carb per 100g it's generally ok, but the lower the better :)

Hummus is a bit high carb if you're just starting out, so maybe have full fat mayo or ceasar salad dressing instead of that :)

Lovely salad for lunch ... lots of green leaves, olive oil, some full fat cheddar, a couple of slices of Palma ham and 2 big dollops of mayo.

Hesdeadjim, thank you for that info, certainly confirms that LCHF is the way forward for me. I can't believe that as a society, we're still peddling the HCLF diet as the only way to lose weight. If that were true, surely that would have some sort of effect on us not being in the middle of an obesity epidemic. But no, it's all individual responsibility and if you can't make the HCLF way work then it's you that's wrong, weak willed, greedy etc. Surely the last 40 years have shown that to be rubbish? It may work for some but not for all. We're only just, as a society, discovering how important gut microbes are to our body and how hormones work. It seems bizarre to me that a system as complex as the human body can lose/gain weight efficiently on a calories in calories out basis with no regard to hundreds of other variables including the type of calories consumed. One of the books I read concluded that the public health authorities who've advocated the HCLF way of eating for over 40 years will never admit they were wrong because that opens too many doors - the whole food industry having a turn around, health authorities, health systems, advertising etc it would just be too costly.

Brilliant list Hesdeadjiim, will adopt some of that. I am back to work next week after my maternity leave and was worrying about lunches and temptation.
Another of my holiday pounds vanished overnight so v chuffed about that, still 1.5 pounds to get back to where I was before my holiday indulgence and get back under 11 stone.
Does anyone eat Heck sausages? I can't get the black farmer ones round here, do they look OK? www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=277643857

boatgirl81 I eat Heck sausages. They are low carb, gluten free, dairy free and tasty so work well for me!

They're OK, but Tesco Finest ones will be even better as they're much lower in carbs

bellalurgy there's a few brilliant books which basically discuss all the research that's gone into high fat, low carb diets and why low fat doesnt work. That's how i got started, then I google scholar-ed all the research mentioned to make sure it was all discussed correctly in the books. It's all bang on.

I really enjoyed "why we get fat" and I'm currently on "the big fat surprise".

I made a big decision when bootcamp officially ended to stop thinking about this as a temporary change, and start thinking longer term. I had a hot bath on Sunday night and had a good chat to myself about it and these are my conclusions:

Since I was 7 years old ive been on some form of low fat diet with calorie restriction and although i had a period of 12 months where i lost 2 stone aged 21, I've never experienced anything less than an obese BMI and I've reliably gained around 7lbs a year since the age of 7. After losing those 2 stone, I regained 7 stone in just 4 years.

During that time I've tried a number of different variations of calorie restricted low fat diets from meal replacement to WW, slimming world etc etc and never managed to stick to any of them other than WW, which i stuck to for a year but in that time lost 28lbs in total. As previously mentioned, once i stopped tracking my food I regained what I'd lost plus a further 5 stone.

^^That alone should have told me that low fat wasn't helping me, but instead society and diet mentality told me that my failure to lose weight was a reflection of moral failings and my weak willpower.

What's more, I was quite clearly insulin resistant, evident by the acanthrosis nigricans (dark shadow) on my neck that I'd had for years and my unbearable cravings which could leave me so desperate for something to eat I'd actually cry in the car on the way home.

So if all the above wasnt working, and in the last 10 weeks i seem to have found something that genuinely is tackling it without the accompanying guilt, cravings and feelings of failure why would i not carry on??

Brilliant posts, thank you Hesdead. I feel very confident about this woe but just sometimes you stop and worry a bit don't you. It's such a shift to be eating fat. You've taught me something about the Keys study so thank you.

I had bacon and eggs for breakfast. They were delicious.

dustmotesinthesun the Keys study is a pet hate, it's quoted and misquoted so often i doubt the original study is ever seen!

Regarding lunches, I often take hot leftovers in a food flask. Current favourite is DH's chili con carne, watered down slightly with a little hot water and creme fraiche.
Today and yesterday for dinner I had beef stroganoff, made with leeks and creme fraiche, served on crispy baked kale. Picture attached.

Hesdead Very informative links - thank you.

Welcome Swirly In relation to lunches - I am not a great fan of salad, even with mayo. I tend to batch cook a big pan of curried/spicy chicken or lamb or a bolognese on a Sunday evening. I always add in courgettes and sometimes aubergines. I keep it in the fridge and just take a portion to work everyday for my lunch. Failing that, If we make belly pork and there's any left over I take that and eat it cold with a potion of mayo as a dip. Home made broccolli soup with double cream is delicious and very filling. Smoked salmon and hard boiled eggs with mayo is also lovely.
Good luck

Regarding the fat lie, I'm currently doing a nursing degree and I really struggle to keep my mouth shut whenever we do anything nutrition related. Or when cholesterol is mentioned. I may do my dissertation on diabetes and low carb diets, if there are enough research studies available on it (we need about 50 to start with). I'm gradually infecting others with my knowledge though... Thanks for the research info Hesdesdjim. I will look out for the book you've mentioned, I do like a well researched book!