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Low-carb bootcamp

Week 3 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - we move on to Bootcamp Light!

932 replies

BIWI · 05/06/2017 07:46

Morning all

Here's the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness once more

I hope that the scales reflect the efforts you've made over the last, strict apart from the cheating fortnight.

Now you have a choice. You can either move on to Bootcamp Light, which allows a bit of fruit (berries mainly), for you to include nuts/seeds - again, occasionally, and also a moderate amount of alcohol. Rules for Bootcamp Light are on the spreadsheet, but to make it even easier for you here they are:

1. 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.

2. Avoid processed food

Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals – meat/fish/eggs.

You may include processed meats like bacon or (low carb) sausages, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, gammon - but please don’t have these at every meal or every day. As well as being highly processed they often contain undesirable ingredients, can add unnecessary extra carbs into your diet, and often include sugar.

3. Eat lots of fat

Eating fat helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer. 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 and has too many carbs), 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 the bulk of your carbs should come from, and this is non-negotiable. But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list. 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.
Beware that some of the veg on the allowed list can be surprisingly high in carbs once you make up a portion of it – this is because they are denser, and therefore you tend to use more – compare, for example, 100g of onion with 100g lettuce! Keep your focus on those veg which contain 3g carbs per 100g and use these as the focus of your meals. Use those over 3g per 100g sparingly.

5. 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.

6. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day

Even if you’re drinking more tea/coffee than in Bootcamp, this is still a non-negotiable part of this WOE. And the more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink. Water helps to flush out the ketones that your body will product – so flushing out the fat. However, drinking this amount of water can affect your electrolyte balance; you need to make sure that you get plenty of sodium and potassium. There is less need to worry about restricting salt if you’re eating a low carb diet. Good sources of potassium are salmon and avocado. You could also consider supplements if you have an issue with this.

7. 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.

8. 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)

9. 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.

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

10. 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.

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Fortunatepiggy · 05/06/2017 15:53

Aah yes thanks sarrya! I think this weight loss is affecting my brain!

Will update now

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dustmotesinthesun · 05/06/2017 15:54

Thank you for all the support you lovely lot.

I will try to keep posting here. I've been so exhausted the last couple of weeks it's been hard

H.A.L.T sounds great. I know from a lot of work I did last year that lonely and tired are big triggers for me eating but I'm lonely and tired a lot. A lot, a lot. So to continually not give in and not binge is hard. I manage it 90% of the time, to give myself some credit. Stressed is a trigger too but life is stressful with chronic health issues so I have to find another way of coping. I will keep trying. I was finding it really lovely looking at ebay for nice new clothes instead of comfort eating and that was really helping the binging but I was spending too much then. I was also trying to moisturise my legs too as an act of self care but some days i'm too chuffing tired. I crochet so will try to do more of that. June I actually have some fun stuff planned which is lovely, it just makes my exhaustion worse so i'm at higher risk of overeating.



Thta India Knight book looks good. I'll have a read, thank you. And actually last weekend I didn't overeat, i just remembered. That was the weekend i'd planned well and had loads of low carb snacks in. So another great idea to stock up. Such a simple thing but it would help.

Keeping busy is also good. If i could be busier i'd be fine. I just have to keep trying to do low key stuff though.

I am being stern with myself now and saying come on. I can do this. I'm really proud of my progress overall this year. I have definitely lost. Just got to get with it.

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ScoobyDoosTinklyLaugh · 05/06/2017 16:05

Hello new thread! I haven't caught up yet.

I've maintained this week but I'm happy because I look slimmer.

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MOIST · 05/06/2017 16:06

Bloody husband has given me his cold. I feel like crap. Coughing my lungs up. Can I have a lemsip?

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WaaWaaWaaa · 05/06/2017 16:09

Hi guys! I posted on the other thread by mistake this morning (on phone).

Still over the moon as I've lost 14 lbs! 😱😀 I'm thrilled as no starving involved (as you well know) no shakes, fasting, counting, synning or bloody starving to death! Two more weeks to holiday so I'll
Stick to BC and see what more I can shave off by then.

Even my dh is impressed as he's enjoying the food and he's seen me do every diet and fad under the sun.

Well done everyone! KOKO

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ilovecherries · 05/06/2017 16:16

That's great, Waa, glad you feel much more optimistic.

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LegoCaltrops · 05/06/2017 16:29

I've only done 1 week so far, so I presume I need to stay on BC for a bit longer. I love this WOE, I've tried for so long to shift the last bit of baby weight (I already lost 3st but then stalled) & nothing works for me. This does, so far. And I'm not constantly hungry either, which is horribly triggering for me.

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Grah0SoontobeaFatty · 05/06/2017 16:30

Hi All, hope we are all a happy bunch of losers this week. I know I am but do realize a long flight and late night weight was bound to include a lot of water retention, so the spreadsheet sheet is showing 10.6 loss but it is really on the beer and bad food from the last week of my vacation. Of to a week of meetings in Calgary so restaurant salads and breakfast omelets - just need to avoid the coffee snacks and lunchtime rolls. good Luck and have a great Day 1 of 56 left.

No one cheats on Day 1 - Do they?

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glenthebattleostrich · 05/06/2017 16:40

Wow, some fantastic losses here, well done. Some great NSVs too.

Dust, do you do any of the squares for woolly hugs? I find doing them on an evening helps with the not bingeing, though some nights nothing but a g&t, some pork scratchings and a cheese mountain will do.

Today's food started so well with chai tea and coconut oil for breakfast, then a prawn salad for lunch. I clearly needed more fat as by 3 I was eating a keto muffin and some pork scratchings. I also o my had 1.5 litres of water so probably needed more of that. I'm on my second 750ml bottle now. I find 4 litres seems to be the right amount for me at the mo.

Dinner will be rib eye steak with asparagus fried in butter.

Then I'm going to go through the recipe thread and some recipe books and do some proper meal planning so I'm not just grabbing whatever is at the front of the fridge. I'm also running tonight, week 5, run 3 of couch to 10k.

KOKO everyone

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TheWayOfTheWorld · 05/06/2017 16:42

Oo, that's fab Waa

Dust I think most of the battle is understanding why we think and act the way we do and then recognising the triggers - good luck Flowers

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ClearEyesFullHearts · 05/06/2017 16:44

Hi everyone. Congratulations to all who lost weight, stayed the same, or gained. The real victory is coming here and sharing, as it indicates you're not giving up.

I haven't weighed today as I was out of town at a concert last night and the hotel didn't have scales. Im thenonterests of consistency I will weigh tomorrow at my usual time (morning, before food/drink, naked, and preferably post-wee & definitely post-...elimation. Hmm

The concert I went to was actually at the invitation of corporate hospitality, so we had loads of everything laid on for us at no cost. I thought I'd been clever with my menu choices but a few things went wrong:

  1. I woke late and didn't manage breakfast before leaving.


  1. I didn't drink enough water in daytime as two-hour drive and would have needed stops.


  1. I hadn't reckoned that nearly all canapés come with a carb base (why not a salad leaf, eh?)


So I had about five canapés then moved on to starter of some kind of poached, crusted egg with asparagus. Fine--pulled batter away and ate the good stuff.

My carefully planned main turned out to be beef but also a mini beef pie with spinach and mountains of carrots and chunky chips (in a Jenga-style stack). Fine. Ate the beef, pulled the filling out of mini-pastry and ate it (nobody cares, don't be afraid to do this!), ate the teensy blob of spinach, one of the carrots, two of the chips.

Also had a teensy teaspoon of a jelly and a sliver of chocolate for pudding.

Now, I could have ignored all of these things but knew I would have zero opportunity to eat for the rest of the evening, and I knew I had to eat.

So this looks like a failure on paper, butbfor me it's a victory. I did not say "the hell with it, a girl's gotta eat," and chow down everything put to me. Instead I thought through and managed each bite, with the aim of feeding myself properly.

Drank copious amounts of water to make up for shortfall during the day.

Also drank a few white wines. Andblissthe post-concert foo/snack was loads of local cheese and pork pies (crusts off).

I reckon I actually stayed under 50 carbs for the day, rather than the normal 15--30 I would get from following Bootcamp precisely.

I'm going into this detail to say that what BIWI says is truethere's too much "cheating" herebut...if you go off course try to stay on the correct route by making considered choices. Don't just say, "oh, I'm crashing into the iceberg anyway so might as well stop trying to steer."

You're the captain of your ship. Keep steering. Wink
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WaaWaaWaaa · 05/06/2017 17:10

@cleareyesfullhearts "You're the captain of your ship. Keep steering"

Love this!

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dustmotesinthesun · 05/06/2017 17:15

Absolutely Way of the World. Also just remembering all the stuff you've learnt and keeping it in the forefront of your mind.

Glen, funny you should say that, I have some wool sitting here to do just that tonight! I need to get into doing more

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styledilemma · 05/06/2017 17:19

I've spent nearly all afternoon tracking down, (or should I say sourcing' Smile coconut flour and linseed flour (well the closest I could find was 'ground linseed}
-I found the small, over priced imo bag of coconut flour in Hollande & Barrett.
I then found a packet of ground Linseed in M & S. It's the smallest packet you've ever seen in your life.


So, even if these blimmin loaves turn out to be disgusting I will smother the slices with butter and eat them any way.

considering how small the bags are, for the price, it will be too expensive to waste

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styledilemma · 05/06/2017 17:28

.if you go off course try to stay on the correct route by making considered choices. Don't just say, "oh, I'm crashing into the iceberg anyway so might as well stop trying to steer."

thewayoftheworld I like that advice.
It's like a pp said, her daughter will be making her a birthday cake. She's going to have a small piece so as not to offend her daughter, but is not going to think well I've blown it, I might as well eat lots

It's weighing up the odds and working out what's best.
Basically, it's staying switched on at all times and not giving in to mindless eating

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styledilemma · 05/06/2017 17:30

Sorry, that was to ClearEyes.

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HemanOrSheRa · 05/06/2017 17:32

I've made a flaxseed loaf. It's very nice! I had two of the thinnest slices I could cut with some pate as a snack. I'm having a funny day my usual routine has gone out of the window and mealtimes along with it.

Week 3 - Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - we move on to Bootcamp Light!
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ClearEyesFullHearts · 05/06/2017 17:36

Bootcamp Leaders...

I noticed the bottom of the spreadsheethas a field for Biggest Loser of the Week. Out of curiosity, is that leftover and not being used, or is the intention to fill it?

I was thinking it would be lovely recognition for someone (not me) who has achieved the best percentage each week. But I don't actually mind, really.

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ClearEyesFullHearts · 05/06/2017 17:50

style --yes. Mindful eating is the goal. I see so much self-loathing and good/bad language surrounding weight loss.

I've struggled for years up and downsometimes fabulously healthy weight and vowing never to get fat again, other times reaching new highs of weight and becoming overwhelmed by it allit's daunting.

So many of us have emotional patterns or bad habits or ignorance about food and health. These changes don't come easily, but the main goal (for me) is to achieve consistency.

So if I go wrong on a particular way of eating, for example, not to spend three months giving up and eating my face off before trying again.

It's difficult to do but so easy at the same time. Really liked the poster who has been noticing when she has cravings and cracksand has realised so much of it is boredom or loneliness. Which is an easy problem to solveokay, if you're bored or lonely and want to eat, then eat something low carb/high fat.

Also whoever talked about HALT. Was it glen? Very profound questions to ask before turning to something potentially harmful to us, whether it be unhealthy food, or alcohol, or whatever.

Look, I don't want to live a life's perfection and become a health fanatic. My assumption is that once I hit my target weight and target level of health, I will enjoy a burrito or a night on the razz, maybe have a pasta dish each week, etc, and not worry about it.

But for those of us who need to lose weight because we are overweight/obese that way of eating isn't on the cards right now.

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styledilemma · 05/06/2017 17:50

Herman that loaf looks delicious!
My flaxeed says 'milled golden flaxeed' on it. I'm presuming that'll work.

When I make my bread I'm going to let it cool then cut it into thickish slices, wrap each slice up and store them in the freezer, so I can take out a slice at a time.
If I don't do that I will end up cutting a slice off here and there, and before you know it, it will be gone.
I know my weaknesses Hmm

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BIWI · 05/06/2017 17:59

Sorry to hear you're ill @MOIST. Avoid the Lemsip - they will either have sugar or artificial sweeteners in them. Just have paracetamol instead!

@ClearEyesFullHearts - great posts. And spot on.

Re the spreadsheet, that's a leftover from earlier Bootcamps, but if you beg and bribe Sayrra she might be persuaded to revitalise it Smile

OP posts:
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SayrraT · 05/06/2017 18:12

cleareyes we used to use it but one BC people didn't want it, I can't remember why though.

If everyone wants it reinstated I can do it?

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thenightsky · 05/06/2017 18:13

Stayed the same this week Sad

Having said that, I got on the scales on Friday and was 2lb lighter. I must have put those 2lb back on over the weekend. grrr.

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MOIST · 05/06/2017 18:18

I didn't have the lemspi. They are nasty.

However I could murder a g&t. Slimline tonic? Would that be acceptable? (This would count as one of my bcl evenings)

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BIWI · 05/06/2017 18:22

It's acceptable on BCL!

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