New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest

[prettybird]

Stepping in to BIWI's big shoes and with a loan of her Big Stick, I take a big gulp and lead the first Boot Camp of 2018.

Here is a link to the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness If your name is not on it, because either it got lost in one of the many copy and pastes, or because you "signed up" after 0732 on Friday, which was when SayrraT produced the spreadsheet, you can add your name add the bottom and at some point it will be re-ordered alphabetically. NB: there is no obligation to add or your name or to weigh-in weekly - this is for those that find the weekly weigh-ins useful for motivation or accountability

These are the Rules for Boot Camp. They are also on one of the tabs of the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness (SoF).

You need to follow The Rules for the first two weeks of Boot Camp. This gives your body a chance to "fat adapt" and for you to learn to eat because you are hungry, not because you crave carbs/sugar. As you get used to this Way of Eating (WoE), you will be amazed to find how often you are not hungry. You will find your fat stores give you sufficient energy.

For newbies, it is important to eat 3 meals a day - even if it is just a nominal breakfast/bulletprooof coffee (coffee blended with butter). Otherwise, you may find that hunger - or habit - will lead you to fall face first back into carby twatdom and then you need to start that process of fat-adaption all over again. Some of us who have now been low carbing for a while have found that we can follow 16:8 fasting or even the occasional 24 hour fast - but this is not something to be done in the early weeks. Don't try to restrict your fat because you think you are having too many calories, as they are important for the process of encouraging your body to change the way it uses its fuel.

So, here are the Rules. After 2 weeks I (or whoever takes over the next stint of the BIWI Replacement Programme ) the rules will be posted for Boot Camp Lite. Many of us who are still actively trying to lose weight tend to follow "full" Boot Camp during the week (maybe with extra berries and nuts) and then allow a small amount of alcohol at the weekend).

1. 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!)"

2. Avoid processed foods.
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.

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. 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

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. 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."

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. No nuts/seeds (unless you are veggie: check the SoF for veggie rules)

10. 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.

That's useful Jerm. Is the celeriac rice frozen too?

Pretty - it has never ocurred to me to put milk in rooibos tea, but I made a cup at work yesterday and a colleague expressed surprise that I wasn't having milk in it. I can only drink Earl Grey and derivatives black as well, but they also fall into the "occasional only" category for me.

WhoKnows I sometimes have a teaspoon of coconut oil in rooibos tea. It makes it extra satisfying (if you're peckish) and moisturises your lips at the same time.

I can't quite get my head round oily tea if I'm honest Stunt. I'm strictly a skimmed milk in tea person normally as full fat milk tastes too greasy. The rooibos is fine black (well, red) so long as it is weak.

BTW I'm not using skimmed milk now, at home I have unsweetened almond milk, the problem is at work where we only have semi-skimmed and all make each other drinks so unless you remember to pipe up and ask for something else you get tea with SS (tea is at fixed times and the first person to the kitchen makes it, not like an office where people ask if you want one).

@ShagMeRiggins I am not entirely sure what I meant by ff celery! Must have been about to write ff yoghurt but got distracted!

I also sometimes put a teaspoonful of coconut oil in my rooibos or herb tea. I don't notice the oiliness (although you do need to careful not to drink it too hot ); instead it gives the tea a sort of "roundness". And as StuntNun says, it moisturises your lips at the same time

Morning!

I'm thrilled with myself - I got my second wind on my run today! Didn't actually believe in the concept, but it really does exist! I was doing W6R2 of C25K. Monday's run was fine, despite having been off plan for three weeks. Yesterday's was horrible. Today's first 10 min run was again fairly torturous, then I debated walking for longer in between, but decided that would only prolong the agony. When it got to the 5 min mark of that run I was really wanting to give up, but then, about 30 secs later, my legs realized I wasn't giving in so decided to enjoy themselves, and I ended up putting an extra 2.5 mins on the end. And I could honestly have kept going!!! I do now have a stomach ache, mind, but that will calm down soon enough, I hope!

Re Fathead Pizza - what's the deal with the ground almonds? According to Tesco they contain 6.9g carbs per 100g. Isn't that ok?

Morning, all. Still sticking to the plan, despite some serious wobbles over wine (another issue entirely I think!), and am SO pleased to find that this morning I actually feel quite peaceful and content about the whole thing. The last 4 or 5 days have been horrendous emotionally, and I'm a bit gobsmacked that letting go (ok, white-knuckle levering go) of bad habits and bad coping mechanisms could have left me as weepy as a child. Exacerbated, no doubt, by pretty's suggestion re the physical effects of hormone release as well.

I have lost 6lbs, my eyes have got their glitter back, my skin looks so much smoother, my jawline is smoothing out, my stomach is nearly flat, I can get back into some old clothes - and the amazing thing is, all this happened ANYWAY while I was off fighting my own head.

And here's a random NSV: the day before yesterday my weight went up on the same day my measurements went down, then yesterday my weight went down but my measurements went up, yet today, though nothing has changed, I have been able to slip through a gap between the bed and the window that yesterday I had to squidge myself through. I can only conclude that whenever your body isn't obviously losing weight, it's because it's redistributing it into a more approved body shape!

Just remembered my other question: doesn anyone have any tips on how to get rid of subcutaneous belly fat? I know my visceral fat has decreased as my waist has got smaller, but I've been taking photos of the overhang and there's really no difference there at all. Any ideas?

Time, no answer to that one, but if I find out, I'm going to patent it! I suspect most of my last 9 lbs is sitting as subcutaneous fat on my lower abdomen.

BadlyParkedRangeRover I didn't miss your question about whether calories matter on this WoE but I have been juggling poorly children (and poorly DH) this week so I've only just found time to write out a reply. I hope you find the following information useful.

Do calories matter on a low carb way of eating?

The short answer is Yes. It is quite possible to overeat on low carb foods and prevent weight loss. The worst culprits are foods that are almost pure fat: bulletproof coffee (coffee with butter and coconut oil); double cream by the spoonful; fat bombs; or multiple coffees with cream throughout the day. Calorie-dense foods are also a potential problem if eaten in excess: nuts; dark chocolate; nut butters; cheese (when eaten as a snack or dessert rather than as part of a meal); and, of course, alcohol.

The good news is that it can be quite difficult to gain weight on a low carb way of eating. There are reports of people regularly eating 2,500-3,000 calories without gaining weight. Sam Feltham performed an n=1 experiment eating over 5,000 low carb calories a day for 21 days and gained less than 3lb AND lost an inch from his waist!

That said, some people do experience weight gain when they first go low carb. The most common cause of this is damage done by previous calorie-controlled diets leading to loss of lean body mass. As soon as you start eating a healthy diet that doesn't limit calories the muscle mass starts to be repaired causing a weight increase in the first week or two. There can also be various metabolic issues where a healing process seems to be needed before weight loss starts. It doesn't mean that low carb won't work for you, it just takes a bit longer before weight loss gets going in earnest.

So why did Atkins and Briffa claim that calories didn't matter on a low carb diet? It's simply because they were writing before the explosion in low carb fake foods. If you're eating a diet of natural, unprocessed meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and low carb vegetables then your appetite will naturally reduce and your weight will drop. Remember as well that while Atkins didn't recommend calorie counting, he did insist on counting and limiting grams of carbs. And this was well before Dave Asprey with his trademarked BULLETPROOF Upgraded Coffee or the invention of fat bombs or "low sugar" Grenade Carb Killa Low Carb Bars (only 13.5g carbs per bar!) Even Atkins are in on the game now with their low carb Atkins Bars full of luscious-sounding ingredients such as polydextrose, humectant, soy oil, and tapioca starch. Yummy, who wouldn't want one? As a rule of thumb I don't eat foods containing ingredients that I wouldn't find in my kitchen at home.

BIWI has been running these Mumsnet Low Carb Bootcamps for years. I can't remember how many but I've been on them for the last five years. Over time the Bootcamp rules have been refined and tweaked, and they will continue to be improved as time goes on and our understanding of the science behind LCHF deepens. The latest changes going on at the moment are the introduction of a maintenance group for Bootcampers who have reached their goal weight; and an add-on at the end of Bootcamp for people interested in trying out intermittent fasting.

It's been said time and time again: Bootcamp works. Follow the rules and it will work for you. I reached my ideal weight on Bootcamp and now I'm evangelical about it! Ask questions, post your meals for the day and ask for feedback, and never be afraid to ask for help. There are quite a few of us old-timers hanging around and we'll have seen almost every issue before.

TimeIhadaNameChange - there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the ground almonds - indeed, after the first 2 weeks, they're fine (and used a lot on the Boot Camp recipe thread).

It's just that we're strict about no nuts (or seeds) in the first 2 weeks as they are both calorie intense and very more-ish - and at the moment we are trying to give our bodies the chance to say if it is truly hungry and for our brains to be ready to hear It's easier just to have a blanket ban than to say x grammes are ok but x+1 grammes are not ok It's only 2 weeks after all

Athelstane - good for you did letting go of those bad habits And what brilliant NSVs: a great example of what we have been saying - this WoE can change/improve your shape even when the scales don't move I'm not sure I could be bothered measuring every day even though I weigh on a daily basis (Easy to step on the scales, it takes longer to find and use the tape measure).

Re the subcutaneous fat - I don't have an answer either, but I did once read an article about advice for over 40s losing weight (where that overhang is a particular issue) and a few of the points were: not to lose weight too fast (so the ongoing 1-2lb/week is good ); moisturise your skin to improve its elasticity ie hold that fat in (although iirc, it did acknowledge that some of that was genetic: eg did you or your mother get stretch marks when pregnant); and combine with exercise.

I'll see if I can find it again.

I’ve added that celeriac rice to next week’s Ocado shop, thanks jerm!

TimeI I know the answer to how to minimise the tummy overhang but you're not going to like it! You need to reduce your body fat percentage to around 20% (for reference I'm a size 12 with a BMI of 24 and my body fat percentage is around 28%). As well as losing fat, you lower your body fat percentage by building lean body mass, i.e. muscle mass. My preferred method is free weight training using compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, barbell rows, and overhead presses such as the Stronglifts program. You will probably need to do specific waist training exercises as well. The stomach vacuum is a relatively easy way to trim your waist and you can do it while you're commuting, sitting at your desk, brushing your teeth, etc. The kettlebell swing is really good for your core muscles (abs and lower back). The basic plank is another brilliant way to strengthen your core. I think the most effective exercise is Pilates which, as well as strengthening your core, has specific exercises for your transverse abdominis (the muscles that wrap around your waist like Spanx and are often weakened by pregnancy) and obliques (the muscles as the side of your waist) rather than just focusing on the "six pack" muscles (the rectus abdominis which is strengthened by situps.) Strengthening your TA and obliques will improve your posture and stabilise your lower abdomen muscles to hold your tummy in. Another benefit to Pilates exercises is that they are great for your pelvic floor which is a good way to prevent incontinence as you get older and may also improve your sex life!

Do you wish you hadn't asked now?

Oh another factor on the tummy overhang is that it is likely to be "stubborn" fat, i.e. the last fat that you lose and the first fat that you gain if you put on weight. Intermittent fasting might be another way to tackle that area.

Just tried the brussels microwaved in butter. SO much nicer than microwaving in water then adding the butter after!

I did burn my thumb taking the cling film off though

Pleased to say I sort of do most of them StuntNun Well, I do a Pilates class once a week and the Shred (or Ripped) 4 days a week (with 1.5 to 2.5kg weights). Don't go to the gym so I don't do bench presses The Pilates has made a real difference and even after 18.5 years doing it with an excellent teacher, I still have epiphanies as to "so that's what I should be doing". I have some permanent pelvic floor damage after having ds, but the strength of the "remaining" muscles means I don't have the normal embarrassing consequences

However, I'm nowhere near that body fat percentage yet : still in the "Overweight" BMI category and even when I achieve my 20th Wedding Anniversary target (10 stone 9lb - need to lose 5lb/month between now and then ), I'll only just be into "normal" BMI. I'll review and possibly set a new target then

Thunderbolts - I use a plate to cover the top of the bowl. Saves the planet, saves money and saved your thumb as it is easier to lift carefully

badlyparkedrangerover this is my first Bootcamp so I obviously don't have Stuntnun's experience but I was concerned about the calorie aspect of this so did do a bit of reading. Where I got to was that, for me, rather than HFLC this needs to be FLGVLC with the "FLGV" standing for "f&&& loads green veg". Whilst I am eating skin on chicken, ate some of the fat on my steak, I am being careful of how much cream & cheese I have, especially as I could easily eat unlimited quantities of both. So I am buying those pre-packaged bits of cheese (the cheddar variation of a babybel type thing) and having one of those rather than slicing a bit of the block we have in the fridge & then having a bit more & then tidying it up. Likewise, I was a bit heavy handed with the cream in my scrambled egg this morning so didn't have mayo with my salad just now. I did, though, have half an avocado as that is a different source of fat. Actually, that's something else, I only had half an avocado when I could easily have eaten all of it. I am "only" 11st and have a very sedentary lifestyle so think I need to be more careful than some others do of overall intake.

Re the calories: I stopped having cream in my coffee as I realised I'd started having it because I could- and I actually preferred it black - and I reckoned I was having enough fat elsewhere (with my chicken skin and lots of buttery brussels).

Hope today is going well for everyone. M&S were out of sparkling water this morning so I ended up buying a bottle of this. What do you think? It seems to be sweetener and sugar free.

Link?

Aggh! Picture didn't post! I can't find it on the website either. I'll try again from my computer.

Try again! as you can see I have already drunk it