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Low-carb bootcamp

Join discussions about low-carb bootcamp plans, meals and progress. Consider speaking to a medical professional before starting any diet.

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

999 replies

prettybird · 08/01/2018 08:37

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. ShockGrin

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 Wink

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.

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Thread gallery
29
YoLoHogwomanay · 12/01/2018 13:46

sorry for the wobble btw

Rshard · 12/01/2018 13:59

Just seen the recipe on Ocado, has peppers in so for bootcamp light but sounds lovely

New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest
New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest
ShagMeRiggins · 12/01/2018 14:03

Want to catch up on the thread later, but here's a link to an article about 23 low carb v low cal studies, and the results.

I found it really interesting. It's certainly a must read for anyone considering counting calories at this early stage of the game! Wink

lisbapalea · 12/01/2018 14:04

Definitely recommend the pork belly at Ask - it's amazing! just swap the potatoes for more broccoli or a rocket salad!

Checking in to log my food for the day:

B - greek yog with cinnamon, coffee with cream
L - M&S egg and bacon side salad (minus the tomatoes) with a pack of peri peri chicken
D - going to have home made thai duck salad

StuntNun · 12/01/2018 14:07

YoLo the thing is that the tide is turning. There are various prominent doctors and scientists that are promoting low carb. Think of Dr Aseem Malhotra (cardiologist), Dr David Unwin (GP), Dr Jason Fung (nephrologist), Dr Robert Lustig (paediatric endocrinologist), Dr Zoe Harcombe (public health nutrition researcher), Prof Tim Noakes (sports scientist), Dr Andreas Eenfeldt (former family GP and founder of Diet Doctor). There are heavyweights in lots of different fields patiently researching, blogging, discussing... and legitimising low carb.

StuntNun · 12/01/2018 14:15

Oh and YoLo take a look at the register of interests for the SACN (the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition). I'm not saying that the members are necessarily biased you may draw your own conclusions, but neither is there any evidence of interests that coincide with promoting a low carb diet. There's nobody in that group to say, "Hey what about cutting carbohydrate intake?" I'm afraid we're going to have to keep watching and waiting. I guarantee that things will change but it will take time.

ilovecherries · 12/01/2018 14:17

I was sad the other day in Tesco. There was a school group in - maybe 9 years old - with their teacher and an in-store 'educationist' of some sort. The kids were given a trolley and told to shop for a healthy breakfast. I sort of stalked them as I was curious to see what happened. All bar one of the kids had selected a cereal, bread, juice and some kind of spread - mainly Nutella from what I could see. They were all getting praised about how the juice was one of their 5 a day, and how the cereal and bread would give them energy all morning, and while Nutella was high fat so they shouldn't eat too much it was full of nuts for protein etc. They were advised that all they'd missed was skimmed milk for the cereal. There was one little outlier who'd brought back sausages beans and eggs. He was reminded about the need for low fat, and while the beans were good for his 5 a day, there was nothing in his breakfast to give him energy, and eggs were full of cholesterol which caused heart disease. I felt really sad. For the whole group. All I could see was dysfunctional relations with food in the making.

ShagMeRiggins · 12/01/2018 14:18

Wh0Knows, look away now, this post is for butter and salt lovers Wink

Something else I wanted to mention for those who want more salt--I cook with properly salted French butter. That is, butter with small rock salt in it (as opposed to lightly salted smooth butter or spreads). I promise you it's bloody amazing.

Can't get Noirmoutier Sel de Mer in the U.K. (we stock up on it when in France), but these two versions from Waitrose are a very decent replacement.

The electric butter dish was amusing! We keep our salted butter in a butter dish by the hob. Never in the refrigerator, even in summer. No one has died or been poisoned.

New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest
New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest
ShagMeRiggins · 12/01/2018 14:24

ilovecherries Angry

Skimmed fucking milk. SMH.

littleladylawyer · 12/01/2018 14:40

ilovecherries how infuriating, I bet you wanted to jump in and save them. One mother in my family feeds her toddler buckets of fruit and fruit juice as they are 'healthy', then moans about how he is hyperactive and won't sleep. No wonder, with all the sugar she's feeding him!

CointreauVersial · 12/01/2018 14:50

ShagMeRiggins - Lidl do a very similar one, also in a black wrapper (I can't remember if it's a Normandy one or West Country, but it has those lovely crystals of salt - yummy).

Thanks for the Ask recommendations - I tend to rarely order salad in a restaurant as I eat so many at home, but the pork belly sounds lush.

StuntNun · 12/01/2018 14:52

Right, the next essay topic is water. Cherries asked about the science of water intake. BadlyParkedRangeRover asked whether water is required to dilute blood ketones and suppress negative feedback. You guys are working me pretty hard here!

Why do you need to drink more water on a low carb diet?

If you’ve read any low carb websites you’ll have noticed that the issue of water crops up again and again. You need to drink more water on a low carb diet than on the Standard UK (SUK) diet love that acronym! Grin because lower insulin levels cause more fluid to be excreted by the kidneys. You’re losing more fluid as urine so you need to increase your fluid intake to compensate. Also, as you retain less water on a low carb diet, the body has a smaller reserve to deal with mild dehydration therefore not drinking enough water will affect you sooner on a low carb diet.

As an aside the electrolyte imbalances that cause carb flu are a side effect of the increased water loss. The water takes electrolytes (sodium, potassium and magnesium) into the urine with it resulting in headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and sometimes leg cramps). An additional factor is that on Bootcamp/Bootcamp Light your sodium intake massively drops since you aren’t consuming processed foods or breads, which are often high in salt.

Just cutting carbs down on carbs means that your basic water requirement goes up.

However, there are lots of benefits to making sure you are adequately hydrated on a low carb diet.

Clear benefits:

  1. Organs function optimally allowing your liver to metabolise stored fat at full capacity.
  2. Preventing water retention.
  3. Avoiding constipation.
  4. Reducing keto breath.

A bit tenuous:

  1. Ensuring the waste products of metabolism are adequately removed.
  2. May prevent sagging skin since muscle tone is maintained.
  3. Ketones are excreted in the urine which may cause a small caloric loss.
  4. Promoting whooshes.

How much water should you drink?

As a very rough rule of thumb everyone should drink a minimum of 2 litres per day (an extra 500ml of water will come from your food.) Add another 250ml per 25 lb overweight. Drink more if you’re in a warm climate or engaging in any activity that makes you sweat.

You can count up to two cups of tea or coffee towards your water intake but you can’t drink two litres of coffee and no water!

You should be sipping drinks throughout the day. If you down a pint of water in one then most of it will go straight to your bladder and won’t be fully absorbed into your system.

If you want to check your hydration levels then your urine should be light yellow in colour. If it’s dark yellow, drink more water; if it’s clear then you’re drinking too much water. Also, if you’re peeing more than 8 times a day then you may be drinking too much water or gulping it down too quickly.

Finally, if you find that water isn’t quenching your thirst or that the “water isn’t wet enough” that’s a sign that you need more electrolytes.

TheWayOfTheWorld · 12/01/2018 15:34

I am loving all the science StuntNun. And some of that salted butter will be finding its way into my Ocado trolley later Cherries.

So, sort of a NSV for me - am off to hairdresser shortly and they normally ply me with prosecco and popcorn (classy). I am preparing to take a creamy coffee in a travel mug and some olives and a couple of M&S rollitos. Not sure how I am going to not need the toilet though...

On another note, does anyone has a good chilli recipe? I am eyeing up my can of chopped tomatoes warily...

weebarra · 12/01/2018 15:44

This is Tom Kerridge's curried cauliflower soup, DH made it today. The DCs were unimpressed, but I quite liked it!

New Year, New Start Boot Camp: Week 1, Now we get down to it in earnest
ShagMeRiggins · 12/01/2018 16:15

weebarra I wanted you to know that I laughed out loud when I saw your joyous post that said only "celeriac chips!"

Thinking on it now, that might have been a correction or a response to a question, but at the time it seemed that you had just tried them and loved them so it was a "eureka!" moment. Grin

ShagMeRiggins · 12/01/2018 16:17

If it was a eureka moment, I felt like that whenafter two BootcampsI finally got around to making celeriac dauphinois for the first time last week. Lush lush lush.

weebarra · 12/01/2018 16:18

Yes Shag, it was a Eureka moment. They were really gorgeous.

prettybird · 12/01/2018 16:34

TheWayOfTheWorld - I just make my ordinary chilli (which has plenty of hidden veg a hang over from trying to get veg into ds - food processor blitzed leeks, shallots, a carrot, garlic) and don't put in the kidney beans (or rather, take out "my" portion and put the kidney beans into the rest). I hate intensely mushrooms, but sliced mushrooms might be a substitute for the beans to bulk it up. Also, once on Boot Camp Lite, sliced peppers (which I also dislike even more intensely, so didn't even know they weren't Boot Camp compatible Wink)

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TheWayOfTheWorld · 12/01/2018 16:36

Thanks prettybird no kidney beans here and hadn't thought of mushrooms (which fried in butter are the food of the gods!). Do you use chopped toms as the base for your sauce?

prettybird · 12/01/2018 16:39

I do. As long as there is plenty of mince and sofrito, I reckon 1 can amongst c6-8 portions is ok, as long as you don't have a tomato based dish every night.

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PrincessPeaPod · 12/01/2018 16:40

Gutted. First monthly after having my baby, felt like absolute garbage and ended up having a slice of choc cake at lunch. Feel so stupid as I worked really hard this week on food prep and being in the zone. Feel like a total looser 😔

cathyandclare · 12/01/2018 16:43

That soup looks gorgeous.

I'm koko, have been taking daily pics of my face because I've noticed that carbs make my eyes puffy and make me look old and grey and pasty. There's a noticeable difference already. It's a definite NSV. I'll keep taking pics for the whole month and see what happens.
B: Bacon, egg, mushrooms
L: Leek and celeriac soup
S: I've made some spiced pulled pork and will have with green veggies of some sort.

prettybird · 12/01/2018 16:58

PrincessPeaPod - it's happened. Pick yourself up, get back on the wagon and KOKO. Flowers

Go and have some water. Maybe consider extending full Boot Camp by a few days.

In future, if you choose to go off-piste ( after the first 2 weeks as an absolute minimum) , do so for something that is worth it and that couldn't be repeated. Do so mindfully, rather than just falling mindlessly into carby twatdom.

I succeed in resisting croissants and pain au chocolat, by telling myself that I can have one at any time. They'll still be available tomorrow and the day after and the day after that Wink

That's why, at Christmas when I took a short time off Boot Camp I had a small slice of Christmas cake and two mince pies only meant to have one Blush

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littleladylawyer · 12/01/2018 17:00

Sorry to hear that PrincessPeaPod. I would say draw a line under it and focus on a solid BC rest of the day and weekend. Is there anything you think you could have done to prevent it, like having snacks with you, or maybe reading a bit of the thread when the urge strikes?

I used to force myself to step away from the cake, put a 20 minute timer on and have a glass of water. I found in time that during that 20 mins I could rationalise the urge for sugar and convince myself that it wouldn't be worth it

prettybird · 12/01/2018 17:07

That's good advice littleladylawyer Smile

The other option - if feasible - is to come on here and get the Boot Campers to help talk you down from the temptation.

In time, the pull of sugar will lessen and it becomes easier to resist inappropriate temptation.

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