Low Carb Bootcamp starting 13 January 2020 - getting ready!

[StuntNun]

If you haven't signed up yet then add your name to the sign-up thread. If you have any questions then you can ask them here or on the chat thread from the last Bootcamp.

If you haven't Bootcamped before then make sure to read the ten Low Carb Bootcamp rules. To summarise them:

1. Eat three meals a day, plus snacks if you're hungry.
2. Avoid processed foods and choose real foods as far as possible.
3. Eat lots of fat. We're replacing carb calories with fat calories.
4. Eat plenty of low carb vegetables and salad.
5. Be careful about dairy apart from butter which is unlimited. Milk is high carb. Cheese, full-fat yogurt and cream are lower carb but I suggest no more than two portions per day.
6. Drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day. This can include herbal tea, bone broth, and bouillon.
7. No alcohol for at least the first two weeks.
8. No fruit for the first two weeks.
9. No nuts/seeds for the first two weeks unless you are vegetarian.

10. No sugar or artificial sweeteners.

You will not be eating starchy foods such as bread, pasta, rice, cereals (yes even porridge), or flour. You will not be eating sugary foods such as cakes, desserts, sweet drinks including fruit juice, biscuits, honey, agave syrup, or balsamic vinegar.

You will be eating real foods: meat, fish, eggs, full-fat cheese and yogurt, healthy fats, and plenty of low carb vegetables. After the first two weeks you can move to Bootcamp Light and reintroduce some low carb fruits, nuts, seeds, and dark chocolate.

Thought I'd post some of this week's menus for those new to this wondering what they might be eating over the next few weeks:

breakfasts - mostly two eggs, scrambled with butter. Our pan has died convinced it's DH not giving it proper respect when washing up but can't prove it so must get a good new non-stick omelette/egg scrambling pan ASAP!

lunch - I take a packed lunch, this week I opened some feta and black olives so will have Greek salad 3 days and maybe egg/tuna mayo on salad the others. Plus Greek yogurt for "pudding".

Dinners -
sea bass, green beans and kale
roast pork, broccoli and Brussels, cauliflower mash
salmon, kale and broccoli
Oxtail Stew (slow cooker) with kale and some leftover mashed swede

laska Chaffles are basically a cup of shredded mozzarella mixed with one egg. Doesn’t really need salt, but onion powder, garlic powder, herbs, chilliest etc can all be added. If you have a waffle maker apparently that amount will make two waffles, but I don’t, so I just put two dollops in a frying pan and flatten them into discs, then fry for about 4 mins each side. I had one with a big green salad for breakfast, it was lovely.

It's definitely not bonkers Teapot I'm a biochemist and a diet coach and I can tell you exactly how LCHF works. If you have PCOS and are overweight then you really need this diet and let me tell you, it's going to change your life. Welcome, and I know you're going to do brilliantly.

Laska eggs are good - low carb, nutritious and filling. My record is 23 in three days.

Thanks for the welcome

It’s nearly 2pm and I’ve just Looked up from my screen and realised I hadn’t had lunch yet . I can’t stress enough how mad that is for me! usually I’m ravenous by 11:30 and eat lunch every day at 12 on the dot. When I thought about it, I was hungry but it’s weird, it’s a totally different kind of hunger. Not sure how to explain that one? It’s not like a finger scratching, gnawing hunger like normal, it’s just an ‘ok i could eat’

Anyway, it’s day 3 for me and today’s menu is:

B: fat coffee (double cream coffee)
L: slow cooker laksa pulled pork (cooked in lard) and stir fry veggies
D: Beef and pork mince ragu - tomato cream sauce, mushrooms and bulked out with spinach. It’s a bit like spag bol but with cream instead of pasta

I’ve got a bit of a headache, I’ve read that’s normal in the first few days?

It’s not like a finger scratching, gnawing hunger like normal, it’s just an ‘ok i could eat’ confused
Toldya! Life changing. I went low carb way back in 2013 and my health has improved so much it's unbelievable. Even if I hadn't lost weight I would still eat this way.

A headache is normal while your body switches from carb-burning to fat-burning. Take a painkiller if it's bad and electrolytes often help with any carb flu symptoms. A little salt and a squeeze of lemon juice in water is an easy way to replace the electrolytes being lost.

Thanks for the tip stuntnun, much appreciated.

You must get so annoyed with noobs like me stating all the things we’ve suddenly found out with this WOE that you’ve known forever

I’ve just realised I’ve been on slimming world on and —mostly— off for 10 years, and in that time gained 5 stone

I’m furiously reading all about PCOS and low carb today, and I simply cannot believe that the NHS advice is still a high carb diet despite the sheer volume of research around that very clearly links insulin resistance to PCOS! The NHS advice sheet itself even discusses the 2 as one and the same thing near enough! Its baffling.

If this works (I still have a tiny bit of skepticism, I’ve been burned so many times by eating plans!) And I lose the weight and have a baby in the next couple of years, I’m going to kick up an almighty racket to raise awareness for the PCOS community, because the advice we’re given is in direct contradiction to this WOE.

I’ve been offered Metformin and have decided to try this instead; I might make the kid Keto if this works

*name the kid Keto

Would like to clarify I’m not going to force feed a baby with lard and double cream

Stuntnun did you do the 3 day egg fast? How did it work for you? I have to admit I decided to give it a go to get into LC quickly , but it day 2 and today and have already broken the rules Have had eggs , but with smoked salmon. Realise of course its a faddy thing, but I thought 3 days wouldn't kill me after o many carbs veggies etc over Christmas . (however I wouldn't recommend it .. its not sustainable nor can be that good for you , one thing though, I am full! ).

Cherries I am going to give the chaffles a go, no waffle maker here either,

Idumped the roasted cauliflower idea for tonight which I was going to have because the eggs have been so filling,that I dont think I can eat anything else today.

Headache has gone, but I will have some lemon in my water now.. good idea

teapot, it’s life changing. When I found boot camp three years ago, I was in the last chance saloon. I didn’t really believe it could possibly work, when nothing else had. I joined on impulse at the last minute and promised myself I would give it 10 weeks of absolute sticking to the rules, with no deviations or exceptions. The deal I made with myself was that if I lost 10 lbs in the 10 weeks I would stick with it, and if I didn’t, I was having a gastric band because I was just done. Worn out, exhausted, sick, constantly hungry and very unhappy. In fact I lost 21lbs. Over the rest of the year, I lost another 4.5 stone. I felt and looked better than I had ever done. Even took up running . As long as I stayed on it - ie, kept my carbs low enough and my fat high enough, my weight didn’t budge either way once I had lost it all. Over the last three months I’ve taken my eye off the ball a bit. Been eating slightly more carbs, and a lot less fat and I have seen that reflected in the scales to the tune of ten pounds, but I’m only three days into a reset, and it’s already started to skip off again, without any pain or dieting mindset. I realise for me that it isn’t a case of ‘only once won’t hurt’, it is for life. But it’s so worth it.

ilocecherries bloody hell, that’s amazing!

I like your thinking: give it 10 weeks and see what happens, that speaks to my skeptical side!

I was diagnosed with PCOS 5 years ago after my periods went haywire and I was struggling pretty badly with depression. The advice was ‘this is what you have, lose weight and it will get better’ which is fine, but I followed their diet advice and subsequently gained a stone a year ever since in the meantime I was stuck on low fat Calorie restricted diets feeling guilty about every bit of food I ate and got into a massively unhealthy cycle. My weight ballooned from a podgy 15st at 5ft 5, to 20st as of last week.

We decided we wanted a kid last January and I’ve had 2 miscarriages since then. Feedback from the doctors was that I no longer qualify for help with the PCOS, because we’ve successfully conceived and that even if the miscarriages are related, they can’t offer any other treatments because I’m obese... largely because of the fucking diet advice they give.

Best they could do was offer me Metformin so my conversation with the GP the other day was supposed to be about that, but I got a locum who pointed me at low carb and you guys before metformin which I’m much happier about!

So it’s been a long road and much like you were ilovecherries, this is the last chance saloon for me. If this doesn’t get my weight down and my periods under control I’m royally fucked, and will probably be on metformin for the next 20 years with all the side effects that brings.

I hope this is as life changing as you guys are saying, I’m SO ready for it to be

You must get so annoyed with noobs like me stating all the things we’ve suddenly found out with this WOE that you’ve known forever
I do not. I owe my health and my normal BMI to this way of eating and I'm evangelical about it. I've stuck around for 7 years after reaching my goal weight because I want other people to be able to make the change too. I was 11.5 stone when I started back in 2013; who knows what weight I would be, and how sick I would be, if I hadn't stumbled across BIWI's Bootcamp. I've since made it my profession as a diet coach.

I’ve just realised I’ve been on slimming world on and mostly off for 10 years, and in that time gained 5 stone
A lot of people do really well on Slimming World but I think if you're metabolically damaged or have an underlying hormonal issue then restricting calories isn't going to work well. You need to address the hormonal drivers of hunger and you can't do that through willpower alone.

I’m furiously reading all about PCOS and low carb today, and I simply cannot believe that the NHS advice is still a high carb diet despite the sheer volume of research around that very clearly links insulin resistance to PCOS! The NHS advice sheet itself even discusses the 2 as one and the same thing near enough! Its baffling.
Baffling is one one word for it. I would say you should be angry. You've been doing everything "right", or at least everything you were told was right, and it's left you overweight with your health so at risk that you need metformin.

I’ve been offered Metformin and have decided to try this instead
LCHF (low carb high fat) will improve your insulin sensitivity and lower your glucose and HbA1c. To get optimum results you may want to consider adding in some intermittent fasting towards the end or after Bootcamp. It's something we'll be chatting about over the course of the Bootcamp threads.

Stuntnun did you do the 3 day egg fast? How did it work for you? I have to admit I decided to give it a go to get into LC quickly

Laska I wouldn't recommend the egg fast at this point. I think it's most useful for someone that's already fat-adapted and wants to lose a few pounds quickly, for example after gaining weight while away on holiday. Although adding salmon is a good move IMO because the egg fast is far too low in protein. One of my suggested modifications to the egg fast is to add in a small quantity of meat or fish each day. But certainly at the start of going low carb you'll get great results from Bootcamp, there's no need for anything more restrictive.

stunt so I’ve read. My understanding is that PCOS disrupts your ability to detect insulin over time, so your body keeps releasing it. Insulin tells your body to be in ‘store fat’ mode, so the more you have whizzing about, the more fat you store and the less you use as energy.

Still not got my head around why exactly PCOS does that in the first place so if you can shed any light that would be great.

To your point about anger: I am angry, but I think being this size makes you angry at yourself first. I’m not fat because of PCOS, I’m THIS fat because of it and I haven’t lost weight successfully because of it. I’m fat in the first place because I always have been. My lowest adult weight ever is 15st, so it’s not like I’ve ever been healthy.

Anyway, looks like I’ve got a lot more research to do over the next 10 weeks and if this works, I’ll be shouting from the rooftops about the piss poor NHS advice women with PCOS are given don’t worry

My understanding is that PCOS disrupts your ability to detect insulin over time, so your body keeps releasing it.
Ah no, you've got it backwards. It's insulin that stimulates the ovaries to produce testosterone in excess. That's one reason why a low carb diet is so effective in restoring fertility in women with a PCOS - reducing insulin allows levels of the hormones controlling ovulation (luteinising hormone [LH] and follicle stimulating hormone [FSH]) to return to normal levels. High insulin stimulates testosterone production in all women, but in those with PCOS much more testosterone is released in response to insulin.

^Insulin tells your body to be in ‘store fat’ mode, so the more you have whizzing about, the more fat you store and the less you use as energy.
^Exactly. In the presence of insulin your fat cells only allow fat to enter and not to leave. When insulin levels are low, for example when eating a diet restricted in carbohydrates, then fat flows freely in and out of the fat cells. This is why appetite reduces when you become fat-adapted - the body suddenly has free access to a ready source of fuel and demands less food allowing weight loss without hunger. You're not hungry because your body is still using its 2,000 calories per day, it's just that 500 of those calories come from your own fat stores. Contrast that with a low calorie diet that isn't low carb - the gates on the fat cells stay closed so you end up hungry and your metabolism reduces to match the reduced calorie intake. Whereas on a low carb diet your metabolism stays the same allowing you to lose weight faster without having to consciously restrict calories.

Still not got my head around why exactly PCOS does that in the first place so if you can shed any light that would be great.
I don't think anyone really knows. PCOS is a complex disease of the endocrine system.

Thanks stunt, that makes a lot more sense!

stuntnun yes good thought.. I tried it because thought that maybe a few days of extra low carb would be a kick start.. but in any case I am not going to do it again tomorrow. ,I felt a bit yuk this evening after more eggs..
I went out for a fast walk to make stomach feel less uncomfortable..and then when I got home , had to rush to the loo (tmi!)
Tomorrow, it will be protein and veg..but not egg!

I’m off to a swanky industry event tonight and there’s food and cocktails

Any advice how to navigate this??

Teapot eat before you go. Even if everything there is a carby nightmare then you can still eat the garnish and often the fillings from sandwiches. If you have an alcoholic drink then make sure it's a low carb one and don't have too many or those carbs will seem extra tempting.

I’ve driven in today on purpose in order to avoid alcohol. Had a good lunch and I have snack sized cheese in my bag

Snack sized cheeses (such as Babybel) and pepperamis are great snacks to keep in your handbag/rucksack/work bag for emergency supplies

Day 4 for myself and dh. Headaches and tired today. I'm still having porridge in morning as I have underactive thyroid and nurse advised me to have one meal with carbs. So we have discovered cauliflower rice- ita a game changer! Rice and chicken curry tonight- the no carbs evening meal isn't bothering us at all but I'm struggling with lunch and snacks, had boiled eggs and salad today but feel hungry about 2pm....
But it's working! Put trousers on that were tight before xmas they fitted today so that's inspired me to carry on (although I did cheat and have 2 biscuits on day 2!)
Dh is being stricted.
We have a birthday celebration this weekend though so not sure how we'll do that!

Piixxiiee I have 2-3 Brazil nuts every day even during the 1st 2 weeks of Boot Camp for the selenium.

This is not a "No Carb" diet - you're still getting carbs, just not as many, via the FLGV you should be eating.

Can’t wait!

I'm signing in so I'm ready for starting properly on Monday.

I've enjoyed the discussion about pcos (enjoy is not really the right word tbh), I've got that too, and suspect dd1 has it as well. I was diagnosed with pcos 11 years ago, went low carb for 3 months, lost 2 stone, then my periods came back (I hadn't had a period for 2 years before that) and I fell Pg. Once the baby arrived (she's about to turn 10) I forgot how good low carb had been, so went back to eating whatever I wanted.

This year I've just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which is more worrying as there are more serious complications. It was pretty inevitable that I'd develop it at some point as both my parents and both siblings have already got it, and it's very much linked with the pcos. I did go low carb over the summer, during the school holidays, and lost a stone and a half, felt better in myself, etc. But I need more accountability, as during school terms I'm busy, so food needs to be easy, grab and go sort of stuff, which is mostly high carb. Our school canteen only offers carb based meals like pasta, jacket potatoes, rice and curry, sandwiches, etc.

Main meals I think will be fine. What would people recommend for very quick and easy breakfast (I normally eat cereal or toast, so a similar amount of prep time would be great), and packed lunch ideas? I don't have much time for prep the night before either as I'm busy helping with homework and then planning and marking for the following day. I do have a bit of time at weekends I could use to batch cook a bit if there are things people would recommend.