Summer 23 Boot Camp: the preparation thread

[prettybird]

This is the prep thread for the new Boot Camp that will be starting on 19 June.

It will take me a few posts as I blatantly copy across from @BIWI ‘s excellent introductory posts and I’m doing this on the app which makes it more award.

First off the major caveat: I am not a doctor This Way of Eating works for me and has done for many others. I’ve followed BIWI on these Boot Camps for many years and there is a lot of support but if you have any medical issues, you need to make your own choices.

@FinallyHere - can you post a link to an old Spreadsheet of Fabulousness please . It will let people have a look at some of the resources on it. (It’s difficult for me to do it from my phone).

And so to the rules. These are the rules for the first two weeks. After that, we do relax things a little:

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 especially enough fat, 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!)

Experienced Boot Campers may follow intermittent fasting (IF) (16:8 or similar) and therefore not have say breakfast but if you’re new to this Way of Eating, wait until you’ve got used to it before starting on IF.

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 at every meal, every day.

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/’Lite’ 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, which you'll find on the spreadsheet.

Make sure that you focus on eating those vegetables that are under 5g carb per 100g, 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.

The vegetable carb counter is helpfully colour-coded into green (eat freely), amber (go easy) and red (best avoided as much as possible), which will help you to make your choices.

5. Be careful about dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited)

Dairy can impede weight loss for some people. If you are 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. You should choose one that’s 10% fat – most of the supermarkets have a Greek yoghurt in their premium ranges with this amount of fat.

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 follow a low carb way of eating. 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, e.g. it 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 way of eating, we should 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.

The water is really important - any time I’ve noticed myself stalling, I’ve noticed that my water consumption had dipped. I like to think of it as helping to pee the fat away

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 the first two weeks of Bootcamp you will be able to introduce certain fruits, in moderation, 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

Although they are a good source of nutrition and contain lots of fat – which is great for us – they also contain carbohydrate and, because they’re so moreish, you can quickly end up eating a lot of carbs.

When we move to Bootcamp Light, after the first two weeks, you can re-introduce these, but be careful and go easy. On the spreadsheet, you'll find a nut carb counter, which illustrates just how much they vary in terms of their carb counts.

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.

I've tried this co before and the bread is lovely. Very expensive though.

If you have a bread machine I've had mixed results (but often really nice bread) from this recipe:

lowcarbyum.com/gabis-low-carb-yeast-bread/

Sometimes it works great, sometimes it's awful, I can't work out what I do differently but I persevere. I can get all the ingredients in my local Holland and Barrett. I make the loaf, slice it and freeze the slices in pairs. Great for those days when I'm craving a toastie

Thanks so much for the ideas @YappyCamper . It's never crossed my mind to pre-prepare salad! Much like you, I also don't really like lettuce (I'll eat it, but generally consider it to be fairly pointless ingredient 😂)

Apple slices in peanut butter have been a mainstay snack for me since my gestational diabetes diagnosis and I'm sure will continue since I'll be OK bootcamp lite!

I'll also try out your low carb bread recipe. I'd been eating Hi-Lo bread recently but have almost emptied the freezer of them (and they're more high protein than low carb anyway)

And @YappyCamper - for smoothies, would you want sweet or savoury? At the start of my first pregnancy I lived on smoothies made from almond milk, avocado, spinach, cucumber and celery with a splash of lemon juice. Though I was aiming for a smoothie that was as bland and tasteless as possible due to the nausea so wouldn't necessarily recommend it for general consumption! But perhaps look for a veggie based smoothie recipe, based on something to thicken it, such as avocado or Greek yogurt, and add a little bit of fruit to sweeten if that's what you want? I've also heard of people adding ginger or mint to green savoury smoothies for flavour

I'm going to channel BIWI and get out her Big Stick doesn't come naturally to me : technically, even on Boot Camp Light apples are not allowed. Berries in moderation, yes, but not apples.

The peanut butter (as long as it's unsweetened ) is ok, so why not try it on a slice of cucumber instead

Just to be clear: peanut butter for those on Boot Camp Light is ok (ie pregnant, breastfeeding or vegetarian re nuts and for the rest of us, only after the 1st two strict weeks).

Apologies for the Daily Mail link - I went looking for an article after seeing a piece on it in, I think, This Morning (or whatever the BBC morning shoe is called) and the only other one I could find was behind a paywall.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12001213/DR-CHRIS-VAN-TULLEKEN-happened-ate-ultra-processed-food-Rapid-weight-gain.html

This is a quite horrific description of the insidious addictive properties of ultra processed foods and why we encourage people to eat "clean" on Boot Camp

He doesn't go into it on explicit detail, but this bit Let’s take one UPF substance at random — carboxymethylcellulose. Also known as E466, it’s a polymer made from alkalised plant sugars with a chemical process that uses chloroacetic acid. You’ll come across it in lots of thick and gloopy UPF products, such as Tesco Brownie Flavour Milk, Costa Caramel Latte and Müller’s cookie-dough flavour milkshake. is also why low fat, low sugar products are to be avoided as they often use such UPF to recreate the mouth feel after taking out the fat (that's why I'm so at the "Low fat, no added sugar but plenty of apple juice " products beloved of school catering

Oooops, sorry @prettybird. I was hoping granny smiths were low carb enough to be OK! I'm not sure I can be convinced by peanut butter and cucumber 😂

Granny Smith Apples: 11.6g carbs/100g and a typical apple is 133g.

Raspberries: 4.6g carbs/100g.

@prettybird I read Chris VY's book last week on the recommendation of a mumsnetter on the other thread. It was fascinating and horrifying in equal measure. I'd recommend it.

I'll consider myself reprimanded 😳
No more talk of apples, peanut butter or fake bread for 3 weeks at least

I will give this a go, thanks. Doesn't need to be too sweet

Just to give some ideas, as I've started today so that I can have a meal with wine when my dad gets back from South Africa:

Supper tonight was griddled flattened turkey steaks. They're a bit too low in fat but convenient so I smeared them with a wee bit of olive oil (helps stop them sticking on the griddle too) and sprinkled a wee bit of Chinese 5 spice on them before cooking. I had mine with baby sweet corn that I microwaved with butter (using the shoogling technique ) while dh and ds had peas and buttered penne.

NB: baby sweet corn are ok to have on this way of eating but sweet corn and corn kernels are not It's sort of logical: you're having the whole thing, including the fibre and the sugars haven't fully developed in the baby sweet corn, whereas once they're older, the sugars have developed more.

@pinknsparkly careful of doing high fat during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
There are concerns that high fat diet in pregnancy affect neurodevelopment. I would strongly recommend you look into this before going high fat.
Eliminate all the processed carbohydrates and processed foods, but do not eliminate all carbohydrates . They are needed for normal foetal growth and metabolism. Go for high fibre carbohydrates. Don't overeat cheese.

Hi @prettybird ,
Thank you so much for hosting this BC. The 19th is perfect for me as I'm away next week. I look forward to starting it, I feel good for this WoE but need the support of the group to keep me going.
How many weeks are you planning this BC for?

It will run formally for 8 weeks but I'll be doing it strictly until 11 September which is when we're off to SA.

@AnIntrovert have you got links to support that claim, as it's a pretty important one.

Also, you should be aware that low carbing - and especially not Bootcamp - does not eliminate all carbs. One of the rules of Bootcamp is that vegetables and salad (and some fruit) should be a key part of the daily diet.

I'm wondering if you've actually read up on the Low Carb Bootcamp rather than just jumping in with your advice?

(With apologies to @prettybird for jumping in)

Thank you @BIWI - I was trying to work out the right wording - especially the emphasis on vegetables (and nuts and some fruit for those who are pregnant/breastfeeding) - but you said it so much better than I would've

The High Fat is the problem, not the low carbing.

"warnings for people that high fat diets during pregnancy are a concern," https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/high-fat-diet-during-pregnancy-slows-learning-in-offspring-rat-study-suggests a layperson article and below medical articles.

It is known that maternal obesity caused by a high-fat diet may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders in their offspring, such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9354026/

Dysbiosis of the maternal gut microbiome during pregnancy is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes. We previously showed that maternal high-fat diet (MHFD) in mice induces gut dysbiosis, social dysfunction, and underlying synaptic plasticity deficits in male offspring (F1). Here, we reason that, if HFD-mediated changes in maternal gut microbiota drive offspring social deficits, then MHFD-induced dysbiosis in F1 female MHFD offspring would likewise impair F2 social behavior. Metataxonomic sequencing reveals reduced microbial richness among female F1 MHFD offspring. Despite recovery of microbial richness among MHFD-descendant F2 mice, they display social dysfunction. https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(22)01306-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2211124722013067%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Offspring exposed to maternal obesity and high fat diet consumption during development are more susceptible to developing mental health and behavioral disorders such as anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorders. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23085399/

This review of preclinical research examines the relationship between a maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy or lactation and metabolic changes, molecular alterations in the brain, and behavioral disorders in offspring. Animal models indicate that offspring exposed to a maternal high-fat diet during pregnancy and lactation manifest increased depressive-like and aggressive behaviors, reduced cognitive development, and symptoms of metabolic syndrome. https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/79/6/709/5843522

I have read the bootcamp and when seeing a pregnant woman on it, I thought the concern needed to be flagged, especially since she was stating eating a lot of cheese as per your recommendation number 3.

Another red flag was the 6.5 litres of water for a 380 pounds woman. This is crazy and unsafe, especially if no warning is posted that this should not be done in short amounts of time. Water toxicity is dangerous. The link provided doesn't give any explanation of how this scale was created. Kidneys cannot deal with more than a 1 L per hour, no matter how big and heavy you are. Someone who wasn't able to drink at work might push water down at home to reach the The minimum consumed in a day ( quote). If you are saying the minimum is 6.5 L so potentially someone big would go higher.

Just declaring " I am not a doctor" doesn't exonerate you from giving potential harmful recommendations. You seem to be the leader of the bootcamp @prettybird and you should not only highlight the benefit of low carbohydrate diets, and these are plenty and well documented, but also understand that there can be selective groups that shouldn't do it or adapt it , such as the case of pregnant women who should not follow High Fat Diets. Or the absurd amount of water.

What you are doing is great because support makes a huge difference in diet adherence. Look up the water recommendations, and make whatever correction needs to be done and put a warning that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, going high in fat is best done after baby is weaned from breast.

First, thank you @AnIntrovert for providing the links. It's very irritating when people make such bold assertions without any evidence to back them up!

I've read the papers now, and the comments I'd like to make are:

In the first one, the paper states:

In the experiments, pregnant rats were allowed to overeat repeatedly a diet similar in fat to that of typical fast food meals that people eat.

... which suggests that the diet that the rats ate were also high in carbs. There's no mention of carb (or protein) intake, only fat and calories.

It's also worth noting that the conclusions that they draw from their experiments are based on animal testing. And they very clearly couch their findings/recommendations with 'may' and 'likely' and 'could' - in other words, there's no actual proof that this will be the same for humans.

In the second report, the authors go into great detail about the difficulty of choosing the right type of rodent, as well as the right amount of fat, to run these experiments in a way which will lead to conclusions about humans.

They also talk about the limitation of restricting experiments to male-only rodents, and acknowledge that there are sex differences in neurodevelopment - so quite how their findings can be seen to apply to pregnant women is also a question I would have:

It is worth noting that many published studies include male offspring only (Niculescu and Lupu, 2009; Tozuka et al., 2009, 2010; Vogt et al., 2014; Buffington et al., 2016; Edlow et al., 2016; Hatanaka et al., 2016). Since there is accumulating evidence on sex differences in neurodevelopment (Giedd et al., 1997; Dearden et al., 2018; Mossa and Manzini, 2021), the results of male studies have limited applicability when aiming to understand the mHFD effect on female offspring (Giedd et al., 1997; Dearden et al., 2018; Mossa and Manzini, 2021). Therefore, it is currently recommended that any studies on preclinical animal models and humans, clinical and cohort human studies include both males and females (White et al., 2021).

There are also two different things that are being talked about here, I think - maternal obesity (i.e. someone/thing who is already fat), and feeding someone/something a high fat diet. Bootcamp/low carbing is about ensuring that someone isn't obese, so it would seem to me that we're talking about apples and pears here.

There's an important discussion about inflammation in the second report - and low carb diets (which are also high fat) are widely said to be anti-inflammatory (report here).

It is suggested that HFD-induced placental inflammation may disturb fetal neurodevelopment (Ceasrine et al., 2021). Indeed, clinical studies have reported an increased risk of ASD in the children of mothers with placental inflammation (Straughen et al., 2017). Placental C-reactive protein upregulation was also associated with a higher incidence of ADHD among children (Shao et al., 2020). However, the direct relationship between HFD-induced metabolic disorders, placental inflammation, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in humans and animal models is yet to be investigated.

However despite its acknowledge importance, it's still unproven. But they go on to say:

This indicates that inflammation of adipose tissue may contribute to the cognitive abnormalities during both pre-and postnatal neurodevelopment stages and suggests that adipose tissue-derived inflammatory proteins are important mediators between maternal metabolic status and fetal brain development.

In other words, it's being fat that could lead to these issues. Not losing weight which, presumably, would have the opposite effect?

The report raises some interesting issues - which hopefully will be explored in future studies. But to claim - as you have - that eating a high fat diet may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders in their offspring, such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia is a conclusion that cannot, yet, be made so surely.

Worse, IMVHO, you only serve to frighten anyone who is pregnant who is considering low carbing/Bootcamp. Why would you want to do this?

I'm going to post the final part of the second report in full, in a separate post (as I think it would make this one too long) as I think it's worth everyone reading.

Discussion taken from this report

The increasing prevalence of obesity among women of reproductive age highlights the importance of understanding how diet-induced changes in maternal metabolism, microbiota, and inflammatory status shape the neurodevelopment of the offspring. Both retrospective human studies and those including animal models indicate that maternal obesity has long-term negative effects on the function of the offspring’s brain. In addition to the behavioral and molecular phenotypes identified in the mHFD offspring, multiple publications have reported that maternal obesity leads to aberrant feeding patterns and disturbed metabolic programming in the offspring. Such outcomes of mHFD were beyond the scope of this review as there are other comprehensive publications that have focused on this particular aspect of maternal nutrition (Chaves et al., 2021; Gawlińska et al., 2021; Larsen and Bode, 2021).

For a long time, the studies of mHFD effects, as any other animal studies, have included only male offspring, thus limiting our understanding of the consequences of maternal obesity on the neurodevelopment of females. There is accumulating evidence that neurodevelopment is sexually dimorphic and may include different molecular pathways and mechanisms. This includes distinct behavioral phenotypes as well as the variability among neuroinflammatory responses, epigenetic regulation, or gene expression patterns both in human disease and in animal models. Recent scientific policy changes by the funding bodies promote and/or require including both male and female animals in biological studies, therefore most recent publications started describing female phenotype as well; however, the effect of mHFD on the female brain remains under-investigated. Nevertheless, current data suggest that the neurodevelopment of males may be more sensitive to maternal diet and present larger phenotypic effects compared to females. The apparent robustness of female neurodevelopment may be associated with the protection of female hormones. Yet differences in hormonal milieu cannot explain prenatal and early postnatal differences that are observed between males and females in mHFD models, thus this question remains to be investigated.

Neurodevelopmental outcomes of mHFD are often assessed through behavioral phenotyping of animals. Even though rodent models of mHFD seem to mimic human disease phenotypes quite properly, the results of animal behavior tests should be evaluated with caution, as it often depends on both the sex and age of the animal as well as the timeline of mHFD model implementation. In particular, heterogeneity of behavioral consequences appears to result from the different duration of mHFD before pregnancy as well as its continuance after the birth of the offspring. In humans, mHFD may often precede the pregnancy for a significant period, with dietary habits acquired even prepubertally, thus animal models that include shorter periods of mHFD may only be suitable to evaluate acute effects of elevated fat content in the maternal diet rather than long-term effects related to obesity and metabolic disorder.

While in the human population mHFD and resulting obesity are difficult to separate, using animal models that are less prone to HFD-induced obesity, may help to isolate the direct effects of mHFD in contrast to those resulting from maternal obesity. For example, such mouse lines as SWR/J, A/J, or BALB/c are more resistant to the effects of dietary fat, including weight gain, hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and hyperleptinemia (Eberhart et al., 1994; Parekh et al., 1998; Bahceci et al., 1999; Leibowitz et al., 2004, 2005; Boi et al., 2016). Furthermore, genetically diverse collaborative cross mouse strains, such as 129S1/SvImJ, PWK/EiJ, CAST/PhJ, or WSB/EiJ, demonstrate variable phenotypic responses to HFD, comparison of which could also be used to distinguish mHFD-specific outcomes. Such an approach has been used to compare fetal development in diet-sensitive and diet-resistant HFD dams in a non-human primate model (Grant et al., 2011). Finally, targeted genetic modifications have been used to develop obesity-resistant mouse models, that allow for the investigation of more specific aspects of mHFD (Burrage et al., 2010; Lo et al., 2010; Zhao et al., 2020b).

Interestingly, lactation appears to be a critical period for the development of certain behavioral deficits that can be rescued if dams are reversed to the normal diet after giving birth. These findings suggest possible intervention strategies that could attenuate the effects of maternal diet on their children. Other possible interventions could include the supplementation of the offspring with lacking microorganisms to restore the necessary microbiota composition that supports normal neurodevelopment. However, it is important to note that studies, which use probiotic treatment to counteract mHFD-induced microbiota disbalance, rarely evaluate whether the intervention ameliorated the dysbiosis. Furthermore, probiotic supplementation has been demonstrated to have behavioral effects even in the absence of dysfunctional gut microbiota (Tillisch et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2016; Bagga et al., 2018).

Attenuation of chronic inflammation may also restore a more beneficial environment in utero, helping to rescue neurodevelopmental deficits. However, most of the intervention research is performed on animal models and we are in pressing need of human studies to help us to identify possible strategies to counteract neurodevelopmental fallout for our young generations due to the obesity pandemic advancing worldwide.

And just to pick up on a few other bits and pieces @AnIntrovert

Another red flag was the 6.5 litres of water for a 380 pounds woman.

Someone who weighs 380lbs is right at the top of the scale shown - i.e someone who weighs more than 27 stone. I don't think we've ever had anyone that large on Bootcamp. You also picked the top of the scale, rather than acknowledging it's a sliding scale. By the way, the scale was published on another website which - sadly - is now defunct, as the owner of the site died a few years ago. (I don't know the original source, and I have stated that before on Mumsnet/previous Bootcamps). However, there is this:

For people who are overweight
People who are obese or overweight have different water needs. They should drink more water to remain hydrated and help lose weight. Generally, you should take half of your body weight in ounces of water. Therefore, a person weighing 180 pounds should target about 90 ounces in a day.
from https://healthmatch.io/weight-management/how-much-water-should-you-drink-to-lose-weight#how-much-water-should-i-drink-to-lose-weight

... which is a 'formula' I've seen quoted on other sites too.

None of us would recommend/suggest that someone should consume a lot of water in a short space of time - we always talk about spreading it out during the day, so I'm not sure why you think we say that.

Just declaring " I am not a doctor" doesn't exonerate you from giving potential harmful recommendations. You seem to be the leader of the bootcamp @prettybirdand you should not only highlight the benefit of low carbohydrate diets, and these are plenty and well documented, but also understand that there can be selective groups that shouldn't do it or adapt it , such as the case of pregnant women who should not follow High Fat Diets.

We always post this disclaimer - at the beginning of every Bootcamp. Precisely because we don't want anyone to be harmed by adopting a low carb diet. (Despite all the evidence that this is a healthy way to eat). Bootcamp/Mumsnet is not a formal weight loss programme, and we don't charge anyone to participate - those who sign up do so of their own accord.

And we routinely and regularly advise those who are pregnant/lactating that strict Bootcamp is inappropriate. We also advise those who are on long-term medication (especially for conditions such as hypertension or diabetes, as well as high cholesterol) that they should consult their doctors before undertaking the diet.

And finally:

What you are doing is great because support makes a huge difference in diet adherence. Look up the water recommendations, and make whatever correction needs to be done and put a warning that if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, going high in fat is best done after baby is weaned from breast.

Talk about patronising! Never mind insulting. And also not really scientifically true.

Whoa, so many words, I need more coffee because I can’t find how this disproves my point so I must have missed where it say it is safe. I did however see strategies to rescue development. Rescue from the damages of high fat diet. You find that a benefit?

Why the high horse anyway. Isn’t it better to be leading towards caution?
Just state in the opening post that there isn’t consensus on whether it is safe for pregnant women. You can’t object to that!

Wow everytime it never takes long.

People are free to do there own research and should on anything they do with diet, exercise, pregnancy. This is a supportive community of people who have found something that works for them, nobody is forced to join in, abide by the rules if they do. Nobody on here ever claims to be a medical expert just supporting each other to achieve what we want to achieved in a way that has been shown over the years to be successful for many people.

There is far more research available now than previously into this way of eating.

Whoa, so many words

Again - insulting. I took the time to read the links you provided, and I gave you my considered response. And this is all you can say?

And 'high horse'?!

We do advise those who are pregnant not to do strict Bootcamp - as you can see in the exchange between @prettybird and @pinknsparkly. Also in the disclaimer in the OP (although I agree this could have been more explicit about what we mean by 'medical issues')

I do take exception to posters who come on to the Bootcamp threads when they try and claim that it's a dangerous way to eat, as that simply isn't true. So forgive me if I took exception to your posts.

Anyway, this isn't my Bootcamp, and I'm aware I'm treading on @prettybird's toes.