Summer Low Carb Bootcamp - The Questions Thread

[BIWI]

If you have any questions, just ask them here. From experience, the chat thread moves so quickly, posters' questions often get missed.

Picking up on some that have already been asked today:

Can we eat dairy in Bootcamp?

Yes you can, but be aware that for some people dairy can impede weight loss. Butter is fine - you don't have to worry about that, and yoghurt is apparently better tolerated than milk, cream or cheese.

Cheese is a great low carb food and it's lovely to not have to worry about being able to eat it on the basis of it being a fat.

Milk can become quite carby quite quickly, so if you're having several cups of tea/coffee a day, you need to keep an eye on this. If you can, it's best to have your tea/coffee black - or to substitute cream (double) for the milk.

Cream can be used in cooking (always double, as it has a higher fat content), but again be aware that it might be an issue for you.

The best way to find out if it's a problem for you is to keep a food diary, and then you will be able to see the impact of dairy on your weight loss.

I read about half of Pig to Twig, and the fixation on organic meat put me off as I knew I couldn't afford it.

Yes, The Idiot Proof Diet is very 'middle class/Waitrose' in its orientation! But low carbing doesn't have to be expensive.

Lidl is your friend.

Aldi is also your friend!

BIWI they haven't asked, unfortunately. I'll do what you've suggested and eat no-carb during the day. Then I'll eat moderately and selectively of what I'm given, and hope that there'll be serving dishes rather than the food being dished onto plates already. Thank you.

hopefully crabby it will be something with a carb side dish that you can just avoid, rather than potato soup / risotto / lasagne where you can't avoid it

funnily enough though, it's often on occasions like that that you find that something carby that you previously loved you're actually not that bothered about and it doesn't taste as good as you remember

I am a budget shopper and everything we eat is reduced from Waitrose.

You have to be a bit canny about it but atm I have a freezer full of duck legs, seafood, pig cheeks, sausages, belly pork, minced beef, chicken breasts and fish.

I spend about £50 per week on a family of 4.

Tonight we are having pan fried plaice, buttered leeks and cauliflower cheese.

Ds's are having breaded chicken and salad.

Total cost was 85p for plaice, 45p for cauli and 25p for leeks.

Bargain!

Thanks Willie, although I'm still thinking "risotto....yuuuuuum!" i've been having one or two cups of tea a day instead of my usual five or more, and having them with a small splash of milk and a tiny dab of agave nectar, instead of a respective slosh and a squirt. The first one I made like that tasted awful to me, but this morning I thought "ooh I can really taste the tea now it's not masked by the milk and sweetness" - it's quite nice!

Excellent bargain Ruprekt - I'm a Waitrose bargain-grabber too, and I need to make more use of the freezer.

at agave nectar! You really should be avoiding this as well, sorry to say!

There is a recipe for risotto with cauli rice.

I must admit that I have done more actual cooking-from-scratch than ever before in the last 10 days. By my standards that isn't much but getting to grips with pan-fried spinach and tackling celeriac is actually progress for me, instead of being intimidated by not knowing how to prepare stuff.

Also despite staying up all night with DS -which happens periodically- I didn't need to snack. Normally the stress of an all-nighter (DS is autistic) sends me starving and I feel justified in eating chocolate to keep going. Didn't feel any need for it this time or on another bad night last week. That's quite amazing to me. I am finding this whole thing very useful

I'm getting there BIWI! I know it's verboten but I'm only having about a sixth of a tsp and it is low GI. I've cut it right down but I really have trouble with not having any sweetness in tea (I've tried before). I'm only having a max of two cups of tea a day now so I do want to enjoy them! As my tastes change I hope I can stop that too.

I haven't bent any other rules, honest.

Uh-oh - just had text from friend and it's going to be asparagus risotto on the menu tomorrow night. I can't be very sad about that because I adore risotto, but there'll be no avoiding those carbs!

I'm going to eat no-carb tomorrow until then, not too much fat (as I don't want loads of fat circulating when that insulin response hits!) and stick to small portions. Hopefully the wine won't mean that my good intentions fly out of the window and I end up face-down in a big vat of carbs by the end of the evening.

Will this mean that I go back to craving carbs and feeling headachey and shit for a couple of days?

If you can avoid carbs everywhere else, and drink lots of water/eat lots of fat, you should be fine, Crabby. Ultimately, you can't do anything about it, so just enjoy the evening.

crabby make sure you enjoy every mouthful and savour the taste - if you're going to have to go off-plan you might as well do it mindfully

Thanks both of you. Still eat loads of fat BIWI? Won't that mean that I just lay it straight down as fat as the insulin response will be in full swing? A risotto is going to cause an almighty blood sugar surge - risotto rice is one of the highest GI rices.

I will be mindful though, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it!

No, I mean the next day! Lots of water and fat and strict low carb.

whats the thinking about if you eat lots of fat, your body will use that first for activity rather than laid down fat?

In other words, you will lose more fat if you eat less fat?

Aldi is also your friend

I did a shop in Aldi today, and apart from a couple of boxes of cereal for the kids and some fruit and yogurts for their packed lunches, it was mostly meat and veg, including a free range chicken, a pack of thighs, a pack of drumsticks, rump steaks, lamb chops, lamb mince, nuremberg sausages, pancetta, twin pack of bacon, 800g beef mince and a bag of frozen salmon fillets. I was terrified getting to the tills as I am really skint this week.

And it came to a whopping £63.56! There is enough meat to keep us going for a week and a half I reckon. They also have twin packs of avocados for 89p. I paid £1.75 in ASDA the other day!

Re the Idiot Proof Diet, reading the recipes earlier, I've noticed that they call for extra lean minced beef and lean braising steak. Is this not counter to the principles of low carb/high fat? I've bought the beef mince and surely in braising steak a higher fat content is benficial if it's going to be cooked for a few hours?

Ah I see, thanks BIWI.

I wish we had an Aldi near us.

Not sure what you mean there gollygosh. Fat doesn't provoke an insulin response like carbohydrates do, so if you eat something that is high fat and low carb your body will use the fuel it needs from that for energy but will only have a minimal insulin release which means that any excess is less likely to be stored as body fat. this explains it a bit

Certainly most people find that the higher proportion of their calories that they get from fat, the better their weight loss, which is why you need to choose fattier cuts of meat and add butter to your veg

gollygosh123 - there are some who advocate low fat eating. But everything I have read still supports high fat eating for weight loss. What's your thinking on the issue?

Haven't read the whole thing yet. But I've accepted that middle age + IBS is sending me towards a lower carb diet. I've been tweaking my food for a few days, my stomach feels better and cravings + blood sugar have calmed down.

I'm too slim to need to lose weight, but I need to trim off a little on my stomach and thighs. I'll see how it goes.

meglet - my IBS has disappeared since I started low carbing

And if you aren't overweight, then this WOE will not result in weight loss - low carbing only uses fat, not muscle (unlike low calorie eating)