Ongoing Low Carb Bootcamp Chat Thread

[BIWI]

Well done everyone who completed the Summer Bootcamp!

here is the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness if you want to continue adding to it

Obviously there are many of us who want to continue, either to lose more weight or just for general support to help with this WOE, so here is a brand new, shiny chat thread.

As for me, having slipped a lot a little when I was away, I'm firmly back on the wagon today.

And can I remind you, that if you haven't completed the survey we would be very grateful for your views/thoughts on how we can improve Bootcamp.

[BerylStreep]

CaptainMummy - I tried one a few weeks ago made with fizzy water, and it was vile. I wouldn't bother.

I think my blood sugars are all over the place since my slip up at the weekend - I feel very peckish and unsatiated. Am sticking to LC snacks, but I seem to want to eat all the time. I also just don't feel right. Sort of a bit spaced out and weird.

[MollyMollyMolly]

ground flaxseed,almond,brazil nut cereal with a little milk
homemade coleslaw with grated cheese
homemade chicken curry with yog and lots of fresh coriander leaves.
Its just started to cool down a little hear in North Wales. Washing still drying in the line. Feel cool for the first time today. Sigh. Lovely weather but bit sweaty or is that just me !! {wink]

[MollyMollyMolly]

"here" not "hear"....soz

[MustTidyUpMustTidyUp]

Molly can you tell me more about your cereal? How do you make it and what quantities? Can I eat it when the first 2 weeks are up? I'm missing cereal so need ideas. Thanks.

[MollyMollyMolly]

www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=2882&prodid=3211

I got them from Holland and Barrett MustTidy on special offer. The cereal is about 0.95 gram of carb per 30g. Very musilie...ish.

[MollyMollyMolly]

I think you could make your own cheaper. Buy ground flaxseeds and ground up some nuts etc. Very low carb, think you can have it on bootcamp but not sure ....

[MustTidyUpMustTidyUp]

Thanks.

[BIWI]

Musttidyup

please tell me if I'm being a piglet

The rule of thumb on this WOE is to eat if you're hungry!

left over roasted aubergine, cold sausage, coffee with cream

Lovely and pretty good LC fare - assuming that your sausage was low in carbs?

Lunch: Spanish omelette with olives and a bit of cheese, salad

Great low carb fare. I assume that you fried your omelette in butter and had an oily dressing on your salad?

Dinner: chicken thigh and leg roasted with olive oil, braised cabbage ( which was delicious) and fried courgettes. All a bit oily?

Absolutely perfect. Why would you worry about the oil? Fat is good on this WOE! Fat doesn't make you fat - it's the carbs that make you fat.

Snack: handful of pork scratchings - I don't think I'm really allowed these though am I?

You so are allowed these! They are fat, which is good!

You're doing pretty well, but your questions suggest that you haven't really fully embraced the thinking behind low carbing - have you done any reading about it? Have a look at all the resources on the spreadsheet - plenty of good stuff there to tell you more about low carbing and what is/isn't good!

[BIWI]

StuntNun

I think I'm back on track although it's a bit tricky with being on holiday. I'm being naughty with a sneaky beer with a barbecue but it's only a 330 ml bottle so not too bad.

Hmm. The only person you're sneaking this from is yourself - don't know what brand you're drinking, or if it's lager or beer, but just to give you an idea, 330ml of Heineken has 11g carbs!

B: two slices of bacon, one slice of black pudding

Bacon is fine (albeit processed) but black pudding can be very carby - 40g has 8g carbs!

L: chicken drumstick and thigh, salad, small piece of cheese

Perfect - assume salad had a dressing?

S: pear

What?! A small pear has around 23g carbs in it!

D: barbecued pork belly, Black Farmer sausage, chicken thigh, salad and aforementioned sneaky beer

Well - OK, apart from the beer!

These little 'extras' are adding up to a very, very, very carby day - I know you're on holiday, but please don't kid yourself that you are back on track

[MustTidyUpMustTidyUp]

Well, I think I faired better than stuntnun . Thanks BIWI for the encouragement. Yes it was a 'good' sausage. .
I have done my reading from the spreadsheet links but I suppose I still have my head in calorie counting having done 4 stone that way! The last part is so very hard to lose hence the switch to low carb. I don't actually weigh any different than I did a year so - I've gained and lost a few here and there.
I understand that this needs to be a way of life but (dare I ask...) will I every eb able to eat carbs again? I'm fine now but when I reach my goal weight (if.....) what happens then? Or is It meat and veg forever?
(Btw isn't it expensive?!)
Sorry if sounding negative I'm really pleased with how it's going at the moment and fairs fair i am not hungry!

[BIWI]

The thing about doing this is that if, when you reach your target weight, you revert to what you used to eat before - i.e. a high carb diet - then you will pile the weight back on again.

This is just the same as if you were doing a low calorie diet - if you revert to eating loads of calories, you will pile the weight back on.

However, the difference is that with low carbing, you aren't affecting your metabolism in the same way as if you are restricting your calories. When you restrict your calories you are effectively starving your body, so it slows your metabolism down. But, and this is the big but, your metabolism slows down disproportionately to the reduction in calories. So when your diet is 'finished', and you increase your calories (even if you don't massively pig out), your metabolism remains lower, so your body can't cope with this increase.

This is why you see the whole 'yo yo' effect from low calorie dieting - each time you revert to 'normal' eating, you end up putting weight on - and it gradually increases each time you diet/cut your calories.

This won't happen with low carbing, as you aren't starving your body of nutrition.

However, it is carbohydrate that makes you fat. So you have to be able to work out how much carbohydrate you can eat without gaining weight.

And this is the difficult thing with carbs - everyone is different. There is no daily amount that everyone should be aiming for. Some people can't tolerate very many carbs, others can tolerate a relatively high level.

The general rule of thumb (according to Dr John Briffa) is that you should aim to eat no more than 100g carbs per day. My trainer says that you shouldn't eat more than 30g carbs at any one meal.

In reality, this means that you have to be pretty careful - a meal of lasagne and garlic bread, washed down with a vat of red wine, for example, is likely to be too carby!

That said, the odd 'blip' isn't likely to make much difference, as long as you're not including masses of carbs at every meal, every day.

[MustTidyUpMustTidyUp]

Thank you for taking the time to give such a thorough response Biwi. It makes absolute sense. I'm clearer now.

[BIWI]

My pleasure. Hope it helps.

[thenightsky]

Just checking in to say I've done the survey.

Not really contributed to these threads since I finished the New Year 2013 10 week plan, where I lost everything I needed to. Since we finished in mid-March I haven't gained anything, apart from 2lb on a week's holiday in May, which I lost within a week of getting home. Last week I was in Barcelona, where I gained 2lb. Again, today, I'm back where I should be.

This is now my way of eating. I know that the odd carby meal no more than once a week has no effect on me. My wine consumption has gone down massively and I never touch beer, lager or cider any more and don't miss it.

I think my tiny holiday gains, despite curries, paella, pizza etc is down to the fact that my body now burns the few carbs I eat, rather than storing them. BIWI - does that sound plausible?

[Alambil]

Hello everyone :)

I fancy trying this out... but I'm confused.

Last time I did low-carb on my own (well, with nutrition/personal trainer bod) and was not allowed fat either so I could lose weight, so what's the deal with all the butter / full fat yoghurts etc?

I thought low-carbing meant high protien, carbs for breakfast (say porridge) and then less carbs at lunch, even less at dinner, ever increasing protien intake so that keeps you fuller for longer?

oh and I was told no caffeine, no sugar (like in tea), no fizz (diet coke etc) and other things.... does that matter now?

[thenightsky]

You need to eat fat to lose fat apparently. Well it's worked for me.

Porridge would be far too carby!

No sugar in drinks! We are weaning ourselves away from sugar, which includes artificial sweeteners (diet coke, lemonade etc) as you need to lose that sweet taste craving and diet drinks keep feeding that dependency.

[BIWI]

LewisFan - a low carb diet should be a high fat one. You should be eating food in the following proportions - fat:protein:carbohydrate. No idea why your trainer would have told you to do it without eating fat. That's now how it works! Eating high fat/high protein/low carb keeps your blood sugar levels stable, which means you produce less insulin, which also means you lay down less fat and feel less hungry.

And it's not about different levels of carbs at different meal times - it's about low carb all day and all the time.

Caffeine is debatable - some will tell you to cut it out/some will tell you it's fine. Ultimately I think it's up to you to decide if it has an effect on you/your weight.

Definitely no sugar. That means sugar in its obvious forms - raw sugar, chocolate, sweets, etc, but also fruit and high carb veg like potatoes.

Diet Coke is also a 'no no' because it's artificial, but also because it can impede weight loss as well.

Have a read of Bootcamp rules and see what you think!

[Alambil]

ah thanks

I've broken my diet coke addiction (seriously - I used to have 3l a day... can now go days without any at all) but am struggling to find other things to drink; I can't bear water (it comes out the tap white!) and tastes weird...

fruit juice is too sugary/carby, isn't it? :(

I don't do tea/coffee either so that's easy enough for me

also, is there a list of veg I can copy down? I hate trying to figure things out for myself! Last time, root veg were out and dark green / green veg in - see why I'm confused!

[StuntNun]

Thanks for the big stick feedback BIWI. I didn't realise the black pudding and pear were so carby I thought pear was an 'allowed in moderation' food. I'm only on week 4 of this woe so it's still a learning curve at this point. Maybe next time I go on holiday I should pack my scales! I only have one more day of staying with SIL then we'll be going to a holiday apartment so I'll have better control there (and no BIL tempting me with beer). I have a Tesco delivery scheduled with all my primal faves.

[Xenia]

Lewis, the bootcamp rules are here
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmNIskihgXotdFVPcF9zWUhIal9BbTl5SnlTM3BlWVE#gid=2

the veg carb counter is here
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmNIskihgXotdFVPcF9zWUhIal9BbTl5SnlTM3BlWVE#gid=3 Stick with those 3g or under 3. It is a good reminder for me (am eating a lot of butter nut squash (and sometimes carrots) at present and I can see why now as they are higher carb) - not so good.

Mushrooms 0.4
Watercress 0.4
Spinach 0.8
Celery 0.9
Broccoli 1.1
Asparagus 1.4
Cucumber 1.5
Lettuce 1.7
Fennel 1.8
Courgettes 1.8
Cauliflower 1.9
Avocado flesh 1.9
Radish 1.9
Turnip 2
Pumpkin 2.2
Runner beans 2.3
Swede 2.3
Celeriac 2.3
Green pepper 2.6
Baby sweetcorn 2.7
Aubergine 2.8
Leeks 2.9
Okra 3
Tomato 3.1
Mangetout 3.3
Shallots 3.3
Brussels sprouts 3.5
French beans 4.7
Cabbage 5
Yellow pepper 5.3
Carrots 6
Orange/red pepper 6.4
Ginger (peeled) 7.2
Butternut squash 7.5
Onions 7.9
Bean sprouts 16

[daisychicken]

lewis try putting the water in the fridge & drinking when cold - it somehow changes the chemical taste & is nice cold!

[Badvoc]

Ok, so after losing a stone last summer and feeling much better I fell off the wagon in a big way :(
Much family illness and parts of the house falling down :(
Excuses....excuses...
So, I'm back, although I have just realised I have cocked up already this morning as I have had coffee with skim milk!
Will have scrambled egg later for brunch and salad for dinner.
Am on hols next week but am determined not to let that give me more excuses!
I think I have a major issues with wheat....my mum is coeliac. If I can cut wheat out that will be a major plus.
I did briffa last year and it seemed to work for me.
I also have a wedding to go t in 2 weeks so would be nice to lose a bit before that.
I find - with water - that adding ice and slice really helps make it more interesting.
Good to be back :)

[captainmummy]

Hi Badvoc!

I've been filling a jug with water for the fridge, adding lemon slice/orange peel/mint/cucumber/strawbery slices - any combination of these is nice!

[Xenia]

If you can move to just liking water that is best (as we are avoiding fruit so making your water sweet is not going to be a great help). It takes 3 weeks to break a habit so forcing yourself just to have water for that period will solve this for life. I used to think I could never just drink water and the children were the same but now it's all we drink and I cannot remember why I used to need it with squash in it etc.

[BIWI]

Welcome back Badvoc

Your house falling down would appear to me to be a pretty major reason why you might fall off the wagon - not an excuse! Good luck with it.

Lewis - welcome! Hopefully Bootcamp rules will make things easy for you. One thing I have realised, though, is that they don't explicitly tell you what you shouldn't be eating, and that they assume you know what things are too high in carbs. (I am going to adjust them for the next Bootcamp to make it much clearer!)

So - you must not eat any of the following:

bread
rice
pasta/noodles
potatoes
fruit (none at all in the first two weeks, and after the first two weeks you can include some berries)
sugar
crackers/biscuits
crisps