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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

At last - here it is! BIWI's 2 week Low Carb Bootcamp - starts tomorrow - sign in here

999 replies

BIWI · 15/04/2012 22:36

Lots of you have said you want to do this - now it's time to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

Oh, alright, it's free. Grin

The plan is that we have two very strict weeks of low carbing. Which is why, doh, it's called a bootcamp.

There are 'rules of engagement' for the fortnight - but they're different if you're carnivore or a vegetarian. I shall post the rules for us carnivores, and flipflopflap will post the rules for those of you that are vegetarians.

Sign in with your starting weight - in pounds, stones and pounds, kilos or - if you don't want to reveal your weight, with 100 as an index - and what you're wanting to achieve in the two weeks. I know that not everyone is doing this for the purpose of weight loss, so you don't have to do this if you don't want to - but tell us what you want this fortnight to help you achieve.

The Carnivore Rules

1.Eat three, proper meals a day.
You must eat breakfast. It doesn?t have to be a lot, 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. But if you are hungry, eat something. (Hard boiled eggs make a great snack)

2.Avoid processed food
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, e.g. Atkins Daybreak bars.

3.Eat lots of fat.

Eating fat helps you to burn fat. Honestly! 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. 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). It 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. You may eat cheese, but 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

7.No alcohol
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.

9.No nuts/seeds
Whilst these are really good to snack on later - it can be too easy to start snacking on these - and before you know it, all your carbs have gone on nuts. Seriously - in bootcamp - don't do it to yourself.

10.No sugar or artificial sweeteners

OP posts:
ShirtyKnot · 17/04/2012 11:14

Also, noddy - BLOODY HELL!

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 11:15

Thanks everyone Smile

Sorry for the complete thread hijack btw. Blush

lemniscate · 17/04/2012 11:17

Cake decorating class last night. So not an appropriate low carb activity. I threw all the cake offcuts in the bin before I could eat them last night but I did lick a bit of nutella off my finger Blush There is now a beautifully decorated cake staring at me, but so long as I don't cut it I can handle staring back at it :) DH will take it in to work tomorrow so then it won't be taunting me.

creamtea - that delicious moussaka is the one we have done. It is yummy and the DCs love it too. DH had a near heart attack when he saw the amount of cream in the IPD one so we compromised on the delicious one (more carby for me but a lot less carby than our usual cheese sauce version and less fat for him). Def worth giving it a go.

Why are shallots so goddamn hideous to peel? Anyone got a good way to do it? I would sub them in for onions all the time, were it not for the fact that it takes about 5 hours and 300 swear words to peel the necessary amount. And though I love leeks I'm never quite sure of them as an all purpose onion substitute. Do they really work, or do they just make things taste leeky?

KeepOrf - hope the kidney pain is some sort of blip and they can get you sorted. I think the hot choc was perfectly allowable under the circs.

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 11:22

I agree with the shallots - pain in the arse bastarding things. I don't suppose waitrose sells ready chopped shallots do they?

I think leeks do taste too leeky to substitute for onions tbh.

FauxFox · 17/04/2012 11:27

The bigger "banana" shallots are much easier to peel Wink

JaxTellerIsMyFriend · 17/04/2012 11:29

ahem, Waitrose do indeed sell frozen ready chopped shallots, but they are pricey compared to a little bag. I bought some for 'emergencies' Grin

hope kidney check up goes well tomorrow keeporf

I am really hungry today, so going to have a huge salad with a tin of tuna, mayo and some grated cheese, drinking my water like a good girl and pissing like a racehorse

hoping and praying electricity stays on until I have dried my hair. we were without for about 7 hours yesterday and although they have tapped into another cable it is a temp measure.

BIWI · 17/04/2012 11:38

Buy the bigger shallots - Sainsbury's usually sell them, although they didn't have any on Saturday.

doradoo NO NUTS!

Good luck for tomorrow, KeepOrf. It must be horrible.

I can add nose bleed to my list of Awful Poorliness today as well

OP posts:
teaandthorazine · 17/04/2012 11:40

Gosh, KeepOrf, hope you feel much, much better sound, it sounds horrendous. I would count that hot choc as medicinal Smile

So far so good today - oopsie rolls with ham and cheese this morning, peppermint tea, vits and water. Will probably have leftover roast chicken and salady stuff for lunch. Dinner is going to be these sausages and cauli cheese, I think.

Tips for getting the water down - drink through a straw or through a sports bottle. It's something to do with being able to breathe more easily than if you're just glugging down pints. I can get through a litre in a few minutes with no probs if I drink out of a sports bottle but can't for the life of me drink a pint out of a glass in one go!

BIWI · 17/04/2012 11:42

Apparently if you blanch shallots in boiling water for a few seconds that makes them easier to peel

OP posts:
KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 11:45

Ooh at nosebleed. That is odd - I don't think I have had a nosebleed since I was 7.

Agree that sports bottles are the way to go - I hate hate drinking water out of a pint glass, but I can drink a 750ml bottle with a sports cap in no time. And it is easy to drink 4 of those in a day at work, which is 3l.

I always find that at work I can drink lots of water, but it is more difficult to do so at home for some reason (probably because I am not sitting at a desk with a bottle staring at me).

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 11:47

I really miss the berocca though - I ususally have 1/4 berocca tablet in each bottle of water (gives it a bit of taste, plus vitamins for health).

BIWI do you reckon 1 berocca tab a day is OK - I never did find out what was in them, but there must be sweetener or something.

ShirtyKnot · 17/04/2012 11:47
Sad

Poor you BIWI - nasty bug.

Jux - We had electricity cables cut in our area a few years ago and we were on rolling electricity (an hour on every 6 hours - or something stupid) for 4 days I think. It was a NIGHTMARE.

alienreflux · 17/04/2012 11:48

ok so, rubbishly prepared for bootcamp as i was, i had broccoli and one posh sausage 4 breakfast, omlette with little onion and mushrooms 4 lunch. and dinner was a meatloaf with broccoli and mushrooms fried in butter. have been drinking the water, not sure if i had enough yest, have bad headache last night and today, how do i know when im in ketosis??!! still no scales so just hoping some weights coming off

WizzyBizzy · 17/04/2012 11:49

I find leeks a good substitute for onions - I find that if I chop them really tiny then I don't notice the leekyness so much. I buy loads, chop them and then keep portions in the freezer to throw in to cooking.

Butternut squash is on the allowed list isn't it [pleeeease emoticon]?

I'm having an absolutely scrummy soup for lunch that I made yesterday: leeks, courgette, butternut squash, bit of basil. Yum.

Also had a bit of a revelation (I think - BIWI can you confirm?) on snacks. Cauldron do these marinated tofu things that I give my DS as a snack from time to time. Has just occurred to me that they're probably good on this diet too, non?

noddyholder · 17/04/2012 11:51

Thanks all for teh good wishes! Had 1st transplant at 19 so am well used to all this now at 46 Grin

BIWI · 17/04/2012 11:53

Nose bleed 'cos blowing nose so much because so much snot. I reckon all the water I'm drinking is deciding to exit my body through my nasal passages.

OP posts:
BIWI · 17/04/2012 11:56

Butternut squash is - only just - on the allowed list, as it is 7.5g carbs per 100g - and being a dense vegetable, you can easily end up with a hefty portion.

Re Tofu - I know very little about this, as I've never cooked with it. Just check the packet, especially if it's a marinated one. It could have all manner of stuff/sugar in it.

OP posts:
ANTagony · 17/04/2012 11:59

Someone asked as some point about coconut oil and whether it makes everything have a coconut flavour... I couldn't see a response so sorry if asking you all to repeat but does it?

We're planning a big trip out at the weekend, crossing the border from North Wales to England - land of supermarkets that sell more than lettuce, carrots, apples, bananas and potatoes, oh and leeks in abundance but I have lots of them I've just dug out the garden at the end of the season. So I'm thinking celeriac and coconut oil need to be on the shopping list.

I'm 5lb down this morning, after promising myself I wouldn't weigh myself for a week. DH is down too but I'm guessing its all to do with water balancing, because thats 2 big bags of sugar and can't be possible. I'm just hoping its not back up tomorrow. I need the motivation of moving in just the one direction.

I've done a 1.5hr workout fast walking DD in her buggy around the woods in the drizzle. Feeling a little washed out sloshing around today and someone has put hills there that I'm sure weren't as big before.

slowlyburningcalories · 17/04/2012 12:00

DH delighted to discover scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms for breakfast and he also had toast. DD looked daggers at us over her bowl of cherios.

Lunch, sausages for me with salad, DD is having baked beans.

Dinner, BIWIs low carb shepherds pie with celeriac mash.

Drinking oodles of water, but think I will see how a week of bootcamp is and then if no or little weight loss then I will ditch the caffeine. Was up every hour with small toad so pretty shattered today but have a clear head to think and less lethargic, even if I am waking with horrendous headaches.

WizzyBizzy · 17/04/2012 12:07

Soup doesn't have much butternut in so hopefully ok. Hmmm, haven't had tofu yet - just looked at packet info [[http://cauldronfoods.co.uk/our-range/tofu/organic-marinated-tofu-pieces/ here] and looks ok. Bit of salt. Only 1g/100g carbs.

WizzyBizzy · 17/04/2012 12:07

bugger. link

BIWI · 17/04/2012 12:08

SNACKING

I notice lots of you talking about snacks, what you've had, what you're planning, etc - and there seems to be an automatic assumption that snacks will somehow be necessary.

I'd like to make three points here.

  1. we are all used to snacking in our 'ordinary' way-of-eating-lives. This is because our high carb diets leave us hungry between meals. Blood sugar levels are being pushed sky high and then plummeting a couple of hours later, which means we get hungry/look for something to snack with

  2. we're often used to snacking on sweet things in between meals - because our blood sugar has dropped so low we tend to crave the thing that will address that fastest - sugar. A lot of the snacks I have seen talked about here are trying to mimic this, but without the carbs - sugar-free stuff, etc. All of which have artificial sweeteners in them.

  3. if you're following a low carb way of eating, you will not be hungry between meals. Your blood sugar levels will be much more stable.

So:

If you're low carbing you are much less likely to need to snack

...therefore you shouldn't be planning to snack.

Obviously it makes sense to have foods to hand, in case you miss a meal, or for times when you are a bit peckish - but don't plan to build snacks into your day. You really shouldn't need them that often.

And - if you think you're hungry - it's often a sign that you're actually dehydrated. So drink more water!

I know, how the bloody hell can we drink more than we are doing already, grumble, grumble, grumble

End of officiousness.

For now.

OP posts:
KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 12:10

antagony 5Lbs loss already! Crikey. Well done.

re coconut oil - no, doesn't make things taste of coconut, mind you I use an el cheapo bottle which cost me 80p. It doesn't even smell of coconut.

Hmm could someone else check their bottle - perhaps I have bought a bottle of liquid parrafin by accident Grin

JaxTellerIsMyFriend · 17/04/2012 12:11

just had nettle soup that I bought at the farmers market - but forgot to ask what the ingredients were, it was very green so assuming nettles and could taste garlic, apart from that no clue. Then had a side salad with some lemon and herb chicken.

Full up again now.

KeepOrfThemCarbs · 17/04/2012 12:12

I agree with BIWI.

I think that it ios better not to snack whatsoever. Make sure you have some easily eatable stuff in the fridge for those times when you are ready to eat the paint off the walls, but don't plan to snack. 3 square meals a day.

I sound like a grandma. Sad.

I nearly bought a celeriac the other day to try - but it looked too much Tutankhamun's brain, so didn't bother.

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