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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.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

BIWI's Bootcamp - Week 3 Weigh In - New Starters Welcome!

413 replies

BIWIWhoMustBeObeyed · 29/04/2012 17:52

So our two weeks of Bootcamp seem to have gone well, with some spectacular losses. Between us I think we have lost enough to make 3 or 4 new MNetters!

It's up to you now how you want to proceed. If you have a lot of weight to lose, or you like the strictness of it, you can carry on with Bootcamp. New joiners should start with Bootcamp anyway.

If you are nearly at your target, or you were finding Bootcamp a bit too restrictive, then you can move to Bootcamp Light - or you could do a hybrid of the two, which is what I am doing - Bootcamp Monday to Thursday and Bootcamp Light Friday to Sunday (which means that you can include alcohol at the weekend!)

As a reminder, or for those who are new, these are the Bootcamp 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, and 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. Avoid foods marketed as low carb, e.g. Atkins Daybreak bars.

3.Maximise your fat intake.
Fry in butter, add butter to vegetables, eat salad with a home-made vinaigrette dressing (not made with balsamic vinegar though), 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.
But choose only those vegetables that are on the allowed list (see below). 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.Minimal dairy (apart from butter, which is unlimited).
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 only in small amounts.

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

8.No fruit

9.No nuts/seeds

10.No sugar or artificial sweeteners

And this is the allowed list of veg:

Don?t eat any veg unless it?s on this list, and try and focus on eating those that are under 3g carbs per 100g:

Veg (raw)Carbs per 100g
Mushrooms0.4
Watercress0.4
Spinach0.8
Celery0.9
Broccoli1.1
Asparagus 1.4
Cucumber1.5
Lettuce1.7
Fennel1.8
Courgettes1.8
Cauliflower1.9
Avocado flesh1.9
Turnip2
Pumpkin2.2
Runner beans2.3
Swede2.3
Celeriac2.3
Bean sprouts2.5
Carrots2.5
Green pepper2.6
Baby sweetcorn2.7
Aubergine2.8
Leeks2.9
Okra3
Tomato3.1
Mangetout3.3
Shallots3.3
Brussels sprouts3.5
French beans4.7
Cabbage5
Yellow pepper5.3
Carrots6
Orange or red pepper6.4
Ginger (peeled)7.2
Butternut squash7.5
Onions7.9

OP posts:
PostBellumBugsy · 04/05/2012 09:59

sharon, about your period thing. I had this when I did low carb a couple of years ago. I was on the pill and started having break through bleeding & disrupted cycles, which seemed really odd when I'd been on the pill for about 15 years & never had that problem before. So I did some research & trawled through low carb forums, and a possible explanation could be this:

When you lose body fat, you relase all the material that has been stored in the fat cells into the bloodstream. Oestrogen is stored in fat cells & if you are losing fat relatively rapidly, that could be enough oestrogen hitting your system to affect normal monthly cycles.

I do not know for sure if this is true, but it made sense to me and you & I certainly aren't the only two women who have experienced cycle disruption while low-carbing. My issue settled down after a couple of months, when the weight loss slowed down.

BettyBathroom · 04/05/2012 10:11

NMPI think this diet like any has the capacity to be boring if you don't put much effort into discovering new ways with food. Eating Low Carb is viewing food from a completely different angle, almost like learning a whole new cuisine. Agree with BIWI you need to ramp up on your meal ideas - get yourself over to the recipe thread, try this blog I breathe I'm hungry, get yourself a copy of the Idiot Proof Diet cookbook (I got mine from the library) or the Low Carb Gourmet. Imo best approach is to do a weekly meal plan and have all the food in the fridge ready to cook. You'll have to learn a whole new repetoire of recipes but it will be incredibly rewarding because you will eat fantastically good food and you will lose weight - that's having your cake and eating it!

Maybe it might help for people to post their weekly plans? Mine is 70% veggie and I only need to plan evening meals as I often have leftovers for lunch but would be happy to share. Smile

WillieWaggledagger · 04/05/2012 10:20

betty i'm doing the moroccan lamb casserole from the LCG book tonight

Marabou · 04/05/2012 10:24

Good morning all!

After last night's lashing careful analysis of my diet I'm determined to be a strict bootcamper henceforth Grin!

Today's breakfast was the classic eggs and butter and I'm just off to the shop to get salad ingredients and planning to get chicken drumsticks to bake in the oven. Not sure what I'll do for dinner yet..

I'm a bit worried about DS's friend's 1-year brithday party tomorrow, as the mum has been raving about what she's going to bake the whole week, but somehow I hope I can dodge the cake and biscuits Hmm...

PostBellumBugsy · 04/05/2012 10:29

Marabou - with regard to the party, eat lots of low carb food before you go and then say you have a bit of a dodgy tummy & you'll just stick to a cup of tea! Sometimes it is easier to do that, than explain & then keep on batting away the endless offers of cake!

BettyBathroom · 04/05/2012 10:30

WWD I had the Cumcumber salad with peanuts, coconut and lime - I added some defrosted prawns too - it was quick, easy and very tasty.

NotMostPeople · 04/05/2012 10:37

I consider my wrists truly slapped.

Diet coke was a one off honest guv and I must get into checking carb counts, the black pudding (it did come from Sainsburys) is shockingly high.

I'm going to google some food ideas and keep going. Considering the mistakes I keep making I've done well to loose 7lbs.

GreatEXPATations · 04/05/2012 10:45

Hi everyone.
NMP if it helps, am v much doing bootCamp lite combined with internittent fasting and I've just had small bat of 85% choc w some macadamia nuts... Carb count on this choc bar was LESs than in just one of my kids' Percy pigs which I had been salivating over sweets clearly are the work of the devil!
Biwi like your new name, thanks for still being there for us all.

GreatEXPATations · 04/05/2012 10:50

Also I know I often repeat this but low carb is way of eating not a diet..real life does happen, aka Briffa and Sissons
I find having a 80% of the time mindset to low carbing really helps..I'm sure some may disagree but it works for me Smile

PostBellumBugsy · 04/05/2012 11:06

Expat, what you say is absolutely true, but you are a long term healthy eater. For people starting out on this WOE, then I think real life (or old eating patterns) have to be, in most cases, radically altered.

I am a sugar/carb addict. I really do think of myself in those terms. If I eat just one chocolate brownie, I know that in about 2 hours, I will be craving another sugary snack. I will feel quite bad tempered and all rational thinking about food goes out of my mind, with my intense craving for something sweet & sugary.

So, in the short-term - being strict & adhering to boot camp is very necessary for lots of people like me. I think once you are well down the road on a healthy WOE, then it is fine for real life (parties with cakes / lots of red wine / blow out at the Chinese etc) to happen.

BreakOutTheKaraoke · 04/05/2012 11:26

Under 10st today, 9st 13 1/2! Thats just over 4lb in 4 days.

As much as I'm enjoying doing this- especially the weight loss!- I don't know if it will become a way of eating long term for me. I don't like salad, so am finding it hard to make lunches for work, and find myself REALLY wanting snacks in an evening. That's not particularly getting easier. I also can't afford to keep this up long-term, it's a very expensive way of eating, and I'm on a tight budget!

But what I will take from it is a massive reduction of carbs in my life. At the minute, they are the staple of 2 of the 3 meals a day, plus snacks. I won't be carrying on like that, I'm going to try to keep a small amount of them to either breakfast or lunch, try and have dinner without them. Hopefully this will stop my snacking habit too.

teaandthorazine · 04/05/2012 11:46

Karaoke -well done on the weight loss! As time goes on and your body gets used to LC-ing you'll probably find you lose the urge to snack in the evenings.

I do agree it can be expensive though. Carbs are cheap, good-quality meat, fish etc isn't. I'm finding the expense hard going too tbh. But... I figure meal planning is the way to go - avoids waste and keeps costs down. Online grocery shopping also works for me, then I'm not tempted by impulse buys. And in the end, eating well is so important for our long term health that it's got to be worth a bit of extra investment... though I agree when money's tight spending it on smoked salmon seems a bit OTT Grin

re lunches - how about cooked chicken, cold sliced veggie fritatta, savoury muffins etc?

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 12:05

GreatEXPAT - you're absolutely right - in the long run - but we're trying to get people to stick to the straight and narrow on Bootcamap, rather than 'encourage' slipping.

Although it would seem that it's a bit like herding cats to hope to achieve that

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 12:06

You don't have to buy expensive meat though - for example, pork belly, shin of beef, mince - they are all good low carb choices. Not only are they low carb but they are also high fat.

teaandthorazine · 04/05/2012 12:12

Absolutely BIWI (pork belly is my new favourite thing) but just making the point that in the past when money was tight, a baked potato or a pile of toast would've done for an evening meal - now that won't cut it Grin

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 12:19

Well yes - that's true!

WillieWaggledagger · 04/05/2012 12:33

and also some of the veg isn't cheap

but i'm not spending extra on fizzy drinks or snacks so that mitigates it a bit

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 12:50

And of course, think of all the money you are saving by not drinking any alcohol on Bootcamp

Hepsibaaah · 04/05/2012 12:50

early to bed and busy this morning, but - BIWI Thanks for the 'fix' post! My transgression was small and if I'm honest not that enjoyable? Losing weight and being comfortable with myself is far far better.
On my second litre now and sticking to grilled chicken today.

But - wow - serious damage from a carb blow out!

Hepsibaaah · 04/05/2012 13:02

Oh - geeky question Blush when looking at the carb value of foods per 100 gms, which is the value appropriate to this WOE, the carb value alone, or that which is sugar?
Am arguing with DH that he can't have ryvita (standard diet fodder for him) as it has 56.0gms/100gms - he says he CAN at 4.9 gms/100???

Hepsibaaah · 04/05/2012 13:03

duh - 4.9/100g which is sugars - fat fingers on stupid iphone

PostBellumBugsy · 04/05/2012 13:03

carb total Hepsibaah

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 13:05

Here is the nutrition advice from the Sainsbury's website, re Ryvita Original:

Nutrition
Per 100g Per Slice (approx 10g)
Energy 1477kJ/350kcal 148kJ/35kcal
Protein 8.5g 0.9g
Carbohydrate 66.9g 6.7g
(of which sugars) 2.9g 0.3g
Fat 1.7g 0.2g
(of which saturates) 0.3g Trace
Fibre 16.5g 1.7g
Sodium* 0.2g 0.02g
*Equivalent as Salt 0.5g 0.05g

sorry that the formatting doesn't work!

You can tell your DH that if he is low carbing, Ryvita is not a good choice! You take the total value - so one slice will be 6.7g carbs.

It may be standard diet fodder - but that's a low calorie diet or a low fat diet - which is not what we're doing here.

BIWItheBold · 04/05/2012 13:05

... and he can come and argue with me if he likes!

Marabou · 04/05/2012 13:07

Bugsy, uuh I like the dodgy tummy idea:)!

Re, expense of LCing, I think it might be true to a certain extent that buying good quality meat and fish can be expensive, but then again I find that with this WOE I'm eating less and planning my meals carefully and thus spending less and more predictably..

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