Come and chat round the Low Carb Bootcamp Fire!

[TeamGBIWI]

Well, week 15 of Bootcamp has just ended. But the support and banter will continue! I, for one, am carrying on for the next couple of weeks until my holiday, in the hope that I can drop another pound or so before I go.

There have been some brilliant losses in the last two weeks, so I'm hoping that you'll all be sticking with it too!

That's good badvoc

Welcome fufulina . I would ditch the fruit for now, but agree that weight loss comes in fits and starts with this way of eating, often no loss for ten days or more and then a nice drop. So hang in there.

Fiddle I'm not sure what would be best for the spreadsheet, I've been bad about filling it in (mostly because I've hardly lost anything since delurking - so did most of my losing off-spreadsheet iyswim).

I need a kick up the arse to be frank. Am a reasonable weight now, thinner than ever, but have decided I'm going to lose another stone as there is still a fair amount of body fat lurking about. BMI is 22.5. But I've got a bit lazy and have had the odd bit of cake etc which obviously is all it takes to stall you, hence have spent about three weeks at the same weight give or take half a pound. I'm now starting to worry that during upcoming 2 1/2 week holiday I could do quite a lot of damage which would be very annoying. Would it be weird to take my scales??

Thanks all for the very quick replies. And sorry about my guttedface... Was trying to do tweet speak, and had forgotten is different on MN.

I haven't counted carbs, but will try that for the next few days, and will cut out chocolate, dairy and fruit. Still all good with the allowed veg, though?

Tartiette I took my scales on holiday once. ( uk holiday). DH was exasperated but I didn't care

Apologies for the autocorrection of your name

Fiddle yes please to a soreadsheet - don't mind how we do it, but it keeps me motivated and honest to myself and also allows me to see others doing well and inspiring me!!!

Tartiflette, when is your holiday? BMI of 22.5 is pretty thin. You could do one of two things - either Bootcamp hard until your holiday starts, then relax on holiday, or decide to stabilise at this weight until after your holiday and restart when you come back. Either way, I don't think you should take your scales. You will be on holiday!

Fiddle, yes, please, please do a spreadsheet! You could maybe consolidate the losses to date (ie Name, Starting Weight, Start Date, Current Weight, No lbs Lost, % Lost) at the beginning and then start running week to week again. I like being able to look at the stalls other people have had and reassure myself that it's not forever.

GoddessBlossom, I'm going to pretend I saw your post before eating the pie - it was so I only had one insulin rush, honest! I haven't gained weight, though, and have got the urge to cheat out of my system. Might try that low carb ice cream. Can you do it without an ice cream maker?

B: 2 eggs, scrambled, 2 rashers bacon. Pint water.

According to briffa nuts are unlimited and dark choc in moderation.
Are you doing a different diet BIWI?
I know I should cut down on nuts and choc BUT I am sure they are all that are keeping me from pigging out in carbs...Lots of them!
I have stopped having milk and potatoes and pasta this week.
For me I think the big thing is not having wheat. Prior to diet every meal was wheat based...or nearly.
I am honesty starting to wonder how much of my ill health over the past few years has been due to my poor diet....:(

Too..briffa says to avoid ice cream. You would better off having cream.
I am planning baked nectarines with hazelnuts on top and cream for pud tonight :)

I think the thing with Briffa is that he's very much about healthy eating rather than weight loss per se. He's not advising a ketogenic diet, for example. BIWI's Bootcamp is ketogenic (if you do it right )

So nuts and dark choc are fine because they're healthy choices for snacky/treaty stuff, but for actual weight loss (or for reaching/maintaining ketosis) I think lots of people will find they need to cut them right down. And tbh even I think he recommends nuts rather too freely, and I loves 'em!

Protein shake for breakfast here, off to Yo Sushi (at ds's request) for lunch - sashimi here I come!

yes i agree tea (i always want to call you tealeaf!), i think briffa is more for maintenance than weight loss - he's more like bootcamp lite lite

badvoc your pudding sounds fab and if it fits in with your own eating plan that's great, but it's really very carby and will undo all your hard work in resisting the potatoes, milk and pasta

Badvoc - yes! It's called Bootcamp! It's an initial strict period of two weeks, to really get things off to a good start. After the two weeks, you move on to Bootcamp Light. Here are the rules of Bootcamp:

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

And here are the rules of Bootcamp Light - which is what most people here are following:

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)

1. Avoid processed food

Focus on pure, natural protein as the basis for your meals ? meat/fish/eggs. You may include processed meats like bacon or (low carb) sausages, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, gammon - but please don?t have these at every meal or every day. As well as being highly processed they often contain undesirable ingredients, can add unnecessary extra carbs into your diet, and often include sugar.

1. Eat lots of fat

Eating fat helps you to burn fat. Honestly! It will also keep you feeling fuller for longer. 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!

1. Make sure you are eating vegetables and salads with your food

This is where the bulk of 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.

Beware that some of the veg on the allowed list can be surprisingly high in carbs once you make up a portion of it ? this is because they are denser, and therefore you tend to use more ? compare, for example, 100g of onion with 100g lettuce! Keep your focus on those veg which contain 3g carbs per 100g and use these as the focus of your meals. Use those over 3g per 100g sparingly.

1. You may eat some dairy

You should aim to include plenty of butter on this WOE. Fry with it and add it to your vegetables. And if you know that dairy doesn?t impede your weight loss 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.

If you?ve been cutting out tea/coffee, you can re-introduce this ? but just be careful how much milk you end up drinking. You can end up adding a lot of extra carbs this way.

1. You must drink a minimum of 2 litres of water per day

Even if you?re drinking more tea/coffee than in Bootcamp, this is still a non-negotiable part of this WOE. And the more weight you have to lose, the more water you should drink. Water helps to flush out the ketones that your body will product ? so flushing out the fat.

1. You may drink some alcohol

But restrict this to once or twice a week max. Vodka with soda is the best thing to drink. Or Champagne, red wine or dry white wine. Absolutely no beer/lager, cider, liqueurs, cocktails or full sugar mixers. You can drink spirits with artificial sweeteners, but bear in mind that we are attempting to avoid all things artificial!

Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for your body, and it will use this over and above anything else that is available to it. Therefore, even if you?re following the diet absolutely to the letter, including alcohol can prevent weight loss.

1. You may eat some fruit

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and rhubarb are all fine. But please ? only once a day at the very most, and keep an eye on your portion sizes. Just for information ? these are the carb counts:

Rhubarb ? 0.8g carbs per 100g (but don?t forget you will need to sweeten this ? and not with sugar!)
Blackberries ? 4.4g carbs per 100g
Raspberries ? 4.6g carbs per 100g
Strawberries ? 6g carbs per 100g
Blueberries - 6.4g carbs per 100g (although this is a bit controversial - I have had differing carb counts from various sources - some saying as much as 12g carbs per 100g)

1. You may eat some nuts/seeds

Nuts/seeds can make a good snack. BUT it is incredibly easy to overdo it, and you can end up eating your bodyweight in carbs. Also, if you prefer salted nuts, it is very easy to eat too much salt via nuts/seeds. As an occasional snack they are great. As well as being bad for you, too much salt can result in fluid retention - which will mean a higher weight on the scales.

Macadamias are not only luscious, but they are very low in carbs. Sainsbury?s sell little bags of roasted, salted Macadamias that work out at around 4g per bag.

Here are some carb counts ? BUT ? check the back of your packets as I don?t know if these are for raw or roasted nuts:

Pistachios 4.6g carbs per 100g
Macadamias 4.8g carbs per 100g
Pecans 5.8g carbs per 100g
Almonds 6.9g carbs per 100g
Peanuts 7.1 g carbs per 100g
Cashews 18.1g carbs per 100g

10. Avoid artificial sweeteners The aim of Bootcamp was to help reduce the stranglehold that sugar has on us ? and to curb your sweet tooth. But it does make some things difficult, e.g. desserts at a dinner party, and it is undeniable that it can be enjoyable ? occasionally ? to eat something sweet. However, restrict such goodies. For some people, artificial sweeteners can impede weight loss.

Badvoc, it isn't normal ice cream, which is very sugary, it's low-carb - ie cream and raspberries blended and frozen. I haven't done it yet but it sounds lovely!

Hello ladies, I have been following Dr Briffa for a few weeks and am enjoying the results so far. Have lost about 8lb and from what I can see/feel it's all fat off my thighs and bottom, yay!

I am also, for the first time in a long time, getting to a slightly empty feeling, but not too hungry. Which is great as I am actually starting to really recognise when I need to eat. Before I was often not-empty, but felt starving, so ended up snacking a lot when I actually probably didn't need to. My brain was telling me one thing but my stomach another.

Favourite meal so far has been pork escalopes with mushrooms and loads of cream, served with cauliflower. Yum.

I was wondering, do you have any low-carb recipe books or websites to recommend?

Ah!
(dense)
I just don't think I can do that for 2 weeks...not in the summer hols with 2 young kids to care for :(
I tried the hardcore diet - where you have a detox as she calls it for 5 days and I felt so ill at the end of day 2 I had to call my dh to come home from work!!
I am so pleased with myself that I haven't had any wheat for 10 days :) thats a big thing for me.
I am also not really missing the milk.
Will cut down on fruit, nuts and choc though.

Ironically BIWI, having been on these threads from the beginning, I am finally doing Bootcamp proper not bootcamp lite! [proud]

B: 3 cold chicken drumsticks.

Gym - now that I am finally doing things properly, my body is clearly not yet using my fat for energy, so the gym is an interesting experience at the moment - I cannot run for any longer than 10 minutes for example, and my run is usually 25 minutes. However, I am walking up hill for 45 instead which is equally (nearly) as sweat inducing and doing lots of weights and crunches. So if I am losing weight through my WoE and keeping toned at the gym, all good.

Tescos had loads of meat on offer, including chicken wrapped in bacon with cheese, so guess what's for lunch?

Badvoc - once you get through the first few days, it's really not that difficult! But Bootcamp Light will probably suit you better if you are finding it hard.

I have to ask you though, why you think it would be so difficult, just because you have two young children?! Not getting at you, honestly, but I wonder what your perceptions of it are?

Thegoddess - I knew I'd get you eventually ...

But - don't forget the fat. If all you've eaten is the chicken, there's not enough fat there.

Fiddle, yes please to a spreadsheet! I think it keeps me motivated seeing weight in black & white
spag your meal of pork escalopes with mushrooms and loads of cream, served with cauliflower sounds yummy!

LC chilli just made(enough to feed 5 thousand though) will be freezing into pots

hello everyone.

I am still plugging away and I think I may have turned a weightloss corner. The only strange thing is that when I went into ketosis last week my breath started smelling UNBELIEVABLY rank. It smelled like rancid shells off the beach that have been left sitting in a bucket for a week

I had been drinking lots of water. In the end I ended up coming out of ketosis due to pressure from DH as we were off to visit his parents and he said I couldn't possibly breathe on anyone and show him up like that . I ate an apple and ended up having rather a carby weekend. However I didn't swell up or get water retention and am back on track now as well.

But does anyone know why this happened?

Humphrey what a shame DH wasn't more supportive At least you are now back on track.
Re the bad breath, I found mine eased up after a while and especially after I increased water intake

no no, DH is very supportive. This was really an intolerable smell. It was making me feel sick.

I would not have tolerated it in him either tbh. DH

sorry posted too soon

DH loves this diet and has started doing it with me. We both notice the improvement in our moods and health.

I honestly don't know why that would suddenly have happened. How peculiar!

Glad that he is supporting you/doing it with you - it really does make life easier.

I will let you know if it returns

Another lurker here! Glad the threads are still going as am on week 3. No idea about weight loss though as DS "bounced" on the scale and now we are all 15kg. But clothes are looser which is good.

One question. Friday is take away night, what works with bootcamp? Have choice from Chinese or Indian.