Question Thread for New Year Bootcampers

[BigStickBIWI]

As there are so many of us doing this, the chat thread is moving pretty quickly - and it means that lots of questions are being missed.

So here is a specific thread you to post any questions you might have about Bootcamp or low carbing.

Storecupboard stuff:

Tins of tuna in oil, other tinned fish (be careful about those in sauces though - they can be quite carby)

Tins/cartons of tomatoes (Sainsbury Basics are the lowest in carbs if you're a Sainsbury shopper).

If you have an Asian supermarket near you, see if you can buy some shirataki noodles. You can buy them from Amazon too - they are zero carbs. They have a tougher texture than ordinary noodles, which means you can also use them as a spaghetti substitute.

Cartons of coconut cream - lovely recipe for slow cooked pork in coconut cream and ginger on the recipe thread

Whole chorizo sausages - you buy them in the supermarket in the meat aisle, but they will be in a fixture at the end of the chillers, i.e. ambient.

Otherwise, just make sure you have plenty of veg/meat/fish in the fridge/freezer.

PennyHofstadter has asked:

1. Is there a minimum amount of fat you need to eat in a day?
2. I've also started the doing The Shred, is this ok?
3. Can anyone recommend a good book about LC'ing?

There is no set amount of fat you should be eating, but the proportions of food you should be eating are fat:protein:carbohydrate. As long as you aim for this, you should be fine

Any exercise is good - but diet is much more important to achieve weight loss. I've seen figures bandied around the internet (with no source, obviously, that would be too exciting!) saying that 85% of weight loss comes from diet and 15% from diet.

That said, exercise can make a difference, tone you up and - perhaps most importantly - make you feel good. The shred sounds like really hard work! Whatever works for you/your circumstances would be fine.

There are lots of good low carb books. The three I would recommend are:

Dr John Briffa "Escape the Diet Trap" - talks more broadly about food/eating and why calorie counting/low fat diets are erroneous.

Dr Atkins "Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution" - the LC 'guru'. Lots of important information about low carbing, and his own, detailed diet plan (4 phases). A good read and also some recipes in here

India Knight/Neris Thomas "The Idiot Proof Diet" - not so good on the science side, but very good from the point of view of the psychological/emotional side of eating. Theirs is a three phase plan.

Thanks BIWI

I've just totted up everything I ate yesterday on MFP (ignoring all the red numbers everywhere!) and apparently I ate 56g of carbs (not sure how low carb that bolognaise is, it's come out at 29g of carbs for one meal... I was going to eat the leftovers for lunch today but now I'm not so sure!), 107g of fat and 114g of protein so it looks like I'm doing something wrong?

(15% is exercise above, although I am sure everyone realised)

What did you eat, Penny? MFP isn't always right - list it all out for me so that I can see.

Ah thanks, Xenia!

No problem - I appreciate your help with this!

Breakfast: Total 0% fat greek yogurt (I was desperate and Sainsbury's didn't have any of the full fat one) and 2x egg omelette cooked in butter with mushrooms, bit of green pepper and a sprinkling of grated parmasan cheese.

Lunch: 4 slices (1/2 ball) of mozzerella cheese, 1 whole avocado, green leaf salad leafs, 75g of beef escalope, 2tbsp of oily italian dressing.

Dinner: Low carb bolognaise from the low carb recipe list (125g of lean beef mince, 1/2 tin peeled plum tomatoes, 1 v.small onion, 1/2 red pepper, 1 clove of garlic, 100g of mushrooms, 1/2 leek. Mince was browned off in plenty of olive oil. Added some salt, pepper, chilli flakes as seasoning. Served with 150-200g of brocolli.

Snack: 100g of cucumer and 100g of celery with a 1/3 of a pack of boursin garlic and herb soft cheese.

Oh and 3ltrs of water, 1 cup of black sugarless coffee and 1 cup of sugarless tea with a dash of milk.

Well that all looks OK-ish.

The carbs could be adding up a lot here though:

0% fat yoghurt - how much did you have/how many carbs in that?
the dressing, potentially (assuming it's ready-made - how many carbs in it?)
onion is much carbier than shallots
red pepper is much carbier than green

Possibly you have an issue with dairy - try cutting that down/out today

If you're prepared to weigh stuff for the next couple of days, there's a carb counter on the spreadsheet - look at the tabs at the bottom Just enter the weights of any veg and it will work it out for you

.... and the tinned tomatoes will have added a fair bit too

Biwi, I only had a cm of white wine, loads of ice and water to the top of the glass. I didn't really want it though and drank about 2 pints of water after.

Dh is supportive but not overly iykwim. He was a eyebrow raised at my breakfast on the first day but has seen a change in my weight since then so is impressed. I am doing it on my own really.

Thanks for the stick:)

If it was me, this is how I would have done your day:

Breakfast: 3 x egg omelette cooked in butter with mushrooms

Lunch: 1/2 avocado, green leaf salad leaves, 100g of beef escalope (or other protein, e.g. tinned tuna in oil, roast chicken, leftover belly pork), home-made vinaigrette (oil and wine vinegar, salt and pepper)

Dinner: Low carb bolognaise from the low carb recipe list (125g of higher fat beef mince, 1/2 carton Sainsbury's Basics chopped tomatoes, 1 echallion shallot 1 clove of garlic, 100g of mushrooms, 1 leek. 150-200g of brocolli with butter melted on it.

Snack: 100g of cucumber and 100g of celery with Sainsbury's Full Fat soft cheese

The Boursin is also quite carby.

You should be focussing on getting your carbs from veg/salad, not from other, processed foods. Ditch the pre-prepared salad dressings and check the cheese that you're eating. Make sure that the veg you're using is 3g carbs per 100g and below.

Hmm... there is 6.8g of carbs in a 170g pot of yogurt and I ate it all . The dressing has 1.3g of carbs per 100g (its Newman's Own Italian Dressing) and like I say I had a couple of tbsps worth over my salad.
TBH I was shocked at the amount of carbs were in tinned tomatoes... I used Napolina peeled plum tomatoes and there was about 3.5g of carbs per 100g!

I have been following these threads (very good) as they are pretty much how I try to eat.

One thing that surprises me is the huge amount of cheese and yoghurt people eat (I am not much of a diary fan, but it's just personal to me . If I have even one piece of cheese I wake with a blocked nose next day although I do sometimes have it)

Thanks for the previous ideas for salad dressings - its really simple! I'm having salad for lunch today, so have made some up ready.

Another question - the ground almond based muffins, are we allowed them? Being veggie, these would be a good snack as I'm struggling getting enough protein. I have some in the oven atm but I'll stick them in the freezer if we're not allowed them yet.

Not allowed on the first two weeks of Bootcamp, Dangerous. Sorry!

Xenia - lots of people do have issues with dairy, although they don't necessarily realise it. As well as problems with mucous production, it can also impede weight loss. Yoghurt, though, is apparently better tolerated.

I'm sure this has been covered loads of times already but are swede chips ok?

Swede chips are perfect! (and lovely)

Brilliant, I have lots of swede to eat up.

Any recommendations for turnip? I have a few of them as well and we don't ea meat so no stews or casseroles.

Of course, I could stop being so lazy and check the recipes on mn...

xenia, also we have quite a few vegetarians who would want to have enough dairy to maintain variety etc

also many who have been on low fat diets before are now enjoying the fact that they can have full-fat dairy products! unless dairy really disagrees with you, i think tweaking of the diet can come a bit later as weight loss stabilises and you are less subject to carb cravings

my consumption of dairy varies - i went dairy free for a few weeks before christmas and it made no difference in terms of weight, but i did feel 'cleaner' if you see what i mean. i am eating a reasonably amount of dairy now, but i'm on a bit of a come-down from over-indulging over the holidays and will likely reduce consumption once i'm back into the swing of things

I don't know if there are any turnip recipes on the thread.

I've googled, but most of the recipes that came up for 'turnip' were actually for swede! People always seem to mix them up.

I know I have one in a book somewhere, which I seem to remember has them with a hot gin vinaigrette. Will go and look ...

blackaffronted, added to biwi's response about storecupboard stuff, where possible you could add an extra portion of whatever you're cooking for yourself over the next few weeks (stews, moussaka etc) to the freezer too

Oh, good idea Willie!

Im just about to pee on the ketostix... Haha!
What am i looking for a positive or negative colour???

Just had a quick scout around and to all the dairy fans.

You want full fat fromagie frais rather than yog because its only 3.9g of carb per 100g of product. So half the carb of yog.

I prefer fromagie frais anyway so happy days. Off to Waitrose later.