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.

Iron deficiency SHOULDN'T be an issue as I am now post-menopausal. But you never know.

sorry if this has been asked before but between chinese take away and fish and chip shop , what are the best choices ?
FIL is having family round for his birthday and this is they want to eat

I am hoping they might include Indian take away as I thought chicken tikka would be the best , but need to be prepared in case it's only chinese and chip shop

If it's the chip shop - I doubt anything will be OK!

Chinese:

See if they do lettuce wraps (usually minced pork and chopped veg, that you wrap in iceberg lettuce leaves, with hoisin sauce - try to avoid the sauce!)

Sometimes they do dry spare-ribs as a starter

Look at the veg dishes too - see if they do stir-fried beansprouts, and have those instead of noodles; or stir-fried water chestnuts and celery

Obviously avoid anything in sweet and sour sauce, and anything in batter. Avoid kung po chicken, as kung po is often in batter and the sauce can be sweet.

It's not going to be easy, though!

I would try and have something to eat before you go, so that you're not starving, and can pick your way through the menu more carefully.

Thanks Biwi , had not thought about bean sprouts . Good tip about eating before as well , I have made huge pot of soup so will have some before we go.
Also will surreptisciously give dd some off my plate, which she won't say no to

BIWI Is there an approximate recommendation for how many grams of fat, protein and carbs we should be having a day on this WOE?

thekitchenfairy

Thanks for telling me about chantenay carrots. Will have to swap to buying baby carrots from now on. Do you know of any supermarketd that sell them or am i best just buying loose carrots and looking for pake skinny ones in there?

I don't think so, nappyaddict - it's more about general proportions. Just make sure that you are eating fat:protein:carbs. Re the carbs, I would suggest that you should be in the realms of 30-40g carbs per day, and no more.

Hi, I'm not on the boot camp threads but have a question so hope this is the right place.

I read Briffa's book and really enjoyed it. I've been realising over he past few months how completely reliant I am on refined carbs and how tired and ratty this is making me feel. So I started lower carbing last Thursday and other han a bit of a carb crash yesterday I think it's going well. However, my concern is that I am a healthy weight and really don't want to lose weight. I am guessing it's perfectly possible to eat
Low carb in a 'maintenence' way so what do I have to be careful with. Increased protein? Or do I need to keep some extra carbs in my diet?

Thank you wise ones!

Hi IVcoffee - i think the point ot bootcamp is to crush your cravings for sweet stuff - make no mistake, sugar has a huge hold on us that is hard to break. It's like nicotine, it's an addiction. The 'carb crash' is exactly that - it's to try to force your body to give in and eat carbs (in any shape)

I would still recommend that you do 2 weeks bootcamp, because after that the sugar will no longer be relevant.

What have you been eating?

Morning, IV!

You are absolutely right, you can low carb in a maintenance way. The key thing is to keep your food in the following proportions: fat:protein:carbs

So in reality, this means cutting out all bread, sugar, pasta, rice and potatoes and adding into your diet butter, oil, cheese. If there's anything you are eating that is 'low fat' or 'light' or even worse, 'lite' (!), stop eating that immediately and look for the full fat version.

For now, I'd avoid all fruit as well. As captainmummy says, it's important when you first start to low carb to really break the hold that carbs have on us. And sugar is hugely, hugely addictive. So although you may be able to introduce some fruit later, I'd steer clear of it for the initial two weeks.

The first phase of Bootcamp is two weeks as this seems to be how long it takes not only to switch to fat-burning from carb-burning, but also to break the sugar addiction.

Good luck! Let us know how you're getting on.

Oh, and nuts/seeds will be good for you to eat as well, seeing as you're not focussed on weight loss. (Just check the carb counts on the back of the packet, as some nuts can be surprisingly high in carbs)

Thanks for the answers. Okay, basic meal plan has been:

Breakfast: Greek yog with berries, coffee with splash full fat milk.

Lunch: omelette with cheese and spinach, salad. Or a chicken Caesar salad with cheese dressing.

Dinner: Bolognaise sauce with spring greens instead of pasta.

Snacks: (not felt the need for many) Cheese or few nuts.

How am I doing? For the first few days I felt great but yesterday was a bit shattered. Although I worked a night shift on Friday which may have has something to do with it! Should I ditch the berries for the first couple of weeks?

I was watching Supersize V Superskinny and they recommend that you only eat 20g of saturated fat per day which should be 10% of what you eat in a day. I know we are supposed to eat a high proportion of fat but BIWI would you agree that only 20g/10% should be saturated?

nappy No. Ignore them. There isn't a problem with eating saturated fat at all. But Supersize programme (like the mainstream media) insist on telling us we should avoid it.

Honestly - read Briffa/Taubes and it will give you the full low-down on this.

IV - your meals sound fine. If you're tired, it's most likely carb flu. Eat plenty of fat and drink plenty of water. In your case, I think eating the berries will be fine.

Read Briffa here

Thanks :)

Thanks BiWi!

I've been trying to convert my friend to this WOE but she thinks it sounds very much like Atkins. How can I explain to her the differences between this and Atkins and why this is better than Atkins?

Atkins is actually much stricter and you have to be very disciplined to follow it properly. And that's the thing - very, very few people actually follow it properly.

There are four different stages of the Atkins diet, and you have to weigh/count your carbs in each stage.

Bootcamp, although it starts with a strict couple of weeks, is designed to be easier in that you don't have to weigh/count anything, as long as you follow the rules.

I'm wondering, though, if your friend has actually read Atkins? Does she know what it's all about?

I am sure this ( must have ) has been mentioned before, but can't find the answers - what's the best thing for constipation ?

Lots of water and fat.

Make sure you are getting the vast majority of your carbs from veg and salad.

Exercise can help, as can:

• high strength vitamin c
• coffee
• sugar-free sweets - Thornton's sugar-free/diabetic chocolate/toffee especially!

Just be sure you're actually constipated as opposed to not going as often.

thanks Biwi definitely the former !

Do you have the carb count for marrows?

Found this on an American site:

Marrow - peeled, raw 100g 3.0
Marrow - peeled, boiled 100g 3.5

If it's an American value do you have to do some sort of calculation to it?