Week 3 - New Year Low Carb Bootcamp - Full Fat or Light?

[BIWI]

So we've completed the hardest part of Bootcamp. Now is the time, if you wish, to relax things a little, and to move on to Bootcamp Light.

On the Spreadsheet of Fabulousness you will - after weighing in, of course - find the rules for Bootcamp Light. However, as I know some people can't access the spreadsheet easily, here they are:

Bootcamp Light

1. Eat when you?re hungry - if you?re not hungry, don?t eat
In Bootcamp, you should have been eating three meals a day. The point of this being to ensure that you got used to eating proper meals, and so that your blood sugar is regulated and stable. Having achieved that, you can now relax this a little bit. If you find you?re not hungry - which often happens, because ketosis suppresses your appetite - then don?t force yourself to eat. But don?t let yourself get so hungry that you make inappropriate choices! Always make sure you have plenty of low carb food to access quickly, if you need to.

2. 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.

3. Eat lots of fat
Eating fat helps to 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 and has too many carbs), 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 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.

5. 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.

6. 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. However, drinking this amount of water can affect your electrolyte balance; you need to make sure that you get plenty of sodium, magnesium and potassium. There is less need to worry about restricting salt if you?re eating a low carb diet. Good sources of potassium are salmon and avocado and spinach is a good source of magnesium. You could also consider supplements if you have an issue with this.

7. 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.

8. 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)

9. 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. As an occasional snack they are great, but keep it occasional and keep the portions to a small handful at most.

Macadamias are not only luscious, but they are very low in carbs.

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.

If you find the video by the swedish chap could someone put it on the SoF? I don't think it is there. I've just looked through this thread and can't find it. Really really need to go to bed now as DCs will wake me at 5 and if I start looking at the previous thread I'll be here all night!!!
Tia!

My god I am an idiot. It IS already there.

Please ignore previous post. I believe it is the first link in the VIDEOS section of the SoF.

Great, thanks Savoir - was just about to start trawling the thread. Nitey nite!

I'm up feeding DS2 so probably look like a right saddo posting at 4am - oh the joys of motherhood . Re courgettes, if you soak them in water for 15-20 min before cooking them they seem to lose the bitterness and become almost sweet.

Hi there, ana another early morning saddo here, I'm on puppy watch feeling v sluggish.

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments, pictures of the pups are now on my profile, she had nine in the end they are just soooo lovely but look like a lot of gift wrapped blobs in the pic!

Another early bird here...i havent felt like waking up and wanting to get up for years, so I am putting today's spring in my step down to this new WOE. It's bloody freezing down here in the Duchy this morning!

Lovely lovely lovely cute puppy piccies Cathy stupendous way to start my day

And thanks Anaisa I think courgette is the devils food, but will try soaking tip !

cathy - how cute!!! Ohhh I could just squeeze one!

Love the love fest yesterday, you guys are all awesome!

Not sure whats happening to me, my hormones must be all over the place :( After being almost period-free for the last 11 years (contraceptives) I have been spotting brown sludge (sorry tmi) for over a week and then today its more, and bright red. I suddenly got a period last time I tried LC too. Probably why I feel so bloated and yuk :(

Yesterdays menu -

B - bacon & 2 scrambled eggs in coconut oil

L - Chicken stir fry with a sace of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, sesame oil & rice wine vinegar. Just a dash of each.

D - Pork chop and cauli cheese

s - ham slice, cube of cheese

Had a really strange day today - have felt very sick and thirsty all night and all day (Anaisa I'm up feeding my baby DD too!)

Drinking hasn't made it better, in fact my brain has made water taste sweet so I have a feeling that I've been drinking too much of it (gallons to be honest!) my brain has been telling me NOT to drink despite being thirsty.

So I've had a day of trying to balance my electrolytes which I think is the problem:

Breakfast: corn beef
Lunch: two fillets salmon, spinach salad
Snack: spinach, pork scratchings
Dinner: steak and blue cheese sauce, spinach rocket and watercress salad, mushrooms.

I have had two cups of tea but really only probably one to two points of water. Had a raging thirst but have ignored it - as I know it is not a real thirst.

I now no longer feel sick and have obviously balanced off.

BIWI - what do I do now? Can I bring my water drinking to a lower level and still lose weight? I know I have a blood salt/sugar issue but prior to this the WOE has balanced me out and I've felt great.

Arrh Cathy thanks for posting pics. Nine? Nine? Where does she get her energy from? Feeling very broody now

Oh what lovely puppies! I like the coloured ribbons - is that how you can tell which is which?

Are you going to keep any of them?

No snow here this morning - much disappointment from the Cheerio-eating classes

Valdeeves - drink less water if it's causing you the problem. Perhaps you should consider buying some electrolyte stuff to help you? I don't know which brand to recommend because I've never used them, but hopefully someone else can advise. Can you ask your GP? I do worry about you and this WOE if you have a blood disorder.

Blackaffronted- I had the same issue. I had mirena coil fitted couple of years ago and periods virtually stopped. When I started LC I had a couple of really heavy periods. It has settled back down and am back to having nothing again
Hth!!

Well i had my weigh in today for tesco diet. I have put on another lb. This week i will low carb and hopefully it will work :(

starshaker - you're on Tesco Diets? Please come say hello in the low carb forum there, (I'm a lifetime member) 'cos it's dead as a dead thing (apart from me, so you can probably work out who I am from that!).

cathy those puppies make me squeeee! I love labs - only have half a one at the moment (the other half is sheepdog), but I think they're the best dogs. Do you have homes lined up for them? (Not that I need would be allowed by DH any more dogs at the moment!). Please keep posting pics as they grow.

hi and welcome starshaker. i've C&Ped the rules for low carbing bootcamp below (they can be found in the spreadsheet here and if you would like to be added to the spreadsheet with your current weight, or starting from 100 and just record your loss, then please just let me know.

If you haven't already, please do read the rules carefully as some of them may well be counter-intuitive in terms of advice you have had up until now. this is not about weighing, measuring or calorie counting.

One of the most important things about low carbing is that you need to be prepared. depending on how carb-heavy your diet has been until now, your body may well start screaming for carbs for the first couple of days and you need to make sure you have other things handy, such as some cheese, cold meat, a spoonful of full-fat yoghurt etc. after a few days the cravings should subside and everything becomes much easier. so if you can do a good shop and stock up on low carb foods that's a good idea.

if you read back up this thread for some of the posts from yesterday made by people who have been following this way of eating for a little while (some for two weeks or less, others for over a year) you will see some inspiring stories of weight loss, mood improvement and the conquering of food cravings, so hopefully you will join and experience the same.

Bootcamp rules

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

After the first two weeks of Bootcamp we will relax this, but these two weeks are critical in terms of helping you switch easily to a low carb way of eating - and if you start to feel hungry, it makes things much harder! Eating this way will ensure that your blood sugar levels are kept stable, which will mean that you are much less likely to experience hunger.

A typical high carbohydrate diet can mean that snacking is a routine part of your day. Once your blood sugar levels are stable, by eating low carb, you should find that you no longer want to snack. But the rule of thumb here is ?if you are hungry, eat!?. (Just make sure you are only choosing low carb snacks, of course!)

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, eg. Atkins Daybreak bars.

3. Eat lots of fat.
Eating fat will not make you fat. Honestly! But it will keep your appetite satisfied, and it sustains your body?s energy requirements perfectly. Fat does not provoke an insulin spike, unlike carbs which do (a lot) and protein (a little). 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. Make sure that you focus on eating those vegetables that are 3g carb per 100g or less, and this will ensure that your carb counts are kept low. 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).
Dairy 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. There are a lot of carbs in milk, so if you are having several cups of tea/coffee per day, you will quickly rack up your daily carb count (e.g. 1 medium latte contains more than 12g carbs!) You may eat cheese but again, 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. This is from www.low-carbdiet.co.uk/. Water is essential to weight loss for those who eat low-carb. The minimum consumed in a day should be:
Your Weight----Litres
140lbs-----2.5
160lbs-----3.0
180lbs-----3.0
200lbs-----3.5
220lbs-----3.5
240lbs-----4.0
260lbs-----4.5
280lbs-----4.5
300lbs-----5.0
320lbs-----5.5
340lbs-----5.5
360lbs-----6.0
380lbs-----6.5
400lbs-----6.5
High levels of ketones in the blood stream can lead to a reduction in ketone production, therefore being well hydrated could aid in keeping the levels low and ketone production ongoing. Consuming enough water can have many other positive side effects: aids your kidneys with the processing of protein, reduces the retention of water, helps with preventing constipation, and reduces the levels of ketones released by your breath, which in-turn will reduce breath odour. However, drinking a lot of water can mean that you also need to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance. You need to make sure that you are consuming sufficient sodium and potassium. On a low carb diet we can eat more salt, so make sure that you are cooking with salt and adding salt to food, if you like it. Good, low carb, sources of potassium are spinach (raw), avocado, mushrooms, courgettes and asparagus, as well as salmon and yoghurt.

7. No alcohol.
Alcohol is the easiest source of fuel for the body to burn, so it will always use this first before it starts to burn any fat - which is why you need to restrict it, especially in the first two weeks of Bootcamp, when we are encouraging the body to stop using carbs for its source of fuel and turn to fat-burning instead. 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 After Bootcamp you will be able to introduce certain fruits, but at this stage fruit is simply too carby. We are also trying to break the addiction to sweet things, so cutting fruit out is part of this process. If you are getting all your carbs from vegetables and salad, you will be getting all the nutrients and fibre that you need.

9. No nuts/seeds.
Whilst these are really good to snack on later, when we move into Bootcamp Light - 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.
Sugar is an obvious ?no no?, but artificial sweeteners are also an issue. One of the aims of this way of eating is to eat pure and natural foods, so including sweeteners is not recommended. Some people find that artificial sweeteners can impede their weight loss, and there is some suggestion that your body can respond to sweeteners as if they were sugar, by releasing more insulin - and therefore laying down fat. Given that the aim of Bootcamp is to help us lose our sweet tooth and addiction to sweet things, then it is a good idea to avoid sweeteners altogether in this first two weeks.

schnnnnnng at the puppies cathi

well done to you and mumdog

Cathy those pups are so beautiful!

Ive just had the pork chop left over from last night with some mayo Not sure about lunch yet, but I have chicken breasts for dinner and no idea what to do with them. I dont have any bacon or parma ham to wrap them in and Im not venturing out to the shops!

How do I see the puppies!?

Don't worry BIWI - the only rule for me is to balance my blood sugar and keep up my salt intake - this diet does it perfectly and makes me feel so much better. Also I'm very responsible - I've had this all my life so I know when to pull back - plus I've got two kids keeping me busy so never let myself get ill - ha ha!
I was thinking about trying dioralyte but I'm gong to start my just being a bit more controlled with the water to find my limit.

I know the thread has moved on slightly but I have done WW on and off for around 5 years and I couldn't get through the day unless I had a snack of a WW chocolate bar and a coffee at 11 and at 3 every day!! At one point I was buying 3 boxes of WW chocolate bars A WEEK because I was feeling hungry and needed to snack. I can't believe how much this WOE has changed me and my eating habits. Breakfast keeps me full until lunch, I have hardly snacked and when I have its been a bit of cheese, some celery or avocado rather than artifically sweetened chocolate. I feel like I'm eating loads of veg and for someone who hates cooking (love baking, hate cooking) I've been making a heck of a lot of fresh meals these last 2 weeks and enjoying it. Basically I feel a lot healthier eating like this than I ever did on WW. I too would like a refund!!

Just had some lovely buttered scrambled eggs - feel tip top today again xxx

is avocado, prawns and home made dressing (tom sauce and mayo) low carb?

yes in principle, though i would check the labels of the tomato sauce and mayo - some are more carby than others and you want to keep that as low as possible, and i think you might be best just having the mayonnaise

heinz ketchup for example has 24.1g carbohydrate per 100g, which is too high really, even their reduced sugar version has 16.6g carbohydrate per 100g which is pretty high. mayo tends to be ok - i use hellman's full fat which is i think about 2g carbohydrate per 100g, others are lower such as delouis's

hmmm wonder if tomato puree is any better

cathy thanks so much for taking the time to put up the pics of the pups, they are gorgeous! I will take one please

valdeeves if you click (may need to do it twice) on cathys name you should get to her profile, then click on the pictures link to see.

would also really like a puppy but dh will never agree

Can't remember what newbie mentioned it in their meal
Listing (sorry) but baby corn a no no.