I decided to follow this diet as a bit of a lifestyle change after hearing Michael Mosley on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 the other week.
I am a 47 yo male, whose weight has steadily increased over the past few years peaking at 14st 9lb. I checked my blood sugars before starting as advised – 5.9 was the result, just inside the pre-diabetes range, not good, so time for a change.
I started a week ago today, and I have to say, I finding it quite easy to follow. The recipes contained within the book are varied, tasty and filling, which is added bonus – having tried the high protein plan a couple of times in the past, I soon got thoroughly fed up with the Grapefruit / spinach / egg regime!
I have also been using the My Fitness Pal phone app to track my calorie intake – I have used it for about 2 years, so I am quite used to inputting ingredients by scanning the packet bar codes, and adjusting the weights / serving size to suit my needs.
I have noticed however, that some of the calorie totals quoted in the book vary greatly from the totals I get with the MFP app. Sometimes the MFP totals are less, but generally they are significantly higher, and on one occasion (Seedy Flapjacks – page 76 of the 8-week blood sugar diet recipe book) more than double! Why is this so? Which figure is more accurate and which should I go by? Is there a difference between ‘raw’ calories and ‘cooked’ calories? I am confused!!
That said – one week into the diet and I have lost half a stone in weight, my blood sugar has dropped to 5.7, and I have shed 2″ off my waistline, all without a major increase in activity or exercise levels – so something must be working for me!
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Ditto. I too listened on radio 2 but am 6 days in. Found first few days very difficult. Had a few wobbles.
Your weight loss is fantastic, well done.
Hoping I lose something this week.
Keep going!
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I’ve tried two other calorie counting sites and found the same as you Adie. I know there’s a measurement error in ascertaining calorie content of foods but the discrepancy with BSD recipes is marked.
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I’m a week in too, only ate recipes from the book and lost 7lbs. I tried to log food on a similar app to MFP but had the same problem so stopped and just went with the book – something’s obviously working. I only have 23 lbs to lose and 7lbs in the first week is staggering for me!
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So, middle of week 2 is here; sat watching GBBO, they’re making Bakewell Tarts, and I find myself with a hankering for a handful of walnuts halves – what the hell is that all about? Could this be the start of the lifestyle change I was after? Certainly can’t be a bad thing.
That brings me to onto another question – what does the unit of measure ‘a handful’ equate to? (commonly used in the 8WBSD recipe book). Does this tip a nod to the early days of Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chefs, when a ‘good glug’ was an acceptable measure?
Now I have what I consider to be medium sized hands which can comfortably hold a fair sized portion of any given ingredient, however, Andre The Giant and Jeremy Beadle’s handfuls would differ greatly in ingredient quantity, so how does one know?Great to hear your experiences and also your encouragement, it’s always nice to know that other people are finding the same issues as yourself, and reading what to expect in the coming weeks – forewarned is forearmed as they say.
Keep up the good work everybody!
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A ‘handful’ is similar to the following: a drizzle, a little bit of and ‘some’ which are also in the book 🙂 , – I guess it’s your body so it should be your handful, makes sense in the analogy above – little body, small hands, smaller needs? It looks like I started on the same day as you so my advice, for what it’s worth, is do it until it stops working – then change it……..