Hi everyone, new starter alert! I started Week 1 on Mon 12th September, weighing 112.7Kg with a BMI of 36.3. It’s the heaviest I’ve ever been and I was feeling lethargic, irritable, suffering from regular headaches, feeling permanently hot and drinking lots of water.

I hadn’t been diagnosed as Prediabetic or Type 2 but I highly suspect I might have been Prediabetic. I heard Michael Mosley on Radio 2 at the end of August and the 8 week plan appealed to me, so I bought the book and read it for a week whilst on holiday and took the plunge despite being told it was too much by others.

I’m going to weigh myself in the morning but have already had a sneak peak and the scales showed 105.4Kg. That’s over a stone in a week!

I was expecting a drastic start but nothing close to this. My target is 90Kg over the 8 weeks with an ideal weight below 80Kg which would be a BMI of around 26. I hold a lot of muscle mass so much lower than this and I begin to look unhealthy. Actually, the high muscle mass may explain my drastic start. Is over 7Kg unusual in week 1 for someone starting at 112Kg?

I’ve followed the plan very closely, using the recipes and guidance in the book. I’ve had lots of water to drink and I’m already feeling so much better. On Saturday I did eat 3 slices of pizza and had 2 beers and 2 alco-free beers with some friends, having already reached 106Kg I decided I would allow myself the indulgence. I woke feeling dreadful! A real hangover feeling, bloated and with an upset stomach which required several visits to the loo throughout the morning.

Needless to say I was straight back to the plan and with a full resolve that I did not want to feel that way ever again. I was out for lunch at a restaurant and even ordered a salad nicoise with dressing on the side and picked off the potatoes.

I’ll post my weekly weights as I go through the plan and look forward to hearing from everyone.

The heavier we are the bigger the gap between the calories needed to sustain that weight and the 800 cal. Weight loss comes from the deficit – so if you have a bigger deficit you get a bigger loss. Add in week 1 water rebalancing and a big start is not shocking – but it won’t always be at that level, and some people see a plateau stage. Others like me fall off the wagon and need to get back on. Though the body as you found does adjust to the new foods and the old ones are not as attractive as we remember… the body adjusts quicker than the mind and habits.

Have a read of some of the long term folk from here like captainlynne – people go for longer than the 8 weeks when bigger targets to achieve. It will give an idea of expectations

Thanks Avila, that’s an amazing achievement by CaptainLynne, very inspirational.

My total weight loss for the first week is 8.2Kg, 16.5lb which takes me to 104.5Kg.

Hi cmawp – that’s an incredible loss – well done – even for the heavy start. It’s so motivating so have a huge loss like that. I also started last week but with only 23 lbs to lose I was amazed that I lost half a stone in the first week. Also interested to hear of your ‘carb hangover’ so early in the diet – really interesting and really makes me determined not to eat cake next week at our MacMillan coffee morning!!!

Have a great week – looking forward to your progress posts 🙂
TC

Thanks topcac, well done for your 1st week achievement, that’s a big % of your end goal.

Have you tried any of the guilt free cake recipes from the book or site? Might take away or curb the temptation at the coffee morning.

That’s a good idea but what I’ve also gone and done is volunteered to make cakes too!! I can hideaway in my office on the day but can’t hide from the cake batter at home!!! I’ll be nearly three weeks in by that point so hopefully will be able to resist lol

Haha, you must resist the batter! As a deterrent, for every lick of batter, promise yourself to donate £20 to Macmillan?

Oh my Lord YES – that’s a brilliant idea lol

A mid-week check on my progress and I’m down to 103.5Kg, that’s 9.2Kg (20lb) in the first 9 days.

This week I have been working nightshifts, which present their own challenges on the body and mind, but so far I have to say I haven’t struggled. My tactic was to wake up around 3pm and eat breakfast 100-150 cal, have a 400-450 cal dinner at 8pm and then a lighter ‘lunch’ of around 200-250 cal at 2am. Bedtime is around 7:30am, so I go to bed around the time I’m starting to feel hungry.

Monday was odd in BSD terms because that was the night I start my nights on, so effectively I ate 4 meals because I was awake for 24 hours. To make sure I stayed on the straight an narrow, I had 2 ‘lunch’ meals that day in addition to breakfast and dinner.

I also had a light cold this week but seem to have fought that off in 48hrs, suffering only from a runny nose and headache.

Fantastic progress cmawp! Well done.

Nights shifts are a special kind of fight – well done!!!

Day 12 and I’ve lost 10Kg (22lb). Almost halfway to my 8 week target and one third of the way to my goal weight.

I’m realistic that the rate of loss will reduce soon but have been amazed by the rapidity of weight loss so far. I’ve been very disciplined so far with 3 slices of pizza being my only splurge.

I had a carb ‘hit’ for dinner last night with bean burgers from the BSD book. One portion is huge, I can only just finish them!

At the end of week 2 I’m 101.8Kg, that’s a 2.7Kg loss this week and 10.9Kg since starting.

This week I had the challenge of a house renovation over 140 miles from my home with limited food prep areas and a hotel stay.

I upped my intake of carbs on the first day of the renovation, starting with 50g of jumbo rolled oats soaked overnight in 200ml almond milk with some blueberries added. For lunch I had already prepped some dipping veg (broccoli, carrot, celery, cucumber) and a minted pea hummus.

Over the 2 days I did a mix of heavy lifting with painting, sanding and other bits in between. Total was easily 16 hours of work and I must’ve burned an extra 2500 calories over the 2 days.

I ate 6 mini flapjacks on day 1 to up my calorie intake and ensure I could keep going. I didn’t eat any flapjack on day 2 and stuck rigidly to the BSD – yoghurt with 3 tablespoons of oats and an apple whilst all around me were tucking into typical hotel self serve breakfasts. A no carb ploughmans for lunch and an improvised dinner on the journey home – cooked beef, 2 celery sticks and 10 smoked almonds.

In summary, a disciplined week with plenty of weekend temptation but nicely avoided the worst of it.

Wow I can believe you have lost 10kg in two weeks! Well done! Great motivation!
I really must start on the exercise me thinks.

Thanks Liro. It’s the first bit of proper exercise I’ve done since starting. The eating plan was a huge thing for me and I wanted to make sure I stuck to it and became confident first.

I will gradually incorporate daily exercise in the latter weeks – most likely when the scales slow down!

CMAWP thats an absolutely fantastic start isnt it! You’ve coped so well despite night shifts,getting a cold,huge amount of physical work,being away from home with no food prep area,staying in a hotel and avoiding temptation while others were tucking in! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 And halfway to target in just two weeks! X

Fab results Cmawp…keep on keeping on…

Thanks for the positive words Yowzer49 and 1960smp, it’s very heartening.

The BSD has totally exceeded my expectations so far. I thought my initial 22.7Kg target loss was a stretch but with the start I’ve had, I see it as very realistic.

Wow thank you for posting your progress. I started today and need to lose more than 5 stone to get to where I feel comfortable but 7.5 stone to get to a healthy bmi so a whopping 47kg to lose. You have inspired me to go for it. I have also written down in my pad the reasons for starting including removing the fat from my pancreas to be able to prevent diabetes. I’m thinking the science will motivate me more seeing as I have already tried every diet out there!

Just to say, mazzawazzawoo, you have seen Captainlynne’s results – she’s nearly at 100 lbs loss, and I think Stewart has posted a thread about his own 100 lbs loss. Just calculated that your 7.5 stone is 105 lbs, so it is indeed possible……

use Search boxes to see their threads

Very good luck to all 🙂 Keep posting 🙂

Go for it mazzawazzawoo, it is possible. Follow the book as closely as possible and come to this forum for support if you’re ever doubting anything.

A special announcement today. I smashed through the sub-100kg barrier.

The scales told me 99.1kg this morning. So nice to see 2 big numbers staring back at me rather than 3.

For those working in imperial, that’s 30lb or 2st 2lb lost in 18 days.

Thank you so much for posting your amazing results. Wow!!

Thanks mazzawazzawoo. I’ve just followed the book to the letter, tried not to snack between meals and have been drinking lots of water and an occasional herbal tea, black coffee or diet drink.

The BSD is amazing. I almost don’t want to tell anyone about it!

Well done CMAWP woohhoooo! 👍🏻
I’ m like you ,its week 12 and i’m still sticking to it like a stamp to a letter..havent been weighed for over a week but my clothes are telling mei’m continuing to lose
MAZZAWAZZAWOO Love yr name! Hope youre off to a good start..first week can be tricky,you might feel tired as your body adjusts..if so,grit yr teeth,it will pass xx

My week 3 loss is 1kg which takes me to 100.8kg and 11.7Kg so far.

Slightly up from my midweek low of 99.1Kg but it’s a loss nonetheless. I did wake feeling extremely bloated and hadn’t had a bowel movement for 2 days so this may explain the upward fluctuation.

I think I ran low on sodium yesterday too. It got to 9pm and despite a portion of skinny chilli at 7pm, I felt lightheaded and lethargic. It’s a feeling I recognised from my days of 100+ mile bike rides and it’s not very nice.

I had 12 smoked almonds (including all the salt from the bottom of the bag) and I felt right as rain within minutes.

Well done for the salt, cmawp! Remarkable how bad it makes you feel when you’ve not had enough as it’s all been washed away by drinking lots of fluid, and how quickly you can recover with some added salt, Miso soup, or stock cubes in boiling water.

I keep popping on to remind people to have enough – this is yet another thing we’ve been brainwashed into thinking is ALWAYS bad for us.

Week 4 was a resounding success for me. I lost another 5.2Kg!

I think my 1Kg loss in week 3 must’ve been either a blip on the scales or that bloated feeling I had was down to constipation which added weight.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter because things appear to have returned to normal. 17.1Kg lost in 4 weeks, 5.8Kg to go to my week 8 target.

My nightshifts have come around again so today has been another strange day.

I’ve had one breakfast, three ‘lunches’ and a snack throughout 21 hours, so calorie wise I should be ok; probably around 1100.

Last time I had a 450 cal dinner instead of one of the lunches but didn’t feel I needed it, so I cut down this week.

Wow! That’s a massive loss in four weeks, very inspirational! I’m only day two, week one, and your results will keep me motivated!

Thanks Wishbone. I’ve just followed the book to the letter, not a lot more to it! I am a male and I do have a fair amount of muscle mass so I think that has done me a favour.

I hope you’re getting on ok on your BSD, it was around day 2 that I began to struggle. Drink and pee through the difficult times is my advice.

A quick week 5 summary and update on my progress.

Another week of nightshifts, followed by 20 hours of house renovation at the weekend resulted in a 1Kg loss in week 5.

The scales are ticking over nicely with 18.1Kg/40lb lost so far.

4.6Kg to go to get to my 8 week target – I’m locked on to it and I will succeed!

This is truly impressive and inspiring, best of luck with week six !

Thanks for the encouragement Fit_My_Jeans_Again!

Yesterday was a tough day. I changed my meal sizes to 3 equal 275 cal portions. The result was that I became hungrier towards the end of the day and ended splurging on Smoked Almonds when I got in from work at 10pm, so I overshot my 800 cal by about 350/400.

Not the end of the world and at least I splurged onto Almonds rather than anything carby, even if they were heavily salted and gave me a headache this morning – most likely due to the salt spike so close to bedtime.

I had my first craving for chocolate yesterday. It me hard but I’m pleased I restrained myself.

Secret eating was one of my downfalls prior to the fast 800, especially chocolate in the car bought from petrol / service stations. I avoid them as far as possible now, I’m even in the process of setting up the new smart pay option at Shell petrol stations. Then I won’t even need to set foot in the places that enabled me to secret eat.

Thanks for listening to my offload everyone, it really helps.

I’ve reverted back to my original meal sizes today:

Breakfast 150-175 cal
Lunch 200-250 cal
Dinner 450 cal

Very inspiring

I’m on day one so seeing how you are doing is really helpful

Thanks for sharing 😀

Thanks Raemac!

I recall day one, if you can get through those first few days still on the rails, it does become easier.

Yesterday was my first wobble and it could have been worse had I not been so diligent in those early days.

Good luck and come back with an update.

I like to save calories for dinner too, otherwise I feel deprived and want to snack in the evening. I’ve heard the saying “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper” but I think we’re learning here to not follow the standard diet rules!

I agree with you there Natalie, it makes total sense to save calories throughout the day and I too find it stops me snacking which altogether helps reduce the calories.

It also means I can sit down with my girlfriend in the evening and we can enjoy the same meal together. She’s 5:2’ing but enjoys the fast 800 dinners from the first book.

Another mini goal achieved!

I have just fitted into and bought a pair of 34 inch waist jeans. I’m down from a 38 inch waist and was only in my 36 inch jeans for 3 weeks.

Hooray!!

Well done! My OH has lost a stone and a half although he isn’t really doing the diet, and is now easily in 36″ waist trousers from 38’s, I was quite shocked when he bought himself a pair of 34 waist jeans because it was only a matter of time 😁 the wine is his downfall, he is eating far more sensibly than he used to though. I go for the larger meal later usually as well, by the way. Exceptions are when I will be out all day around tempting delights, when I make sure to fill myself up with porridge first so I can make it as far as dinner with no other food.

well done! I am just on Day One as well, so good to hear of people’s achievements. I can get to lunchtime easily not eating, but have to have a light lunch, and then a bigger dinner. It just works better that way for me, and my hubbie. Does having the larger meal (at around 1800) make any difference to anyone’s weight loss? Can’t see why it would given that I am then effectively fasting for some 16-17 hours?

Hi Cailleach
I’m on maintenance now after losing 30kg in around 21 weeks and I regularly had dinner (my biggest meal) around 7pm each night followed by breakfast around 7.30am and lunch around 1pm.
I consistently lost every week and really found it no problem eating at those times.
Keep going, it really does work.
Good luck
Linda

Wow! What an amazing achievement Linda! Thank you for letting me know that you had breakfast too, I was wondering 🙂

I will keep going, and will probably be on here a lot looking for inspiration and support!

Thank you

Good morning everyone…..its amazing reading everyones posts….the weight losses are fantastic….Today starts my week two (2 lb loss so far)and I have got myself organised with menus etc…so here goes…….I already look a different shape so its not all about just losing the pounds/kilos……..good week to you all…

Well done Cailleach and Happyhols, keep up the great work!

I’m pleased to report that my week 6 result was a 3.8Kg / 8lb loss. That takes me down to only 0.8Kg / 2lb from my 8 week target and 21.9Kg / 48lb lost so far.

Thanks for your support so far everyone, I’ve still got a journey to complete but I’m almost at the border and only have one country to cross…

Well done CMAWP and all and welcome RAEMAC and CAILLEACH…good luck with yr new venture
Lots of inspiring folk on here like LINDAA,and plenty of help if you need it from seasoned BSDers! X

Hi Yowzer49
Thank you for your kind words😀
I’m such a strong believer that this way of eating can help so many people that I just want to shout it from the rooftops!
I’ve done a lot more research and have found that the fructose half of sugar is the real enemy and the more people that can discover this, the less T2 diabetic there will be.
For me, this is the way I’ll be eating for the rest of my life. If I go back to doing what I did before, then I’ll end up fat again and I’m not going to let that happen👍.
Cheers
Linda

My week 8 result is in and it’s a 4.5lb loss. This brings my 1st phase of BSD to a close with a total loss of 55lb which was 22% of my old body weight.

I was so pleased, I took my family out for dinner at Cote Brasserie yesterday. Naturally I made BSD selections and went for tuna carpaccio, followed by cassoulet, taking the sourdough croutons off the latter! Low-ish carbs but likely to have been way over on calories, I figured that as I thought I’d be 50lb maximum by this point, to be 55lb lighter was a real win and the extra calories could be forgiven at that meal.

My plan was to carry on with a 2nd stint of fast 800 until Christmas. Being 15lb from goal weight, I have now decided to start a slow taper towards maintenance and have started on 1000 cal a day rather than 800. I’ll carry this on for 4 weeks and review.