Hi I started the BSD 6 days ago and I am doing great, I am either going to do the 8 week plan or the 12 week, haven’t fully decided yet. The only issue is that after seeing a few youtube videos there seems to be a lot of concern over destroying your metabolism. At the moment I am doing a 16 hour fast and then have one 400 calorie meal and then at the end of the eight hours I have a Huel shake which is another 400 cals. Which finishing with this 800cal diet I was planning on doing a 5:2 diet. 1600 and 800 cals. so I can continue to lose weight. I am also exercising at the moment and burning around 350cals per day.
Can anyone tell me if they have had issues with their metabolism after this diet and if so what did they do?
Many Thanks

Hi Dominic,
JGwen, who is very intelligent and very well researched, gave some great information about this just recently. I am copying and pasting her information below (JGwen, I hope that is okay?).
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The BSD book does not give any guidance on carb levels, and it also makes it clear that this is an eating plan for an 8 or at a stretch 12 week program. – It recommends that we should not follow this way of eating for longer. So those of us with a lot of weight to discard have to make our own decisions on where to go after that 8 or 12 week program.

Many of us who have been on the forum for a long time have been inspired to read the research and work out a program that fits with their specific personal situations. However, there is one fundamental fact. that we need to incorporate into our plans. Insulin is like a switch, when insulin levels are high our bodies can not access our fat stores and is trying to push excess sugar out of our blood streams into storage. When insulin levels are low then our body can access our fat stores for fuel. If we keep calories low and at the same time insulin levels are high our body is put into a situation where it has to adapt and reduce our metabolic rate. – That’s not good. So we don’t want to try to combine 800 calories and high insulin for any period of time. – Read the research into the impact on the metabolic rate of the Greatest loser program, I think they followed all the contestants on the 16th series.

Which raises the question if we have a lot of weight to discard, what level of carbs can we tolerate and still have insulin levels low.

– There is no one answer that fits all. – Elite sporting cyclists can be in ketosis on an eating program which includes 100g of carbs a day, while those who are very insulin resistant have to be under 20g of carbs a day and a single day above that means it will take 3 or 4 days of being below 20g of carbs to return to ketosis.

Personally I have used one of the cheap breathalysers to work out where I am on the scale of carb tolerance After following this way of eating for a couple of years and at the point of having discarded over 40kg, I was still at the point that 26g of carbs a day was my limit, any more than that and I was out of ketosis and even with time restricted eating and being under 20g of carbs it took me upto 3 days to return to ketosis depending on the level of physical activity.

Can that be improved, can you in time support your body in healing and tolerate a higher level of carbs. I believe so, I believe that by staying in ketosis for extended periods of time, and by increasing periods of fasting you can help your body to heal. By improving the mixture of gut bacteria (reducing the percentage of carb digesting bacteria through not feeding them) and helping the body to improve on insulin sensitivity. one cell at a time as the body renews cells.

So in summary, I think, that the best for anyone to do is to measure their response to carbs and make a plan for themselves.
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I hope that helps answer your question. In short, you need to keep carb levels low to ensure you don’t harm your metabolism.
Donna.

Hi HopefulinOz,

I am really glad to hear that you found that post so helpful that you wanted to share it. – Hope it helps Dominic.

@hopefulinoz and @jgwen,
Thanks so much for your information, I am sure it will prove useful once I stop the Blood sugar diet. I have lost just under 3kg in 1 week on the diet and light exercise so will definitely be seeing it through for the 12 week period. Don’t think it is water weight as before the diet over a 3 month period I lost 22kg. So I am extremely happy with these results on my first week. I will definitely look into buying a breathalyser to track my carb tolerance (if you could suggest one on amazon, that would be great).
Many many thanks.

Hey – and welcome.

The book reckons stop the 800 calories a day when you lose 10% or 12 weeks, whichever is sooner. I personally don’t believe it will ‘destroy’ your metabolism. However there is plenty of anecdotal evidence (more in the facebook groups) that a second round of 800 cals a day is NOT recommended for metabolism reasons.

Glad you are doing well! You are probably noticing differences already!

Personally I hit my 10% in 6 weeks. I went 5:2 for a few weeks. On the ‘5’ days just ate to satiety, and continued to lose weight. More slowly but a downward trend for about a year when i decided I’d lost enough. I don’t recommend this now – but when you are ‘maintaining’ or at least off the 800 cals a day – I weighed every day. I can pretty much tell if I lose or gain based on what I’ve eaten the day before without tracking calores.

Well done, keep it up, hope this helps!

Hi Dominic, I think the secret to maintaining your metabolic health after the BSD is to reintroduce calories gently and maybe even some carbs but more as a treat or a very small part of your diet. Also I think strength training or weights is a good way to not lose muscle mass (I know that is not what concerned you) and increases your metabolism.

@freester and @sunshine-girl,
Thanks a lot for your advice, I am thinking of doing some weight training once I start getting my weight down further as a few years ago I installed a gym in my home and although I went mad with training, doing 2 hours each night after a 14 hour work day, I shed lots of weight in an incredible amount of time, but it was not sustainable. But I know you burn fat even when you are sleeping by doing weight training. So at some point will be introducing it into my regime.
I am guessing I will also hit the 10% weight lost in around another 5 to 6 weeks, that would put me at around week 7/8 I suppose depends how much I push the exercise in the next few weeks, but would be really happy if the 3kg a week continues!! I am looking for a big weight lose, so may push it to the 12 week program before switching.
But will definitely be watching my ketone levels over this time. Once again thanks so much everyone.

Hi Dominic,

The AT6000 is the model of cheap breathalyser that you will find people have tested against more expensive options. – If you search on the take a look at this thread you will find links I have posted to articles on how to use it and how the results compare to other testers.

@softgoza, thanks for your kind words. As an update, 3 weeks ago I stopped taking all my medication, my blood glucose is pretty constant now at 5.6, I still check it 3 times a day just to make sure. This diet has more than helped me put my diabetes into remission within 3 months and my hba1c was 128!! I have lost 40kg in 4 months and am exercising about 45mins to an hour a day. 2 weeks ago I increased my calories to about 1100 per day, and a cheat day every 2 weeks. Last week I lost another 4kg, so as long as you exercise a little and watch your diet, anyone can put their diabetes into remission. I just attacked it aggressively. Hope this helps.

@dominic71 I think that message was spam – I’ve reported it!

Thanks for checking in – glad the BSD is working for you 🙂