Hello
Being a bit overweight I’ve just bought the Fast 800 book and have since come across the Blood Sugar Diet book, which also promotes the 800 calorie plan. Can anyone please tell me if these two diets are the same or similar? Both books look really interesting and hopefully will set me on the path to a healthier way of living.

 Also, whilst I have plenty of recipes for the Fast 800 diet, does anyone here know of a Menu Planner showing ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This would be especially good if it contained coloured images as visual aids i think are more stimulating when it comes to diet food. A Menu Planner would also save a lot of time having to compile such a list myself from the recipe book.
Thanks for any help or pointers.

I got both books, but the other way round. The Fast 800 book (the most recent) introduces some new concepts such as ‘Time Restricted Eating’, where you eat all food in a day during a 12 hour period. It also introduces versions of the diet which are less painful and more gradual than the 800 carbs a day for 8 weeks in the Blood Sugar Diet.
But the basic principles are the same – avoid refined carbs such as potatoes, white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc.
At least that’s my take! I hope your diet is going well.

qpp, many thanks for the info, very helpful. From what you say it seems I won’t have to buy the BSD book as well then.

I’m still after meal plans to save having to select individual recipes and writing it all down, but there doesn’t seem to be much available for this particular diet, either on the Internet or in book form. On my last diet I compiled my own plans and it worked extremely well, but was so time consuming.

I haven’t yet started the diet, my start date will be the first Monday in February. Before beginning any diet, I like to research and plan ahead and this Fast 800 diet seems to be exactly what is needed right now.

Thanks again, I hope your diet is progressing well.

Hi Cherrytulip, what a lovely moniker!
Did you plan your meals or take it as it comes?
I found the free version fatsecret app a marvelous asset as I like to choose the ingredients, put them into the app and decide how much I can have within the calorie and macro proportion I chose.
I have had chocolate or lemon mousse made with vanilla extract and Greek full fat yoghurt… Lamb tagine with cauliflower mash was amazing… Basically, if you enjoy cooking, you can get great taste within the 800.
If you want to see pictures, I recommend the 800 diet recipe book; however I think it’s intended for the 5:2 diet, so use fatsecret to adjust the quantity to suit you.

Hi there, if you have one book then you dont need both. The 8 Week BSD was designed for diabetics wanting to improve of reverse the condition. The bulk of the book is talking about diabetes, case histories, successes etc. There is a little bit about the 5:2 and the Med diets in there too. The new 800 Fast is more about restricted eating (and 800 calories that I do from the BSD is considered restricted) either going low every day, doing a 5:2 style or intermittent fasting. If it is a chose between the 2 books for me, as a diabetic, it is the 8 week BSD, if not then I would go for the new book with its more up to date info on fasting and very low calorie diets. At around £5 each you could have both, I have because my daughter bought me the new one and I am finding it very interesting. If you are interested in more recipes you would be well advised to buy the real BSD Recipe book by Dr M’s wife (Dr Clare Bailey) rather than some random low carb book.

qpp – hope you don’t mind me pointing out that ALL rice, pasta, bread etc needs to be avoided and not just the white versions. All of these are high carb items, regardless of whether it is white, brown, wild, wholemeal etc. On the BSD we have to get used to reading nutrition panels and need to avoid those foods with high carb to calorie ratios. Even things that we think of as healthy options, like root veggies, onions, leeks, tomatoes for instance and most fruits, are also very high in carbs, so need to be approached with caution with portion sizes managed carefully.

Welcome to both Cherrytulip and qpp – hope to see you on other threads, as there is a friendly, supportive community here and you will find bags of knowledge and support available if you choose to tap into it – and we hope you will. You’ll be welcomed on any thread, so just post on the ones that resonate with you and please do post your progress as we delight being part of everyone’s BSD journey.

Hi Patricia1066
Many thanks for your good advice and helpfulness. I thought I’d heard of all the diet apps, but Fatsecrets is new to me and I’ve downloaded that. It looks great, easy to follow and exactly what I had in mind. I enjoy planning two weeks ahead so everything is organised and the store cupboard stocked as required. I do enjoy cooking and I’m finding lots of great recipes which are low in carbs, tasty and filling. I’ve never been one for processed or fast food, it’s around 15 years since I had a McDonalds burger lol.
I shall be following the Fast 800 for around four weeks, including low carbs from the BSD. I then intend to follow the 5:2 whilst still following the low carb regime. It’s working really well, I never feel hungry and now at the end of the second week I’ve lost 8.5lbs.

I’m not diabetic, but the low carbs no sugar regime these past two weeks has worked wonders on my health issues, more on that below.

I hope your diet is going as you hoped? It’s not always easy is it, but visualising yourself slim can help, along with visual aids such as a graph on a downward trend.

Hi Sunshine-girl
Thanks for the helpful pointers. I now have all the books you mentioned and then some lol. I had never realised before what great recipes there are within the low carb range and it’s fun planning meals and being creative along those lines. I find all these books very informative and useful.

Hi SunnyB
Reading your comment on carbs etc, – my main go-to foods normally are pasta, rice and sweet things, so I thought it would be very difficult to give these up to lose weight. After all, they were responsible for my weight gain in the first place! As it happens, I love cauliflower rice and courgetti and have also found other great alternatives. The Eat Water range of pasta, rice and noodles are extremely low in carbs and calories, eg. Spaghetti is 10 Kcal per 100g and 1g of carbs, and rice and noodles just 35 Kcal with 1g carbs. In themselves they don’t taste of anything, but they act as a sponge and absorb the attendant flavours. Plus their look and texture is close to the real thing. They are quite expensive though, around £2.50 for a pack for two people. Most supermarkets carry them on the Free From aisle.

As for sweet things, I’ve discovered frozen Greek yogurt with added fruit of choice and pistachios. And Sugar Free Londoner has a great blog on low carb cookies and all things sweet, including bread. I made choc chip cookies last week which didn’t have any adverse effect on my health or weight.

As mentioned above, I’m not diabetic, but have been suffering very badly from acid reflux which is so bad it makes me sick and leaves blisters in my mouth from the raw acid. This is a legacy of having survived oesophageal cancer and 8 hours of surgery. That was eleven years ago so I feel extremely lucky to have survived a cancer that is often deadly. Anyway, nothing in all that time helped subdue the acid until I went on low carbs two weeks ago. From day one, the acid stopped and I haven’t had it since. So for me, the low carb and sugarless regime will be my new normal diet.

Apologies for the overly long post, I’m sure you’ve better things to do than read this. The BSD forum looks great and I shall look forward to joining in with the various posts from time to time.

Thank you for sharing your story, Cherrytulip. Really pleased that the BSD way of eating is proving very beneficial to you, which is wonderful – really pleased for you. Will look forward to reading other posts from you in due course and hope to see you on other threads.

Hi Cherrytulip, glad you liked fatsecret which I have been using since getting the suggestion on this forum.
I’m also on my 2nd week and it looks like this week will be averaging zero discard after a 4kg discard in the first week.
Maybe I’m enjoying my food a little too much 🙄

I expected an average of 1kg discard over 8 weeks, and this is my goal. The first week surprised me, but it is partly water loss.
The advice on measurement is very useful as in a few weeks there should be significantly less tummy.
I have clothes and a coat that I tried on today, still a bit tight but it is great motivation to keep to the WOE. Way of eating.

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