Hey there,

I just saw in a thread that some people on the 8 Week BSD have complained that the calories in some of the recipes in the book have been incorrectly stated.

Does anyone know if this is definitely true?

I’m really worried as I am being absolutely precise with my weighing and measuring and would hate to think the calories are not accurate.

Would anyone happen to know and be kind enough to specify which recipes have the incorrect calories so that they can be avoided?

I know there will be many who would be absolutely gutted going to all this effort and expense for it to be wrong

Hi, I said my no carb Bircher came out at nearer 300 cals (not 180), but it’s a recipe that’s given in tablespoonfuls – so the size of the spoon (tablespoons vary, I don’t have a measure), whether they’re heaped or level, makes a big difference. So in my case, I think it’s my measurement error – I need one of the ‘official’ spoon measures I think.

Hi FatCat,

Thanks for your response.

I have measuring spoons and level off portions with a knife by dragging it over the top of the spoon.

I think they should state that in the book, that regular cutlery tablespoons are totally different to a tablespoon size a measuring spoon gives.

I am losing weight pretty fast since I started 2 weeks ago and have had the Bircher several times, so I **think** the calories are correct. I hope so anyway!!!!

Hi Natasha
You could work them out by googling the ingredients. Then you d know…
Penny

I stopped loosing weight in week 3 so I started logging all my food on mfp although still following the recipes in the book. The recipes with nuts are the main culprit – a handful of nuts etc so I have really cut most of the nuts out of them and just snack on a few nuts (weighed and logged) if I feel hungry. The portobello mushrooms with pine nuts did log the same cals on mfp so that one is OK. Now I have put the meals into mfp, it is quick to log the meal again as I eat it and check what adaptations I have made to keep the calories where they should be. I’ve had a couple of tricky weeks with family meals out etc where I have just stayed the same weight wise but happy to report the weight is coming off again.

I agree – only on week 1 but last night I found the courgette prawn was grossly inaccurate and ambiguous. Lots of confusion around served 2 but the calories did not nearly add up and I double checked with my wife, who is infinitely better with numbers than me. We also used a few different calory tables as source info.
It’s disappointing as this for me, is the most time consuming and confusing area for the whole diet. I will now count it all myself.
Maybe the recipe writer was suffering from low blood sugar??

Oh no this is not good news.

I’m just past week 2 and losing weight pretty consistently, but I’m repeating the same meals in week one as I like to use up all the ingredients.

Is My Fitness Pal the best place for checking the calorie content of individual ingredients?

I wonder if anyone has contacted Michael Mosley and his team about this?

I think you’ll find that most of the recipes were found elswhere on the web and replicated for the site.
Is it just me or are people getting too hung up on calories ?
The theory is that fast weight loss due to not eating the wrong kind of carbs will lower blood sugar . I don’t count calories but I’m losing weight and getting good sugar readings.
Cut out the bad carbs and see how you do, ifyou don’t get good results, then worry about the calories.

How do you quantify a ‘handful’ a ‘sprinkle’ or a for a variation in food product size? I gained weight and became diabetic due to my over food portion size. I noticed that gradually I was adding more on this diet and therefore needed to weigh food before adding it to a meal. Everything has a calorific value and for this diet, they should have been calculated before publishing the book… for those that need to stick by rules. I’m sure that most people who are on this diet are taking it very seriously and want to tackle their diabetes.
I wouldn’t say being hung up about calories is a bad thing. Even if it retrains people to be aware of how much they are eating for years to come.

No you became overweight and diabetic by eating too much of the wrong foods.
If counting calories works for you then great.
Please don’t throw criticism at the diet though, it’s working well for hundreds of people just as it is.
How long have you been on it and how much weight have you lost ?

This is not a diet exclusively for those with diabetes. I am not diabetic.

The diet is great and hats off to the team. The criticism is aimed at the misleading, ambiguous and inaccurate information on some of the recipes in the book, which I have read carefully from cover to cover.

These are not the only forum post that show concerns about the recipe content/information. Most recipes published show a nutritional breakdown and individual calorie content however these do not. The book has left itself open to criticism and I would have been concerned if this subject wasn’t discussed.

I only use the book as a guide and for the foods used. I agree with elgordo, they are misleading and ambiguous.

I have lost 13lb in nearly 4 weeks. If I had stuck to the recipes in the book I wouldn’t have continued. I’m please that it is working for you.

Every one is different in the way they look at things and each to his own.
In the past I have followed weight watchers (other weight loss companies are available) diets to the letter without anywhere near the success that I’ve had using this diet. I used the recipes in the book initially to see what kinds of food I could eat and then adapted them to my own use. If I ever get hung up on calories I’m big and ugly enough to do my own research.
I hope this diet works for everyone regardless of their points of view
Elgordo, correct, this is not a diet exclusively for diabetics but it IS called the BLOOD SUGAR DIET.
Losing weight may be your prime objective, mine is to lower my sugar levels and try to reverse this debilitating disease. I’ll never reverse the damage to my eyes but at least I may be able to stop it getting any worse.

Adam – agreed

Bill – the very best of luck to you.

Same to you elgordo, after all, we’re all on the same journey, just for different reasons.

I’m doing the diet with my husband and we’re both getting on well, especially my husband, my loss slower. The recipes in the book are great guide, but unfortunately I have to work out the calories for each one myself after finding quiet a few discrepancies. The main one so far is the ‘Skinny Chilli’. It’s says in book serves 8 and 460 calories per serving. I’ve worked it out twice and, without the unspecified amount of Greek yogurt, it’s more like 270. No wonder my husband is losing weight fast, he’s not been having enough calories!,

I think the main problems are firstly, the book is wriiten american style and their measures do seem to be a handful of this a pinch of that and a little of the other 😉 Just watch the barefoot contessa to see what I mean.
Secondly this is not some high rep program backed by a big weight loss company with a huge marketing budget. Most of the recipes seem to have been taken from elsewhere on the internet so, if you’re calory concious, do your own research.
The price point of the book seems to me to be priced to just cover costs, nobody is making a fortune from it, there are no weekly classes or fees to be paid although, once the success stories become common knowledge, I have no doubt that the big companies will jump on the bandwagon and soon, supermarket freezers will be full of low carb meals which will taste awful because of the additives and production methods.
Do the diet the way it suits you, read the book, bear in mind that Michael doesn’t say increase the calories because you do some exercise but above all, do it in the way you enjoy it.
You are all founders of a brand new healthy way of eating

Hi Natasha MFP isn’t that accurate because it’s crowd sourced not from MFP admin. I look up the calories mainly on Calorieking. It’s U.S. Based But you can chose grams. Occasionally they don’t have something then I search around other sites for info.
I made my own ‘my foods’ list and ‘recipes’ list on MFP so I don’t have to deal with all that random information! The only thing is although you can set it to use your ‘my foods’ list, it still doesn’t for recipes. So I try to make my foods ‘ names distinctive, so I can find them in the random list. Eg I get free range meat from a shop called ‘Meat N16’ so I put that on when saving meat to ‘my foods’ – eg brand-MeatB16- description-lamb shoulder etc. then I can search for it for a recipe.
Sorry this is so long!
Penny

Well said Bill!
Penny

I agree it’s not necessary to get too hung up on the calorie count, I know that if I keep to all the rules, eg no carbs, no sugar, no alcohol, and stick to the plan using the recipes, the calorie count will be low enough to carry on losing weight. I’m using Cronometer, and its really good, I found it much easier to use than MFP, tracks everything you could think of, easy to put your own foods and recipes in. Yes I did find discrepancies in the calorie counts of some of the recipes, but decided just to keep to what the book said it was and adjust the size of the helping on Cronometer to fit the count given in the book. Unless my calculations made it fewer than in the book, then I used the lower figure! But I am just using it for weight loss, I’ve no reason to think I’m prediabetic. 16 lbs in four weeks so far and loving it!

I checked out mfp and found it highly confusing as I can’t seem to put specific measurements in – for example, half-a-tsp of butter.

I need to count every calorie and stick to the recipe instructions like glue to be sure that I’m doing the right thing in the right way. If I use guesstimates and improvise and substitute one ingredient for another, I won’t stick to it – especially if I don’t lose weight or my weight plateaus. I will lose faith and give up.

Also, as others have said, I have found quite a number of differing calories for the same food.

I think I’m going ok with the 8WBSD meals. I’ve now used most of the recipes and I’m losing weight fast. I’ve lost one stone (14lbs) in 19 days and feel (and look!) like a different person already.

Hi Penny, your ‘my foods’ list sounds a great idea. I’ll check out mycalorieking too.

I wonder if there’s a really good book that lists calories. I know you can find info on the Internet, but as you said it can be random and that’s no good.

Hi Natasa
I think calorieKing is accurate.
Re MFP. You can put in one teaspoon for example then have half a serving ie .5 of a serving. That’s what I do. Though usually grams. ie I put things in as 100 or 10 grams or mils then have multiples of them. ie I have 200 mils of soya milk every day so it’s 2 servings etc.
Good you’re getting to grips with everything in such a detailed way. That’s what I like too but I do t like to be tied down to those recipes.
Penny

Thanks for the great tips Penny!

I actually think I’d be happy to follow the book for 6 months to a year following the 8 weeks. My fear is losing the weight I want to lose and then slipping back into old patterns and going back to square one.
At the moment I cannot imagine that happening, but I’ve said this before on other diets. I’m determined not to let this happen again!

Hi Natasha
My pleasure!
I don’t think you ll go back because this diet is so different. The others were so hard, slow, effortful and wrong!
Penny

Penny, thank you. That’s just what I need to hear.

The only other diet that seriously worked for me was the Rosemary Conley GI Jeans diet. It was excellent and I stuck to it like glue and lost 4 stone on it.

However, ‘treats’ could be chocolates or sweets and dessert was often a sweet ‘low fat/sugar’ pudding. So it did nothing to curb my sweet tooth, and when I came off the diet I went straight back to eating sugar. I also remember being hungry a few times on the diet and having uncontrollable sugar cravings resulting in mass chocolate binges. This hasn’t happened on the BSD. I am fairly confident that it won’t happen because my body seems to be getting everything it needs from the designated meals.

What I love about the BSD is that it zapped my sugar cravings in 3 days. I’m into my 3rd week now and so far so good.

I REALLY do hope the BSD will indeed be the turning point.

Also, my skin was still bad while I was on the GI Jeans diet. The improvement now in just 3 weeks since cutting out sugar is amazing!

I’ve found the same unexpected improvement in my skin too, I didn’t even notice that until yesterday, 4 weeks in!

Going back to inaccurate calorie counts, I made the Spanish chick pea and spinach soup yesterday, painstakingly entered all the calorie counts for the individual ingredients into Cronometer, including deducting the calories for the discarded fat from the chorizo, and it came to 437 calories per portion, not 210 as it says in the book! I didn’t think the chorizo added much to it anyway, I’ll leave that out next time, maybe add some chicken instead.

Hi Natasha
That’s the amazing thing about the diet, the lack of carb cravings. Wonderful.
Penny

That’s great.
Penny

My god, Mary R, that’s a huge bump up in calories. Thank goodness you shared that.
I use chicken instead of lamb for the aubergine dish. I can’t find lean minced lamb anywhere.

Yes Penny, most def!

Natasha, have a look for a decent Halal butcher. Their minced lamb is usually top class.

Brilliant idea about halal butcher – thanks Bill. Sainsburys which is my local supermarket only does one type of minced lamb and it certainly is not lean.

Hi FatCat I have treated myself to a cheap set of measuring spoons – I had never heard of a tablespoon of butter! I have got to say the level tablespoon of butter from the measure was very much smaller than my idea of a tablespoon using a spoon from my cutlery drawer! I will use it to measure some butter then weigh it and post the result!

Hi Fatcat – 1 tablespoon of butter is half an ounce exactly. Sorry but I’m rather old fashioned and only have a set of imperial weights. I think that is equivalent to 14 grams. Hope that helps, Judith

Bill – thanks for the idea about using a halal butcher!

Yes, measuring spoons are amongst my ‘must-have’ diet equipment as a teaspoon and tablespoon measure are so completely different from the cutlery versions.

The measuring spoons I have go right down to 1/4 tbsp, so I can be very precise.

Hi Adam, I have followed the recipes in the book and have lost almost 2 stones in 6 and a half weeks bringing my BMI down to 23.5 so I wouldn’t worry to much about the calories. If that doesn’t reassure you, you could try this suggestion – I stick new recipes into an A4 book and google the calories of each ingredient and write the number of calories next to each ingredient, the total in the recipe and the total in each portion. I know this might sound time consuming but once it is up and running it takes minutes to add new recipe and calculate and it saves so much time when you next want to use the same recipe. Hope that helps

Hi Bill, in the past I have used weight watchers or slimming world and while seeing weight drop off colleagues I have lost hardly anything at all. This has been the biggest weight loss of my life and achieved in such a short time! I love, love, love this eating plan and commend Michael and his team for the work which has gone into it

You have to don’t you Judith ?
Fair enough, most of the information was already available if you knew where to look, but Michael has gathered it all together and put it into a format that anyone can easily understand. Not just that but backed up by serious medical research from Prof Taylor and others.
That is great in itself but he writes in such a compelling way that I felt that I would be stupid not to try it out.
It all just makes such good sense.

Hi everyone I bought the book last night & used Calorie King & Cronometer to check several recipes – many of them were way higher (sometimes double) what the book said. I have emailed the team about it. However, even with those discrepencies, the diet is likely to still be effective for most people – as evidenced by the stories both here & elsewhere.

Hashimoto – that’s a good idea about writing the calorie contents of food into a book.

I meant to say Hashimoto, almost 2 stone in 6 and a half weeks is absolutely phenomenal! You must be feeling amazing in so many ways.

WELL DONE!!!

For Australian users with an apple or android device, the “EasyDietDiary” app is pretty good with Australian products ( especially Coles and Woolworths home brands). It’s free, has a bar code scanner, multiple ways of doing serving sizes and the ability to save your own recipes and choose from previous meals etc. also integrates with the Health app. It’s from the makers of the Foodworks nutritional information system which a majority of dietitians use here.

My opinion, (and only my opinion 🙂 ), is that if you are eating the same meals over and over, you probably want to make sure that the calorie information is reasonably accurate. If you are trying different meals every week, then a couple of hundred excess calories on one day per week is not going to be catastrophic. 200 calories can be burnt during 25 minutes of moderate walking if you weigh 200 lbs ( see https://transportation.stanford.edu/pdf/caloriecalc_walk.pdf. ) but it is virtually impossible to burn 1700 cals per day in a normal life with exercise – that’s why the calorie restriction is so important for the 8 weeks. My wife and I have been dipping in and out of the recipes, but really have just been sensible with what we eat at the three meals. We’ve both experienced significant weight loss and more importantly my blood sugar response is now normal after many years of hovering around the 7 mmol level and my blood pressure is normal without the need to go on medication. However, that said, we are going to continue on the diet until I am back to my normal healthy weight. My BMI is still over 30.

How have we implemented the BSD? So we identified a couple of simple breakfasts and lunches that we both liked and have just eaten them each day ( we are in week 8), and dinner is BBQ salmon/chicken/tuna 6 nights/week and steak 1 night per week with a super tasty garden salad with one or two of roasted eggplant/ capsicum/ mushrooms/ steamed pumpkin for some variety through week plus some fat (feta or dry roasted seeds or avocado) and steamed veg twice or three times a week. We’ve made up higher carbohydrate meals for our two adult/teenage kids on weekends and frozen them (although cooking their and my fav risotto for them is a special kind of hell) or we just give them extra starchy carbs with what we are eating – I.e add some tortellini or pasta or baked potatoes with butter or garlic bread. If you can’t barbecue every night, you can do the same thing under a griller or pan fry.

I’m guessing that I have been getting more than 800 calories per day as I’m on target to lose 12 kg’s over the eight weeks. But it’s the metabolic changes that I’m super excited about, not the weight, and I will keep going because it’s relatively easy ( and much cheaper than the eventual medical bills that I was facing).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that possible publishing errors in a couple of recipes shouldn’t make you anxious or give up. Your weight will plateau at times for many days through the eight weeks. It will go up some days, but this is perfectly normal as , it will fall again. Just keep going. The science is compelling and clear.

The sheer number of participants in these forums showing significant weight and metabolic changes in good directions means that the recipes and advice is having the desired effect. Hats off to you Dr Mosley et al!

Sage advice, justabloke! 🙂

Thank you so much, Natasha. I’m over the moon. This diet is doing wonders for us all 🙂

Thanks, Natasha, I’m rather old fashioned like that, it means I can just pick up the book and make a meal with confidence – on the other hand I did make an excel spread sheet at the beginning of the diet to record my measurements, weight, bmi etc. I colour coded the BMI starting with red at first because it was too high, then amber for almost at 25 then green when I went below 25. I think I just like the visuals! 🙂

I couldn’t find the android version of the calorie app any other aussie suggestions

lucpet, oops, my bad (as my children say) – it’s iPhone only -sorry about that.