Hi Everyone

Would appreciate a little bit of guidance, after reading the book I went out a bought my first weeks shopping and started the diet today.

In the book it is mentioned that low fat alternatives are high in sugars. So I bought the standard full fat yoghurt and basic humus.

Long story short I started to input the ingredients in a recipe app Nutracheck and the figures are way higher than what the book mentions.

Example for today
Blueberries and green tea shake 100 cal but after inputting the ingredients and measurements in the app I get 142 cal
42 cal is not a big deal but when I look at my lunch the quick Mediterranean platter book suggests 220 cal but the ingredients in the app with weights comes to 409 cal which is a big difference. Does this mean low fat with low sugar alternatives must be used ?

Any help will be appreciated

I am one week in and found this also. It is a little bit annoying as I had hoped I could follow the books menu plan to the letter and not have to think about it myself!

Thank you for replying, I think I might have to ditcham the menu in the book and make my own meals up with the basic raw ingredients.
Do you have any tips that a total newbie would find usefully?

Hi Gray246 and toby101 – firstly, good to have you onboard!

I have never used the recipes/meal plans in the book, but have always created my own from scratch – not as time consuming as you might think. Most days I use full fat yogurt as a base for breakfast and then add seed, nuts, berries etc and then enter the weights to calculate overall cals and carbs – values come out around 140cals and approx. 5g carbs. Of course, if varies depending on what toppings I use.

Other meals tend to be protein and green veggies or salad. This lunchtime was a whole gem lettuce, some prawns and avocado. Tonight will be a lamb steak, a little gravy and lots of green veggies.

I have found it really easy to put together simple meals and use herbs and spices to help ring the changes.

Good luck to you both, hope you will be posting some great results soon.

Hi SunnyBen

That was my thoughts at first until I went shopping, lol took me a while to find where the ingredients had been placed in the shop.

Do you have any idea why lamb was mentioned in the book more so than lean beef or turkey ?

Probably because one of the precepts of this diets is that fat isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it provides both taste and energy which both contribute to the “feeling full” sensation.

Thanks for the welcome SunnyB

I planned to go to my own menu after the first couple of weeks but find the book (calorie issue aside) very useful in getting me in the right mind-set for the sort of food and ingredients I need to use which are very different from what I usually cook (much heavier meals – which is why I am in the position I am in!). I have to say I have also found many of the recipes extremely tasty and things I would not necessarily think of myself.

My tip is that seafood is great on this diet (obviously only if you like it), lobster, langoustine, clams, mussels etc – high protein zero carb low calories and provides a touch of indulgence and satisfaction otherwise hard to find o 800 cals a day!

Hi Toby

I used only the recipes in the book for the whole time I was losing (now on maintenance after shedding 15% of my weight in 16 weeks). After the first few days I ditched the app because it was just off putting (sames issue as you) and just chose a breakfast, lunch and dinner from the book. It worked fine – I lost quickly and consistently (apart from the week I had a huge slab of chocolate fudge cake – not the book’s fault!) If you find it easier, use the book for a week and see what the results are – if you lose then my advice would be to continue, if you don’t then maybe look at alternatives.

Hope that helps

TC

Thanks TC I have lost 7lbs in first week (notwithstanding one night’s slip into a few glasses of wine) so seems to be working – will stick with it plus the supplementary recipe book I have got for probably 4 weeks after which I may do my own stuff. I don’t ever see myself fiddling about with apps and scales. As I see it will by then be pretty apparent how many calories are in what. 800 is an arbitrary figure anyway so no need to be hyper precise

Thank you for this post. Found it really interesting and helpful. I did plan to stick to the meal planner in the book for the whole 8 weekes, but after a week am being a bit more flexible. All I would say in support is that, even if the calories don’t always add up, I bet we’re eating less of them than we were before! 😃👍

Whilst I agree with the people who just devise their own meals, it’s VERY frustrating that the recipes in the book are sooo way out, calorie wise. I’ve used both apps, and the manufacturers own nutritional info, and some recipes are almost double. If, for ease, you use the weekly meal plans, and wanted a snack, as you thought you had enough calories left, you could end up considerably over.
I’m somewhat disappointed that they could be such a way out.
Overall, I love this diet, and have lost 7lbs this week. But that’s only as I’ve been amending all the amounts downwards, to equal their calculations.
Has anyone had an answer from either Michael Mosley, or the person that devised the recipes? The book shows they are copyrighted to a Dr Sarah Schenker.

I love cooking so I’ve made my own recipes using My Fitness Pal to calculate the calorie and macronutrient counts from the beginning, but I agree with you that it’s a serious oversight for the counts to be so wrong in the BSD book. There is so little leeway at 800 calories a day that being off by dozens of calories is bad enough. Being off by hundreds is really inexcusable.

On the plus side, it is my understanding that the counts in the recipe book are more accurate.