Hi all
It’s my first day today following the 8 week plan. I have previously done every diet known to man and typically put more weight back on than I’ve lost. This way of eating isn’t that far removed from what I eat anyway but I need the regime in order not to snack.
I am totally prepared and even got my bloods checked prior to starting (I’m not a diabetic, phew!), I will let you know how it goes.

Hi Matron12 – just wanted to offer a welcome and to wish you every success in achieving your goal and maintaining the loss once achieved. You seem very determined and prepared. Make good use of the forum – we love to celebrate successes, but when necessary you will find encouragement and support as well. There is also a wealth of information and advice on here and you can search for specific topics using the search box at the top right of the page – do shout if you have any issues you can’t find an answer for that way though.

We’ll be looking forward to reading of you progress and hope you will soon be seeing positive results.

Hi Matron12. When you say the regime, do you mean the 4-week plan in the BSD book or the general 800 calorie a day, no grains, sugars, cereals, starchy veg? This is not mentioned in the book, but I would recommend that you decide up front what your daily limit of carbs will be and then weigh and measure all the food you prepare to ensure you stay within that ceiling. Use an app like MyFitnessPal or Fat Secret and they’ll do all the calculating for you. You might be surprised to find how many ostensibly healthy foods are enormously high in carbs and sugars. Fruits are the more obvious culprits, but oats, legumes, pulses, certain kinds of seafood (scallops are crazy) and even vegetables like onions and tomatoes can drive your carb count through the roof.

Many people find 50 grams a day to be a workable limit to keep them in a fat-burning state. Those of us with blood sugar processing issues — in my case insulin resistance — have had to drop the limit even lower to achieve or weight loss goals. I kept my carbs to 20 grams or less a day, and now that I’ve reached my goal weight, I still maintain that limit even though I no longer count calories. I worked very hard to go from hyper obese to the mid-range of a healthy BMI and I know from 20 years experience of steady weight gain that carbs and I will never be compatible. And I don’t just mean the usual suspects of pizza, potatoes and pasta. Beans, oats and beets will drive weight gain in me as well.

Welcome to the BSD and the forum. I wish you the best of luck and hope we can help you get where you need to be to live your longest, healthiest, most joyful life. 🙂

Hi and thank you for the welcome.
By regime I mean purely the act of following a laid out plan. I am following the 8 week plan in the recipe book to the letter, I’m sure once that is completed I will look at carbs etc and I am using MFP to track my diet and exercise.

Keep us posted on your progress, Matron12. You should do just fine following the 8 week plan and using MFP will help to keep you on track.
Best of luck to you for every success.