I just finished the 8 week BSD as a vegan. My hemoglobin A1c went from 6.8 to 5.4 (from pre-diabetic to normal!) in two months. My doctor told me that my fasting blood glucose was also within the normal range. It had been testing between 115-122. I lost 35 pounds in 8 weeks although I confess I did not exercise. I am 62 years old so I am very pleased with this rate of loss. I ate a high carbohydrate, moderate protein, low fat diet. There was no oil in my diet, no olives or avocado and of course no animal products or animal fats. I did have one tablespoon of ground flax seed per day and one tablespoon of chopped walnuts most days as this was recommended for vegans by a number of whole foods doctors. I have plenty of food for three meals and a snack if I choose to proportion it that way. I admit that I still miss the taste and smell of meat (it smells heavenly!) but I tried the prescribed BSD over a year ago without the results I had hoped for. I did lose 30 pounds but was unusually tired and my blood sugar markers did not change. I quickly regained all the weight and then some. I would like to avoid that this time. I do plan to continue with the low calorie vegan diet at 800 calories for another month or two but it does not seem to me to be a sustainable long-term diet because it is difficult to attend social occasions , to eat out and takes a lot of planning. Any ideas on how to add calories back in so as not to regain the weight lost? I am aware that I need to include exercise and have joined a gym a block from my home. Thanks for any help!

Congratulations on your wonderful results! I’m not clear on how you could have been doing the BSD, however, if it was a high carb low fat diet. That’s pretty much the polar opposite of the BSD. Do you mean you just calorie counted and kept to 800 cals or below per day?

Oh sorry I wasn’t clear. Last year I did the BSD as prescribed and kept carbs to 20 grams per day or less. I lost weight but it did not resolve my blood sugar issues. This year I just kept to the 800 calories and read the forums faithfully for encouragement and motivation. I like to see people making progress with diabetic issues. I did read some journal articles on the internet that said that a VLCD was effective in resolving diabetic markers so in desperation I tried the 800 calorie plan again with a vegan twist. I was a vegan for 20 years in my formative years when it was not at all popular or well known. I always stayed thin. I feel like I could do this for a long time in terms of satiety but it will have to end at some point. That’s the scary part. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement! I should add one point as I don’t want to come across like I’ve cornered the market on diets. Thinking back about last year, I was quite influenced by the ketogenic diet and I think I was following it more than a low carb mediterranean diet. I wasn’t crazy about the recipes in the BSD and not all that familiar with some of the ingredients or found them expensive. So I used recipes developed by the ketogenic folks. Maybe that was the difference between success and failure. Anyway, I’m grateful.

20 gram per day or less is very good. How much time did you maintain this? Also want to share a blog http://www.beegans.com/ where you would find some more veagn related topics to discuss.