Thanks jellyfishjen, sounds like it was valuable to have that extra support. I tend not to use official BSD recipes though, I’ve always cooked and I just modify recipes I already use.

Yoghurt and berries sounds a great breakfast for summer, but I don’t fancy it at the moment. I’m going to have porridge (jumbo oats) or eggs over winter. I like both and find them filling, so that should work for me.

Sueblue, I’m doing ‘cook once, eat three times’! As I don’t like all the weighing and measuring, I’m going to make any suitable meals in triple batches and freeze two lots.

Thanks for breakfast ideas! I’m feeling very energetic, so far. Back to work tomorrow, so let’s see how I do with food all around to tempt me.

Squidge, I don’t know what makes an oat jumbo, but oats in general are very high in carbs. Some people do eat them on the BSD (Dr. Mosley among them) because oats are slowly digested (not all of them; instant and rolled have been defibered, steamed and heavily processed and might as well be sugar). They do so in minute portions, however, like 20 grams. A quarter cup (44 grams) of dry oats is 170 calories and 25 grams of carbohydrates. That’s almost a quarter of your entire daily caloric intake shot in one very small portion. The carbs are bad news for anyone who counts. My carb limit for the entire day is 20 grams. I am insulin resistant and needed to go that low in order to lose a large amount of weight. Most people on the forum aim for something along the lines of 50 grams of carbs a day. If you have no blood sugar issues it’s probably fine and you’ll still lost weight, but more slowly than you would have if you’d gone with a low-carb breakfast.

If you must eat oatmeal, steel-cut oats are by far the best option and I’m afraid the carb count is so high avoiding that measuring them before you eat them is very ill-advised. You might also need to cut back how often you eat porridge. Twice a week, for instance, rather than every day.

Good luck!

Loving reading everyone’s journey so far, thank you to everyone who posts. Day 3 for me and still feeling positive – which is always a good sign! one area where I know I will struggle, particularly on these long winter nights, is evening time…….any suggestions for low carb snack ideas?? I’m not keen on nuts. A word of warning, I downloaded the clever guts app and am disappointed 😒, recipes are limited and many do not even give the nutritional info, which for someone like me who is recording on Fat Secret, it’s essential. I know it wasn’t expensive but I detest it if I think I’m being ripped off 😞.

Thanks, Esnecca.

Jumbo oats are just bigger grains which have been rolled. They’re not otherwise cut or processed, so out of all the oat options they’re probably best (and my favourite – I hardly cook them as I don’t like them gloopy). I haven’t actually had them yet (since starting the diet) and will just have them sometimes. I was planning to have 30g of dry oats. I will weigh my portions as it would be very easy to tip out more than that.

I don’t have blood sugar issues, so am hoping that will be OK if I have very low carbs the rest of the day on which I eat them.

Granny, I’m trying to wean myself off snacking, as that’s what put my weight on. I’m keeping celery (which is OK, but not what I’d call tempting) in the fridge for when I really need something. If I had nuts or anything I am keen on, I know I’d eat them whether hungry or not.

Thought I was doing well but pride comes before a fall. Day 6 and the hunger monster hit this morning which lunch couldn’t really touch, followed by a real slump. Good thing is I haven’t caved, just had a quiet day and a few more calories, adding big side salads with avocado. Still riding the wave and just about standing on the surf board. Other good thing: daughter asked what I was missing most and I realised there wasn’t anything, except perhaps a bigger breakfast.

Granny, I do have a sort of suggestion for a low-carb snack. I’m not doing snacking coz I’m trying to break the habit of constantly topping up I was in; I’ve also got a memory of a comment by Clare Bailey that there was some fasting type benefit in being hungry between meals. But the one exception I made was to have a nibble on some cinnamon sticks, which was at least tasty and interesting – though probably not for everyone!

Squidge, I love oats for breakfast – here’s my favourite recipe, just need to LEAVE OUT the brown sugar/maple syrup (really doesn’t need it!)

https://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Apple_Cinnamon_Oatmeal

I make this on a Sunday afternoon and that’s my breakfast sorted for a week – I just heat up a portion each morning with some milk, and sprinkle some extra Cinammon on top. Yes it’s 25g carbs and 145 calories per serve, but I can eat it at 6am and not be hungry for 7 hours.
When I was eating this regularly I was losing weight, but then again I don’t have T2 diabetes.
This morning I had Portabello “toast” with spinach & chickpeas, and had an egg with it too. An hour later I feel hungry! I’m going back to my oats next week!

Zolou, I expect we’ll all have days when we do less well. An extra helping of salad sounds like a minor wobble not a total wipe out (to continue the surfing theme).

Thanks Squidge, getting stuck into some work today and going to skip breakfast so I can balance out the calories. Feeling as determined as ever to stick with it.

Love and hugs to all my fellow intrepid souls!

Zolou you are standing firm on that surf board, well done! The oats sound good sueblue, I’ve always stuck to my Greek yoghurt and berries but think I’ll invest in a packet of oats, it’s gotta be good if no hunger pangs, even at 25g carbs. I agree I should just ignore the ‘snacking’ habit and do some mindfulness instead 😌. Feeling good about the BSD, good luck everyone.

Hi, I missed it in the book where Dr. M gave us a specific net carb gram daily max goal.. Can you point me to what chapter it’s in? I have the kindle version, so page # might not work. Thanks!..

Dipgal I’ve read the book many times and I’m pretty certain that there is no suggested daily carb grams from Dr Mosley. This question often gets asked in the Facebook 8week BSD group I’m in, and as one member always answers “there’s no need to count carbs, if you stick to 800 calories that’s all you need to do”.
However, there have been lots of members on these forum pages who have found they get better results when they limit their carbs to 50g per day, or even 20g per day, this seems to work for those with T2 or insulin resistance especially.
Personally I don’t as it’s hard enough keeping track of calories! However I do glance at the macros in My Fitness Pal and try to keep my carb intake a lot lower than protein and fats.

The 50 gram figure comes from the ketogenic dieters. They found that quantity is a sweet spot to keep your body in the fat-burning state of ketosis. More than that and it’ll try to stick with burning carbs for fuel because it’s easy. If you’re concerned about rate of loss and staying motivated for the long haul, the lower your carb intake the better. I eat more than 800 calories a day now that I’m at goal, but I’ve been at less than 20 grams a day often less than 10, for 16 months and that’s how it going to stay. I have a motto that I cleave to: not one step backwards. I paid too steep a price for too long to ever get back in the same vicious carb->insulin spike cycle that made the BSD necessary.

Hey there Dipgal, I had 3 stone to lose with insulin resistance and found the carb figure (below 20g for me) more important than the calories (though found I can’t ignore calories when I want to lose weight at reasonable pace). Also not eating for a decent 15 hours a day (can’t manage 16).

As I read MM he’s saying low carb (though he doesn’t specify an ideal carb intake) will work to reduce weight over time, but if you need to lose it quickly for health reasons go down to 800 cals to get it off ASAP. I have to confess my 800 phase was high fat, high protein and very low carb, which worked but is probably not healthy long term, so I’m doing loads more veg (and therefore carbs) in maintenance. It’s a bit of a balancing act and I’m waiting to see how it’s affected my blood sugar (blood test results next week) but life is a lot less stressful now and I’ve settled at a healthy weight and a very acceptable dress size.

I think I’ve just answered something you talked about on another thread, but you get the gist!

Morning all, I thought I’d post an update for my week 1 (it’s actually day 9 for me now).

I started at 167.2lb, waist 44″. Waist needs to get to 33″ to be half my height, so I’m guessing I’m aiming for around 133lb (middle of the healthy weight range).

Diet: I stuck to just the two or three meals a day and used the recipes, with a fair amount of swaps and improvisation. I was a bit free and easy with the veg, getting more into calorie counting that now.

Steps: I surprised myself by averaging over 10,000 steps a day, just because I was quite restless in that first week. So now I’ll be having to keep that up!

HIT: I did my three HIT sessions over the week – just sprint spurts when I was out walking. It probably looks a little odd but I’m aiming to make it fashionable. It’s a great enlivener.

Strength: Been doing yoga every morning – a few sun salutations the first couple of days and then Yoga with Adriene’s free True programme on YouTube. The last few days when I’ve been feeling weaker there have been some adaptations 🙂

Mindfulness: I did meditations on five of the days, but the yoga is very mindful so I’m not worrying if I don’t always do it as a separate thing.

Standing up every half hour: I downloaded a nice bong for my phone and got into the habit of setting it when I sat down. I actually quite enjoyed it, but it went by the board after the first couple of days. I’d quite like to have a go at re-instating it.

Results for week 1: weight 159.8, so lost 7.4lb. That’s actually amazing when you compare it to all my other diet efforts (e.g. 4lb lost in the 28 days I did Whole30 before giving up)

After my body’s little protest on day 6, I’m still a bit weaker but taking things mindfully and had a gently active day on day 8 yesterday.

All the best everyone, lovely to be part of this – wish we could all meet up for a nice Pho soup and a country amble!

BTW, had the no-oats (“carb-free”) bircher from the book yesterday, subbing frozen blackberries, hot water and grated apple for the raisins and apple juice, to the same calorie count. It was so yum.

Esnecca, I like your no going back outlook.

Sounds like you’ve had a great 1st 9 days Zolou 🙂
I might try the no carb bircher again with hot water and grated apple, as when I made it with apple juice, as suggested in the book, it was far too sweet, I didn’t enjoy it at all.
I’m not quite up to a week yet, I started Tues 2nd, but I’ve already lost 2kg (from my Christmas gain). I haven’t been sticking to 800 calories – more like 1000/1100. I’m still on holidays from work and have been having lunches out, takeaway dinners etc. I did get my shopping delivery last night though and I ordered lots of fresh veg, eggs, cheese, smoked salmon, cans of beans and lentils, so I’m all prepared to go down to 800 calories and stick to the plan from Monday.
I had Pecan Chia porridge for breakfast this morning, one of my favourite breakfast recipes from the 8 week BSD recipe book. i make it with Twinnings raspberry and blueberry tea instead of the suggested Earl grey tea and it’s lovely, the flavour really goes well
With the fresh raspberries and blueberries I used. Lunch was vegetable frittata from the 8 week BSD book and tea was vegetable pizza, made with a soca base (chickpea flour and water), and some more salad.
It’s been easy keeping up with water intake as it was 40’degrees here today, and it’s going to be 42-45 tomorrow (centigrade!). I think it will be salad for
Lunch and dinner tomorrow 🙂

Great results Zolou. I’m imagining people looking at your ‘odd’ sprint spurts over the next few weeks and noticing you getting slimmer. Perhaps it really will get fashionable?

SueBlue, it sounds as though you’re on the right track too.

Personally I’m not actually calculating carbs, but I’m going to start paying more attention to how many are in different food and making the better choices – plus avoiding the refined ones (almost) entirely.

Hi Everyone
I hope you don’t mind but I am joining in a little late. I want to lose the 10lbs I put on over Xmas and another 10 to get to a better weight. I lost 22 lbs the first time round. I had ill relatives over xmas and a subsequent death. I am very motivated because I have seen lots of very ill people and it made me realise staying fit and healthy as long as possible keeps you out of hospitals!!

I like your thread lots of good ideas.
Thanks and belated Happy New Year!!

Hi all – It seems the new year finds everyone geared up for some serious BSD-ing!
I’m starting properly today after a week of celebrations with my family in the uk. So kefir and tea for breakfast and a ‘real’ coffee mid-morning, then probably nothing until dinner this evening which will be curry with cauliflower rice.
Alcohol-free starts today as well.
Just an observation which may add to our ‘toolbox ‘ – if, like me, you have a day when you feel lumpy and uninspired and likely to go off-track, put on some nice clothes, do your hair and make-up and make yourself feel good – when you do that, it improves your attitude towards yourself and makes you more likely to want to stay on track. If I have a day when I’m slobbing around in jeans with no makeup, I find my attitude is also ‘slobby’ and I find myself making excuses to eat rubbish. So, best foot (and face) forward!
SSB

Hi SSB
I think that is such a good tip about putting on nice clothes etc. to help stay on track.

Also, I’m just in the process of getting rid of some bigger size clothes (size 20). I was thinking about keeping them as I only have a limited number of clothes my current size (size 16) but decided I wanted to keep wearing more fitted clothes, leggings etc, because feeling them getting looser as I continue to drop weight is another great motivator.

Hope today’s new year start goes well.
Marie

When my current clothes are too big (when – not if!) I’m going to get rid of them. Getting new ones will be a reward to myself and I won’t want to buy more bigger ones, so that should be another incentive to keep the excess weight off.

Re smaller/bigger clothes, I think it’s the story you tell yourself. If you keep bigger clothes in case you ‘fail’ then I think that’s not good because you’re almost allowing failure. If you keep them to remind yourself of how far you have come – that’s brilliant. I love putting something on that used to be tight and finding that it’s loose!
SSB

I’m so cross with myself. I’ve just come home from work and literally swept the cupboards looking for something sweet to eat. Did I resist the urge? Er, no.
Lesson to be shared-don’t leave all that yummy post Christmas stuff waiting to be found. Bury it 6ft deep and get a fierce dragon to guard it.
Has anyone weighed in yet? I’m planning to weigh in Monday. I thought I’d done quite well until my lapse. Soooo cross with myself.

Oh HappyHostie, don’t worry, celebrate the fact that you are human. And celebrate everything you’ve achieved! New habits can’t always be built overnight but it gets easier, I promise.

Mm I might have a go at that pecan chia porridge, I have all the things.

HappyHostie it’s taking me a lot longer than I expected to get rid of all the leftover Christmas junk food! I’ve managed to resist since New Year. I originally planned to throw it away, but then learned I we were going to have teenagers visiting! That will be today, so I think all the extra chips and chocolate will be gone this afternoon. Along with plenty of healthy food too, I imagine. Teenagers are like locusts.

Good morning everyone –
I have managed 2 24hr fasts in the last 3 days – 1 inadvertently when I was travelling on Thursday, and 1 very conscious one yesterday. Weighed in this morning and I’m 2lbs down! I know that will be mostly water (I’m up all night peeing when I do fasting/low-carb) but still feels good. As usual after a fast, I’m not particularly hungry this morning so I’ll keep going until coffee time.
Happy Hostie, I have done that soooo many times – just pick yourself up and start again with the next meal. I think I have mostly trained myself away from a lot of sweet stuff but I still wouldn’t dare to have it in the house.
SSB

It’s asking a lot of ourselves to resist eating food we have in our homes. If we have unopened boxes of chocolates or biscuits then a local foodbank collecting box might be the best place for them. We definitely need to avoid buying more stuff like that.

There have been various questions on these forums about IF. I found this video on a Keto site but it’s really good, short explanation of the benefits of IF.
SSB

https://youtu.be/Sgeh2w0j51w

Yikes, SaltySeaBird, I was scrolling up the page and accidently pressed the report post button on your perfectly lovely and interesting ‘goodmorningeveryone’ post just above. I’ve ‘unpressed’ it and sent an email explaining my clumsiness to the admin. Sincere apologies, hope you don’t get bothered by it. 😳

And thanks for posting the video.

That’s an excellent idea. We have a local food bank in the village.

Excellent results!! Well done you.

Thanks for your positive and supportive messages about my carb binge. I’ve just weighed in after my first week. A whopping 5lb down!! I’m so pleased. I’ve not really been calorie counting, so am going to get this cracked this week.
Also, I’m the queen of 5lb weight loss. Achieving more than 7lb is harder. Good luck everyone on week 2!
How are you all doing?

I’m 5lb down too, HappyHostie. Well done us and everyone else who is losing or maintaining their weight.

No doubt it’s better to calculate everything and stick completely to the diet, but clearly slipping up once is no reason to think we’ve failed and quit. If we quickly get back on track then we can still lose weight.

Hi Flick – no not upset at all – i’m always pressing the wrong buttons!
SSB

Well done Happy Hostie & Squidge on your losses. I’ve lost too this week, 2.8kg or just over 6lb 🙂
Admittedly this loss is my Christmas/new year gain, so I’m back where I was in mid-December, but I am very happy as it’s a good start to the year. I’d love to lose another 2.3kg by 23 Jan as this will mean I’m Overweight (rather than obese) on the BMI scale.
Calories last week averaged about 1300 per week as I was off work still and having meals out, plus eating more st home. Now I’m back at work I’m finding it easier to stick to lower calories. Yesterday was 902, it was just over 800 but I had an ice block in the evening – it seemed justified given our heatwave! i’ll have to find some BSD friendly cold treats! It’s a shame that watermelon is off plan as that is very cooling.

Well done on your losses everyone!

Well done, SueBlue.

Getting below the obese level would be a great achievement. I’m rooting for you.

Where everyone gone? SSB, how did it go for you after your fasts – did you manage to keep on track? How is everyone feeling?

I’ve had no losses for two days and I’m feeling limp, but at the same time I don’t have any urge to stray from the plan, so I’ll just stick with it. Two week review tomorrow, looking forward to seeing how much I’ve lost round the middle as I haven’t measured since the beginning.

Had the warm halloumi salad yesterday, very tasty.

Hi Zolou, I loooooove halloumi – and it’s so versatile. Have you had it as ‘bacon’ with eggs and mushrooms?
Yes, I’m still on track – my only ‘vice’ now is my one daily cup of really good coffee – I am struggling to give up the sugar in it (the only sugar I have). I belong to a Facebook keto group and have had all sorts of advice about giving up the sugar and reducing the dairy but part of me thinks this is one daily treat and I don’t know if I want to give it up – I’m quite sure if I really wanted to, I could train myself to drink it plain and black.
I was reading somewhere that when you first start this low-carb stuff, your emptying fat cell retain water ‘just in case’ they’re needed for fat again (as I understand it, you don’t ever lose fat cells, they just get smaller). Eventually, they release the water and you get the ‘whoosh’ effect. I’m sure this way over simplified but it sounds plausible.
Keep going – you can do this!
SSB

Hang in there Zolou, the scales will move with a lovely woosh as described by Saltyseabird. Or if like me, a woosh-ish. Batten down the hatches and stay with the plan.

Zolou, I just posted elsewhere that a bad day, when it comes to weight used to mean a gain of a pound or two – staying the same is much better than that.

SSB, I believe you’re right that we keep the same number of fat cells, they just get bigger or smaller.

I can understand you wanting to keep one treat. If you’re not having any other sugar, hopefully the coffee will seem really sweet and you’ll be able to gradually reduce the amount of sugar you have in it, yet still feel it’s a treat.

I wouldn’t be able to stick to this diet if tea was banned. I have mine with milk, but no sugar (luckily I don’t like it in tea). I know there’s natural sugar in milk, but there are also nutrients, so I’m not feeling guilty over that.

Hi Zolou, I’m sorry tohear your scales aren’t cooperating, my exciting weight loss has come to a screeching halt too, it has taken me all week to lose almost a kilo. Still not there!
BUT I keep chanting to myself as I step forlornly off the scales ( who was it that called it ‘the saddest step’?!!) WEIGHT LOSS IS NOT LINEAR!! which is another great bsd battlecry that others have posted before! It never fails to comfort me, just keep it in the back of your mind…and best of luck. I agree with Flick and SSB, the whoosh fairy comes when you least expect it!

Thanks everyone! Had a lovely, long walk this morning, with the happy thought that my fat cells were merely hanging on to water cheering me along the way. Went about twice as far as I intended because I got lost! 21K steps. Didn’t see a soul, but crossed paths with the roe deer three times and sent their white bums bobbing away. Now tucking into a nice, hydrating prawn pho soup.

SSB, brilliant idea to use halloumi as bacon, will definitely give that a go – free range bacon is so pricy and it gets round the nitrate/nitrate issue too.

Squidge, you are so right, consolidating these gains (10lb down) is a marvellous thing, not a bad day – and Flick and Inka, I shall embrace the whoosh fairy when she comes with a special celebratory yoga stretch!

SSB – One disadvantage to being on my side of the Atlantic is that the
time difference ( 5 hrs) often costs me in participating in real time
conversations 🙂 The fact that we are born with a finite number of fat
cells is consistent with my knowledge, too! The theory is that the weight
of a pregnant mother while carrying the child, as well as her gut biome
and specific bacteria a child is exposed to while passing through the
birth canal all have a role to play in whether or not we are destined to
have a weight problem. It seems that some of us have to work extra
hard to keep these fat cells deflated! But now we have the formula to
do it!

Hi Alliecat, I wish there was a ‘like’ button – I would be using it
SSB

End of my second week today. Here are my results:

Steps: Hit the average 10,000 steps target (in fact it was 12,900 because of yesterday’s adventures).
HIT: Did my 3 days of 3 HIT sprint bursts
Strength: Still doing daily yoga
Weight: Lost 3.2lb (Current: 156.6; Start of BSD: 167.2; Target: 133; Overall loss: 10.6)
Waist: Lost 4″ since beginning – didn’t measure last week (Current: 40″; Start of BSD: 44″; Target: 33″ – half height)

Overall, weight stalled at this point, but still feeling confident in the programme and good – sharp and energetic – and loving the food.

That’s fantastic Zolou, keep looking at the non-scale victories and I’m sure the weight will soon follow. It’s great just to have more energy isn’t it. Keep smiling.
SSB

Well done everyone, so inspiring and informative to read this thread 👍. Well it’s my 10 day point and I’ve lost 2.4kg so very pleased 😀, my post Christmas bloated tummy is definitely reducing and I feel so much more energetic. I find that’s one of the most encouraging things about the BSD woe – you feel the benefits quickly 👍. I too love halloumi, have only recently discovered it through BSD, and shall definitely try it as ‘bacon’ for my Sunday brunch! On reading some of the articles I’m getting the feeling that dairy should be limited- is this right or am I misunderstanding ? I like single cream in my coffee once a day and I also have sugar free jelly with a deserspoon of single cream as a desert. Have s great day everyone 💪

Brilliants, stuff Zolou! It’s really good that you’re feeling well and energetic.

From reading other threads, it seems common for weight loss to slow up or stop for a while and then get going again, so if you’re doing everything right, that’s not something to worry about.

You’ve reminded me I hadn’t measured my waist again since starting. Just have and it’s smaller!