I have just started round two of the fast 800 BSD. First time was just after Christmas and I didn’t stick to it very well but still lost some weight. I’m ready to go again.

I’m wondering what dieters tell their family and friends, if anything? I have not told my husband or anyone else that I am eating only 800 calories a day because they would think I am crazy and stupid for following this weird fad diet that can’t possibly be healthy for me. I know that’s what I would have told someone else before trying it myself. My husband knows I am on a diet and avoiding junk food and processed carbs, and hasn’t noticed I’m eating so few calories because my plate is always full. Like last night I made spaghetti bolognaise; mine was on zoodles (zucchini strips) instead of pasta, with a small serve of bolognaise and a tiny sprinkle of cheese. The physical amount of food was as much as everyone else’s, for a lot less calories.

So, have you told anyone? And what did they say? Did they go from negative to positive after seeing you on the diet for a while, staying healthy and getting results?

I first went on the 5:2 diet a couple of years ago, and I did it with my husband, so yes, he knows, but I have only told a couple of others in my large family. I’d rather wait till there is a more evident result before telling the others, so I don’t seem crazy.One I told had already been on a low carb diet for a while. Not this one though.
He didn’t need to lose as much as me, and isn’t fully doing the BSD, but now having read the book he is cutting back on carbs too.I haven’t committed to the eight week 800 cal diet, but have cut carbs right down and am still doing the 5:2, while trying to eat more Med style. If this doesn’t help I’ll cut right back to 800, but it is much easier not counting carbs, and while I have social things going on like staying at others houses, it is a bit tricky.
I have slipped up a couple of times, eating carbs, particularly when around others I don’t want to tell, so perhaps I should…

I told them the weekend before I started amidst knowing looks and a “he’ll never stick to that” attitude.
Within 3 days that all changed as they realised that they hadn”t seen me snack for a couple of days nor heard me saying I was hungry.
Then the weight started moving and there was a surge of interest, especially from the daughters and their friends. My OH makes a point of telling me how well I’mn doing and how proud she is of me which feels great but is tinged with a little guilt as I’m not really doing anything special, just eating food I enjoy and stilll losing weight. Even Houdini never managed that one !
Now it’s just a weekly “how much this week? ” but they all know now how well this can work and of course, being girls, they are all talking about it.
If I’m not very careful I’ll be running a young ladies diet group :S

All my immediate family know. They’re surprised that I’ve stuck at it. Hubby’s even cut back – he’s not diabetic and just slightly overweight at 14st – but neither of us eat after 5pm and he’s cut right back on Mars bars!! Believe me I’ve been on many diets, most of which lasted a few days. My motivation for this one is to get my type 2 under better control. I’ll be 52 in October so want to get it sorted asap.

My family don’t know – yet. But they’ll find out on Saturday for the first time since last autumn 😃 My son’s type 2 diabetic on meds who likes his carbs so it will be interesting to see what he says.

Because his levels at diagnosis were higher than mine, and he’s on meds when I’ve avoided them, his usual comment is ‘you’re not really diabetic, you’re only playing at it’ 😳

Wow Lynne
get the phone out and video the meeting, that should really be one for the family film library 😀
And tell your son the only one playing is him, with his health.

Bill, we’re meeting on a railway station so the twins can be handed over for me to bring them back with me, so it’s a bit public. 😳

He goes to a diabetes clinic at a major hospital in Manchester and thinks they know what’s best for him. He’s like my late mother in that – she never questioned any doctor. But I’ve worked with lots of them in the past, so I have a different attitude😃

I was lucky with my Dr, she gave me her blessing to try the diet. I have my 3 month check up with the diabetic nurse tomorrow. I don’t think I have reduced my blood sugars yet as I had a couple of months of out-of-control eating and weight gain before I started this diet. Hopefully she will agree that the next three months will show us what I can do.

I told my husband from the start, and he was very supportive because he knows I’m not into fad diets (I’ve never been on one) and very into science and skepticism, so he trusts that I know what I’m talking about and that I get my info from trustworthy sources. He also watches Trust Me I’m a Doctor with me and all the other BBC health shows I love, so knows who Michael Mosley is.
Other reactions have been a little mixed. (Keep in mind I’m just eating med style, not doing 800 cal a day.) Some people are interested, others brush it off as a low carb fad.
I really want to get my parents in on it, because I think they’d really benefit from the 8 week diet. My mum was vaguely interested to begin with, but then said she just needed to exercise more. I’m hoping that when she sees photos of me (we live on opposite sides of the globe!) she’ll get interested again, or when we go visit next year I can make her some food and she can see how I eat and hopefully see how well it works and how easy it is.

Only told my husband & a friend when I started…since then I have slowly told more friends & a cousin. My parents are currently abroad & are due back mid April. I will suprise them with a slimmer me & try and get them onboard the ‘bsd train’ ( they r both type 2)

My Dr had done 5:2 but was not to receptive of the BSD & said my body would go into starvation mode so I would be better off doing the 5:2.
Can’t wait to see her reaction when I next go to see her. Hopefully she’ll start recommending BSD to other patients!!!

Nope.

I’ve been on a low carb-moderate protein diet since early October. They all know about that – and think I’m a bit over the top (especially since diabetes runs in both my family and my spouse’s and no one has done anything other than follow the ADA guidelines), and make disparaging comments whenever i have needed to explain my diet in front of them to a third party (“I have diabetes too, yada…yada…yada…”). But the science behind the low carb diet is something I can easily explain scientifically to them, and I have research studies to back up both efficacy and safety for at least a year – so I haven’t hesitated to share that with them.

The science behind the BSD is more complex and less understood. The inspiration (the Newcastle Diet) was created by someone who now believes the severely restricted calories are not a factor in the demonstrated success of either bariatric surgery – or his diet. And he has offered no clear explanation for why his views have changed (and he continues to conduct his studies the diet he now suggests is not critical to success). Dr. Fung (fasting guru) points to more research supporting IF/severe calorie restriction – but has chosen not to publish peer-reviewed papers of his own (that I can find, anyway) that pull together the bits and pieces into a cohesive, theoretical paper – or even case studies of his own patients. There’s also a third train of thought that beta cell malfunctions are the result of the process, rather than the/a cause – that the real cause is alpha cell malfunctioning (and I did not even scratch the surface of that research). Way too many tendrils for me to run to the ground in the time I have.

I’ve satisfied myself that, even though I can’t articulate it, there are scientifically valid explanations for why IF/near-starvation might trigger a reset of the BG metabolism, and have satisfied myself that it is safe for the duration I’ll be on it. I haven’t had the time to devote to creating an explanation I can share with others. That makes being a medical guinea pig in this experiment very different than the dozen or so others either i or a family member have been in.

When I’ve had to jump before I had medically respected proof in the past I’ve always been right – but I’m not at the comfort level I’m usually at here (and because I’m only 19 lbs from where I expect to stop losing weight), I don’t have the time to get comfortable. So I’ll keep my uncomfortable experiment to myself. 🙂

Fascinating to see other people’s families reactions! My husband is a lovely supportive man but he believes that everything is cured with more exercise and that diet has very little to do with it (unless you eat fast food every day or something extreme like that, which we have never done). He will remind me of articles in New Scientist magazine that say there is no medical evidence that we need eight glasses of water a day (or more) and that the original study that said we needed 8 glasses included liquid we get from food. He laughs at Paleo diets because cavemen DID eat grains. He doesn’t think sugar is poison or addictive in moderation. Basically I should just eat “normal” food and exercise. I know he would worry about really low calories. So it is easier for me to just say I’m eating healthy and leave it at that.

Have only told a select few – my husband knows and although he offers me a piece of chocolate when he has some (which I refuse once and it’s not mentioned again), he is generally supportive and very congratulatory about my results. Also told a friend, who like the rest of us is struggling to reduce her weight, in the hope she might take up the BSD reigns – not so far sadly. And finally I told my daughter, who was just plain horrified at the idea of 800cals a day and low carbs – ‘it will just all go back on when you finish’ was her comment.

As long as I have my OH’s support, I’m fine and he has been there in my corner from the off. He has even eaten the same foods in large quantity with the occasional addition of some carbs, to save me cooking different meals for him. Tonight he wants to have something from the fish and chip shop, but didn’t pressure me to do the same, just said he’d sort his meal tonight.

I did the BSD in a half-assed way earlier in the year and I can say that the weight I lost then DIDN’T just find me again straight away! I did slowly regain some while eating really badly for weeks, but it generally felt like that weight was properly gone and my set-point reset. Of course if you stop BSD and then eat unhealthily it will come back eventually, just as you would keep gaining weight if you never went on the BSD in the first place.

Thanks, Neohdiver, interesting read.
My two sons and my husband know, I have not told me daughter yet. She lives in a different city to us, but I will be visiting her in a few weeks. I dont want to spoil the ” wow, mum, how did you do that?” kind of expression. Well, hopefully it will be that way. Have until mid-May and if things keep progressing the way they are at the moment, I should be able to get rid of a few more pounds.
My sons, they are both uni students, were horrified when I told them what I was doing,. They noticed that I had stopped eating “Mum’s favourites” and then the younger one saw that I was watching a YouTube presentation by MM and “That Sugar Film”. They tried to dismantle the arguments about why this diet might work demanding to know on what peer reviewed scientific study the basis of this diet relied on….. They now look at labels, at least they look now,. Standing in front of the open fridge door, with my plain pot set greek yoghurt in one hand and a can of coke In the other, they tried to tell me that both products had the same amount of sugar in it…. and one of them said: ” How do you think they get the milk to ferment to get the joghurt? They need sugar for that!” I gave up at that point, but must say, I snug back later to check myself: The joghurt has 4.8g per serving (100g) and the coke has 9g per serving size (also 100g). The joghurt is lower, but I must say, I was surprised. I had expected the joghurt to be much much lower….. So maybe, next time I eat the joghurt, maybe I should 1/2 my portion. This experience made me a bit sceptical about some of the low carb recipes and I will pay greater attention to the sugar content of the ingredients, which until now, I did not really scrutinize, because they long have been perceived as low or even no sugar anyway….
Natalie, my OH, is somewhat indifferent and has a similar attitude to yours.
He no longer believes me, too many Monday Starts! I told one friend and she is supportive. She is doing the 5:2 and is doing quite well on it. She cant handle cutting out the carbs. So we have a bit of a friendly competition between us and often compare notes to see what works best for each of us. When I reach my goal, and knowing both diets quite well, I might do a mix of both of them, so I can sometimes “have my cake and it it all”. 🙂

Hi inka milk products contain lactose – a form of sugar, a bit like fructose in fruit. Plain full fat yoghurt will not have sugar added to it so keep on enjoying your healthy full fat yoghurt 🙂

Low fat yoghurt on the other hand is packed with sugar

I have just checked my FF fage yoghurt: 3.8g sugar per 100g

Diet coke: 10.6g per 100mls

Just check you are eating plain FF yoghurt (I recommend fage ) as you are describing a whole g more.

There is a big difference between naturally occurring sugar in milk and sweeteners in coke. Artificial sweeteners have a bad affect on your blood stats

Hope this helps 🙂

I have told EVERYONE I know! My 90 year old dad thinks ‘it can’t do you any harm’. My son at first was worried about sudden weight loss but learned about it and is fine about it now. He has even mentioned it to other people. He was amazed about bill’s results – especially the improvement in his eyes. One or two people have asked me when I will stop as they think I’m looking quite thin. I must say people have been positive especially when they see the results 🙂

I’m a bit of a Zealot about the BSD 🙂

Thanks, hashimoto. I know about lactose etc, but I dont have the nerve to argue with my boys about everything I eat. I told them, to do want they thought is right for themselves, and leave me to do the same for myself. They have been on my back for ages to loose weight so, now I am doing something seeing it through for the first time, I asked them if they would me more convinced once I lost the weight and reached my goal? Maybe, they said, still very skeptical…. anyway, I think they will stop questioning me now. The younger one must have guessed that I was getting a bit P’d with them and he came and told me that they were just concerned that the total cals and carbohydrate intake would not be enough for me and that they were worried, and that, “at my age”, I needed to make sure that I had enough nutrients….. :-). Thanks son…. But god love them, anyway! They are such lovely boys… cant really hold a grudge or be angry with them for very long …:-)

Sunnyb what a wonderful husband!

I have twice had food from the chippy – i only have the fish and scrape the batter off- next time he wants something from the chippy you might want to do the same ::

Aw bless ’em Inka!

Inka
just point the lads to these forums, if that doesn’t convince them, nothing will 😉

But, Inka, the yoghurt also has protein and fat, which the Coke lacks, which will keep you full much longer, and make it much less likely that you’ll need to eat again soon, meaning fewer calories overall. Also means your blood sugars won’t spike like the Coke would make it. You can’t just look at the carbs in isolation. So keep eating your full portion and don’t worry!

Well said Celsa – I had meant to say that myself. I’m a bit shattered at the mo, my next door neighbour keeps waking me after midnight screaming at her 5/6 year old. she missed her vocation as a parade ground sergeant lol. I’m not able to think very clearly today 🙁

My husband knows and is very supportive. He’s mostly eating what I am, with carbs added (he doesn’t need to diet and isn’t diabetic). I haven’t told anyone else yet. Going out for a meal with friends tonight and will if they express concern about my food choices, but I plan to try to keep it quiet until I’ve lost enough weight for it to show.

I know several people who’ve been ‘on a diet’ for years and go on about it constantly, trying to talk people into trying each new fad, and keep gaining weight. It’s rather put me off saying anything.