Hi gateofheaven. I feel very lightheaded, and anxious. Nowadays I can tell as soon as I’m getting low, so am able to avoid a real crash. But if I don’t eat, I feel terrible, and I guess I would eventually pass out. I have never got to that point, but in the early days (about 4 years ago), I came very close to it. I suspect I do overeat in order to avoid getting too low.

To explain the pancreatic diabetes. I have chronic, progressive autoimmune pancreatitis. Steroids help control it. There is some thought that the Mediterranean diet lowers inflammation as does weight loss.
I am surprised that today quite a lot of prednisone was needed and i am not particularly hungry. Used to be i could eat the frig door, forget the food. I think the low carb is helping.

I have to be careful with fats (my pancreas loves olive oil – but not much else), but find that 1/4 C full fat milk added to decaf makes me less hungry. I have it with a meal that leaves me wondering if i’ll be satiated. The trouble is then later, i don’t feel like eating, but must eat to take meds, lol. This doesn’t help crashes to the best of my knowledge.

Are you diabetic? What is your blood sugar when you feel lightheaded?

Hi Again Malkay
Maybe you don’t need to go more than three hours without eating, but could spread the 800 out differently. I definitely didn’t go longer than that today. I have a snack allowance out of the 800. So breakfast and lunch are 200 each, snacks are 100, and dinner is 300.
The snacks were non carb.
Hope this helps.
Penny

I feel in over my head on this one, Malkay. Penny sounds like she may be of more help.

Hi Malkay
I ve always had this as long as I can remember – and my son has it more than I do, and definitely had it as a child. Neither of us has ever passed out except once when he cycled up a long hill.
I think the key is definitely eating as often as you need but in a planned way so there’s no carb temptation and you stay on your 800.
Penny

Thanks, both of you! I am definitely going to try to divide my cals out the way you suggest tomorrow, pm shrink. II’ll let you know how I get on. When Im really careful I definitely feel better. I think I just need to be more organised. It’s definitely easier when I’m home all day.

My doctor is writing a little paper on teaching the body to be fat burning rather than protein and carb burning – important for athletes with hypoglycemic reactions. He states that hypoglycemia is better controlled with fats than with proteins. I truly don’t understand all that he is saying. I am urging him to get the information out there. But in the meantime, perhaps increasing healthy fats might help.

It took me quite a bit of experimentation to see what worked and what didn’t. For better or worse, I am mostly home bound and that is making it easier for me to handle the difficulties as they come up.

Wishing you both the very best.

Hi GofH
By crash or hypo we mean our blood spikes then goes too low. The effects are to start feeling like your brain isn’t working properly , you can feel disorientated, get lost in a familiar place, feel confused and unable to think. Decision making is impossible. It’s a really horrible feeling. Quite frightening and we ve learnt to deal with it by eating carbs- the more easily absorbed the sooner we feel better. Of course this leads to more of the same.
Is this how you feel Malkay?
And it’s made worse by the fact that people in general don’t know about it or understand it.
Penny

Morning! That’s exactly how I feel, pmshrink, and you are right that very few people have heard of it, never mind understand it. My doctor didn’t have a clue, sent me to an endocrinologist who didn’t have a clue either, so have done extensive reading, and learned to manage it on my own. I have never actually fainted, but have definitely come very close on a couple of occasions. Thanks very much for your encouragement, as I gave never really found anyone who properly understood. As for today, onwards and upwards, with everything crossed for success! Good luck today to everyone!,

I have been riding mine out. I hadn’t really bothered about them before, felt a bit light headed, heart racing, yawning constantly all of these and as soon as l had something to eat, a big sandwich preferably the symptoms would go. So l am riding them out. I am on day 9 lost 6 pounds, blood sugar at last going down a little so hope l am over the worst. I suppose we have to train our brains that they are no longer going to be fed lovely carbohydrates to satify the cravings. It must be like an addict withdrawing.

I have found a hot drink of bovril or marmite has helped my night cravings. It just seems to have a calming effect and the saltiness of the drinks seem to help. I haven’t looked into the health side just don’t want to give in to snacking

I’ve had a few hypos, interestingly enough, if my blood sugar is 4 or above I’m ok. As soon as it hits 3.8, the hypos start in the same way as others but I find that I sweat a lot as well when having one. I keep a packet of glucose tablets with me for these occasions.

Thanks to everyone who has posted about hypo experiences. Since mine started about 4 years ago I feel as though I have lived in a constant state of anxiety, afraid of what is going to happen every time I go out. It comes from not being taken seriously, and people (including me!) not really understanding. I plan every outing around when I’m going to need to eat. However, on the positive, I’ve just gone 4 hours, including going shopping, with no crash, and feel good. Just had lunch, but need to be careful now, as only got about 300 cals left.

Hi Floraellen
That’s what I do too. It really helps. Trying not to think about the salt but not having any other salt so think it’ll be ok.
Penny

So tired? I’m on day 6 and have gone from feeling amazing and full of energy to so tired and grumpy. I’m wondering if I should be eating some fruit for natural sugar as I have been living on just meat, tons of veg ( mainly green with lots of onions and peppers), some dairy and some nuts and olive oil. It’s not the fluid… I’ve been drinking masses and masses, mainly water with the occasional cup of tea or coffee. Also… Haven’t poo’d in a while!! It’s a shame as I have been feeling amazing and still can’t believe I’ve resisted the carbs all week… Even buttered beautiful fresh white bakers bread for my kids!! Have been telling everyone how fab I feel and now I just want to curl up and sleep. Any ideas?
Ela.

I went through a phase of that. According to my doctor, that meant that i was beginning to burn fat instead of protein and carbs – which is ideal. He told me to pretty much to follow what Dr. Mosley suggests, but to be sure that i was adding fat to each meal. I’m doing the 8 weeks, and then will go to the regular Mediterranean diet after that with 2 days a week of 800’s to finish the 100 pounds i have to lose. This will allow me to increase my carbs at that time. I’m eating about 50 carbs a day right now. In the 3rd week, I noticed a significant change. More energy, more clarity of mind, better sleeping. But during the transition phase I wasn’t all that comfortable. I am pre-diabetic, controlled by food only – no meds – in very close contact with my doc. This gives me more leeway than many. For poo, i eat 2 tablespoons of ground flax a day – something that has to be started very slowly or it will cause gas. I started with 1/2 TB and gradually increased it. One can increase it to 3 Tbs. Greens are fabulous for this as Dr. Mosley points out in his book. On occasion, i have used xylotol to ‘move’ things along – but i prefer to stay away from anything artificially sweet, to get used to that type of eating. I do allow myself to sleep as needed when possible, while the adjustments are happening. My body is smarter than i am! 🙂

After all my whingeing and anxiety about hypos last week, I thought I would share my current positive feelings. In about 2 weeks (I wasn’t very thorough at first), I have lost 6lbs. That’s great, but much more importantly to me, my blood sugar seems to have stabilised. I don’t monitor it with a monitor (never got round to that), but can tell that I am not crashing. As a result of this, my anxiety has levelled, and I just feel so much better in myself. I WAS sleeping better until last night. At around 5am I realised I was starving, BUT I hadn’t crashed. Progress indeed. However, my waist measurement has not budged yet, but am sure that will happen soon. As I don’t want/need to lose it from anywhere else, I certainly hope so. Keep up the good work, everyone!

Hi Malkay
That’s fantastic!
Penny

Gateofheaven, you clearly have a doctor who has been reading the research and commentary of the last 20 years. I bought Gary Taubes’ book “Why we get Fat, and what we can do about it”, all about the action of insulin in the system, beyond just its transport of sugars out of the blood. Dr David Ludwig has lots to say on this and also Dr Michael Eades. You will get lots of discussion from them by googling the names without buying their books, though the books are really good. The main point besides all the discussion of insulin and other enzymes is that higher saturated fats and avoidance of processed oils are much healthier and have a better effect on weight loss and blood sugars over time than low fat. Lowering fat will take the weight off but because the body needs it you will feel more hungry and the tendency is to go to high carb foods for a quick hit. These then put the weight back on, causing insulin resistance in most but not all people by fuelling the over production of insulin. So as Gateofheaven says, have some fat even if it raises the calories.

The point I forgot to make is that our Dr Mosley has read all this research, studies and commentary and much of what he writes and says is based on it in part.

Oily fish I find a good hunger queller like eggs. A delicious dip can be made from sardines (canned) or fresh mackerel (grilled first), mixed in a food processor with cream cheese, a hard boiled egg, black pepper and lemon juice, topped with chopped parsley. Work the cals from the quantities you use to make it and then eat a measured portion with salad and green beans. Others not on the diet could have it with toast, so it’s one to share.

Wow Malkhay, brilliant!

Further to my upbeat, positive post, what’s going on today???? After 2 weeks of sticking to the diet (mostly) fairly easily, today I have been starving all day. Didn’t sleep well, woke up at 5 really hungry. Had a 2 egg omelette for brekkie, with a small amount of yogurt and blueberries. That should keep me going till lunch, but by 10 o’clock felt really hungry. Thankfully, still not crashing, but gnawing hunger. Had a small snack of humous and celery, then chicken with onion and fennel in a tomato sauce for lunch. By 3 o’clock I could eat a scabby dog. Just had some cream cheese and almond butter with more celery, but already looking forward to evening mealtime. This seems strange after 2 weeks. Any ideas? Could it be the long awaited adjustment to fat burning????

Yes, Bizibee, I am very fortunate to have a good doc.
Even with his encouragement and the encouragement of Dr. Mosley in the book and on the boards, it was VERY HARD to start eating fat after 60 years denying it! Fat causing fat seemed so logical. But wrong! Fat burns fat as long as a low carb diet is part of it.
I eat 50 grams of protein (yes salmon!- just less of it ), 50 grams of carbs, the rest fat. At 800 calories, it’s not a lot of fat, but I have it with every meal. I am not hungry compared to when i was eating a few more carbs and no fat.
Once i traded out carbs for a little fat, my weight loss increased significantly. My doctor says that now I am burning fat, not carbs nor proteins. That is the idea. Even for scrawny prime athletes. My energy is more even. I am sleeping better.
But I will say that the first couple of weeks were rough while my body was realizing that I wasn’t going to give it a bunch of carbs any more!

Breakfast with eggs and oil.
Full fat milk. Nuts (I don’t bring home many cashews because i love them TOO much!, lol), olive oil, cold pressed coconut oil, grass fed butter. Fatty fish, chicken with the skin on! Full fat kefir and yogurt (plain). Hummus has been a good standby. But only the ones with fat.
And for me, ground flax seed to keep things moving. I used xylitol once for that purpose, but prefer to let my palate change to liking natural sweets like berries.

I watch my cravings. They are now for cooked greens, chicken with skin on, and berries! So i indulge those, lol.
My doctor has suggested that I read the Bulletproof diet (about fats, autoimmune, heart disease, energy, etc.) and add some of the suggestions from the book when I stop the 800/8 week portion. He says it is an easy read. He is concerned that I not continue beyond the 8 weeks because he doesn’t think that I’ll get enough nutrition for the long haul that I have to go. So, in a couple of weeks, I’ll transition to 5/2. I have about 95 pounds to go! But, I’ve lost 21 (a total of 42.8 from my highest) pounds since 1/10 and 3.25 inches from my waist. I have been very strict with the calories. I figure this is my one chance to shift things dramatically and for the good.
I’ve also been dealing with a bug, secondary infection and a flare up of the autoimmune illnesses. This necessitated antibiotics and higher doses of prednisone and I felt like a beaver wanting to eat the furniture! VERY hard days there. But the motivation of the weight loss kept me going.
After 4 1/2 weeks my blood sugars seem to be steadily in the 80’s down from 112.
AND, i can barely exercise because of an accident injury. So there’s hope for us very sedentary folks. I am hoping that the weight loss will take pressure off of the back and make it easier to heal.
My blood pressure went down after the FIRST week!
I watch both my blood pressure and blood sugar carefully.
Basically, now that i’m well on my way, Dr. Mosley’s book makes more and more sense. In the beginning it was hard to wrap my mind around eating nuts! I’m starting to re-read it for the nuggets. Before, i just wanted the facts and what to do!
I’ll happily live on the Mediterranean diet for life since i find the foods comforting.
Wishing all the very best. The diet works! Even for very complex medical issues. 🙂

Dear Malkay. I would look at the foods from the day before as well as today.
My guess is that something was awry in the foods that you ate the day before if you awakened hungry.
Perhaps add a little oil to the eggs in the morning – like 1 teaspoon. Full fat yogurt. Berries are good.
You might want to count the carbs for your delightful meal of chicken (i’d like to eat at your house!) – they may be too high for you, but just fine for others.
The adjustment to fat burning actually for me was that I was no longer hungry!
I now eat 3 distinct meals. Always starting off with the protein and fats to decrease blood sugar spikes from the carbs, ending with the low carb veggies and/ or fruit. Breakfast is always high fat (eggs!) moderate protein and a little carb to start the fat burning.
I star the day’s menu when I feel quite good and mark the ones where i’m hungry and try to figure out the difference. For me, it came down to more fat, less carbs until i was consistently eating 50 grams and sometimes less of the healthy carbs. Mostly cooked greens. No sugar, nor sweeteners except for xylitol once (to keep things moving). I know that from the blogs that what works for one person may not work for another.
I have had my hungry days, but it was worth staying with it.
Wishing you the best.

I am eating a boiled egg or 2 in the morning for breakfast, if I have one egg I have a Miso broth. I normally have a high protein lunch up to about 175 calories and then a good feast in the evening rounded off with Greek Yoghurt and berries.

I am past the hungry stage and the weight is dropping off. I find that if I have a good protein/fat balanced evening meal I can end up eating less that 800 calories and still don’t feel too bad.

More importantly my fasting blood sugar in the morning has dropped very nicely.

I have 4 weeks to go and the only problem I have at the moment is finding enough low carb low cal recipes, but there is a lot I can do with fish, chicken and prawns 🙂 My favourite so far is my version of Coq au Leekie soup. In this case just home made chicken stock with lots of leeks and other veg that has been vaguely introduced to some chicken meat. No rice, potato or barley and a great warming lunch.

Best of luck

Thanks for that, gateofheaven. I do suspect that some of my meals don’t contain enough fat. I sometimes need reminding of the finer details! I like your idea of starring your meals that suit you best. I’m not very good at working out exact amounts of fat, carb, etc, so am not sure whether I’m sticking to it exactly, but it seems to be working generally. I’ve just had salmon with stirfry veggies , cooked in coconut oil, with sesame oil added at the end. Feel quite satisfied at the moment, fingers crossed it lasts!

Hi Fredforest.
Like the sound of Coq au Leekie. How do you keep your lunches down to 175?

Hi Malkay

Portion control, I weigh out everything 🙂 and run it through google for the calorie count. Also if I am having a cold lunch I always have a hot drink with it and I drink from a big mug. I took the tip from Michael’s book and drink hot water with lemon.

Sunday is my cook up day and I make up a few lunches and freeze them. That was a tip from my daughter’s partner who was a personal trainer and works out all their protein and calorie in take for the week.

That Coq au Leekie soup comes out really low in calorie which means you can have a good helping on those days when you are a bit peckish.

As I say I seem to have got used to the diet too which does help.

Hi Malkay
Brilliant!
Penny

One thing that I noticed after a longish plateau was that some of my medications had either artificial sweeteners or sugars in them. Not much. But when I found substitutes for those, the weight starting coming off again. Also, i cut out my beloved steel cut oats, just for this 8 week period. Less carbs – 50 grams total per day made a huge difference. The added fat instead of carbs boosted everything; not something i expected.

I also cook in batches and freeze. Take hummus to doctor’s and physical therapy appointments if I’m going to be running into a meal time. Because of meds, I must stay on schedule.

I noticed that I was more fatigued yesterday and today. Suddenly I realized my blood pressure was too low. I don’t retain salt, so I boosted salt and took extra meds to raise my blood pressure and now feel perky again. So, if someone is fatigued or light headed, do check your blood pressure. Dr. Mosley does suggest that we not only drink more water, but also get in some salt.

Hi gateofheaven

Sounds like you are on the ball. You take more meds than me ( only metformin ) but I don’t have a supportive GP so will have to wing it & the surgery closing so got to find new dr anyway!

I started properly Monday & am keeping a diary of how I feel, what I eat & my intentions. Finding it helpful & it will be a good reference to take to SHOW my dr how it’s working for me. It will remind me of the ups & downs I encounter & may be helpful to others on hearing I’ve done it, I hope.

I’m going very low carbs – I know they affect me, & will reintroduce them cautiously , testing bloods as I go.
I have a BP monitor so good idea of yours to monitor me. No BP problems at present but a good call

Yes we do need good fats even though we are trying to rid our liver & pancreas of it. We don’t want to be chewing on our muscle protein for energy!

Thanks for reminders

Eureka

Yea Eureka!
I found the first couple of weeks rough until i figured what was best for me to eat. Every one’s body is different.
Now in the middle of week 4, i’m doing well and it’s EASY. Never thought it would be easy!
It’s my understanding that if we continue the diet the way Dr. Mosley has set it out, the liver and pancreas will rid themselves of unnecessary fat in due process.

My doc has me eating high healthy fat, moderate protein (50 grams – just like Dr. M!) and low glycemic carbs (just like Dr. M). I just switched out a few carbs for fat and hunger went away. The results were/are amazing. Of course, on 800 calories, we are not talking about a lot of fat, lol. breakfast 1 tsp olive oil, lunch 1 cup full fat kefir, dinner chicken with skin.

I use an app called Australian diet diary, it has an icon that looks like a spiral bound notebook with a pear on it. It is very easy to use. You can scan bar codes to enter new foods using your smartphone or iPad. Also you can enter your recipes and it will work out cals, carbs, fats etc. It keeps track of your weight, exercise, intake etc. and you can copy from previous meals if you have the same foods often, to save re-entering them each time.

The one thing that i’ve noticed is that i really Taste everything and that’s delightful. The other thing is that i no longer feel guilty enjoying full milk in my coffee. Full fat yogurt. Hummus. These are wonderful comfort foods for me! NO guilt, eating with pleasure, fulfillment and happiness. And losing weight! It doesn’t get any better than this!

Gate of heaven I really enjoyed reading your long post about what you eat. At present I’ve started the original 5:2 (that is, 500cals on two days per week and the rest eat a Mediterranean style diet). But I’m considering switching to the steady 800 Blood Sugar diet as it is blood sugar I’m concerned about and the quicker weightloss should deal with that better. But before I started I spent two weeks getting off hi carbs as I think I’m a little addicted, though it may be that I was craving more fat in my diet as bread and butter/peanut butter, cheese sandwich and savoury cheesy pastry things like quiche are all high fat as well as high carb, and are my chief crave foods. For the first week my sleep was very disrupted but after that things settled so I started on the diet. I plan to go another week at least using 5:2, look at the weight loss then probably switch to 800 per day for at least a month, probably the recommended two. I though 800 was so low I’d never manage it over time but after the 500 turned out to have surprising amounts of food I think adding an extra 300 and doing this every day will be fine.

Yes, I too read about Bulletproof on Dr Mary Eades blog (see ProteinPower.com), sent off for coffee beans and oil. I’m using double cream instead of butter at the mo, plus the oil. It’s really nice, makes a good drink, though not for a fast day. For a low carb, high fat diet Dr Micael Eades is good too. Dr Mosley’s run down of the research is so good in the BS diet book, I returned to it today as a reminder.

Gateofheaven, do you do gentle swimming?

By the way, I couldn’t believe the NHS website! It refers to the Mediterranean diet as being good, gives links to the research done in Spain (including the foods for each of the three groups studied), then instead of listing the foods that showed 30% fewer heart and blood sugar problems, they recommend the foods FOR THE CONTROL GROUP! These were the foods shown to be least good and were high carb, pasta, bread etc. with the lowest fat and oil! As a description of the so called Mediterranean diet, not accurate and very confusing. I felt very angry as people read this as advice for feeding their families. Nothing wrong with whole food carbs for healthy active children as a balanced part of an overall healthy diet, but to make them the biggest source of energy and recommending low fat from vegetable oil – it’s a discredited way of eating and responsible for our ballooning waists from ever younger ages! I sent them a complaint email.

Use a meter to check your blood sugar. I felt very fuzzy the 1st couple of days. Make sure you are drinking lots of water. Personally I find it easier to have a shake once or twice a day as a meal replacement. I am a meat lover but now I only eat egg whites and a mixture of spinach,peppers,mushrooms,onions and tomato for breakfast instead of adding bacon for breakfast. I have a weighed out portion of salmon, chicken or steak with salad or spinach/green beans for dinner. I have been diabetic for over 10 years but after less than a week my blood sugar is in normal range when I wake and Ive already lost 5 pounds. Yes I sometimes feel hungry but try and take my mind off that. Best wishes.

Hi Hercles.
Great it’s working for you.
It is ok to eat bacon and whole egg, otherwise your breakfast might be s bit carby, but with those additions would be more protein and fat, which won’t do you any harm ( unlike what we’ve been told for years) and you won’t get hingry for ages.
Penny

Good for you BizzibeeI was very shocked as well. So irresponsible.
Penny

This site is much better
http://www.dietdoctor.com/weight-loss-time-to-stop-denying-the-science

And good clear advice elsewhere in it too.

Hi BizzibeeI
Yes I’ve been looking at that site. Have you seen the TED talk on there with DrSarah Hallberg? Very encouraging!
Penny

Hi,
I am new to the diet and very headachey. How often do you test your blood and do you do a fasting test each morning. I don’t want to blood let unnecessarily!

Hi sianeyb
I test fasting sugars every morning and pre dinner levels at about 6pm
Drink as much water as possible to help with the headaches and take a couple of painkillers if needed. The headaches usually only last a couple of days.

Hi Sianyb
I don’t know about bloods but definitely drink 10 glasses/ cups a day, take painkillers, and in a day or two you ll be fine.
Good luck
Penny