Hi, I started the 800 calorie diet 11 days ago. After the first week I lost 8lbs and 2 inches from my waist. I then lost a further 2lbs but in the last 3 days my weight has been static. Am I doing anything wrong?.
My fasting sugars have fallen from 10.8 to 7.1 and I have stopped my metformin. Also came off blood pressure meds on day 9 and readings are good. My GP said that if things were falling then its ok to stop meds which is marvellous!. My main foody problem is that I dont eat vegetables so I have to have an occasional slice of Nimble
to help supplement my meat, eggs, full fat yoghurt and Scots Porage Oats. I do tend to eat 2 apples per day so am taking in fruit but really finding it tough to go without a bit of bread. By the way if anyone can recommend a bread that is better than I am using and also the maximum amount of carbs I should take per day that would also be really useful. Good luck to all

Hiya Warpstar,

Don’t Fret, you will always have a few days or sometimes couple of weeks in a row where you maintain your weight. I am on week 12 now and have noticed a pattern where once week i hardly loose a pound and then the next I loose 2 or more.

Can I recommend trying to bake your own bread from the book, then you’ll know exactly what is in it.

Carb limit on here generally seems to be below 50g per day. I started at a 50g limit and have now progressed to a 30g limit.

Best of Luck, I am sure you will do great 🙂

Hi Warpstar, surprisingly apples are very high in carbs due to the sugars and 2 per day will give you 150 calories and 38 carbs. That is nearly all your carb allowance in what is merely a snack. Also porridge is very high in carbs and not really recommended on the 800 except for maybe once a week and then only 20 or 25 grams per portion. Again, there is no wriggle room for you to be eating bread if you are serious about sticking to 800 calories. There are at least 3 reasons why you are not losing weight at a rate you would like.

If you look to fruit rather than veg, berries are better carb-wise than a lot of the other options, including apples. Bread, isn’t really a good substitute for veg, are there no veggies at all that you can tolerate? If you don’t like straight veg, what about dressing them up with butter, herbs or spices? The BSD is great for encouraging thinking outside the box, to keep the palate from becoming jaded.

Hope you manage to find a solution.

Eat vegetables. Seriously. It’s a gigantic category of foods with a million different flavors and a billion different ways to prepare them. There is simply no way you can’t eat every vegetable in the world. If it’s some childhood recollection of nasty overcooked boiled veg still warping you today, forget about it because you’re not going to cook them like that. You’re going to make them taste good. It’s easy. Sautee in olive oil or butter, top with cheese, roast in the oven until browned. We all on this forum do it every day and I’m pretty sure nobody here is Gordon Ramsay in disguise.

Two apples a day is at least 50 grams of carbs. That’s the total of many people’s carb limit for the day, and even worse for you, 40 grams of those carbs are sugar. For someone with blood sugar issues, that is contraindicated, to put it mildly. Cut back to one small (180 grams or less) apple a day and get shopping for some vegetables.

Thanks to all for your comments so far. Regarding veg and greens. Im afraid it will never happen. At the age of 63 I am too stuck in my ways. Great help re porridge and other stuff. There certainly seems to be some anomolies in what is in the book and what you guys are saying. Many thanks

This way of eating is all about change. As humans we are capable of change at any age, so embrace the change and try something different on your menu Warpstar.

Warpstar, one of the points of this diet is that you seriously reduce processed foods (bread included) and starchy carbs and go low carb. However, the body still needs carbs and they are found in vegetables, pulses, nuts, seeds and fruit. The only exception would be oats but that has already been explained. You could make sure you get pulses like canned beans, chickpeas, lentils or soya based foods but you are going to be higher in calories than the 800 and higher in carbs than recommended. For the sake of your health you should at least try some veg. As for being too old to change at 63, I find that unbelievable. I am older than that and this diet has been completely life changing. I hope you are not one of those people who think they should just put up with their lot in life because they are too old. You should have another 20 years or more so get yourself well and enjoy life.

I second Sunny’s motion. What do you have to lose, Warpstar? You’ve already embraced the BSD because you know can’t keep going as you were or the diabetes will chip away at your body slowly and painfully. I’m sure the calorie restriction and elimination of white carbs is a big change for someone “set in his ways,” and yet, here you are tackling it with enthusiasm. Give yourself some credit and just try something. If you’ve been avoiding vegetables for your whole adult life, you probably have no real notion of what any of them taste like to you, so how do you know you don’t like them?

Besides, many of us have found that our tastes alter dramatically after a short time on the BSD. I, for instance, used to flee from sour or bitter flavors. You couldn’t pay me enough to eat a dill pickle. Now I eat sauerkraut every day.

Warpstar, while I agree entirely with what everyone else has said and definitely third Sunny’s motion, but you did make me laugh, when you said eating veg is never going to happen, because you sound exactly like my son-in-law – and he is a heart/lung transplant consultant so should know better! 😉 His children always say that “Daddy uses lemon and lime shower gel, because he can count them as 2 of his 5 a day!” 🙂

Mind you, his children don’t let him get away with it, and if he is eating with them (often isn’t because of his erratic on-call hours) they won’t let him eat ANYTHING until he has had at least 2 portions of vegetables – they are both vegetarians, so cannot understand his aversion. So if he can do it, so can you 🙂

PS No one is EVER stuck too far in their ways that they can’t change, if they have the will. If that weren’t the case, everyone of us on this forum would just be stuck at home, getting fatter and fatter and more and more unhealthy – but we’re NOT. We are all taking control of our health and diet and making MAJOR changes in our lives.