I’m day 10 on the diet. Just read some post on here about having 20g carbs a day. I use MyFitnessPal to log everything and eating a lot of lean protein and none starchy veg but my carbs are showing as 50-80g a day and a lot of that is due to the veg having carbs in. Am I missing something? Also lost half a stone so far and weighing every day. (I’m obsessive) and put a ib on this morning and an inch on my waist. I ended up wanting cake or chocolate today for the first time but resisted. Overall I’ve found the diet not too difficult considering I can never normally diet and I’ve come off metformin as my bloods are now normal. Any tips would be appreciated. I have a feeling I might give into chocolate at some point over the coming days or weeks but I’m so determined to finish this and do my best. My doctor is intrigued to see the results and some of my family have been rude and said it’s a stupid diet which makes me even more determined. Xx

I personally can’t go as low as 20 g carb, even 50g is a struggle and if I go lower I get depressed. Dr Mosley doesn’t recommend a particular level of carbs, but 50 g seems to be the consensus for most people here. It depends on the person and what suits them best. I think eating a larger range of fruit and veges is healthier for me.

Hi Nicel,
Re the carbs…tbh I forget all the science behind it but it seems that cutting the carbs right back will help suppress the desire to eat and help us to lose the visceral fat. Ordinary diets will get rid of fat but the low carb targets the visceral fat implicated in diabetes.
If you’re happy with how it’s going on 50g and your blood sugar is down then I wouldn’t worry. I usually come in round 35g because I love tomatoes, peppers and yogurt but I accept I’d probably drop the kgs quicker and easier if I gave them up.
California Girl wrote an excellently clear post on this earlier in the week. You could use the search bar to find it.
Good luck!

Hi Nicel! Maybe if we could read exactly what you are choosing to eat might help . . . I doubt Im eating more than 20 – though I am now at week two the second time around 🙂 Breakfast today was an egg scrambled with leftover spicy minced beef folded in. Ive been busy ALL DAY since and have only two cups of coffee – at a friends house while discussing the BSD with a friend in need!!! . . . so believe only the milk carbs to be the only intake thus far today. Stirfry vege and grilled bacon tonight wont add much . . . Thank those mocking you 🙂 You will show them the results of the change in no time at all! Then they might just decide to change as well! We are all here to cheer you on!!! xxx

Hello Nicel …. you didn’t mention what veg you are eating, but root veg are high carb and so should be largely avoided and things like tomatoes and onions are surprisingly high too. The reason many try to bring carbs in very low, is insulin resistance. You are only ten days in, so cravings for carbs at this point is completely normal. Please note, an occasional square of 70% plus dark chocolate is fine, just try not to give into the high sugary milk chocolate bars, biscuits, cake etc. As Angela said, if you are losing weight at 50g plus, then there is no need for you to push the carbs down further.

One pound increase is nothing to worry about, just a normal daily fluctuation and could be due to something as simple as reduced hydration the day before, poor transit or increased carb intake hanging on to fluid – what I’m saying is don’t sweat it. It’s important to remember that weight loss is not linear and there will be stalls, plateau and even small blips upward along the way. There is evidence that those who weigh daily lose slightly more than those who don’t, but not enough to be doing so if it’s stressing you. I personally find that weighing daily keeps me focused and spurs me even regardless of the result, but if stalls and small gains have the potential to derail your efforts – especially in these early days – I suggest you only weigh in weekly.

Why not join one of the challenge threads – there is a weekly one and a monthly one – these are populated by friendly people at various stages in the BSD process and they will offer wisdom, advice, support, encouragement and help you celebrate your victories too. I know you would receive a warm welcome on these and other threads, so do make good use of the forum – it is definitely what got me and others to their end goal.

Best wishes to you for continued success using this way of eating and living.

Hi Nicel. Congratulations on making a good start. After the first two weeks it will feel like you are cruising. As others have said, the advantage of keeping carbs low is that you no longer feel hungry. On the counting, why not post a day of your food as an example so we can help better. Perhaps there is a confusion between net carbs and gross carbs? The 50 g does not include fibre. Wishing you lots of success. You can show the doubters!

Hi All, thanks for your responses and your words of encouragement, I noticed today that one of my rings is tight on my finger when it was really loose a few days ago so I suspect I am retaining water so I will be making sure I drink lots of fluid and I am sure the weight will come off
Here is a day in the life of me with food, I am intermittent fasting between 8pm and 12noon as I find if I eat breakfast it makes me hungrier through out the day so I have lunch at 12 then a snack and dinner at around 7pm

Typical Snack or Lunch
Full Fat Greek Yoghurt – 75g – 3.2g carbs
Mixed Seeds – 15g – 1.2g carbs
Strawberries – 130g – 10g carbs
Total calories – 228 – total carbs 14.4g

Typical Dinner
100g ham 1g carbs
1 x egg – 0.1g carbs
baked beans half tin – 26.7g carbs (wow massive amount)
mushrooms – 2.7g carbs
tomatos – 3.4g carbs
spinach – 3g carbs
total calories – 417 total carbs 36.9g (26.7g from the beans)

Maybe I need to stop eating baked beans and just had a look at some granola which I love and that has 18.6g carbs for 30g

Hmm ok I have answered my own question really. If I want lower carbs cut the beans and the granola

I am avoiding all vegetables that are starchy, my rule is if its grown above ground its fine if its grown underground don’t eat it.
I also don’t eat a lot of meat, only chicken breast, bacon with no fat, high quality ham no fat and fillet steak with no fat, I have a real issue with animal fat and a lot of meat so I am restricted with protein from animals but I love dairy and cheese etc

I put on half a 1b today so that’s 1.5 in the last two days, I will be making sure I weigh everything and cut out beans and granola

Okay, Nicel it seems you are already identifying the high carb elements in your meals, so yes, cut out the granola – indeed avoiding all cereals is a good move. If you want some baked beans be sure they are low sugar ones (or you could make your own to be sure) and only have a couple of tablespoonfuls instead of half a tin; on the breakfast you posted, why not increase the amount of yogurt and halve the quantity of strawberries – you’ll still get the flavour of the strawberries, reduce the carbs and the extra fat from the yogurt will help with feeling full sooner and longer.

As I said previously, there are above ground veg to watch too, so just be aware. Good to see you are okay with dairy as cheese is useful, again for the fullness factor. If you don’t like animal fat, try drizzling veg or salad with olive or nut oils as a dressing, as having enough good fats is important.

Good to see you have a plan going forward – do keep us posted and as I said before, consider joining in on other threads too.

Thanks for all the information, I think my mindset is still struggling to change as I am so used to having a small amount of youghurt and lots of fruit not the other way around, I hadn’t considered that so definitely will do. I think the granola is going to have to go in the bin as I love it and the beans I was trying to use what I had in before buying more but I think I will reduce them down to a few spoonfuls. Just had lunch and managed to have 11g of carbs for the whole meal which is better

Welcome to the community, Nice! Even for those of us who are very experienced with the BSD, there is a
steep learning curve for all of us. 🙂 We’ve been taught the wrong thing for so long, i.e. the low low fat mantra,
that it takes a bit of time to readjust our thinking. I wholeheartedly agree with Sunny, joining one of the
active challenges is a great way to expedite the learning curve. Lots of wit and wisdom available, and it
will give us the opportunity to get to know you! One thing I always suggest to those new to the community
is Gary Taubes book “Why We Get Fat..and What To Do About It”. It’s a revelation, and altogether compatible
with MMosley’s book. I wish you every success in reaching your goals, and I look forward to seeing you
“out and about” on your journey.
Best,

Allie

I did it yesterday – 20g of carbs and today I lost the 1.51b I put on this week, bought some fancy bathroom scales that can measure water bone and fat more accurately so I think I just had water retention, it was quite demotivating though. I am still determined to finish these 60 days. Glad I found this forum its really helped me

Hi Nice,
Perhaps it will help you in your decision on what level of carbs to aim for if I explain the reason for my decision. – This forum has had a wide range of members over the 11 months I have been a member. Some are people who only had a couple of stone to loose, who were able to loose a substantial amount of the weight they wanted to drop in 8 weeks and then they drop away. Others are people who join for a short while and find it isn’t for them and they drop out. Then there are others of us who have a lot of weight to loose, and want to keep it off by changing their relationship to food long term, and found the BSD as a start point.
The BSD book was written a few years ago, based on research available at the time. Since then there has been further research and doctors who have set up clinics specialising in reversing T2 diabetes through diet who have published advice based on experience. As people on the forum come across articles and podcasts that they think others would find helpful they share them on a thread on this forum called “Take a look at this. ”

The BSD book doesn’t include recommendations on carb levels, but more recent research is the reason people on this list talk about 20g of carb. – For example, there is an American TV program called the Greatest Looser. They take a group of very obese people into a centre and set them up in challenges against each other using calorie counting and exercise competing on who will loose the maximum amount of weight. – Research into the impact of long term cal counting while still eating carbs was a dramatic reduction in their metabolism which didn’t recover afterwards. – Their metabolic rate has slowed so much that they have been unable to maintain their weight loss and all except those who subsequently had surgery have regained their weight. Research shows that if you cut calories long term but your insulin levels are too high your body can not access your fat stores as an alternative source of fuel so becomes more efficient.
There are 3 different options being recommended by different experts based on the latest research on Insulin and metabolism.
1. Diet for short periods of time each month. (If you are also interested in the benefits of Autophagy then protein has to be low as well as carbs).
2. Water and bone broth only fasts for periods of at least 36 hours multiple times a week. – (the theory is that one meal a day, low carb can still lead to the body adapting to lower cal intake, but slightly longer fasts and not counting calories between them does not and also brings some benefits of autophagy).
3. Eat daily but ensure your levels of carbs are low enough to be in a state of ketosis so that your insulin levels are low enough that your body can use its own fat as a fuel source so doesn’t cut back the metabolic rate. – What’s the right carb target. – Well experts say that everyone is in ketosis if they have less than 20g of carbs a day. But there also appears to be implications on the level of protein in the diet. Some people may be able to achieve ketosis on higher levels of carbs, the only way to find out is using a blood test monitor. – (The cheaper option of the pee strips are unreliable). At present there is only one blood test monitor sold in the UK. The keto mojo is the widely recommended one in the USA, but they do not export to the UK.

I watched a podcast by a doctor who is an endurance swimmer and cyclist who has moved from carb loading to ketosis that I found interesting yesterday. He mentions that the relative ratios of micronutrients makes a substantial difference in success in ketosis that I will share to the Take a look at this thread.

WTG !!! It may take a little time and as we are ll here for a variety of reasons . . . viewpoints will change and offer different pints of view also. One tip I can suggest from experience . . . after minusing the obvious biggies of cereals, rice, potatoes, noodles, bread etc., I found the more carb above absolute minimum I included made it harder to cut the habit. It was like my body reacted that if some was permitted then it wanted/was OK to ask for more. It wasnt my temptation not to have more . . as much as my body’s demand to have more. I t thought it was OK. So I found it better in the beginning to just simply say not this way – let do it this way. This is what is available. As I said earlier . . . we all do things differently and just like weaning off any addiction I would consider is no different. Therefore – I found cold turkey transition/ “severance” seemed to be less stressful – and adaptation to the new way of eating much quicker. After all . . . we are offering our body something MUCH tastier as an alternative. I didnt stress over weighing myself nor the food . . . just scrutinised every detail of the HIDDEN carbs as well and cut them. That exercise gave me the extra challenge! Everything else fell into place with new ideas – and small adjustments. Good luck and please keep us all posted as to your progress!!!

I think the accepted limit for most people to enter and remain in ketosis is 50g out of 800 calories. If you are particularly far down the metabolic syndrome road though you may need to cut it to 20g for a period. I don’t like sticking at 20g for too long as it seriously limits my ability to ‘eat the rainbow’ of vegetables which are helpful for optimal nutrition. I lost 8 stone with a carb target on my 800 days of 40g and sometimes going slightly over, so it very much depends on the individual. In particular vegetarians struggle to get enough protein if they limit themselves so strictly but there have been many who were successful even eating up to 70g.

If you get carb cravings strongly you are probably hyperinsulinemic, like I was, where insulin production was abnormally high, so when dieting the insulin in my body couldn’t find enough sugar to convert to fat, and started sending signals that it needed more. This stopped within a few weeks when I went low carb, although now I am maintaining when I indulge a little too much they can come back, so I need another period of low carb to poke the carb monster back in the hole.

Hi everyone thanks for your comments. I don’t seem to be craving carbs but I did break my diet last night and had a binge on yogurt granola and strawberries I didn’t weigh them. I love granola so it’s now gone in the bin as way too tempting for me. I’m amazed I didn’t go for my usual crutch of chocolate or cake however my blood sugars was 15 2 hours After and 18 three hours after. I was shocked that it had gone so high I also realised that my diabetes is still quite bad and I’m no where near a cure. I wonder if I can burn fat off my pancreas. I have lost further weight down to 11.4 from 12st so happy with that and started reading the book recommended above. Why we get fat and what to do about it. I think I’ll see about doing 30g of carbs for now as I do love my veg also. I’m on day 13 today and I have found I’ve been tired this week. Still loving this forum its so full of great information. I have another hba1c in two weeks so I am quite confident it will have dropped from 72 last time. I’m hoping around the 50 -60 mark then I have another one at the end of the 8 weeks. My doctor has been amazingly supportive in all this by allowing me to do my bloods more often. Binge over with yesterday. Today’s a new day

Hi there Nicel! Youre on track! learning as you go . . . finding what does and doesnt work is the best way to learn. Finding what youre personal results and reactions to certain foods are is empowering. It provides proof of your situation . . . the foods that work and how they work . . . and well done on ditching the devil which was kicking your sugars over the moon! I found it a litte difficult to part with the carb stuff – only because Im on limited budget and saw so many $$$s worth to be rehoused or donated. Found someone worse off than me to give it to – they were MOST grateful, and I felt really good in return 🙂 Today Ive snacked a great deal because Im tired. Mind you good snacks 🙂 Ive had/added to meals extra cream, pate, avocado – and pork crackle bits. Im coming up to week 10 . . . testing sugars only on rising and am pleased to see them at 6-7 with a surprising 5 one day and an 8 another. But that to me/for me is quite steady compared where I was waking with 9’s – 12’s. I didnt measure my starting sizes, but know inches have gone. While initially the weight fell away it seems some has returned but clothes say it all for me. Im not worried so much about my weight . . . I feel great at this – and shedding 10% of bodyweight from beginning here is more than what was aimed for on a TV study show I watched today. And at least one of those “guinea pigs” built more muscle and therefore out on weight which I found interesting. Figures are interesting – and need attention . . . though Im happy to eat whatever portion is ready on the day – (they are never large) . . . because some days I now find I might only eat twice and dont miss the extra snack or meal! SO GLAD your doc is on board . . . I had my bloods done yesterday in readiness for my appointment with an endocrinologist in around 3-4 weeks time – (took it a little early due to a short holiday between now an then.) Continued successes and well done thus far 🙂

It is a massive learning curve and well done to you for your success. Good to hear how other people are getting along. I’m doing a few hours of exercise a day this weekend as I have personal training and horse riding so I’m feeling exhausted this morning but I just think of the extra calories xx