I make my own muesli as follows:
200g/2cups Oat Bran
200g/1.5 cups Rice Straws
200g/1.5 cups Linseed Meal
80g/0.67 cups Psyllium Husks
80g/0.33 cups Lecithin granules
This makes about 30 serves.
How does this rate?

Before I could answer that you would have to do a calculation to find out how much of everything per portion and then see if it comes within calories/carb allowance. Just off the top of my head it seems to be a lot of carbs, I personally would never eat muesli on this diet.

Yes. I understand your comments, but I have used this muesli for many years and found it very satisfying. I do not feel hungry after it and it carries me though at least to lunchtime. I am not yet doing the diet.

I am trying to understand the relationship between carbohydrates and fibre in these ingredients.

The quantities given make about 20 serves. So, per serve, 10g each of oat bran, rice straws and linseed meal and 4g each of psyllium and lecithin.It is served with full-cream milk, fruit and regular yoghurt. I think the glycaemic load of the muesli is quite low (2 for the bran and 1 for the rice straws). I do not know about the other ingredients.

Peter I see you are not diabetic so if you enjoy something that is a healthy option dont worry about it too much. This diet is stringent if you are doing the 800 Fast and the very low carb and if I wasn’t diabetic I wouldn’t put myself through it. Cut the calories and the bad carbs and enjoying losing weight.

By the way what are rice straws.

I am fortunate that many years ago, when drinking instant coffee, I thought the sugar made little difference to the result, so stopped using it in tea or coffee. After marriage, my wife also stopped when she realised that the 250g sugar purchased each week was going into her tea and coffee. During a pregnancy, she could not stomach instant coffee so that went as well; the only coffee these days is brewed.

I do eat more than I should and could be 20kg lighter. I know that my knees would benefit! Perhaps substituting carbohydrates is all I really need to do. Hence, the question.

Rice straws:
http://2brothersfoods.com/cereals-n-grains/sticks-rice-bran-and-prune
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/foodprofiles/Rice%20bran%20extruded%20or%20low%20processed

Hi Peter, the BSD diet is a matter of eating only 800 calories and eliminating the range of carbs detailed in Michael Moseley’s book. The carbs to eliminate are often called the White carbs of bread, other wheat products, rice, potatoes etc as spelt out in the book. You would benefit from calculating the calories and carbs in your museli. It helps if we prove these things to ourselves.

Ah I see, they are rice, sorry but that is a no no in my book. Also the calories are around 400 for 100g, that is way too high. But as I said, if you are not diabetic and not interested in lowering your blood glucose then something you enjoy now and then would do no harm. You might not reduce cravings though and your weight loss would be slower. The getting rid of carbs in this plan is key to the big weight losses. If you are just cutting down on food and still eating carbs then you are not doing the BSD.

Hi Peter
I agree with Jenni, really it would be best to calculate the calories and carbs for the total batch and then divide them by the 20 portions you say your recipe makes, to give you a proper picture of what calories and carbs are in a portion.

Not all carbs are equal and I suspect you will be surprised by the cal/carb ratio due to how much carbohydrate is in your muesli. That said, if you are comfortable with the level of carbs and feel you can control carbs in other areas to keep your daily allowance down and still lose weight, then fair enough. Some people eat porridge on the BSD, I personally avoid as much cereal as I can, so wouldn’t eat either porridge or muesli. I found once my body had adjusted, yogurt (high fat low carb) and toppings (berries/nuts/seeds/cacao nibs) totalling approx. 150cals and 8g carbs, keeps me sated for four hours or so.

Good luck.

Let me be clear that my purpose is to explore the region between what is clearly permitted and what is clearly forbidden on the BSD diet. For example, rice is forbidden, but are rice straws a problem or not?

It seems to me that the form of carbohydrate is an issue and that is the question that I am trying to explore. Fibre is carbohydrate as far as I know. But a variety of terms such as “dietary”, “soluble”, “starch”, “resistant” and so on, are involved. But starch in legumes, for example, I am told escape digestion. It also appears that processing some carbohydrates (rice straws?) can make them resistant.

So, what do I need to know to answer my original question “How does the muesli rate?”

Sorry Peter, but I really think this is something you will need to explore and investigate for yourself. It is not really reasonable to expect someone else to research the component parts of your recipe and give you a definitive answer.

Peter unless you are going to eat a very very small quantity of the museli you have listed it would be very high carb and fairly calorie dense. Have you read the MM book? There have been debates on here last year about resistant starches etc but as MM explains the diet in the book it is about total calories and lower carb veges and some grains, beans , legumes etc in controlled amounts. Your consumption of the museli will determine how it rates.

And from a taste and texture perspective it doesn’t sound too appealing. If memory serves me correctly aren’t rice sticks those hard and dry crunchy bits you get in Bombay Mix? If so, all they are is milled rice ‘cracks’ – damaged grains, so really just rice.
Also they’re going to be at least 60-70% carb so I don’t think I’d go down that route if I wanted to stick to one of the more restrictive variants of BSD.

I do traditional porridge about once a fortnight and it doesn’t seem to do me any harm, but all things in moderation.

I do not mind doing my own research, but it is important to ask the question in case the answer is already known. I understood that for carbohydrates and proteins had 4.5 calories/g and fat 9 calories/g.

So, I do not understand what is meant by cal/carb ratio in this discussion.

I’ll check the book to see if I can find what is meant.

Hi Peter – what I meant by cal/carb ratio, is if the calories in a portion of a given food stuff is for the sake of argument 100 calories and the carb content is 50g, then you might want to rethink. However if the carb content is say 5g against 100 calories for the portion, than this is a reasonable trade off (or ratio of cals/carbs).

What we are aiming to do on the BSD, is keep the carbs low – most aim for around 50g as a maximum per day and many of us around half of that amount. This isn’t in the book, but essentially this is a low carb way of eating and keeping an eye on carb in take will ensure weight lose.

I think the use of the cal/carb ratio is to ensure that one is getting most of ones calories from fatty acids and proteins and limiting those from carbohydrate.

I think the clue is in, to quote Jenni from the Block, “as MM explains the diet in the book it is about total calories and lower carb veges and some grains, beans, legumes etc in controlled amounts”. It is not that rice straws are bad, it is, rather, a question of how much they contribute to the total. If most of the calories come from fatty acids and protein, then, rice straws are OK. (This is not to ignore those of us who consider rice bad whatever form it is in, because that avoids mistakes).

The rice straws have 26.5g of available carbohydrate and 25.5 dietary fibre in 100g of the cereal for 393 (say 400 calories). That is 6.63g of available carbohydrate per 100 calories. Or, for total carbohydrate, about 13g per 100 calories. In any case, on those figures, rice straws seem to check out OK. But, if that is all you eat, you will eat a lot more than 800 calories! That is, if all the 800 calories come from Rice Straws, it will be impossible to lose weight, because of hunger pangs.

Thank you all for your comments.

Actually I also said that the so called white carb products including rice are not part of the BSD. However let’s leave this here. Sometimes we are just not ready to embrace the BSD.

Peter as you seem to know all the science behind this diet then continue doing whatever diet it is you are on. BSD is designed for diabetics and pre-diabetics who want to improve their situation does not allow white carbs be it rice, brown rice, rice cakes, rice straws whatever as they are white carbs. It also for overweight people who cannot lose weight and find this way of eating (no carbs) reduces their craving for carbs and other sweet things by eliminating them completely. We know from experience that the no carb rule works in terms of blood glucose results. They are not part of this plan, also not if you want to stick to 800 calories a day.

Well no. I do not know all the science behind the diet, which is why I have been asking questions. I think the diet as laid out is quite clear and I believe the anecdotal evidence that it is effective. I think that where I am misunderstanding things it is because there are unstated, implicit assumptions, such as “Assume a total calorie budget of 800”, in which case, using the calorie to carbohydrate ratio makes sense.

As I said before, thanks to all for your comments and answers.

Hi Peter may I suggest you look at the Australian version of My Fat Secret or Cronometer(?). You can plug in your recipe and get the nutrition info that way. Also you can find out your balance of fat, protein, carbs to lose your 20kg.

This way of eating is brilliant for Type 2 diabetics looking to reverse their condition, as well as having many other health merits, or just losing weight. The book does not mention the number of carbs to stick to, just the 800 calories, on the Fast 800. However, if you read around the forums you will see that as more people have followed the programme what has emerged is that for many, keeping the carbs down to less than 50, a lot less in many cases has had enormous benefits. Not everyone sticks to the 50, or below but that does seem to be a magic number that can get quick weightloss. Basically eat high -good -fat, med protein and low carb.

As for a filling breakfast, whilst I can see the benefit of having handy your home-made muesli, I personally find a couple of eggs done in different ways maybe with cheese or full fat yoghurt with berries (they are among the lowest carb fruit) or 1/2 an Avacado or “proper” porridge (not instant) made with about 20gm of oats and 1/2 water 1/2 milk with some seeds or berries or cocoa powder for a chocolate hit or even a spoon of peanut butter stirred in all hit the spot when needed. Actually it’s not often I eat breakfast so these are mainly my lunches.

This is a follow up on my muesli.

I make my own muesli as follows:
240g/2cups Oat Bran
195g/1.5 cups Rice Straws
250g/1.5 cups Linseed Meal
50g/0.67 cups Psyllium Husks
45g/0.33 cups Lecithin granules

The cups are what I measure, and I have updated the weights.

I estimate that the analysis of a serve of 33g is:
Energy: 120 calories, 500 kJ
Fat 7 g
Saturated fat: 0.94 g
Carbohydrates: 10.9 g
Fibre: 2.9 g
Sugar; 0.56 g
Protein: 4.7 g
Sodium: 12.3 mg

I think about half the carbohydrate is dietary fibre or resistant starch.

Thanks to all who contributed to this discussion.