I am on 800 cals/day and of course its low carb… but how many carbs a day is the guide for those on this diet? And I’m confused…. the food labelling gives 2 figures.. I’ll type an example below.

Can anyone explain these two figures please?
On certain food labels, you get this:-
Carbohydrates…….. 18g
…of which sugars….10g

So when on the BSD, what figure do I take notice of and what is th number of carbs I can have as a maximum?

7lb lost in a fortnight.. not as much lost as I thought, but I’m going to crack on.

Use total carbs from nutritional information charts as technically all carbs are sugars or turn into sugars. People on 800 cals tend to go for around 50 or 60 grams max and some go even lower which I find a pain to calculate as I end up so low on carbs I am not getting the full 800 cals. In my opinion if you are sticking to 800 cals you cannot fit in too many carbs as they bump up the calories.

Wow! That was quick! Thanks for the response. That’s very useful and more to the point very clear!

Thankyou!

Pay close attention to the serving size and the ingredients. That’s a pretty high figure for sugar. I would expect that whatever the foodstuff is, it either is naturally sugary or has added sugar. Check the packaging before you buy. Keep an eye out for any recognizable sugars — cane juice, corn syrup, any other kind of syrup, turbinado — and just in case that wasn’t complicated enough, any ingredients on the list that ends in -ose or -ol are added sugars. Put the item down and back away slowly.

Also, if you’re aiming for 50 grams of carbs a day, one serving with 18 grams means that you have no leeway when it comes to portions. If a serving is one ounce or a tablespoon (16 grams), which it often is, you’re eating almost a third of your daily allowance in what may be a very small amount of food.

Good luck!

Esnecca, thanks so very much for responsing to my post. Sorry to mislead, but the figures I showed for “Carbs” and “carbs that sugar”…..I just picked them out of the air to illustrate my point.. the figures were not a real example (although I’m sure that such figures are lurking out there!) but I take on board the other advice you gave about portion sizes and of course you are correct.

I DO like this forum.. and I’m brand new to it… but things actually happen!

And, just to add more confusion, subtract the fiber from the carbohydrate count if you are in the US — the UK carbohydrate count is already “net” the fiber (from what others have said).
To really go low-carb, the recommendation is to get to 20 grams carbohydrate per day and if you are finding your weight loss slowing, going that low for a week or more can speed things up again.
Everyone has their own level of sensitivity to carbohydrate — for some people it is “uniquely fattening” and must be restricted pretty much all the time (like me, sadly) but others are more tolerant of higher carbohydrate intake.
It will take a bit of trial and error, but figure out your own sweet spot for carbohydrate intake — you will have your own sensitivities — watch your own body as you try different levels of carbohydrate intake.

TY Californiagirl, all these posts to help me are REALLY appreciated.

Hey Sparker, I had another thought for you — can you get a copy of the book by Gary Taubes “Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It”? It has been my personal guidebook for all things low-carb and that book is a perfect companion book for the BSD diet. He has the low carb diet recommended by Duke University diet clinic (if I recall correctly) and gives a fantastic description of why carbohydrate matters and how it affects weight loss.
Once I understood WHY I should control carbs and how much to control them, I had very good success with losing weight and now on maintenance, I pretty much only worry about the carbohydrate intake, calories are not so important anymore. My body is happy to have lots of calories but it really doesn’t appreciate much carbohydrate. Vegetables are the only exception — I can eat those (except corn/potatoes) to appetite.

Hi Sparker, I have recently started looking into the BSD and had the very same question with regard to how many carbs a day is low. Looking through various posts, I found a reference to the website Diet Doctor (US site). This gives the guidelines of Low to Moderate of 20-50g carbs daily; and Liberal 50-100g. In the UK the NHS recommends 230g daily but obvious this is far too high for some. Being a vegetarian myself and loving my veggies, I personally am working out what the carb content is for a big salad (just veg.) plus what veg I might have in the evening, and then working out what carbs I will consume across grains, legumes, cheese, nuts, fruit etc. I have concluded myself that each individual must work out themselves their own carb level taking in all advice in the BSD book; knowing their own health & goals; maybe also considering the exercise they are doing; and using this forum to connect with friends on their views and experiences.
I am definitely going to be using the information on packets of food Carb content, but I feel the BSD diet is also about appreciating the type and quality of food being consumed (in terms of nutritional value); then also having some knowledge of how quickly the various Carbs types are convert to sugar once in the body.
But hey, you are doing great. 7lbs in a fortnight is a fabulous weight loss.

Hi
What I have also found doing this plan is that carbs if derived from a high carb source are likely to re trigger the monster appetite. As I understand it the idea of eating the lowest rated refined carbs, is to reeducate our palette i.e. Loose our sweet tooth, and to quell the appetite triggered by these refined carbs, even with things like apples onions etc. I read and reread Dr Ms book to fully understand this. But I find keeping under 50 not the easiest thing. But I loose weight anyway eating 50-60 g a day.
🙋😊🙋

Book on order from Amazon! TY!

Book on order from Amazon TY!

Totally agree with the content f the post… soldiering on! TY!

So good! You are going to like that book– very helpful!

Hmm .. am I doing this all wrong ? I have been counting gms of SUGAR in my diet. This, partly from the ‘of which sugars’ figure on tins and packets, and partly from nutrition websites that gives sugar figures for, say, fresh carrots or other veg and estimate accordingly. So for last week I averaged 34 gms sugar per day. Is this a lot ? Full carbs unknown as I have not recorded them.

Anyway, I feel I must be doing summat right as I have now lost 19 lbs in 5 weeks and 4 days ! I now weigh a much more satisfactory 186 lbs. But with an awful lot still to go ….

Happy to be put straight but otherwise I will plod on as in recent weeks.

Macloud

Hi Macloud – my understanding is that carbs turn into sugar when processed. They are more likely to do this if you eat refined carbs like those found in pasta, bread, rice etc than the natural carbs you find in vegetables.

The first time I did the 800 I reduced my carbs to 30g or less a day and lost 40+lbs in 8 weeks. If a product said it had more than 5g of carbs (let alone sugar) in the 100g, I wouldn’t even consider it.

HOWEVER, you have had a lot of success so cutting down carbs further may not be needed. I am insulin resistant and can’t process carbs so need to keep them very low. You may be better at processing them than me 🙂

As far as I am aware, and as I have had explained to me here, the figure you should be looking at is the total carbs on the label… not “….that sugar”… as ALL carbs will eventually turn to sugar.

When tallying up your carb count to keep under a self-determined ceiling (most people aim for around 50 grams a day), it is indeed the total number of carbs you should be counting. Because I, like Shanshu, am insulin resistant, I also pay close attention to sugar grams and keep them as low as humanly possible, most often 1-5 grams a day from veggies like lettuce, cucumbers and the tiny amount of tomatoes I allow myself.

As Sparker1964 says, a carb is a carb. Simple, refined or complex, wheat, rice, legume, oat or whole grain, sooner or later it’s hitting your blood stream as glucose. The white carbs just convert faster than the other kinds. That may not be a distinction that matters to your body at this point, Macloud, but there may come a time when your weight loss stalls and lowering your carb count, which in sugar alone is relatively high and is very likely to be more than double that, maybe triple, in total carbs, could help you achieve your ultimate weight loss goals. Everyone is different, though. Obviously your body is more comfortable processing high carb foods like oatmeal than mine is.

Thanks folks for putting me right ! I understand that carbs are converted to sugars in the end. I have decided that I was perhaps confused between added and natural sugars (perhaps still am !) and therefore gave this priority in my thinking as I read the labels.

That said, I think I will plod on in my perhaps errant way as, crucially, it seems to work so far. But I will get a blood test at the end of 8 weeks and study the resultant damage then !

Macloud

Hi Macloud, there shouldn’t be any damage is you have been following the plan ‘more or less’ – there is bound to be some improvement. However, if it is not a good as you hoped for then you know the answer. Come back and ask and help will be given.

Hi Esnecca,
I always read your posts with great interest and find your fasts very inspiring. I’ve been on the bsd on and off (!!) for a year and find myself back up at the weight I started at. Pretty grim, so I’m going to launch off into a couple of fasts starting tomorrow and wanted to ask you that as you are insulin resistant, do you take metformin and if so, do you drop it when fasting? I’m also IR and when the bsd was going well decided to take myself off my metformin but as my weight skyrockets I’m wondering if that was sensible?! So am restarting at a lower dose but presumably will not take it during fasts.
Thanks! Inka

Hi Inka13, my former doc put me on Metformin when I first diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance way back in the early 90s. It was so long ago that it wasn’t even called Metformin then. It still went by the brand name Glucophage. I hated it and had terrible side effects, including gastro-intestinal distress and weight gain, ironically enough. I don’t think I was on it more than two months before I refused to continue taking it. I refused again when my current doc wanted to put me on it last year. A few months later I found the BSD and the rest is history.

From the reading I’ve done, insulin production craters at around the 48-hour mark of an extended fast. I am not a doctor, but I would say taking Metformin when your blood glucose and insulin levels are very low is contraindicated. Dr. Jason Fung, who has written extensively about fasting, says diabetics on medication should only do extended fasts under their doctors’ strict supervision. He does constant blood work on his patients with diabetes to make sure they’re on the right track. IR is not diabetes, of course, but the general principle probably applies.

I think your idea to skip a few days of meds during a fast is a good one. You might also aim for limiting your initial forays into the fasting experiment, building up to the magic 48-hour mark rather than going straight for it. There are great advantages to shorter fasts as well. Insulin levels can drop as much as 50% between the 12 and 24-hour mark.

I hope that helped. Good luck on your fast!

https://www.dietdoctor.com/new-paradigm-insulin-resistance

https://medium.com/the-mission/the-sweet-spot-for-intermittent-fasting-9aae12a2158c

Thanks so much Esnecca, that’s good advice.
Thanks too for the article, it was really interesting and it led me to heaps of others so got some good information and am now ready to begin my fast tomorrow!
I’m also leery of taking metformon again, I’d been on it for 10 years, barring two pregnancies and although it helped my pcos, the internal upset was a constant trial and when I took myself off it the relief was huge! I hadn’t realised just how much discomfort I had had put up with! This time my dose is much lower and taking it only at night seems to help.!
Thanks again and hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Blimey O’Reilly!!! First week I lost 4lb…second week I lost 3lb so I thought to myself..”that’s it..the weight loss is starting to slow”…but blow me, week 3 I lost SEVEN POUNDS!…That’s a stone in a month. The hunger seems worth it now…

Absolutely Fabulous Sparker. One of the ways to help you along to way to avoid hunger is to fill up with soup and vegetables. Easy to make a veggie soup. Chop up an onion and sweat in just say, 100ml of water for a 10 mins, med/high heat, stir occasionally (add more water if necessary so that it doesn’t burn); add a tin of chopped toms, stock (I use low salt Kallo stock cubes x2 makes one litre) then add other chopped up non starch veggies such as green beans, sliced leek, sliced courgette, sliced peppers. Simmer on low heat (so that it is just gently bubbling) for 15-20 mins. Check you veggies are ready. Take off the heat and let it rest. Use a hand blender if you like your soup mashed. Once cooled, divide into 4 air tight containers. Keep whatever you want in the week in the fridge; and freezer the rest. To fill up on salad, just prepare a bowl of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, celery etc. as a side dish to whatever you are eating. Squeeze a quarter of a lemon over the salad so that it is not dry, then try to eat this either first or make sure you complete it before whatever your planned meal. Ends up being low calorie; low carbs and good nutrition to fill you up.

Sounds yummy….just doing shopping list….so just added the ingredients! Thank you!

Whoops Sparker, Sorry I forgot the herbs! Add these when you add the veggies. I used dried herbs – either Herbs De Provence or Italian Seasoning are lovely as these are a mixture. About a tablespoon of either/3 teaspoons. Of course can add garlic too. I always have a packet of frozen garlic granules from Waitrose. I just add about a tablespoon. I am in the UK as you have probably guessed!

Oh oh…have to open my online shopping account to add the herbs hehe..

Be careful with some of those veggies. Look up carb counts before you make anything, at least in the beginning. Onions and tomatoes are both high in sugar. Portion control is everything. I love tomatoes like they’re my family, but I never eat more than 2 ounces of them at a sitting. White, yellow, red onions I rarely use anymore. I use green onions or shallots in their place. They’re lower in carbs and they’re small so you end up with far smaller portions of them.

Good advice. I too use shallots far more than I used to. But of course it’s best have an eagle eye on everything you ingest.

I am very much enjoying my weekend, thank you, Inka. I hope your first fast goes swimmingly and is as positive an experience for you as it has been for me. Stock up on mineral water, herbal tea and black coffee. You’ll do great, I know it. Your insulin levels won’t know know what hit them! 😀