How do you do that without sitting down & eating a full block of butter or lard every day? I was looking on a keto diet site, it looked very similar to this diet & said the general ratio of macros to follow is 70% fats, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrates.
How do you do that? Even a piece of meat, like steak, usually has more lean than fat.

Hi Arianwen – not sure I have seen you posting before, so welcome to the forum. For the BSD think good fats, so olive oil, rapeseed oil, nuts, seeds etc. Adding an oil based dressing to salad of veggies (or some butter melted on them), including nuts in full fat yogurt for breakfast, or a small spoon of double cream in coffee or tea and small amounts of cheese can help too. When you only have 800 calories to play with, even small amounts of fats quickly add up.

I have never got into the macros, so can’t comment on the ratios you mention, having lost my weight on the BSD just using 800cals and 20g carbs a day as my guidelines. However, I know there are lots of knowledgeable people on the forum, who will be able to confirm if the stats you have stated are correct and I’m sure on of them will respond to your post too.

Best wishes for success and hope to see you posting good results soon.

Hi and welcome.

It’s not just fat we’re supposed to get most of our calories from. Protein is good too. Lard wouldn’t be a very good choice as other than fat it’s not very nutritious. The foods SunnB has mentioned, plus fish, yoghurt, non processed meat and pulses are all good.

You NEED protein, most especially as you age. This is critical to older bodies because once you lose muscle, it is extremely hard to gain it back even with exercise and weight training.
Don’t let your body lose muscle as you lose weight. Prioritize high quality protein— red meats, chicken, fish — 1-2 grams protein per kg of CURRENT body weight (not ideal body weight).
Fill the rest with fat and some veg.

Yes, that makes sense. I just thought it really odd that the Keto diet site said 70% fat. I know lard is wrong, was just being facetious.
I did post a few times a couple of weeks when I started as I’d hit a plateau on week three when the scales didn’t budge at all even though I was sticking to the 800 calories. I’m still not losing much, about a pound a week but it sometimes goes up as well as down.its all a bit slow going even though I’ve got the carbs down to about 30 too. I don’t have much to lose, about a stone & a half, but need to lose it as I have high blood pressure ( on meds for years) & would like to get it down a bit. I’m struggling a bit as I have low thyroid & cant exercise much as I have joint problems.

Thank you, Julia! This paradigm seems at odds with what I have read, and it would truly upset me
to think I’m giving out erroneous information….Could you elaborate further on why we need to
use current body weight rather than ideal body weight? When you speak, I LISTEN, so I’m more
than a little curious on the subject 🙂 Thanks in advance!

Allie

Hi Allie,
I know it isn’t what we have been thinking but this is from Dr. Bikman — I’ll try to source the exact podcast ( I listened to 3 of them today driving back from Tahoe).
He was very clear that to protect muscle, it’s your current weight that is your guideline and as much as 2 grams protein per kg. I know that is a lot and won’t work really well with 800 calories (1 kg is still good) but on maintenance should be doable.
He is very concerned that we are ditching protein because of fears of its being used in Keto genesis but says that is not important, what is important is not letting your muscle get wasted.
Older people find it very very difficult to grow muscle so he insists we act to protect it from the get go.
I did eat a LOT of protein (and still do) during the more strict months and I did gain muscle while losing weight. Bikman says this is absolutely possible and we should try to do that if we can.
I’m going to go find the exact podcast if I can…

https://player.fm/series/ben-pakulski-podcast-muscle-expert-interviews-how-to-build-muscle/ep-109-dr-benjamin-bikman-the-effects-of-insulin-sensitivity-on-health-longevity-and-ketosis

Also please watch Barbara O’Neill Episode 10 “Hormones” — utube

Just listened to that very interesting Dr Bikman podcast whilst doing the ironing.

I’ve not studied the keto diet, but believe it’s main aim is to get the body to burn fat. That’s a good thing, and I can see eating mostly fat might help with that. However the BSD has much broader aims, such as keeping us healthy long term and a very high fat diet, which is low in protein might not be the best way to achieve that.

I rejected the keto diet, too, Squidge, because all that animal fat repulsed me! Too many years of
removing chicken skin, and trimming meat. I just don’t care for the taste of it 🙂 I did “borrow” the
concept of <20g of carbs, though. I make a concerted effort to get plant based fat into my
diet though, in the form of seeds, avocado and nuts, and keeping the animal proteins clean and
lean. As a result, I no longer have dry skin, and my hair and nails have never been better! Who
knew?

Hi Californiagirl, Thank you for the link to that Bikman pod cast, it covers a lot of interesting issues. – Sort of loops me round back to the start point of what got me looking at the blood sugar diet in the first place. –

I do love his enthusiasm, every question is always a great question…. I would normally presume that meant that the questions were scripted to lead into the topics he wanted to talk about but you could tell he was working out the answers to some questions as the interview went along. –

Can I suggest you also post a link on the Take a look at this thread because I think its such a good interview that it would be a pity for people who may not see the link on this thread to miss it.

Alliecat, that’s an interesting thought about your skin being better due to an increase in vegetable based fat. I’ve noticed an improvement too, and I’ve been eating far more nuts and seeds than I used to. It does seem possible the two things are connected.

I completely agree, Squidge! Probably the increased hydration plays a role, too. 🙂 When my Mother
was alive, she always used to say that my face felt like sandpaper on her cheek! None of that
anymore. I’m happy that you’re seeing results, too!