Confused because I’ve got the 8 week BSD book and now info is saying it’s been updated to Fast 800. Do I dump the 8W BSD book?

Concerned because having read all the way through the 8W BSD and arrived at the recipes and menus, there are many ingredients that I just do not like the taste. Also, a lot of ingredients seem obscure to me and smack of health food shop items. I have no such shop near me.

I feel discouraged to take the plunge into this regime which is a shame because I’m diagnosed as prediabetic and need help.

Hi crabs41. Absolutely not, you dont need to dump the 8 week BSD book for the Fast 800. The BSD is specifically written for diabetics (or pre in your case) and goes into more details about the condition and how the diet helps and how the body reacts and so on. The Fast 800 is pretty much the same diet with the same (or similar) menus plans and recipes but is not quite so strict on the carbs. In order to get your BG under control you have to totally eliminate the starchy carbs. Dont just think cakes and biscuits or pastries. You will need to stop eating potatoes, bread, cereals (wheat based), pasta, rice, and any processed foods that contain lots of rubbish that you wont be aware of. Dont eat anything that says low fat or diet as it will be packed with carbs or chemicals.

Before you freak out and think that is a big ask, just start off by trying to reduce the amount of starchy carbs, although when you get used to it, replacing the carbs with good veg is pretty easy.

Take the plunge, read the rest of the book and get on with changing your diagnosis. And dont forget there is always someone on here who has been there and done it and can answer any of your questions.

Hi Crabs4t
Welcome to the Forum and please don’t be discouraged, you’re fine with the Blood Sugar Diet book.
The Fast 800 is the newer book but from what I remember (I’ve read it but a while ago) the food bit isn’t that much different. It includes more information on things like intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating etc but you can easily get information about all those things by asking people on here or searching in the search box at the top right of this page – just above the Login box.

I used the 800 Blood Sugar Diet book like you, and there are still lots of other people on here who did/are doing BSD too. (Lots of people doing Fast 800 too which is handy because it saves us buying the book!). I lost almost 6 stone and put my Type 2 diabetes into remission. Again, lots of people have got their blood sugar levels back into the normal range, including people with pre-diabetes so you’re absolutely in the right place and doing the right thing.

I wanted to respond to your post because I felt just like you when I first started. I didn’t recognise half the food stuff (in fact I felt quite upset about it). Also, I tried following the recipes for 2 weeks but kept on having lots of left overs so in the end I gave up and just followed my own recipes. (Again, lots of people do the same). Keep to the 800 and also focus on reducing your carbohydrates (this really helps with the pre-diabetes).

So you can pick out the foods you do like from the suggested foods, try to cut out or reduce the carbs e.g. bread, pasta, rice, potatoes – if you start with what you can do and go from there you’ll do great. You’ve done the right thing, promise.

Any other questions just ask. Everyone is nice and friendly on here.
Jennie xx

Edited – I’ve cross-posted with sunshine-girl. Luckily we’ve said the same thing!. Good luck.

Hi Sunshine Girl. Thanks for the encouragement. I have read all the way through the book as I said and totally get it. It’s the food ingredients that to me are either obscure or just not to my taste. I will go through and see if there are any recipes that don’t horrify me.

Keith

Hi Jennie and thank you so much for your response. I’m going to identify the recipes I think I can handle but fear they are going to be somewhat limited. I gave not started yet so will perhaps experiment a bit without going full on just yet.

Thank you
Keith

When I embarked on the BSD I read the book then purchased the recipe book also. I went through all of the recipes and made a note of all the recipes in both the BSD book and the recipe book that I fancied.

Not wanting to second guess what your tastes are but there are a lot of recipes that don’t use such ‘obscure’ ingredients. Plenty of meat and / or vege options.

I’m UK based. There wasn’t anything I couldn’t find in our local (small) Tesco and the vast majority of ingredients I can now get in Lidl. Occasionally I use an online Wholefood supplier as well for larger bulk buys.

Thank you freester for your good suggestion. I’m in England. I’ll google where I can find whole foods.

Hi Keith
After I gave up on the BSD recipes I started by eating 3 meals a day but fairly quickly went down to 2. I found it better to have 2 slightly bigger meals. I usually had 250-300 cals for lunch and 400-450 for dinner.( I’d usually save some cals for tea or coffee – I couldn’t do without a splash of milk)
Basically, this time of year I’d have soup for lunch (homemade at the weekend and frozen – used the soup recipes on here) and then fish, meat, seafood (basically a protein) and green veg for dinner. Sometimes I’d have a bit of cheese or some nuts if I was really hungry between meals. When my husband fancied a takeaway I’d have chicken tikka (the dry meat dish) with the salad.
As well as the 800 calories, keeping your carbs low really is the trick. When I first started I found these guides from the diet doctor site (very popular on here) really helpful
https://www.dietdoctor.com/?s=visual+guides as they give basic foods and how many carbs are in each of them.
You can also track your calories and carbs with a free food tracker like http://www.fatsecret.co.uk (good for people in the UK as it has a lot of our supermarket foods).
For me the most important thing is to do what you can as you can. Good luck with it all.
Jennie xx

That’s really helpful Jennie, thank you again. I’ve just ordered the BSD recipe book so hope I find things to my liking.

Hi Crabs4t,

I don’t eat meat or fish and am a fussy eater on what format I will eat eggs. – Never cold. – So that ruled out many of the recipes for me. I started out by cutting out the major sources of carbs, bread, rice, pasta, pizza, sugar, chocolate. It wasn’t easy, I was a real carb addict and fell off the wagon more than once, but each time I was on the wagon I was discarding weight so I dusted my self off and climbed back on until it became a habit.

Then I moved on to using fatsecret to assess the levels of carbs and start to tweak my meals to reduced carbs and track calories.

Its worked for me.

Thank you for that insight. Good to know.

Hi again crabs, I have been on this diet for 4 years for my diabetes and I have no idea what whole foods are. Can you explain. You might be overthinking this whole thing. I eat normal every day foods and just cut out the carbs. So for instance, instead of mashed potato with my Sunday roast and 2 veg (no Yorkshire puddings) I would do myself either mashed cauliflower or celeriac. When I cook a mince dish like a bolognaise I replace the pasta with spirals of courgette which can be shaved with a potato peeler. Sometimes just dont bother replacing the carbs and have extra veg or even a bigger portion of the main part i.e. mince, meat, chicken.

Thank you that’s interesting. I am not overthinking just reading what is printed in the recipes in BSD book. I’ve also ordered the dedicated recipe book. Your added advice is useful. If you look at whole foods on Wikipaedia it describes the type of food, basically natural and not processed.

Hi crabs, 🙂 chuckling to myself. I ask about whole foods because, I know perfectly well what they are, expensive rubbish. My question is what have the to do with this diet. Can you point me to where is the book it states you have to eat whole foods. If you mean whole grains they should not be eaten on this diet. If you mean unprocessed foods you dont need to look online, just go to the supermarket and buy real food. Please point me in the direction where whole foods are asked for.

Sorry if that didnt come across very well. Just trying to say, there are no special foods or those specifically known as ‘whole’ foods on this diet so no need to go searching on line for suppliers. What exactly is it you think you have to eat. We will be able to help you understand the diet more.

Hello Jennie

Can I pick up on the weblink to diet doctor you mentioned. I see it’s talking of Keto diet, is that different to the 8week BSD? I do t want to add to my confusion but keep it simple as possible.
Thanks
Keith

My understanding – other people may explain better. Keto and low carb are similar. Keto is designed specifically to get your body into the Ketosis (fat burning) state. The BSD is less strict about carb intake, more about low carb, less starchy processed carbs and calorie intake.
You may reach a state of Ketosis following BSD.
Bottom line is Keto recipes are suitable on the BSD.

Thank you Freester for your info.

Hi Keith – I haven’t been on here for a few days so I’ve just seen this. Sorry if I’ve added to the confusion. It was the visual guides to how many carbohydrates there are in basic foods that I thought might be helpful.

In answer to your question Michael Mosley describes the 800 BSD as a low carbohydrate (as well as low calorie) Mediterranean-based diet. Diet doctor promotes both low carb (not low cal) and keto (or ketogenic) ways of eating. A keto diet is basically an ultra-low carb diet, so limiting your carbs more strictly to maybe 20g, 30g or 50g carbs a day. (It’s called a ketogenic diet because when you go ultra low in carbs your body produces ketones which in turn produce a metabolic state which helps burn fat faster).

As well as keeping to 800 cals a day, on 800 BSD you also need to reduce your carbohydrates. As far as I can remember Michael Mosley doesn’t say in the book how much to reduce them by so different people on here just cut out the main carbs e.g. potato, pasta rice etc, or count carbs and reduce them to various levels e.g. 100g, 75g, 50g, 30g or 20g a day. Those on say 20g or 30g carbs a day would essentially be doing a keto version of 800 BSD.

In relation to your pre-diabetes if you stick to the 800 calories and start reducing your carbs you should get your blood sugar levels back into the normal range fairly quickly. Lots of people on here have done it. Give me a shout if I’ve confused you even more (I confuse my husband all the time but that’s deliberate!) or have any other questions.
Jennie xx

Hi Freester, – I went off to have a chat with a roofer about fixing our roof (no joy – roof’s too high for him to go on) leaving this message open so only saw your post just now.
Keith – like what she said.
xx

Hi Freester
I was just reading RubyG’s thread and realised I’ve inadvertently gender reassigned you. So, for
‘Keith – like what she said’
now please read
‘Keith – like what he said’

Keith – hope you’re going well

Jennie xx