Sorry this is so long….
I’m loving my journey on the BSD despite having a bit of a plateau at the moment but I find it really difficult to adjust to having fats in a diet. The veg and proteins are ok.
I’ve used skimmed milk and no fat yoghurt for years because I prefer the taste. I’ve now added Greek yogurt into my diet but found I don’t like the richness so am mixing it with the no fat version. I love cheese so enjoy that – I find a piece at bedtime helps keep my BS lower in the morning. I cook with good quality olive oil and add argan or flavoured olive oil to salads.
I’ve been on the diet for 4 weeks and have lost 16lbs, and my fasting BS is down to 4.4 – 4.8 from 6.5 – 6.8 but I still want to lose another 30 lbs.
How much fat is good in my diet?
Today I had an apple and some coconut water for brekkie, a salad of cos lettuce, cucumber, tomato and chicken breast with lemon juice as a dressing for lunch and for dinner a slice of homemade meatloaf and ratatouille. The meatloaf was a varied version of the meatballs in the BSD book. Also 2 decaf coffees made with skimmed milk and one with semi-skimmed, 2 litres of water and a liquorice tea.
I’d love to hear what others think.
Brightspark.

You are losing weight and your BS is down, so I’d keep doing what you are doing!

Low fat products contain more sugar so you should really try to make the full transition to full fat to feel the best benefits for your blood sugar

I don’t feel that it matters how much fat is in your diet, as long as what you’re eating is satisfying you. Sometimes the low fat products have about the same calorie count as the full fat, because of the added sugars as Janet said. But sometimes the full fat product has so many extra calories that it’s hard to fit into your daily 800.

For that reason I’ve been using skim milk in my two cups of coffee a day. I’d much prefer full fat, but then I’d have to cut back on something else. I really enjoy full fat Greek yoghurt, but again, I have to read the labels very carefully to try to keep the calorie count down as much as possible.

If your carb count is acceptable, and you’re keeping within your calorie limit, I’d go with whatever you enjoy. If you don’t like the food, you won’t stick to it long term.

I only eat natural yoghurt so no added sugar but yes, most low-fat is incredibly high in sugar.

TrishaDawn, It does depend a bit on whether you are type 2 or pre-diabetic or not but one of the goals here is to reduce sugar as much as possible. If you are type 2/pre then for obvious reasons but also for all of us, it is important to reduce sugar as much as possible. I would even go as far as to say reducing sugar is more important than reducing calories. The full fat version will always give a stronger feeling of satiety. The low fat versions which have sugar added will give you a false hunger.

Hi Brightspark and TrishaDawn,
You can always get extra fat from avocados or oily fish as part of your meal.
If you can’t handle full fat milk then stay with the semi skimmed. It’s the added sugars and fillers that are added to many low fat/ diet products that do you harm. If you can eat and cook with products that are as natural and unprocessed as possible you’ll be more satisfied with the lower carb/ calorie count.
Remember that the 8 week period is a learning time too. You are re-educating yourself and your palate, about which foods will help you manage your blood sugars and satisfy your appetite. Some people are cooking from scratch/ following recipes, for the first time ever. This way of low carb eating is for life, without the very low calories, or we’ll all end up back where we started. So for many of us it’s a steep learning curve, but so worth it to get the results 🙂

Thanks Janet, you make a good point about reducing the sugars if you have diabetes. I was diagnose with type 2 around 20 years ago, although I still only need one Metformin a day.
I do keep my carb count to around 30gm a day, but more for controlling hunger than anything else. I hadn’t really considered their affect on my blood sugar. I’ll definitely take that into account as well.

And thanks to Cherrianne as well. I think I may be a bit too hung up on quick weight loss rather than my blood sugar levels, and it wouldn’t really hurt that much if my calories were closer to 900 than 800. I much prefer full fat milk in my coffee, although I’m happy with skim milk in tea. I like fatty fish and avocados, so it’s no hardship to include them more often.

This forum is so supportive, thank you everyone.