Hello

I’m new to the site as mentioned in the title and to any type of diet.

I’m looking to start the 800 cal diet on the 1st of January and I’m looking for any tips and advice.
I have already gone through some recipes and have printed a few for breakfast and dinner all under the 250 cal, with
some as low as 96 cal for yogurt and berries for example.

So my first question would be, Is it better to eat small calorie meals
as often through the day up to 800 cal or to have a good size breakfast and dinner up to the 800 cal?.

Also when trying to add calories from different ingredients is it just as easy as adding up what’s printed on the packet or is there some complicated maths to be done?.

Thanks..

Hi Lookingtoloseweight and welcome. Good to see that you have also found the January thread. I suspect it will get busy soon once the holidays are over.

In reply to your question about frequent meals or saving up the calories, on the assumption that you are not diabetic, I think the general feeling is that skipping breakfast works well, thus saving the calories for two meals which are then more satisfying. There also seems to be growing evidence that intermittent fasting (i.f.) is helpful in weight control and general health – for example, not eating for 16 hours and then fitting your meals into an 8 hour window – so having dinner at say 6.30 pm and then starting to eat later in the morning/midday fits this bill well. As you adapt to the lower carbs, you should find in any case that you are less hungry and this rhythm works well for many.

But everyone is different – if you have a very physical job. or lots of early morning exercise, you may find skipping breakfast too difficult. So it’s a bit trial and error. Sorry not to be categoric!

Hello and thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned that I am type 2 diabetic.

What about counting the calories and carbs etc on the back of packets, Is it just to add them all together?

Hi lookingtoloseweight,
I am not a medic, but my understanding is that it is better not to skip meals if you are diabetic. So probably best to aim for three small meals to start off. Are you getting any advice from your GP or practice nurse to help you? Also the original BSD book will give you lots of good background.

Calories are the measure of the energy in the food, which comes from three groups: carbohydrates, fats and protein. The idea behind the BSD diet is to reduce carbohydrates (sugar in all its forms), eat healthy full fat foods, and of course sufficient protein. As to tracking calories, some people here use an app to keep track. I use SparkPeople – a free US site. You can use the info on the back of the packet to fill in the detail, although you may find it better to eat less processed food, which often has sugars added.

At the beginning, I would suggest you keep things simple: avoid the obvious white carbs such as sugar, flour, rice, bread and pasta. Eat a wide variety of above ground vegetables (root vegetables such as carrots and onions have quite a bit of carb in them). Eat healthy fats such as full fat Greek yoghurt, nuts, avocados, olive oil. Make sure you have enough protein through eggs, lean meat and fish. Go easy on fruit, particularly sugary exotic ones like bananas and mangoes. And drink plenty of water.

If you get started on these lines, you won’t go far wrong, And you can finetune as you go. Do have a look at the book, which explains things far better than I can. http://www.dietdoctor.com is also a really good source of ideas on healthier options. Good luck on your journey!

Thanks for the reply.

I got some leaflets about support groups and so on and I’m waiting to see the dietician.

My jobs advisor of all people mentioned about the 8 week BSD and mentioned there was a documentary on the BBC a few years
back about the test they done. So on her advice I picked the book up and had a quick read through and signed up to the
website few days later.

Thanks again for the reply and advice.

Hi I’m new to this forum. I’m planning to start this diet in the next few days and need some input/advice. I have a terrible sugar adiction (I’m currently eating christmas chocolate as I write this 😭😭) and I wonder if anyone can give me some tips to curb this. I am good all day but in the evenings I crave chocolate and then binge.
A little about why I want to do this diet…. I had not been feeling at all well during the summer I was exhusted and had terrible joint pains. I tested positive for a virus but because my liver function test was slightly raised GP sent me for an ultra sound which came back that I had a mildly fatty liver! This really shocked me I’m in my 30s and weighed 75kg which put me over weight on my bmi. so I started to eat more fruit and veg cut out lots of junk food and lost 6kg. I’ve have been reading about visceral fat and fatty liver and came across this diet. I think it would really benifit me but I don’t know how I will cut out sugar completely.. I have been substituting sugar with fruit and raisins but I think even that it limited in this diet. Sorry very rambling post 😂. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi Rosiemae,
Your addiction to sugar may be linked to the range of gut bacteria you have. If you have been eating a high sugar diet for a long time then you will have a lot of bacteria in your gut which digests sugar. If you don’t eat sugar then these bacteria will have to die off because there is nothing for them to eat. – But they are clever, they do have a way of signalling to our brains to feed them. –

Many of us have found that once we know this, it makes it easier to resist the temptation to eat a high carb diet. – You could either cut down on the carbs in stages or go cold turkey. Once you have been eating low carb for some time you loose the desire to eat carbs.

I had some black grapes this year at Christmas and I couldn’t believe how sweet they were. My tastes had completely changed over the time of not eating them.

Hi Rosiemae and welcome to the website. You will find us a friendly bunch (I hope) at various stages on the journey to better health. Do think of joining in on the Journey through January thread, and the weekly thread that wendleg will set up on Monday. These monthly and weekly threads tend to keep busy and are full of support and good advice.

You are right to recognise that it is an addiction to sugar – eating it only generates the desire to eat more, both because of the effect on insulin, and the gut bacteria that thrive on it and will tell you to carry on! You may find this difficult to believe, but the BSD way of eating really does help you to break this cycle. I can’t pretend that the first days/week are easy, but you really do start to lose the taste for it. You are also right to recognise that substituting sweet fruit for sugar will not really help you.

So here are some ideas for those weaker moments:
– try dark chocolate – at least 85%. One or two squares of that generally do the trick. Delicious and less more-ish than milk chocolate.
– experiment with some hot drinks eg herbal teas (not ones with sugar added)
– drink lots of water
– if you are really hungry, eat something creamy/healthy fat rather than sweet – eg Greek full-fat yoghurt, or a few almonds.
– if you need fruit, better to go for berries such as raspberries or blueberries. I sometimes eat deep frozen ones v e r y slowly!
– if all else fails (and it is evening) go to bed! I am always amazed that I can go to bed hungry and wake up totally unhungry…so what was my body really telling me?!

It really will get easier. Maybe others will come along too with their thoughts on alternatives.
Very best wishes to you.

Thank you both jgwen and Caronl, it was really kind of you to reply. It sound as if you both have really got the hang of eating this way which gives me some hope that it’s not impossible. Jgwen I had not thought about gut bacteria I will do some reading on this as I think that will help me to fight cravings. Caronl thankyou for the tip I will give that a go I think I need to go cold turkey on sugar because I tend to say I will just have one and before I know it a packet of biscuits are gone. I will start on Sunday after I have done some shopping. Keep your fingers crossed for me 😬. And I will join the January thread xx

I’m still catching up on new threads/posts since after my break for Christmas so have just come across this thread and thought I’d add my two pennorth worth.

Hi Lookingtoloseweight
I also have Type II diabetes. I was diagnosed Type II in May 2016 with a high hba1c and did the 8 week BSD and by my first follow-up hba1c (4 months later) my bgls were back in the normal range. They’ve stayed there ever since. Lots of people on here (past and present) have done the same. This diet definitely works and I really think it’s great that your job advisor mentioned the 8 week BSD to you – well done that person!

After the first few weeks I did 2 meals a day (lunch and dinner) as I just found it better to have my calories split between 2 meals than 3. Caronl is right about people with Type II needing to be careful about skipping meals but I think it’s mostly to do with if you are on meds and what those meds are. My understanding is if you are on insulin or on meds like Gliclazide, which has hypoglycemia listed as a side-effect, it can be a problem and you’d best be guided by your GP.
I wasn’t on any medication and had no problems at all skipping meals.
Over the years a lot of people on here have been on Metformin. My impression is that it hasn’t been a problem doing 2 meals on Metformin either but as I say I haven’t had any direct experience of this. One of the things you do need to watch with Metformin is as your blood sugar levels come down (which they will) the amount of Metformin you take also needs to come down. As Michael Mosley points out you should do this with your GP or diabetes/practice nurse, but there’s been lots of posts on here about it which you could use the search box to find, if it’s relevant.

As Caronl says, reducing your carbs is key – I use fatsecret.co.uk to track my carbs, cals etc. I also agree to start with what you can do and go from there – it will work.

Jennie xx
By the way I liked the recipes in the back of the BSD book but found them a bit of a faff to make just for me, so gave up on them after a couple of weeks. The diet still works, you just need to keep to your 800 calories and whatever level of carbs you go for.
I use the dietdoctor.com site too, and the visual guides e.g. to carbs in veg, fruit etc really helped me initially to work out what foods were low carb and what I should avoid. Still got print offs of these in my kitchen.

Hi RosieMae
I was also diagnosed with fatty liver disease and through doing the BSD I’ve reversed it. I know others on here have done the same. I posted a link to a video on the Take A Look At This thread a while ago. I’ll link to it here.
*** see below
It’s a presentation by an award-winning UK GP, Dr David Unwin, who treats Type II patients with a low-carb diet, but in this presentation he focuses on how it’s helped with reversing fatty liver disease, too. It’s long but he’s quite entertaining.
Hope you find it encouraging.
Jennie xx

*** Sorry, couldn’t get the link to work so have copied and pasted my whole post below
‘Just been posting about LCHF and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and thought this might be of interest generally. It’s a presentation by Dr David Unwin, a UK GP who treats patients with Type II diabetes, but here he also talks about the positive effects on fatty liver disease (he starts this bit around 23 – 25 mins in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYtRiPKBVA

Thanks for the reply Jennie

I was prescribed metformin but I informed my nurse that I would like to try this diet before taking any medication. I’ve just finished a week and lost 4lbs down from 17 stone 6lbs, not sure if that’s good or bad. My blood sugar has gone from 17.1 mmol down to 8.8 mmol.

I will have a look at that video in the link as I was also diagnosed with fatty liver.

Thanks again..

Hi Looking+ . . . (and many many friends on the forum). Well done on such a fabulous (almost) immediate result on BGL’s !!! The rest will follow – believe me Ive been there 🙂 18 months down the track – maintaining (around) 13-14-15 kgs discard loving my food . . . albeit somedays one meal others two – (more like one-and-a-half . . . 🙂 – somedays I get cravings for snacking . . . and limit it to a hard-boiled egg, some nuts and yoghurt with carob chips. On a really bad day when Ive tried everything and made it through to the evening – still on the “hunt” . . . I GO TO BED!!! There i nothing there to eat!!! Hahahahaha! Ive discovered my triggers are stress and emotions related . . . and my body can go one of the two extremes . . . not wanting to eat at all . . . or the ongoing all-day munchies which never satisfy. That discovery was priceless . . . now I look at and recognise whats going on – acknowledge my working mechanisms so cut myself some slack . . . and do the best I can – that day – because – tomorrow is another day and we arent machines. With having left home twice since 19th December because of fire threats – watching the horrors befalling SO MANY for a LONG time – not just this summer – its been a MASSIVELY stressful time – for a long time. KNOWING my triggers has allowed me to forgive my reactions. I make greeting cards, unique bookmarks, and of course LOVE my comp. Sharing and “unloading” is so therapeutic . . . Jigsaws worked for a while . . . now they are sitting there . . . (one halfdone under the decorative dining tablecloth!!!) knitting beanies for the ICU and childrens ward was SO rewarding . . . now the excess numbers have found their way to the Auxilliary table to be sold to raise hospital funds. Now Ive gone back to knitting the more challenging trauma teddies – my “now” project – anticipating to hand them to my rural fire brigade members for their truck . . . just in case some little person needs reassurance in a crisis. If not they will go to the hospital emergency section . . .(a friend of a nurse friend told me they cant get enough.) All distractions actually help take focus away from food-counting-weighing-assessment etc., – what one is doing towards changing/maintaining their WOL . . . so anything to just make the transition “normal” and a relaxing joy and adventure – not a constantly focused challenge – helps immensely. Some of this needed to be on the positives thread but thereygo! Quack! Quack! Duckie.

Hi Lookingtoloseweight
Wow, as WoodDuckie says, that’s a brilliant result for your blood sugars – it always amazes me how quickly bgls start to drop – and a great sign that doing BSD is going to work for you, too. Hope you’re delighted with it. 4lbs is a great weight loss, too. Some lose more, some lose less, but 4lbs sounds a great start to me, and it won’t be long before you’re in the next stone down. Hurrah! I started at almost 15st and used to set small, easily achievable targets to keep me going and shifting down into a lower stone was one of my favourites. Also, just for info, my bgls were back in the normal range so my diabetes was ‘in remission’ long before I was back within my healthy BMI. From research I think this is typical.
Yes, fatty liver and Type II do seem to be linked – hope you find the video useful. The Public Health Collaboration UK have a lot of good speakers at their annual events, often on Type II diabetes or related.

Oh and I had a similar conversation with my GP and practice nurse – didn’t want metformin due to a long history of bad reactions to oral meds, and so went down the BSD route. They both described it as a ‘fad diet’ and were not happy but it worked for me.

See you over on the January thread
Jennie xx

Thanks for the replies WoodDuckie and Jennie10

Look after yourself and try to stay as safe as possible, What are carob chips? Since starting this diet all I can think of is a tray of heavily salted and vinigared chips, even though I was not a big chip eater before.

Hello Jennie

I watched that video, I seen it was 55mins long but it went pretty quick. The glycaemic index was interesting where an apple is equivalent to 4 spoons of sugar and other fruit & veg you think are healthy are equally high. Also with all the evidence Dr Unwin has the British diabetic are still wary of the diet and don’t recommend for longer than 6 months. It was a good watch, thanks for the link.

Hi there LTLW 🙂 Ive been limiting carbs for 18 months. While I have no problems doing that now, initially, just sometimes I used to/have felt . . . a little rebellious (just my nature at being “directed” even at good things! – though Im very determined when put my mind to something! and BSD was for me borne out of anger and rebellion at doctors declaring I needed medication to control them 🙁 ) For those times I discovered quite a few marginal items which if interspersed throught out a week . . . didnt “interfere” with the overall balance. (My aim from day one was <20gms of carbohydrate a day – 800 calories). Carob Chips are small flakes – large rough shaped sprinkles if you like – crunchy – kinda chocolatey, and for a change of texture and flavours, I sometimes add a TINY “teaspoon” or two – (like the ones you get with an icecream cup) – on top of coconut yoghurt – (the only one I can tolerate 🙁 ) – and diced strawberries or blueberries, raspberries in a small cutglass dish, as a dainty “dessert”. Its kinda like being naughty when you arent 🙂 and if one has guests . . .? adds the feeling you arent missing out on ALL the goodies and the guests get something unusual 🙂 I also make a kind of biscuit/bread/cracker, with black and white chia, a paleo mix (seeds nuts coconut shreds etc) – linseeds, LSA powder . . . packet of each is all mixed in airtight container – and a quantity soaked overnight which creates a glutaneous pulp “blob”. I have added garlic, chilli flakes – for added oomph! Flattened on a baking paper on a biscuit tray . . . when baked on one side, I flip it and sprinkle extra seeds and coarse salt – press in and finish the baking . . . cut or break into portions – freeze half and the batch might last me 2 weeks . . . (that takes discipline because it is SO tasty 🙂 Thing is . . . I KNOW its there, I KNOW its healthy, is ideal for the moment I need a snack . . . so am more than happy to limit its consumption . . . 🙂 Hope this rebellious Duck has given you some ideas how to be clever . . . stay within (in my case self moulded and imposed guidelines) and just a little wayward to boot! Quack quack!!!

Hi Duckie
A relief here to get some rain overnight, and good to see some of it fell in the disaster areas. Not enough to put fires out, but a chance perhaps for firefighters to catch their breath and get some sleep.
I like your crackers recipe. Can I ask a bit more about proportions – ie how much chia to LSA mix. And you don’t use almond flour – just the LSA? And cook I guess on a low oven. I make the Almond Parmesan crackers from the recipe posted here, and they include cheese of course. Yours has no cheese, or oil – butter? Do you just soak it in water overnight? Sorry for all the questions.
I work at a local library in Melb and our crafts groups are getting together to knit/sew items for wounded birds and wildlife.
A friends friend returned to her place in Yowrie NSW to find their house destroyed – but the thing they found more devastating was the complete destruction of the environment – no birds, animals remaining. And that goes on for 100s of thousand hectares.
stay safe, Merry

Hi Lookingtoloseweight
Glad you found the video useful. Yes, turns out fruits are not great if you have Type II. I was shocked at how much sugar was in some fruits. In my old Weightwatchers days I really took the ‘fruit is free’ theme to heart. I ate grapes like nobody’s business, and Dr Unwin’s ‘favourite’, bananas, really were a favourite of mine. I stick to a few berries nowadays.
Jennie xx

WoodDuckie – I really like your idea of serving things in a cut glass dish as a dainty dessert – definitely going to try that for my yoghurt and raspberries – (just need to find a cut-glass dish!)
xx

WoodDuckie & MerryMelba
It really is awful what’s going on in Australia at the moment. I never know what to say because it’s only words, so I know it’s not much but my very best thoughts and wishes to you and all your fellow Australians.
Jennie xx

Hi Merry! Re quantities for my “seed slice/cracker/bread 🙂 (cos it is none of the above but thats closest descriptions!!!) – I measure NOTHING when I cook . . . the “mixture” container is one which would once have held de-boxed breakfast cereal . . . I make a mix of the ingredients mentioned . . . so one container and all the separate packing gone! Then all I do is put water in a mixing bowl . . . (usually the small one from the old Mixmaster set . . .) add the crushed garlic and/or ginger from the jar/s in the fridge – no butter, no oil just water -soak overnight – press onto the baking paper on the flat tray and have experimented with the (gas) oven. Found around 200 – maybe a little more on top shelf works for me . . . flip the halfcooked flattened mass after around 20 minutes . . . add the salt sprinkle . . . press in the extra seeds – sesame, pine, or nothing . . . but its trial and error for personal taste. Hope this helps 🙂 Quack Quack!

Thank you Jennie 🙂 It gonna be a long long time before we recover . . . EVERYONE has been effected . . . to varying degrees depending on your situation and location. There are farmers who have been suffering drought . . . then farmers suffering drought and now fire . . . some were suffering drought then flood (in Queensland) – it seems to have all arrived at once – not piecemeal as has been known before . . . And it seems there is always someone one knows who has been impacted in some way. Its on TV – radio – smoke in the air – clear tomorrow – hope and gratefulness for clean air – then back again – – water restrictions – soot on the windowsill, dead grass, weary birds at the birdbaths, (where I live) – the silence is eerie . . . as its bushland its always quiet but not like this . . . I need to drive through a burnt area to get north . . . stark reminder . . . every time . . . its like one cant escape it – so I avoid what I can to give the mind a rest 🙂 Quality of fresh food isnt as it used to be . . . smaller and more expensive – doesnt last as long . . . just little things but all there – and I havent suffered any loss or inconvenience . . . Poor souls who have lost everything . . . I cannot imagine what that must be like – and to be constantly bombarded by a drama seeking/blaming media 🙁 Thank you for your well wishes. Quack Quack.

Hi Jennie! I sourced by BEAUTIFUL tiny sweet dishes (as they used to be called) – in a charity shop. No one wants crystal or cutglass anymore so they were cheap as chips . . . I LOVE mine and while I dont have many, when visitors are served their “small portion but rich in every other way delicacy”, its a trip down memory lane and they are impressed as well!!! Quack!! Quack!!!

Thanks Duckie for the recipe notes. I will give that a try – always looking for something crunchie for those time when that is just what you need 😀!

Thank you Jennie10 – very thoughtful of you. Our fire fighters – many of whom are volunteers- have been doing an incredible job. The only positive thing is that there have been much fewer lives lost than in our last big fires in 2009. Every loss of life is tragic, and there have been about 26 deaths so far. Better planned early warnings for people to evacuate as well as txt alerts to mobiles have really saved lives this time.

Duckie – yes, my plan is to look in the charity shops. I have a handled soup bowl I bought in one that I love having my soup out of so I’m going to try and get a cut glass dish that makes me feel the same when I’m eating my yoghurt and raspberries.

Merry – yes, a lot of the coverage in the UK has been about the extraordinary job of the voluntary fire fighters. xx