Today I reached 5 weeks on the diet. I have kept to 800 calories everyday bar three when I popped over by no more than 300 calories (each alocohol related). I am now 30lbs lighter anbd have lost 4 inches off my waist. Three days ago my BMI dropped off the obese scale. I am now jogging again, have good energy levels and feel terrific.

My determination and confidence to continue has been fed by the fast results and not rushing into the diet. This lifestyle change really needs forethought and preparation, as much mental as in planning a new recipe set.

To any new or potential dieters the message is this, if I can do it anyone can. Good luck.

Nic

Nic2385 – what brilliant results, you must been really excited to have made such huge headway in such a short period. Hope you keep posting to encourage others wanting to make positive change for themselves too.

Wow thast an amazing set of results well done and great inspiration to so many others.

Well done! I am jealous of your 30lb loss! You are so right about preparation – you have the right mindset. Long may it continue.

Great results. Well done.

That’s great going.

It’s reassuring to know that an occasional indulgence needn’t mean we don’t get good results.

Great results Nic, well done. X

Great results Nic, I agree that the fast results are motivating. Wonderful to drop down a category from obese to just overweight. You have achieved a lot in 5 weeks!

With regards to preparation, I think I was lucky there. I can’t tolerate gluten so hadn’t eaten bread or pasta for years so didn’t have to rethink lunches as I haven’t had a sandwich for years. It is just dawning on me how much easier this made it for me as packed lunches were already in line with this diet – though I did find it hard to ditch low fat yoghurts for the real stuff.

So a very big well done to all of you who have had to give up bread to do this diet as bread and cereals are the hardest part of the diet to drop and take the most rethinking about . 🙂

Nic, my hat is well and truly off to you! One of the things that concerns me is that the more people are taking up the 800 or the BSD, it may start to look like an easy thing to do (like driving a car – when I was a driving instructor new pupils would get in the car and think they could just drive. Everyone does it so it must be simple, right?!).
Well the paths that we on the forums have chosen are a long way from the comfort zone, full of traps and pitfalls and call for determination, motivation and sometimes the support of the rest of the travellers here (which is in abundance!).

So to anyone considering attempting to embark on the journey back, be prepared for a tough hike some days – it is far from easy for a lot of people but think of the alternative…

And the view gets better every day. Some people can see their feet now!

Join us.

I’ve thought about this a bit Mick
It’s all very well getting motivated while you are seeing great results weight and blood sugar wise but I wonder how people will cope once they hit their desired targets.
It’s easy to say that this will remain as our way of eating forever etc but I suspect there may be people who will struggle once that initial motivation is gone. We see and hear so many stories from folk who lost weight on other diets and then it came back once the diet had finished
I’m pretty sure that, if I feel I’m slipping, then recalling that image of a diabetic foot ulcer pre amputation will get me back on track.
Has anyone else considered this and have you thought of ways to deal with it.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Buxtonmick, what a great metaphor! Understanding the depth of lifestyle change needed as the price for success is not meant to put anyone off for a second, simply to make sure new travellers have read their diet ‘highway code’ to continue Mick’s metaphor 😀.

Must dash, this 53 year old has a morning jog to do.

Hi all,
I have lost weight only to put all back plus more so many times before on different diet. This one is more of a lifestyle change that is sustainable, I’m sure I will have blibs from time to time.
Like you said Bill this has to work for me, I want to be around for my grandchildren. I’m sure if our motivation does weaken we will only have to read some of the post on here and we will soon regain our mojo.

Well done Nic 🙂

Bill, as a yo-yo dieter in the past, I’ve been thinking a lot about the long-term…and I won’t say I’m not scared. I’ve been here before, lost 50lb only to regain it all. The reason why is always clear: I start to eat chocolate etc again, I kid myself that THIS time I can cope with it in moderation. I can’t.

So what’s going to be different? (nothing changes if nothing changes)

All my previous diets (WW et al) have still included sugar/refined carbs/junk. This one doesn’t and I’m hoping this will be enough to break the cycle, break the addiction. I plan to continue a low carb med-style eating plan for the rest of my life. For me, 40yrs experience tells me this is the only way I’ll succeed.

Easy.
And…hard. Temptation will always be there.

Interesting
thinking more about it, I think that in the past, using the low fat approach, I’ve always retained the longing for food I couldn’t have, eg chocolate, chips, and my greatest downfall of all, milk !
I love the stuff and at one point in my life, when I drove a taxi for a living, it wouldn’t be unusual for me to come home at about 4 am and sit and drink a whole 2 litre bottle of the stuff.
The difference now is I don’t just not fancy these foods, I’m actually starting to dislike them when I see others enjoying them, including the milk!
I still don’t believe I can go to the fridge and not gulp the stuff down.
I’m hoping that having a low carb maintainence plan will keep me feeling that way.

Hi buxtonmick, bill, newlife, Sharon

I agree that the future when target weight is reached is a scary thing, so much so that I was afraid that once I was eating more than 800 calories I would put the weight back on even if I followed the principles of this diet BUT….

I have quietly carried out a minor experiment over the last week to ease my mind…
I have increased my calories but stuck to the low carbs for a week now and I have not put weight back on, in fact, the ketosticks still show I am fat burning and I almost had an accident in town yesterday I was trying to keep my jeans up and carry my food shopping!! Surprisingly although my weight is apparently the same I have lost another inch of my waist! I have been eating roughly 1200 calories – pretty much the same as I was eating before this diet but was still putting weight on.

I now have the confidence to return to 800 calories to shift a bit more belly fat but am no longer worried about the future. A friend asked me yesterday if I would start eating carbs again when I reached my target weight – my answer? No, I haven’t felt this well in over a decade why would I wreck it? However I will treat myself to an odd roast potato and roast parsnip at Christmas, on other special occasions I might do the same and I will enjoy the odd glass of red wine. BUT I will effectively be following this way of eating for life.

I know that I run the risk of developing diabetes because I have hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. I do not want diabetes!!!! That is motivation enough for me and today I am going to sort out the clothes which are now too big for me and get rid of them – I have never had the confidence to do that before, hence clothes in every conceivable size packed away in my wardrobe!!!

Another incentive… I bought a new dress for my son’s graduation, it sort of fit OK but I didn’t look too good in it with all that belly fat. I have just tried it on again and I am over the moon, it looks so much better on me now!!!

Perhaps we should all keep one set of clothes which are too big as a reminder not to get back into that situation again!

To be honest I actually like the food on this diet – a besam flour flatbread with a nice jalfrezi really rocks my boat! 🙂

Bill I totally agree with you, things like chocolate which I used to love so much make me gag at the sight of them now. Newlife I think you will find the same as Bill and I – you will just go off the old stuff. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you mentioned that diets such as WW and SW rely on a lot of sweet junk food. This doesn’t and your tastes will change given a bit more time.
I have said before that now I find the sugary smells in some shopping aisles quite nauseating – ME – a one time chocoholic!!! 🙂

Bill and hashimoto, I love that we can share experiences and thoughts in this way 🙂

The Grand Wardrobe Sort Out is something I’m sooooo looking forward to!
My clothes range over 5-6 sizes currently ;-(

>>Has anyone else considered this and have you thought of ways to deal with it?

Bill, I have long way to go before I get to my desired weight, but in a few weeks I will be switching to some variant of 5:2 (probably 3:4 – larger portions of low carbohydrate food at the weekend and a couple of glasses of wine and then Fast800 Monday to Thursday). I am hoping that if this is as successful as the past few weeks has been (obviously with proportionately less weight loss) then as I lose more weight I will reduce the number of fasting days. I assume that I will probably always fast at least one day per week.

FoFi, I think that will be the way. It is a feasible lifestyle and can be adjusted on an ad hoc basis as Mr Mosley has said.
And on the fasting days one can always look forward to tomorrow!

One thing for me is the fact that the 800 diet has put me on the way to having the body I’ve dreamed of for years, already I haven’t looked this good since I was 18. Once I’ve got it I’d like to try to keep it.

Yeah Mick I’ve dreamed of having a body for years
Unfortunately the wife isn’t doing the diet 😀
Ok it’s just a breaking up for the holiday joke 🙁

We won’t tell her if you don’t Bill 😉

😉
TBH Cherrianne, she wouldn’t give a hoot, we have a great relationship and that kind of banter between us, and indeed with the kids too, is commonplace.
Anyhow, I’m forced to sit and listen while they extoll the virtues of the latest TV or movie heart throb so, a little retaliation is allowed 😉

Sounds like our house then!

Nic2358
Great results – you are an inspiration
I agree with everyones comments on low fat diets such as WW – I have tried this over the last 6 months and put on 5 ibs!

Hi everyone. Just catching up on the threads today.

No diet I have ever been on in the last 50 years has ever been so successful, or produced such quick results. The others (and I’ve tried just about every slimming club and diet book you can think of) have never retrained my tastebuds like the BSD has.

I’ve not touched bread, pasta, pizza, or chocolate since I started this in December. The smell in the bakery section of supermarkets is no longer enticing. I am even losithe raste for diet fizzy soft drinks! Today I was out shopping and wanted a drink, so looked in the chiller cabinet in the last shop I was visiting – the only sugar free drinks were 7up free or still water. I prefer fizzy drinks so bought the 7up free. Two mouthfuls were enough to convince me I’d made mistake. It was far too sweet.

I have been thinking long-term and know that I have to keep low-carb for the rest of my life. The moment I let my guard down and allowed those nasty carbs back in would be the start of a very slippery slope.

Judith – did you buy a belt for your jeans?

I wrote the original message hoping to inspire new diet plotters but have to say I’m taking away so much more inspiration to keep going from everybody else’s contributions. I am only half way there I want to lose another 21 lbs and then keep them off. I’m going to do some serious thinking about the end game strategy.

I love wine, but realising that it doesn’t love me back is the key I think. Whoever said nothing tastes as good as thin has my undying thanks, it’s a philosophy for later life. Keep it up everybody and thanks for your thoughts 🙂

Nic

Hi Lynne, I ditched the trousers and am now wearing the ones a size down!!! That’s four times so far!!!!
I can imagine that 7up tasted foul!!!

I’ve sent you the link to the petition – they rejected it on the grounds the title wasn’t specific enough and advised me of an alternative title – so the ball is rolling again already!!!
🙂

Glad you ditched the trousers, Judith. Didn’t want to be reading about you in the newspaper 😳

Thanks for the link – signed.

*sits and waits*

Lynne, it would not have been a good look for a teacher, even a retired one! 🙂

At the moment – now finishing week 10 – I have no inclination to eat any high carbohydrate food. I’m rarely hungry and completely satisfied with the food I’m eating – still finding that hard to believe. Having regained weight so many times I’m worried about what will happen if / when I do eat outside the plan. I thought Bill was brave to eat his Yorkie. I don’t trust myself to do that yet. Professor Taylor’s results show that the participants could eat some high carb food once they’d finished the study. I’m hoping that the support here will help me through. Knowing the effect it’s had on my health I can’t go back to the old ways.

Going back to your original post, Nic2385, your results are really impressive – well done!

With regards to your “forethought and preparation, as much mental as in planning a new recipe set” – did you follow the diet in the book or did you adapt and use your own food plan?

Hi susieb

Thank you, so far so good. In answer to your question I have had a bad and limited diet for a long time. I had to eliminate that first and it took time to think about it, what I wanted to achieve and most importantly why. I have followed the principle of the diet while not embracing all the recipes! Too many years of plain eating make some unpalatable. I eradicated bread, rice (almost completely), potatoes and pasta. I retained the good vegetables and salads. I don’t eat any processed meat. I need to limit cholesterol so I have one or two eggs a week only. I eradicated the bad fruit but enjoy healthy doses of strawberries, blueberries and clementines/mandarins – the perfect breakfast for me. And it works for me.

What I need to do is start making my own soups to avoid salt spikes and reduce further processed food intake.

Cheers
Nic

Hi Nic,
Soups are a great idea, so filling and nutritious for very few carbs and calories. You can make soup out of just about anything. A stick blender or processor will make it thick and creamy in no time. Add some sour cream or yoghurt to boost the fat/ protein content and the satiety factor.
You can have a really nice soup in less than 30 minutes if you chop the vegetables finely enough. If you want to add dried legumes it takes a bit longer of course, but I keep a few cans of lentils and beans just in case I’m in a hurry. 🙂

Cherrianne I think I shouldn’t have read this late at night, salivating! After Easter I’m heading off to buy kit and create a soup kitchen 😀

Thanks, Nic, you really seem to have made the diet work for you and planned it with military precision!
It does show that there can be flexibility in this diet and it still works.

I’ve fallen off the wagon these last few days and I’m feeling really yukky. Eating for the sake of eating.
You’ve inspired me to get back on track! Thank you.

Good for you Nic, sorry that I wrote that late at night your time lol. I’ll blame the time difference between Aus and the UK 🙂
Another good soup is cheesy cauliflower. Just cook up some cauli, onions, bay leaf and veg stock. Remove bay leaf when cauli is cooked. Whizz with stick blender while still hot. Add a tub of cream cheese ,depending on the amount of cauli you might need less, and whizz again to mix through. Bit of salt and pepper and you have a yummy soup in no time.

Hi Susieb,
At least you’re still posting so we can give you a hand. Are you overeating because you’re worried about being deprived on this diet? Remember that you are the one who decides what to eat on the BSD! You can choose to follow your own recipes or the meal plan, as long as you stay within the cal/carb allowance.
You can do this, resist the snacking urge and within days it will disappear. All the best, and looking forward to hearing better news on your next post 🙂

Hi nic if you live in the UK Aldi’s have packs of asparagus for 59p. Buy 3. Just fry 1 large chopped onion in 2tbspn olive oil, chop the woodier part of the asparagus stem and add it to the softening onion. When both are soft add pint and half of stock then the chopped tips of the asparagus. Cook til soft. Whizz with a stick blender the add 6 tbspn of double cream. If the soup is too thick you can add more stock. If you want to freeze some portions do so before you add the cream. Season the soup according to taste and there you have it – cream of asparagus soup.

TBH you can do this with any veg. I made a huge pan of broccoli soup, just fry the onion, add the woodier stems, then some chopped garlic, then the stock, then the florets. Whizz when fully cooked, add cheese or cream to each bowl. Courgette and garlic the same way.
When you get going you won’t be able to stop! Blue cheese can be nice added to broccoli or cauli soup as well.

Happy cooking 🙂

I love blue cheese anyway, but it is good with cauliflower in a soup. Not tried broccoli soup yet.

I have been known to just mash cauliflower with blue cheese. Or Brie😃

Lynne I’m a devil for making soups – whatever is cheap in aldi!!! Celery soup is nice with cheese too. 🙂

Mmmm Lynne, blue cheese and mashed cauli. It’s 10.40 at night here and my turn to be salivating! Might have to try that tomorrow. Aldi have caulis on special here for $3. The poor folks in NZ are having to pay $10 a cauli it said on news reports today. How sad is that?
Judith I make broccoli and cheese soup too. A couple of years ago my youngest boy, then about seven, wondered if we could make soup from broccoli stems. I usually save the thinner stems for stir fry and coleslaw but these were as thick as my wrist. He peeled the woody outside off them, chopped them and added a couple of leeks some carrots, celery, garlic and parsley and invented his own broccoli stem soup! It was really tasty whizzed up with Greek yoghurt and some salt and pepper. We’ve never had those huge stems again so no chance of repeating it.

mmm cherrianne, your son is very clever for his age – the thick stems have more phytochemicals than the florets so I never, never waste them!

$3 for a cauli??? 89p here. $3 is about £1.59 in English currency. So about twice the price for you. Makes me shudder to think what the price would be in non-Aldi shops!

Lynne I fancy the mashed caulie and cheese. I might just have that tonight!

Judith, I must be shopping in the wrong place! Caulis here are £1.

Hope you enjoy the mashed cauliflower and cheese. Note to self: not had that for a while. Must buy cauli.

I get mine in Aldi, lynne x

Thanks Judith. I really need to shop in Aldi more. Just easier to shop in Durham (no Aldi). Almost a military operation to go to Asda & Aldi (Spennymoor). Bus only Monday to Friday. First bus there 9.30, last bus back 14.10. Fitting that in with work & other stuff can be interesting. Note to self: stop making excuses. 😳

Lynne that’s not an excuse! It’s a logistical nightmare. My aldi is a ten minute drive away so easy peasy for me

Buss here are interesting, Judith. Apart from that one, the other service runs between Durham & Bishop Aukland, every half hour Monday to Saturday. Alternate ones continue to Asda & the hospital in Bishop. But the last bus from Durham is about 8pm. No service to speak of on Sundays or Bank Holidays. 😳

I’ve never driven, so I’m used to it, just means I carry lots of bus times and routes in my head😱 And shop frequently so its not too heavy. Oh – and sometimes do online food shops 😊

You are all so inspiring. Thanks for the soup tips. I am going to get my slow cooker out of the back of the cupboard on my days off and make some soup! 🙂

My husband makes a mean truffle oil cauliflower mash which goes really well with a lean eye fillet. He uses a stick blender to mash the cooked cauliflower and adds a little cream, butter and truffle infused olive oil, and some black pepper. It is so much tastier than potato too and low in carbs. We haven’t had this for a while but you are all inspiring me to get back in the kitchen again and get motivated!

That sounds wonderful, MerryMary. Definitely have to buy a cauliflower now!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125704

Hi folks could I ask you if you would mind signing this petition? It is a proposal that the NHS should encourage people to try this diet.

If the link doesn’t work just google petition, NHS to encourage