I wanted to point out to confused newbies that the rules some commenters here are following are not the same as Dr Mosley outlines in his book. As I understand it, the Fast 800 diet means 800 calories per day, eating fresh healthy food – nothing processed, no sugar, no “low fat” products. Meat, vegetables, and pulses. Some fruit. Healthy low-GI carbohydrates are fine, and only calories are measured. Full fat products like milk and cheese, healthy fats from nuts and olive oil, but the diet is not high fat. Processed meat like bacon only a few times a week.

Some commenters here are having great success with staying under 50g of carbohydrate, lots of fat to put you in ketosis, not necessarily counting calories. There is nothing wrong with that if it’s working for you, but it doesn’t seem to be that close to Dr Mosley’s plan. More like Atkins maybe? I just wanted to mention it because a lot of people are reading the book then coming here and getting confused that they are told to eat under a certain level of carbs or over a certain percentage of fat when it doesn’t say that anywhere in the book.

Good points.

A ketogenic diet (very low carb, typically coupled with high fat) is something quite different, and many recipes from the book would not fit in a ketogenic diet. The chickpea and hazelnut salad I made this week, for example, had 45 grams (33 net) carbs. Many people on a ketogenic diet limit their carbs to 20 grams per day.

I’ve been eating a low carb/moderate fat diet – and I’ve tried to be clear about the distinction when I talk about how I’ve been eating because the theories are different.

Although I am being cautious about carbs, I am trying to eat consistently with the BSD – which intentionally includes pulses and some other things I would not have chosen to eat (in large part because studies have shown they are actually helpful, long term).

(But to be fair – some of the carb talk comes from newbies who have walked in asking how many carbs/how much fat they are supposed to be eating.)

Hi Natalie
The BSD book ( p132 ) only states the daily standard recommendation of protein for women is 45g & 55g for men.
No mention of fat or carbohydrate daily allowances? It would have been nice to have had at least a guideline or way of making that assessment yourself.

There were a lot of confused newbies when the forum began. They trawled through other sites for info & most settled on 50 – 100g daily carb allowance. It was & is trial & error as to how low you need to go with carbs before they spike you! I have to go low!

Some people were having trouble with the Dawn Phenomenon , high fasting blood sugars. They found that eating something fatty eg small amount of cheese or full fat yoghurt prior to bedtime reduced or normalised their FBS.

People were & are posting their own experience of what does & does not work for them. There is no quantity of daily fat in the book to guide us. We have to work it out & count the calories. 800 calories daily.

I did the 5:2 diet & know what 500 & 600 calories daily look like. I weighed & counted everything on that diet. I don’t need to weigh & count now.
In the absence of carb & fat knowledge I posted this.

The Original diet shake was Optifast. We can’t get it in UK , it’s from Australia. I posted the info from the Optifast site: Optifast.com.au on forum Fast 800, Topic Percentages 17.2.16 page 6

Optifast shake : 54g serving
Energy Kj 870. Energy cal 207. Protein 17.5g. Fat 4.5g. Carbohydrate 22.5g. Sugar 17.8g. Dietry fibre 3.6g.
Gluten – NO. Lactose – YES. GI 24 – 33.
x 3 shakes daily. + 200 calories of non-starchy veg 250g in weight
Daily allowance from shakes :
Protein. – 17.5g x 3 = 52.5g
Carbohydrates – 22.5g x 3 = 67.5g. + carbs in veg
Fat. – 4.5g. x 3 = 13.5g
Sugar – 17.8g x 3 = 53.4g

Quote from prof Roy Taylor 22.06.15. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes
“Do not be concerned by the high sugar content as after the first day of very low calorie diet your body is able to handle this reasonably well. Ideally , low calorie meal replacement would be made up with water, if unpalatable using skimmed milk is reasonable. The period to achieve weight loss will be slightly longer”.

Test before & one & two hours after meals to see what food & how many carbs spike you

Hope this helps & explains the ‘ confused newbies’. You have to research, read & learn to really help yourself understand what Type 2 Diabetes is. Don’t rely on others to do that work for you. Knowledge is power. The power of choice & change
Eureka

Great post Eureka, and lots of info.
Natalie you make some good points, the BSD is low carb but does include higher carb foods with low GI. Whilst not a high fat diet it does encourage a higher fat intake and use of full fat products.
I think the carb suggestions are not given as rules, but more in response to people’s queries about not losing weight or not seeing drops in their blood sugar levels. In that context it is a reasonable suggestion to make, getting people to check their carb intake, particularly with regard to blood sugars.
We are trying to formulate a FAQ sticky thread for newbies that will give a consistent message and guidelines, to prevent exactly those things you are concerned about. So your post is very timely. Thank you 🙂

Hi Cherrianne
Thanks. We’re all learning all of the time. We want & need the BSD to work in the real world, real time.
Eureka

I agree Eureka. It is working well for the majority. We aren’t part of a strictly controlled research group so we do need answers that we can live with in the long term, in the real world as you say.
For those of us trying to manage blood sugars without meds it might mean setting a carb limit. It is all individual and as has been said before, we are the pioneers. We are a very large, diverse group with all sorts of other medical issues aside from diabetes. Most of us are going to continue well past the initial 8 weeks so are truly breaking new ground here.

It’s fascinating reading other people’s experiences and I’m certainly not knocking what they are doing. I personally am eating more protein than the book suggests and probably lower carb than the book recipes because I don’t like pulses and beans or sweet potato – basically anything that is allowed. I am going to try cooking lentils again soon, my first try was a mushy disaster (unless they are supposed to be like that!). My meals are nearly all 50-100g meat plus a pile of vegetables (fat is also involved). I do have home-made yoghurt and fruit some mornings. I think everyone has to tweak for their personal taste, but if you tweak a lot you are not really doing the BSD as written.

Hi Natalie
If you were using red lentils they do cook quite quickly, only need about 15-20 mins of boiling. These are great for adding to the kind of soups you need to thicken, or blend to get a smooth soup.
The brown ones take a little longer and the green or French lentils longer still. The green ones hold their shape better and are nice cooked with a bay leaf, chopped onion and some sage or tarragon. I cook until the liquid is nearly all gone, then serve with a lump of soft cheese, chèvre or Brie on top. A meal by itself.