I completed the BSD and now 6 months later my weight is normal. I am no longer on blood pressure and cholesterol medication. I have stopped two diabetic medications and remain on 10ug Byetta and 1000mg Metformin twice a day. Most of the medications my doctor has released me from I have been on for over ten years. My Hba1c is below 7 and going down. So all is well but I find I am eating more carbohydrate and concerned I am going back to where I was. This is motivating me to do something. I could go back to the BSD but I am reluctant because I don’t want to lose more weight as 70kg is where I am right now and that is good for me. My first in the morning blood sugar reading is around 7-8 millimoles and I would like it to be consistently 6. Any ideas welcomed… Zendo

Hi Zendo

congratulations on hitting your targets – and not regaining the weight!
I’m not there yet, but have you thought about keeping refined carbs to ‘occasional treat’ status, but not restricting calories as drastically?

Yes I have, however without a list of recipes it has meant there is nothing to “follow” as such. I know this is more psychological and today I am addressing that by choosing what I eat more consciously and basing it on daily intake of what nourishment is required. I have also found that some foods I now have an aversion to e.g. most meats and eggs and some spices. I find this strange in that I have always eaten what is in front of me. I agree that using processed carbs as an occasional treat is a good way to go – adding this to the BSD. Thanks

Could be worth tracking your carb intake, so that you can moderate your consumption. Most of us here are on 50g or less to ensure fat burning and thus weight loss. I would have thought that pitching your carb intake around the 60 to 70g mark would probably be about right, but you could check online if there is an accepted carb intake for weight maintenance.

Shame about the meat and eggs thing, as protein is a corner stone of the BSD and not being able to eat meat and eggs rather limits your easy protein options, but hopefully if you like fish and cheese, you can get around that issue without too much trouble.

Good luck with finding your ideal maintenance plan.

Hi – congratulations on your success!!

Just wondered if you know how many calories you need to maintain weight?

I found this website helpful –
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com

If you enter your details and your activity level, it will tell you how many calories you need to maintain weight. If you then add in the carbs you think you will have – as SunnyB suggests, you could try 50-70 – then it will help throw out what other nutrients you need.

I have just finished BSD and achieved my target weight and am still using MyFitnessPal to keep track of my nutrients. In fact, moving immediately up to my maintenance calories was too much for me, and I am moving up in stages.

I don’t intend to go back to refined carbs, but over the weekend at a celebratory lunch, where my choices were relatively BSD ok, I did choose to eat some pink fir potatoes and then tried an apricot dessert which was absolutely delicious – apricot fool (so fruit and cream) with a topping of almonds and some almond ice-cream. I enjoyed it, it wasn’t too sweet, but I couldn’t finish it at all – previously I would have hoovered the whole lot down. So a success, I think!

See how you go with that website – I was quite surprised at the low number of calories I need for maintenance.