Hi all , although I am still away I weighed this morning to find my total gain over the holiday is 1.5 lbs although it is not over yet but I am very pleased with that. It is time I got really serious again and want to do the full 8 weeks before we go on a cruise in April – so I might fit in a further few weeks on top. We head back tonight and will be home tomorrow afternoon so will do official weight on Monday ready to start on Tuesday. As we have been away it is good to have that extra day to go shopping as everything is shut on the 1st. Really looking forward to starting again.

I’m doing it by basing it on the recipes but subbing like crazy, because I have a full fridge and freezer and like to do my own thing. The recipes are great for ideas. When I sub I try not to deviate too much from the macronutrient proportions and I work out the calories to make sure they’re still OK.

Today I had the blueberry and green tea shake, but made with frozen hedgerow blackberries. For lunch we just had ‘Aubergines with lamb and pomegranate’ – except that we had it with roasted cauliflower instead of aubergines, and I served it with broccoli – oh, and I didn’t add the pine nuts or pomegranates – oh, and I used chopped, cooked lamb from the freezer instead of lamb mince. It was yummy, what can I say? The carbs were higher than the original, but when some of the recipes include things like baked beans, I feel I was within range.

Hi. I’d love to join this challenge and get a good headstart before the New Year. Good luck everyone!

I know what you mean Cameron. All the Christmas stodge made me feel so yuck. Glad do get away from all the junk. Happy New Year!

I would love to get on board with an 8 week BSD commencing January 2.

I should add that I have fasted before (for days) and so skipping breakfast and lunch is not a big jump for me.

Hi everyone. I did the Fast 800 last year and had great results but sadly am now back to where I started. But at least I am not heavier! I need to tackle the whole lifestyle including stress and exercise. I think I focussed too much just on food so I didn’t sustain my loss. I have done a bit more reading (including “The Obesity Code”) and have a few more ideas to try this time. One of the biggest things for me is realising that when I eat is as important as what I eat.

So my experiment this week is with fasting by eating just once a day. So almost 800 cals (other calories on milk for tea in morning) in one evening meal. Should be a pretty decent meal!

I have also downloaded a weight loss hypnosis app to listen to before sleeping. At least I hope it’s just hypnotising me to lose weight…

Jim, I agree. A lot of what is going on here is cognitive therapy. You have had a far greater tragedy than most of us on this forum, but there are many who have suffered various levels of sexual abuse, and many who have suffered from being socially excluded due to their weight as well as with the self esteem issues that often go with obesity. It all leaves scars and most here are trying to heal both bodies as well as souls. You are fortunate that you had such a strong wife to see you through until you could move on to the next step. We all need someone to listen and support us. This forum helps fill that need in so many ways. So glad you have joined us. You are among friends. Best of luck to you in 2018.

Bess, as Verano was alluding to, intermittent fasting covers a very broad range of tactics to lose weight, the common element being periods of time without eating. The least restrictive is no calorie counting but limiting eating to 6-8 hours a day, to the most restrictive being full on water fasts for 24, 36, 72 hr etc.

The higher up on the restriction ladder you go, the faster you will lose the weight.

Michael Mosely’s two “versions”, the BSD and the 5:2 are both less rule driven than a lot of previously published diets. The have just the simple premise that you restrict calories during the periods you are eating (800 a day now for both BSD and 5:2), and build in periods of fasting in between those. Longer periods of fasting or more frequent days of partial fasting have additional health benefits. He was “keeping it simple” to allow the maxiumum flexibility for those wanting to try it.

The Mediterranean diet is a food choice list that can be added as another element…..gives you the most nutritional bang for your buck in terms of health as well as healthy vs empty carbs.

So your choice is: how stringent you want will determine how fast your lose. Do you want to lose 1, 2 or 3 lbs a week? If you are restricting carbs to 20-30 for the first time, you are likely to drop 5 lbs the first week but that won’t continue for long without adding calorie restriction as well.

Simply restricting your eating to a window of 8 hours has been shown to result in weight loss, but its only about 5 -10 lbs over the course of a year. But if you combine that with the 800 calorie BSD you now have a more powerful set of tools. Adding low carb (20-30 net carbs a day) adds another powerful tool. And making sure what you are eating is off the Mediterranean diet list of foods ensures that you are eating very healthy foods that will give you the maximum satiety for your 800 calories.

Hope this helps.

Hi Crabbycrams, good to see you. I have just had a good look around about Taurine and it looks a little too good to be true! However, as Jovis had two stents fitted a couple of years ago, we are going to try it. It can’t hurt. Apparently it is good for the heart and cholesterol as well as helping the liver. All of which are good reasons for taking it. The research does say it helps reverse insulin resistance and aids in weight loss. There does not seem to be any reason NOT to take it. I shall have to rush off to our local health store and get some. Thank you for bringing it up.

Hope you are well.

Love Nonna Mary
xxx

Jan – Amen to that! 😀 😀 😀 I do love cake!

I’m starting on Monday, Scotty. I want to lose 25 lbs and also have my birthday in March. I really hope we can do this.

Hi, I saw some information about taurine that was touting it as something that can help reverse diabetes and a bunch of other stuff. Does anyone know anything about this?

Hi there, has anyone else discovered sensitivity to other foods since maintenance? I have a head cold and am finding a really bad headache ensues after my morning coffee. Am not sure if it’s the cold/sinuses or my body processing stuff better or what. Am going to be v sad if it’s coffee (although pleased if I can stop the headache).

Krysia – I’m fascinated how a WOE can have emotional effects and link to feelings. I would have been sceptical about that a year ago but the link seems clear to me now.

Hi cream is quite low carb, used sparingly can be a great treat. semi-skimmed milk or Anything not full fat generally not considered good idea as it’s higher in carbs.

[post removed by request]

It very much depends on how much you have to lose. I lost 26 pounds in 8 weeks ending up very close to my target, but some people are slower losers than that and some lose more quickly. Good luck, and I hope you make your target. It helps to make smaller mini-goals as you go along, the next stone, 5 kg, an inch or cms off waist etc. Whatever feels right to you, and also don’t forget the non scale victories (NSV), getting into previously impossible clothing or dropping a size. The world is your oyster (and oysters are very low carb as well).

Hi Natalie, thanks. I was assuming it was calories per portion – it would have to be, to make the total calories for that day work out right. There’s a “skinny chilli” which serves 8 at 460 calories, so that can’t be for the whole lot!

Anyway I made it and added olives, flaked almonds, olive oil and a bit of extra fish to make up the calorie count, it was absolutely delicious and I lost 3 1/2 pounds yesterday (first day), so I’m very happy!

That’s almost like asking ‘how long is a piece that of string’! I guess if you put your mind to it you could pack in a lot of food/carbs/calories in that time slot. You don’t say if you need to lose a lot or a little, whether you’re have diabetes or not. Best thing you can do is try it and see. It may be an idea to weigh all you food and log everything you eat and drink in an app such as myfitnesspal or Fatsecret. Then after a week or so you will know if you are losing weight with the way you are eating and if not you can tailor your intake to your individual needs. Most people restrict their carbs to less than 50g a day but some need to go as low as <20g to lose weight.
Think a bit of trial and error is called for here or you could just do the 800/30(cals/carbs) diet.

Just google daily mail personalised diet and you should get the article sorry can’t find a direct link.

Hi everyone, Think you can have full cream or semi-skimmed milk but need to count calories into the 800 allowance. X

Hi everyone. I have just picked up on this thread and there are many echoes of other threads talking about the ‘carb monster ‘. I have just written on the ‘Positives’ thread that I truly believe that you eventually reach a point when carbs are no longer attractive. I know I have reached that point but it has taken quite a long time. I’m not sure when it happened exactly but I think it may have been at around a year or so of eating the BSD way. I’m not saying that a roast potato will never pass my lips again but I just don’t enjoy simple carbs anymore. I do love Lindt 90% though! I really do think it’s possible to be ‘carb free’ it just takes time.

There was a very interesting article in the Daily Mail on December 26th about ‘The Personalized Diet’ by Drs Segal & Elivan, which I’m sure MM refers to in his Clever Guts book as well. Basically it’s saying that no one model fits all and that some people can have certain carbs without a blood sugar spike. So maybe I can have that roast potato after all! Sorry I don’t have a link for it but will try and find one and post it.

I’m just ‘easing’ myself back into full on weighing and logging from next Tuesday for a strict 8 weeks but will try and keep up with this challenge as well. Just want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.

New to diet. Starting Jan and want to lose 20 lbs by my Birthday in March. Vain hope? Here’s to success to us all

Good morning.

1. I have just been re-reading the Reflect, review …. thread and quite a few posts talk of simple carbs becoming part of life again and subsequent weight gains. I think there is probably an optimum time of being carb free before you hit the point of no longer finding carbs attractive. I’m not saying that a roast potato will never pass my lips again on the odd occasion but I truly believe that I have reached that point of no longer finding carbs attractive. So that’s my number one positive for today’s list.
2. Went to the hairdressers yesterday and now feel much better.
3. Hairdresser paid me a compliment saying how ‘well’ I look. That will do me fine!

Hope everyone (if SunnyB and I aren’t the only two left standing) has a good and positive day!

Hi Ensecca, yes this group of friends is precious. And how wonderful for you to have supportive and respectful in laws.

I gained 8 pounds over Xmas but I have already lost 6 of them. The feeling of control that you achieve with this way of eating is worth the price of admission.

You can have your cake and eat it too! Literally!

Jan

Hi
I tried fasting the 5:2 format but have found that restricting my eating window to 11am -6pm suits me better. Should I still calorie restrict on some days or can I just adopt the Mediterranean diet and forget the calorie counting? I think I will still lose weight doing it this way. Any thoughts or wisdom on this would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi Esnecca, I am not a slave to OCD but use that as a handle for some odd behaviour. One thing that I do is open the cutlery drawer and search through the teaspoons for a certain one, then I usually wonder why I do it. I also do this with coffee mugs until I get my favourite one because the coffee tastes better in the proper cup. A long time ago we had a son who passed away when he was 2 years old as he had multiple disabilities, my wife and me rationalised our loss by acknowledging that he was never going to thrive with his lung problems and he was at last pain free but I didn’t grieve properly for him and tried to pretend it didn’t matter and put on a brave face for my family. This backfired some years later when I just sort of collapsed mentally and couldn’t function on a day to day basis for some months. My wife was magnificent for me and kept me going till I asked the medical centre for help and they put me in touch with a Cognitive Therapy Group and over time I got better but I think that my OCD stems from that period, but as I say it doesn’t impact on me to any great extent. To cut a long story short I know that I will be more in control with “The Esnecca Method”, and I will give it a good try out on the next challenge and report back.

I think that what we do on this forum is cognitive therapy because I don’t usually tell anyone about having a breakdown, but on here everyone is so understanding and we all have suffered in our different ways, but I still feel that I am truly blessed with my life, and do thank my lucky stars when I reflect on my family and friends.

Thank you all for your caring and sharing, see you all next year, Jim.

Zolou I think the 370 calories is for the whole two serves not per serve? I haven’t made it myself but I just had a look at it. It’s not really clear, people have complained before. Is that what you were calculating?

Milalin that boscaiola sounds delicious! I’ve been making something similar bulked out with a lot of zoodles (zucchini noodles) and I can weigh everything at home. Cream and bacon have quite a few calories! But taste awesome.

Marie your results sound great. And your nurse was worried something sinister was going on! No, just BSD! I’ve had pre-diabetes for years after having gestational diabetes with my second child eleven years ago, due for a check soon and hopefully I’ll get some good results. I’ve already lost a third of the weight and on my way to more.

Mariet I’m sure sailing burns a lot of calories!

I had a much better night, in bed for 13 hours, still a bit uncomfortable today but not as bad. The Thai food doesn’t seem to have done any damage, I lost another 600g! That is 1.4kg in two days. I find it weirdly confronting to lose so much when my eating was so far from ‘perfect’. I only have 0.2 kg to get down to where I was two months ago. Surely I can lose that in two days. Although tomorrow will be very challenging, lunch with my side of the family who I haven’t seen for Christmas yet, NYE dinner and evening party for husband’s side. But I’m cooking the dinner and taking part of the lunch so I’m in control! And I don’t care much for alcohol.

Esnecca, thank you for taking so much time to outline your journey. It will be less frustrating to a lot of people now and in the future to know others like you have hit obstacles and still managed to find a way around them. I have had several (though less dramatic) stalls only to have the weight fall off later in quantities beyond what would have been expected. Its like the excess weight is sitting at the edge of a cliff and just needs a good push to topple it.

I do think the fasts are a powerful way to beat your diet into submission when necessary. Kudos to you for MAKING it work for you. That extra load just didn’t know who it was dealing with.

Marie, 3 lbs out from a normal BMI is a wonderful place to be. I do remember when I made it inside that goal, it was one of the big ones! You have the
power to take it anywhere you want after that 🙂 I hope this week will see
you there, or next week at most!

Dumpty, congrats on your (early) retirement! What do you plan to do with yourself now with all your free time? It must have been really difficult giving advice that you didn’t believe in. My worst job was when I worked for Centrelink (Australia’s pensions/unemployment benefits etc) and did a one-year stint in a call centre. So many upset and angry clients and the frustrating thing was that so often I couldn’t help them from where I was, I had to say ‘I’ll contact your local office and get them to follow that up (find your lost form or whatever) for you.’ I couldn’t resolve the issue and just had to deal with the abuse!

Hi everyone I hope you’re all doing well . It is a messy week for me and since I haven’t been home I haven’t done my usual weigh in but I’ve decided it can wait til after New Year now.
Marie what a lovely post. I’m sure you were really pleased with the result. I’m looking forward to that one too. Meanwhile, I have been out a bit but following the general plan but not counting cals.
Last night I was taken to dinner by a friend and I had soda water w fresh lemon then a chicken breast boscaiola – cream, mushroom and bacon w greens and Dutch Carrots. Yummy, probably a bit big but I enjoyed all of it no guilt.
Nearly forgot I got my potassium down to 4.9! With a few small changes. I hope everyone’s enjoying today x

JackieM – isn’t it interesting that this way of eating teaches us not to hide our feelings in food. Hope your cold gets better soon.

Thank you SunnyB – it does feel good to be part of a team and to have everyones support.

Hey there all, good to hear about your Christmas. Krysia – I didn’t hide my feelings in food this year and like you I am pleased I didn’t.

Overall, great Christmas but a head cold made me very fuzzy. Also diminished appetite so I’ve ended up lighter than ever – 59kg. Had 3 glasses of champagne over entire period but other than that just eaten to low carb appetite. Very pleased! Now just need to shake the cold.

Am going to play with eating more root veg in 2018 and a bit more fruit. Going to take it cautiously but feels right to start enriching diet now, as I assume my pancreas must be functioning better than in was when I began this epic quest. Cautiously optimistic and feeling very in control.

As this is my second ‘maintenance’ Christmas I am experimenting a little with letting the carb dog off the leash a little more than last year. I did forgo the roast potatoes at Christmas dinner but had some stuffing and some pud, and I have had, and variously enjoyed (or not so much), some bread, pasta, chips, cake, chocolate and biscuits on many different occasions. 2nd January I will be putting a stop to all that, and in fact plan to fast on 1st January totally Theo style as I am travelling home, so won’t eat until 5pm or so on the Tuesday, after work. After that weekdays will be fully logged low (but not keto/20g, more like 40g) carb 800 days and weekends will be not calorie counted but still low carb/no white stuff. Once a week, on a Saturday I will allow myself one item from the rest of my Christmas foods, so one piece of Turkish delight, or one mince pie etc. Doing this last year I was still eating Christmas stuff in March 😊 My new Wi-Fi scales will be keeping a close eye on my progress as I dump off all this excess water and burn any extra fat over the next couple of months, and I have signed up to the 8 week reboot to keep me focused.

HI Guys!
LINDA A very big congrats,that is some feat! X
Everyone else posting tonight,its good to see so much positivity and enthusiasm for a healthy 2018.
Thanks STRINGBREAKER for kicking us off!
After some feasting this last week or so, i am gonna do the 8 week BSD yet again,starting tomozz then see where i am up to after that
I tried 20g for 30 days pre xmas..tummy felt sore…
think i didnt drink enough water or have enough green veg..waist went smaller but i didn’t lose much weight..
Made no difference to my lympho- lipodaema as hoped
I might do it again ( betterversion) after my 8 week BSD …one things for sure,low carb is the life for me!
Glad to be amongst similar thinkers
Love to all,and very best wishes for a wonderful healthy happy 2018 XXX
here we go again BSders! Come on all you old friends out there,join back in,the waters lovely! And we are missing you! X wooohoooooo!

Hi stringbreaker, nice to hear from you again, I am currently about a stone up on target due to enjoying a relaxed Christmas maybe a little too much, but the plan is in for a recovery period in the new year. Come and join us on the 8 week reboot thread, or maybe the rolling 4 week challenge thread, another one started on boxing day, running to the end of January. Yowzer pops in occasionally, but I haven’t seen anything from Bill or captainlynne for a long time. Lucia is still posting regularly at the moment on her own inimitable thread as well.

LindaA – 20 months at goal is brilliant. It’s so good that the cravings go with this way of eating.

Very well done LindaA,

I’m still at target weight 😀

Christmas came and went and I stuck to my ketogenic diet and easily maintained my weight of 60kg. It’s now over 20 months since I reached goal and it’s just second nature now. Minimal carbs in the form of vegetables or a few nuts or a bit of yoghurt, no alcohol since July this year (just don’t feel like it now!) and absolutely no non BSD foods.
The cravings are gone and I intend to keep it that way!

From July through October I did the last Wed-Fri stretch of every month. By that point, just short of a year after I began the Fast 800, my rate of loss had plummeted to one lb a month when in the early months it was 12-14. It was like dark magic. As soon as I crossed the BMI boundary from obese to overweight, the incline in loss was severe. I expected it but became frustrated with how up and down the scale was and how it seemed to take days, even weeks to fix a single pound’s loss. I lost one pound in June. I went up and down all July losing nothing net, then thought I’d give an extended fast a try. I lost 7 pounds in 3 days. One came back but the remaining six stayed gone. August was another 6 pound loss with none coming back. By the time I reached the officially healthy BMI weight in September, the losses slowed to about 3 pounds in 3 days. That’s when I shifted to a bimonthly fasting schedule because I wasn’t really trying to lose like that anymore.

I’ve lost another 10 or so pounds since then, just random little drops adding up and getting fixed surprisingly quickly. I still calorie and carb count because I wanted to go into maintenance mode slowly (the reverse diet method MnM talks about), but with several week+ stretches of not being able to count anything at all due to travel. I just came off one of those stretches today, in fact. I ate tons in restaurants and as a guest with family who were very gracious and considerate and had plenty of BSD-friendly food for me, including my favorite brands of kimchi, saurkraut and fermented pickles and the best unsweetened 100% cacao bakers chocolate I’ve ever had (Ghirardelli). Still under 120 lb this morning.

So, to cut a long story short (a little late for that, I know), if my experience is anything to go by, the combination of carb counting and fasting works like a charm.

Hi everyone, I’ve had ‘unexplained ‘ sudden weight gains over the last 6 months which the doctors are struggling to identify why. So after seeing a locum she advised to try the 8 week blood sugar diet, saying that her other patients had great success in losing weight in a short period of time. I’ve been tested for everything under the sun but nothing is showing up as a likely cause. so today I’m off to the grocery store to stock up on ingredients. I’m pretty nervous about the process and also worried that having 4 kids ( 2 which are elite athletes) who eat us out of house and home that there will be so many temptations and I’ll find this process pretty difficult. I know it’s for my health and I’ll be a much better and happier mum but I still worry..
I was wondering who else out there has done the BSD in these circumstances and also if there are any tips or any advice you might have that could help.
I’m looking forward to having this online community for support so thank you in advance!

i am still 3 stone down but need to be motivated in the new year to lose a further 2 stone. Lovely to see a message from someone who started this at roughly the same time as me.

Am going to start reading the clever guts recipe book to see where that leads

Hi Allie – if by petite, you mean ‘vertically challenged’ you’d have it right, as I come in at approx. 5ft 1inch these days! Being short means there really is nowhere for extra pounds to hide. Well done on only adding 0.5lb and there’s no better way to do it (in my opinion) than champagne. And only 1,2lb in a week is a good result too, CC.

Sorry to read about the family upset Krysia, but all power to you for not reverting to an old pattern of eating in an effort to feel better. I hope that there will soon be a resolution to the conflict and peace will reign again. Meanwhile, be kind to yourself, stay mindful and come and vent to us if you need to – as Allie said, we’re on YOUR team.

Thank you Allie – I do appreciate your support and I do agree that a walk does work wonders. Am hoping that when ‘the dust settles’ that a solution will be found.

Theo, ClarinetCathy, SunnyB, Congratulations to you all on navigating the
holiday waters with minuscule damage. Holidays done well contribute to
our self confidence, don’t they? I did .5lb damage from an over fondness
for champagne, so I won’t weigh in again until Sat. We should all be able
to return to normal in short order, and water is my favorite tool. Sunny,
you must be very petite!
Krysia, there is nothing worse than family conflict, is there? When children
become adults their problems become so much harder to resolve. When
you are the host, it’s not like you can just get up and leave! I think that it
is a real accomplishment that you didn’t seek relief in past carby distractions.
In the past I might have reached for a glass of wine, but today I bundle up
and head out for a walk. I hope there is a solution to the conflict you are
feeling, very soon. Stay strong, we’re on your team 🙂
Allie

Thanks Esnecca…..much appretiated. Three days seems to be my sweet spot as well. May try a noon to noon to see how that suits me, if for no other reason than to discourage my body from urges to eat after 5 pm (my downfall in the past).

How frequently had you done these…..weekly or less frequent? I assume you did the standard BSD on the other days to acheive such an impressive weight loss.

Are you still doing 800 calories or finding that if you stay under 20 gm net carb and do occassional 3 day fasts that this can keep you at your desired weight?

Sorry to be so nosey…..but hoping that low carb and some fasting will work for me for maitenance down the line. The multiple health benefits of fasting seem to me to make that a desirable feature for years to come. And I agree….I do love the freedom from hunger. Hot water seems to do if for me. Black coffee in the morning….and then just hot water after that, or some hot broth. The flavored waters sound wonderful but I never seem to actually want to do it when the time comes.