Hi everybody!
Somebody just asked if people are experiencing other benefits of the BSD apart from weight loss and lower BS levels. Well I definitely have, and please excuse me for mentioning this, but for a long time I have been producing ‘splats’ or ‘cowpats’ but since I started the BSD 9 days ago I am producing properly formed stools – so sorry to bring this subject up! Anyone else notice a difference in this department?
Apparently diabetes can affect the whole digestive tract from mouth to the other end. This could explain the increasing bouts of acid reflux I’ve been having.
Had my blood test results two days ago, my fasting blood sugar is 7.9. The test is to be repeated in a month, if my blood sugar levels are still high then my doctor will label me a Type 2 diabetic. My health deteriorated quickly from Christmas, finding I’m making a lot of urine in the night, getting up at least twice to wee.
I broke out in spots a few days ago first time in decades (diabetic acne) but notice today they have cleared up.
Find I’m not hungry at all.
Keep going everybody – starting this diet is one of the best things I’ve done.
Nancy x

Thanks JulesMaigret – Aldo is much more convenient for me so that’s useful to know.

Ebs….that is exactly what my husband and I have said. I have a Diet Doctor recipe in the oven, just 6carbs a portion (salmon quiche).
I don’t think we have eaten so well.

I believe that the Smoled almon in Aldi is also sugar-free, but be careful there are two sorts….

I gained 4 pounds from a bag of popcorn the first week in January. It came off quickly and by the end of the month I’d lost 14 pounds plus the 4 I had to relose.

Try as much as possible to shut down the recriminations and self-loathing cycle. If you feel your mind going there, distract it with something shiny and actively work on thinking about or doing something else. You know what you have to do. Get back on the BSD. Go full Michael Corleone on yourself: it’s business, not personal.

Just wanted to say how delicious the recipes are in both the BSD and the cookbook. My hubby and I were remarking today, that if we had not taken this journey we would never have experienced such flavoursome food. Its great to experiment with herbs and spices, cauliflower rice is a fantastic substitute for rice, mushrooms in place of breadcrumbs are fantastic and who would have thought that chia seeds were so versatile. Not only are we loosing weight, our taste buds are once more coming alive and appreciating good wholesome food and my blood sugar levels are gradually improving.

Angelsand, I feel convinced it will be weight easily re-lost once back on track. Plus, that carb monster in me isn’t dead. I’m sure our bodies remember the old carb cravings and constantly try thrusting them at us!
Keep going….

Hi both – thanks for answering. It’s doing a good job in distracting me.

SunnyB – I’m trying to make myself drink Lemon and Ginger tea (unfortunately I dislike tea or coffee) but that won’t help the fat thing. Maybe I should try a couple of olives… Actually I have noticed I’m sleeping better – or at least not getting up to pee early in the morning! That’s definitely something to be positive about.

Baristagirls – ooh nice idea. I will go through my photos soon and find one. There’s actually one I love a lot where my weight was where I want to be now and that too was taken in Paris! And that’s a very positive outcome – I hate headaches, especially first thing int he morning!

Firstly Angelsand, you are not alone and there is nothing to be gained by beating yourself up. It’s understandable you are angry with yourself, but it’s a waste of energy and counterproductive to spend time punishing yourself. Secondly, it is very unlikely that the whole 11lb was gained in fat, so get back on track immediately with all the BSD principles and I am sure you will see a huge improvement very quickly.

The good thing that has come from this event, is that you now know your weak spot and potential pitfalls, so in future you will be more aware of these and so will be better equipped to avoid a similar incident.

Hopefully you will let us know how you progress and I am confident you will be posting positive results in just a few days. Chin up and fight on!

1) I kept looking at a photo of me when I was slim and visiting Paris, and battled on thinking I MUST get to that again

2) I no longer awake each morning with a splitting headache

It can be done. I can hardly believe it! but the blood tests don’t lie. Diagnosed in mid November and cholesterol and Hbac1 well into normal ranges by 2nd week in January. Lost 3 stone, but weight loss still a way to go so will continue (not the VLC just the med diet).
Loving it actually. Learned a huge amount about food/science.

Okay here goes …..

1) If you are struggling to get to the next meal, sacrifice a few calories to a tea or coffee with cream or coconut milk, as the fat will help to tide you through.

2) I sleep better and have more energy.

I’ve had a good think and finally forgiven myself for starting the bsd every morning and failing every evening.

So today I’m going all Lucia on it and when I get home(without stopping for takeaway -yes I really am that bad) I will bounce up and down on my rebounder for a few minutes until I’m out of breath.

Then I’ll have my tea and do my best to leave it at that. I May fail. But I will keep trying.

Thanks for the recommendation – I downloaded it before I started the diet but haven’t given it any further thought.

Maybe its time to change that!

Hi Mungbean,

I feel the same as you about calorie counting. It cannot be the case that 800 is right for everyone regardless of size metabolism and exercise levels so it must, by definition be a fairly arbitrary figure designed to give you an idea of how much you should be cutting down. I calorie counted for first two weeks (although at 1000, not 800 – as a large active man 800 felt too low) and now just cook my own recipes estimating calorie count by eye and avoiding sugar, rice, pasta, potatoes and bread.

Mine…

1) UK PEOPLE – LIDL has a sale on Sunday on Sports equipment. I plan to go get a yoga mat and some weights 😉

2) My skin has completely cleared up. Normally I have at least one spot on my face and sometimes I have so many, you’d think I was 17 not 37. However, not a spot in sight. I didn’t even need to get the coverstick out this morning (as whilst I don’t tend to wear make-up, I do try to make the spots less obvious). Anyway I’m really happy about that.

Hungry, hungry, hungry!! However, am delaying lunch so that there isn’t such a big gap between that and dinner as I’m finding afternoons difficult (it’s Day 11 for me).

Positive vibes are needed for me and I’m sure others so I have two tasks for you:

1) Give a tip or trick that helped you or you think others would benefit from

2) Tell me something positive that has come out of you doing the 800 diet (that isn’t simply weight loss or high blood sugar reversal)

Hi Gled33 – well done on your weight loss. That’s brilliant!!

And thanks for the tip about the smoked salmon – I’ll check that out.

Julesmaigret – You HbAiC down to 35 from 60’s is very nice, this my goal also, mine has been 40, 37, now 39 so I want to SLASH this down and as you say do some exercise as well as this will help.
Sunshine-girl – Your HbA1C is too low I think, it must be another reading for example my 39Mmol HbA1C is 5.7 on some other reading. Your 8.2 reading would be 66, my 39 would be 5.7
https://freestylediabetes.co.uk/https://freestylediabetes.co.uk/what-is-diabetes/what-makes-glucose-levels-rise-and-fall/HbA1c

I can be very honest and say it was all carbs and sugar. Total overindulgence. I had an important scan last Friday and part of it was celebrating my clear results so I think this also got carried away. Feel so angry with myself. Has anyone else had such a crazy weight gain or am I in a league of my own…? Xxx thank you for reading.

Hello Angelsand…. I’m sure you aren’t the only one. And don’t punish yourself! Its a vicious cycle.
Maybe a lot of the weight gain is water or monthly reasons?
Also I understand you have eaten “over calories” but how much would have been carbs and sugar?

Hi everyone
Hope everyone is feeling good and doing well!
I often browse on the forums for support but wanted to make a post of my own today. I had got to my goal weight after eight weeks of bsd and have found it such a pleasure to do as I love many of the foods you can have.

Since Xmas I have been maintaining by doing bsd in the week and relaxing on a weekend. This has really worked well for me as I have two children, busy job so I’m very occupied in the week. Although… This week I have had my first major wobble and it’s really panicked me..

Last Friday /Saturday I had my usual relaxed days and Sunday is the day I just tend to do the 800 again for the week. Sunday, for some unknown reason I just couldn’t get back on the horse.. This then went into Monday, tue, and Wednesday. In 6 days I have gained 11lbs and to say I am upset and mortified is an understatement…

I totally know it my fault, I’ve been in self Destruct mode and have weighed myself daily to punish myself. I’ve ended up taking the day off work today to have a serious word with myself about what I have been playing at this week.

Has anyone else experienced this? I am just so shocked how much weight I have put back on. I’ve been in tears all day. Any advice appreciated. Xx xx

Hi all

Just wanted to say I empathise with those who are stalling. I made great progress in first 4 weeks but since then I have pretty much flat-lined. I am continuing to do what I have done from day 1 – around 1000 calories (800 too little for me to make it doable) no refined carbs and some relaxation for wine at the weekends. However, my body shape seems to be changing (frustratingly my chest is getting scrawny faster than my belly is reducing) and am sure weight will start coming off again. I know I use up around 2500 calories a day so I don’t see how it cannot!

Romina, if you look at page 183 (although it is not numbered that is where it is) headed Recipes and Menu Plans, at the bottom it says ‘all calorie counts are for one portion’ it also says, ‘for the sake of simplicity, all calorie counts have been rounded up or down to the nearest 10’. Although you might find some recipes are more accurate than others. For the chicken a piece weighing 125 grams will give you 150 calories and is a decent size piece. Hope that helps.

Bonjour a tous (hello everyone) back after my naughty time, just needed to get something out of my system and now feeling ready to carry on. I was only carb bad at my birthday lunch with one very small slice of bread (it was more holes than bread), 2 chips (big fat ones) and half a tiramisu (chestnut flavour). Weight has been gained but tant pis (so what) it was well deserved weight and I am hoping it will help me get into actually losing something as I have been sat at the same for 3 weeks, gain a pound, lose a pound. Funny thing is my BG was only 5.0 this morning so maybe not too much damage done.

To treat myself kindly I have had my favourite lunch of roasted chicken breast with roasted asparagus and red pepper with a yoghurt and garlic dressing. When I looked at it I though ‘hmmm that looks big enough for an evening meal’ so that is what I will do and at 270 calories will help keep to 800.

Have a good day everyone.

Hi Thelwellpony,

I noticed this thread in my search for LBSD Valentines Day recipes – I wanted to drop a line and say I hope your 8 weeks have gone well and as you come to the end of the 8 weeks you feel you have done well – I am sure you have!

Good luck xxx

Quick response to question earlier in thread. You can buy Norwegian smoked salmon from Lidl which is sugarfree

End of the first week for me yesterday Total loss to date 6.4 lbs

Hey January Starters!
It’s my 4 week weigh in today and I’ve lost exactly a stone which I’m thrilled about, but more importantly I’ve lost 5 inches from my waist. I’ve not changed a dress size but because I tend to store fat round my middle and I’m quite tall it means that I could usually disguise it. But now my clothes are certainly fitting better.
Checking my BMI, I’m now technically ‘overweight’ rather than ‘obese’ so heading in the right direction. 2.5 stone more should get me into the acceptable range.
This is the most determined I’ve ever been to make a diet work for life and I really enjoy reading this thread and how encouraging everyone is. So thank you all for posting.

Wow there’s a lot of knowledge here. Its good that there are so many studies but in my life I have to keep things very simple or I fall off this wagon and the next.
What works for me, is what I stick to.
It works for me to incorporate fats into my diet. Takes the edge off the hunger, and for the first time in years, I’m not fat. So it’s not making me fat 🙂
As for higher carb, from experience of mini binges since I went low-carb… I feel ill. Period. And feel flatter and happier when I come off it.

Hi Topcac,

Thank you for this. I don’t often get stuck because I spend my Sunday batch cooking for the freezer and luckily LBSD is so good for having lots of options (which is why It feels more like a lifestyle than a diet to me) – I can buy cooked chicken in every shop now and bagged salads etc. if I forget my lunch.

On very rare occasions if I forget my lunch but I am unable to leave the office to buy something that is when I was thinking about having a small stock of bars or shakes in the cupboard for times of absolutely no options.

I live by the LBSD cookbook and love this new way of living and eating! I tell all my friends about it and have even managed to convert some to join me on the 8 week journey 😉

Thank you again for your help, and congratulations on being in maintain! I hope to reach my goal soon too and look forward to maintaining a healthy happy weight 🙂

Libby x

Well done for sticking with it grannysharon. The first few days can be a bit of a struggle, as the body gets used to the carb withdrawal. You are definitely thinking of the BSD in the right way – it really is not ‘just a diet’, but a change of lifestyle to a healthy way of eating. Hope to read some positive news from you on Monday – that’s my weekly weigh-in day as well and I have fingers crossed for a better result than I had last time!

Great to see another Kiwi on this trip LOL. I start my 4th week tomorrow. I have lost 10 kilos so far and am aimming to drop another 9 kilos to reach 15% of my body weight. My blood sugars are also now showing in the normal range.
I to am seeing a plateau / stall as I have only dropped 1 kilo in week 3 when I need to be averaging 2 kilos to hit my goal in 8 weeks. I am using all the recipes and getting lots of good fats etc.

Or kind, rather than king!

I wouldn’t be surprised MK. Illness of any king plays havoc with blood sugars.
Hope you feel better soon. Keep the faith!

Hmm. Blood sugar has gone a bit mad again. FBS is 11.2 this morning despite usual meds and a very good 800 cal 30g carb day yesterday. My 5 week recurring cold virus reared its ugly head again yesterday afternoon and sleep was awful as a result but surely that can’t account for such a high reading? Puzzled… MKx

Hi Romina,

The Bolognese would be 260 calories per serving. Same goes for the stir-fried chicken (340 calories per serving). Whenever the book gives a recipe that serves more than one, you can take it that the calorie count given is for one serving only.

In terms of the size of chicken, I’m afraid I have not worried too much about whether a chicken breast is small, medium or large, but I am losing weight steadily so that hasn’t been an issue for me.

Best of luck!

Oh no, I was also hoping they would taste and behave exactly like bread ;). I may give them a go still, when I’ve time (I still must have a bit of hope) xx

1. Greek yoghurt (Total) with blueberries/raspberries, pine nuts, flax seed and a few crunched up nuts (walnuts, pistachio). I have to admit I started off on this diet using Greek-style yoghurt, which was fine, but really enjoying the ‘proper stuff’ now
2. Porridge with spiced apple. My 16 year old daughter and I love this, so I usually make two portions knowing that she will use the second portion when she is ready for breakfast. Very occasionally I will have the version with grated apple and cinnamon.
3. Two eggs scrambled with either mushrooms or smoked salmon.

I haven’t really ventured far from these three, so it might be time to add another breakfast to the rota.

Six week weigh-in on Saturday, still going well.

I am loving the diet, but have a few questions.

two examples below:

The Bolognese recipe in the book says it is 260 calories and makes 4 serves. Is that 260 calories per serve or 260 calories for the 4 serves? The book does not make this clear.

The the Stir Fry 2 ways (Stir-Fried chicken with lime & coconut milk) 340 calories and makes 2 serves. Is that 340 calories per serve or 340 calories for the 2 serves? The book does not make this clear. Also in this recipe it mentions 2 pieces of skinless chicken how big should the pieces be? How many grams?

There are many recipe’s like this that are not clear and perhaps in the nest edition this can be corrected. Apart from these slight errors, I am loving this book. It is fast becoming my bible. 🙂

A nice big garden to work hard in, growing fruit and vegies, is a blessing for anyone!

Honestly I couldn’t get over the texture of it, found it really difficult to enjoy eating it.

Felt kind of floppy and strange. Tasted OK, browned up lovely but I just couldn’t cope with the texture. Obviously if you were using it to eat something like a burger it soaks up the juice and becomes soggy and floppy. Eek.

I was so disappointed about this because I had hoped this would be like some kind of holy grail bread replacement. Lol.

I’ll keep hunting for something to fill that void!!

How did the cloud bread go?? It looks yummy so may give it a go

Great synopses, Californiagirl and Jande.

Gerald, the fact of the matter is that on 800 calories or thereabouts, there’s a limit to how much fat you can eat and still eat other things. The BSD is not a low carb, high fat diet and it’s definitely not a high carb low fat diet. It’s a low calorie, low carb diet. There have been a couple of interesting online FutureLearn courses recently and you might find them useful. One is Know Your Abdomen and the other I’ve done recently is the Science of Nutrition. I know other people on here have done courses on diabetes. Have a look at FutureLearn. There’s a lot available. Good luck.

Good morning

Snoop very interesting. I think I probably eat at least twice as much protein as you except on days when I have puttanesca.

I think that maybe we all feel as though we’re in a bit of a rut at this time of the year. Just a few more weeks until March and then the beginning of spring which I always find a huge boost. I must admit that I’m not finding a great deal of joy in food at the moment. Maybe I just need a good steak or a roast or even a curry to tweek my tastebuds!

Today was going to be the salmon we didn’t have last night but I think that might go in the freezer! Will have a rethink. Have a good day.

I’ve read camping is recommended for sleeplessness as it resets your body clock to natural light hours, but if temperatures where you are are anything like ours, that’s out of the question! Maybe a get-away break somewhere peaceful?

Hi Gerald,
Carbs convert to glycogen in the liver. Glycogen is glucose chemically combined with water, and it is used for short term energy storage. Before your body starts to burn fat you need to use up the glycogen in your liver, and you will do that on a low carb diet. Fat is bad because it inhibits the action of the pancreas and you can develop fatty liver disease if you eat too much fat. However, diabetes is defined by too much glucose in the blood, and this diet directly attacks that problem.

Hi Abbado,
Losing .9kg a week pretty good, and it seems that a lot of people on this forum lose at about that rate. That is fat that you will hopefully never see again! As for the constipation fluids seem to be the best thing, especially during the afternoon before your main meal. Another thing that I found that helped was eating sugar free mints, sweetened with sorbitol and manitol. These sugar alcohols carry through to the large bowel and feed the bacteria there which seems to help keep things moving.

Gerard, no one is saying it’s one size fits all but don’t use this forum to push other diets. This is a BSD site. It takes away form the purpose of the BSD funded site to support us in following it.

Abbado – Drinking water would help and Psyllium husks as well, exercise as well like brisk walking daily. Your weight loss is good though
Jenni From The Block – I question everything, its the way I am. Infact a lady on youtube says that vegan high carb diet will reverse fatty liver and she is convinced and has the studies to ‘prove’ it, I have shown her conflicting studies. When I say a Mediterranean type diet thats exactly what I mean, being Sicilian I know what Italian people have eaten for centuries, what people have done is take what they believe to be the healthiest parts of what people in this area have eaten and I agree with the MD, its cool. The point is that Drs like McDougal say that eating high carb diet reverses diabetes, fatty liver, arthritis etc if you don’t use any oil or very tiny amounts, and so I don’t blindly accept what people say but question, could it be they are both right? Its not as simple as one size fits all diet but the low carb MED diet seems to work for me better than the high carb.

CaliforniaGirl – I also think this way, the vegan guys say that insulin is the key that unlocks your cells and its intracellular lipids or fat in the cells that causes a problem and the pancreas keeps having to pump insulin in an attempt to get into the cells with the fat in them, terrible explanation – sorry, but roughly this is what I read and so they say, no no – fat is the culprit, fat makes you fat, makes your liver fat, makes you diabetic etc., I listen and keep researching when I can, but will start the BSD ASAP 😉

Wow great result – 15% weight lost, WOW!!!! I think I| will ask for that over 50 MOT, just passed my 50th birthday.

19 Oct 2016 – HbA1c levl – IFCC standardised 39 mmol/mol
19 Oct 2016 – Serum cholesterol 6.1 mmol/L, Se non HDL cholesterol level 4.7 mmol/, Serum LDL cholesterol level 4.01 mmol/L,
Serum triglycerides 1.56 mmol/L

28 Sep 2015 – HbA1c levl – IFCC standardised 37 mmol/mol
28 Sep 2015 – Serum cholesterol 5.9 mmol/L, Serum LDL cholesterol level 4.06 mmol/, Serum triglycerides 1.1 mmol/L

3 Nov 2011 – Serum cholesterol 6.19 mmol/L, Non HDL cholesterol level 4.84 mmol/L, Serum LDL cholesterol level 3.91 mmol/L,
Serum triglycerides 2.04 mmol/.
3 Nov 2011 – HbA1c levl – IFCC standardised 40 mmol/mol

Ive only started jogging recently, the last two years started walking briskly but even that hurt my ancles and knees and kept giving up, started cleaning up my diet in the past 2 years and more the last year and want to do things seriously and follow Dr Mosleys experiments, BSD, 5:2 etc. I just checked and my BMI was 39 in 2004 and now is around 31 but needs to be in the 20’s. I was 115kg two years ago now about 103kg, ideal weight is around 73kg.

I do believe that those with fatty liver may convert MUCH fat or easier than normal people, I’m sure I saw one study where normal lipogenesis accounted for 3% of liver fat but those who had fatty liver that number rose to 20 or 30%, if that is the case that IS massive, I have to try and find it, I can’t believe it myself so I’ll have to look for it.
But …
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14631324/
Enhanced lipogenesis appears as a major abnormality of hepatic fatty metabolism in subjects with NAFLD. Therapeutic measures aimed at decreasing hepatic lipogenesis would therefore be the most appropriate in order to reduce hepatic TG synthesis and content in such patients.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24316260
Increased lipogenesis in fatty liver patients

This could be the reason that I put on weight when on I go off the low carb diet and to the McDougal diet.
I think the med diet is good and allows a little olive oil or good oils, fish oil.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19370776/
An olive oil-rich diet decreases accumulation of TGs in the liver, improves postprandial TGs, glucose and glucagon-like peptide-1 responses in insulin-resistant subjects, and upregulates glucose transporter-2 expression in the liver. The principal mechanisms include: decreased nuclear factor-kappaB activation, decreased low-density lipoprotein oxidation, and improved insulin resistance by reduced production of inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-6) and improvement of jun N-terminal kinase-mediated phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1. The beneficial effect of the Mediterranean diet is derived from monounsaturated fatty acids, mainly from olive oil. In this review, we describe the dietary sources of the monounsaturated fatty acids, the composition of olive oil, dietary fats and their relationship to insulin resistance and postprandial lipid and glucose responses in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, clinical and experimental studies that assess the relationship between olive oil and NAFLD, and the mechanism by which olive oil ameliorates fatty liver, and we discuss future perspectives.

Hello all, I am a daily reader but seem to be a weekly poster. Week three starts today. I have lost a further .9kg this past week. Disappointed by this as I expected more but onward and upward. 3.9kg in total so far.
My biggest issues revolve around – drinking water. I am trying to get at least 2 ltrs in a day but seriously I am up 3-4 times a night. This is a real pain.
The other issue is constipation. This is becoming a real issue and I am resorting to laxitive meds. I am adding a tablespoon of psyllium husks (10calories) to meals and eating lots of berries and green veg but no joy. ANY tips would be gratefully received.
As I said, I am a daily reader and am constantly inspired by others positive attitudes. I have not ‘cheated’ so far, not feeling excessively hungry and am prepared for hiccups.
Another hot one coming today so for those in Victoria – stay cool and hydrate!!
cheers