Hey Orchid – I had a gas issue when I started to take inulin for extra fibre and effectively counteracted this, by taking charcoal capsules – could be worth a try? Remember our bodies are changing on the BSD, so it could be that something you previously eat without any reaction, is also causing a bit of an issue. Either way, some charcoal might help.

Hi Duchey – we are all different and our bodies react differently to a new eating regime. Some of us lose much more slowly than others – me included – even on 800cals and carbs under 50g a day. I consider 1.5lb lost in a week a good result, but I am currently 21lb lighter than when I started out almost a year ago. During that time I have had two extended periods maintaining, so it could have been more. I still have 7lb to go.

It is important not to regard the achievement of others, as you failure. Your body is doing what it should and any loss is a positive to be celebrated. Sometimes body measurements shrink, without any discernible change on the scales. Good hydration is important and this is something I struggle with too. I draw five little cups and five little glasses on my kitchen notice board each morning and cross them through as I drink them. I make myself drink a glass of water, whenever I am in the kitchen and it is surprising how quickly the count goes down. Perhaps you could do something similar.

Be assure the BSD does work, you just need to stick with it and you too will see positive results. Try setting a mini-goal to work towards, as this helps you to stay focused and gives a sense of achievement when you get there – perhaps getting to your first half stone lost could be your first goal. There is a forum thread on here for mini goal, might be good to check it out.

Good luck with getting off the flat line soon – it will happen. Let us know how you get on.

Thank you Toby! Guess I need to be patient, definitely sticking to the 800 calories, had a couple of days where I felt awful but that seems to have passed. The difference in how I am eating has made me realise how poor my diet was even though I didn’t eat junk food, so hopefully you are right and the weight will go eventually! Good work losing 18 pounds that’s fantastic! Does it make you feel better in yourself?

TOBY101 Thanks! i had totally forgotten about Kale crisps, and I love them, yay, happy little BSD’er this weekend!

I can only say that the journey is not smooth but flat lines than nose dives then flat lines again. Most people who have a dramatic weight loss in first week do not actually lose that much fat but mostly water – perhaps you had less water to lose? I have lost 18 pounds in almost 4 weeks but flat-lined for about 6 days in week 3 (although ironically it was in this period that I first noticed real changes in my body shape) before it started coming off again. If you are eating significantly below your maintenance level the weight will eventually go – it is a guaranteed law of nature!

Thanks for the tip about kale crisps, Toby, they sound great, when I next buy kale, I will give them a go. Do they keep and stay crisp for a day or two, or do they need to be eaten straight away? Do you think they would work with other leafy veg? Maybe I need to experiment 🙂

I do make parmesan crisp sometimes, and they are very tasty and really easy – just finely grated parmesan, sprinkle into little piles on a baking lined baking sheet (or use a small former or pastry cutter if you prefer neater edges, just fill, then move on to the next one – but don’t press the parmesan down), and bake for a few minutes – about 190C – 200C. Watch them though as once they have melted and bubbled they turn brown very quickly. Yummy:-) I’ve never tried keeping them though, because they are so good, they tend to disappear instantly in this house, but I think they would be fine for a day or two if kept in an airtight container.

I am on day ten, and sticking religiously to th 800 calories a day, feeling down as lost three pound in first week but seemed to have stayed same weight since day five, it’s difficult when others are saying they lost nearly a stone in first couple of weeks! I struggle to drink two litres of water a day, usually only one and a bit, trying to increase that! Anyone else struggling?

Weigh in day today, down 3/4lb, it’s a minus! Disappointed, but it’s a minus! Must be positive, it’s a minus. Yay!

Mixmatch will have a look at eateries around the town and let you know.

Hi way of life,
hope you are feeling better this week?
A quick question about hemp powder – when you started taking it, did you find you were getting a lot of stomach gas? I started using it in soup last week and since then I have been plagued with it – I also had a couple of other changes to what I was eating , but this was the only totally new food.

I think the truth is that as large active man I cannot actually do a strict 800 calorie diet without feeling unbearably hungry especially over night but seem to manage on around 1000 with weight (8.4 kg in 26 days) and blood sugars (I was pre-diabetic now in low normal range) still coming down nicely – hence my belief that the 800 can only be a guide – in other words, sub-consciously I know that I slightly underestimate calories by eye – but that is ok for me…

No amount of self deprecating remarks will make that comment anything other than boorish Jules. But now we know what a superior, sophisticated person you think you are. I am sure sunshinegirl is appropriately crushed

It’s fine to take some painkillers if you need to / want to. Good hydration is important, but if this is not clearing things, there is no need to suffer in pain.

Fingers crossed for great results on Sunday – good luck!

If I might ‘weigh in’ on this one, speaking as someone who has been on the BSD for almost a year and started from a place where I thought I actually wasn’t eating much, I think weighing and measuring is important in the early days, as this helps you to understand what the right amount of something looks like. Once you have a grasp on this, you’re better equipped to sensibly gauge by eye. It also helps you have confidence when eating out, as weighing and measuring will help you to understand what the right portion sizes for you looks like.

Hi there everyone and a happy Friday to you all. Well nearing the end of my second week (my weigh in day is a Monday) and I’m glad to say that the cravings seem to have stopped. I no longer feel that I have to snack in the evenings and if I do (which is not very often) I have an apple and small bit of cheese. My first challenge is tonight…. going to a birthday party where there is going to be a lot of finger food, puddings and cake. So worried that if I do indulge tonight that the carb monster will come out again and I’ll be back to having those niggly cravings. What is everyone else’s experience with this? I’ve been really strong this time round. Any tips?

Fairyface
Thank you for your kind words.
They mean a lot

Happy belated Australia Day to one and all.
Have been very sick with my poor babies. My twins were very ill too.
It’s called the flu epedimic, apparently
My poor kids are running high temperatures and are very unwell. I don’t mind about me, but if my children are down….
Meanwhile, I look up at the stars and think, our mental health is grand.
But there would be thousands who would dispute that.
I have been eating for Ireland, any class of a diet has completely gone out of the window.
Don’t mean to be so realistic, but this is where’s it’s at today.

Sorry

May I recommend Kale crisps for savoury crunch? break kale into crisp size pieces (discarding thicker stems) dress with a small amount of oil and whatever other flavouring you fancy, salt and put in the oven on baking parchment on a tray for at 100C for one hour (turning half way through) lovely. Have to be careful about quantity of oil though! Genuinely almost as nice as crisps (I was a crisp addict!)

3wk 5 days. 94.6kg down 8.4kg

The recipe book arrived today, so looking forward to making a few different evening meals and porridge for breakfast which will make a change from eggs. Looks like a really good book with lots of delicious recipes to try.

Hey TC – not sure what caused it, other than just eating too much, although it really didn’t seem to be a huge amount. Still, whatever the issue, I suffered for it. Glad to say I feel fine today, having rested the system yesterday and got a really early night – 8pm – last night and had a great night’s sleep. Shall be able to exercise again today and get back on track.

Glad to hear things are going well for you and I hope the scales tell you what you are hoping for at weigh-in. Hope your two day fast brings you the success you are hoping it will. Technically, I suppose I did a fast yesterday, but only saw a 0.2lb dip on the scales this morning, but I’m guessing my system is still adjusting, following the blip on Wednesday night.

Meant to be going out tonight, although to be honest I’m not keen – going to see a band that I’m pretty confident will be way too loud and I have pretty much decided no alcohol, as I had wine on Wednesday, ‘cos I’m aware that alcohol disrupts my weight loss. Other than going out this evening, the w/e is looking quiet and I should hopefully be able to keep good control of the cals/carbs and see something good on the scales Monday morning.

Good luck and have a great w/e.

Thank you for your kindness, I think the headache has been the worst thing. Even went to bed in the afternoon, 2 days running! Hopefully it will improve. Hopefully, it will show on the scales on Sunday morning 😕

I have never been a fan of weighing food Kysia – even when following a recipe – prefer to do it by eye. That might be the difference.

But I repeat I do not claim to be able to measure calories super accurately by eye but my belief is that I don’t have to. 800 calories can only be a guide as it defies sense that this should be the optimum for everyone regardless of starting weight, exercise, metabolism. It think it is used as an easy to understand target for the average person to illustrate the kind of quantities you should be eating.

I do understand though that many many people find it much easier to have a very defined goal each day and stick to it rigidly – good luck to you all.

Oh Sunny B I wonder what caused that? I’m glad you are feeling a bit better – and it sounds like the right move to rest your body for a little while. I haven’t weighed since Tuesday but I think I’m on track – am counting calories and carbs religiously as I am trying to maintain for a couple of weeks before going for another loss. Just have to get a grip on maintaining.

I’m going to try 2 24 hours fasts this weekend. From 8pm tonight until 8pm tomorrow then 11am Sunday to 11am Monday – we”ll see!

Have good weekend all

TC x

Or even “on verra” <* cheeky pedantic grin *>

Panic not – it is definitely carb flu – I had it and actually threw up!! Also had the worst headache. So yes, be kind to yourself, drink buckets of water and herbal tea / coffee and eat fat lol. Strange as that may seem, things like cheese and nuts (in moderation and VERY limited cashews) will help because they are low in carbs and high in fat, which is what your body is moving to burning. It usually only last a couple of day and it means it’s working guys!! WOO HOO!!

Hope you feel better very doon.

Hello everyone – those non scale victories just keep on coming – congratulations to Theodora, a woman after my own heart – am going to dig my knee highs out tonight – just to see!!

In the end, yesterday was a controlled day – I avoided the fridge (apart from the couple of times I delved in and grabbed a handful of blueberries – shock horror!! The thing with this is that there is nothing in my house that isn’t BSD friendly so even the ‘cheating’ …isn’t. Ended the day around 825 / 20 carbs – amazing – my other peak for yesterday.

Peak for this morning was an 800m swim and sauna – I do love it so 🙂

No pit yet and quite frankly I want to keep it that way!!

Have a good afternoon all x

Getting back into the exercise, swimming on Wednesday and 50 mins aerobics this morning. I reduced my insulin by one unit last night so this morning BG is 5.8, if it drops low this afternoon (as it has for the last 2) I will cut my Glycizide by half a tablet which is 15mg but as we say in France en verra (we will see). So far this week I have lost quarter of a pound – ‘waves flag’ so I need to be super strict over the weekend, deffo no wine.

Keep strong everyone.

Crikey, that’s just how I feel! I’ll take note of the replies you got. Hope we both feel better soon!

Jules it was the Peak District 3 peaks – but I was in my early 30’s and super fit.

Hello all and welcome to Friday afternoon – yippee!

Interesting to read your post Linda about fasting. I’m going to try and go ‘without’ this weekend – I’ve chosen the weekend because I don’t know how it will affect me. Will check back on Monday.

Haven’t weighed since Tuesday – longest ever on this plan 🙂 Wanted to wait until Monday but may weigh tomorrow because I’m interested what the fast will do weight wise. Ohh – I make things so complicated!!

I went all inclusive Norfolkgal to Jamaica – as an island it’s lovely, I did an island tour which took in a rum distillery – if you get a chance it’s a great day out. Also went to Dunnes River Falls – also great but only if you are good on your pins as the stones can be slippery. Have a fabulous time, if nothing else lots of opportunity to swim and walk (and have your hair in corn rows……maybe not!) and there was bags of choice food wise (although I did come back the size of a small barn but I wasn’t BDS-ing then LOL)

Bye for now all xxx

Hey Verano – sending you all the best for a speedy recovery xxx

Hello all – been a busy morning – it’s Friday afternoon – yippee!!!

Krysia, I’m all talk really – I only had one boiled egg and about half a dozen slice of ham – logged everything and still only ended up as a 827 cal / 20.9 carb day – and that was including dark chocolate square (I’m limiting myself after ‘bean gate’) I suppose that means that my appetite has come right down – portion control was always my problem – maybe I’ve cracked it? Our Tesco has been very touch and go with fennel lately – glad you found some. We use it in two dishes every week – the spicy chicken and green lentils in the diet (not recipe) book is yummy.

Anyway, my OH and I are going to try fasting this weekend. I’ve been reading up on it and want to give it a go…only spanner in the works is that tomorrow afternoon we are meeting our potential wedding cake maker – and there’s a taster involved!!! :-O I shall have the smallest taste EVER!! I haven’t weighed myself all week – it’s killing me lol but I’m determined – NOT till Monday.

So folks, are we all going to remain strong over the weekend – of COURSE we are!! If you have plans, plan…especially if you’re out to eat at a restaurant – so many of them now have online menus, I find it really useful to decide in advance and then I don’t look at the menu at all.

Right – enough rambling – back to work for me – speak soon xxx

PS If you click on the link at the right hand side of the page, it lists MM’s Diet books and gives links to Amazon to buy them. I just did this and notice the link for the Recipe book is selling it at only £7.

Hi Gillykins
Welcome to the forum and well done on choosing this new way of eating.

I started on 16th Jan, so am 12 days in, but happy to offer you support. A lot of us use Fat Secret website / app to log our progress. It’s a very easy site to use, and you can log everything you eat each day in it’s Diet Calendar, and it will give you a breakdown of nutritional values of the foods, and a total for the day, so it makes it really easy to work out how many / few carbs and calories you are consuming. You can also log your dally exercise.

Others use My Fitness Pal, I believe, but I have no experience of that one, but assume it does the same thing.

Hope this helps, and good luck on your journey.

Hi Alison

As far as I am aware, there is only one actual Eight Week Blood Sugar Diet book, available on Amazon for £3.85 (though normally about £7.99 I think). There is, however, an Eight Week Blood Sugar Diet RECIPE book, (£14.48 on Amazon) which lots of people use in conjunction with the actual Diet book (although this also has several recipes in to get you started). Maybe this is where the confusion lies?

Hope this helps.

Love and hugs and I hope you are up and running soon.
X B

Esnecca – I am exactly the same as you – I am totally unable to judge the weight of food and have to weigh all the high fat foods. I don’t weigh the green leafy stuff.

This really didn’t work for me until I started weighing – which is why it took so long to lose the weight. I started in May and am still not in a position where I can accurately judge the weight of food. Luckily I can do it very quickly and it doesn’t hold up food preparation at all.

Also I don’t mind weighing the food as I have always weighed food when following recipes from various cook books pre BSD.

JulesMaigret – your fridge was a nightmare yesterday – thank goodness you were nowhere near it.

Topcac – overdosing on boiled eggs and wafer thin ham is for me quite hard to do. The lovely stilton cheese we get from the delicatessen is much more problematic. Luckily we don’t get to the delicatessen very often so I have to severely ration it.

Was at Tesco this morning and they had loads of fennel this week – am trying it out in a stir fry for lunch.

Hope everyone has a really good day. It is -1 here in East Anglia this morning but it feels a lot lower.

Hi, after many months, I’ve read the book, and Monday I will be starting.

Company would be great, even if you are a few days ahead or behind.

Is there somewhere on the BSD website where we can track weights and measurements?

Verano – thank you for checking in – we were all worried about you. Hope you are feeling a lot better very soon.

Thanks for the offer of company/support. I have had a couple of higher calorie and carb days recently and am dismayed by how quickly the scales swing. I suspect the rapid gain over 2 days may be something to do with the fluid retention that goes with carbs. Anyway, enough to jolt me back into lower cals, lower carbs today. I do find the ritual of daily weighing helpful. I was in a weight loss support group for a while the year before last and was initially very resistant to the idea of weighing. I believed that ” scales are for fish not for people”, but the discipline of daily weighing has become a habit unless i am away from home and doesn’t allow me to kid myself that the party foods and binge days don’t do any harm. Weighing gives me feedback and focus and I feel more in control of weight than I used to-….one day at a time. I am starting to get a lot of positive feedback from friends, family and work colleagues about weight loss and how good i am looking. This wasn’t my motivation to lose weight and I have found that sort of attention a bit off putting in the past- like a judgement, but this time I am experiencing it as affirming and an encouragement to keep going.

Challenging day and weekend for me. Been up since 4am for early morning flight. Work stuff today followed by family gathering. Keeping the principles firmly in my head. Noting down what I’m eating on my phone to stay on track. Wish me luck. Have a great weekend.

Best wishes, Verano, for a speedy recovery. And thanks for checking in. Really good to hear from you.

It’s nice to be in touch again Trelawny,hope your weigh in is good news,mine is on Tuesday.Weekends are sometimes difficult for me but we have no visitors so no big meals to make .Hubby knows I’m trying to be good and has been very encouraging.Hope everyone can stay on track over the weekend.So far this week I’ve not done too bad,my calorie intake has been between 800-900 calories,still a lot less than what I’ve been eating. Mixnmatch,that’s a good idea focussing on something different every week.Maybe that’s where I went wrong before,trying to do everything at once.

Good morning my fellow maintainers!

I struggled a bit yesterday, I allowed myself “a little bit extra” then it became difficult to put the genie back in the bottle… I didn’t go completely overboard, but I knew I was eating food my body didn’t need and that in itself had an impact on my overall sense of wellbeing. One of the many things I love about BSD is that the food is so nutritious that I generally feel satisfied for hours after eating. My snack-monster knows I won’t eat sugary carbs, but still occasionally sends me to the cheese or nuts! This morning I find myself a whole pound heavier than yesterday. Fortunately today is one of my 500cals days.

What I realise is that not only is it much easier to exercise willpower in the first place than it is to regain control after letting go, but that there is an enormous sense of joy, accomplishment and wellbeing in saying “no” to the excess before it starts. That’s a convoluted way of saying I learned a valuable lesson about myself yesterday!

Ok, enough navel-gazing don’t you think? We have been given a fantastic set of tools with BSD and I am very grateful for the team who put it all together. I feel as if I’ve been released from some life-long diet conspiracy forcing me to eat tasteless pap in order to be socially acceptable! Thanks too to all forum contributors providing support and humour along the way.

Have a brilliant BSD Friday everyone!

Thank you. In the end I had a boiled egg and a square of dark chocolate. It took me to 900 calories but I felt a thousand times better and managed a decent night’s sleep. Today’s a whole new one … Off to jump on the scales!

That’s really helpful, thank you. Will persevere!

I went to buy the book online and found that there are two versions of Michael’s 8 week BSD book, published a few months apart and quite different in price. Does anyone know what the differences are?

You are not alone Salma, I need one too! My food was good, and under 800 cals, but I had a few white wine spritzers, then a few scotch and sodas…
BUT I figure I’m in it for the long haul, So there’ll be a few challenges like this in the next few months (Easter, Anzac Day…)
Strictly 800 calories for me today!

Thanks for the hint Chrissie63, Looks like a good option. cheers

Hi Abbado, Further up this thread I posted a link to a recipe with mini pappadums. They are crunchy and satisfy my toast urges but don’t have too many! Welcome aboard and good luck. I am almost 2 weeks in and have lost almost 5kgs. At Uni today and that is HARD. So many temptations!