Thanks – I did wonder!

Personally I think that the odd ‘replacement’ bar is fine but absolutely not in the first few weeks. After 18 weeks on this plan I am fine with having the odd one (and I mean odd as I think I’ve had about 4 in the last 16 weeks) but in week one? Probably not – you need to wean yourself off the ‘need’ for sweet stuff because, let’s face it, it’s not a need, it’s a want and you can break that habit by not feeding it.

Molzify, you’re doing really well, have you weighed yourself yet – that can help with motivation, otherwise you might want to think about upping your fats for a couple of days until your carb monster succumbs to the relegation zone. Make sure you count the calories and make them as low carb as possible but that should help with the hunger. Nuts, lean meat, cheese, cream, things like that. Maybe beef jerky at a push (not highly advised because of the processing but if you’re desperate and on the run or in lectures a lot). Not sure how tight money is but hope that helps
TC

Hi thanks for your reply.
Where is the recipe for falafel please?
Yes I need to have some ready snacks !
I need to do this diet but I hate cooking!!

Your post reminds me on the differentials between sizing, I did a project in the summer of 2013 near Sacrmento. There was a big outlet mall near there. In the UK I wore 3XL/2XL but in the mall I seemed to be able to get into XL – now that was an, albeit delusional, ego boost.

Sorry should be ONE falafel

Hi Tubbypooh (great name)

I share your pain. I am in a house where Mme Maigret and two teenage sons who are all thin and , in Mme Maigret’s case has perfect Blood pressure and BS.

Not many tips to share but only the experience that it gets easier. I made the family pizzas and sticky toffee pudding last week and wasn’t tempted in the slightest. I had caponata and no dessert and I didn’t even think about it. If any, the BSD snacks to hand is a good idea then if you are strapped for time you can create a mezze type meal for the two of you whilst everyone else has “fussy” food.

My go-to snacks are boiled eggs and falafel. If you’d told me six months ago I could eat on falafel and be Ok, I’d have said you were nuts!

Well, it’s day five for me and my first weigh in day…lost 4.6lbs which is amazing -nearly a pound a day! I’m still feeling peckish, but not starving, and the grumps have about gone! I haven’t been very strict about weighing and measuring this week, but am going to be more so going forward as I am probably eating more than I think I am at the moment. I am going to spend some time meal planning this weekend as I am a bit concerned that as Jules Margret suggests I will end up only eating the same meals for convenience.

Hi Angela! I love the South of France. We travelled through Marseille, Cassis, Cannes, St. Tropez and so on one year during a 21 day vacation. It was so much fun and beautiful! I would love to go back and do it again without our kids this time around!!!

Wow! That was quite the long period of time to go without eating!!!! 17 hours. Did you feel hungry during that time?
I have to get a blood test next week so I’ll have to fast but hopefully only for about 12 to 13 hours. I can do that! The lab opens at 7 am so I should be able to get it done on the way to work. I’ll just have to make sure I remember to not eat or drink any calories from 7 pm on the night before.

Sounds like you’ll have two Friday’s this week! Nice!!!!!

Palo Alto is a very nice place to live and as I’m sure you know, very expensive to live there. It would be great for you to get to visit your brother there. Stanford University is a beautiful campus and the old part of downtown has so many wonderful shops and restaurants.

I had to giggle when I read the part in your post about the clothes in France catering to tiny French ladies. Every visit I’ve been on in other parts of the world have had tiny clothes. Living in the U.S. , there are clothes to buy for every size! On average we are a lot bigger here in the U.S. We eat too much junk food and don’t do enough exercise! There is a huge shopping outlet here that caters to tourists from other countries. Tour buses fill up the parking lots! One day I was shopping there and couldn’t find any clothes in my size; in fact most of the clothes were size small, or x-small, or xx-small. So I asked the clerk why that was and he told me it was because those were the common sizes of the tourists. Darn! There were some cute clothes but not much to find in my size. Now I might have better luck shopping there but there would have to be some medium sizes. I’m not in the small or x-small sizes—Yet !!!!

PEAK: Work was enjoyable and I was very busy so I didn’t get hungry. I was able to keep my calories down to a decent count.
PIT: I didn’t get a chance to work out yesterday and my iwatch lost power before the day was over so I missed out on some steps. It lost power before I made it to 10,000 steps. Shoot! I’m not sure I made it to 10,000 steps yesterday. Oh well! Today is another day.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! I’m hoping to just relax and enjoy being home without too much of anything planned. I still have some of those Christmas decorations to put away. Ugh!

It’s just not me. There is 4 of us , 2 are fussy eaters and not on diet . So I have to have food for them .
Yes I need to get organised !
I will get it together in the end .
I so don’t want to take medication .

Iwanttobeslim, it is not as ridiculous as it seems. Withdrawal symptoms from sugar and carbs is very real, it produces a hormone (I forget which one now) which gives you a high (serotonin???) and releases endorphins which make you feel good. It can be as bad as giving up cigarettes how many people here talk about having carb flu. These people have been put in an unnatural situation and they cannot just grab something to overcome the withdrawal whereas we can ‘slip up’ if we need to. Having said that, I still don’t have any sympathy for the muppets who are just doing this for the money and publicity and not really for their health.

Hi libbyohno!

How exciting that it might snow! I hope it does for you. I love the snow; probably because I haven’t had to live in it :–).
Where do you live?

Sorry about eating those cashews and how it brought up your calorie total for the day! I have eaten way too many cashews and pecans this week. I managed to cut back yesterday and only had 10! I think nuts seem to satisfy me as a substitute for refined carbs. I will have to keep working on not letting myself have too many at a time. My favorite nut is the macadamia nut! I could eat the entire container if I didn’t care about the calories. :–) I also have to try to not eat too much cheese as well! I love cheese now that I’m not eating refined carbs or too many carbs from any source.

Good luck with your food and drink today!

Does anybody know if there is a simple food list to use when following the BSD.
and when following this list, we get the necessary nutrients etc
I think the menus in the book are too complicated.
I would very much like a simple list to create our own daily simple meals.

Tubbypooh, it is not that you have no willpower, no-one has when faced with certain circumstances, tiredness, lack of time etc. One main aspect of this diet is that it needs organisation and forward thinking and planning. Clear the house of temptation if you have no willpower, make sure you have plenty of BSD friendly go to snacks, make some meals to freeze or keep in the fridge or have a few recipes that are quick and easy. You could have made an omelette, maybe you had no eggs, that’s what I mean about being organised, write a weekly menu plan and make sure you have all the foods you need plus staples for emergencies.

You say you got in late and tried to put something together but it sounds as though you had time to go to the chippy or wait for the take out to deliver so it was not TIME but lack of preparation. Take the weekend to sit down and get organised and be ready to go on Monday. Better still, take today and be ready to start tonight.

Good luck, there is always help here.

Hi JulesMaigret! So nice that you had a chance to visit LLNL. I’ve never been in the place! My husband visited there once and upon entering one of the buildings had to be weighed in, then on the way out he had to be weighed again. When I’m out shopping during the week I meet quite a lot of people who worked there and have retired in this area. Seems to be a nice retirement package!

Sounds pretty darn cold there in the English countryside! Stay warm. Our early morning temp today is 35 and that is cold enough for me. We’ve got the gas fireplace lit and it’s warming the family room up nicely!

Isn’t this a version of the “lesser of two evils” debate that we usually see when discussing diet drinks. I went cold turkey on traditional sweet things or direct replacements as I feared the “well just one will be OK” argument then hurtling down a very slippery slope.

Like Sunshinegirl, I now do the odd square of Lindt or Waitrose 90% chocolate, but I now don’t see this as a temptation to wider things.

As ever, others’ experiences may vary.

David, make sure you get diagnosis from a specialist rather than generalist as some don’t seem to know there are more than 2 types of diabetes.

That’s a difficult one David, part of the BSD idea is to go really low calorie (800) to shock the pancreas into starting up or at least burning visceral fat around the pancreas and liver to give your diabetes a chance to improve. However, I think just going low carb will help with BG levels but maybe not have the final desired effect, i.e. no diabetes. I also think that if you do the 800 you will not lose lots of weight if you don’t have it to lose in the first place but as an example, my husband is 6 foot tall and weight about 13 stone (so not overweight at all) but by eating healthier just cutting down on carbs he has improved his blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. The only medical problem he had was slightly high blood pressure. So even just being more aware of carbs has helped him and he is now 12 st 6 lbs, just nicely trimmer.

In my honest opinion, I think if you really want the BG improvements you need to do the whole thing and will probably not lose very much weight. Read the book, look at the science, decide what it is you are wanting to achieve and by how much (lower BG or normal BG) and then take your pick from the 3 diet styles 800 fast, 5:2 or Mediterranean.

Anyone else have a view on this. By the way, the forum is for anyone who is not happy with either weight or BG or is pre or diabetic or not. Good luck.

Hi I have started this diet too in January. I am finding it hard as my willpower is not good .
Had fish and chips the other night as we got in so late and to tired to put something together.
Back on it in the morning .

Don’t you think there might be something to be said for succumbing to a chocolate bar with 3g net carbs rather than a kitkat or twix?

I think it’s the idea that eating less refined sugar will make you feel ill that is so ludicrous. Since when did lack of sugar make you dizzy? I have always loathed Anne Wiiddicombe and as for Gemma! It is a bit concerning, I think, that people might believe that consuming less sugar will make them weak and ill!

Sorry Jenni

The diabetes reversal is the theory that is currently under review. Whilst positive results have been noted from a number of small studies (Johns Hopkins, Germany etc.), the current Newcastle study is the first full-scale, for all intents and purposes, “clinical trial” of the approach. There are also, I understand, plans for a further study to assess the long term effects of BSD.

Hope this helps.

Great for those who are active, I hoped to be. I have been suffering from a cold (and it is only a cold) for about a week. Today I am feeling considerably better but not ready to get my aerobics gear out. I don’t work so have been allowing myself to wallow, blanket round me, telly on, snuggling with my favourite cat. Real life will kick in next week when I start exercising and also need to clean the house. I have been nice being able to allow myself to be ill and not feel guilty.

I have still lost 4lbs from last week but no movement in the last 3 days, too much slobbing about. My BG is steady around 5.0 to 5.5 on a reduced insulin amount so just keeping things stable.

I have been keeping my brain active and just finished week one of The Science of Nutrition with FutureLearn, which is very dry but with a few interesting snippets. For example, I was told I would gain weight when I went on insulin and oh boy did I ever, 15kg in 6 months and still carrying about 10kg of that now. No one said why except I heard it called the fat magnet. Scientific explanation. The purpose of insulin is to stimulate the fat cells take up fat for storage, sounds like a bad thing but was for the purpose of maintaining a supply for times of famine and also clear the blood of excess, there are other purposes to do with sugar too. I am also still doing French and Spanish daily, about half an hour on each and next week I will be back to my French class at college which I missed this week.

Have a good day everyone.

JulesMaigret.

I do so agree that the final decision rests with us as individuals, and I too am a direct and assertive individual. I agree with challenging our thinking, so that we can make those final decisions!

Thanks for your help!

Toby 101, the BSD is primarily designed to reverse T2 diabetes or at least reduce BGLs. 800 calories is key to that. It results in reducing fat in and around liver and pancreas and allows them to in effect reset. Contrary to other listings this has been determined by research greater than one 11 person study at Uni Newcastle (source Michael Moseley in his Australian presentation which was replayed today in ABC radio in Melbourne).

yes iwanttobeslim, I watched it on record last night. I am so glad they are pointing out the sugars in simple carbs like bread and rice etc. The green gloop is a bit much, I often have spinach and celery with green tea or almond milk but my nutribullet (other makes available) makes mine into a lovely smooth drink. The thing that really annoys me are the second rate celebrities trying to revive their careers or earn a big wad from the programme and then not committing, I laughed at Peter going to hospital because on day 2 he felt a bit dizzy, then Jemma spent the rest of the day saying she felt weak and dizzy (remember she only lasted 2 days in the Jungle) and the woman I want to kill right now is Ann Widdicombe. She has become a professional reality TV contestant who then goes and refuses to do anything she is asked. Maybe I should admire her determination but please get her off our screens.

We have to remember this is meant to be car crash TV where we can laugh at these idiots but as far as the diet goes, it is a serious concern to society and should be presented in a better light.

Absolutely, the guidelines are slow to change and I agree that that is a serious issue, but my main concern is that we cannot generalise and blame the nurses. My GP manages to be pompous and a**e-covering at the same time, whereas my nurse is sceptical about BSD, as she has never had a patient try it, but generally supportive. In all fairness, she was concerned that 800 calories wouldn’t give the balance of vitamins minerals and amino acids to stay healthy, which is a fair shout, I think.

I am by nature quite a forceful individual and I will discuss and dispute with medical professionals, because I want them to challenge my thinking. I am not that arrogant that I believe I know best. But equally the final decision on treatment is mine. I believe that on-going dialogue with your GP/nurse is crucial as we all progress through this relatively new approach. Blanket condemnation that nurses are “not overly qualified” and therefore their opinions should be simply dismissed is I believe unhelpful to other patients and potentially dangerous.

I have no idea what low carb chocolate is but there is nothing wrong with eating chocolate on this plan as long as it is over 70% and you count the calories. I do know about diabetic style foods, i.e. chocolate, jam etc. and the general view is they are just money makers taking advantage of the fears of the uninformed (not because we are stupid but we are told rubbish by experts). As for something like jam either don’t eat it or have a little but not often.

I just carried on. I have had a few “off the wagon” days, but even then generally kept to the low-carb side of the diet, at the expense of the overall calories. As a bit of a data monkey I measure what I eat and my weight every day, and as long as the 7 day average is under 50g of carb and 1000 cals per day I’m happy.

I’ve never been on a diet (hence starting at 329lbs) so I started with understnading the principles and getting on with it. I sort of accepted that I would need to change the way I eat until I reached my initial goal weight – still got 28lb to go – and more importantly, get my blood sugar and BP sorted. I gave myself the goal of achieving these and dropping the 100lb by my birthday in June, so it’s a matter of head down, stick to the regime, drink the water and up the exercise a bit.

I’m waiting the results from the HBA1C I had yesterday, together with a cholesterol test I asked for as I have a slight, and admittedly probably ill-founded, concern that eating all this full-fat will put my cholesterol up. Yes, I know…….

Hi

I have every respect for a nurses’ qualifications and experience, and realise they have to follow the guidelines. My issue is that the guidelines are slow to respond to reasearch developments and after all they are guidelines,not hard and fast rules.

I saw a dietician before going low-carb. She agreed that there was some evidence of this approach working. After all, pre-mid 80’s, diabetics were advised to count carbs!

Thanks for that. Really helpful. I’ll see how I get on.

JulesMaigret, that’s impressive AND inspirational!
Sleeping is still waiting to settle down – two hourly stints is not that restful but will get there.
So have you effectively just kept going or have you switched between the 8wk BSD/Med eating/8wk BSD etc?

JulesMaigret and Chrysalis, the cat’s going to be fine – she’s too pretty and gentle and funnily enough does love wafer thin chicken lol.

We tried the 5:2 last two years and we got so far and then both just stopped losing. Oddly am finding this easier in a lot of ways and guess we’re also not lured by naughty nibbles and alcohol!

Bit of a sweeping generalisation there.

Firstly, it is not individual nurse’s job to set NHS policy on treatment. If they changed their approach when every new bit of research came out it would be chaos and potentially highly dangerous. We have a process in the UK, OK it may be slow, but it is evidence-based,, hence the current studies in Newcastle. The original research had, I believe, 11 patients. Drawing a significant conclusion from the results of such a small sample is not credible.

As for nurses not being “over-qualified”, should I conclude that you believe that they are therefore appropriately qualified, or is it just a baseless insult and slur, unless you can tell me the level of qualification you would find acceptable. Your experience is not good but the over-simplification and generalisation is not justified and potentially discourages people from trying to have or persisting with a sensible discussion with their nurses.

If you are not going to take their advice then fine, but castigating them for disagreeing with you just makes you sound boorish.

I am slightly confused why so many people are bothering to weigh out every bit of food stuff and calculate to the calories. Surely 800 calories must be arbitrary? Apart from anything else it cannot be right that eating 800 calories has the same impact on a 20 stone man as 12 stone woman for example. What I take from this is that you should be looking to restrict your calorie intake to around 30-40% or your weight maintenance level and avoid sugar and the bread/potatoes/pasta/rice heavy carb stuff

I have glicazide prescribed too. Just recently I have eaten my 800 almost entirely without starchy carbs, even healthy ones, and to my delight my blood sugar has remained under 7, using only metformin. The scary rises in bs which seemed to occur when I had eaten nothing to cause them have stopped too.

We renewed our security certificate last night but it was incorrectly applied, so you’re getting a “Not secure” warning. I’m sorry about that! It will be fixed in an hour or two and the site is, in fact, still secure, just not showing it.

Thanks for understanding.

Hi Lezhas. One thing you could try is deliberately acquiring the taste for unsweetened tea and coffee. It’s not that difficult and I managed to do it years ago when I gave up sugar in my tea and coffee decades ago. Nowadays I don’t have any sugar in my cupboards. The other thing I gave up is instant coffee. Now I use small cafetières and find them almost as fuss free as instant. Leaf tea is great too, although there are some good tea bags around. I do find I need milk in my tea though, and for that I have about a quarter of a tsp of skimmed milk powder. The reasons for this are a) I live alone and could never use the wet milk before it went off, b) I don’t like the taste of full fat milk in tea, and c) the carb and calorie count of a tiny amount of skimmed milk powder seems negligible.

Hi Anniflower
Sunshinegirl (who is on basal insulin and other meds) posted an excellent reply to a similar question recently and I am sure she won’t mind me copying and posting her reply – which is as follows:

hi julygirl, most of us have altered our meds, reduced them or just got rid of them totally. This diet works quite quickly as you have seen but when it comes to your meds, take it slowly. If you continue to see such good results you might want to reduce little by little. If you have a sympathetic diabetic nurse or doctor that you can get to talk to, that is the best thing to do. It is early days so keep testing (you obviously do).

My story is I want from 10.2 to around 6.0 in a few days (around 10) and started to reduce my insulin a couple of unit at a time say every week. I had some really low readings and reduced my Glicizide as that can cause big drops in BG, I never took Metformin as it gave me the sh—s, which is why I ended up on insulin. Over 6 months I have gone from 38 units of insulin to 22, so it has been a slow process. Also, allow yourself some leeway, you never know when temptation is coming, like birthdays, Christmas.

Hi

Thanks for that. I know the NHS mantra, and feel as you do! Trouble is the insulin… I need advice about possible cutting back on insulin and/or other medications so the BS does not go too low.

I think I’ll give it a go and ‘eat to the meter’

I find low carb chocolate bars and konjac noodles sometimes help, but I certainly feel your pain where bread is concerned!

Has anyone watched Sugar Free Farm? I found the immediate reactions to lack of sugar quite unbelievable. They even carted one of them off to hospital. The only thing there I would find difficult is no tea or coffee, the rest of the food looked wonderful. Oh, and that dreadful looking green goop of course!

PS. She also told me, when I broached the subject of low carb eating, that I was wrong and too ignorant to be capable of forming an opinion because I lacked her knowledge. In effect, be quiet and do as I say. Consequently my opinion of people like this is not high

Hi Anniflower. When I saw an NHS diabetic nurse, her advice was to eat loads of carbs. She said they were necessary fo energy, and if my blood sugar rose I should increase my insulin. This is the party line in the NHS and is toed grimly by GP surgery nurses who cannot be accused of keeping up with the latest research. So you should be very wary of advice they offer. Don’t forget that there is a reason GPs refer their patients to specialists/experts and your average local surgery nurse is not exactly overqualified.

Unfortunately effective treatment of this disease is still a matter for debate but one thing is for sure – the more carbs you eat, the more insulin you will need and the more insulin you take, the fatter you get.

However, your nurse might be the exception who proves the rule, so good luck

Hi shopgirl0423

Just wanted to say well done with your first weigh in. I too have just completed mine and lost 6.6lbs in my first week. Which really does feel great. I need to lose a similar amount of weight to you so wanted to wish you well. I have never been part of one of these forum approaches but reading similar stories and peoples ideas is really motivational and I am sure willhelp spur me on to stay with it and finally get to where I want to be. I have never done the BSD before but it really suits me so far, with the exception of I am not sleeping well.

Is there anyone out there that can suggest a herbal type of remedy that would help sleep?

That is an excellent result Captainlynne! Hopefully you won’t have to deal with that nurse again for a while, and the rest of the bad week is also behind you.

Lynne
what a wonderful Hb1ac. It is truly normal – but probably lower than the majority of ‘normal’ people who don’t have diabetes if they ever were tested.

It is rather sad that the doctors and nurses in your surgery are not beating a path to your door to find out exactly how you have done this.

I am doing the same on maintenance – eating more nuts and dairy and am hoping for the same impressive results.

Topcac – wow, you have been active this morning. I usually go for an after breakfast walk in the morning but have postponed it because it was treacherous underfoot with all the ice and now we have a snowstorm. So am catching up with the admin this morning and will do all my exercise this afternoon once the snow clears.

Daisiesmum
How wonderful you are so close to your goal. It is great that you are working out your maintenance programme. I used to have 2 modes that I operated in. Either dieting or normal eating. Obviously my normal eating wasn’t by any means normal eating – it was in fact overeating,. I have been on maintenance for a month and have still lost a pound. I don’t mind that because it has given me some wriggle room. I would be happy to drop another pound but don’t want to go any lower.

You can really go off people eh Natalie?

Well done to those getting active this morning! I am home with my little one doing some work whilst she entertains herself with her collection of toys. Not inspired to step outside, I am not a snow fan at all! and being relatively high up, every time there is snow forecast we get dumped on.
I am stuck at 9st 12 3/4 I am going to call it my Harry Potter weight! I only have myself to blame. Am going to aim for a longer fast today with perhaps an early light dinner. Plenty of fruit tea to keep me warm. Hoping it will help me get serious and kick start this last 1/2 stone.

Have a good day everyone and keep warm, to those enjoying UK wintry weather.
Hazel

Morning all – well had another go at rowing this morning – only 7 minutes this time, teamed with a 20 minute run and 15 minute swim. Shoulders are a bit sore but I’m hoping that the 10 mins in the sauna helped! I do like rowing SunnyB and apparently it’s fantastically good for you so keep up the good work 🙂

Haven’t weighed in since Monday (TOTM) and I usually would on a Thursday but I am out tomorrow night so I have to weigh in tomorrow morning to keep me on the straight and narrow. It’ll be the longest I’ve gone without weighing on this plan – scary!!

Have a good day – and stay safe and warm in the weather (Northern Hemisphere only I suspect) 🙂

Morning all – just got to work after the gym – check me out (and thank goodness for flexitime)!

It just so happens that the glass door in the sauna (well it would be rude not to) means you can actually look outside through the main window (only one way I hasten to add!) so I was sitting in the sauna watching the snow – I felt quite Swedish….

Run, row and swim this morning before work – just off to shine my halo…..I have my positive pants on today – hope you all do too!! Have a good one and stay safe xxx