Hi Lexy

I probably meet your criteria. I am 6’3″, played a lot of rugby in my younger days, and started BSD in early Aug but in earnest in early Sept, I started at 23st7lb and now weigh 18st5lb. Over that period, I have reduced my blood pressure to normal and reversed the fatty liver symptoms.

I am a bit of a data freak and since Sept I have eaten an average of around 930 calories a day and 41g of carbs. My go to foods are spinach and any other leaves either raw or fried. I eat a lot of eggs and fish, both white and oily, in frittatas or omelettes and a lot of avocados, feta and blue cheese in salads or bakes with tomatoes or aubergines. Baked avocados with eggs in the middle are great with a salad. Yogurt and herbs as a sauce with fish or chicken, with tinned or frozen beans.

Most places have a local leaf that can be used as a low carb filler for meals and to support a primary protein. One thing is that I have started to use a lot more herbs and spices as my tastes have changed.

If you could tell us where he is, that may help.

I work away from home a lot and have taken the approach of just not eating the white stuff on normal meals when i have no other choice, but focus on keeping the carbs low.

It is not easy for the larger chap, but definitely doable.

Well hi ho back to work today! I am welcoming meal routine though and looking forward to moving again towards my goal. I have maintained my weight from the day I finished pre Christmas to now, so that feels like a victory.

Was inspired by you Verano and started a wardrobe edit yesterday. Very big job as a good sized walk in space meant years of not facing the challenge. Well done you on sorting and culling!

Have a great week all xx

Happy New Year and Happy Monday!!! starting weight for the year and the week is 128.15.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.
Have talked hubby into joining me – so that should be interesting.
Onwards and downwards!!
KJ

A cup is around 240 ml, I believe. Not sure what that is in grams as kefir is not exactly like water. It does sound like a lot though.

I may be visiting Hayle shortly, you’ll have to let me know where you find all these small portions. I’ve been conditioned by Trevaskis farm where a small plate could feed a family for a week, certainly in the early days.

Where is your husband, Lexy? What kind of veg do they have there? You might be able to use something like Fat Secret to determine nutritional values (calories, carbs and the like) to determine what he can buy locally that is suitable.

Being Vegan, a great deal of my protein (and fat) comes from nuts. Is it more beneficial or preferential to eat say 20g of nut butter (the pure stuff like Meridian) or 20g of whole nuts? I didn’t know if the pre breaking down of the nut makes it digest more readily or not?

Jmarie, thank you for thinking of me and for the link….I should have looked that up myself; I’m being lazy again!

Your exercise programme sounds effective indeed and yes I experienced the same on my first 8 weeker. Withdrawal? Perhaps. I found the only way I could manage the plan was by focusing on it 100%. And now exercise is easier and maybe you’ve noticed this too, the weight does seem to be coming off faster.

And the Christmas decorations are down! You have been productive. Probably best before the rain though. Trying to dry all the decorations before storing them would be a nightmare.

My peak..not really sure. I walked a walk I used to do with my dogs, sadly both passed now. It’s uphill and through the woods. I was pleased that I could get up without too much difficulty but disappointed that it didnt amount to as far distance wise as I’d hoped but my muscles were quite tired after.

The pit was that for some reason I have wanted to eat all day. Fortunately the house is empty of the real sinful stuff but I’ve eaten half a packet of walnuts, a few handfuls of dried cranberries and the rest of a piece of gorgonzola! Dreadful. This has happened before. I’d love to know why. I’d love to say I’ll skip dinner but I’ll be first at the table.

Well done with your soups; organisation is the only way to succeed, isn’t it? And there’s nothing quite as comforting as home made soup.

Have a good first day back…Angela

I’m not a breakfast person so I do a 16:8 fast which gives me an eating window between noon and 8:00 PM. I also love eggs so I’m always glad to have an omelette for lunch or dinner. That leaves me with only one decent suggestion for you: coconut cream chia pudding. Get a can of coconut cream, or if you can’t find it, get a can of coconut milk and put it in the fridge for a few hours. When you open it, the cream will have solidified. Scoop it out and put it in a bowl. Add a third of a cup of chia seeds, fresh vanilla or extract , a grating of lime zest and any of the coconut liquid left in the can. Stir everything together vigorously or use a hand-beater if you have one.

Chia releases a natural gelatin when added to a liquid. Let it sit for five minutes and it will turn to pudding all on its own. If you keep the chia seeds whole, you’lI get a tapioca-like consistency which I quite like, but most of the time I run the seeds through my spice grinder before adding to the coconut cream because I enjoy the smoother texture.

The great thing about this pudding is that it’s high in healthy fat courtesy of the coconut and high in fiber courtesy of the chia so it fills you up like nobody’s business. It is also incredibly rich, luscious and silky on the tongue like the creamiest of ice creams. A serving of 70 grams is 177 calories with only one gram of carb. I add a few blueberries sometimes if I’ve found some good ones (crappy supermarket blueberries aren’t worth the sugar to me, even in small quantities).

Oh you big fuss pot, you are just like my daughter, no mushrooms, no leeks, no eggs no food that squeaks or is slimy and on and on and on LOL

I just googled it to find out what it was and that is what it said, like any computer info it could very well be wrong. It talked about it as though it was a drink of fermented goats milk though, not a yoghurt. Or it could be a very big cup.

Pcoventry ……hi and Happy New Year Happy New You and well done!
Your post to Sue was really informative…..my hubby is struggling he’s 6-3 and overweight ( needs to lose 3.5 stones) he’s working overseas and by himself so hasn’t me there to plan, shop and cook…..he’s got the book and recipes and I think he’ll have to adapt ……having small quantities of potato and rice occasionally……his palate is certainly changing as he loves spicy cauli rice which previously he wouldn’t even look at !!!!!
I’ve given him lots of recipes from Diet Doctor which are really good ( low carb, gluten free and low cal) and he’s going to try and make the bread , which is Physillum husk flour.
It’s great your FBS is down to within normal limits……….have you much weight to lose? And how fab that your wife has lost 8lbs …….
Have you any tips on recipes you like? Hubby only likes eggs disguised ( ha ha!!!) hates celery, cabbage, kale, Aubergine ….loves peas, carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, bread ,rice and pasta ……so it’s going to be hard especially where he is ( a small island in the Caribbean) …….thanks and well done again x

Iwanttobeslim, If you dont have something to eat late evening your body thinks you are being starved and the liver pumps out glycogen at around 5 am. This is called the Dawn Phenonomen (I cant spell it) and is very well known. Try to have a non carb snack before bed like a piece of cheese or cold meat or a glass of milk. I also read that a teaspoon of vinegar can prevent this but I have yet to try that as I always leave a few calories to spare so I can have my snack.

Just apropos of my recent post, I realise that I probably need to combine exercise with my low carb eating,

I wonder if anyone else finds that their blood sugar levels go up even when they don’t have any carbs? Last night my bs was 6.2, but this morning, without even a cup of tea, it was up to 7.1. Made me think I have a long way to go before my diabetes is reversed.

I read about someone who decided to limit their eating to an eight hour period in every twenty four, and decided to give it a try. I am retired, and have developed the habit of staying awake a lot of the night, and then sleeping until midday, and have been eating between 1.00 pm and 9.00 pm. I have noticed that this has led to me resisting snacks outside that period, and realised that much of the time I was eating for something to do rather than because I was hungry.

Sunshine Girl, your OH’s suggestion made me laugh out loud. Can’t be bothered to walk to the kitchen for a creme egg….? . Maybe you should suggest he changes the name to mal-mal dish ….

Hi Sunshine-girl
Not sure how much a cup of kefir is but that does seem a lot of calories and an awful lot of kefir. I have 100g a day at 53 calories which fits in very well with the 800 and I don’t think I would want anymore. Husband has the same and that is the maximum he would have in a day.

Carbs are a little higher than Fage Total Yoghurt but not a lot higher.

Lunch out – small chips, 4 meatballs and coleslaw, tea crudités and houmous with ham, greek yogurt and grapefruit. Walked 3.76 miles. Down 3/4 lb, only 2 and 1/4lbs of Christmas excess to go now, very happy.

Thank you folks! And thankyou @sunshine-girl for those breakfast tips!

I really dont like mushrooms, fish of any kind or eggs…. I’m beginning to feel that I’m not cut out for a Mediterranean diet!

It is really unfair that juices are so delicious, but immediately turn fruit into something which is almost pre-digested, anabolic as opposed to catabolic, and which slips down without effort, turning all its calories immediately to fat, with no energy required to digest. I was shocked at how sweet carrot juice is. I did find, however, that even if the fibre is taken out, the taste of pips, etc from fruits like apples, pears and grapes is very strong. Orange juice is my favourite, but because of the high carb content I decided to substitute slimline tonic water, with a slug of vodka (no carbs at all) and find that I don’t feel so deprived in terms of fruit juice now.

Hi Kizzie,

I could never gym on 800 calories I would end up passing out on the treadmill, so kudos to you!

Hi Sue 🙂

I started the diet on Sat 31st December. but I since had problems where I had to stop (4th Jan) . I then decided to stick to foods I knew were around the 1000 calorie mark. I keep an eye on my carbs and stopped drinking so much water. I actually went back to my usual drinking habits with coke Zero and a few glass of water a day. At this point I was 15.10.

Kept up cooking and eating from the book, I am addicted to Chicken Satay but we have it with Cauliflower Rice (homemade) and I just weighed myself and I am now 15.5 so I have lost 5 pounds in a week. I sit at a desk for 8 hours a day so I am not really active, but it’s still working.

My wife is not diabetic but she is doing this for weight loss. Believe it or not she’s lost 8 pounds since the 31st of December.

I am diabetic and my fasting levels this morning was 5.8 which I am well chuffed about (not getting the dawn effect anymore, even when not eating anything before bed)

We eat chicken and fish, I do my best to stick to veg grown above the ground, but yesterday for lunch I had some Salmon and peas in a bowl and it was delish!. We also have for many years ate broccoli and cauliflower with meals. Frozen which I always find cheaper and better ( got to love Iceland!)

As for the breakfast, my dad has had 2 eggs every morning for most of his life, she swears by them. We have 2 as well, straight out the shell and eaten whole, it fills me up no problems until lunch.

SO stick with it – it’s worth it, I have only been at it a week (4 days officially calorie counting etc) and I am doing great.

One problem I seem to have is that every 2 days I miss my daily metformin, which means that every other day I have really bad diarrhea which is bound to be helping with the weight loss lol.

Angela06, I forgot to congratulate you on your past week weight loss. That is wonderful! Here’s to another week ahead of more success.

Hi Lexy

If he can get canned brown or puy lentils they could make a good alternative to rice or potatoes. I make a dish which is basically fried onions with a can of tomatoes and herbs added just cooked down slowly then add the lentils for the last 10 minutes to warm through. Mary Berry has a lovely haddock (or any fish) with puy lentil recipe which is very easy to find online and is simple to make.

Also canned butter or haricot beans are great mashed with some butter and seasoning. Chickpeas make a good curry especially with butternut squash if available. Also good for making a dip ie. hummus. I know these sound very carby but used as a side with chicken or fish they make a really satisfying meal.

I am staying low carb also but have increased calories now I am on maintenance. A very interesting thing has happened with my metabolism or circulation – I am not sure which one it is. I have all my adult life really felt the cold and this has got really really bad as I have got older. Husband used to joke that he couldn’t understand how someone could be so cold but still be alive.

This winter I seem to be radiating heat – it is as though the 800 seemed to rev up my metabolism or something. So have ditched the layers and a lot of the time I am wearing my lightweight tops. Have also ditched the hot water bottle and various things I used to heat in the microwave to keep me warm. I now say words no one has ever heard me say – like ‘I must turn the heating down because I am too hot’.

Energy levels are also up significantly. I feel like someone 20 years younger now. Although I really don’t remember feeling this good 20 years ago.

Sunshine-girl/ BMEJPE…..I think my hubby is going to cut out the bad carbs now which will bring the calories down anyway…..he is going to aim for a 1000 cal /60 gms carbs now ….as he’s tall ( but is 3stone overweight) .

I always think once you’re on a mission to really alter your way of eating and way of life it will always work…it has to ! As one becomes more thoughtful about what one chooses ….one looks at the science and the evidence.

Michael Mosely is a wonderful and thought provoking doctor and journalist.

I also tried kalettes yesterday but I steamed then lightly and then stir fried with garlic, chilli, ginger and a touch of soy and I must admit I liked them. They had a sweetish slightly nutty flavour. In saying that I think the humble sprout makes a better ‘steamed’ vegetable.

Sunshine-girl best friends are very rarely disappear after just one falling out! Glad you’ve sorted things though.

grilled bacon and half an avocado. grilled mushrooms with sliced tomato. the no-carb bircher might suit you which is 1 tablespoon of raisins, 50ml apple juice (which I find too much), 2 tbsp. plain yog, 1 tbsp crush walnuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon – make the night before minus the yog. I use half the juice and add 5 gm of oats to soak it up. kippers and tomato. spinach mushroom and melted feta cheese. yog with seeds and berries. I have a nutribullet and once or twice a week make a smoothie based on spinach and berries, either with green tea or almond milk. And to finish – my favourite, marinated grilled apricots with greek yoghurt.

Hope that keeps you going for a couple of weeks.

Hi there, this is a very nutrient full diet and I am not sure about what your husband has got but if he needs to lose weight that is surely going to be better for his spinal column. Cutting out the bad carbs is really all this diet is about unless you are doing 800 calories which can bring its own problems, mainly thinking what to eat and planning. If he is worried he could start with the 5:2 and see how he gets on with the fast days or just do the Med diet. If he is not doing 800 then just getting rid of the carbs is a good thing.

Aww no!! Any ideas for alternatives for breakfast then if I cant have eggs?

Totally agree Snoop re how a tall man is sustained on 800 calls a day………can other large men post in please so I can get an idea as I’ve just been on the phone to my hubby this morning with a recipe plan and shopping list ……we did the Cambridge diet together which worked well however he was allowed more calories than me!

My hubby got a serious wake up call from the GP he’s an overweight 6-3 ex rugby player working ovseas he was in one of only 3 supermarkets on the island and we were going through his shopping list for this and he was really struggling to find items ….no cauliflower, cabbages, lettuce and carrots wilted, no spinach….we have had to resort to tinned goods unfutunately……he did buy ham, tomatoes, cheese, eggs, avocados, chicken and fish however…..so I’d be extremely grateful for any recipe advice based on these……TumTumP gave us great ideas to make ‘sandwiches’ using ham or lettuce as wraps…..but I think he will probably need to add rice and potatoes as they are the staples on the island . Wishing everyone a great week !

As an aside (to quote Jules) I have sorted things out with my best friend and everything is okay.

Sorry Alan but if you are going to have porridge you are going to have to reduce the amount you probably would eat. It is high in carbs even though they are good carbs (60 grams per 100 grams). Pre BSD I used to have 35 grams but the book says 25 grams which gives you 15g carb. Then you have to think what you put on it and count that too. It is something I would have once a week.

Could be worse, he could have said “bonbonniere” – very Hyacinth.

As an aside, I tried the kalettes today, raw they were OK, cooked I think I prefer kale or sprouts.

Saying the same as the others. I followed the 800 calories with very low carb for most of last year to reach my goal weight. I started as a diabetic but my blood sugars rapidly became normal.

Since reaching my original target weight (and going 14 pounds under it) I’ve been maintaining at the lower weight with no difficulty. I’ve slightly increased calories but stayed low carb. I’m never hungry, and have more energy (at 66) than for many a long year.

Hope this helps.

Hi. You may want to look at a thread ‘this has to work for me ‘. Bill records his journey and how he dealt with blood sugars, medication, retinopathy, etc. Long, but worth a look.

Great result by the way.

Hi Sarah, welcome. Just either jump into any threads that interest you, or start your own, some people find a diary thread useful where they can record their own ups and downs along the way. You will find a lot of experience and good advice from other posters, so if anything is concerning you just ask away.

Definitely try upping the fibre though, maybe up the water as well and add a little salt to your meals if you aren’t already. I know from experience how weight loss appears to stall with constipation, even though the inches are still going.

2 lbs in a week is not bad – it may seem low compared to some of the larger figures people experience but remember that some starting this diet are doing so from almost twice your weight, so they will have a much bigger deficit at 800 cal so have bigger numbers, but as a % of body weight….

So don’t underestimate your losses, stick at it – celebrate it

Everyone is welcome, we are all in this together no matter which stage we are at.

Hi Sara well done on 100pct I am still at about 90pct with about 950!cals yesterday. I am preparing all my food and making soup today for next week so I can be more organized. Yes this weighing myself each day a bit good and bad. I started around 210.8 on tuesday and yesterday 207.8. So got sun and mon for a full week. I think I will weigh tomorrow and make Mon my new first week ish. I am 5.5 so I really want to be 150 ish by summer. Yes I want to look decent again!!! Let us know how you go!

Thank you @krysiad @esnecca and @avila for your help! There was me thinking I could be clever with juicing! I wish I liked eggs and fish! Can’t take eggs for breakfast…. So I might stick with porridge!

I also do a lot of exercise. In summer I swim up to 3 times a day (I have my own pool) and it was always around my late afternoon swim that I would go seriously low. In winter I tend to do my exercise nearer meal-times like aerobics in the morning about 1 hour after eating or walking in the afternoon, again about an hour after eating. In order to swim 3 hours after eating (4 or 5 pm) I test my blood before I go in and if it is below about 4.8 I eat a couple of prunes and a small plain Greek yoghurt. If it has dropped after exercise I do the same (although not before and after, just once). Before when I had lows I would panic and stuff my face with something quick and either carby or sugary, the prunes and yoghurt saved me from messing up my blood sugar and weight loss efforts.

This diet is a massive learning curve and can be quite scary because you see changes so quickly. Just keep on keeping on…… (my catch phrase)

Hi I have never done this forum thing before so don’t know the correct way of joining in, so hope it is correct to just write here. I am new To the BSD. I am 4 days in and would love to be part of a group for support. Have stuck to the first four days eating plan 100 % not feeling too bad, a few headaches, but nothing major.. I have not weighed yet. I seriously wish to change my life so that I can look in the mirror and not be offended by what I see. So would really value some thoughts, advice or encouragement from others wishing to change their appearance as well.
Hope this was the correct way to make contact.

If you read the book MM talks about metabolism. Apparently the studies were done just after the war and carried out on men who had been in concentration camps and whose bodies had completely shut down. In the past studies were only carried out to the scientific ability available. For example, now they can put you in a metabolic chamber and measure everything accurately. No, this diet does not slow down the metabolism, and yes, you will regain weight if you start over eating or eating rubbish, just like you would after any diet. I think the difference is that you are not expected to go back to your old ways, this is a way of life. On other diets I believe the number of people who regain all their weight or more is around 95%, although don’t quote me on exact numbers.

Hi Sunshine girl

Thanks for your reply – I’m not on insulin – in fact it was my surgery’s suggestion that I start which prompted me to try the BSD. I will stick on the 40Mg / day to see how things settle down. I’ve been doing quite a lot of exercise as well, which is clearly having an effect. Thanks you for encouragement! I must admit – I cracked last night and had a leftover mince pie! 🙂

Welcome Sarah. Find a thread that interests you or start your own, just hop on board and enjoy the ride.

You have probably discovered the reason. You are not massively overweight, unless you are 4 foot 2. No bowel movement could be accounting for your lack of weight movement, you could add something like chia seeds or other fibre to help with that.

Hello All

So many inspiring and motivating posts! I’m trying to keep up with them all but probably wont post often myself as I’m not good at this sort of thing and always seem short of time.

I started on Tuesday and nearly 4lbs off when I weighed in today, which I am delighted with.

I’ve been using ‘my fat secret’ to record food and exercise and although I have tried to plan, im not finding it easy to stick below 800 cals or 60g carbs. I need to look at my menus and see where I can shave off a few cals and carbs. The food I’m eating is healthy but we tend to eat the higher carb veg like peppers, onions etc. I probably need to go with more of the green stuff and of course cauli. Im not veggie but try not to have meat too often sticking mainly to chicken and fish. Eggs feature heavily at breakfast!
I’m thinking as I get more into the bsd mode, I might skip breakfast if I don’t feel hungry. That should help to keep within the cal/carb targets.

I’m so happy to have found this forum – I’m feeling very optimistic that I can avoid diabetes by eating this way – thanks all – keep up the good work x

My husband and I will be doing this together. We are newbies and plan to start in a couple of days time – I need to get the larder sorted first!

Here comes the advice bit – we are 82 and 67 respectively. He is a well man, although has skeletal spinal mobility problems and needs to lose weight (guess that holds for all of us, eh?)! He wants to do the low carb plan. Is there any reason why he should not?