There hasn’t been many studies on longer term fasting so I wanted to ask those here how they’ve found fasting for prolonged periods of time and eating low carb. When people have come off the diet, have people found they have to eat far fewer calories and have far less tolerance to carbs?

(For info, I’m on the first week and have found it quite tough, mainly the lack of energy. I’m also worried that consistently low calories will damage my metabolism so have strategically eaten more today and had more carbs to give me a boost and allow me to do an intense exercise class tomorrow.)

Thank you for explaining this so clearly (particularly about what to expect at the end of your target…. this would have left me really disheartened if I hadn’t have been forewarned!

the moving down the clothes scale threads remind me of a thread (or multiple ones) about the “perfect window” for jeans.
I don’t really wear skirts – I’ve found the best way to keep in trousers for a longish time is elasticated waists – never had them when in large sizes, but I’ve found them a great option moving down through 16s and 14s.
And I’ve discovered jeggings and very stretchy jeans for casual wear.

Frozen ginger – sounds excellent.
I made my own batch in the summer because I didn’t use it that often, but currently having it every day – initially for my cold, but supposed to be great for digestion too, so I’m planning to continue with it. On one hand, using fresh would be OK if I’m using a lot, but grabbing a cube from the freezer is sooo easy – I’m not that organised in the morning!
Looking at the website, it’s cheaper than fresh ginger, and no additives, so I will look for it next time I go in a big tescos.
On shopping, I don’t have them often now, but switched to using ‘snap pots’ of baked beans, as only 2 portions in a pot instead of a huge tin. Waitrose have them at half price at the moment, including the low sugar variety.

Sunshine Girl – I am so glad I don’t have anyone else bringing food into the house – could not cope with a fridge full of chocolate. That’s not to say I don’t have the occasional un-bsd binge, but I do only have myself to blame!

I juiced for many years — carrots and fennel was my favorite combo — but I don’t think it’s compatible with a low carb way of life. Unless you’re using a high-powered blender like the Vitamix, juicing removes all fiber from fruit and vegetables, making the gross weight of sugars and carbohydrates the net weight. You no longer get to deduct grams of fiber from the carb total, so to all intents and purposes you are increasing the carb count of healthy foods by running them through the juicer.

I did juicing this time last year (before finding BSD) and yes lots of stuff fits into a juice but most of the ones on the plan I followed had high sugar fruits in them. Also whilst I made it through the week the craving to bite something not just drink was huge. As once a day may be ok but be wary as BSD doesn’t really embrace a lot of fruit and prefers above ground veg to the carby roots – at least at the 8 weeks stage.

And don’t try to stay *below* 800cal, we need that much in good nutrients and being under is a bad thing, probably worse than being a bit over.

Have you watched the Michael Moseley pieces on youtube?

Oh,
And there are Easter eggs in the shops already !!!😠😠😠😠😠
Love Lucia
Xxxx

Don’t forget, doing something 70% of the time is better than nothing at all.
So just give it a go.

Love Lucia xxxx

Hi folks! Just started BSD this week. Trying to stick below 800, but wondered if anyone has been juicing as part of BSD?

I was impressed by the juice approach as a good way of getting nutrients in easily, following watching “fat sick and nearly dead” on Netflix.

I’ve been juicing carrots, celery and apples for breakfast! Anybody with any advice or comment?

Hi Way of Life, Mrs TLC and VeganSarah

Sorry I missed your posts until now. Been so busy and every spare minute has been spent getting my head round the change from low fat vegan to BSD 800.

I hope your BSD 800 start is going well and I really look forward to reading about your progress and how you are managing as vegans. I think that being able to share our experiences on this forum will be a great support and encouragement.

Garlic mushrooms ………….. am now craving this ! Roll on Monday’s shopping day.

Wise choice!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. This really seems like a good place to be.

There’s so much to read up on and finding time is a challenge as life is busy right now. I haven’t even finished the book yet but I’m reading posts, recipes and links on this forum and getting it all together.

Orchid – thanks ever so much for your posts on this subject – they are so practical and informative and it’s great to have a veggie/vegan perspective. It is definitely hard to achieve 60g carb limits as a vegan. I’ve been using an online nutrition tracker app and haven’t managed to get them low enough yet but they are much lower than before and as soon as I get some recipes sorted out it should be ok. I need to do some shopping and get some ingredients for my new BSD 800 way of life. Unfortunately where we live for much of the year you can’t buy firm tofu or soya yogurt which sound invaluable for the low carb proteins and my previous attempts at making them from scratch were less than successful ! It will be bliss to be back in the UK for a couple of months and only 10 days til we get back there. Readily available ingredients will make life easier but for now I am making big changes and am nearly there.

I suspect many favourite vegan recipes should be fairly easily adaptable to the BSD 800 plan so I will log them onto the app and figure it out asap.

Thanks for the advice Angela 06 – I made a brown lentil casserole with onions, garlic, carrots, celery red and yellow peppers, tinned tomatoes and some lovely vegan organic bouillon which was only 218 calories per portion but 34g of carbs so quite a chunk of my daily carb allowance. Some adjustments needed to make it BSD 800 friendly….. I’ll look into quinoa as they have started selling it locally now.

The good news is I can feel weight loss already after just a few days even though I haven’t got it all together yet. My jeans are looser and I’m less bloated. Very encouraging. The bad news is I ended up having some raw almonds for my meal tonight as I had used up more than my carb allowance already.They were surprisingly filling and helped with the fat levels too but it did look so tiny.

So, I hope to be able to post something more constructive once I get going properly.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to share experiences and encouragement here. It is really appreciated and your successes are very impressive.

Looks like the online 12 week course costs a lot! Think I’ll stick with the forum!

My daughter works for a famous chocolate manufacturer and when we go see her my husband heads straight for the staff shop where you can get a bar of chocolate for 10p or a cream egg for 10p or 10 for 50p. You get what I mean, some seconds, some getting close to sell by date etc. He comes home with about £20 of chocolate. I doesn’t bother me as I don’t have a sweet tooth but I am human and can be tempted, try to stick with my 85% square of dark chocolate now and then.

Tonight the idiot (sorry but he is, read on…) said, wouldn’t it be nice if we put out a selection of chocolate in a nice bonbon dish so we could just pick as we want instead of having to go and get them from the cupboard. I’ll let you know when he gets up off the floor. Bloody men. Or should I say bloody non diabetic men.

In a former life before 1st October 2016…..Marmite on toast with a fried egg ontop:-)

If I can get splinters in my bum I am sitting on the fence here. I like both, having lived in Oz and UK I think the Marmite has a much stronger taste that can burn your mouth and Vegemite has a more meaty flavour, but I like both anyway, maybe as I have a savoury palate and don’t like sweet things.

Energy is stored as glycogen in your liver and muscles, which is glucose combined with water. When you start the diet, the first thing your body does is burn up your glycogen, releasing all that water. That is where it gets the energy you need when you stop eating sugar/starch. The glycogen is heavy, so you will show a dramatic weight loss as you burn it. You will pee about 3-4 litres extra in those first few days. I was getting up 4 times a night for the first 3 nights.

When the glycogen is depleted, your body will start to burn fat. This is when the real weight loss happens.

You may lose around 8 pounds of water the first week, then settle into about 2 pounds of fat loss a week. If you don’t revert to your previous eating habits, this fat loss will be permanent.

After 8 weeks, you will have lost over 20 pounds, about 8 pounds of water and 12 pounds of fat. Every extra week will mean an extra 2 pounds of fat lost.

If you fall off the wagon and have a high carb day, the only thing you will do is rebuild your glycogen levels. You can easily gain 3 pounds in 1 day, but this is just water. A couple of 800 calorie days and those 3 pounds will quickly disappear.

When you get to your target weight and up your calorie intake, you will rebuild your glycogen stores so you will regain the water you lost in week 1, which is fine and expected. You should overshoot your target weight to account for this.

At that point you need to go on a good exercise program to help prevent regaining the fat you lost. A tape measure is your friend as weight gained by building muscle is good, but you want to keep the fat off your gut!

Although I agree with Jules that we are responsible for what we put in our mouths, I have to say the advertising industry has a lot to answer for. Have you seen how they market high sugar breakfast cereals to families. The kids like them because they are sweet the mums buy them because ads say they are a healthy start to the day. So many more examples like a Mars a day helps you work rest and place, inferring it is good for you. If you have not been educated in health and nutrition you tend to trust what you are told and there is so much misleading information and sometimes downright lies although they have to be careful how they couch the lies. Some breakfast cereals makers have been taken to task for blatantly saying ‘prevents heart disease’ when what they mean is, ‘it is better than a deep fried breakfast’.

When I was training to be a nurse we had to do a nutrition course and the first thing the nurse educator said was ‘this is the most boring subject your will ever study and most of you will fail the exam’. Guess what, she was wrong, it was not most of us failing, we all failed. I passed on resit but yes it was totally dull so we cannot blame lay people to know any better.

I have just done the FutureLearn course A Diabetic Epidemic which started out well talking about Prof Taylor and new research. Then further on in the course it talked about the importance of eating 5 starchy carbs a day. So many people on the course were up in arms about it. I am about to start ‘The Science of Nutrition’ with the same people (Dundee University) so we will see what they have to say.

Craving something sweet. I sure am. Only day one for me …hmm

If you’re craving something sweet , try the Pukka Teas Cinnamon tea. It’s really sweet, lovely flavour and on offer in Tesco!!!

I’m waiting for a delivery of Protein Pow protein powder ( pea and whey protein) She does LOTS of recipes – bread, pancakes, cakes,biscuits, bars etc. I’m hoping there will be a few gems to try. I guess the only thing to keep an eye on is not overdoing the protein and keeping eye on fibre. I don’t have a sweet tooth but the bread recipe looked easy- couple of scoops of the powder, egg white, whole egg. She also used cooked broccoli. Looked yummy.

Ah. thanks. This probably accounts for the 4lb dropped over night too! I love salt…. yay!

I have had a dramatic experience related to increased night time tinnitus and blood sugar. Hopefully the medics have now found the answer. Although I have had mild tinnitus for many years, over the last six months I have had at least five episodes of extremely loud noises and a feeling of very high pressure in my ear. On at least three occasions I have been woken around 3 in the morning by the abnormal tinnitus. Then it happened again one mid afternoon, but was accompanied by paralysis of one side of my face. Everything went back to normal after about 20 minutes. I was eventually diagnosed as having had a mini – stroke (or TIA), although MRI scans, heart tests and various other tests could find no other symptoms. I was also told that the tinnitus was probably a coincidence. Then earlier this week the tremendous tinnitus happened again, accompanied by Facial Paralysis. I was rushed to hospital, but on the way my blood sugar was tested. It was found to be extremely low and the hospital confirmed that the Facial Paralysis had been caused by Hypoglycemia. Evidently this can be a rare but convincing mimic of a TIA. Following further research I’ve found that hypoglycemia should be eliminated as a possible cause of any suspected Stroke, as it is often responsible for misdiagnosis. However the most relevant fact that I have unearthed is that hypoglycemia is especially common in the middle of the night when blood sugar levels fall to their lowest. In some people (and it would seem including me) the body produces too much insulin which exhausts the sugar in food 3 or 4 hours after a meal. Sugar levels drop below normal tolerances before the body can adjust. It seems to be one of those areas not yet fully understood, and in my case missed by three GP’s and several specialists, until I was “lucky” to have been taken ill in an emergency situation, when the hospital solved the mystery of apparently unrelated symptoms. This has all happened in the last week whilst I have been on holiday in Switzerland, I’ve therefore yet to follow up with my own medics back home, but Googling “Hypoglycemia stroke mimic” and “Tinnitus blood sugar” has produced some interesting reading. I’d be intrigued to know others experiences in this area.

Little sachets of miso soup paste are great, only 30 cals.

captainlynne……….you are what I aspire to be. Slim, happy, heathy and active. Thanks for the posts.:-)

Thanks Happygirl.. At the start of this diet I would have been devastated not to have lost any weight. But now………..very happy with how things are going.
We are out tonight so I have made some biscuits to eat with cheese. I have spoken to my sil and told her I am being very careful with what I eat because………….you know the rest:-) She will have lots of nibbles out and will phone for pizza later, all of which I don’t want. She is quite understanding and is happy for me to do my own thing. So sparkling mineral water and diet doctor pie crust made into biscuits for me and hubby tonight. Tomorrow I am going to try and fast until evening meal to make up for the extra we have eaten over the last few days even though it has been BS friendly.

Water retention seems to be caused by carbs, and when you drop the carbs significantly the water is released, as long as you are also drinking enough water to replace it. It is useful when you are burning fat as the by-products are removed by the water as well, this is part of the reason for the well known plateau-whoosh cycle later in the diet, as partially burnt fat cells also fill with water and then release all of a sudden. It can also deplete sodium so make sure you are adding a little salt to things.

Lunch out – small portion chilli, cheese and small salad. Dinner tuna, salad and dressing. Greek yogurt and 8 raspberries, 2 small chunks of pineapple. Milk in coffee.
Walked 9,000 steps. Apart from head cold feeling good. Oh and 6 and 3/4 lbs off of Christmas excess, only 3 more to go!
Have walked 20 miles this week towards my 1,000. I am only recording ‘boots on’ miles.

JulesMaigret, I totally 100% agree with you. My life, my health I am the one responsible for what I eat and drink. Not the gp, prime minister or anyone else. My choice what goes in. I am totally behind the BSD in every way. Those that know can advise but its upto me and only me what I eat and drink.

Thank you Carb_Addict and congratulations on your loss.
Small steps lead to major achievements, so they say!
And Fairyface, hang in there, you haven’t put on weight, so that’s good too!

Or am I being over optimistic in general?
We’ll all get there in the end, I hope 😋
I’ve read what others have done and am always impressed!
Cheers

Daisysmum – Thank you so much for the great advice. X

Thank you wayoflife.
Any encouragement is gratefully received. So far so good, Had the Cauliflower and red pepper soup for lunch – delicious! Not doing quite so well on vast quantities of water, but still passing loads of it strangely. Shall carry on regardless.

Well done for the steps and gym, jmarie. As a matter of interest how long does it take you to get to 10,000 steps? And do you know why 10,000 is the magic number?
Good luck with the rain..the problem is that when it rains heavily after a drought, the rain just slides off the land. We have to have big tanks buried in the garden for new builds so rain that falls on your garden stays on your garden.

My peak for yesterday is a loss of 1.2kgs since Monday…am delighted. The exercise really helped me to lose the Christmas weight and then some.

Pit The morning was ok but felt very washed out after lunch, lacking in energy and with a mild head cold. Not very bad just enough to take the shine off the day.

I too am back to work on Monday. I teach a few hours a week but it would be nice to stay at home and focus on reinventing myself 😉

Have a good day!

Even more things I know nothing about ;).

I had my first fitting for my new suit this morning and the chap said that, as I was aiming to lose another couple of stone he would put “floating” ( he may have said “flying”) darts into the suit. I just nodded appreciatively.

Hi Iwanttobeslim,

But what would you do? Ban them? We already have a food regulatory process which bans or limits products, for example the reduction in trans fats in the US, again evidence based.

Like most things (alcohol, red meat, saturated fat, licorice allsorts, whatever etc.) they should be consumed in moderation and, as such, it becomes a matter of personal choice and responsibility. The alternative is a nanny state. telling you what you can and can’t eat and good luck enforcing that. I’m old enough to remember when red wine was bad for you, then good for you, then OK in moderation.

People simply have to be responsible for what they consume. What BSD does require is the self-discipline to stick to a structured and somewhat restrictive diet. I’m guessing for all of us who are and/or have been overweight, no-one forced us to eat or drink what we did. I take full responsibility for my weight and for the impact on my health. The fact that cakes, pies or whatever are available is neither here nor there, as it was me who consumed more calories than I burned.

Getting the wake up call in July last year gave me the spur to change my ways of eating and lose more than five stone. The products are still there so I would suggest that they are a mere sideshow.

What are your experiences on BSD?

So I’m approaching the end of Day 2 and I can’t stop weeing. Literally, as frequently as hourly and always a good volume. I’m not aware of drinking more (although I suppose its possible), I’m definitely not pregnant, and a seimens dipstick is not suggestive of infection. No (sorry but gross) odor, burning and nice and pale, with good quantities produced each time…. is this a carb thing?

Oimadam, leather is easier to work with than you might imagine. If you are taking it in down the seam with the zip just proceed as you would with fabric (using stronger thread and longer stitches). You have two options for sewing 1) Sew on the machine as you would with fabric or, 2) make guide holes by sewing on a machine with no thread and then handsew using the holes created by the machine. If the seam won’t lie flat afterwards it’s advisable to use a thin layer of glue to stick it in place. If I was doing it I would probably go for method 1 for the seam and method 2 to replace the zip. Hope that helps.

Hi everyone. Just about to finish my first week. Started well then my son came home with his girlfriend so that meant meal preparation and cooking was a challenge. They’re going home tomorrow so hope to get stuck into the programme.
I read some posts about ginger. I’ve found frozen cubes of ginger in Tesco ( along side Asian food) . Really good for adding to cooking. I use fresh for my morning half apple and half pear juice which I have every day. I always add an inch of fresh ginger, tsp of ground flaxseeds and tsp lecithin. Sometimes use other fruit or berries. But stay from exotic sweet fruit. I find this juice every morning helps to keep colds away.
I notice on BSD website there is a a 12 week plan starting on Monday. Has anyone followed this? Is it a good idea to join?? Thanks for your inspirational posts. X

Are there any plans in the near future to translate the The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet and the The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet Recipe book iinto German?

The UK government limit for total sugars is 90g, the American limit is for added sugars and about 25g or 6 teaspoons. The NHS guidelines for added sugar are max 30g or 5% of total calories. I can’t find a WHO figure from that quick look. Suffice it to say, no-one following BSD principles, even the way of lifers who no longer count calories or carbs will be running into any problems with those limits.

I assume that limit is free or added sugars otherwise as you say it must be impossible. I get more than that from milk. I will have to do some looking but thought the limit was quite a lot higher than that.

Congratulations Carb -Addict on your 500g weight loss.

Weighed in today and I am the same as last week.

100.2

Out tonight for a party. Tomorrow is another day.

Happygirl, enjoy your family visit. Yes, we all need a certain amount of flexibility or this is not sustainable long-term.

I exercised the flexibility option tonight btw. Having had an apparent mild 24 hour stomach bug pass through since last night I was left hungry but also mentally ‘off food’ today. Has it stopped me eating? Umm, no. Dry toast would be the normal option but there’s no bread in the house and I know exactly what carb-carnage would have happened if I had popped out for a loaf. So I had my usual BSD soya yoghurt brekkie and made the lentil daal from the book for lunch.The thought of my regular fish and veggies dinner made me want to throw up however, so I scoured the cupboard, which is intentionally quite bare. Tonight has been a compromise as I felt I needed some bland carbs to settle my tummy, so I opened a packet of ready-made so-called ‘healthy’ apple and cinnamon pancake mix that I bought for the first time pre BSD then shoved to the back of the cupboard. As a result I’ll be going to bed 1000 kcals down (not awful) and a whopping 101g carbs consumed (eeeeeeeeek).

Is anyone else monitoring their sugars? The WHO guidelines recommend no more than 5g a day for an adult. Even with sugar-free yoghurt, a small number of hazelnuts and the home-made daal for lunch I had hit that level. (Again, let’s not mention the pancakes.) 5g is a day is near impossible!!!

I thought I’d add my day 1 starting weight…. a bit of motivation to keep me focused.
Currently 150lb- 30lb ish from my 1st target weight (I’m only 5ft)

Ooooh – and Verano. Forgot to say – definitely donate all the bigger clothes to charity and treat yourself.
You deserve it! X

I always get really excited hearing stories about dropping clothes sizes. It is such a positive experience and I love it more than just losing weight. Even comfortably wearing something that used to be too snug is a bonus and such a pick-me-up on a grey day.

Daisiesmum, as a trained dress-maker, I wonder if you could give me some advice. I have. A gorgeous leather pencil skirt that I wore over 30years ago. It is now a little too big, and it has a slight tear below the back fastening zip, so I was wondering is it salvageable? How easy is it to repair/alter a leather skirt? Will it be possible to just take it in along the back seam (in order to remove the tear)? Not sure if you are able to advise. Thank you.

Tea-related – anyone tried liquorice and fennel by Tea Pigs. Stupidly expensive I know, but well worth it for a tasty treat. And if you are a tea-bag-slag like me, you can always re-use the tea bag again. I know! How common!!!! X

Vegetarians often struggle to stay under 50g, it may not be a problem if you are slightly higher than this, if you are still losing weight. If the weightloss stops then you may have to continue the struggle, but try 60g net carbs as i believe some other vegetarians have and see how it goes. Just keep the quality of carb sources high and you could still be okay.

MrsTLC – how about tofu scramble for breakfast? Ideal with your garlic mushrooms too! I’m going to make lentil dahl for dinner.

Welcome back both of you 😀 I think i started at about the same time as you Janeycoughdrop, in May ish, don’t remember an exact day as it was a gradual process. I am still a little heavier than I want to end up, but very fit now. A recent scan told me I have the metabolism of someone 15 years younger which can’t be a bad thing. When I have reached my goal weight I will still be looking out for hints and tips on maintaining so keep posting if you can.

Hi MrsTLC13,
Great to have you on the forum! Lack of carbs when you are not a meat eater is scary as the tendency has always been to fill up with pasta and rice, and all the lovely high carb vegs! However…. the big change this in this approach is that it is not low fat. Avoiding everything that says low fat as it has usually been replaced by sugar – so low fat, high carb. I am veggie not vegan, so I suddenly could eat cheese and full fat yoghurt and olive oil dressings – and that is filling and tasty.
For a vegan approach then nut yoghurts or soya yoghurt would work well, I got some Almond milk yesterday and found one with almost no carbs, but good fat and protein.
For breakfast I have 60g yoghurt with 30g blueberries plus 3g sunflower seeds, 3g pumpkin seeds and 3g linseeds, 3 almonds and a splash of cinnamon all mixed together and I find that filling. I have recently added in 3g chia seeds as well. Soups are a great way of managing lunch.
Take care with oats as they are borderline ok. Pinhead oatmeal (the type you need to soak) is fine as that releases the carbs slowly into the blood stream, but the ready porridge oats is very high carb and gives sugar spikes.
If you are monitoring you carbs in grams daily then aim for about 60g per day, below that and you will struggle with protein and keeping full. I had been aiming at 45g a day protein based on an article I read, however I read something yesterday that gave a different approach – the UK recommended daily amount is .75 x your body weight in Kg’s. The 45g a day is fine if you are 60kg which I am not….. I need to find another protein source now to add into my daily intake :-(.
The search engine in the top right corner is a good way of finding out recipes that others have added if you type in butterbeans there is a recipe given by newstart in the thread https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/vegetarian-800-and-52-recipes-good-website-and-tips/#post-24853 (22/6/16) that is tasty and easy to make as well as filling.
Hope things go well….

Happy to report that weight is stable at 8st 7lb, give or take a pound either way. *happy dance*

I’ve also been walking more. So far this year I’ve walked 15.8 miles towards the 1,000 mile challenge.