Hi there Stabber!

Well done on the losses of weight and inches! 🙂

If you type in Fasting Bloods in the Search box (top right) you will see lots of posts about the unreliability of these as indicators of Blood Sugar

By far the best is to talk to your GP about a planned series of HbA1c tests (which average out 3 months’ blood sugar) to judge if you are now in normal range.

My OH enlisted his GP’s support and came off Metformin after his second HbA1c test (8 weeks into the BSD) and after a further test after another month has been marked Type 2 “in remission” as his BS is in the normal range.

Have you had HbA1c tests and do you have another booked?

Hi Stabber, they should do if you are sticking to the plan. mine were 10.4 before the plan and dropped to 7.5 in just over a week and by the end of week 3 down to 5.0. But after that no further downward movement so I am biding my time. You don’t say if the 7. is lower than when you started, lets hope it is. If you are only on 1 Metformin then you might be best to stick with that until you have had a HBA1c done and maybe speak to your doctor. If he sees positive results he might suggest stopping himself, just have a little patience, we have been given hope with this diet but don’t expect miracles, they come later. Follow captainlynne t see what sticking with it can do for you.

Hi Christine

That’s exactly why I don’t like most of the colours in the shops at the moment!

I can access these forums off my iPad, most of my posts are done on it. Going somewhere nice?

Verano (and Christine) are those turmeric tablets the ones with black pepper? I think I found the right site, just want to check. Christine, could you email me the details please.

Been on BSD since beginning of September.. Lost weight and inches which is great, Trying to get off meds,, Take one metformin a day..
Fasting bloods in the morning been in the 7’s.
Will they get any lower than that and what should I be expecting from now onwards regarding bloods

Hi Christi

It was me I’m afraid I keep banging the drum for Turmeric.

So glad they are working for you they are certainly working for me. I’m sorry I didn’t keep a log of my aches so I could now look back and see how bad I was! I don’t think you have been taking them very long but I do think they have a cumulative effect so hopefully you will improve even more in the weeks/months to come.

Enjoy your week away.

Hi Lynne, igorasusual, Verano and everyone else!

I had my colours done years ago and I was winter, I remember just before I had it done, I was at work with a gold coloured top on, I had worn it a few times, and after a while I realised every time I wore it people would ask if I was ok, or are you under the weather! Then I realised it was the gold top!
Needless to say I didn’t wear the top again!

Verano, ( I think!) I bought some of the turmeric tablets from the online store you mentioned and I haven’t had half as much pain since! So they obviously work! If it’s not you I’m sorry, however thank you if it was and thank you to whoever it was, if it wasn’t you!

I am away from tomorrow for a week but I will be taking my iPad and will hopefully be able to ‘watch’ what is going on on the forum., I will post on my back to basics thread in the morning, hopefully if I have time, about my progress this last week.
Good luck to everyone with your weight loss, onwards and downwards!
Christine.

Hi Lynne

Personally, with this plan I wouldn’t bother with an actifry. I used it mainly for chips because it only used one tablespoon of oil. But not eating potatoes and no problem with fats anymore so no need for it!!

I did try one or two other things like chicken pieces but it just didn’t work for me. Maybe others would say differently.

Best I can say is I wouldn’t buy one now.

My view is that I don’t fry anything now so what would I use it for.

I’m joining too, if it’s okay. Started on the 1st and it was kind of tough since I had a lot of physical work to do in the garden. I went to bed at 7:30, but I feel good today. I need to get a measuring tape to start a chart.

My carb intake was totally out of control and my bad habits are catching up to me health wise so I don’t have a choice. I’m 63 and I want to be able to enjoy my retirement in a few years. I need to lose 90#s. I gained most of this in the past 10 years. I know this will work if I can stick with it.

Good luck to all of us!

Just found it – look for Anyone Else Having Problems with Excessive Bathroom Visits and read all about the weight loss process. I learnt it from being a nurse so it is pretty accurate.

Try to visualise the fat going out through your wee, that is how your body gets rid of it and why you need lots of water. There is a whole thread on this if you search something about having to get up during the night or having to pee so often.

Just made the Mexican hash from the Blood Sugar Diet book (not recipe book) just had to tweet using boiled eggs rather than fried as no other eggs around. It was excellent and other half liked it too. Breakfast was 100g of yoghurt and 100g of apple with sprinkling of cinnamon. Dinner will be the rest of minestrone I made yesterday so looks like I might well hit the 850. One thing I have decided to do is weigh myself every second day and measure my waist every Saturday morning. I am getting rather bored of having a wee every hour though lol. Hopefully that is a good sign. Woke up this morning and tried to visualise the fat melting!!!!

Great advice, as usual, Igorasusual 😃

Can’t decide whether to buy one of these or not. I’ve bough too many kitchen gadgets that have taken up residence in the back of my cupboard 😱

As well as my job, I use my microwave, halogen oven and, occasionally, slow cooker.

What do you use the actifry (or similar) for? When I looked online there were lots of references to using them for chips – but not much else.

Great news Timetochange 😃

You may even find that when you reach whatever weight you decide to stay at that you don’t want to eat cake or bread anymore!

Happy Sunday all!

So I got a nice surprise this morning – my mum noticed my stomach was less bloated than normal. Altho I officially started BSD on Oct 1st, I had stopped eating carbs since Thurs. Nice to have my efforts noticed.

Made an English breakfast with chipolatas, mushroom and cherry tomatoes – all grilled with garlic salt and pepper. Much smaller portion than a normal full English but surprisingly filling.

Lunch was grilled salmon with homemade coleslaw and lots of green tea thru out the day.

Meal planning today – some great recipes in the BSD recipe book.

Thanks KrysiaD 😃

Verano – I keep reading about the actifry. I can’t decide if I need one or not. I have a halogen oven that I use a lot – living alone it saves me having to heat my oven to cook just for me! I’ve tried other kitchen gadgets with varying degrees of success, but the only ones I’I’ve stayed with are the microwave and halogen oven, although I sometimes do use a slow cooker. Stupid question time – what can I use the actifry (or similar) for? I’ve seen comments online about frying chiosa but not much else. Don’t want to buy something else destined to live at the back of the cupboard!

Hi Willbeskinny

I think slim people often are the ones not eating dessert, or sharing one between two or more people. And they are more careful with portion sizes as well as the actual food that is on their plate.

I’ve sat at tables with people who say ‘I’m diabetic, so I shouldn’t be eating this’, but they are eating it. And, yes, they did need to lose weight! Or the diabetic who had the cheeseboard after two other courses. As well as the cheeses, there were grapes and cheese biscuits. The amount of food he ate after the other two courses was more than I could eat in a whole meal! But he ate it, because he could – after all, there was no sugar in it😱 Errrrr ….. what about the grapes, and the carbs in the crackers?

Once I was away at a residential conference and one of the organisers asked why I wasn’t eating dessert ‘because it had all been paid for’. I should have said ‘ok, I’ll order it then you can eat it’ – but I was good and didn’t LOL

Good to hear that he article has inspired people to join in on this journey 😃

Hi Fairydewdrop (what a great name by the way), I would recommend some targeted exercise. Some resistance weights (home weights are fine) for the tops of arms and some regular general exercise: walking is excellent and much underrated I think. It is brilliant for toning up legs. Abdominal exercises for tummy is good too. I’m not sure how much weight you have to lose, but any exercise will help toward toning. As this diet has the right amount of protein and is calculated towards fat burning, you should not be losing muscle mass. If you are a member of a gym, they can sits too with exercises to help. Good luck in your journey.

Captainlynne – that’s good to know that the ‘dawn phenomenon’ does go away.
Your hb1ac is fantastic now. I have been following your posts and you have been an inspiration to me – especially when I was losing so slowly in the beginning.

Verano – ok will have a go with the actifry – and will try to remember to keep an eye on it.

I think you are right that the waist is a real visual sign of the visceral fat going away but the pancreas is ‘out of sight out of mind’. I am still waiting to wake up though and find that this has all been a dream!

I am finding my 70% chocolate is tasting a bit sweet now and I found some 85% Fair Trade chocolate, the Co-op’s own brand, which tastes really creamy and is only £1.59. So taste buds are changing. I used to dislike tomatoes but suddenly am finding them really tasty and sweet.

Sunshine-girl 6.1 is still really good and it will only get better and better.

I’m new and only started on Monday so any ongoing support from others is great. Second week starts tomorrow. 8 pounds down so far and feeling great. Here’s to us all having success and feeling good!

Hi Determinedthistime

Thank you *blush*. I’m glad the article led you on to the BSD journey.

Please keep posting and letting us know your progress.

Went for my first lunch and dinner out having started this on Monday. At half a stone down I didn’t want to jeopardise my weight loss. Although I can’t very accurately calculate the calories I ate, I was able to guesstimate them well enough. I ensured that yesterday (the day after), I stuck carefully to 800 and no more. Weighed myself this morning and another pound down. As I had gone to a chain restaurant (Las Iguanas), I had hoped to be able to get nutritional information from their website, but no luck. My Fitness Pal had some of their dishes but not the one I ate! I really enjoyed it though, it was yummy. I offered to drive, so I was forced not to drink, otherwise the margaritas would have been tempting! The best thing about this for me, is the rapid first level of weight loss. I am used to 5:2 and got good results from it, but never as quick as this. I know it will slow down, but for me, it’s been incredibly motivating and will spur me on. I haven’t got masses of weight to lose and I have no blood sugar issues, but I’m going to stay on it until I feel that I have naturally achieved a weight that feels good. I then plan to eat to the ‘M’ principals for 80% of the time. It’s too much for me to think that I will never ever eat another cake or slice of bread. I feel so much better though dropping all the heavy starchy stuff and now I’m passed the headache stage, I’m feeling more energised. Roll on the next week; the success it partly related to being planned and organised otherwise I’m hopeless and wil grab anything vaguely edible!

Hi captainlynne
I think you are right. I wonder perhaps if people notice more when you are the fat one eating large portions and pudding, rather than the one abstaining.

Also, just wanted to say, saw the daily mail article, congratulations! I had the 5.2 book about 2 yrs ago, I found it tricky at the time and gave up, can’t believe that now. However, the article, with yours and the other amazing stories in it, spurred me on. Thank you!

Tell him to go with the cardiologist – they are the specialists! Very low blood pressure is not a good thing.

Hi captainlynne – well you look fantastic. It was reading the article in the Mail that set me off on this journey. I’m not on any meds, but have well over 100lbs to shift. Thank you for being such an inspiration.

Sunshine-girl

Think your Ryvita are a better bargain than my oat cakes …. Twice the size and twice the crunch!!

Hi

Just had brunch of omelette asparagus and smoked salmon …. really yummy so that could be my new Sunday morning treat!

Well done sunshine-girl it gets so much more difficult to lose as you get closer to target so 2.2lbs at this stage is great.

Krysia with regards to cauliflower in the actifry I think it may be that I just cooked it too long. I treated it like potato chips, because it’s hard , and cooked it for 40 mins without looking at it!! Maybe if you try 20mins you could have more success .

Well done on your waist measurement guess it’s more emotional because you can see your waist but not your pancreas … out of sight out of mind!!!

Blood sugars … some say fasting bloods aren’t meaningful because they fluctuate like mad and then there’s the ‘dawn phenomenon’ ! So I do mine every other day just to give myself another number to worry about!! As for visceral fat going …. well I have tons of it to go yet!!!!

And then there’s chocolate! I had two squares of Lindt 90% last night hence the high calories for yesterday !! Must admit my taste buds have really changed I now find 90% really creamy!!

sunshine-girl

If you read Bill1945’s thread ‘this has to work for me’ he talks a lot about his blood sugars. Just search for it in the search box.

That’s brilliant Vikkia. Well done. I still work in old money and I hit a stone this week after 2.5 weeks. My waist trimming has been slow but you can definitely see a difference.

Best thing I’ve ever done!!

Hi KrysiaD

I’be certainly found that my blood sugars don’t rise in the morning anymore, and haven’t for many months. I’be just checked back (glad I kept good notes) and my fasting bloods have been in the normal range since January – I started the BSD on 19th December.

Also, my HbA1c just prior to BSD was 9.6. In April it was 5.5 and in July it was 5.2.

Glad you liked the photos 😃

Forgot to mention my blood glucose 6.1 or 110, funny when my weight drops for a couple of days my b/g goes up a bit. When I gain a bit the b/g goes down. It goes back to around 5.0 after a day or so. Must keep an eye on that, anyway 6.1 is still good.

I ocassionally have a Ryvita, 27 cals 6.7 grams carb – wow really, just looked on the packed. Still it is about 2 per week.

Hi Willbeskinny

I’ve found that when I’m with others, whether for a meal or for coffee, they are usually too busy eating to worry about what I am or am not eating.

If a comment is made (which is rare) I explain what I am doing. In Italy I was with some friends and was taken to an excellent ice cream cafe. There were no sugar-free options, so I had black coffee. I was offered some strawberries and cream off one of their concoctions but refused with thanks. Afterward I realised that the strawberries and cream probably had sugar in anyway!

Best wishes for your progress.

8 kgs down, and 30.5 cms off my wobbly bits! Yay!!

Hi hi!

I started yesterday too. Hubby and I are both doing MacMillan Sober for October so when my friend (Dona Rosa on here) mentioned she was starting the BSD I thought I may as well join in that too. So I’ll be alcohol free for at least a month and aiming to stick to sub 800 healthy calories a day for 8 weeks. I have a friend’s 40th birthday party on 4th December so I’m aiming to be able to buy myself a nice, smaller, outfit for that.

Yesterday I wasn’t exactly organised until I’d been shopping in the afternoon so I had a Pukka Lemon, Ginger and Manuka Honey tea and an apple for breakfast. Lunch was very late on in the day after I’d made 3 types of soup which are now all portioned up in the fridge and freezer for later in the week. They’re all under 200 calories and one of them is under 100. For dinner last night I made a River Cottage Cauliflower & Chick Pea curry with a small portion of brown rice. My total calorie intake for the day was actually 675 so MFP gave me a telling off when I closed off the entry for the day.

Is it ok to post links to recipes/favourite recipe sites on here? I don’t want to get myself banned when I’ve only just joined!

I’ll post again later with today’s meals/calories, hope everyone has a great day whatever you are doing.

Hi Captainlynne
Of course – you are right, it is the dreaded ‘dawn phenomenon ‘ that messes up the fasting blood sugars. I haven’t had the ‘dawn phenomenon ‘ once since 7th September so I am assuming that once your blood sugars are in the normal range you no longer get it. Have you found that this is the case?

I loved your ‘after’ photographs in the Daily Mail. I am sure they will encourage so many more people to start the BSD way of eating.

Hi Sunshine-girl, well done for your weight loss and for tweaking your days food to get in a piece of 75% chocolate. I have enough carbs but not enough calories.

Thanks for the info sunshine girl I thought 40g was abut too much to eat

Thanks everyone, I hope I can eventually as restrained. The problem with me is that sometimes i overeat and I actually know I am not enjoying it, but i carry on and its left me v overweight. I guess I need to tackle the boredom element, kids in bed and hubby working away I usually plonk myself down for another episode of mad men / game of thrones…

Also, when you meet up with friends for coffee, how do you manage when they are all tucking into food. Do you find people a bit judgemental / uncomfortable if you sit there no plate?

I have started taking my children out for dessert after dinner, we live abroad and late nights in cafes very common. I can honestly say I feel soo overweight that I would be, and currently am, far too embarrassed to order an ice cream or pudding. I usually watch them wolf it down whilst sipping coffee, but I know that, despite not at all wanting it, if the same dish were served at home i would be wolfing it down with them. I know that i am one of those eat for the sake of it people.

Hi Pamela1602 to add to the porridge comments the book recommends that you have 25 grams of oats is you really want porridge for breakfast. If you look on the recipe in the book for Medium oatmeal porridge containing 25g oatmean, water, 75ml semi sk milk, coconut oil (why??) cinnamon and 1 fig, you are looking at 31 grams of carbohydrate. If you leave off the fig you get 25 grams of carbs, that is half your days allowance if you are doing the full BSD which recommends 50 grams per day. Working on that calculation your 40 grams would give you 40 grams of carbs (i.e. oats is all carb). Something to think about maybe.

Just a little P.S. 40 grams per serving is what they want you to eat so you finish the box quicker, it is not what you should eat. A bit like the shampoo bottles that tell you to wash your hair twice so you use twice as much shampoo and then, because your hair is stripped on oils, you have to use their conditioner. Savvy marketing.

Me too . This sounds a fantastic recipe, so I’m replying as much to ensure it gets saved into my personal posts. I love a crunch!

Morning everyone
I had already decided to start my diet after the excesses of French country living for the last three months when wine at lunch and dinner becomes the norm and those empty calories really help to pile on the weight. A reality check on the scales this morning !!!!!
So now having green tea making my recipe plan and shopping list then off to supermarket to stock up
Later planning a walk along the seafront and a glass of sparkling water xxxxxx

Thanks @sunnyb – loving it so far … have lost 4kg since I started, and have a lot more energy than when I started off. It’s amazing seeing physical results so quickly which is motivating. I’ve had a few slip-ups, as I’m the resident baker for work … but they were only small slip-ups and it was straight back on the horse again afterwards. Feeling great! Just not too sure what to do at the end of the 8 weeks, as I’ll be nowhere near by goal weight by then obviously. I presume I have to come off doing the fasting days for 7 days, and maybe move to the 5 days off and 2 days on?

Thanks for the support and advice 🙂

Hi everyone, happy Sunday.

I have logged all my food for the day and will be coming in at:-
610 calories
23 carbs
My weight today is:-
74.4 kgs starting weight 75.4, so have lost 1kg or 2.2 lbs

I am having Coq au Vin tonight but not quite from the recipe book. That comes to 510 calories and 10 carbs. My version comes in at 350 calories and 15 carbs. Cut out half the wine and throw in red pepper and courgette which are not in the book one. If I had followed her recipe to the letter I would have had 840 cals and 13 carbs for the day and I don’t quite like that balance. At least I have some calories left for a snack tonight and a piece of 75% chocolate (1 carb 58 calories).

Really pleased to have lost weight so far into any diet as we are into the half a pound a week zone but this still works no matter what week you are in and it is not even weigh in day yet.

Keep on keeping on.

Thanks for that , didn’t read it closely enough !

It did sound good – in hindsight I think it was probably the green tea that I wasn’t enjoying … I’ll try it one more time with coconut water instead and see how it goes – I need to amp up the bravery, though, first 😉

Hi Heleliz

It says on page 9 of the new book that calorie counts are calculated for a single portion (rounded to the nearest 10)

At 66 years of age I’ve lost nearly 7 stone on the BSD since last December. I was never going to have a flat stomach after 2 Caesareans. So the little extra skin around my abdomen isn’t a problem. I watch ‘Obese: a year to save my life USA’ and most go for skin removal surgery, but I am nowhere near needing that.

My arms and legs have a degree of loose skin, but I’m an old lady now LOL. Having said that, unless I was in a swimming costume would anyone see it?

So – the small amount of loose skin I have is certainly not a problem for me. If anyone else thinks it is, guess what? It’s their problem!

And thank you too Plumptious. I had forgotten about (dairy-free) pesto – I used to make a delicious one too! I was thinking about getting a spiraliser to make courgetti so you have just given me the incentive. Thank you!

Thank you so much. Love the lasagne idea in particular and will try it! I guess my my challenge will be learning to eat pulses in smaller amounts than I am used to (to comply with the daily 800 kcal) but seeing as this is all a journey of learning it will be good to revise my idea of a ‘portion’ in this regard too! Thanks again.