Short answer is YES, it is good for anyone whether or not diabetic, it will reduce your weight quite dramatically therefore giving you lots of motivation. It will reduced blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. That is what it has done for me. What health problems do you have. Whatever they are you will benefit from this diet. Good luck and keep posting, any questions, there is always someone here who has been there done that.

Thanks RozyDozy ….. for now i just want to keep moving as in aquabics … i can make that low impact. I also will try and walk a little more. I actually like some of the fitness machines at my gym/pool …. i love exercising my shoulders … and the rowing machine. I’m going to try and get more fit …. but at a pace my body can handle.

I have tested my blood glucose this morning prior to starting the 800 diet and the result was 4.1 this is in the normal range. However I am overweight and have several medical conditions. Is this diet right for me? Can anyone give advice on this that would be great!

Sazzle, know it as Byetta. My doctor wouldn’t give me that, it is supposed to help with weight loss whereas insulin causes weight gain. Apparently I was / am not big enough so I have had to continue gaining weight on insulin. Not gaining now though.

Yes we are lucky
I didn’t think abt saving calories but as it happens the mackerel was meaty and the dip creamy so yes will do again

1960smp that is one of my fav lunches but I have it with tuna because I don’t like mackerel or sardines and save quite a few calories. Another fav is the roasted breast of chicken with roasted red pepper and asparagus. Never much like asparagus but when it is roasted it takes on a nutty flavour. Yum yum, we are so lucky.

Good morning Poppetini, tigs, and everyone

Sounds like a plan Poppetini!!!

Sun just beginning to come up here. But it is supposed to be nice and sunny.

1) 1st good thing …. Bacon and eggs for breakfast!!!

2) 2nd … i think i’m a bit better but i might just stay put and read my new Louise Penny book … or at least start it.

3). I saved 1 strip of bacon …. i might try frying some chopped kale in the left over grease and a bit of garlic butter later. My nephew’s wife has a nice brusel sprouts and bacon dish she brings to family dinners … and Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up

And all the best with yours Miss Rose- we can do this !!

Thank you Flash – fingers crossed for your weigh in tomorrow 🙂

In terms of supermarkets – I find late night shopping helps – if possible and practical for you.

They have stopped baking by 10pm at night (probably earlier – but I tend to go after that), and you get the extra exercise of climbing around the trolleys they use to restock the shelves!

Hi Shalimar,
Don’t worry about the High Intensity fitness too much – I’ll let you into a little secret, I have totally bypassed that & still lost weight. I have a pretty intensive part-time job & an allotment. On the days I’m not doing either of those I make myself do a walk of some description to keep the step count up.
And this week (coz I’ve finally booked myself a week off work) I intend going swimming for the first time in 6 years (there, it’s in writing – I’ve got to do it now).
What I’m really saying is don’t try and force yourself to do too much if you have physical issues as you won’t want to aggravate any of them. Best to find different ways of increasing your activity and build up from there. Any activity is better than no activity. As the weight comes off you can be a bit more adventurous and push yourself a little further with the exercise.
Anyway, good luck!

OOps yowzer, me reading too fast…ok so not lost as much as thought, but doesn’t that happen and then next weigh in it comes off with more and you are in shock? lol

Lunch just now was lush – carrot batons, cucumber strips, red pepper strips with a fillet of smoked mackerel whipped up with 3 tbsp. of cream cheese…flippin eck! loved it and all for 325 cals as brekky was low anyhow….

Sorry to hear you’re not feeling tip top Shalimar. And thank you Tigs for the once-a-week red wine suggestion.

1. Funnily enough I’ve decided I’m going to have a once a fortnight ‘day off’, where I can truly relish something I love to nibble or drink.

2. I have managed my fourth run. Still as slow as a walk, but I managed 35 mins of that very slow jog today. Woo hoo.

3. Sun is shining and the sky is blue … happy 🙂

Happy Monday all.

Hi Nettle *waves*

I’be had those “goes-overs” in the past too!

Funny you should say about pegging clothes at the back – guess what someone had done before some of the photos!

Don’t really know why the pastel blue blouse was introduced a few years ago. I’ve always liked it and could now get one in my size – they’re a more fitted style than our normal white blouses. But now I can get one in a smaller size, they’ve started to make them up to a size 26😱 Oh well!!! I think they’re less formal than the white blouses, less ‘severe’. Which I wear depends on what I’m doing that day.

Good day everyone,

Igorasusual – you are so right about the fruit. I had yogurt this morning with a banana instead of berries and it took up big carb % of my daily ratio. If only I’d checked on MFP beforehand!

Was finishing off fruit bought pre-BSD so no more bananas on my shopping list – there’s also a mango left but will give that to my nephew who loves them.

Will check in with you all later tonight after I’ve tried making the broccoli and cheddar soup for lunch (also using up pre-BSD ingredients).

I have read the book -love all his books/tv shows.
I was mostly meaning-having followed a million diets over the years I am used to a ‘food to eat’ list. I would find that easier while shopping for me. I do have myfitnesspal-but want to start afresh with a new ap. so ive got fatsecret now. its frustrating I can’t reduce the daily calories though. and cant believe the 2 apples I have had are 38g carbs already!!

onwards and downwards ;-}

I have read the book-thanks

Hi LondonGirl, I have also started today. I am still reading the book but did a similar diet at the beginning of the year and lost heaps. I haven’t put weight back on but I still need to lose lots and so I think the 8 week challenge is a goer for me. All the best with your weight loss.

Yesterday’s intake:
816 calories
55 carbs
Loss is slow, but clothes are fitting great.
Happy that though the weekend brought temptations, they weren’t too bad. As long as I keep counting carbs, I seem to be able to have the odd bite of a sweet. The tricky part is not waking up cravings, and sticking to a bite. I know I’m flirting with the edge of the cliff, but I feel in control if I’m counting the carbs/calories. Really enjoyed savory tastes a lot this far into the plan. I don’t miss the sweets unless I’m tired, hormonal, or dehydrated (ha! And those things pop up constantly, but I feel I’m learning to manage it). Definitely keeping things out of the house is a salvation.
Anyway, Snoop, I find it’s hardest out of my element and with lots of distractions. It helped me to read the forums while I was away, (all my weight stacked on the last 2 days of my trip and over the weekend when we were coming home and hustling to unpack and get ready for a busy school week. I know just what you mean about rushing around and having no idea what you ate). Stick to it as you’re able, and just know that you can tackle it head on when you’re home. That said, it calmed my nerves to set some goals while away and feel that I wasn’t slipping into a free-for-all foodwise. Anyway, enjoy the time!

Well done mental4ever on the weight loss over the weekend!

Hi , joining in ,I started 29th so day 5 today , I have at least 18lbs to lose and need to stop eating rubbish ! I am looking forward to trying new recipes and have time to do it at the moment .I am trying focus on not what I can’t have but all the new things to try .My brother and sister in law follow some of the paleo diet and my SIL has made some lovely food recently which fits with the low carb idea so I am enjoying them .
So far it has been remarkably ok , not to hungry and enjoying tha food .I feel tired but I have an awful cold I am determined that will not derail me just looking forward to more energy and my clothes fitting better !
Food I miss the most ,toast and marmalade ! Had some rye bread yesterday and going to make tahini crackers now (paleo recipe uses coconut flour) .
Good luck everyone ,I am treating this like a slimming club ,without the cost and embarrassment!

8 weeks to go- that is 56 days and 1344 hours- both motivation and willpower currently strong- but I fully anticipate times that one or both will flag. But even now when I am so keen I am telling myself that I will be healthier, look better and even though I will still be seriously overweight at the end of the 8 weeks- it will be great to have had this start- as I expect to feel better and not have such a sweet tooth. So I have decided to tell myself several times a day- how good this is going to be for me in so many ways-each time trying to think of a new reason that what I am doing is wonderful. I think telling myself that even when I am having no problems with doing the plan- will be helpful. I am very interested to ask others what they do for inspiration.

Hello Respace,

Well done for braving day one on a hangover! If you can survive that, you can definitely get going with this plan 🙂 I don’t miss alcohol (although it has only been one week for me thus far…) but am trying to wean myself off fizzy drinks. I’ve started to replace them with sparkling water flavoured with no-sugar squash, which also happens to curb desire for alcohol in the main. It’s by no means a substitute but it is helping as I get to grips with this new way of eating. That said, I am not totally ditching the drink! I’d rather allow for it at some point during the week and make sure that I can enjoy some if I want to than exclude it completely and then go off the rails! If it makes me lose slower, then it makes me lose slower. As I’ve said in some other posts, I’m not in a race!

Good luck 🙂

I was injecting Exenatide. At one stage I was injecting, taking metformin and gliclazide. Now I don’t take anything but as I say I haven’t had my bloods done for a while. I will let you know.

Hi there, Flash!

In terms of measurements, you can do waist, hips, thighs, chest – I think waist is most important as it’s the one which seems to move most!

Or you can have test garments – shirt, pair of jeans, belt – which will show you the same thing without the need for writing down.

I found the garments best, as I would lose the tape measure, then measure and lose the bit of paper I wrote the results down on. And after all it’s the effect on clothes you’re most interested in…..:)

Jodes82 I just watched the video you posted.

Still that resistance to saying the low-fat with extra sugar and additives is NOT a good thing.

I’m actually glad that Dr. Taylor insisted that when you are trying to loose weight that really increasing your exercise is not necessarily helpful …. it is especially not good advice to someone like me who is very out of shape … it will probably take me a year to be reasonably fit.

I mean my body is so fat that some exercises like yoga are impossible for me to do.

And the resistance to the idea that you can REVERSE diabetes …. is not a new one …. it is possible.

It’s a total lack of education and the notion that diabetes isn’t that dangerous … you take some pills and all is well. I certainly subscribed to the notion that if i took my metformin that i could eat pretty much what i wanted … of course i wanted that false notion to be true. I was taking 5 metformin a day and still got very very sick indeed. Never mind what 5 metformin a day for decades was doing to my body.

I do think that suddenly going from 2000 calories plus to 800 cals a day …. may be too much to ask …. Perhaps adopt the mediteranean, low carb diet …. for 1200 calories for a week or 2 … and seeing where one can cut that to 800 would be easier for many people. The TV program made it seen such an all or nothing type of deal …. when there are a number of variations and options.

Well done everyone! Really great to be reading about successes and achievements today as it’s spurring me on to keep going for week 2.

Cowslip – totally agree about online shopping! Although I have found that the pickers give you stuff that runs out quite quickly, whereas if I’d chosen myself I could root around for the longest best before date! However, anything that keeps me away from bread is good in my book!

Sharonjean – thanks for the advice about the hot chocolate!

I haven’t measured myself yet. What do you typically measure? Just waistline or all over?

Hey Caz,

10lbs is AMAZING! Well done to you! I hope you did a happy dance once you got off the scales 🙂 I will report official results tomorrow morning. 800 cals is definitely manageable – sometimes you’ll go over and sometimes you’ll be under but it doesn’t matter. As long as we’re aiming for that 800 goal each day, we’ll average out over the course of each week. And yes, a hangover without carbs is a horrible, horrible thing!

Let’s smash week 2!

Hi all, another weight loss, total this week 1.1 kg, 2.5 lbs (less a smidge). Blood glucose this morning 3.5 (64), funny thing is that would normally have me all shaky and then I would get scared. But, that is normal for a non diabetic so surely we have to get those sorts of readings or how do we know we are improving???? Answers on a postcard please.

I haven’t worked out my carbs and calories for today as I have just got back from my 2 yearly appointment with the cardiologist. I showed him my blood results from August. First of all he asked why I had gone from 5.6 (2 years ago) to 8.2 early during last year and early this year so I told him about my meeting with the dietician and the rotten diet she put me on. The he noticed in August it was 6.7 and said ‘bon resulte’ so I told him I had taken matters into my own hands and cut out simple carbs. Really difficult in French but he got it and gave me a big thumbs up. My heart is in great shape, no furring of the arteries, no irregularities my print out looks great and steady so cant wait to take it to doctor at next routine diabetes check. Blood pressure still at 140/80 but I had a hell of a morning. Just about the leave the house when 7 massive agricultural vehicles piled up outside my house and all along the lane. They chose today to come and cut the maize. We convinced them to shift, showed them my appointment card and we managed to get to the cardio on time. Any wonder my bp was up. Anyway, next month I have to go and do the bicycle test.

Still, alls well that ends well as they say.

Hello all,

Good luck to everyone starting today or who has started recently! I am just at the end of my first week today and will be weighing in officially tomorrow morning but thus far I’ve lost 9lbs, which for me is nothing short of a miracle! I have a long, long way to go but think this is the right way forward. I thought I would struggle with lack of bread and other carbs but so far, so good. The advice about drinking as much water as possible and allowing yourself the full fat versions of things is spot on. Both help to keep you full. I don’t track in apps like MFP or FatSecret as I find they can make me a bit obsessive but I do keep a general food diary the old fashioned way! My mainstays for the past week have been:

Fage/Total full fat Greek yoghurt – typically with blueberries, sometimes with a sprinkle of cinnamon
Cherry tomatoes
Bacon & leek frittata from Asda
Cauliflower cheese or cauli rice (this is amazing!) – in fact, anything to do with cauliflower 🙂
Deli meats

The best thing about this “diet” is that I don’t feel deprived. Yes, I miss buttery toast or a bowl of pasta but do I miss the almost immediate weight gain or the bloated, heavy feeling? NO! That’s what is keeping me going. The other thing that has changed for me is the fact I now plan and prepare my meals in advance, something I never bothered with in the past. It definitely makes a difference knowing that when I go to the fridge or cupboard I have suitable foods in stock and it reallllllly helps knowing that I can rustle up lunch and a snack for work each day.

Let us know how you get on!

Snoop – feel your pain – it took me almost 2 weeks to regain my epic wagon roll!

I think I have just started to start losing again. Had a takeaway curry on Friday night – no rice or carbs, purely chicken but I guess that my diet has been particularly bland of late. Two hours later it left my body….

Weekends are difficult – I spent yesterday making chocolate chip cookies and ropped scones for the family. Not having any is DIFFICULT! However, the figures as they stand today are:

Starting weight: 87.6kg
Today: 79.8kg

Loss seems to be slowing down but so long as it is not going up then I am sanguine. I am feeling that it does not take me long to fill up. I was going to have soup and salad yesterday. I was full after the soup so the salad went back into the fridge. Soup is a lifesaver! That and sugar free jelly!

Have a good week everyone….

End of week one post from me – and I’m 10lbs down! It’ not always been easy, and I definitely haven’t been perfect with it – but am thrilled with the outcome!

Sorry Sazzle you did say you were on metformin and injecting (what are you injecting). Good luck, let us know how you get on this week and how you get on at the doctors.

I think you are right Flash – I’m not in a race – if it takes a bit longer that’s ok, so long as I get there in the end.

All in all it’s been a good result this week. This morning was my one week weigh in – and I’ve lost 10lbs, even with my deviations!!

Not only that but I’ve learned that 800 cals a day is easily manageable if you make good food choices, that alcohol will likely lead to bad decisions about food, and that a hangover without the help of carbs to help pick me back up is so not fun!!! That’s not to say I won’t have a drink again at some point – but at least when I do it’ll be a decision made with the full facts!

Bring on week 2!

Well done for the salt, cmawp! Remarkable how bad it makes you feel when you’ve not had enough as it’s all been washed away by drinking lots of fluid, and how quickly you can recover with some added salt, Miso soup, or stock cubes in boiling water.

I keep popping on to remind people to have enough – this is yet another thing we’ve been brainwashed into thinking is ALWAYS bad for us.

Oh and hello Ariane63 too!

Another quick point – it’s an AVERAGE 800 calories (very difficult to hit on the nose every day 😉 ) – but one thing that does help is to try and keep carbs (the good ones) to 50g or less per day.

That will certainly kick the weight loss. 😉

I am going to tag along with you as a ‘restarter’….. I have 10kg more to lose.

My weakness is salty crisps and drinking….so trying to do ‘sober October’ as well as getting strict again with BSD having been too relaxed over the second month of my first round.

The food is not a challenge but the habit of a drink at end of the day is one I need to break.

Be aware – a break from the wagon is not the end of the world, but one carb can set off the carb monster, and a dramatic fall can been facing the detox/ carb flu again… Learned from experience!!

Great summary Shalimar 🙂

Just to add, Gillvegas – would def recommend getting and reading the 8 week Blood Sugar book as it explains the science behind the programme which I think is really helpful.

other things to note:

NO reduced fat – get over all the reluctance to eat full fat and dairy, it is actually good for you. Fat doesn’t make you fat, although we’ve been told so for years. And fat in the diet – like in avocados, olive oil in dressings, full fat yoghurt, fills you up and keeps you satisfied.

(and the sinister thing is that 0 fat and Low Fat dairy actually has MORE SUGAR in so you want to avoid that if you can).

I would consider all refined carbs as forbidden just for convenience, so for your 8 weeks NO bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, sugar, pastry or anything with flour in, and try to reduce root vegetables as a whole. The reason is that these turn to sugar really quickly in your blood and make you hungry and crave more of them so if you can cut them out, you find you are less hungry and feel fuller.

Great advice to get an app like MyFitnessPal or FatSecret and then you can plan out your 800 calories through the day and understand how much your meals are in terms of nutrients. You soon get used to this. And absolutely right to weigh as you don’t realise how many calories you’re adding in with ‘too much’ in a portion, when you don’t really need it.

There is a SEARCH box top right and a lot of fab experience on this forum, so type in a few words to find threads where people have discussed problems/queries they’ve had.

Good morning everyone.
I’ve just registered and started the 8 week plan today.
For breakfast: Scrambled eggs,smoked salmon, avocado,watercress.
I probably won’t be sticking to 800 cals per day as I like tea and coffee with milk but I do like jasmine green tea for a change.
I’ve always liked water so that won’t be a trial.
Have aquafit at 12 so won’t be having lunch until late.
I’d like to lose 7Kg in 8wks that is 10% of my starting weight (11 st)
I think the recipes are delicious and just my sort of taste.
I’ve done my measurements and will be doing them again in 30days.

I think I ran low on sodium yesterday too. It got to 9pm and despite a portion of skinny chilli at 7pm, I felt lightheaded and lethargic. It’s a feeling I recognised from my days of 100+ mile bike rides and it’s not very nice.

I had 12 smoked almonds (including all the salt from the bottom of the bag) and I felt right as rain within minutes.

Hey Nedds mum!

Thank you 🙂 I also find weekends hard. I think work keeps me on the straight and narrow (providing I ignore the canteen!) but the freedom of the fridge at the weekend much harder to bypass! Pleased to hear you’ve lost a few pounds. I will do my official weigh in tomorrow and then prepare for week 2. Fingers crossed!

Hi All,
I’m a bit preoccupied with this at the moment – hopefully it will become more of a habit as time goes on.

Our official, agreed goals now are;
⎯ To lose weight: [me; 20kg (44lbs – omg that sounds like a LOT once I calculated your conversion!) from my heaviest. OH 8kg – I hope he’ll lose 10kg ;-}} ].
⎯ To get healthier: I want to get off BP medication and get my BG well into the normal range.
OH says 5 years ago his stats were fine so he doesn’t need to have them done again (yes I know,…….. and you know……. But at least he is willing, and even keen, to join me in the BSD and to lose his belly fat. I hope that will stave off most problems and eventually he’ll have to go to a GP (General Practitioner) for something and hopefully the routine tests will be done.
⎯ To get fitter: I agreed to go to Tai Chi with OH a few years ago so recently I used that to “convince” him to come with me to my pilates class. We walk our Kelpie dog (Australian sheep dog – black with blonde eyebrows, muzzle and paws “Dizzee”) 3Km most days (she does 2X that and the last bit includes a lot of ball throwing and fetching as well). We are now planning to walk up our local “mountain” 2X week and build to 3-4 times. Most other places in the world this would be called a hill or a knoll or something – Aus is pretty flat. We did it yesterday, sunny, rather than today, rainy, and my Fitbit tells me its equivalent to 81 flights of stairs and 7k steps. It still feels like I have done that! But we did make it. A few days to recover.
Hope everyone has had a good weekend (today was a public holiday here).
Keep strong.

My week 3 loss is 1kg which takes me to 100.8kg and 11.7Kg so far.

Slightly up from my midweek low of 99.1Kg but it’s a loss nonetheless. I did wake feeling extremely bloated and hadn’t had a bowel movement for 2 days so this may explain the upward fluctuation.

Thanks Shalimar-on it

Wow! I just watched the insight sbs beating diabetes video with MM on you tube. If you haven’t watched it I would highly recommend you do. It also made me realize how corrupt diabetes australia is! I’ll post the link below.

https://youtu.be/hDEw561NFto

Hi Cpt Lynne
I’ve just checked out the skirt picture, it’s lovely, quite stunning really, people who have not seen you in a while must be suprised when they see you now. What a lovely colour too, it will never date in the fashion stakes. The line is great. As you say, once upon a time not so very long ago, considering the finer points of fashion didn’t take up a lot of space in my brain. It does now. I have to retry all sorts before I go out, not knowing what fits and what doesn’t. The OP SHOP box is bulging. I can do all of the blouses up with room to spare. They are no longer “goes-overs”….undone over a tee shirt was the look for years. If I wanted to I could peg great chunks together down the back like they do on shop window mannequins.

Why a pastel blue blouse for you mid week, by choice or different role that day?
N.

Thank you Igorasusual for highlighting the high sugar & calorie count of some fruit particularly mango & bananas! This is going to be the difficult thing for me substituting vegetables for fruit because I also like dried fruit in yoghurt but will have to go without for the next eight weeks. However I do like blueberries & strawberries so will have to retrain myself!

Numbers are a complicated relationship – this morning I weighed in at 88.0 kg, I knew I had not been good enough to be at almost 87 as I had hoped at start of the week, but 88 felt bad and yet 87.9 would have felt so much better, and mentally I would be thinking ‘almost 87’ despite it being almost as far away as 88. The same psychology behind the shops pricing things at £ x. 99p

Check this website … see the tabs at the top … Blood Sugar Diet ; Get Started ; FAQ

You CAN have anything …. you just have to count it … calories, carbs, etc.

Basically … NO or VERY VERY LITTLE OF high sugar tropical fruits (small amounts of berries is better), AVOID white foods, potatoes, breads of all colors, commercial cereals, yogurts with sugar/fruit (do eat full fat yogurt with your own added berries)

green and colorful vegetables over root vegetables
salad greens
soups made of vegetables, lentils, beans, meats

eat meat, fish, chicken, lentils, beans (count your calories, etc.)

Drink lots of water

small amounts of nuts, seeds, cheese (count them)
butter, eggs, bit of bacon

There is no list of forbidden foods … look at the guidelines, COUNT everything

If you spend your calories on refined carbs/sugars you won’t have any left to spend on healthy complex carbs etc.
Everybody likes different foods, different recipes, eating different amounts, at different times of day.

Just checking in. End of week 1 and I’ve lost 4lb. Thrilled to bits. Can honestly say I don’t feel hungry and I don’t crave any carbs. Start of week 2, hope its a good one xx

Hi Lynne and anyone else!

Today 3rd October I weighed in at 12.0.0! I did want to get to that magical 11 something but it wasn’t to be!

I have been really good all week, nothing has passed my lips that isn’t bsd, except yesterday I had a third of a small piece of a 50th wedding anniversary cake that a friend brought us, as we couldn’t get to the celebration. That was my downfall!

We are off now for a weeks rest, a bit of walking, swimming and bsd eating, with the odd treat here and there! I hope to return with only a few pounds put on, ready to go at it again with vigour!
Christine.