I really didn’t know there were many side effects of metformin. I did/do suffer from a little nausea occasionally but nothing other than that.

My husband started taking it a couple of months ago after being pre diabetic for quite a number of years . I’m not sure that he should be taking it at all. He takes so much other stuff. I think he needs a medicine review! He’s lost his appetite since starting on metformin, and he’s not overweight. It should have been me!!!

We have a very good practice. Mainly female GPs who do seem quite receptive to new ideas. When I told my GP that I was taking turmeric tablets and they seemed to be helping she promptly told be about her Thai cookery course!

I certainly do wonder about the effectiveness of Metformin and I will ask how much higher they think my Hba1c would be without it!!

Thanks for the good luck wishes for the 6th @frog … and well done on your results – that’s a fantastic! My last cholesterol check was 7.6 … so I’m in major need of getting those results down! Hopefully I’ve given it enough time before the test.

Hi Lucky. Cool stuff. What I do is peel the shell off after steaming them. Trick is to pierce bottom end of eggs, not top. and put them in with pierced end on the top.

The bread is Hi-lo loaf from Sainsburys.

Here is link for it – http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/hi-lo-loaf?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=UzyqxGADjU2ESZLZXH4zM1xsbZ9AkR0A9FlKvN%2BT69zPOsAbmVZYZB5Xcz5kIcug18gi9M9NMpif4Jcv9IBym8Sli%2FzZ68qb7tanwrs9PDfqkn8iMKmBg85lTTmkhuqFdiAq4TD52AqiAS8nzUGMss8iVCMVzfdI9UqYVBmTQjc%3D&ddkey=http%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fhi-lo-loaf

Hi Suoon, welcome 🙂

I don’t have a clue what it is, I’m sure Gavin will fill you in on the details shortly! He’s probably off cooking up something delicious 🙂

54 I would say faff until you know what works for you. Even i week 9 I find I am making mistakes if I don’t follow a good recipe as I just keep adding stuff. Now I am waiting for the official recipe book to arrive in September

Thanks Avila, come to think of it I registered with them after seeing it on this site but couldnt get on with it as all the products are English. The next time I logged on it came up in French and I abandoned it. Maybe I should look again and see if it have confit de canard and fois gras and other French foods. LOL

whats best then .

Follow the menu ‘like mad’ for the full 8 weeks

or

stick with ‘self mads’ 800 cals

Comments please cos its a dilemma for me !!!

(Faf or freedom !!)

Ready to start Monday

Have booked the gym with my son

Found a mindfulness cd

and have all the menu ingredients on hand

Roll on Monday

I have counted the calories in the menus and find they are more than stated, has anyone else found this ?

Just 1 day left Middleage1?

You have done so well, you must be proud of your new body!

I N S P I R A T I O N A L

Great you are having a go Karen

I’m ready and have a final shop to do. Have sorted trips to gym and have found mindfulness tape. no excuses now,

Hi Catsbd – good luck with your BSD regime. Am type 1 also and have found this way of eating almost effortless. Have found I need to do quite a lot of blood sugar testing though as I am now much more sensitive to insulin.

I just made some bread supposedly low carb from the diet dr website, turned out ok but at 84 cals and 14g carbs each mini roll, only for very occasional use! I subbed in gram flour for the almond flour, maybe that would have been lower carb

Not sure if this will come up in the right place… But I do want to know what low carb bread that Gavin shows on page 74 of the hello thread, looks delish.

I have to say Gavin, that looks absolutely spot on. I just looked at it on Amazon, and hubby looked at your picture and he said ‘Order it!’ I think I told you before, I have an Andrew James meat slicer, and what a fantastic kitchen appliance that was for a budget price. Sometimes I can be making Sunday dinner for ten, and I’m terrible with knives, and blood, specifically my own, so subsequently the two don’t mix very well…

Great stuff, thanks for the head up on that!

Yeah Lynn! So exciting and you have come so far! I’ve lost 82 total and 52 on BSD these last 17 weeks and you are an inspiration my entire journey. I still have a ways to go.
💜

Frog, Lucky – this is what my egg machine produces – my breakfast this morning on low carb toast.

Now Lucky if there is a gadget that I have used more than anything else, it is the egg boiler. My walk was tiring on the feet, but I shaved 35 minutes off the time compared to when I walked just before I started the BSD.!

I had just typed a really long post, submitted it, and it never appeared. Grrrrrrr.

Antigone. Thats great news.

Frog. I would get rid of the clothes. I have done the same. I don’t want to get that large again. I added a link at end of Week 5 post for info on the egg boiler.

https://gavinsgadgets.com/2016/08/22/the-8-week-blood-sugar-diet-just-800-calories-a-day-week-5-disaster-strikes/

I’ve had many ‘interesting’ discussions with doctors and nurses in different areas about Metformin! 😳 I’d heard too much about side-effects to just give in. And I’d read that the effect it had is minimal. Just didn’t seem worth the hassle. Also, lots of tablets I’ve been prescribed for different things cause other problems, especially the newer ones. 😱 I can’t take statins. Tried. Twice. Not again. That’s another interesting conversation 😃

I’m fortunate in that I used to work with doctors some years ago, so I’m not intimated by them.

The gp here (who I’ve never seen) put on my computer records that I was being ‘over treated’ earlier this year. When I calmed down I insisted that a note be added that I was on no treatment, but the results were through my hard work. It certainly doesn’t inspire confidence when something like that happens!

Hi Frog

I understand how frustrating it must be if there is no consistency. Fatsecret uk does seem only to show uk brands so I’m just going to have to trust it!

Can I ask you a question please? I notice on another thread you stopped taking metformin when your Hba1c was 61. I realise it’s much lower now, but did you take yourself of metformin or was it the doctors suggestion?

My Hba1c was only just over 7, in old money, and I never thought to question going onto metformin.

Thanks Frog, Izzy, Yowzer, Gavin, Antigone, Janey for all your lovely comments both here and on the post 🙂

Yes! My first mini goal to be scrubbed off for a fair few weeks! Next one is the obvious 3 stone. I can’t wait!

Epic walk Gav! Sheesh! I bet your feet are burning. I have a good gadget for poaching eggs too, it’s called me 😉 Ooooh you’ve got me fancying poached egg now… might have a cheeky little cooked breakfast tomorrow morning instead of having a boring lunch, a little bacon, a heck and a poached egg with some chargrilled tomatoes from the garden. Yes. That sounds like a plan.

Well done Antigone, that’s amazing 🙂 Don’t worry about last week, most of us have had a week like that, mine was week 5, and I hadn’t cheated or fallen off, it just happens. Usually the week after it plays catch up. At the end of the day, our bodies will show the weight loss when they want to, usually just not on the day we want them to 🙂 This used to happen to me all the time in WW. Nothing on weigh day, 3 pounds down the next day as standard. That’s why I think daily weighing is helpful.

Noooooooooooooooooooo Frog, git ’em gone, the big ‘uns. There will be no ‘just in case’ – we won’t let you 😛
If you really love it, have someone alter it for you, you deserve it after the effort you’ve put into this.
Oh, and Frog? The calves? *insert mad face here* That is all. How can I lose three stone nearly, and a measly half an inch from ONE calf? One is still the same and the other has gone up a half an inch!

I’m amazed at you blood levels . I presume when you were at 9.6 the doctors were desperate to get you on metformin . Just goes to show how you can get your Hba1c down with this eating plan.

My cholesterol has always, for as long as I can remember, been 5.2. My doctor plagued me for years to take statins but I kept refusing. 9months ago it dropped to 4.5 and the in April it was4.8. The only change I think I made was to start having Greek yogurt (low fat) every morning!!

Sorry wandering. My point is really that I just accepted metformin without any fight and my Hba1c was only just over 7. With metformin it’s usually around 6.8!

When I go back in October, if my Hba1c has dropped I’ll certainly be having a long chat with the doctor!

Well done Antigone – that;s great.
Hello Gavin – sounds like a great walk. What does the egg gadget do?

Have just packed up a huge box of too large trousers, and identified quite a lot that fit now. Not sure whether to put them in the storage unit ‘just in case’, or straight to the charity shop. I need to find the wundaweb and have a shortening session!
And last night I tried on one of my favourite jackets – a short boxy loose fitting blazer, now ridiculously too big – each side of the front happily wraps over and crosses the side seam.

that;s brilliant Jan -well done
I’m seeing the community nurse AGAIN next week – I think she wanted to review the blood test results, expecting them to have rocketed because I stopped taking metformin – but they’ve dropped by 40% ans back in normal range.

Congrats all round 🙂 You have all done so well and I thank you because your posts have helped me keep going. Week 3 was a disaster – very little weight loss BUT week 4 has been really good (ends tomorrow night ) and if nothing goes wrong between now and Monday morning weigh-in I will have lost a stone in 4 weeks.Yay! If I can lose another stone in the next 4 weeks I will be a VERY happy bunny and I know – thanks to you all – that it is possible. Thank you. Great to see those photos Lucky – really inspiring for all of us. I didn’t take a ‘before’ photo but I am sure there are some lurking!

Oh hi Indy

I’m also a Wednesday weigher, and also lost 33lbs at the end of my week eight so I think we started same day, how weird we’ve both lost the same. I’m 5ft 6 and had 104 lbs to loose. But I went to my docs last week, as the nurse was unnerved by what I was doing, and insisted in checking everything poss by blood tests, hehe bless her I had been the living dead for a few years, but went back for the results, and she made the doc come in and they were flabbergasted, in the reversal of a shed load of symptoms some of them potentially life threatening. But I wasn’t there asking them is this okay I was telling them this is what I am doing, I feel great I exercise in order to stop my body using heart muscle etc for energy and , as they are not on top of this latest research into immune and diabetis diets obviously otherwise they wouldn’t have been as amazed as they were by my amazing results.
Anyway long story short I am now my surgerys official Guinea pig, and I will be monitored with a view to perhaps others being encouraged to do it. I’ve pointed them to all the relevant research.
I also agree re the count on the recipes the no carb Bircher for ex. Has something like 32 carbs. I only counted a few but they were about 20% over the suggested totals. As we have both said if it isn’t broke don’t aim to fix it.
Glad you are on our BSD bus. Hope you have a great b.h. If in uk😎😎😎

Hi Imogen
Great that your blood tests are in the normal range….feels a great boost. 🙂
Super impressed that you have lost 45lbs in 18 weeks and feel you are halfway there. Fantastic results.

Keep going everyone.

Igorasusual I will try Zara for shopping sometime…….isn’t one locally though.

One thing I am able to do now…. is send off for stuff on the internet because I am a more ‘normal’ size and shape. I’m a bit more confident it will fit.

I am in – great idea! Just finished first eight weeks on Wed and down 33.7 lbs. Going to see my dr on Monday and actually looking forward to it! Last saw her in Jan and have lost a total of 46.1 lbs since that visit (was hoping to hit 50 but oh well).

It’s not even so much that I am committed to another 8 weeks as I don’t see any point to changing what I’m doing. I love the food, love that I actually want to exercise every day, and I still have more to lose. So why do anything else?

That’s the question I’m going to discuss with my dr because at this point it actually seems unappealing to add a bunch of calories to what I’m doing if I feel good. Though I should say I am strongly of the opinion that, though I have followed the book recipes to the letter, I’m quite sure I’ve been eating more than 800 calories/day based on apps that calculate calories. Which is fine – I feel good and have lost almost 17% of my body weight since Jan – who cares what the calorie count is?

Just completed crazy long hike across Dartmoor. My 3 dogs are pooped. So am I 🙂

This is near the start of the walk, about 30 mins into it at South Hessary Tor

Hey Lucky, that was considerate of you to think about delaying your post! I was enjoying a poached egg with low carb toast instead of my shake. I think I am going to ditch the shake and do the egg/toast for breakfast. Of course I have a gadget for perfect eggs 🙂

And a big well done celebration for you. The photo difference is crazy different!!!

Thanks greenjanet.

Janey – I sneaked a burger and chips in for lunch, but I have also done 20,000 steps already today.

Thanks Imogen .

Thanks Yowser. High five back 🙂

LUCKY wow! What a transformation in size for you both!
But the same Lucky fabulous smile,beautiful hair and lovely face in both pics!
Lovely outfits too! You both scrub up so well! X

Hey there, I’m not sure we have any other members trying to gain weight, we’re all the opposite.

My husband however is a naturally lean person who has struggled to gain weight but had success more recently, it depends on your lifestyle.

He has 4 meals/day, including a large one at lunch time. He doesn’t eat much rubbish at all and concentrates on a good chunk of protein (a lot like BSD) healthy additions, plus complex carbs. He is free-er with his carb intake than most of us here. He also does some strength training and I’m certain most of his gain is muscle rather than body fat.

I’d definitely not turn to the rubbish carbs as you may gain a healthy weight but will end up unhealthy in all the other ways. Eat more food of the healthy variety is all I can really suggest.

Doing the happy dance for you GAVIN..you wanted 2 st2 and you got 2 st3 ! Well done xxxx!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 and high fives! X ( and isnt LUCKY a sweetheart not posting til you did!) xx down into another stone bracket Lucky..another mimi goal checked off! X

Lovely pic Lucky 🙂 You have done great!

MIDDLEAGE that’s fabulous! You will be 15 something in no time! X

Thanks CHRISTI i’ m on day 46, so only ten more days to go on this first cycle!
Wow week 30! Thats some achievement!
I always admire you folk who have others at home to consider..if there was bread etc in the house,i doubt i could resist 24/7. As it is,long as i dont buy it,i dont have to think of it,and can kick the simple carbs to the kerb! 😀

MIN hope you enjoyed yr night out.
Didyou like the chick milan..i ve had that a few times and really enjoyed it x

I am currently trying to gain weight. I am 29 and wish to gain about 20lbs. So looking for some weight gainer recipes.

Thank you Frog, very encouraging. Will enjoy.

Wow Lucky – that’s brilliant, you both look amazing

sorry Sunshine Girl!

Verano – if I abandoned MFP I’d still record things assiduously, but it’s easier to find things that you’ve used before if its on your own spreadsheet, and know that if you’ve checked it once, it’s fine.
And I can do my own graphs and play with stats to my hearts content (one of my favourite books is Information is Beautiful, closely followed by Knowledge is Beautiful!)
With MFP there can be so many variants of the same thing, some with American version of recording carbs, some UK, & if the person that made the entry isn’t monitoring carbs, they may not have bothered to enter them.
Yesterday I had a Greek salad from waitrose – loads of results! And I’d had the same thing about four weeks ago and had to trawl through them all then too

Ay Caramba – my granddaughters love both Eton Mess and chocolate brownies!

Verano – just checked back. It was around week 16 that my fasting bloods were under 5, and around week 32 that they were under 4. I was never on Metformin, despite the efforts of many medics, and it was the threat of it hanging over my head that started me on the BSD. HbA1c in December, just before I started the BSD was 9.6. Another that they sneakily did in January (after about a month on BSD) was 8.7. April it was 5.5 and the most recent, in July, was 5.2.

Love your suggestions – I could possible decide on ‘The eagle has landed’ 😃. But a few weeks to think about it!

Thanks Imogen – there are so many shops for everything and anything in York 😃 Part of the problem is that I’m struggling to find anything I like in the clothes shops at the minute. Either the colour, size or style is wrong. I’ve never liked blouses/tops with breast pockets. After years of wearing them I don’t want elasticated waists. And so it goes on. And the colours that are in most stores are definitely not for me 😱 But I will persevere. If I find even one item next week, it will be a victory😃

Thanks Igorasusual – I did visit lots of the ‘younger’ shops briefly when I was in London. One assistant was handing something out but completely ignored me. Obviously I didn’t fit her expectation of customer profile. Or else I was wearing my cloak of invisibility😱 Again! But next week I’ll have time to browse properly.

Igorasusual, thanks for the reminder that we are not restricted to certain shops or styles as we get older😊. At the moment my choices are of the strictly charity shop label variety as won’t be investing in ‘new’ until I reach my desired weight. I tend towards the more relaxed, eclectic styles so can be difficult to find clothing that I like, that suits me, is affordable, and that fits…hoping that will change as I drop down the sizes tho!

Thank you Imogen 🙂 If someone had told me 11 weeks ago that I would be 14 stone something in August this year, I’d have laughed in their face! Or burst into tears at their cruelty, one of the two 🙂 Thank you for your comment about my photo too. It’s one of the best photos I have of me in recent times. I scrub up ok, don’t I? Hee hee.

Congratulations all – fab results everywhere!

Captainlynne have a great time in York – I meant what I said about visiting Zara, I’m a great fan and if you look carefully there are lots of lovely things – bought a small size jumper and a really nice shirt there the other day. (As I said I work in Fashion, where what you wear is very important. Once I left a job and one of my colleagues said “whilst I’m really sorry you’re leaving, at least now I’ll be able to go to Zara without finding you’ve been there first and bought all the stuff I like”)

I am on a mission to get women who wouldn’t necessarily think of shopping in “young fashion” shops to go and have a look and pick out things which would suit them. Not all the styles, of course, but many are really good.

But whatever, congratulations again everyone! 🙂

Congrats Plumptious. That is fantastic news – it must be great to achieve your goal (and great motivation for those of us starting out.)

Lucky, you’re looking great in your photo!!!

Oh Christi, thank you for the compliment, when you’ve had something work it’s great to be able to share tips on what seemed to make the difference.

I’m sure you’ll knock off those last few pounds! Have you tried even more liquid? Apart from filling you up and making you focus on drinking (and peeing) rather than eating, it does seem to wash away the fat!

I’m having a moment with blackberries. We grow a few brambles ( or rather just don’t stop them growing themselves) in the garden and I am having great trouble with the temptation of harvesting them every morning.

50g of blackberries is not very much and I must pick and eat much more than this each day – don’t think they are actually as many carbs as MFP says, as not all of them are really sweet.

Only an issue if I’m trying to keep under 30g of carbs, it’s not the calorie load worried about.

But hey. Nature’s bounty or what!

Brilliant weight loss Gavin, 👏🏆10% !!
Lucky, fantastic another stone bracket reached🙋👏🎶
Frog, shrinking daily💐👏great result on the new tops and especially the trousers!
In fact congratulations to everyone on their great BSD achievements – brilliant!!

Thanks Janey 🙂 Yes, I feel so less ‘wound up’ now, it’s amazing. It’s renewed my zeal for this way of eating, for sure, whereas a few days ago I was feeling meh, and *this* close to pigging out on junk food.

I have put a new blog post up – with pictures, if anyone’s interested… I am cringeing as I type this because I don’t publish pictures of me often, I don’t even have photos taken of me if I can help it, but I was just so stunned by the physical difference in not just me but Mr Lucky in the space of 3 months, that I figured, I should be proud of it and show it off 🙂 Be gentle if any of you look, taken me a lot of guts to do it, still a long, long way to go yet…

No plans except cleaning. It. Never. Ends. Enjoy your weekend. Take the ironing board 😉 You might get something done while you’re there 😀

http://luckymanekibsd.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/bsd-800-update-with-pictures.html

Hi Frog

Don’t abandon MFP I’m sure you’ll regret it!

Good for you being so positive about moving down a size ….. positive thoughts = positive actions!

My Fitness Pal – one of the apps that you can use to track food and exercise…. quite popular it seems though others refer to Fatsecret.

Shorthand is great – when we know what it is short for!