Latest forum posts

  • posted by  Bill1954 on 'Weigh in' thread
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Kes don’t beat yourself up about it, you are human after all!
    We all have little slip ups, just try to take it 1 day at a time, eg I won’t have alcohol just for today.
    You have lost a stone so that is no cause for despondancy, celebrate the fact that you know how to do it and aim to shift the next stone a bit faster.

  • posted by  hashimoto on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Christine, I’m sure your friends will notice your weight loss! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they decide to try this diet too!!!

    Cherrianne, looking forward to tasting those lovely organic eggs your girls lay!!
    Lucia, I would never bully anyone about being vego either.

    I was vegetarian myself for about 14 years but decided to allow meat into my diet when living in the Middle East as it was causing people too much anxiety about meals for me – not many people were vegetarian at the time and I didn’t want to be the cause of stress or people making 2 different meals when I was invited to their homes. I still eat meat now but not every day – a bit too pricey apart from anything else
    xxx

  • posted by  hashimoto on 'Weigh in' thread
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Hi Kes, just ‘manning up’ will spur you on to achieve more. I think the alcohol might be your biggest stumbling block to more weight loss. Any chance of ditching it until your holiday? You could then look forward to it as a holiday treat you deserve. ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by  Christi1948 on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Lucia,
    What a good idea, I’m going to get myself a lovely bracelet, a sparkly silver one, ( I don’t suit gold), I’m cheap you See! Then when I reach my target weight I will have it engraved with 800, brilliant idea!!! Thank you for the inspiration.
    We are off out for a meal this evening with our diebetic couple, I’m hoping they notice how much weight I have lost, they have been supportive, as well as the forum, we only see them half a dozen times a year, so I think they will see a difference.
    Christine

  • posted by  Lostgirl on On a high!!
    on in BSD Way of Life
    permalink

    Well sorry been busy.. Life manic!!!

    Dropped 3 pounds!!!

    What I am doing.. Is bought off eBay take away containers I can freeze and microwave.. Doing bumper cook off and portion and freeze…

    So far so good!

  • We’ve been invited to a birthday lunch with friends on Sunday, which is lovely, just the four of us. I know she’s doing a big roast dinner, so I, being veggie, have offered to bring a cauliflour cheese dish. Hopefully I can make one, that is low carb, and others won’t even realise. She’ll do loads of lovely veg to go with it, I just will have to avoid the roasties.

    For desert she’s making homemade trifle, and possibly apple pie. I don’t feel I can offer to bring an alternative, as she’s a very good cook and.maybe would offend her.

    What would you all do, just have a little trifle, homemade custard/fruit/cream? I would just have this meal plus low carb soup in evening, no booze. This is the first real challenge I’ve had like this. None of them know I’m doing this regime. I want to wait until I have some noticeable weight loss before telling anyone.

  • I can’t comment on the transplant situation, you should really consult your GP or a dietician but the blood sugar readings should take a tumble on this plan if you get the go ahead.
    We have had folk with readings similar to yours getting remarkable results.
    Try just cutting the bad carbs out for a week or so to see how you react and then worry about the calories would be my advice, but ONLY when you have medical advice to go ahead.
    Best of luck!

  • posted by  DocPWK on Blood Pressure
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    I think that this really reinforces the guidance in the book that you need to check with your GP if you are on meds for high blood pressure before starting the diet. If you are, check your blood pressure at least daily when you start the diet. I was completely stunned by the fall in my readings after just 1 or 2 days.

    I am due to see the GP again early next week (follow up call which means blood sugar was causing concern) so decided to do a pre-emptive strike and go on the diet for a week before going back, based on reports that some people reported almost immediate benefits. Didn’t expect this though! It’s just a shame that Lloyds pharmacy let me down completely and never sent the blood glucose monitor I ordered a week ago, so I have no idea what my blood sugar is doing. On the upside, Boots gave me the customer services number for Roche and when I phoned them to ask where I could get a meter (Accu-chek Aviva) they said they would send me one free of charge. Result!

    As a doctor myself (of IT not medicine though) I’m fairly happy to self-administer for a few days, but I’m only doing it as an emergency measure before my BP drops through the floor.

    Bottom line – every home should have a blood pressure monitor (and use it)!

  • Morning Guy’s, as the initial post points out I am new to your excellent site and getting more desperate as time goes by.
    So diving straight in……

    Bit of my History, Type 2 diabetic after gratefully receiving a Kidney Transplant but I was put on to prednisolone and hey presto I developed Type 2 Diabetes.

    I was told by the Doc the sugar increase was because of this steroid I was placed on?

    This is my first question has any of you Guys tried the BSD after having a transplant and if so may I ask what success or failure did you experience?

    Currently for no apparent reason my BS levels have risen dramatically from 9.5 to 17 and I am extremely worried.
    Would you say I am now beyond help with the BSD approach?

    Hoping for some feed back,

    Very best regards,

    Nigel.

  • posted by  Izzy on Newbie
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    it might help to weigh in less, once a week maybe or even at least leave it a couple of days in between.

    I’m a newbie too so lets keep going ๐Ÿ™‚

    I’ve also had to pee a lot…. and I also don’t much feel drawn to the book example recipes, but there are plenty low carb recipe ideas you can find here and online elsewhere and I have been making up my own.

  • posted by  barby on Newbie
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Hi FatBlaster – I know EXACTLY how you feel about being demotivated, especially when you read about all the amazing losses. Not everyone is so lucky – I am quite new here and one of the slow losers, but it IS going. I know myself, and if I see the scales go up, it does demotivate me, could make me binge.

    So I have not weighed for last 5 days, just keep doing it properly. It will come off, and meanwhile hopefully you’ll start feeling other benefits, such as clothes slightly looser, happy being in control. I may weigh once a week from now on.

    The things I’m trying to do now, which I didn’t at first, is take the time to weigh my portions ie when I add teaspoon chopped nuts to yoghurt/ or 3 dsrt spoons yoghurt for breakfast. Once I know exactly how much a portion is in a certain spoon, I enter it on My Fitness Pal, and use same spoon from then on. I may have been eating too much without realising. Also if you go on MFP or similar, you can make sure you are eating enough fat, which is also important.

    Make sure you drink loads, apparently it really helps with weight loss. I’ve found these forums make all the difference to keep me on track. Good luck and bet you will be shrinking soon.

  • posted by  Kes on 'Weigh in' thread
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Haven’t had the bravery to post my weight on this thread for the last few weeks as I’ve been so disappointed with myself. I’m like many of you who lost a lot of weight in the first 2 weeks (11lb) then just sat there. The difference between you guys and me is that I know it is all my fault. I know that I’m not sticking rigidly to 800 cals, I’m not drinking enough water, I’m still drinking too much alcohol and I’m not getting enough exercise. All these things are in my power to change but I just can’t seem to muster up enough willpower.

    It is day 4 of week 7 today and this morning I hit the 1 st lost goal (a goal I aimed to have achieved at the end of week 4) so thought it was time to man up and post it here (hoping it might spur me on to do better). We’ve also got a holiday planned for the end May/beginning June and my next goal is another stone before then.

    Although I’ve not been brave enough to put up my own weight I wanted to thank all of you for posting up your amazing results and also those of you who are struggling a bit like me. I read all your posts every day and gain such a lot of comfort, inspiration and encouragement (I just need to bottle it and not let life and my own weakness derail me so much).

    Well done to all the losers! not just of weight but of the burdens of ill health and especially well done for sticking with it and giving us encouragement.

  • posted by  Izzy on Izzy's 8 week diary :)
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Here we are on day 4 (I’ll update my food at the days end) but I wanted to check in ๐Ÿ™‚

    Positives… My scales are showing I’ve lost 3.5lb’s woohoo! I’ve not really felt hungry and I’ve found it easier than I thought to find food to eat. I’m feeling more confident that I can see this through and still enjoy my meals. I’ve been having a lunchtime walk at work to help get my step target I forgot to add my steps to some of my updates but I’ve made my 10000 or more every day.

    Negatives… I’ve had some headaches, presumably due to carb withdrawal as well as suddenly not drinking lots of my favourite lady grey tea! (I’ve been having herbal instead) and my IBS had been playing up a little but it did that anyway so I’m not linking it directly to the diet. It can be very random. I have WANTED to eat carbs but I recognise I wasn’t hungry. Unfortunately (lol) I live with a very lean husband who does training and has a ridiculously fast metabolism. He needs to eat a lot including carbs and as I have an 11 year old and a 3 year old I can’t just clear the house of the stuff I’d like to munch.

    When I see something would normally just eat and want it, I turn away quickly so as not to dwell on it. If I think about it then usually I eat a single cashew nut or a piece of sugar free gum. So far that has been enough to distract me.

    I only work Monday to Thursday so my weekend has started now, and I’m expecting it to be harder to keep my steps up as well as staying on track but I’m feeling like I can do it ๐Ÿ™‚

    Feel free to point out any flaws in what I’ve done so far, I welcome advice and constructive criticism.

  • posted by  Izzy on Izzy's 8 week diary :)
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Day 3

    Breakfast- two eggs (whisked up in a cup then added spring onion and ham, fried)

    lunch- scotch egg and salad, and a few strawberries.

    Dinner- Soup. (made with beef stock, lentils, onion and butterbeans)

    I recognise I’ve had too many eggs…but I made a batch of the scotch eggs and they needed eaten ๐Ÿ™‚ I’ll vary it up more next week as I will be better organised. The soup recipe was from a website I use a lot for cooking I’ll post the link below. I used this recipe but added a can of butterbeans and a little more water to accommodate the beans. I blended it too. It was really nice and will be lunch tomorrow and probably some frozen.

    755 calories, 55.9g carbs

    http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/14460/just-lentil-soup.aspx?o_is=SR

  • posted by  Cherrianne on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Hashimoto,
    You should be enjoying fresh eggs when you get here. The laying is tapering off due to the shorter days but we are still getting eggs. Our girls get buried at a ripe old age lol. Usually to fertilise a new tree! We have quite a few of Hugh’s DVDs, we can’t get TV reception where we live but we do enjoy his shows and the whole sustainable living thing.
    Lucia, I would never bully or coerce anyone into turning vego. It is a very personal choice and we aren’t militant about it at all. It still isn’t easy, even in these days, to get good veg food when eating out. Especially if you want to go low carb. At home it’s easy to be a low carb vego.
    Julia I can just picture you trying to hush your daughter! They come up with the funniest things don’t they? It’s all about whatever comes into their head comes out on their lips. No filter yet lol.

  • posted by  Izzy on Izzy's 8 week diary :)
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Day 2

    Breakfast- yoghurt and a satsuma

    lunch- Scotch egg with salad

    Dinner- chicken and cashews. (cooked chicken, onion, broccoli and a chilli in a little olive oil, added chinese five spice, stock, soy sauce and cooked longer then added nuts for last 10 mins) it was so nice! Hubby had it with rice.

    780 cals, 50.9g carbs

  • posted by  Izzy on Izzy's 8 week diary :)
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    I posted a hello in the welcome thread but decided to make a diary here. Brief backstory… Mum of two, 40, PCOS, insulin resistant. Suffered gestational diabetes during pregnancy and told I’m at high risk of becoming diabetic, Dad and sister both type 2. Been there and done that with every diet with varying success, the only ones that really got me anywhere were low carb but I never made a proper lifetime commitment to them, but now? Well… Life begins at 40 they say, I’m ready. I’ve been ill the past two months (low iron and anxiety/depression) but I’m on my way back and I decided now is the time. I stumbled across this diet whilst listening to a radio programme interviewing Michael Mosley. It wasn’t about the 8 week diet, but people had called in thanking him for it and it was briefly mentioned and caught my attention, so I bought the book, read it, got myself organised and here we are! My heaviest weight a few years ago was 14st 4, and I’m happy to say I didn’t reach that again although I’ve been up and down. My check in weight on day one was 12st 12. I’ve got a fitbit and have been getting my steps per day and using the app to log my food. Pleased to find on the laptop web version that I can monitor the carbs too.

    So day one was Tuesday and went like this…

    Weight 12st 12
    Fasting blood sugar 5.1 (I momentarily felt like a fraud, but hey my body is probably wild with insulin to get there)
    steps 10480

    Breakfast plain yoghurt and blueberries,
    lunch home made scotch egg (no breadcrumb coating) salad
    Dinner courgette stuffed with mince, onions, with tomato puree and stock, very small amount of cheese on top.

    770 calories 46.3g carb

  • posted by  Odette C on 'Weigh in' thread
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Hello, I was feeling a bit frustrated, on Day 21, overall loss was 12lbs but only 1 lb was in the last week. So yesterday I thought, NO CARBS TODAY as i really wanted to hit the I stone milestone. And guess what , I got up this

    i had gained two pounds! Does this story sound familiar? On the plus side, I experimented with stopping my BP medication and checked all day, and it seems I dont need it any more, amazeballs!
    So now, I shall follow suggestions and drink lots of water today. If these posts were not here Im sure Id have quit. Thank you all.

  • posted by  hashimoto on 'Weigh in' thread
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Keep going Lucyjane, you will be one of those who reports a sudden loss one morning! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by  hashimoto on risk of gallstones and gout
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Cherrieanne that is very good news re your large gall stone.

    It’s quite staggering how many people are reporting beneficial changes in medical conditions while on this low carb diet!

    So far:
    Acid reflux
    Gall stones
    Asthma
    Joint pain

    All we expected was an improvement in T2 – or reversal – and weight loss!

    Post if you have any other improvements I haven’t mentioned! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by  Fatblaster on Newbie
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Thanks so much, Bill1954. Sometimes, someone encouraging you is all you need. I am boring my dearly beloved senseless with this (although she has been very supportive). I find I become quite obsessed by the whole thing. Thanks.

  • posted by  Bill1954 on Newbie
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Don’t let it demotivate you!!!
    everyone is different and your body is not to be trusted.
    Things like stress, feeling unwell and even the time of day can make your weight vary by up to 4 pounds a day!
    I know what Michael says about daily weighing and sorry but it’s one thing I disagree with. Yes if you lose a bit each day it will keep you motivated but you are experiencing the opposite.
    Personally I weigh once a week on the same day at the same time.
    The diet does work, on 800 calories and low carbs you have to lose weight but it won’t all come off at once, take a look through the forums and you will find plenty of people who have had plateaux lasting up to 3 weeks, then they get a sudden overnight loss.
    Keep your faith, the results will come.

  • posted by  hashimoto on Blood Pressure
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Hi Steve no wonder your dr sounded a bit reluctant, he was probably feeling a wee bit stupid!

    So glad you have been able to reduce your meds! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by  FoFi on 5 days in and struggling
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi, I think that MM says that some brown breads have extra sugar and that many are not really whole grains. The bread I have been eating (3 slices per week) is Biona Organic Rye Pumpkin Seed Bread (available in Tesco in the UK) which seems to have no added sugar. The fermentation process does create some sugar, but the sources I have found put it as a low GI food, with a GL of about 5-8 per slice. Those of you don’t something slightly different to the book and targeting very low carbs might find the ~18g carbs per slice too high.

  • posted by  hashimoto on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Cherrieanne I’m glad you’re not going to roast your poor chucks! I want to collect their eggs with you! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Lucia have you thought of other reasons for being a veggie or part time veggie? 1. It is predicted that in the not too distant future meat will become too expensive for ordinary folks like us due to exploding global population – i.e. Not enough land to produce enough meat to keep it affordable .
    2. The land which can feed 10 vegetarians can only support 1 cow.

    I am a part time veggie. You should watch Hugh F-W, he was challenged to go without meat for a while and had to come up with ideas for delicious meat free meals. He surprised himself!

    Apologies to all you true veggies as I know there isn’t really such a thing as part time veggie – but you know what I mean!

    Lucia, I hope your scales give you a lovely surprise in the morning and you have had a Whoosh!

    Xxxx

  • posted by  FoFi on Metformin
    on in Fast 800
    permalink

    Donno, well done so far. In another few days you’ll be overweight rather than obese, I crossed that a couple of days ago and it is a great feeling. Aim for 16kg loss in the 8 weeks, some have done it, but if you are short by a couple of kg you can always extend the diet by a few days, or do a few weeks of 5:2 to get there.

  • posted by  hashimoto on Kia ora! Any other NZers on here?
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Pierre, I do like the sound of the NZ lifestyle! All that tasty fresh fish! You should try the cooked lettuce next time – you will find it surprisingly tasty!
    I make lettuce soup when I have a glut of lettuce – you should try that too:)

  • posted by  Fatblaster on Newbie
    on in Starting the BSD
    permalink

    Hi People! Feeling a bit fed up today. Thought I had stuck faithfully to the diet, and had gone from 13st 12.5 to 13st5, in 6 days, but seem to have gone back up 1lb to 13st 6 today. Thought I’d kept pretty rigidly to the diet plan. Can’t explain this, and it’s hit my motivation.

  • posted by  hashimoto on First day on the diet ,here I gooooo
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Alan that weight loss is so fantastic you couldn’t believe your own eyes!!! You must have just been looking at the pounds on the scale lol.
    I’m so pleased for you, yet another brilliant success story and you still have 6 weeks to go ! ๐Ÿ™‚

  • posted by  duckstrained on Hill Sprints
    on in Fast Exercise
    permalink

    Hi, Hawks. Thanks for your comments. When I was timing it it took me about 28 seconds to get up there and yes I would find it hard to carry on any further when I get there. I would say my sprint is more of a lumber but it is all relative to fitness isnt it?

    In the Fast Exercise book there are a few options for length of sprints, recovery and intensity. I live at the top of a big hill in three directions (the one outside of my house is really an up and down dip) so there is plenty of scope to try out the variations. One is to walk up a hill at full tilt for 4 minutes which I could do on the walk from the station but it has to be 8-10% gradient and I don’t know how to measure that. It says it is pretty steep but how steep is pretty steep?!

  • posted by  FoFi on First day on the diet ,here I gooooo
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Congratulations Alan. I think that your weight loss is at the high end of normal for the first two weeks. You should expect that loss to slow slightly, so don’t be disappointed if the next stone takes three weeks!

  • posted by  Alanhypno on First day on the diet ,here I gooooo
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Oh no just got on scales every pound back on in my second week
    Back to 19-10๐Ÿ˜ฑ
    Moved them all over the floor,changed room 19-10 all back on
    Put scales away
    Put in diary
    Got out again ……what ? 18-10 !!!!! That’s one stone in two weeks not 19-10 it’s 18-10
    In a fortnight one stone !!!๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ˜˜๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚
    Is this normal loss ?????
    My stomach right down so are my pants !!!!
    Alan happy ๐Ÿ˜€

  • posted by  Pierre on Kia ora! Any other NZers on here?
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Hawkes and other Kiwis,
    In reply, today we fished the Manukau harbour catching gurnard and kahawai.
    We eat so much fish it gets really hard to make it interesting however there is a great recipe in the “8 week” book. It is much better than it sounds. “Braised fish with lettuce and peas.” I make it a bit different to the book. Rather than cook the lettuce, who ever heard of that, I do a tasty salad with balsamic vinegar, I then lightly cook the fish in chunks toss in the peas along with the creme fraiche, lemon juice, capers and whatever, then toss over the salad. It is a great recipe for fish like kahawai which a few years ago we would have thrown in the rubbish. I have tried kahawai in chick pea rissoles. I tell you this new way of eating throws up all sorts of interesting culinary stuff.

  • posted by  stringbreaker on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi Lucia,
    No walk today (yet) I’m afraid – I got up at 05:30 with good intentions but it’s tipping down.
    I’m staying at this hotel for some time in May and will bring my trainers so I can do it on one of the treadmills in the gym if it rains.
    Promise I’ll try later in the day
    However, I did stick to your breakfast instructions
    John

  • posted by  Hawks on Hill Sprints
    on in Fast Exercise
    permalink

    Hi duckstrained,
    I am no expert, but it does sound as though you are doing the High Intensity Training thing right to me based on the book’s description. Are you pretty knackered as you reach the brow of the hill? How long in seconds does that sprint last? 10-20 seconds is apparently the target.
    Hills are quite handy for a good workout aren’t they? I live on one too and use it for uphill sprints. The first few I did were just jogs, but now I can get a little bit of genuine speed on them.

  • posted by  Lucia on My eight weeks….
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi, sorry to all the vegetarians, I mean no disrespect.

    I have thought about it, and I think I have blogged, I am getting mentally ready to slowly change , moving slowly to you.

    I am going to have three days a week without any meat.
    I will build up from there.

    Today I will write my shopping list with this in mind.

    It isn’t easy, I want to mainly do it for me, and after that, the next reason is the humane one.

    This is all I will say on the subject as, previously, people have used bullying tactics on me, upsetting me with horrible words and photos.
    I respect their theme but not their method in me.
    I was brought up on a farm, so from a toddler, I knew the food chain and where food comes from.

    Yes, a bit heavy for here, sorry, this is my final word on my opinion. You should see it through my comments on what I eat.

    By choice, I am having an apple for lunch, my weight has not moved for a day or two. But I will stay at 800 cals.

    Love Lucia
    Xxxx

  • posted by  Hawks on walk run walk
    on in Fast Exercise
    permalink

    Thanks Switzerland! It certainly helps having a whole country cheering me on. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  • posted by  Hawks on Kia ora! Any other NZers on here?
    on in Welcome to the BSD
    permalink

    Hi FluffySlippers
    Love the name. It is good to hear your results, which are great, and that you are finding the diet easier. I think the Med Style is definitely liveable long term.
    I have to admit I am still drinking wine with meals, but I do strictly limit the amount as it does hit me hard. and we have plenty of cases that need drinking…