Hi Tamsyn,
No need for embarrassment, as plenty of us have plenty to lose!
I was also over the 100kg mark and have been following the 5:2 Med style and losing fairly steadily. I am 26 kg down with another 17.5 kg to go. But I just want to get rid of those kilos now so I have resolved to do the BSD eight week diet and this is also my first day on that.

With the chicken breasts here in NZ some are monstrous, so I cut those in half and freeze for later use. I think somewhere on this forum I may have see a comment about people not needing to eat more than 100g of meat every few days. Someone can correct me on that if I remember it wrongly.

With the variation in calories, it may be the marbling of fat in the meat varies or the cut may have more, such as a porterhouse vs fillet steak, so use them as a guide and just try to stay close to the 800 where possible.

Hi Tamsyn, Here are a couple of listings from the USDA database:

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, raw
100 grams=141
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7545?manu=&fgcd=

and

Beef, New Zealand, imported, rump centre, separable lean only, cooked, fast fried
100 grams=188
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/7511?manu=&fgcd=

There are also listings for “lean and fat” which are slightly higher calories.

Some of the differences in the counts you found could be due to some being raw and some being cooked, but I don’t know where that 271 came from?? Good luck to you.

82.5 kg

So a slight gain of 0.5 kg, but considering I pretty much took a week off that’s OK.

Hi Matthew! Nice to see another person from the US on the site! Welcome and good wishes as you begin. I live in California and ran across the BSD book in London on the way to a ski holiday — that was February and I am on week 10. Although I have been cranky, hungry and sometimes so frustrated, I have lost almost eight inches from my waist in ten weeks. i have found I am most satisfied with real food — and for me the less carbohydrate the better (even below 20 grams per day). That might knock out the oatmeal but there are plenty of great things to substitute! I find myself wanting simple food, eggs, cheese, vegies, salad, meat — I use olives and a couple of nuts for snacks — I hope you enjoy the blog, it can be very supportive.

Wow paddy57 you are doing amazingly!!! That’s great!!

Day 9 today and down 12.8 lbs so far….

Thanks for all your inspiration!!
💜

Hi Jandz100,
How do you know about newbies?
Here’s my food for today and it’s a miracle because it was Mother’s Day and we went out to eat. !!

Cal 701. Carb 38
B nutrition shake – vega brand
L 2 eggs, 4 green olives, 1/2 T mayo, 1/2 tomato
Snack 1 oz cheese (to make it till dinner)
D asparagus, green beans, broccoli, 3 oz dried tofu, 1 T oyster sauce, inside only if two vegie dim sum

Thanks Izzy, just got home (we are in US Pacific time zone) and it was amazing!! Just went to a low key dim sum place and the day food wise and family wise went great!!
Hugs for a great day when you see this!

Hallelujah! I made it through Mother’s Day and even only ate 700 calories and 38 carbs for the day!

B nutrition shake vega
L 2 eggs, 4 green olives, 1/2 T mayo, 1/2 tomato
Snack 1 oz cheese (to make it till dinner)
D asparagus, green beans, broccoli, dried tofu, 1 T oyster sauce, inside only if two vegie dim sum

Yippee I made it and the kids made sure there were things I could eat!!!
💜💖🌷🌻

Just another quick question…

I’ve gotten onto myfitnesspal.com to track my calories and I intend to have a small piece of rump steak with a salad for lunch. A quick check under “rump steak” on the calorie chart shows multiple values for 100g of steak ranging from 119 calories to 271 calories. When you only have 800 to play with, that’s a big difference. How do you know what is the correct value?

Hi all,

My name is Tamsyn and it’s my first day on the 8 week blood sugar diet. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a few months ago, but have been very cleverly burying my head in the sand ever since. I actually gained weight after the diagnosis! Foolish girl. So I bought the book yesterday after having seen it at the shops a few times, read the whole thing, and now here I am. I am (embarrassingly) severely overweight at 132kg (about 291lbs) and have all the health issues you’d expect to go along with that. The diabetes is new, but I suspect if I sort that out, all the rest will follow. So here I am.

Breakfast this morning was tricky, I found myself in a bit of a panic. I don’t usually eat breakfast, instead drinking cartons of iced coffee. And now you know how I got diabetes! Ha! But seriously, what do you do with an egg if not put it on a piece of toast?! I had an apple instead. I’m sure I’ll work it out.

One question about the recipies in the book – some call for ‘one chicken breast’. Yesterday I bought three chicken breasts from the supermarket and the total weight was 1.1kg (or 2.4lb), so 366g (0.8lb) each. That seems like a lot. (We must have particularly large chickens here in Australia!) Is there a more standardised weight measurement for how much skinless chicken breast should be used as a serving in the recipes?

I’ve enjoyed taking a poke through some of the forums this morning. Everyone seems very motivated and supportive. I’m looking forward to getting on top of this.

Hi anthony,

I’m interested in your shirataki noodles…..can you tell me a little more ? are they in the supermarket or specialty shop ? are they hard pasta or softer noodles in a different part than the hard ? or in an international aisle ? are you in the UK or elsewhere ? A lot of questions I know but would really appreciate if you can tell me. I really miss my pasta and noodles but have to face the fact, which I already suspected, that, although I love carbs, I just shouldn’t eat them any more. I love them but they don’t like me !
Regards jillyB

Week 2, down another 1.2 kg 🙂 very very happy with that, 4.2 in two weeks is astonishing really.

Expecting much slower losses from now on. I have largely nixed the shakes now, but the cold has hit with a vengeance, which makes me want warm meals! (5.2 degrees when I got up this morning. Brrrrrr. Reckon it was about 10 in the house!! Wish I could justify the $$$$& for heat!)

Onward and downward 🙂

Hi LucyAB,

I like to distribute my calories in these approximate amounts:

50 grams carbohydrate @ 4 calories per gram=200 calories
40 grams protein @ 4 calories per gram=160
48 grams fat @ 9 calories per gram=432
This adds up to 792 calories.

50 gr. carbs is my personal choice, and the 40 gr. of protein is what is recommended for women in the BSD book (50 gr. for men). Yeah, I’m a little obsessive about tracking…

Totally agree TrishDawn. on any other diet a deviation would mean weeks of effort to regain losses but I find on this eating plan its quicker to lose than gain. It is so inspiring to make me what to carry on rather than give in. I gave in to mothers day breakfast, skipped lunch, ate a healthy dinner but snuck in a few squares of choc and a small red wine. no weight gain! will be strict again from today.

I watched the segment on the Sunday Night show. They took three overweight Australians, two men and one woman, all diagnosed with diabetes or pre diabetes and will have them trialling three different diets.

One man will be using the paleo diet of low carb, healthy fat, the young woman will use the low glycemic diet and the third will be on the 800 calorie blood sugar diet. The show will be following their progress over the coming weeks, so not sure how long I’ll have to wait to find out how they fare.

It was sad on so many levels to see the woman’s young children crying as they got rid of all the high sugar, high glycemic foods. Biscuits, cordials, fruit juices. It’s going to be a tough challenge because their preferred meals were drive through take away, but hopefully they can all turn their lives around.

One thing I’ve noticed about my ups and downs with this diet is how small an amount of weight I gain when I lose the plot for a few days.

I felt pretty anxious weighing myself this morning knowing I’d had a total blowout twice this past week as well as a Mother’s day breakfast yesterday. I did manage to pull myself together for the rest of the day, but I was really relieved to find I’d only put on 200 grams.

I was amazed, I was almost too scared to get on the scales. I know that a bit of self discipline will have that off in no time. Now I only have a family barbecue to negotiate on Wednesday, which shouldn’t be too hard. Saying no to a slice of delicious birthday cake might be beyond me though.

Hi LucyAB,
Well done with re-starting. You mention will-power in your post. This way of eating may prove that wrong. While being on my BSD journey I’ve discovered that what I thought was my lack of willpower was actually carb addiction – I’ve taken away the simple carbs and have not had any ‘willpower’ issues. I’m in Week 6 and feel well satiated. It’s a steep learning curve. Last week when I felt like chocolate I baked the Guilt Free Brownies (recipe in the book). Other times when I feel like chocolate I make a hot milk and cocoa drink (keeping within 800 cal – some days a little over, some a little under).

Something that I find helpful is mindfulness meditation and exercise (which you’re already doing). I walk. I vary my route so some days have more hills than others. You can find threads on exercise and mindfulness meditation towards the bottom of the forum page.

You mentioned grams of carbs. You may find it helpful to read Bill1954’s thread ‘This has to work for me’. You can find it by clicking on the Welcome to the BSD heading and scrolling down.

When you have time, try and read through the forums because there are many folk who discuss carb gram. It will give you a good overview.

Best wishes LucyAB and keep us all posted on your progress.

Hi Syb,
Thanks for taking the step and posting.The support on these forums is valuable. The simple carbs have a really strong pull on some of us, don’t they?
Have you tried some seeds and nuts with your yoghurt and fruit? I find that the crunch makes it seem more like breakfast.
You’ve had some positive results at the end of week one – well worth the effort.
I, too, am going to try the gram flour flat breads Cherrianne mentioned.

Inulin finally arrived yesterday. I ordered it just after watching the Angela Rippon programme – I thought it would never come!. I’ve got a blood test on Wednesday then going on holiday, so I’m not going to start using it until I come back. Have not found a definitive dose, so will experiment and let people know how I get on.

Day 78 weight 10st 1lb
Blood sugar 10.5

Was naughty and had two glasses of prosciutto on Saturday night. Felt great until 4.30 Sunday morning when I felt really rough. #oldenoughtoknowbetter.

Hi Lucia,
I love the cauliflower rice. Something I do differently is that I don’t microwave the cauliflower. I just blitz the florettes then fry them in the pan with some coconut oil (the amount of oil depends on my calories that day). I enjoy it being a bit crunchy. I eat raw cauliflower which may be a pre-requisite for preferring it cooked this way.

I’ve got the glo stix covered – they’re left over from New Years Eve. Thank goodness Hashimoto’s in charge of the food – she’s responsible enough to make sure it ‘complies’ with BSD guidelines. (I was so pleased that it wasn’t my job, being a 6 week ‘newbie’ I may have blown it!)

Natalie, can we have multi-coloured fairy lights please? Bill – plenty of Abba music please. Let’s have such a good time that captainlynne comes to the party rather than watching us on CCTV, that way Imogen can relax with us.

I’ve got to go and ‘glam up’. At least I have a 9 hour head start! (Volume fading)…..you are the dancing queen……..super trooper…….
lalalalala.

Hi Lucia, I had dandelion leaves, slightly boiled,

first time ever and as I have a garden full, I thought I would go on a garden forage. Was very nice and tasted like slightly bitter spinach. Definitely will have more of it.

Enjoy your clubhouse party. I think you should make it a 70’s themed do

Polly xxx

PS Cauliflower rice is really nice but does taste like cauliflower lol – I really like it in stir fried veg dishes:D

Hi, I’m similar – 9 off wk1, 3 off wk2, 0 off wk3 (and felt rubbish – bad cramps all week), 2 off wk4. I think the key for me is going to be doing more exercise – the first weeks I was losing from stopping eating rubbish snacks all the time, now I need to up the movement to keep losing! *Keep telling myself this when I don’t want to go out for a walk!! Maybe you need to set a few walking goals and see if it helps??

Thanks for the clarification captain lynne. Ohhhhh BST. Have a good sleep.

Hi Lucia,
My head is in good place…although I may not be the best judge of that…good day today Plenty of walking, then some gardening, and sitting in sunshine looking at the hills.😊

Not hungry at breakfast so skipped (not literally, though maybe next time)
Lunch was stir fry cabbage, spring onion, garlic, with chicken – followed by some strawberries with a spoonful of cream as not able to eat yogurt.
Dinner small low carb ploughmans. All delicious , it’s amazing how much I am enjoying food on the BSD!

Glad you’re having a happy day too!
Guess you don’t need me to tell you about cauliflower rice ?😄

Hi Syb,
Well done on facing up to the need to do something about the diabetes! It is such a huge shock to be diagnosed (2&1/2yrs for me), and an even bigger shake up to your eating habits. So hanging out with the BSD crowd is a good move cos you’ll get lots of support and advice. 🙂
Try the gram flour flatbread recipe on this site. You can use it as a wrap instead of sandwiches.
All the best… It’s a steep learning curve but the outlook from the top is so worth it.

So gang, I shall try the cauliflower rice this week.

Is anyone trying anything for the first time, this week?

I would be interested if you are experimenting with food now we are all professional BS800 ists.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Today went well and I did drink more water, however did notice myself having the odd nibble of the kids food. MUsT stop that NOW, before a nibble turns into a nobble turns into a gobble!

Thanks for the heads up Natalie. I watched it and made hubby watch it with me. He needs to lose his belly, but professes to not being able to give up his beer and scotch!
I enjoyed it and hopefully the message will rub off on him. He had a heart attack 6 years ago and had a stent inserted and was told to lose weight and change his diet, but now he just says the operation and the cholesterol lowering drugs and the blood pressure lowering drugs have ‘fixed’ him😚
I’ve series linked it on Foxtel IQ so I don’t miss an episode. It will be interesting to see which participant comes out on top! I’m rooting for Dr M!

Has anyone looked at the harcombe diet at all? I’m sort of interested in it because it also takes into account other food intolerances and starts with quite a strict 5 days of only certain foods and then I think you start re-introducing them gradually.

Am a bit annoyed with their site as you have to pay to use the forum there 🙁

Glad you are having a better day, keeptrying.

Polly x

Hi Lucia
I cooked the cauliflower rice last night for the (non dieting) family to have with bbq’d steak and veges. I followed the recipe on this website, although I only used half a cauliflower and it was great. Even my size 8, 23 year old daughter loved it and said she will make it next time.
Cheers
Linda

Hi Keeptrying — I was so very glad to see you mention the book by Gary Taubes — ‘Why we Get Fat and What To Do About It’. It is an excellent book on how our current food choices (pushed by our own government, sadly) are all wrong and how we can fix it. He also wrote a fantastic, bigger-picture book called ‘Good Calories, Bad Calories’ — it came out about five years ago and it is absolutely worth the rather long read. Both books changed my entire understanding of food and my relationship to it. I hear your personal struggle in your posts and I have much empathy for you. I recommend following up on Gary Taubes diet suggestions at the back of his book (it comes out of research at Duke University in North Carolina, USA — absolutely reputable). His suggestions are a perfect “fit” with the BSD. I have been using both ideas to craft my own workable plan. I am sure you can find a path that works for you. Don’t despair — you are probably just on the edge of getting it right.

Hi Bill
I thought that Michael said in the book that the comment about the body ‘going into starvation mode’ if the calorie intake was low was an old wives tale, based on outdated research?

I’m not recommending operating at less than 800 calories per day on a regular basis, but for example today – where I had a good balanced breakfast, and a light lunch, but because i was working in the garden and getting very hot, I drank water rather than eat dinner, thereby achieving calorie count of about 600 odd – is ok from time to time.

I’ve not got too much to lose, and felt that today – with potentially 18 hours fasting now before breakfast tomorrow – might even kick start a bit of weight loss.

Well, I don’t know about it being “the most physically demanding”…I’m doing the 5:2 version, and I love it. I’m not motivated enough to do the 8 week thing, but 5:2 I can handle. I wish Dr. Mosley would talk more about the 5:2 alternative: Doing 800 cals twice a week while following the Mediterranean diet the whole time. It’s so doable!

Hi LucyAB
Just waking up here in Sydney and saw your post.
I’ve been recording everything I eat in the EasyDietDiary app and I just had a quick look back over the last week and see I’ve managed to keep the carbs between 20 and 50 and the cals between 800 & 900 each day. I’ve lost 5.5kg in the first 2 weeks and have not had any sugar, bad carbs or alcohol at all since I started. I’m also making an effort to walk every day for around 50-60 mins before I go to work in the mornings. Record what you eat and play around with recording foods until you get more familiar with the carb levels and portion sizes and you’ll soon work it out. Other than when I should be, I’m not feeling the hunger pangs that I used to due to the increase in fats and water consumption.
Well done with the exercise. It sounds like the whole family will benefit!

Hi MrsG

Glad it made sense.

I don’t know if you buy packaged sliced cooked meat, or supermarket ready cooked chicken. If you do, please check the ingredients and nutritional values on the label

I assumed cooked meat was just that – meat, probably with preservatives and/or salt.

Then I started to notice sugar listed in various forms on the labels of various meat products. I’d expect it on ‘honey roast’ , ‘bbq’ etc. But not plain roast ham or beef. Then I noticed that the label on cooked chickens says ‘cooked in a sugar marinade’.

Just giving you a heads up on this. It’s so easy to pick up a packet of meat as a ‘good’ product. But it’s not necessarily as good are think.

Lots of newbies starting tomorrow and I’m guessing the warmer weather will change what we’ve been eating over recent weeks, so thought we could do with a bump up of this thread…

Yesterday
L – egg salad
D – half courgette pizza crust topped with Spanish sliced meats & mozzarella

Today
L – remaining half of courgette pizza
D – mediterainian veg with a mackerel fillet
S – full fat yogurt with cinnamon on top

Hi there, it has been a bit quieter here today.

It seems to take a good bit of experimentation to find the levels of carbs that work, personally mine sit a bit higher usually around 50 but sometimes up to 60. I play with combinations on my fitbit app before I decide on my food so I can add bits and take them out to see what adds up better. I think you can register on the fitbit site without having a fitbit but I’m not sure. myfitnesspal is also popular.

Don’t let the fact you are re-starting get you down. You can do it this time!

Hi captainlynne. Thanks for your reply. I too write everything down and I’ve been a little obsessed with working out every calorie and every gram of carbs! From the sound of it I eat very similarly to you, and have also cut out the bread, pasta, rice etc. The diet has really opened my eyes to the amount of carbs in foods that I used to regularly consume as a snack before a meal! 😳
I am not diabetic …I am on this diet purely to lose weight and be a healthier person. My diet was out of control.
I guess I need to ‘suck it and see’. If I continue to lose weight then I’m at the correct level of carbs for me. If not I will reduce them.
I’m getting the hang of it 👍

Hello again!

I feel a bit silly replying to my own post! Oh well, nothing new there!

I wonder if I have posted my query in the right place – does anyone know where I should put the above query to get a reply?

I suppose most people are still out enjoying probably the only sunny day of the year!

I will wait hopefully and more patiently for a reply..

Thanks

Lucy

Hi, as I understand it, carbs give me a high, which is very addictive. My stomach is full but some days my head/mouth are totally craving carbs. (Usually booze OR cake, which says it all really).
I’m hoping that eventually I’ll have kicked the habit, but no idea when.
Keep on keeping on :). And the occasional lapse is just one of those things.

Hi Lucia cauli rice is just cauli florets blitzed in food processor to look like rice. Can microwave (no water) or bake. I add flavourings according to what I am cooking, peppers, chilli, spices, Tahini paste last one quite a lot of calories but very tasty.

He he he 😃

Cauliflower rice is just cauliflower blitzed in food processor. There’s a recipe in the book and lots of people on here have tried it, adding different spices etc. Can be microwaved or fried. Someone will be along who can be more specific.

Cauliflower rice is cauliflower blitzed in a food processor until it is the size of rice. You can cook it in the microwave for 5 mins.

had a good day today (well if you don’t count my cereal, and the chocolate earlier!!) – but good for me!!
I have now read that cooking fruit destroys enzymes or something – well tough – I like it – and I am NEVER eating raw rhubarb (which actually I think is classed as a vegetable so I might be excused that one)

you will – might – be pleased to know I have finally ordered the book

I last saw my gp just a few weeks ago and he was majorly impressed with all the weight I had lost on the fd, although he said he could not face doing any days of 600cals
he said he was proud of me, and that has stayed in my head

unfortunately, just 2 days later I had a big trigger re. my mh and – well – did some self destructive things, which also included the eating going haywire

so, here we go again, trying to haul on the ropes of control once more – *SIGH*

Hi MrsG27715

Can’t really answer that, sorry.

I keep under 800 calories but don’t really count carbs. I write everything fiend and don’t use an app that would calculate it.

I mainly eat fresh food: meat, fish (or occasionally chicken) zero carbs. Bacon and eggs, again zero. I don’t eat fruit or root veg (except the occasional carrot or beetroot) so virtually no carbs there. Salad and leafy veg – very few carbs. I don’t drink milk, but sometimes eat cheese or full fat yogurt – some carbs there. I don’t drink alcohol so no worry about carbs there. No bread, potatoes, pasta, pizza, chocolate or other refined carbs since I started this on 19th December. I knew I needed to do it this way to get my health under control. Must make me sound boring, but I’m not – honest😃

I have had to really restrict my carbs as it was the only way to get my blood sugar down. If I want to try something new I check the carb value first. If I decide to eat it I check my blood glucose before eating, then one, then two (and sometimes three) hours after eating to see how it’s affected me.

My guess would be 25g to 30g per day. But that is only a guess. That’s what works for me, and we are all different. If 50g works for you, that’s great. If not, reduce it until you reach a figure that does work for you.

Hope that helps.

Rats!
Our cover is blown.!!!!!!

SO! ……..

I have a technical question. ( smooth cover up, no one will notice the cardboard box of party poppers behind my back, I will just slide it behind the sofa…..phew, got away with that one)

Is cauliflower rice, just cauliflower.
Or is it something else and the name is cauliflower rice?
It’s not on calorie King….
Need the numbers before I can decide if I have a hankering to eat it.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Action plan done… To ensure I don’t have dumb excuses I make to myself for eating rubbish I’ve already calculated and entered tomorrow’s food and calorie allowance into my diary. Hello day 1….here I come!!!

I still dont know how I went blind and ate the crisps and chocolate….no more naugthy.

I double checked my cupboards now…the only carbs I have is half a cup of quinoa…doubt I’ll end up eating raw quinoa so I’ll just leave it there for when friends come over as emergency food 🙂

Hope you enjoyed your day with your family ☺

Hi bumblebee
Yippee ki-yay!