Hi All, I lost 7 lbs in the first week and only 2 lbs in the second, It was my son’s birthday and I did have a slice of cake and a couple of glasses of wine but having said that we were away for the weekend and did some fairly strenuous walks and bike rides. The weight is coming off my upper arms and thighs which look more toned now, but my tummy only looks a little bit smaller, I take fairly high doses of inhaled steroids for asthma and I think this can have an effect on fat distribution. has anyone else had not much of a weight loss in their second week?

On the question of do we get more sensitive to carbs as a result of not eating them for a prolonged period. Its only my opinion but I think it makes sense that yes, we do notice the negative effects of carbs more. They do things to our bodies that we never knew because we have been eating them since we were babies. Think about this – your first drink after milk and maybe before water was probably fruit juice and one of your first ever meals was likely to have been pureed fruit! So its no wonder we never realised how they truly make us feel until we stop having them finally as adults.

I believe that not only will they make us more ill now than ever as a result of a diet like this, but also we will notice it more because we are finally realising what truly good health feels like.

Hi Bill – ooh, exciting! I will indeedy……….thanks!

Hi Tallyhoo
at this stage I think I would drop one of the Metformin. I did and it didn’t make a jot of difference to my sugar readings.
Just monitor your readings for the first few days.
First step to being med free 🙂

Yep, Bill!!
For all those who haven’t yet heard of or signed our petition just do it and get the word out there!!! 🙂

Bill I am still having a mare with travel insurance, now got a quote as ‘low’ as £250!!! I’m on my pc for one final search. 🙁

Instead of buying inulin, I am buying vegetables with high natural content of inulin in them. So we now eat Chicory Salad leaves everyday and I mix 2tsps of Chicory Root Powder with Fresh OJ. At least this way I can control what I am consuming and gaining the health benefits.

ooh, I’m gonna try that Bill.
Good your BS is back to normal! 🙂

Hi Beverley
Liked your post very much.
Think we need to be mindful of our own bodies. I echo some of your sentiments here.
Needed to lose weight when I started this diet ,at least 3 stone, to counteract the effect of Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and to be kind to my liver and pancreas. However as I was fairly active I still needed to do a range of activities.
Being active did not stop me being obese.
But my diet was obviously wrong and although I was going to classes I was probably not moving enough at other times.
Hopefully being conscious of all aspects of our health will help everyone.
Good luck everyone.
Make everyday count.

Hi Judith 6.4 today and 4.2 pre food last night.
Still don’t know where that spike came from, maybe I was invaded by sugar loving alien presences 😀
Yeah, according to the sites I looked at, roasting the flour first produces a more nutty than beany flavour and I thought that varying the herbs and spices would make the flatbreads more versatile to use with more meals.

Lucia – my go to lunch for taking to work is a salad with a quarter block of the feta style cheese every supermarket seems to do a budget own brand of. I have found the budget ones no less good than the normal supermarket own brands. The block easily cuts into 4, and it works out at 20p per lunch for the protein bit, and then I add whatever I have to hand – my favourite is chopped lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, grated carrot, a few black olives chopped up, and then a dressing of 10ml olive oil, some lemon juice and seasoning. I have the dressing in a little pot so that the salad doesn’t go soggy. So as Judith says, cheaper than meat and just as nice.

And the best bit is that it still leaves me with a few calories left for a snack…

Congrats on the loss of the pounds!

Am back in work today, my mum is kindly doing ‘keep the granddaughter on an even keel’ duty today.

As far as I’m concerned my last tests showed that I was pre diabetic confirmed with the GP
If I’m told after my next tests in September that I am then non diabetic then that is what I’ll be and no insurance company will tell me differently.
If however I’m told that I am a diet controlled diabetic then that is what I’ll declare when buying holiday insurance.

Morning Bill, hope your fasting bs is ok now?
Roasting the flour first – now that is an interesting thought!
I made a batch the usual way last night and had a couple spread with cream cheese and lettuce as wraps then froze the rest.
Lucia if you haven’t tried them yet you should. I reckon you get about 40 from a £1.69 bag of flour. Plenty of protein and fibre and lovely with a veg curry. 🙂

I am on 2000mg metformin in the evening plus a pill for cholesterol and one for high blood pressure. I haven’t reduced my dosages at all. My fasting blood sugars are about 5.4 – sometimes 6 now that I’ve lost 2 stone 12 lbs. Should I drop one of the metformin or will this mean the bs reading will increase?

I was having a think last night.
3 years ago, long before the BSD, I was just under 21 stones. I was prescribed the exanatide injections which have the side effect of reducing the appetite and I went down to 16 stone 9 pounds which was my BSD starting weight.
Of course I’m delighted with the total weight loss but, the way I’m heading, I can equal the drug induced weight loss just by eating properly.
If I had that information from day 1 I would never have had to go onto the injections. Lets hope that the growing trend to low carb eating for T2D’s ensures that furure generations can be drug free from the day of diagnosis.

Hi Ay Caramba…………….I know what you mean about the clothes buying. My now baggy bum jeans are a size 14 which I have only washed once – don’t mean I’m dirty btw I just mean I was in them for just such a short space of time. I measure myself every month and am also amazed that suddenly, in the last month, my top half measurements have all lost 2 inches each – ie chest, waist and hips however my legs – knee and thigh haven’t – that may be due to loads of walking and muscle tone as they look much better but how I love going into a normal shop and not thinking people are looking at me and thinking ‘is she mad coming in here – clearly nothing in her size – get out!’ – my interpretation of course!

Morning L, Judith
I quite often have a vegetable stir fry flavoured with spices and soy – delicious.
Judith, have you tried roasting your gram flour before making flatbreads? It’s supposed to change the flavour.
I have this idea of roasting it with a few herbs for flavour and then whizzing the whole lot in the processor.
I’ll let you know how it goes.

Hi Tallyhoo

Absolutely relate what you have to say here. Many congratulations on your weight loss. I am on my 14th week as well and heading for a 2 stone loss of weight so I am really chuffed.
Can’t believe what other people think is a normal amount of food to eat and drink.
Clothes shopping is a bit of a nightmare. Great to be getting into smaller sizes but how long will they fit if I continue to lose weight.
The best thing my husband has said to me when I showed him something I liked on a hanger was ‘that’s a bit baggy shouldn’t you be buying something a bit more fitting?’ Of course he was exactly right…old habits!!!!

Hi Kris
those readings don’t sound too far off the mark. You will always have a higher fasting reading.
4.5 is well in the non diabetic range.
I would have a close look at the nutritional info on the shakes, to give a reading of 10 is unusual and I wonder what the sugar / carb content is.
Alan, you came off your meds from day 1 so perhaps your sugar reading will come down slower than us who reduced gradually, just keep monitoring them.
Kris, I’ve just felt my liver and can confirm it’s not fatty 😀 😀 😀

Hi all, thanks I will get Rose Elliot as apart from fish I am vegetarian. I posted the same question in Fast 800 (Carbs in recipes?) hoping that some of the more experienced people out there would know how many carbs in the recipes by heart…no responses yet but perhaps I can follow your thread and see what happens. My reason for asking is that I am thinking of moving over to diet as a way of life, not too worried about calories which I can guesstimate quite accurately through experience, but it would be great to have some easier way of calculating 50gms of carbs to which I need to stick – also one could mix and match the meals more without more calculations. I would much rather look up carb values in book!! (perhaps showing my age) I am having a go at “myfitness pal” which others use with great success and recommend. Would love to scribble carb values all over my recipes…..perhaps a good displacement activity though at present no time for such things. Having v little relaxation time is one of my struggles.! Good luck Tofa

Good for you, Lucia! A whole new world of food has opened up for you! Cheaper than meat days too! Xxxx

Like everyone I was intrigued by Angela Rippon’s recommendation of Inulin and have also done some Internet research. I was interested, therefore, to read about a study of Inulin https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12986-015-0033-2 to find the the dose they recommended to make a difference was 30 grams a day and that it needs to be taken for at least three months to see a differnce!! Has anyone tried this much and what side affects did they find – did their digestion settle down or were the flatulents socially unacceptable? I am also wondering how on earth scales can indicate the level of visceral fat, which can only be seen on a MRI scan,. Angela Rippon proved that using ratios are misleading as her BMI and body fat measurements were optimum but an MRI showed high levels of visceral fat? Does anyone know if the type of Inulin can make a difference and if there is any regulatory body controlling the sale of this, so that we can be sure the product contains what it purports to contain?

Hi athorn223, we started the same day! I found yesterday quite a challenge and did up my intake by about 150 calories, I was running around all day lifting furniture and shooting photos though so I’m not concerned. Celery is a great idea.. I was a mindless eater too.. Most of it’s habit I know so all good 🙂

Scales read 195 1/2 lbs this morning so it shows how much ruddy water I’ve been holding onto.

Good luck with your journey, see you in here again soon I’m sure 🌈🌈

Been there, just done that!
Been brilliant for 6 weeks with a total loss of 18lbs and just had a 5 day break with family and friends at Mayday celebrations in Cornwall. Always knew it would be difficult with staying with other people and eating out so kept to diet as much as possible but allowed some booze in and one ‘sod-it’ day on Monday. Ate a pasty and had several beers and glasses of red wine and today I’m 2 lbs up and BS was 7.0. However, it’s not as bad as I was expecting and also made me realise how much better I feel on the BSD.
So I’m back on the wagon which I’m really looking forward to. In fact I’ve decided to stick with the 800 until my holiday in June as it’s been so helpful and beneficial.

Thank you Happy Lass , I like the idea of a good solid book . I think I’m all ‘ googled ‘ out trying to search for good sites . Yesterday I realised that if I got off my backside and walked to a bookshop ,I’d probably be better off than sitting staring at a screen searching for the info I need !
Went to bed hungry last night but woke up felling positively lighter – ever the optimist !

Hi Rico61 – you are doing so well!! Re sugar free gum – I think you do what you can to help you through if you find difficult moments. Sugar free gum has to be better than most things but I have heard someone say that the action of chewing stimulates your brain into eating mode and might encourage you to eat more. Hey – if it makes you feel better/distracts you/stops you from eating something you’d regret – chew away I say!

I’ve done 7 days on the 800 cal plan – apart from a wedding on Saturday – and I’m delighted to have lost 7lb!

Onwards and downwards!

Well done Peggy! And just think your happy dance will lose you calories too ha ha! I’m now into my 14th week and am 2 lbs off losing 3 stone 3 STONE – cannot believe it! I was on holiday with girlfriends over the bank holiday and totally stuck to the regime although I now drink wine/bacardi and diet coke on occasion and it’s fine btw. Always have a normal cupp with semi skimmed milk too. My eyes were out on stalks seeing how much my very overweight friend ate – could not believe the quantities……..and I realised, to my amazement and horror that that was exactly what I used to eat – revelation was I have utterly changed my way of thinking about food as well as what I actually eat. Never believed it was possible but it really is.

For the first 4 weeks I followed the diet to the letter and the recipes too – some I knew I wouldn’t like so swapped them but it meant I had everything planned – massively helped me.

Finally – yesterday I went in to try on a new pair of jeans to Next – yes, a normal shop – as one of my girlfriends said my jeans were ridiculously baggy round the bum, so my husband waited outside and I came out in a pair of tight and shapely (but comfortable) jeans – ‘oh they look great, what size – 14?’ he asked ‘no, 12’ I replied and promptly cried! The feeling of walking on air and euphoria was greater than any high and I want everyone to experience it………..and it just started with a loss of 4 lbs my first week – so carry on Peggy you are on your way!!

Hi Izzy I have heard people who blister on shorter than 8 mile walks say that Australian Blister Socks have solved the problem. They bought them over the net so perhaps you could google them 🙂

Having a veggie day today.

Suprised that i am getting the hang of it and more importantly enjoying it.

Anyone else trying out vegetarian days?
Love luciaXxx

Hi,
It is again , with deep regret, I bring you news of a sad loss.
One of my best friends, who I has been through think and thin and thick again with me.
They have stuck to me throughout, no matter how much I have tried .

The sad news was broken gently to me this morning on my scales. I have lost weight.

I am sorry I will need a quiet moment to reflect…….

We have been through so much together and now you are gone. No longer will I see your reflection in the mirror. No longer will I have to consider you as I get the ‘big girls’ size.

All I have left is my skinny self.

Do be careful teAm, this could happen to you.
Love Lucia
Xxxx

Hi barby, if you have stairs do what I suggested to lucia and walk up and down them til you’re out of puff. You will find you can increase the number of climbs each day. It increases your daily steps tally as wellas being a cardio work out 🙂

Sorry I won’t be around much for a day or two as I have a lot on at the moment.

I’ve been thinking for a while of getting one – I have a smallish room where it could be kept out. If it were there, I think I’d use it when watching TV etc, handy in winter when you don’t want to go out so much.

I will not be running on it (dodgy knees) but would want uphill walking option, and not too narrow a foot tread.

I’m sure you get what you pay for with this type of thing. Don’t want to pay too much – was wondering about looking for 2nd hand (all those who use them as coat hangers) 🙂

Just wondered what make you have and any pointers, thanks..

Apple was horrible. very disappointed, cut it and half had a great big brown area of death, so I was down to half, and then that half was floury and horrible so I binned the lot. 🙁 I was really looking forward to it. *sulks* I only bought one.

I have a tin of salmon I am going to attempt more fishcakes with tonight with salad for tea. One shake for lunch, yoghurt/strawbs and nibs for breakfast.

scale went down 0.2 overnight, but I’m not peeing like a fiend anymore, so water weight phase is over, so loss should slow down now! If only there was a crisp apple around… bye all.

Thanks Hawks, no not quite 2 kgs sadly – but it IS going the right way, and that hasn’t happened for a lot of years. I can’t usually stick to a diet for more than a few weeks. I’m looking at this as my way of life now, better than having to take pills or worse. Just got to psych myself up to a bit of exercise. I’m wondering about buying a treadmill.

Well done on the tighter belt, really good sign.

hope you feel warmer soon!

off to work for me 🙁

9.5 lbs in a month isn’t slow Barby, most other diets would take off less than that. if I can lost 8/month I’ll be happy! well done for losing that!

congrats to Beverley for the epic milestone, and yay for Hawks and smaller waist 🙂

Hi Switzerland, glad it’s lovely there too, makes you feel good.

That’s useful to know, thanks Switzerland. I’m off to Cardiff later to look after my grandson and heavily pregnant daughter, so all the running around should burn a few calories! Hooray for the sunshine, it’s been a long time coming!
I’m following the diet plan from the book pretty closely as I know I will ‘overlook’ the odd calorie if I start making up my own recipes too soon. Because I am so grateful for food, all of them have been lush so far. Favourites so far are chicken Harissa, aubergine and lamb, avocado and poached egg, even the apple and almond butter! Who knew? Ok, I’m starving now, time to get up and have breakfast. Good luck with the day, everyone 👍😇

Congratulations on the looser trou, barby! Wow 3.5 pounds in a week sounds lots. Isn’t that over 2 kg? I’d be very happy with that!
I haven’t lost weight this week yet as have a weekend of indulgence to catch up on, but there were two more holes punched in my belt today, so things are changing.

….reporting from distant shores – lovely Autumn day, slight breeze, sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

Hi Bissell, Other BSDers have reported on various threads that they feel cold at times in the first week. Hopefully you’ll have a chance to have a break and sit out in the sunshine and warm up.

I have lost 9.5 pounds in last month – of which 3.5 in last week. I keep hoping for some dramatic loss, but it is very slow but hopefully steady with me.

Admittedly I’m not exercising yet. Also I had half a white burger bun at weekend, ? presumably that would have messed up my loss for a few days? First “bad” carbs all month.

I have been keeping carbs mainly under 50, sometimes 60, and 800 cals most days, sometimes 700.

I have now bought some ketostix but not used them yet, is there a best time to do this?

I am happy my trousers are finally looking rather loose (they were straining at seams when I started, 🙂

I will keep plodding along – the tortoise and the hare comes to mind.

Enjoy this lovely Spring day everyone (apart from those from distant shores)

Good morning everyone from a beautiful sunny Wales. How lovely to read all your posts and see how we are all getting on, it’s very encouraging. I’m on day 6 and I’ve lost a few pounds so far and feeling great. I’m not diabetic but rather I have reactive hypoglycaemia, so I over produce insulin in response to a rise blood glucose, which then sinks into my boots. So it’s really good for me not to have glucose going into my blood in the first place, if that makes sense. Certainly feeling the benefit so far. Only one problem, does anyone else feel cold all the time?

Re BS spikes
At five this morning a thought occurred to me
I said I was disappointed my bs was 7.5 before food and only 7.4 two hours after
But this idea came to me that at least it is not spiking at all here but returning to what my body “normal” was without any spike at all after this meal so surely it’s not a bad thing ?
If it shot to 8 or 9 that would mean it was spiking high which it isn’t
Thoughts welcome here
Alan confused ?

Hi all,

I am in the preparation stage at the moment, currently tracking steps, and movement and sitting time, sleep and pulse throughout the day thanks to my new fitness tracker.

I’ve had the following tests done already
fasting glucose -high
fasting insulin -high
Gamma GT (this was ok result)

and I’m planning on having the hbA1c test done also as well as the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), before I start.

The day I begin the test im going to have a dexa scan and then again at 4 weeks and 8 weeks. (maybe 2 weeks as well since that’s when most of the fat is lost)

And I’m going to buy a glucose monitor so i can monitor my fasting glucose every day. and also everyday i’ll be tracking my weight and waist circumference

Which tests should I also be taking ?? I’m just wondering about the fasting insulin, hbA1c, and OGTT tests. how often did you measure these while you were on the diet for comparison and progress?

Please let me know what you did and if it was worth it.

Hi! Today marks the end of my day 2. I’ll weigh myself early tomorrow morning. The first day I lost over 3 lbs overnight. Like you, I’m slightly uncomfortable but find the meals really satisfying. I am just used to being a mindless eater. I’ll probably pick up some celery or something because I’m missing the crunch. It’s working so I won’t complain.

Don’t ever let anything new discourage you ever…. I have personal friends who have lost a lot and kept it off. I was just hoping for some input in their study. 😀

Thanks so much Captain Lynne, I am still figuring out the threads so appreciate the guidance!
💜

My two cents:

You can’t argue with the statistics. It appears sustained extreme loss like done on TBL does forever (6 years on at least) depress your metabolism and also cause your hormones to ‘up-regulate’ so your appetite increases etc. Making weight regain likely, and also meaning the focus shoudl not be on losing weight – but on maintaining weight you’ve lost. More studies are required, much of the published data on hormones (leptin, ghrelin etc) is based on rat/mouse analogues, but anecdata from large groups of big losers seems to indicate increased appetite post loss is definitely an issue. (I trawled the reddit threads, fitness, xxfitness, loseit and fatlogic when all discussing this study – all of those have LARGE numbers of subscribers, hence my assumptions)

I think that TBL is the extreme end. Those people exercised 7 hours a day and restricted heavily – they had many MANY thousands of calories deficit. Its likely this effect is magnified in them. Also, many of us may be overweight because we naturally deviate from the mean in terms of TDEE (cals needed to maintain current mass) in any case.

No corrections were made for those who had any sort of binge eating disorder, which is apparently known to depress metabolism. I have not looked for papers on this as yet, so just a point.

finally, many of those people still do fiendish amounts of exercise – a LOT of exercise naturally makes you hungry. There are a couple of papers which found exercise in the maintenance phase helps to regulate and decrease appetite early on – but how much? where is the tipping point between maintaining good health and appetite not starting to skyrocket?

Also, i draw all of your attention to our experiences here on the BSD. Cut simple carbs, see dramatic decrease in hunger – this is physiological, related to hormones/insulin. Hunger when you are on plan is emotionally driven as a rule (see point about binge eating etc above) we will all give in occasionally, and then feel like we are back on day one when it comes to appetite – but it goes away…

I think that this study is useful. It makes us aware about maintenance traps, and expect to have some hunger, know why its there, and manage it, however we choose. Some people still like to work out a LOT and just cope with the hunger pangs because they have goals or aesthetics they are aiming for. We are all NOT engaged in anything as extreme as TBL contestants, and now we are armed with more knowledge to help us manage our maintenance phase when we get there.

the take home message is food intake and movement must be seen as a lifestyle adjustment, and maintenance phase by definition means you can’t go back to how you were – we know that. Those with Type 2 have daily glucose readings to help re-inforce the good habits, and pull you up when you stray for a bit.

this study is a little daunting, but I also think its empowering as well. It certainly explains my gradual 10kg regain over two years!