Hi Alipalicat, welcome to the forums 🙂 Your brother is right you should do this diet and I hope he is too!!! The fat around your middle will be the first noticeable thing to disappear.
Aldi have a large round squat tub of authentic greek yoghurt for £1.29 ( I think ) that is similar to the fage yoghurt – but cheaper. They also sell full fat cream cheese for peanuts!!!
So for protein you need full fat yoghurt, cheese, fish, eggs, beans, pulses, nuts, seeds and meat.

The fat is important on this diet – it helps to keep you full and it isn’t full of sugar and other nasty crap like the low fat yoghurts.

Aldi also sell milled flaxseed for £1.99 (£6 in sainsburys!) It is good to sprinkle a teaspoon on your yoghurt with a few berries – aids against constipation as well as being full of good stuff!!!

Aldi also sell little packets of nuts and seeds( orange colour pack) at the checkout. Useful for keeping in your handbag for emergency situations. 157 calories and 2.7g carbs.
You will find that the full fat yoghurt has carbs in it – as does milk.

If you take some general ideas from recipes in the book and this website I think your levels of protein intake will be sorted naturally. You still need your 5 a day although a lot of it will be in the form of berries and veg which grows above the ground.

You will be happy with the results you get. My niece and her husband started this diet on Monday and when they weighed themselves – fully clothed and after food – they were really surprised at how much weight they had lost by Friday!

Hope it all goes well and don’t be afraid to ask – there are lots of people on here who are willing to help 🙂

Not Chongolo, but from Perth. It’s cold by our standards, expected to have maximums of 22, down to 21 by next Saturday with minimums around 10 or 11. Jeans and warm top weather, not overcoat weather.

I know it’s relative. This weekend I had family up from Mt. Barker where it’s always that bit colder. They were in T shirts while I had broken out my winter clothes. When I went to stay at their home in summer, I had to borrow some warmer clothes.

Not many West Aussies would be swimming right now, but there’s always a few hardy souls. If you’re from the UK you’ll probably feel fairly comfortable while we’re hugging our winter woollies.

Have fun while you’re here, I hope you enjoy your stay and that the sun stays out for you.

Hi Collie. As you’ve seen most folk on here are getting great results on the BSD, including me. Unfortunately much of the medical profession is sticking with the ‘official line’, and there are folk who would sooner follow that advice, go to slimming clubs and take increasing amounts of medication.

I’m a 65 year old female. Diagnosed type 2 diabetic, diet controlled but threatened with Metformin before starting the BSD. In 19 weeks my fasting blood readings have moved down into the normal range and I have lost 3.5 stone (2.5 still to go). You’ll also see on here that other health issues are also improving.

I think that when something comes along that upsets conventional wisdom (like this) if takes a while for the ‘experts’ to come on board. They are reluctant to change. Bur, in this case, we are the experts. We know our own bodies and are collating the evidence of our results as we progress with the BSD.

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

I’ve just signed😊

Thank you hashimoto , I can hear the joy in most people’s post. I am a carb lover but also am aware of the reason why I like them so much. I am pleased you have the gp and nurse on board , I am having bloods done this week so this will open up the conversation for me and get me a baseline reading. So one day one meal at a time. Thanks

Hi Collie and welcome to the forums.

You will notice there are a lot of people on here who now say this is the way of life for them now due to the improvements in their health and well being.

I have had the odd comments about starvation diets : my answer is that no other diet has worked for me, that this 800 is a short term plan and if I am overweight I have enough blubber to supply my body with energy!! Also, as Dr Mosley points out: people who have had bariatric surgery can only eat 600 calories a day FOR LIFE!!! so it can’t be bad.

I also tell people to read the forums.

If people comment with things like ‘Don’t you think you have lost enough weight now’ or ‘Don’t lose any more you will look gaunt’ To the first I say I am now in the middle of the healthy weight range according to the NHS site – before I was in the healthy weight range I pointed out that I was in the overweight range. To the latter, rather rude comment, I just say I am doing this for my health not my looks. It tends to shut people up. If you are lucky enough to have your gP or nurse on board ( thankfully mine are) then I say my Gp/nurse is happy with what I am doing and are pleased with my health improvements.

You never know, you may get some doubters on board when they see how you improve!!! 🙂

Hello everyone

I’ve just finished the book after being advised by my diabetic brother to give it a go; I have just been told I’m pre-diabetic and I’m also carrying far too much fat round my middle. I plan to use my fitness pal to keep track of my calories but wanted to make sure I had set the carbs/protein/fat to the right ratio. I understand to aim for around 50g carbs per day but would should the protein and fat be?

Also I shop in Aldi – can anyone tell me the best yoghurt to go for?

Thank you

Captainlynne ….that is…..FANTASTIC!!!! well done you!

PARTY TIME😃 This is your invitation to the party to celebrate the disappearance of 50 pounds. Yes, that extra pound escaped overnight. Fifty pounds since 19th December.

Jandz, my best friends partner is diabetic, has retinopathy, trouble with his kidneys and nerve pains in his feet. He frequently goes into diabetic comas. I made a bSD meal for them and afterwards he did not go into a coma. So very much liked it. So I made him some chickpea flour flatbreads he could have instead of toast. I bought him the book. All to NO AVAIL !!! He thinks it is easier to get a pizza and chips delivered than make the effort to make an omelette??? Some people do not want to be helped, my asthma nurse said the same.
This is worse when you know my dear friend is in end stage renal failure. He sees what will happen when your kidneys fail. He has been in the renal wards when they are full of people who are blind and have amputations because of diabetes. But he is complacent. He takes the tablets!!!!! Yes, he takes the tablets is his answer.

Perhaps you could have her round for the odd meal and prepare BSD meals – obviously larger portions for her as you don’t want to put her off. So curry with chickpea flour flatbreads looks like a normal carby meal for resistant people. You could do coconut flatbreads smothered in ff yoghurt and berries for a dessert. Try and haul her in slowly – but it still might not work. I am learning a lot of people do not want to improve their health if it means changing their habits. 🙁

You never know though, she may change her mind one day 🙂

Hi , I am planning my diet probably overthinking but does anyone have any good strategies for the negative peeps , I need a good answer not rude just a positive reply. I have made the mistake of researching the diet on the net and seen +++ comments against slating the research. However looking on the forum it is mostly positive. I guess as it is such a life changer both in results and in the level of commitment I just need some considered opinions please.
I am pre diabetic and 4 stone over !! 😥

Hi Zendo. Just answered your post on another thread.

Hi Zendo. I’ve just completed 19 weeks on BSD and plan to stay on it longer term as I still have more weight to lose (3.5 stone gone, 2.5 to go). I wasn’t on diabetes medication, but my fasting level on starting was 10.9. Now it’s consistently within the normal range. I asked the team about staying on the BSD longer term and they said it was ok for a few weeks as long as I felt OK. But there are now many people on here sticking with it long-term.

Hi hashimoto

I completely agree, so many people could benefit if they just tried.

I have a good friend who is diabetic, she’s a bit overweight and tires very easily. By Wednesday she needs an early night and on a weekend quite frequently needs to have a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. She seems to lose her appetite quite regularly aswell so often survives on toast for tea..she eats lots and lots of carbs!

While I do talk to her about her diabetes she’s very defensive when it comes to discussing what she should and shouldn’t be eating…she talks like I haven’t a clue what I’m talking about and too be fair I don’t as I only know what I’ve read on here. I really want to get her to read the book but I know it would be thrown in my face so all I can do is keep planting the seed in her head about food choices and see if she takes the hint.

Hi Chongolo, I’m off to Perth soon – please don’t tell me it is cold???? What kind of temperatures are you talking? How many pairs of jeans and winter woollies are we talking? I’m very comfortable at 17 or 18c.
I was also planning on swimming outside a fair bit – pools and ocean. 🙂

oh how nice it is to find other people experiencing similar issues – everyone over on the 5:2 forum just keeps saying it isn’t happening, which clearly it is or I wouldn’t be experiencing it!!

I think my symptoms are similar to lpr, although my gp said that he would have expected doubling my ppi to have helped if that had been the case, and it didn’t

but since the ENT dr said I needed to do the things I mentioned above to allow throat to heal – it does indicate that there is damage to the throat, so much higher up than normal GERD

what I find totally perplexing is that all this should start when I STOPPED eating lots of wheat/sugar/chocolate
when I STOPPED bingeing, and ate smaller meals

oh well, thank you for your support because it really is helpful knowing I am not alone in all this

Hi Rubyswallow, I am one of those whose acid reflux has disappeared on this diet – and there are quite a few of us who have had this experience.
Also, lots of us eat our familiar foods but just don’t eat the starchy carbs – so you are not alone! 🙂

Oh and I am going to try a pair of leggings on today.
Hope they doing look as if they are filled with marshmallows.
Finding it uncomfortable now to do yoga in jeans,
And it’s not really ladylike or grace full showing next weeks washing as I wear a skirt 👗👗👗👗👖👖👖👖👖👗👗👗👖
Cellulite, sounds like the brand name or a battery not blubbery skin.

Love Lucia
Xxxx

Welcome to the forums Georgia, and good luck with the BSD diet. It is changing lives! You are not the only person on these forums who has been a yoyo dieter but this one is the one for life, you can eat really well on healthy foods, you will find your energy increases and you will reap the rewards very quickly! 🙂

Hi Judith. Hope you’re feeling better. Have the feeling nice nurse was sticking to the party line in front of nurse just joining the practice. Just didn’t think how it would make me feel😳 The village nearly lost the surgery, so we do need to support it otherwise we might lose it altogether.

Going to have a duvet day today.
My cold isn’t too bad, keeping up with lots of hot drinks, etc etc.
I will do yoga. And mountain climbing at home today.
Well you try going up and down a set of stairs 20 times, I get creAm crackered, that it feels like a mountain.
I may wear a bright cerise hat and scarf whilst mountaineering, throwing ropes from the landing or bedroom doors, into the hall.
My hubby thinks I lost the plot years ago.

Love Sherpa Lucia
Xxxxx

Hi Jandz, it’s amazing how many of us have tried a bit of carbs and felt the unwelcome result. A few of us have queried how we probably had the same effects before but were ignored as ‘normal’. It makes me sad to think of all the people who have not heard of, or tried this diet because it works wonders!
Hope your next four weeks goes well 🙂

Hi everyone. I used to keep the diet fizzy drink business in operation. I did manage to cut back on Diet Coke/Pepsi but still drank lots of diet lemon and lime. It’s the cold and fizz that I like.

When I was on holiday in Prague recently, the only diet drink I could find was Diet Coke. The first was ok, second was not bad. But the third – I was ill. The only alternative was water😱

Now my cold fizzy drink is sparkling mineral water straight from the fridge.

As I live alone I can eat what I want, but when family visit I still eat what I want, while they eat all the extras they like/want. My granddaughters (aged 8) liked courgetti and even plain yogurt😃

Hi,
So how is everyone feeling?
Are you getting into the… Same old same old.. Mood yet?
Getting into a rut?

Have a go at doing something different today.
Pick a colour… Plan a day to Eat a theme around that.
Red … Red onions, red meat, red beetroot, red oranges, I think they are called blood oranges. Just have a FUN day.
I think sometimes we focus on the counting of calories, counting carbs, counting sugar, blood counts, new are forgetting to ENJOY ourselves along the way.

I know I was desperate and said this has got to work for me. The last ditch saloon and all of that. But I need to reel it back in.

Or if you cannot eat with jumpstart one colour, try tWins.
Or try wearing one colour, your clothes or outfit, just for one day, all blues, no one else needs to know what you are up to.
Oh and the most important thing you need to use ALL DAY, is a smile 😀😀😀😀😬😬😬😬😬
Well, it is a form of exercise.

Lighten and brighten your day, today.

Love cerise. Lucia
Xxx
A nice bright strong pink, ……….

Well done Mooloc, it’s so encouraging, isn’t it!
Hope day 2 goes just as well! 🙂

Hi Lynne, it’s tough being in a small village when it comes to no choice of doctor’s surgeries! I hope it goes well on Thursday and nice nurse is back! 🙂

I can’t remember the last time I saw a GP! Saw locum late last year after a sting went nasty😱 We agreed to disagree! I’m waiting to see how the nurse treats me on Thursday when I go for HbA1c result. Full blood checks later this year. Living in a village there’s just the one surgery so no choice😳 I think if the nice nurse has now become the nasty nurse I’ll cut back on my visits. We agreed on monthly visits to check my progress but if she’s no longer supportive it will need a rethink.

Ha! I’m so impatient – got up and weighed this morn before drinking anything and I’m down 0.8kg ( over 1.5lb) so yesterday was totally worth it!!
Yesterday was day one but the day before I restricted calories to 1000 so that would have helped too.
Ready for day2 now!

Well today is the end of week 8

I’ve not measured yet but overall I’ve lost 19.8 lb which is an overall loss of 10.3%.

I need to go clothes shopping to replace a few items later this week so will see how clothes sizes have changed then.

I’m no longer craving chocolate, last time I ate some was Easter and it wasn’t pleasant, in fact I was bought a large bar of Toblerone (my favourite of all time) and it’s been sitting in the drawer for 2 weeks unopened….this is a major achievement!

Not had any potatoes, pasta, rice, biscuits, cakes since started, I have however had bread on a couple of occasions but always made sure I included it in carb count so it didn’t affect my weight loss….it did make me feel tired though within a few hours of eating.

On the health front, I’ve not suffered from migraines or restless leg syndrome since the first week…not sure if it’s the diet or weight loss that’s helped with those but either way it’s a win win! My digestion has improved no end, I used to suffer with excess gas nearly everyday which was uncomfortable and Monday’s were always horrible as I used to eat so much rubbish on a weekend so bathroom visits would be frequent .

I want to lose another 14 lb so will stick to plan for another 4 weeks and hopefully I’ll be moving onto maintenance

Hi GEORGIANNA. Welcome to the forums. It’s good to see folk from your side of the pond starting on the BSD. Please let us know your progress.

For yesterday

Love my veggie fryup!
B 2 Linda McCartney frozen veggie sausages fried
1 egg omlette with chives/black pepper
2 tiinned tomatoes

L Salad with beetroot, celery, lettuce, 2 toms, cucumber, grated carrot, 3 thin slices Goats cheese (from Lidl was really nice)
+ table sp Hellmans Mayo F/F

D Stirfried cabbage and courgette with ginger and garlic, with little cream cheese stirred in + sprinkle parmesan

I think this was about 700 but I was full.

Thanks Captainlynne. Losing weight has only got to help the reflux in the long term.

Hi keep trying,

I have had the exact same issue. Sounds like you have LPR like me. I found the 5:2 diet was the only diet that worked for me too but it also played havoc with my reflux. I think when you have reflux eating smaller and more frequently will help. I am about to start this diet but I am puting in extra effort to research the right meals I will stick too and ones that don’t exacerbate the reflux like tomatoes, citrus, eggs, peppers etc.

I think the more weight lost, the better the reflux in the end.

Hello everybody,

chiming in here – another from the west coast of australia, not scottish though – originally from NZ, I have seen theres a good NZ contingent on this forum too. Not quite a week in but gosh its COLD, it seems too soon for the lower cals to translate into feeling the cold? Here we don’t really build for winter, but to keep things cool in summers (Perth gets well over 40c regularly) so in winter I slope about the house in lots of clothes feeling freezing – electricity and gas prices make heating more expensive than cooling!

I found that exercise actually helped to perk me up in the first few days of the regime, I only do pilates twice a week at the moment, and walk the dog. That takes up enough time around a fulltime job.

glad to read about everyone elses experiences! I have a lot to lose, so will be about for a while. Well, i had better be, not letting myself pike out of this diet effort!

right, Sunday before first Monday weigh-in but I did check the scales and all is going well. Albeit inflated loss due to water which is bound in the glycogen which is releasing from the liver.

Saturday I ate too much.
Shakes for breakfast and before I went out, and I had a boiled egg and some cheese as a snack in the afternoon. Lunch was a plain greek yoghurt, mixed with a tsp of stevia – had 75g of strawberries and 10g of raw cacao nibs – 174 odd calories and oh so so tasty, raw cacao is completely unprocessed chocolate precursor. so they are crunchy, and full of fibre and things, and add the choc flavour to things like plain ccoa powder does.Very much a winner with berries in yoghurt! that was probably a bit more than 800, but then I ate out last night too!!! – I had a goi salad at a vietnamese restaurant – poached chicken breast with a salad of cabbage and coriander and carrot and cucumber and bean shoots and mint. (racks memory.. I checked it carefully for the ubiquitous rice vermicelli, but there was no carb in there, and I ignored the sweet dipping sauce on the side. had fresh chopped red chilli on top) so yes, too many calories, but they were all good ones. I think i shall attempt to poach a chicken breast in stock, its so moist and delicious – be good to add to salads for lunches!

add to that well over 10k steps because of walking around the city and dancing at the concert and I think all is well.

today I had my yoghurt/strawberry/cacao mix for breakfast. i shall have a shake for lunch and I am planning to invent some sort of japanese-inspired chicken and egg with veg omelette thing for dinner, okonomiyaki style without the sugary sauces – stick to plain soy. we shall see how it goes – usually chock full of onion, but I’m planning on trying the zucchini strings – with some onion – to amp it up.

overall, for day 6, truly not hungry, but psychological food cravings are strong! But only if they are ‘in my face’ so to speak. It is much easier to ignore them, the urge disappears very quickly. I have a stock of boiled eggs in the fridge to eat if I really feel like I am flagging and need something – safer then cheese, I LOVE cheese, and 20g of it is piddling. good to add to a dish etc, but on its own – its just a small sad cube.

Oh, to follow up, my friend I concerted with was very pro the diet after all 🙂 She actually suggested the egg omelette experiment, and gave me tips on chicken poaching for later in the week too. She is a green thumb so also said she will try to grow me some winter veg (helps to have someone else to try to eat something which has worked and is therefore going mental in the garden!)

I still drink ‘too much’ coffee but it contains very little milk, and I alternate it with water and a herbal tea. Something to tweak later, I’m not counting my dollops of milk in beverages at this stage. Because I’m not, I’m really careful to only add a cm or so – I really don’t want to give up/cut dowm coffee, and I dislike it black.

finally, the clear-headed feeling from no sugar/wheaty carbs is kicking in. It just makes you feel more alert, more on the ball. I’m not sure if its wheat OR sugar or a synergy – I did get the effect when I cut out wheat (low inflammation effort) but it was fleeting, came and went. So my n=1 observational study says ‘its dropping both’ so far.

I will check in with tomorrows weigh in in the am! good luck all.

Hi Zendo, I am sticking with the BSD principles but eating more calories, I’m at 16 weeks and also at the weight I want to be 🙂

Hi Zendo,
Congratulations on achieving 8 weeks on the BSD. What great results. I’m currently Week 5 Day 2 – so still a way to go, so I don’t fit your ‘experienced people’ category.
This morning I was re-reading ‘The 8 Week BSD’ book, thinking about where to in 4 weeks time? As you know there is the natural progression to 5:2 or the M plan low carb Mediterranean way of eating.Also, I’ve read somewhere that Prof Taylor says to consume 2/3 of the amount you did pre BSD (I hope I’ve recalled that properly).
You’d know from reading the forums that there are people that have continued on the BSD 800 beyond the 8 weeks too.
So……it’s time to ‘take off your training wheels’ and decide ‘where to now?’ Best wishes and please keep us all updated on your progress.

Hi Switzerland, I just made these too. But they were crumbly and tasted horrible. I wish I’d read your post first.
Maybe I was hoping for a sweet cake muffin texture and flavour.
I think the suggestion of giving them to the birds is a great idea. I wonder if they will eat them!!

Great news! I like lifting weights since I have a cranky knee right now – hoping that goes with the pounds!! 😄
And for all you Scots, my name is Heather so include me somewhere 💗

Hi HappyLife – I have successfully done 3x 5k runs a week while on 800 cal. No ill effects… so I guess it must be really hard core exercise or else folk not accustomed to doing such levels who feel faint, maybe? That said, I don’t have diabetes myself….

Gilly D – that makes at least 4 of us Scots now!

Thanks Linda! I read in other posts about a couple people getting faint who were doing hard workouts. Guess I will do the bike and walk for sure. Reading the book tonight and tomorrow so I will understand more. So far I have been reading posts. 😄

Hi Georgianna,
I have been on and off a lot as well
Today!
Best of luck!!

Hi Mrs G, I concur with the others, but I go one step further when I cook, if the hubby and kids don’t like the healthy fods that I’m cooking, they go hungry! I’ve found they eat it and enjoy it.😀
Linda

Welcome Happylass and HT! I am pleased to see I wasn’t the only one standing in the wings! It is really inspiring to read all the posts here!

Welcome Odette, GillyD and HappyLife, the more the merrier on this forum.
HappyLife, I haven’t heard you are not to do major exercise on the BSD, and in reading Dr M’s book, he talks about doing at least 10,000 steps per day and encourages high impact training, so unless there is a medical reason that you shouldn’t, I’d go for it.
Here in Sydney, the rain managed to stop for a few hours so I got to go for my daily walk with the dog. I’m at week 2, day 5 and a walk that has been taking 70 mins to complete, only took me 65mins today!!!! Woo hoo!

Hi Mrs G,
I just wanted to add to Cherrianne’s post that I use ‘cauliflower rice’ as a substitute for rice. My teenage daughter, who doesn’t like rice, loves it too.My husband and son continue to eat rice. There are many methods to use to prepare the cauliflower. I like it to be a bit crunchy (I like raw cauliflower) so I just ‘whizz’ the cauliflower florettes then stir fry it for a few minutes in coconut oil. If you don’t want crunch, microwave first. Some people simply microwave it.
In reference to sugar free soft drinks and sweeteners in tea/coffee (you can refer back to the book) apparently they can ‘switch off’ hormones that signal that we’re full.
Back in October 2012 I decided to stop using sweeteners in coffee (I’d never had them in tea). It took me 6 weeks before I enjoyed a cup of coffee again. After that there was no need to even consider adding it again.
It’s taken me much longer to cut out soft drinks but being on the BSD 800 gave me the motivation to do so. By not eating simple carbs
my palate has really changed. Now I’m enjoying water with lemon/lime slices and plain mineral/soda water. Maybe there is a low carb fruit that you could flavour water with (I’m thinking strawberries or raspberries) but go with what you prefer. Best wishes.

Hi Revenanto
I changed GP this week after 3 years of no support! Give her a copy of the book, inscribed of course. Perhaps as a goodbye present.

Hi HappyLife, today is the first time I joined this forum and am already addicted. My husband cannot believe that I have been on for most of the day. Everyone’s posts have been an inspiration to me.
I am from Michigan and have 75 pounds to lose. Much success to you on your diet.

Hi happysheryl, my name is Georgia and I am also from the United States. I just started my diet today. My husband bought me the book yesterday morning. I read the whole book and started diet this morning. I have been on so many diets my whole life. I will lose go off the diet and gain back the weight. It has been an emotional roller coaster. I noticed it has been a few months since your last post. I was wondering how the diet worked for you.

Hi everyone, it’s been great to read your chit chat posts!
I am in Washington state (not DC) and have a lot of weight to lose. I am not diabetic but it’s probably because I have been vegetarian for 35 years then pescatarian for 5 so I always ate a lot of vegies. It does run in my family and I do want to avoid it so am excited to lose weight for that and to move and do more things with a lighter body. 😍
All your posts have been so inspiring my first two days. I did read we aren’t to do major exercise while on this, is an exercise bike moderate level okay?
Thanks for this great thread Izzy!
❣