Hi Vicfish37

Astounding & triumphant! You & your supportive wife are BSD heroes. High five! High EVERYTHING!!

Hope you have spotted this posting , Michael

Eureka

Fab idea Bill1954 – will do!

Thanks, that’s a good idea.

thank you Hashimoto for your good wishes, we are thrilled too. the secret is observing and recording every thing you eat, it really helps keep me motivated, so many good comments on this site have really helped and encouraged me through the tough times.
Personally whilst paying attention to the 800 a day recommendation, the vital target is a very very low carb limit, seemed to be the way to drive down my blood sugar level to the normal range.

Hi JWS – re soups, good combos are courgette and garlic ( you would fry some onion before adding courgettes and lots of garlic). Serve with big dollop of cream cheese.

Asparagus soup – just onion, asparagus, stock. After blitzing add some double cream.

Cauliflower soup with blue cheese. Again add the blue cheese to the bowl of blitzed soup. Can do the same with brocolli

Basically as FiFip said just use any permitted veg! Oooh and roasted red pepper and red onion soup is nice too.
🙂

Karra,

What weight are you starting from?

TP

Welcome to the forums LynnM, if the first few days are tricky don’t worry it soon gets easy and becomes a way of life. Good luck and shout if you want advice!! 🙂

Hi JWS – garlic, chilli, cans of pulses & beans, the odd handful of barley (well rinsed) , mountains of celery, cauli, peppers, you name it we have had it!! MAke bulk & freeze is my hint, otherwise you end up spending too much time in the kitchen.

Oriental soups with a base of miso (or stock) get sprinkles of seaweed & sesame, with chilli pepper, comfort soups get parsley & chives, Italian ones get balsamic & a teaspoon of pesto, have fun & best of luck!

Hi JWS, welcome to the forums and the BSD way of life. As you have already seen people have their own preferences for weighing/measuring/recording. I keep an excel sheet and weigh daily, first thing in the morning. I have lost 2 stones 9 lbs during my time on BSD and like others see this as a way of life not a diet.

Most people are of the opinion that you do not replace calories burned – but heh, you do what you think – if you want to sneak a few nuts in to help you if you feel weak. I did the first couple of weeks but not now. I don’t feel the need. If you don’t feel the need you will get even faster results!

Don’t forget you can add a dollop of yoghurt or cream cheese to most veggie soups to increase your fat intake. Or a good drizzle of olive oil goes well on some soups!
🙂

JWS sorry but no, it’s 800 whether you exercise or not. There are plenty of more athletic people than me managing ok so don’t worry too much about it.
Once you are a week or so in, you should find your appetite decreasing to the point where 800 is more than enough as long as the carbs are low and there is fat in there. I found eventually that I had to force myself to finish a meal.

FiFiP
– I am off to make a big pan of soup in tribute to your 35lbs of collective willpower. If it works for you…

Thanks Bill, that’s brilliant, you are really getting the news out there.
Thanks to Lucia who got signatures 154 and 155. We are now on 156!! yaaaay

Bill, so glad you posted your ‘story’ like that, there are so many people joining the forums who need to hear it for inspiration! 🙂

SkyWalker – thanks and congrats to you too on the 2 stone. I can see a target emerging.
Thoughts on calories useful – I may be more interested in them that I imagined. Who’d have thought a mere 1 slice of toast with jam is 170 cals and carborific to boot.

Do you take the calories you burn into account?
i.e., add them to allowable total for food – when deciding on what to eat, or regard them as an extra loss?
For example, in theory I’ve burned 900 cals at spin and gym today but aren’t overly hungry to want to eat them as a bonus.

Wow, neohdiver, no wonder you are so well read and research so much. I am very impressed 🙂

Peanutbutty, what a wonderful friend you are. To even try to stick to plan a little during the experiences you are going through is highly commendable. I hope everything becomes easier for you and more bearable for your poor friend. Wishing all the best for the two (should I say 3) of you 🙂

My salads generally run around 60 calories (100-150 grams of romaine lettuce, 50 grams of cauliflower, 50 grams of broccoli, 50-80 grams of cucumber or zucchini, and up to 50 grams of pepper). and around 13 gross carbs/7 net. These are pretty large salads (`/1 – 2/3 of a bunch of romaine lettuce.

I typically just use a low calorie dressing, since I like lots of dressing. That adds a few carbs, but I save the calories/fat for places I enjoy it more.

Congratulations on your wonderful achievement. I’m on day 1 and found it highly motivating!

Vicfish, I am delighted for you!! What a lot of work you put into your research and diet. You richly deserve the rewards you have gained! I hope your practice is bowled over by what you have achieved!! 🙂

Lucia – thanks for getting those 2 extra signatures. I’m dying to know how, of course 🙂

Brilliant weight loss catgirl. Re week 3 – I guess our bodies have had to accept a lot recently and just grumble a bit sometimes! 🙂

Christine we probably have a lot in common as there are 2 things already! 🙂

I had dry skin before starting and it’s improved since I’ve been on the diet! Just shows we’re all different, I suppose.

Bill – thanks – and guess what it says at the bottom of my e-mails?! It’s a favourite that was playing after daughter was born.
I’m having the big soup idea – save a bit of messing. I look cooking but not 3 different meals a day…
Congrats on the 2 stone! seems almost unbelievable but also logical so helps overcome any doubts.

It seems very odd that after 11 days of only 500 – 800 calories per day and increasing your exercise, that you’ve gained weight. Could you be miscalculating calories somewhere? Sometimes people forget to include them in drinks, or add dressings to salads and miss those out.

Hi alexginda
Great news on the weight lose, you must be really happy. Whether you decide to stick with then BSD 800 diet or swap back to 5:2, I hope you will continue to make good progress. You maintenance band is where I am aiming for, but I have a bit to do before I get there.

Best of luck for the weeks to come

Well the thread I posted on a business forum has caused quite a discussion. There was one poster who took issue with me claiming that the doctors are correct and we should all be nice kids and do what we are told. I’m reproducing this post from someone else, it’s typical of the replies he got to that statement.
“There is always someone who swears medical science and the medical system is perfect, and beyond question, online and in real life.
Until someone has repeatedly suffered at the hands of gross incompetence, vested interest, or simple indifference, then I doubt it’s possible to explain that there are chronic problems with the medical system.
I would certainly be dead a long time ago if it wasn’t for the doctors, and would certainly be dead or crippled if I’d listen to the 95% of nonsense that they spouted to me.
It’s unfortunate that folks who are deeply fond of doctors, choose too focus upon the tiny weeny little bit of good they did, and ignore the huge amount of damage. ”

There is a lot of support out there, we just need to find it.

Hi liz
Low carb megastore has some, they say this about it
Servings: 17 slices (approx)
Serving Size: 1 slice (20g)
Net Carbs Per Serving: 2.9g
Protein Per Serving: 4.3

A bit expensive at £2.75 a loaf though
I just googled for low carbohydrate bread uk and got loads of results 🙂

Karra, how frustrating for you! You seem to be doing everything right and really trying, so it must feel really unfair you are not able to post any positive news yet, but Bill is right. It is likely you will suddenly see a big loss and it’s not possible to maintain 800 cals a day and not lose weight eventually. Please don’t get disheartened and stick with it. I wonder if upping your fat intake a bit might help to push you into fat burning mode – might be worth a try.

Hope to be reading some positive results from you soon.

Well done Bill!

You are an inspiration to me and to anyone else who reads these boards. I know that your journey has motivated me to stick with it and get my own health back.

Thank you.

Deb

Hi Vicfish37, welcome to the forums.
That is a superb set of results you have there and helps to prove that age is no barrier to obtaining good health just by eating correctly.
Your statement “I truly feel this diet has changed my life and my way of life” rings so true for me and I know others. I can’t see myself ever going back to the way I was.
I remember years ago (when the OH decided she didn’t like the look of a meal she had never tried before) the Turkish chef said “You English eat with your eyes, not your mouths”
Perhaps it is time for us to eat with our eyes, ie using them to read food labels to see all the absolute rubbish we are being given as food.
Just 9 weeks in and I now have total disrespect for the food industry. These big companies recruit the brightest of the bright to work in research
They must have known for years how bad all those carbs were but “hey, it’s all about the bottom line, who cares about their health.”
Well, we do and we are about to do something about it. they had all better be aware.

Hi NewLife, I don’t think I could drink anymore water than what I am drinking. I struggle with the 2 litres a day. As for the building muscle, I can feel that my muscles are toning up, and can suck my belly in more than I could before, but it’s just not showing in the measurements, hope by the end of 2 weeks that it will. Am increasing the exercise even more today.

Oh Bill1954 I do so hope you’re right that it just suddenly kicks in and shows me that it’s working for me. Fingers crossed on that one.

hugs
Karra

Bought some Ketostix today from the chemist, I know it’s supposed to be done in the morning which I will do, but just had to have a go when got home from the shops, and it shows I’m not in ketosis. Will do a proper one tomorrow and see how it goes.

Weight in this morning at the end of week 3 and I am 1 stone down with 4 1/2 inches off my waist, hubby is 11 lbs down with similar inches lost.

Week 3 was really odd, I felt moody and depressed, had trouble getting off to sleep and dark dreams, after 2 fab weeks this was a shock. Not sure if it’s hormonal or what, which you would think at my age would be done and dusted but noooooo, Mother Nature has other plans for me at the ripe old age of 57!

Still fully motivated and looking forward, hubby has now bought shorts for our hols which are 6 inches too small in the waist, just wait till August when I will be in my jazzy capris and he will be in his shorts, socks and sandals are barred!

Brilliant achievement Bill! It just goes to show what damage sugar is causing to some folks. I have to admit I am now having a small piece of chocolate and maybe a few fruit sweets in the evening. I guess I should wean myself off totally but struggling to think of a replacement – I guess fruit maybe.

Anyhow great news on diabetes front,the main thing about sticking to the plan is the health benefits which you are seeing.

Stick with it, I’m trying to be good! Lost another kilo this week 😀 so that’s just over 24 pounds for me in 12 weeks. I actually feel it’s been much longer than that for some reason, probably the 4 weeks with hardly any weight loss.

Next thing is upping the exercise – not easy here in Bonnie Scotland where it is raining yet again. Still I won’t shrink (or maybe I will) if I get wet!

Keep up the good work, and updating us 😚

Patsy – yes that sounds practical.
I couldn’t resist a sneaky peak after my 4 warm up days and am minus 2lb which I’ll take as gospel,
and up 0.5% in fat! I then read that Takita machines [at the gym] depend on all sorts of variables, so I’ll stick to simple measures and get bloods done when NHS ‘allow’.

Hi cat girl
Thanks will hopefully get some tomorrow, will try Asda, then morrisons, Hope I get a result at one of them.
Christine

I have just rang my local Asda pharmacy and they stock the urine ketostickd, just double check if you ring up as I was told they had them for the meters, when I probed more and said surely that is for blood monitoring the assistant made more enquirers and told me they have both types, £5.50 a tub.

Hi janet1973
The choc eclair was delicious, a little sweet, however it satisfied my craving, so job done. Here’s to the next 22lbs loss.

Hi bill1954
Thank you so much bill, I never thought I would be here, however I stuck to my guns, even with a few wobbles I kept on keeping on, and as I said onwards and upwards, here’s to then next 22lbs.

I read Dr.Michael’s book in the early new year. The contents were a revelation, providing me with a final decision to follow his low carb diet. A few personal details I am a 79 year old great grandfather shortly to enjoy my 80th birthday. .I have been suffering from type2 diabetes for around 30 years. My medicine includes 2×500 Metformin twice a day. high blood pressure tablets and at 16 stone, very overweight.
With the total support of my wife I started the diet on Fed 8th.Prior to starting we both did as much research on what we were doing.
We found an invaluable source of technical information in weightlossresource .co.uk Apart from providing a list of 22,000 commonly used foods (in the UK) the listing is also broken down into constituent parts. It also offers a computer programme to provide a meal by meal breakdown. A daily and weekly total is also added and separated into calories, fat, protein, and carbs. A calorie and nutritional profile is also provided.
After reading a number of journals I set myself a very very low 20 grams of carbs a day target. In the 8 weeks I recorded an average of 22.73 carbs a day.My average calorie intake was 723.I missed my carb target by a small amount but achieved a satisfactory daily calorie intake.Over the 8 weeks my Nutrition profile was 50.3% Fat,37.8% Protein and 11.9%Carbohydrate. The diet was a total success ,I have lost 20lbs in eight weeks. My FBS is now in now in the normal range between 4.8-5.2. My BP has also improved to around 127/80 I will see my GP shortly with all my stats and recent history in the belief that I will have a substantial reduction in my meds.
Throughout the past eight weeks I have dipped into this web site, reading through the forums, bowled over with people’s results and endless encouragement from such a great diverse group of people, all showing great concern and care for one another, it has been a great help keeping me from straying, I truly feel this diet has changed my life and my way of life. I shall continue to chase down my BMI, staying with 800 diet .
Thanks for listening, keep on going

😎 Thank you Bill, way to go, onwards & downwards, well happy with our progress!

Great stuff Christine glad to have you as a veteran.
22 pounds down is excellent and nice to see you’re going to be around for a while yet.
I have to sort of admit to being worried I couldn’t stick to what looks at first like a terrifying regime, I can’t believe I’m now blithely saying oh I’ll go another few weeks.
It really has become a way of life and I’m not sure I want to change at the moment.

Hello Bill, thank you so much for being there on these forums, you have set a really great example to all of us and are a font of helpful, considered advice.

Very well done with getting as far as you have & good luck with taking it to the next stage, I am with you on BMI by the way, designed by insurance companies in the USA (was it in the 1930’s) this is not a good way to motivate anyone, health matters too & your health achievements to date are brilliant, you really socked it to us, it did work for you!

Hello gefspacegirl – Substitutions are fine, I substitute to use up what’s lurking in the fridge all the time otherwise would need to buy a new fridge.

Try almond milk if you are not nut intolerant, coconut water (Waitrose’s is sweetened with stevia, not fructose)
– aubergine works well instead of mushrooms, you could use roasted cauli as a base for something instead of stuffing a red pepper . If you can’t directly substitute, then I would adapt the recipe like you already do, also have a look at the recipe section on this site, there are some amazing ideas there.

Yoghurt with chopped herbs, garlic, mustard, horseradish or black pepper in is quite nice and if you use different flavourings each time, you’ll get a bit of variation.

Youghurt mixed in with mayo or blue cheese or other creamy dressing would make a small spoonful go a bit further without adding many calories.

Yesterday was –

Brekkie – Full fat yoghurt, pear and coconut shreds.

Lunch – raw carrots and celery

Dinner – 3 Heck sausages cooked with peppers, tomato and onions. Served with purple sprouting and mange tout.

One of our favourite lunches was toasted muffins and poached eggs. Just had my eggs with smoked salmon instead today and it’s really yummy. Obviously not quite as cheap a meal as it was, but with Aldi salmon it’s not too expensive and is very nutritious. My husband had a muffin and a tiny bit of salmon with his eggs and really liked it, despite not usually liking fish.

Hi gefspacegirl
Welcome to the BSD forums. There is a ‘contact us’ at the bottom of the page, maybe the team that monitors that contact point can help you with you quest to contact the team who built the eating plan.

However, there is no need to stick rigidly to the meal plans in the book, so sensible substitutions can be made. Think most of us using the forum, are mixing and matching – some dishes from the book and some of our own design. The key points seem to be keeping to the 800 cals a day as closely as possible, keeping fluid intake up, making sure you have a good level of fat in your diet and keeping an eye on carbs – the idea is to get most of your calories from protein and fat.

Hope your first day is going well and that you will soon be posting great results.

Got so much inspiration from reading what every one is eating so here’s my plan for today:

B: Greek Yogurt, Handful of Blueberries and a few crushed hazelnuts (223cal)
L: 4 Mushrooms stuffed with 28g goats cheese and 1 garlic clove with mixed salad leaves, dressing made from balsamic vinegar and lemon juice (272cal)
D: 2 Quorn Sausages, small roasted onion and carrot with low cal gravy found on ‘yummly’ (273cal)
S: light cheese triangle (25cal)

= 793cal

Mushrooms with Goats cheese and garlic was amazing! The best meal i have had so far on this plan and amazed that i can still fit in 28g of my favourite goats cheese in to the day at 110cal! 😀

Hi all
I am now on this thread as I finished my eight weeks with a final weigh in this morning, I have to confess that after all the visitors had left last night , we had 12 for dinner sat and 12 for lunch Sunday, then the local family stayed till 5ish, so after putting the house back to rights, we settled down and I had a coffee with cream and a chocolate eclair! However this morning I had lost another pound, mainly because I kept my carbs below 50g, anyway stop rambling christine. This morning I was 13.1! Yippee, I have lost 22lb, I intend to continue in this way until I reach a weight I am happy with, ideally I would like to lose in a few stages say half a stone then another until I feel comfy.
I think another 22lbs and I will be happy. So onwards and upwards.
Christine.

Janet, yes! “mind and body are finally in agreement with each other about what is good for me” – that’s the holy grail! Even after just two weeks I’m feeling more like that than ever in my life.

Todays menu:

B – yogurt, blueberries, raspberries and cacao topping
L – four gem lettuce leafs topped with hummus, two with smoked sprats and two with pork topping. (discovered the smoked sprats in Lidl today. They are delicious and only 173cal per 100g and 0.1carbs – approx. 6/7cals per fish)
D – oven fried lemon chicken and veggies.

Hi jpscloud
I couldn’t agree with you more about being able to control things much better now. I’ve been here nearly eight weeks now and its as though my mind and body are finally in agreement with each other about what is good for me. I am having a day off plan today, deliberately, but my mindset is completely different to how it used to be. There will always be times when I will make exceptions to the diet but I really think that is normal and realistic and Dr Mosley does it too! The difference now is that they really will be occasional treats without causing a binge meltdown. WW and slimming world used to tell us this is what ‘naturally slim people’ were able to do. I kind of get that now.

Thank you Bill