Bunga,
I would use the menu plan as it saves thinking; you will already need to spend time buying healthy stuff and preparing different meals anyway. I started with calorie restriction using food in the house and avoiding junk and alcohol. Then switched to looking at the pictures in the book and thinking that was the first week and bought random other ingredients after flicking through the recipes later on. I finally realised at the back of the book that there’s 8-weeks of carefully planned menus, starting on a Monday and onwards that can be easily followed!
The great thing about them is that you have to try different things. Eating yoghurt and e.g., stewed rhubarb, for breakfast was a scary concept but was a revelation. Tasty and it fills me up. I was a lifetime ‘toast and porridge with fruit and nuts’ kind of a guy, which is reasonable, but carborific and calorific.
I love the BSD but think that the book could be better organised.

Day 2 of the wedding diet. Have eaten 420 calories so far…..what to eat for the rest?
Suggestions would be welcome👍
Also managed 30 mins swim.
Onwards and downwards…

Hi all,
As many of you know, I’m in Tenerife at the moment, I have just got ready to go out, at home I’m normally wrapped up in layers of clothes to keep warm, i have just put summer clothes on! Yippee I look like I have lost weight, even though I still have 1 stone 9lb to lose, so folks just wait till the summer and imagine how you will look without all those layers and weight! It’s something to look forward to, even when you have a blip! Like I did yesterday when I had that chocolate! So keep on keeping on.
Christine

Thank you so much Orchid. That was really helpful advice. I am going to look carefully at the kinds of foods I’ll be eating. Is there a definitive list of thos e recommended vegetables/fruits etc that one can have? I have seen for example butternut squash spaghetti which would be great to replace pasta. There are of course other things like cauliflower rice which one can use too. I really like the idea of going full fat again, trying to convince people that it’s ok to do that is hard going. I had known about full fate for a while but had avoided yogurts and most cheeses because that’s what we were all told! I am going to order the blood sugar monitor and ketostix. Is there information with the ketostix to explain what the fat burning range is?

Can I use the above and soy sauce in stir frys?

Hi Karra, why not ditch the salty pork scratchings and have some nuts – whole unsalted almonds, sunflower seeds etc – plenty of healthy fat and no salt 🙂

Hi Christine, so glad things are a bit happier for your daughter at the mo.

Well, enjoy that swim because I don’t think I’ll be venturing into any water here!
It’s Janet and Lynne I’m meeting up with, really looking forward to it! 🙂
Forget the plane blip and ENJOY 🙂

Hi Deb so pleased you have reached your new lunch box target!!! 🙂

Hello All! I’ve finally caught up reading all of your posts and I am so pleased for all of you!

I am happy to announce that I am down another 3.4lbs, bringing my total to 7.8lbs in TWO WEEKS. Also, down a half inch on my waist (bringing that shrinkage to 1.5″)

I am ecstatic with these results! I am also happy that this diet has reduced my meds (no insulin, halved the Janumet*, and nixed the Forxiga** and statins).

But mostly I am happy that I reached my first reward level (5lbs) and have purchased NEW LUNCH CONTAINERS! With SCREW TOP LIDS. So now I can transport soup without fear 😉

Bill – a thought about your plateau. It could be from coming off the metformin and your body adjusting to that. You have the right attitude though! ONWARDS!

Cheers,

Deb

* Janumet contains a combination of metformin and sitagliptin. Metformin works by decreasing glucose (sugar) production in the liver and decreasing absorption of glucose by the intestines. Sitagliptin works by regulating the levels of insulin your body produces after eating.

** Forxiga (Dapagliflozin) is a tablet medication which helps to reduce blood glucose levels by helping the kidneys to remove glucose from the blood.

OK, you wavered – but you’re back on track now and have realised you didn’t really enjoy the foods you shouldn’t be eating as much as you’d thought, so hopefully the temptation won’t be so great in future.

Hi Gwendolineanne

I think you are suffering from a bit of boredom and fatigue. You have done brilliantly well so far, nearly 12 pounds in four weeks is awesome! But however great the achievement, we can be our own worst enemies, talking ourselves down and knowing there is still work to do. Its time to shake things up a bit. Try some new recipes, some new foods you might not usually eat. Try on some clothes you had stopped wearing so you can see what a difference you’ve made to yourself. How about a shopping trip for something new? What other non-food treats could you indulge in to remind yourself that you are worth it? This is a good time to re-energise yourself and make a fresh commitment to the next four weeks. You’ve already proved that your tastes are changing so go with that and keep up the good work. All the best to you.

Its probably partly because your body is switching from carb burning to fat burning. There are quite commonly symptoms at the start of the programme but they usually settle down within a few days.

Lucia, are you ok? Getting worried that we’ve not heard from you today.

Lucia, you have been so supportive of everyone else on the forum so cut yourself some slack and don’t beat yourself up. None of us are perfect and we all have wobbles of the doubt kind as we have all done every other diet under the sun and failed. Despite attending classes in the past as we have all done I have never felt so supported as now on the BSD, I had a bad week last week and just wanted to hide but that is the worst thing, share your fears and hopes as you are doing, there are so many people rooting for you and know that you can do this.

My greatest fear was falling off the wagon and never getting back on, yes I did have a treat when out for our anniversary meal and the scales said I had put on 3 lbs but by the end of the week I am 2 lbs down from last week, so that’s 1 stone 2 lbs in total in. 4 weeks with 6 inches off my waist, never has that been done before. Look at where you were and where you are now, you can do this.

This probably sounds like an odd suggestion, but I find inspirational books and movies help, esp autobiographies. A good one I read then watched recently was called “wild” by Cheryl Strayed. Nothing like walking in another’s footsteps who’s real life drama dwarfs you own to keep your head in the game so to speak. Good luck!

Hi Sharon, yes butter on your veg is fine 🙂
good luck

Hi Lea,
Keep at it. Have a look though the book and pick a few recipes you like.
I’m starting week 10 and I’ve had great weight loss, but I’ve still a lot to lose. It’s true what NewLife says, the less carbs you eat the less you’ll crave them.
I don’t have any kids in the house, but because I’ve changed my eating habits my other half has gone the opposite way and is eating more convenience food rather than cook a meal from scratch just for herself. She is pretty healthy despite being McDonalds best customer!
This forum is a great motivator, always plenty of help and good advice.

Hi Everyone
I feel better already, not so despondent , I will try not to worry about the exercise and concentrate on the diet. I think I may have been having too much veg in the evening. I am making a real effort with the fluids today. Can I have butter on my veg?
Thanks again I have never posted on a forum before

Hi Saz12345,
I agree it is not in the book, it is a figure that many people have been using to make sure they go into fat-burning mode, gained from experience. If you put 50g carb into the search engine at the top right of the page you will get a number of threads with people asking how many carbs. I have found 60g a day is fine for me, I am burning fat.
I started on shakes, but the Optifast ones are only available in the UK on prescription. I bought Slender and once the milk is added, it was 31g carbs three times a day, but only 2g fat, so one day with 3 shakes, and home made veg soup plus some veg, 715cals but 115g carbs and 8g fat! Wrong proportions for fat burning. I lost weight in week one, not as much as I would have expected and by week 2 my waist was not dropping much, but my hips were. I moved to real food and dropped to 60g carbs a day and I have lost weight consistently and my stomach fat has dropped away and now in proportion to my hip measurements.
Hope that helps.

I’m now halfway through the 8 weeks and I must admit weight has slowed right down this week with only 1lb lost. 11.8lb loss altogether. Unfortuantely at the weekend I wavered as well. Ate a few things that I shouldn’t have and actually didn’t really enjoy them either. I even resorted to cooking chocolate. The first few squares tasted divine but third and fourth didn’t so that was good as didn’t eat any more. I knew this would happen as soon as I get to somewhere near a target that I set, it all seems to go pear shaped. Well back to it today and maybe vary my foods a bit more, as I don’t think I did last week. The support from this website it actually fantastic and I love reading everyone’s posts.

Here’s to a good week and good luck everbody.

I am in the UK, and bought Mornflake medium oatmeal from Sainsburys – I followed the instructions in the packet to the letter and for 100g of oatmeal I got 1000g of porridge. so 4 servings. at 92 calories and 14g of carbs. Not bad and you could easily add flaked almonds, passion fruit, raspberries etc to make even more yummy. (even a tablespoon of double cream if you were feeling decadent!

As an experiment, I have left the portions to cool in the fridge and will heat one in the morning, to see if they taste ok. It should reduce the calorie and carb count as some of the starch will be converted to resistant starch and provide fibre rather than calories.

Is there a food technologist out there that could confirm my theory?

Thank you hashimoto!

Lea – stick with it. The fewer carbs you eat, the less you crave them.

Carol – wow!!!

Sharon – drinking that much is really hard, I agree! I really have to force myself sometimes. Often what I do is make sure I drink a full, big glass of water (one of those massive IKEA ones, probably 300ml at least) before I have my shake or meal; and then at least two in between meals. It adds up! Re exercise – any movement is better than none so 10 minutes is already something! Don’t beat yourself up over it!

Jaaylow – sugar free jelly has worked for me in the past but at the moment I’m trying to avoid all treats esp the fake sugar ones; I did scoff some raw mushrooms and sugar snap peas before dinner one night (was totally desperate!) which were surprisingly nice 🙂 Probably not that helpful though!

Orchid, please can I ask where you are getting the 50g figure from? It’s not in the book that I can see and a sachet of Optifast has 20g carbs so 3 of those, plus 240g veg, must be closer to the 70g that you mention.

Eureka, completely agree about the exercise, great if you can do it but concentrating on the food you eat is the thing!

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for replying, I hope this is just temporary, yes, I do suffer from lack of energy and tiredness due to having Lupus, but this is much worse than normal. I have a suspicion that I may not be eating enough fat and protein so I’ve upped them both a bit in the hope it will make a difference. I don’t think i’m eating too many carbs. I have been anaemic in the past so that’s something to consider. Thanks for the help

Thanks Newlife and Bill! Great to hear, those are amazing results. I will keep you posted. My Dad and Brother are diabetic (T2) so would be great to show them what can be done! That and my Daughter, will keep me motivated I’m sure, along with hearing results like yours!

Hope you both have a great week 🙂

Thanks everyone 🙂
I want to get this right!

Bena

You have just set up your own forum so feel free to keep asking the questions.

If you’re below 800 calories every day, maybe you need to eat a little more?

As long as it isn’t potatoes I don’t think extra veg can do much harm. Probably better to add some more in than to be forever hungry and giving up, or eating something high carb.

Ben, You can get a set of measuring spoons (metal or plastic) and a tablespoon is 15ml – your sliver spoon may be around that – mine delivers 16ml. It is easier is to use a convertor and then weigh on digital scales. There are a lot of calculators on the web – search under tablespoon to grams (or oz) and it put in the number of tablespoons you need. An example of one below.
http://calculator-converter.com/converter_tbsp_to_g_tablespoons_to_grams_calculator.php
Without a page reference, and some context I can’t help you the almond question.

Oh bill if only you knew!! Not only have a jumped off the wagon I rolled down the hill of chocolate

Past 24-48 hours been stressful hardly eaten and what I have chocolate. I don’t even like chocolate !!!

But I’m firmly back on the wagon and had a lovely Yorkshire provinder soup.. They are low carb and not bad calories but packed with flavour and goodness. So packed I’m thinking of the thinning them out as cheaper and still as nice .

Atm life is stressful. I slipped in the field walking dogs and don’t want to move . But I need to. Have mri scan in May and maybe consultant . I want to set a 2 stone goal . So
I can go to see that nasty consultant and flaunt my loss!!

I think having soups like Yorkshire provinder is great for a lazy day.

I had made a soup last night.. Roast veg and chilli but I burnt the veg and it tasted god awful.

But we learn . I am lacking in sleep I can’t function properly but that’s not the diet that’s life..

The celeriac roasters were heaven!!! Not to keen on parsnip

It was my first time with celeriac and to be honest was dreading it as had heard horror stories .

I’m still on a high ok chocolate bad but as someone said … Make
Something diet allowed which is naughty and keep in the freezer then I will be reaching for something controlled.

There are 4 more bars of chocolate ( small bars) and I’m tempted to scoff But I will try not too!

Sorry I’m rambling just I am am discovering my weakness and finding ways to make me strong.

Off to walk 4 dogs in This weather later!! What fun!!!

Hi Bunga
make full use of the recipe section and check out the “what have you eaten today” thread for loads of ideas for yummy meals that fit into this diet, or get creative and let us know what you are eating.

Hi Bunga, welcome on board. If you find the menu suits your palate, then it is an easy way to do the diet as it is all planned out for you. If you use the recipes in the book, make sure they are using ingredients that are used in the 800 cals per day and also don’t up the carbs too much. Some recipes are more useful for the 5:2 or maintenance phases – eg ones with dates. Also – for the recipes double check their calorie counts. You may need to adjust the portion sizes for the 800.
There are people on the forum who have followed the menu’s and others who have adapted the principles to recipes they enjoyed.
Have fun!

Hi Jimz
Yes Qui=ki 0ui=wi
My brother saw this personalized numberplate in Napier, and I liked it as it reflects my French roots.

Hi jaalow
Well done. The ‘ hunger hormone’ goes away as you lower the carbs. Keep going
Eureka

Hi Brightspark,
I agree with Bill, for most veg just eat it when hungry. I have a large bowl of cherry tomatoes in the kitchen that I take one or two from if I need to snack.
Don’t forget – we still need to be eating our 5 a day. The portion size is 80g per for each veg/fruit so aim for 400g (just over 14oz) of fruit and veg of different colours. Add in tomatoes, spring onions, onion, garlic. Avocado is also fine – but not too much. That will fill your plate up to 50% 🙂

Hi saz12345
Welcome to BSD. Well done it’s all good. Keep going for as long as you can. The diet will creep up on you & this will be the way you want to go!
Eureka

Hi sharon1066
Welcome. You are doing really well. The original diet trial was done by prof Roy Taylor, Newcastle uni. It was 3 x Optifast shakes a day + 200 calories of veg weighing 250g. Total 800 calories. We can’t get Optifast here so you use the ones you’re happy with.

The point is he said DON’T worry about exercising if you can’t , concentrate on doing the diet. As you lose the weight you may be more able to then think about exercise.

We are happy you have come aboard the good ship BSD! Dr Mosley’s 8-week Blood Sugar Diet is doable. The best tip is drink that 2 – 3 litres of fluid a day. Also have a bit more salt on your food. The headaches are telling you your body is making a change with this new diet. Most of us have had ‘fuzzy’ heads. It mostly lasts just a few days. Take some paracetamol for instance if it’s a bit too much. Fluids are the key. Going to the loo a lot will settle down too.

My husband had the Carb/ Keto flu but it was only a couple of days. You feel a bit achy & not much energy. Reread the book & mark the important points for you.

If you can keep going with the 800 calories a day you will lose weight. Some of us lose it quicker than others, don’t worry about that.

Go for the diet & then see what you can do exercise wise down the road. Keep reading & posting your progress. There’s always help on here
Good luck
Eureka

Hi Annie, that is a good weight loss – well done. Check how many carbs you are eating per day – it is not just the calories you need to monitor. Check you have a good balance of protein and fat so you are getting all you need for your body to function, too many carbs will cause sugar spikes and tiredness.
There are others on the forums that have medical experience so can probably help more. Is this is a change for you or were you very tired before this? If you have been anaemic in the past, it may be worth taking iron supplements for a short period, although having been anaemic in the past myself, it normally comes with a raging headache as well as tiredness.
There is a period of lethargy that some people experience in the first few weeks, I didn’t but for most it went away weeks 3-4.
Hopefully it will for you as well.

Hi Sharon, which shakes are you using? If you are using Optifast then it may be ok, but other shakes are very high in carbs and that maybe why you are seeing no changes. 7lbs is good and you do get step changes, but check your daily carbs as they should definitely be under 70g per day and many on the diet are aiming at under 50g per day.
Good luck

I have just completed my first week and have lost 5lbs!!! I am delighted. I did 800 cals Monday to Friday and relaxed a little over the weekend with a glass of red wine on both saturday and sunday night. I am using my fitness pal to log all my food. Another plus, is that my husband, who is not on a diet also lost 5lbs Ha Ha. I did feel a little dizzy once during the week but otherwise have had no headaches etc and feeling quite good on it. I’m not that hungry most of the time, but just feeling today that I would probably love some chocolate or something that feels like a treat!!! maybe containing no more than 50 cals. Any ideas? anyone ?

213 signatures so far!! Please sign if you are a British Citizen and haven’t signed so far!!! 🙂

Well put, Bill! We can do it for our children too! Let the renal wards empty of diabetic patients going through hell!!! Up the revolution!!!! 🙂

If there are newbies who are British citizens please sign our petition!!! It has it’s own thread!! 🙂

I am also one week in and have lost 7lb but that was in the first 2 days nothing since I am having two shakes a day, veg for dinner and yoghurt and fruit after, I am trying to drink that amount but it is hard. The trouble is I am disabled and exercise is really difficult I can only walk for ten mins and then I have to rest I have been trying to do more but it is almost impossible, I wondered if this means I will be unable to loose any weight on this diet. Think I may have ‘carb flu’ as well the headaches are horrible. Anyone out there able to help I would really appreciate it.

Good morning Lucia my friend!!! Hope today is a lot easier for you!!

Confession time:
I experimented with a glass of red last week and as it didn’t go very well so I thought I would follow MM’s suggestion of a spirit instead. That went even worse! I woke at 4.15am with a banging head. Downed a pint of water and a mug of hot milk followed by a piece of cheese and a handful of almonds.
I still have a headache.
I’m skipping breakfast because of the dawn feast.
Lesson learned!

The birds are singing – or at least they were until a kestrel appeared in the garden!!!!
Hope they sing for you all day! 🙂 xxxx

Enjoy your lunch hun 🙂
Our little girl came into her first season a fortnight ago so the dog walking has been seriously curtailed until next week, we’re both looking forward to getting going again, plus there will be lawns to mow weekly and all the other stuff associated with the garden.
I’ll be looking for an improved weight loss – or else.

End of week 9 down 3.25 lbs last week Total so far 2st 6.5lbs how good is that. BS creeping down gradually in the 6s mostly, with odd 5.something, and an odd 7.1 just to remind me I’m not there yet.

Grats on the coming off meds Bill, great news you must feel so good.
I have an appointment with diabetic nurse tomorrow for blood results from last week

Lol had to edit as said as I was down 6 stone …sigh .. if only.

Hi Bill, I hang my head!! Do you know I feel like I do know your OH!!!!

Bill, it will all help with your BSD exercise plan!! I still have to paint all my fences ( I like to do it every year) it takes me a few weeks because bending my knee is a problem. Spent all day yesterday gardening now I’m off for lunch with a friend again – 4 times in 8 days !! It was one of the things which worried me at the beginning of the diet – now I know I am absolutely fine and staff are always so helpful with my no carbs requests!! 🙂

Oh and sorry I forgot to mention, I am not diabetic but have a lot of weight to lose and thought this would be worth a try. So I am not testing blood sugars or anything.

Whoopsydoo Lostgirl
you seem so much happier with yourself now, great to see!
Loving the idea to shape the celeriac like potatoes, that’s really thinking out of the box.
Keep it up, you’re going to be REALLY happy by the time you hit the 8 week mark. 😀