Hi everyone,

I have been on the 8 week diet for 8 days today and so far I’ve lost 7kg which is simply amazing for me. I have never lost that much so fast, ever. What I love about it all is that the recipes are easy enough to follow and taste great (didn’t take to the vegetable curry recipe or the blueberry green tea shake but that may have been because I used frozen instead of fresh blueberries and used 0 fat yoghurt inserted of full fat!)

Reading all your stories has been really inspirational and reassuring. I have always believed that going under 1000 calories a day would mess up my metabolism and this is my first attempt ever. I thought that I would be crabby and starving on it but nothing of the sort. Instead i feel less lethargic, no feelings of depravation at all and of course the weight loss and inches off have been a big push in the right direction.

I have a few questions though and was wondering if anyone would be able to help me.

1) I haven’t done any major exercise except to increase my step goal in a day and be generally more active with my daily activity. I am afraid that if I do it all at once, my body will get use to it and plateau faster. I thought that maybe I would increase of the exercise factor once I got more weight off. I am also concerned about gaining the weight back after.

Question: Would the 5:2 that I have seen mentioned several times be a good way to maintain my weight after I stop with this diet?

2) Coffee – I love coffee and I see that Micael mentions that it should be an occasional affair. I like at least one in the morning and one in the evening but I drink it black. Is this okay?

3) The baked goods – Could I eat one of the guilt free baked goods as my breakfast if I wanted to skip the planned meal – as long as my calories are within the 800 mark?

4) The recipes on the website – may I use them too? Have they been approved and that’s why we see them or can anyone just contribute anything?

Apologies if some of my questions are on the ignorant side. I have just started and am just making sure I am on the right track.

Thanks very much in advance!
Good luck and great health,
Narisya

I usually top it with a scrambled egg – either one egg for breakfast or two for lunch. I add some feta cheese to that some days – it softens in the egg and adds both texture and flavour. Parmesan is also good grated on top of mushrooms especially if you put a little garlic underneath.
Cheese is calorie dense, so although dairy and not banned, it is recommended to be eaten in small amounts. Most cheeses are ok and as FoFi says, go for ones with a strong taste and I think there is a comment on using hard cheeses not brie, but I can’t find that just now.

Well done AnneElizabeth. I have just completed week 5 and have lost 17lbs! I too have not had any IBS in those 5 weeks and feel amazing!

Hi, Like you I was initially puzzled by the recipes and what was is there compared to the 800 list. I think the explanation is that the recipes are for all parts of the diet including the 5:2 and maintenance phases. Stick to what was said in the section on 800 and use the recipes that stick to those principles. Dates are certainly very sugary, so I would not have them in this phase.
Hope that helps.

Hi Everyone

I’m starting the 8 week blood sugar diet tomorrow and am putting the finishing touches to my first 4 weeks of menus (I felt this was a good thing to do so that I know exactly what I’m doing each week and can then repeat it for the second 4 weeks.)

So far, I’m only using the recipes given in the book but am slightly unsure about the calories given for some of the recipes, eg 3 ways to jazz up a salmon steak or lamb shop. It isn’t clear whether the calories given includes the salmon or the lamb.

Can anyone help as I don’t want to miscalculate the calories in the first week!

Many thanks

Eureka, I love your eloquent posts!!! Rock on!!! 🙂

I too am looking for clarification on this as I have just started the diet a week ago. On the first day as I was sitting at my desk in the office, I did have a date as a snack but only one date. Afterwards, as I was reading the book, I saw that dates were not recommended. Then as EternalOptimist noted, the guilt free brownie recipe had dates as an ingredient to them. I am confused – should I stay away from that recipe even if it is part of the book? Can anyone help clear this up?

Hi Matrika

“Eat potatoes & Don’t test your blood sugar!” That was honestly the ONLY advice I was or have been given by my dr! For three long years I’ve been in the type 2 wilderness. I’ve had to fight to get my eyes tested & my Hba1c once a year. I’ve changed surgeries & see a new dr, (who has lost 4 stone on 5:2 diet I’m told) in three weeks. Here’s hoping?

Don’t get mad get CHANGE!! I’m on a personal mission.
I want to see the advice to, information & therefore treatment of Type 2 Diabetics CHANGE!

You DON’T add fuel to a CARBOHYDRATE fire. We are burning!

I’m finding the people who make the decisions about all Type 2 Diabetics. It takes time, they are well hidden!
I also wanted ammunition , my BSD results. I (we) are living the reversed / controlling diabetic life. We DO have the resolve to CHANGE or lives. They declare we don’t. THEY don’t even want to give us the chance or support to try!!!

The ESTABLISHMENT have known about LOW CARBS & Type 2 Diabetes for a long time. The info is out there, lots of reading. It’s only now , with the £ cost to the WORLD & the out-of-control inexorable rise of Globa Type 2 Diabetes that they ‘care?’ ££££

I’ve more to do & will keep my powder dry until I’m ready to fire the whole arsenal not just a single salvo!
When I have all the names & contact info I’ll post it.
I’m away for 2 weeks, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve waited 3 years for this! I’m much older & diabetic wiser now.

I’ve learnt about Type 2 Diabetes the hard way. It’s their turn now.
Eureka

Hi Lachlan, Steve & Ei, – Firstly Bill experience a big increase in his BS in (I think) week 4ish. That was explained as the liver releasing a lot of sugar at once and as you said, the body taking time to catch-up and process it. It was back on track within the week. See his blog in the 800 – ‘this must work for me’. If you are about that stage, this is maybe what you are seeing?
However – just out of curiosity, is anyone correlating their BG levels with their exercise? I am on this plan as a preventative measure, FBS getting towards pre-diabetic range and obese. I am no longer obese, and the FBS has dropped to the low 5’s, occasionally going up to 5.6.
I am finished the 8 weeks and continuing for a couple more before going on holiday and coming back to start 5:2. The fact the FBS was sticking in the low 5’s has been puzzling me as I have been very conscientious about sticking to the plan and thought it may have gone lower, so I was wondering if I was actually in fat-burning mode at all. I got the infamous ketostix and did my first test Thursday evening – yes I am fat burning.
Friday morning the reading lower, but still fat-burning and the evening lower still. What puzzled me was the next morning it was back up to the higher fat-burning mode (good) – but the day before I had had more carbs than normal – 70g. My FBS was also 5.0, lowest for a couple of weeks. Go figure :-(.
However – I had also been out walking/standing all day on Friday as I was helping survey some archaeology. Most continuous non-sitting for a long while – only one data point, but I suspect that may be part of the explanation!
The body is an engine and many things play a part in how it responds. We are all concentrating on the foods we eat, but sometimes what is driving the changes can be elsewhere – have you had changed your exercise patterns, or had some emotional turmoil? Both will play a part.
Hopefully it gets back on track soon and it has been what Bill experienced, a massive sugar release from the liver.

Hi Odette, I have copied and pasted your info to include in the Information for new starters thread which a few of us are going to set up. I will acknowledge your contribution. Thanks, Judith

Hi Lallya. It works! Take some time to look through some of the threads, i.e 8 week line and after, weigh in etc. You will find lots of inspiring stories. Look at captainlynne’s 16 weeks and after. Look at captain lynne’s and Bill1954’s stories. Look at Neohdiver and lots more. There is a search icon on the top right hand side at the top of the page!

Welcome to the BSD way of life. Not everyone on here is diabetic!!! 🙂

4 days in and hoping it works .im not diabetic yet but weighing 97 kg at 5ft 2 I’m obese with a fatty liver and enlarged heart I’ve been disabled for 8 years and so the weights crept on , I’m unable to exercise but I’m determined to complete this diet and start s new healthier phase

Thanks hashimoto and captainlynne.

I am in Australia (why I went off with Diabetes Australia person on that program). 🙂

Yes, Prof Taylor is clearly also very gentle in responding to these blokes…he did manage to get in there however that the people who may NOT respond with reversal of diabetes (because of their genetic predispositions) may be 1%. These old blokes are willing to lunp most of the diabetic type 2 population into a basket and send us out to sea with a diagnosis that we are chronic… cause of THEIR laziness.

I guess it’s a 100th monkey thing. The numbers will get them in the end but what really gets me annoyed and upset is that people in the meantime are going blind and losing their kydneys unnecessarily because persons paid a truckload of money are too lazy or foolish to actually apply their minds to reading and absorbing the information they are paid to keep abreast of.

Hi hellybelly a thyroid check is never a bad thing. Diabetes and hypothyroidism are both diseases of the metabolic system.

I can’t remember how long you have been on this diet but Bill, Cherrianne and some others have experienced problems round about week 4/5.

🙂

Agree entirely Eureka. The Q&A needs to be fixed and we also need a way of identifying new info that could be added to it in the future.
I would like a separate chat area – not to stop the chat in the threads as it is useful, but to keep the threads to the topic and allow other chatter to go on elsewhere.

Almond butter says: 300g makes 4 portions, that seems to be 455 calories per portion not 110c for the whole breakfast recipe.
Where have I gone wrong?
ben

The hot milk was delicious but my experiment failed. My fasting bloods have been, 7.1, 6.0, 5.9, 6.9, 6.3, 6.9 and 6.7. But is that a good thing? During the day I am fine. Is my liver just cleansing itself of stored sugar.I will keep monitoring and hopefully I will reach the non diabetic range. I have also read a cheeky and funny article about low cal and not losing weight ( I have plateaued for a very long time), it said if you are not losing weight you are not in calorific deficit, no matter what excuse I use, even if I am so hungry, in order to lose weight I must create a deficit. As you lose weight your calories in and out change in order to keep the deficit up. This is obviously normal common sense advice that any child could tell me but i feel better after reading it and will look very closely at my portion sizes in future. ( I was nearly off to the docs to check my thyroid!!!)

Whatt?? That is unbelievable, Lynne. Where do these people train? 🙁

My thoughts exactly, although the more I have thought about it the more I think a fixed thread of the good tips we have all gathered would be helpful..if it is a Q and Answer thread it will fill up and digress like all the others and quickly become useless.
Yes, we have been the experiment, and a lot of us have done this for more than 8 weeks (lynne has completed 16 weeks) so we really do have valuable info to pass on
🙂

Hi Rowantree – there is an explanation in the Blood Sugar Diet Book – Chapter 1 under the section carbs and insulin. This diet is about reducing the carbs to stop blood sugar spiking and help reverse diabetes. It is also a good preventative diet as well to ensure weight loss and not get to diabetes in the first case, so it is not looking at cholesterol which oats and barley can help.
Oats, particularly processed oats are high glycemic load – that is they release their sugars into the blood quickly thus spiking the blood sugars. All processed oats do this, which is why it is suggested you avoid them – thus porridge oats which is what most muesli is made from. Rolled oats, the type that is unprocessed – is slow release – lowish glycemic load so you can use them – they are what my grandmother would have used and needed soaked overnight before cooking, or toasting lightly and adding to cranachan, we also used them for putting on herrings before grilling the herrings – they are delicious.
I have not tried them in muesli whilst on the 8 week diet and intend to add them in and barley on the 5:2 phase which I start soon.
Hope that helps.

Hi hashimoto
Re: consolidation of FAQS

At the start of the 8 week BSD adventure we didn’t know what, we didn’t know? Neither did the book!

Enough of us have completed BSD in real time with real food ( not hospital monitored shakes) to have a general consensus of what works best for the majority of people undertaking the diet.

This was & is THE experiment We are doing the BSD on our own, for the most part.
The time is right for consolidation of good , tried & self tested advice. And , where to go to find more!

However, BSD is not an easy option. We’ve all thought long & hard about it. The awareness & enormity of what we are doing (& for the rest of our lives) looms large.
We all need light relief. We ALL care about the people trying to make this life saving & improving change. That’s what makes this forum so special!

It was & is my goal to be informative, encouraging & praising.
In that regard I would like to see :

For Newbies : BSD FAQS tried & tested as we know them

Chat : To keep our minds, bodies & souls on the BSD track

Eureka ( I have found it! )

I am loving this new way of eating! We (my husband and I) have just completed week 2 and I have lost 9lb overall! More importantly I feel so much better, less bloated and my IBS has been so much better. I don’t feel hungry at all.
I hope to increase my activity levels and start running again but the last two weeks I have have had vertigo so exercise hasn’t been a good idea! Here’s to our healthier life…….

Matrika

Here in the UK I once had a dietician tell me fish was a high carbohydrate food😱

I never went back!

Thanks from me too, jimnz, I have forwarded the link to a few people.
Totally agree with you Matrika! And poor pof taylor is so cautious about saying if you have had diabetes for more than ten years…. but we have people on these forums who have had diabetes for years longer and have/are reversing it!!

Sends me nuts too Matrika.

BTW if you are a British Citizen would you sign our petition?? Apologies if you already have! 🙂

Hi all – just started this, have bought the book but can’t find what I’m looking for.

I am using My Fitness Pal for calorie counting – when setting my goals, what proportion of each am I looking for? I have found the bit of the book that says 45g protein per day for a female, which is about 50% macronutrients – how do I split remaining 50% between carbs and fat?

I’m doing the quick version of diet if this makes a difference?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks very much for posting that link jimnz.
I am the only person I know who doesn’t have a tv…so I only watch programs that are linked on the web…I’d better get back to watching the Insight program on “SBS on Demand”. This was terrifically inspiring…what came shining through to me is how very diplomatic Michael Mosely is…the diabetes “experts” there I thought were fools and idiots and I was furious that they didn’t acknowledge the results of Prof Taylor’s work….If something is proven , certainly it needs to be replicated but for the diabetes” expert” to be waffling on saying there are 100s of diets and no-one should leave here today thinking this one is the answer…well yes… and some of us diabetics have had to try all these diets because the “experts” were so unscientific and ignorant in their advice. I walked out of a Diabetes Australia consult with one of their advisors when she was insisting that vegetables weren’t carbohydrates…I felt my well being was threatened by her ignorance and it was clear to me that their advice was rubbish…and I really dislike men like those on the program in positions of responsibility who actually advise the government on policy who know bugger all about how to ACTUALLY treat this disease in a healthy way and not kill us as off they have been doing for years.

Sorry…sends me nuts. Apologies for ranting.

Good research there, Odette, and much better than my simple explanation of ‘retained water’! 🙂

Hello,
i am on day 9 and had a three day plateau, then the weight loss resumed. Researching round the internet I found that there is a phenomenon called ‘the whoosh!’ The following is from another blog ‘It is actually called dieter’s edema and it’s pretty common and the reason weight loss is non-linear. I personally only show a loss about every three weeks to a month where I will drop 2 or 3 pounds at once.
What happens is as your body begins to empty fat cells, it replaces the lost fat in the cells with water, in anticipation of replenishing your fat supply. Because building new tissue is hard work for the body (even fat cells, believe it or not) it will attempt to keep the cells as long as possible by filling them with water.
At this point is when people notice their fat feels “squishy” or “chunky” or “dimpled” or….you get the picture.
As we stay consistent on our routines, our body has no choice but to relinquish the water and fat cells eventually and when it does, we experience the “whoosh” effect.
This can take a widely varied amount of time from person to person. My “whoosh clock” (for lack of a better term) runs 3 weeks to a month before resetting. It has run as long as 6 weeks depending on what type of exercise I do. If I am heavy lifting, it tends to run longer. I believe this is due to my sore muscles hoarding water as well!
When we take diet into consideration, things like sodium intake can cause variations in the Whoosh Clock’.

Searsh the woosh+water retention, it’s interesting. Do you keep a diary or chart? Each day I put an up or down arrow to show loss or gain, and a red dot to show no change. I know tha t I will need quite a few red dots to get to eight weeks, because you cant lose weight every day, so psychologically itelps to know the red dot days are important too!

Apologies for the wee typos, but I have zombie fingers today, and tablet doesnt recognise my finger taps. sigh.

Alos day nine and nine pound s down! Ah-may-zing!!!

I think that you can use any cheese you want. I have used cheddar and mozzarella. Watch out for the calories though cheddar has nearly twice as many as mozzarella, but I use a mature version so less still has some taste.

Hi meredex, I imbibed one night – a glas of red wine – and scales showed a pound gain the next day :(. Lesson learned! 🙂

I’m new to this and am not intending to do the full diet but cut as many carbs as possible.
However….I don’t understand why porridge and oats aren’t OK. Oats help reduce cholesterol; aren’t they full of fibre and vitamin B? And I thought they were complex carbs!

Please explain – really confused!

Captainlynne I really want to meet you 🙂

Jacqjax, the same thing happened to me only my scales didn’t budge for 12 days! Excellent advise by Hashimoto, stick with it and keep us posted x

Captainlynne, the more the merrier for me, lets see what we can sort out via email.

I know Hashimoto (hangs head in shame) First drinkies in nearly 2 weeks, and I soooo enjoyed them! Back on the water for me now 😊

Eureka, your post made me smile – thank you. I get called lots of things, so general is great 😃

I dont like goats cheese so wondered what else I could use in a Portobello mushroom?

Hi grandenmark you will still be able to sign 🙂

Judith and Janet, would love to meet you both but don’t want to gatecrash.

How about another time? I live near Durham but depend on public transport.

Hi janet. I’ll email you 🙂

Hi meredex if those drinks were alcoholic they won’t help you because of te sugars/ empty calories. I would advise staying of them for a while 🙂

Hi jacqjax, it sometimes happens and then suddenly drops off.

Check list:
1. Areyou eating 50g of carbs or less?
2. Are you drinking 2-3 litres of water a day.?
3 Are you eating enough fat?
4 get some ketostix to check you are fat burning
5 measure youself – are your clothes getting looser?

Hope that helps!

If you are a British Citizen please could you sign our petition? 🙂

Hi lucyjane, well the scales didn’t move for 8 days!! Nothing, not even 1/2 pound! I stuck to it and I’m 1lb down today so I’m hoping the plateau has passed. But I did go out last night and had a few drinks so it could be that I’m dehydrated! I’ll know more tomorrow when I weigh. It’s really frustrating when you stick to the plan and it doesn’t seen to be working. Keep with it and I’ll let you know tomorrow, don’t be beaten xx

Hi Alan

Glad day 1 went well 😃 There’s no catch, eating more fat helps us feel full longer. 😃

Keep up the good work and keep us informed how you are doing.

Judith, how about the Monday evening? I’ll have my little dog with me and I’m staying in my flat in saltburn. I can either come to you or you can come to me. I think you have my email address already?

Lol janet, your last post made me chuckle – but it is so true for all of us:)

Izmol1 you don’t have to stick to the recipes in the book if you don’t want to as long as you stick to the principles. Of 800 calories, 50g of carbs or less, 2-3 litres of water a day and full fat. A lot of us like fage greek yoghurt with berries or seeds for breakfast 🙂

Hi Janet and Cherrianne

I am on FB but have changed how I use it over the years. Now it’s mainly family, real-life friends and colleagues. It’s a way for me to keep in touch with folk in different parts of the country and world. I have removed lots of groups and individuals for a variety of reasons. I now spend more time on here than on FB 😃

I have been on a couple of other forums too – WW and DiabetesUK. Used to get too many trolls on WW, spoiling it for everyone. Not been on the Diabetes forum after my first few weeks on the BSD when I posted there about this.

This is the most supportive and friendliest group of people and it is a pleasure to ‘know’ you all.

These are incredible improvements you must be so proud of yourself 🙂 and such great inspiration for all the diabetic newbies just starting out!

Lily, I’m impressed with your calculations and the way you reached them.
Thank you !

Stingle, I’m so pleased for you! What brilliant results! 🙂