Wow! Well done Lynne
Your progress is amazing.I finished 8 weeks today and am 2 stone down , but have another few stone to lose yet. I’m so pleased for you and hope I can be just as determined. You are an inspiration, thank you . Much joy

Just a word of caution.

Dr. Taylor’s work is what inspired me to start this diet – so I am here because of his work.

Unfortunately, I believe he is now extending his declarations about reversing diabetes beyond the strength of his studies. His studies (2 of them completed and one ongoing) were based on 600-800 calorie diets consisting of shakes + up to 200 grams of real food (primarily low carb veggies). He constructed that diet based on a 97% remission rate for diabetics post-bariatric surgery. The theory had to do with a dramatic decrease in calories to a level far below maintenance being key to losing the fat around the liver and pancreas.

He now talks about personal fat thresholds, and weight loss being the key -at whatever rate is convenient for you. This is the really old (successful for only a very few) theory (10% loss should bring your blood glucose under control) – beefed up to make it personal (i.e. failures are explained because you just haven’t lost enough weight to get to your PFT), and a more significant weight loss (he suggests generally 15% – again, you just didn’t lose enough before). Nothing in his studies supports that – and since I’ve lost nearly double what he suggests is sufficient with no change in insulin resistance I am a huge skeptic of his new (unsupported) insights.

That triggered me to do more research. What I have found supports his studies – that there is something in the 800 calorie diet (and/or fasting) that triggers reversing the diabetic spiral, in part by decreasing the glycogen stores in the liver. That same effect is not achieved (for most) by merely reducing weight.

That research is why I am losing the last 19 lbs using the fast 800 diet. It is consistent with Dr. Taylor’s actual studies, not his current theories (unsupported by quality data).

Prior to shifting to the fast 800 diet, combined with 16:8 fasting, I could not tolerate more than 20 grams of carb in a sitting and maintain normal blood glucose. I’ve been regularly testing my limits. This past week (nearly 2 weeks into the changed diet) I was able to eat 33 grams in a sitting with a normal BG response. My fasting BG levels have been dropping, and I’ve even had a couple of days where I stayed below 5.8 the entire day. Either I coincidentally hit my PFT at the exact time I changed my diet OR it is the severe calorie restriction and/or fasting that is shifting something. I believe the latter.

Hi Lostgirl
High five. ✋

Hi Narisya, I love dates – or I did!! But I would advise staying off those sweet recipes until you have reached your goal. Then make some if you can’t resist – but freeze the rest so you are not too tempted!! 🙂

Eureka, I smiled at your post too!

Lynne is absolutely amazing and a real poster girl for the BSD!! 🙂

Noella it is worth reading Cherrianne and Bill1954’s posts. They had unexpected rises in fbs about four weeks in, it lasted for a couple of weeks and then dropped to a normal range. Hiccups at this stage seem to be the norm, but along with what has happened to Lynne and several others you can see the end result of following this diet is absolutely amazing for your blood sugars! 🙂

Exercise is not required to lose weight or gain control of diabetes. It takes a heck of a lot of exercise to burn off a pound. What exercise is better for is decreasing insulin resistance by providing more storage places for glycogen – but that’s a long term goal and doesn’t significantly impact the short term blood glucose control or weight loss.

I’m the same height, nearly the same starting weight (89.3 kg). My diabetes has been in control since 3 days after diagnosis, solely by a change in diet. Starting the day of diagnosis I limited my carbs to what my meter would tolerate, without going over 7.8. For me, that works out to about 20 grams of carbs in a 3 hour period (which I learned by excessive testing . . . my poor fingers!) Since October, I’m pretty sure I can still count on 2 hands the number of readings above 7.8

Without increasing exercise, I also went from 89.3 kg to 66.4 kg (since October 2), by limiting my calorie intake to 1200 calories/day. I do climb stairs to get to my office – but I was doing that before and have not increased stairs or walking or anything else by way of exercise. I sit all day most days (between arriving and leaving). On weekends, I walk a pathetic 2-3000 steps.

That’s (nearly) all before the BSD. Depending on the flavor of the BSD you’re following, your weight loss results may be even better! (If your immediate goal is to control blood glucose, you will need to pay careful attention to the recipes you choose. Many of the recipes are too high in carbohydrates for me to eat – although the weight I’ve lost, combined with fasting and an even lower calorie consumption, seems to have finally changed something. I managed to eat 33 carbs in one meal and keep my BG below 6.2 at about 2 weeks into the BSD 800 + 16:8 fasting.

Hi Neohdiver, another fabulous informative post from you. I am starting to put together some tips for starters which a few of us are working on. I have copied and pasted your post to my notes so it can be added when the thread notes are completed. You will be given the credit for the posting!! 🙂

10th day today. If I resume :

For me, 5 pounds less and the blood sugar is now 6.8 (it was, at his highest, 7.9 . I am considered prediabetic) My husband who his diabetic has lost 10 pounds and after some ups and downs his sugar level is tending to stabilization (between 6 et 7). Before this program, his sugar level was sometimes at 15. It is very motivating to follow this plan together.

Just been reading your story Kara and I was so impressed with your determination in sticking to the regime without any results in over 2 weeks, most people would have given up before now. It will encourage a lot of others to stick at it, now you finally have some losses.

Well done and hope you lose lots more soon, you will certainly have a firmer sleeker figure with all that exercise.

Hi olliej
Just get back on the wagon. You know how to steer it
Eureka

It’s amazing how grot people seem to feel after eating any starchy carbs. I’m keeping clear!! 🙂

Hi Beverley,
There have been people who’ve lost weight just on the 800 cals per day. So you will lose weight if you stick to that and avoid the easily digestible carbs mentioned in the book ( potatoes, rice, pasta etc). Best to make sure your carbs come from pulses, legumes, veg, the more complex carbs that contain plenty of fibre.
I think you’ll find that most of us who are counting carbs are doing it to bring blood sugars under control. Sometimes if people are worried about about weight loss stalling we might ask them to check their carb intake as it is possible to have a high carb intake on 800 cals if you don’t eat from a wide range of foods.
While you are waiting for your book you could download the articles from the Daily Mail, search for the 8 week blood sugar diet. That will have enough info and the meal plans to get you started 🙂

Hi Lostgirl
This is what I mean. We need to chat a bit for the sake of our mind, body & soul. Stuff happens & it throws us a curve ball ( phrase party). This diet is tough. You are trying hard to cope with STUFF! You need to concentrate on YOU just now.

Little bit at a time is your way to go at the moment. Small victories. You are getting there well done
Keep on keeping on
Eureka

Karra,

Just wanted to echo earlier advice you were given. 5.2 is NOT a hypo. You may have hypo feelings (because of the contrast to what your body is used to), but 5.2 is actually near the top of normal blood sugar ranges (when not influenced by recently eaten foods). Trying to keep your BG above 5.2 will sabotage your efforts to achieve control of your BG. Rest assured that as long as you are in normal BG ranges (above around 3.9), it is not an actual hypo and you will be better off (long term) if you don’t feed it carbohydrates.

As to why you are not losing – building muscles increases the glycogen they store. To store one gram of glycogen, requires 3 grams of water. In addition, dramatically increasing muscle activity injures the muscles, causing inflammation. Inflammation retains water. So the dramatic shift in muscle activity, plus redoubling your efforts when you didn’t initially experience weight loss, might well keep you at the same place on the scale. Aside from water, you are certainly losing weight. It is likely just that you are retaining more water to repair those muscles and support new glycogen storage.

Glad to hear you’re seeing the scale change – but thought it might still help to see an explanation of why it might not have been moving before.

thanks Lynne 🙂

Wow

I meant also to say that as an experiment in eating lots of carbs after having restricted them that I actually didn’t feel that great later on and I don’t think it had anything to do with overeating as they weren’t huge portions! I wouldn’t go so far as to say I felt ill but I certainly didn’t feel up to opening the single malt my boss bought me as a birthday present which I was planning to.

Karra, at last Yippee 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
So happy for you, it’s going to start dropping off now. Well deserved after all this time x

You’ve had a really great birthday treat with the jeans!!! 🙂

Hi everyone, just completed the second week and I am logging everything I consume and averaging 81 g carbs per day and 824 cals per day. I have lost 6 lb but I am within my maintenance range of 120 – 125 lbs, so not surprised that I had only lost 1.2 lb in the second week. Pleased to say that I have had no chocolate cravings and no sugar highs and lows, which is the main reason I am trying BSD. I did have a banana split on my wedding anniversary and thoroughly enjoyed it! Sleep patterns have changed and I am now getting a good 6 hours sleep every night with the knock on effect that I feel more energetic the following day. Drinking lots of water – quite often I think I’m hungry, but in fact I’m thirsty. I don’t have any tempting food in the house ie biscuits, cakes, sweets or chocolate (apart from cocoa powder and occasionally eat a teaspoon of that to keep me sweet) because my will power is such that I wouldn’t stop at one portion!

Hi Stingle,
Are you counting carbs? I was doing 50g per day to get my blood sugars into the non diabetic range, I’ve started having a few 60g days a week and it hasn’t affected my levels at all.
I’m a bit hesitant to go higher as I don’t want to undo my good work and get stuck with carb cravings. I’m very happy with what I’m currently able to eat though.

End of the second week and overall my average has been 81g carbs per day and 824 calories per day. Having lost 4.8 lbs at the end of the first week, I have lost another 1.2 lb and can definitely feel my clothes are loose around my waist. Not had any chocolate cravings or sugar highs and lows and sleeping better and hence feeling more lively. Not expecting to lose any more weight unless I do more exercise.

Captqinlynne, I have emailed you, just in case its ended up in your spam!

Hi,
Perhaps you are gaining muscle weight, Karra? Its hard to ignore that weight gain but keep at it, just a minor set back yeah for now.

Thank you for the birthday wishes, I had a lovely meal with family. I was the only one at the table not to have a starter and do you know what, the sky didn’t cave in! I ended up having a less than sensible main course as there really was nothing that was even close. That said it wasn’t a huge portion and I really enjoyed it (I have been known, in the past to make a ‘good’ choice then feel deprived enough to make up for it later). I had a lovely pudding that felt like a proper treat. Today I’m back to my new normal, even visiting a food festival and having nothing other than black coffee and some tasters of cheese.

Just to make the weekend even sweeter I noticed that a pair of jeans I didn’t take on holiday a month ago because they were a bit snug are now hanging off me 😀

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend everyone xx

Ok own up…..who stole 1¾ lbs from me overnight?

There I was happily sleeping away and must have been in a sound sleep as I never even felt them being lifted from me, it wasn’t until I got on the scales this morning that the theft was discovered. Of course to be honest, I didn’t really want them, so feel free to keep them….lol

I’m so pleased, finally some progress

hugs
Karra

Hi Alanhypno,

I’ve read others having the shakes when starting out on this diet. I have gotten the chills & lightheadedness. So it is not uncommon. What worked for me was easing into the diet. Weaning off all sugars & some carbs. Increasing greens & fiber. I go to the gym about 3xs a week & joined a Zumba class once a week. I eat the same foods nearly every week. I prepare my weekly meals on the weekend…lots of soup like zuchinni/kale/spinach with a touch of sour cream & loads of curry powder. Some of the ingredients in Dr. Mosley’s book are expensive for me so I stick to what I can afford.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions, I am trying to cut out bread & reduce potatoes etc. Cheese is one of my greatest loves, I suppose I must reduce the quantity sadly! I am hoping to get my husband keen as well as that will make it easier-we both already snack on nuts – much preferred to biscuits or cake. Will let you know if I get my head around it all. Thanks again.

Hi love4alan,

I have similar issues plus I got chills & light-headed after the 3rd day. My body needed to acclimate to the increase in fiber intake. Since I have IBS, I had to blend my veggies in the food processor & make it into soup. Taking gas-relief over the counter helps especially at night time. After a week or two my body got used to the increase not only in fiber but water intakes. I still have issues but its under control.

Oh had bacon n egg with mushroom tomatoes this morning are these allowed

Lucia, my heart was pounding reading that. She hasn’t has she? Not really? Please tell me it isn’t true!! Phewwww, it was a NIGHTMARE!!

Your subconscious is telling you you can’t and won’t go back to that! What a relief!!

You’re now over the most difficult part of BSD and it will be much easier from now on.

XXX

I’ve just read your original post! Can’t believe how far you have come since the 8th March. Your first week was your adjustment phase, so in a way you have done 3 weeks of BSD proper. Incredible progress Lucia 🙂 🙂 🙂

So,
I went to the Chinese takeaway, my local, I got my usual. Special fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, large bag of chips.
After I ate all that, (that’s three dinner plates full) I ate a family bag of twirls and chocolate buttons, a tube of Pringles and a pint glass of Pepsi, and still felt hungry. I went into the kitchen for something else to eat……there was a noise……. SOMETHING WOKE ME UP.
It was a NIGHTMARE
OMG, I could feel my heart clogging up and my carbs going into overdrive.
I went into the kitchen, wake this time and kissed an apple.
Phew!!!!
Don’t do that again to me, I can’t cope?!!!?!!
My heart was racing.
I CANNOT go back the way I was.

I embrace my next month on bs800.

I need a lie down now after that. I was so upset afterwards.

What an eye opener.

I think my mood, my health and my will power was up and down last week, and it worried me. As it played on my mind, I dreamed about it.

Love Lucia

Xxxx

Thanks good advice Hashimoto 😀 will do that and see how it goes .

Everytime I eat pulses it leaves me bloated and windy is this normal? Think my body is detoxing as I’m never out the loo is normal? How long does it last? And yes my water intake has increases substantially

Thanks so much orchid. You’ve really cleared things up and helped me confirm ideas I had. I’ll do as you have fine and keep the baked goods out of the picture. I think I’ll add swimming to my regime from next week as its low impact and will help with overall weight loss.
Wishing you all the best with your regime moving forward.
Thanks again, Narisya

Hi Stingle, my feeling is that carbs caused us all the trouble in the first place. I have increased my calories but kicked the carbs into the wide blue yonder. I may have a roast potato and a roast parsnip with my Christmas dinner, but apart from celebrations I will be keeping of them. I’m averaging about 1200 calories a day now so you should be fine building up to 1250!

I’ve been doing it now for a few weeks, I haven’t gained any weight, in fact I have lost a few ounces each week.
I will have the occasional glass of red wine because I love it. I just want to stay well now that I am.
If you want to introduce some carbs I would suggest introduce them slowly and in small quantities to see what happens.
🙂

Thanks very much orchid! That helped a lot.

Hi Hashimoto, I’ve just been thought the website again and been thinking through how to get it to work. One of the things it totally kills are any of the rehydration drinks at the end of a run to replenish fluids. They are also meant to help rebuild the glycogen stores and minimise muscle pain. ! I never did take them, as there is good research that says the best rehydration for rebuilding the muscles is chocolate milk!! I used to take a half pint of milk to drink after I had been training for a 10k. You need to take it within 30 minutes of completing the run – so the 90 mins break before you eat for women knocks that on the head.
Once I am able to do more than a fast amble to the park I will experiment!
thank-you again.

Seen as I created a very low forum thread here is the happy one!!

Well most of you know a stone loss!! I gained some the. Lost it then gained then lost it so back to a stone loss!!

But imagine what I could have lost! But I won’t dwell as no point!

I am now making my own soups which are super tasty and low cal!

I even did a roast dinner without the roasts potatoes! Used celeriac instead.. I shaped them like potatoes .

So I’m happy . I am learning daily and this forum is the best!

Please share your high days and also we are all here for the low X X. As someone who has a long way to go.. You are no alone.. Someone here may have gone through it.. Or have great advice

Thanks guys. Have to say I am a bit nervous about what to do next …..do I reintroduce carbs slowly or should I just avoid them. I thought about keeping calories to say 1250 a day what do you all think is the way forward? I don’t want to be obsessive but don’t want to spoil my results ?

I know I probably do more but I’m human . But it can be done. Ok it’s not the loss I had planned but I think that was a problem I expected to much and set myself to fail. I now have bad stuff and no sooner had it passed my lips I regret it. So I am educating myself.

Roman wasn’t built in a day and nor will my weight loss be!

Have to say I am gagging for a drink so having a long vodka and Pepsi drink this week!

I do get very low but part of Diet is a journey. It’s not just low carbs and sugar but how food effects us. Highs.. LoWs.. How we sometimes turn to food when bored

Every day I’m learning more about myself which is helping me.

Don’t mean to sound preachy but..:: it’s
How I cope. That and you lovely peeps xxx

Brilliant thank-you for researching this I’ve read the new thread and will go back to find the clip of the programme and the graphs :-).

Lostgirl at least you have cut back drastically on the amount you drink. Just keep on diluting until eventually you may be able to get it so weak it’s half a glass a day. I’m talking weeks not days!!
Keep on going you are doing brill. A stone in the short time you have been on this diet is something to be proud of 🙂

Hi Orchid, I have just copied and pasted the info on a new thread called ‘Fat burning – different for men and women’.

You may want to google to see all the photos and graphs. They used carbo drinks in the experiment so your milk idea is probably much better than my idea!! 🙂

Pepsi max hmmm hate to say it .. Lost cause. But I have dramatically reduced amount I drink . During week I am also diluting it.

I think if I crack thmyself carbs I can have the glass of Pepsi a day. Can’t do others .. Tried! I am also trying to up water content.

Bloomin aspertame is in so much!!

This was copied and pasted directly from ‘The trust me I’m a Doctor’ website. Sadly it hasn’t copied the graphs or photos but you can look it up your selves 🙂 if you google trust me I’m a doctor the big experiment

The big experiment: how can I get my body to burn more fat, without doing more exercise?

Our bodies use two main types of fuel: fat and carbohydrates – and most of us wish we could tell them to burn a bit more of our fat reserves!

Well, some new research suggests that there is a way, just by timing when we eat with when we exercise.

We heard of a laboratory test done by Dr Adam Collins of the University of Surrey which suggested that the amount of fat we burn changes based on whether we eat before or after exercise – and that this seemed to be different for men and women.

If he’s right, it might be possible to change our eating habits around exercise to increase the amount of fat our bodies are burning throughout the day – so we decided to do a big experiment to help find out.

Experiment 1: The laboratory test

Adam’s initial experiment had shown that for young men, eating carbohydrates (CHO) before exercise significantly decreased the amount of fat their bodies were burning for the 3 hours afterwards, whilst they were resting (n=10, p = 0.02, Wilcoxon matched pair tests, repeated measures 2-way ANOVA, multiple t-tests).

When he did a similar experiment with both men and women, he and his team found that whilst the men still burned less fat if they had eaten carbohydrates before exercising (n=7, p<0.05), the women burned MORE fat if they had eaten carbohydrates before exercising (n=8, p<0.05)

Total fat (g) oxidation between treatments, and genders (Exercise + Recovery)

We repeated this experiment on a single brother and sister pair, Jess & Josh, and got similar results.

* Significantly different between genders: p≤0.05;

† Significantly different between treatments: p≤0.05

Experiment 2: The Long Term Effect

In order to see whether this effect measured in the laboratory could actually be significant in the real world, we teamed up with Adam and his research group to recruit 30 volunteers to take part in a longer term experiment.

We took 13 men and 17 women who did not normally do a lot of exercise, and for 4 weeks they all took part in a 3 supervised classes a week: high intensity training, Zumba and spin classes. All of them had a drink both before and after each exercise class, but one of their drinks was a placebo (had no calories in it), whilst the other was a carefully calorie-controlled hit of carbohydrate. No one knew who was taking which drink when.
◾7 of the men were taking the carbohydrate drink before exercising, whilst 6 were taking it afterwards.
◾7 of the women were taking the carbohydrate drink before exercising, whilst 10 were taking it afterwards.

At the beginning and end of the experiment, we tested how much fat they were burning whilst at rest (as well as a range of other measures such as weight, waist circumference and blood sugar/fat levels).

Results

Whilst all the women ended up burning slightly more fat at the end of the experiment, those who were taking carbohydrates before their exercise were burning more.

Meanwhile, all the men were actually burning slightly less fat at the end of the experiment, but those who were taking carbohydrates after their exercise were better off.

We saw no significant differences in their weights or waist circumference, but their blood sugar levels changed in the same way as their fat burning.

How it works

Men and women burn fat and carbohydrate in different ways.

Men are very much ‘carbohydrate burners’ – if as a man you eat carbohydrate then your body is going to burn it rather than fat. Just giving the men carbohydrate at any time in our experiment made them burn a bit less fat! However, given that we all have to eat (and carbohydrate is an important part of our food), it is better for men to eat after exercising if they want to burn fat. This is because after exercise, men will use that carbohydrate to replace the carbohydrate in their muscles rather than burn it for fuel and will continue to burn fat instead.

For women, the results clearly show that eating before they exercise is better than eating after if they want to burn fat. Women’s bodies tend to burn fat more easily than men’s, and are not fuelled so much by carbohydrate. Moreover, women are much better at conserving carbohydrate during exercise. So when women eat carbohydrate soon after exercise, this is effectively overloading them with fuel, and interferes with the body’s ability to burn fat.

The amount of carbohydrate in our tests is probably the equivalent of a piece of toast, or a small bowl of cereal – and for men ‘not eating before exercise’ means about 90 minutes before exercise, and for women ‘not eating after exercise’ similarly means for about 90 minutes after.

Although our study was quite small, put together with the evidence from the laboratory experiments, it does seem worth us all making that simple adjustment to when we eat in order to maximise the amount of fat that our bodies burn throughout the day.

Related Links

◾ Dr Adam Collins’ website (www.surrey.ac.uk)
◾ Adam’s initial work on the subject (journals.cambridge.org)

Hi Lallya. Like you I’m 5ft 2ins, but type 2 diabetic. Just checked the conversion and when I started this 16 weeks ago I weighed 101.6 kg. Today I weigh 81.2 kg. The only exercise I get is walking as much of my work is either desk-bound or involves long bus or train rides. As Hashimoto says, it works. 😃

Hi Lostgirl, sounds like you are really cracking this!
How is the pepsi max problem going? 🙂

I have been using this recipe to make 20 brownies for 115 calories each. I use soaked raisins not dates and less honey than suggested here but that’s preference I suppose. I have baked them in a smaller roasting tin to give depth and 25-30 minutes cooking. I freeze mine and take one out just as I leave for work so it’s ready to go at lunch time. They’re not perfect but they do the trick when you need something sweet!

Ingredients
5 Eggs
100 grams Cocoa Powder
4 Tablespoons Melted Coconut Oil or Butter (60g)
1/8 teaspoon Salt
4-5 Tablespoons Honey
100 grams Raw Beetroot
15 Dates pitted (I used soaked raisins as didn’t have dates and they are Carb heavy. Used 240g)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200*C.
In a food processor blend the beetroot, dates/raisins and eggs for 1-2 minutes. Then add the other ingredients and blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a greased tray so it’s about an inch in thickness. (I used a half size baking tray which gave depth)
Bake for 20 minutes for gooey brownies or 25 minutes for firmer ones.
Allow to cool then cut into slices.
Makes 20, 115 calories each
Store in fridge or freezer.