100g Greek yoghurt with 75g fresh raspberries – 150

Greek salad with 2 tbsp. olive oil and 25g feta cheese AND a small slice of home made rye bread!! – 400 (erring on the side of caution)

Using up some fish goujons from the freezer for dinner, with a green salad – 300

I tried a longer fast today so I didn’t have breakfast until 10am, last food was at around 6pm last night. I Didn’t feel crazily hungry either.

Another non scale victory today… the slice of rye bread was delicious with olive oil dripping from the salad piled on it – it was to die for but incredibly satisfying. Usually any kind of bread would have me spiralling out of control but I’m fine at the moment. In times past I would never have had just one slice with a meal.

Probably a bit too high in carbs today.

Susan quite a few of us have been through the same thing
It has been explained as due to stored sugar being released from the liver and typically sorts itself out in 2 to 3 weeks.
I woke up one morning to find my levels back to day 1 (9.8) Now it’s 6.6 so stick with it, it will all work out.

thanks for the encouragement – does help

Inka
just point the lads to these forums, if that doesn’t convince them, nothing will 😉

Aw bless ’em Inka!

Hi
most of us are trying to hit 50g or less per day as this should put your body into ketosis (fat burning mode)

Beverley cut out bread pasta rice potatoes and sugar. Use plenty of above the ground veggies but be more careful with the below the ground ones, and check the carb (and sugar, they get cute about that) contents on any pre packed food
Stick to that until the book arrives and you won’t go far wrong.
Remember to up your fat intake and drink the required amount of water (2 to 3 litres per day) and you will be fine.

Can any of the more experienced 800-ers advise on what their carb levels are? At the moment we are in our first week. We have had 2 good (under 800) days and one over. So we are reviewing and tweaking. Lesson 1, not oily fish and cheese on the same day! But it would be really helpful to know what target we are aiming for carb wise. Just to know whether we are getting the balance right.

Hi are there any Uk newbies who would like to sign our petition?

Sunnyb what a wonderful husband!

I have twice had food from the chippy – i only have the fish and scrape the batter off- next time he wants something from the chippy you might want to do the same ::

Thanks, hashimoto. I know about lactose etc, but I dont have the nerve to argue with my boys about everything I eat. I told them, to do want they thought is right for themselves, and leave me to do the same for myself. They have been on my back for ages to loose weight so, now I am doing something seeing it through for the first time, I asked them if they would me more convinced once I lost the weight and reached my goal? Maybe, they said, still very skeptical…. anyway, I think they will stop questioning me now. The younger one must have guessed that I was getting a bit P’d with them and he came and told me that they were just concerned that the total cals and carbohydrate intake would not be enough for me and that they were worried, and that, “at my age”, I needed to make sure that I had enough nutrients….. :-). Thanks son…. But god love them, anyway! They are such lovely boys… cant really hold a grudge or be angry with them for very long …:-)

I can’t wait until the book arrives as like Rosie I feel like I’m starting a little bit blind, not knowing enough about the diet, just what I heard on the interview with Michael Mosely and read on the website. I’ve not counted carbs before or given them much consideration. My husband and I began the diet 3 days ago but our first week is going to be our ‘prep’ week. I’m recording everything we eat on a blog and calculating both carbs and calories. So far the carbs are way above 50 and we’ve managed to eat under 1200 calories each day. We’ve been working towards changing our diet for years and I think that has helped enormously. We both realised late last year that we really need to kick our sugar habit. I was beginning to wonder if we needed to stop eating cheese too, but am feeling more optimistic about that now.

I’m glad I’ve joined this support forum – I’ve already picked up lots of helpful tips and love the encouragement from everyone.

I have told EVERYONE I know! My 90 year old dad thinks ‘it can’t do you any harm’. My son at first was worried about sudden weight loss but learned about it and is fine about it now. He has even mentioned it to other people. He was amazed about bill’s results – especially the improvement in his eyes. One or two people have asked me when I will stop as they think I’m looking quite thin. I must say people have been positive especially when they see the results 🙂

I’m a bit of a Zealot about the BSD 🙂

I’m not sure why my fasting blood sugar has gone up as I’m losing weight and on very few carbs. I think it’s a bit more complex and I’m hoping that when I have more good carbs it will be lower than when I started the eight weeks. The good news is I have lost 10% of my weight in 7 weeks. I do think that blood sugar levels are only just starting to be understood and I’m sure there will be a better understanding in the future. The research so far that I have read seems to defiantly points a finger at artificial sweetener as mucking up the bodies response. I stopped using sweetener at the start of the eight weeks.
Good Luck and keep going. I must say I feel much better for doing this diet.

Hi inka milk products contain lactose – a form of sugar, a bit like fructose in fruit. Plain full fat yoghurt will not have sugar added to it so keep on enjoying your healthy full fat yoghurt 🙂

Low fat yoghurt on the other hand is packed with sugar

I have just checked my FF fage yoghurt: 3.8g sugar per 100g

Diet coke: 10.6g per 100mls

Just check you are eating plain FF yoghurt (I recommend fage ) as you are describing a whole g more.

There is a big difference between naturally occurring sugar in milk and sweeteners in coke. Artificial sweeteners have a bad affect on your blood stats

Hope this helps 🙂

Thanks for the answers guys! I (nervously) hit 899 last night BUT got up this morning (day 6) and was down FIVE lbs! Delighted, very encouraged and feel like its all starting to make sense! Thanks for the support!

Hi Natalie,

I know exactly how you feel… something happens on day three! Being an emotional eater and having lost about 4 stone from my heaviest, i’ve had to conquer this (even before i started BSD). I find if i can just distract myself for a moment, or force myself to do one action i can get through cravings. For instance, I’ll literally throw something in the bin half eaten, or make myself get in the shower, or boil the kettle, leave the kitchen and come back and make a green tea, or send a text etc – anything you can do which halts the frantic need for something. It empowers you, and you feel in control. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.

Best of luck with it all, its all a learning curve!

Hi all, started back on bsd on Monday, fasting blood sugar up and down 7/7 yesterday and 8 this morning I’m not on medication as I’m hoping to get it back down to the 5 range after the 8 week plan, I couldn’t resist hopping on scale this morning and I’m down four pounds so very happy, should I worry about the rising fasting blood sugar. I love all the support on the posts, thank you.

Great attitude Anthony,
Once you get into the swing of things you’ll find there is no effort involved at all.
As your body gets rid of the carbs and starts on burning fat, you will feel and sleep better and the weight will start to melt away. Check it after 7 days, you may shock yourself.
Be sure to try to keep carb intake at 50 grams or less per day and keep the fat intake up. this will definitely help with any feelings of hunger.
Looking forward to your first week results

Penny
replied 🙂

Can I just say the chilli beef is to die for!!!

Today made my own breakfast

Debbie and Andrew sausage ( bad I had 2)
Scrambled egg
Mushrooms and tinned tomato

Not sure where I stand but yummy. I’m not bursting for being to full but comfortable

It was nice to have a breakfast like that.

I do miss the toast.. I have promised myself 2 stone goal is a slice of proper bread .. Toasted with butter.

Hi Bill
I’ve resent
Penny

Bill, all the positives keep rolling in for you!!
I had a similar experience last night when a friend dropped in ( she hadn’t seen me for a fortnight) she said I was unrecognisable and looked like I had knocked 10 years off my age 🙂 She has borrowed my book for her and her daughter to look at 🙂

Hi Steve
That is such a disgraceful attitude.
That doctor is paid a fortune to come out with that sort of Rubbish.
Be assured you are not alone- we are all here to support you. Good luck on Monday.
Penny

That’s great Bill1954, nice that your OH made this comment and a big success for you. …. Wow, 2 new holes in your belt? Holes are a couple of cm apart right? Thats so great…. I have a favourite jeans jacket, I still sometimes wear, but I cant button it closed, so I leave it open. The two sides were at least 10cm apart ( I really shouldnt have worn it then) but when I put it on the other day just to see if there is some difference, I was pleasantly surprised that the buttons on one side and the holes on the other are coming together :-). Still cant do them up, but at least the two sides of the jacket nearly meet each other now. Sometimes this type of measuring, and not always the scales, can be just as effective a tool to monitor my progress. If you lost this much, you must have had to buy new clothes…. this alone would be nice and a further signal, that you can leave your old fat person world behind. My hat off to you :-))!

Steve take a look at my results in the over the 800 line thread.
That’s what a GP should be acting like, TBH yours is a disgrace. Next time you see him just ask him how much his practise would save if all the T2D patients could reverse the disease.
The best way to shut him up is to do the full 8 weeks and then go back with your weight and sugar results. I found that handing over a copy of the notes printed from this site and handed over at the start of the conversation helped.

There is also a useful app for those who have an iPhone or iPad. It is called the Australian Easy Diet Diary. It is free, and will track your daily intake, your weight loss,it also has a list of foods and their nutritional info. You can scan barcodes or enter your own foods and store the info. Type in recipes and it will work out cals/ carbs etc per serve.
The icon looks like a blue spiral bound notebook with a picture of a pear on it.

I dont know if male skin differs any in elasticity to female skin, but I can say that after losing 5 inches and counting from my waist measurement (had to make 2 new holes in my belt this week) I dont notice any more flabby skin than normal.
Had a top moment last night, walked into the OH’s bedroom (we have to have separate rooms for medical reasons ) without a Tshirt on.
She took one look and said “by I knew you were losing weight but your stomach has almost gone”
Just a small comment but a huge reward for me 🙂

You are right Hashimoto, your wise comment brings things into perspective again.
I still have a fair way to go and being healthier and being able to DO things again, not feeling frumpy and to some degree “handicapped” anymore because I cant move properly, being able to buy clothes which dont resemble tents ( I get really angry about the price they are charging for tent-clothes – not talent or work involved to sew down a couple of straight lines) should be all I should concentrate on. Thanks again.

Hi Ros,
The app is a great tool. You can also enter the ingredients of a recipe and how many serves it makes. The app will tell you how many carbs, cals etc is in each serve. The icon looks like a blue spiral bound notebook with a pear on it.
Somebody told me that Big W had copies of the book but I had already ordered mine online by then. This was a couple of months ago so not sure if they’d still be there.

Steve T I’m sorry you had such a discouraging reaction from your GP. You will show him the error of his way when he sees you in 3 months time. You will be slimmer, healthier and hopefully reducing your metformin by then. Look at Bill1954 ! That is all the. Inspiration you need to begin this journey. The forums are full of helpful friendly people who will support you and just shout if you want any advice, there is always someone somewhere in the world who is awake and ready to help.

I cant help noticing it is april fools day. I think your GP is the April Fool lol

Welcome to the forums 🙂

Thanks, Neohdiver, interesting read.
My two sons and my husband know, I have not told me daughter yet. She lives in a different city to us, but I will be visiting her in a few weeks. I dont want to spoil the ” wow, mum, how did you do that?” kind of expression. Well, hopefully it will be that way. Have until mid-May and if things keep progressing the way they are at the moment, I should be able to get rid of a few more pounds.
My sons, they are both uni students, were horrified when I told them what I was doing,. They noticed that I had stopped eating “Mum’s favourites” and then the younger one saw that I was watching a YouTube presentation by MM and “That Sugar Film”. They tried to dismantle the arguments about why this diet might work demanding to know on what peer reviewed scientific study the basis of this diet relied on….. They now look at labels, at least they look now,. Standing in front of the open fridge door, with my plain pot set greek yoghurt in one hand and a can of coke In the other, they tried to tell me that both products had the same amount of sugar in it…. and one of them said: ” How do you think they get the milk to ferment to get the joghurt? They need sugar for that!” I gave up at that point, but must say, I snug back later to check myself: The joghurt has 4.8g per serving (100g) and the coke has 9g per serving size (also 100g). The joghurt is lower, but I must say, I was surprised. I had expected the joghurt to be much much lower….. So maybe, next time I eat the joghurt, maybe I should 1/2 my portion. This experience made me a bit sceptical about some of the low carb recipes and I will pay greater attention to the sugar content of the ingredients, which until now, I did not really scrutinize, because they long have been perceived as low or even no sugar anyway….
Natalie, my OH, is somewhat indifferent and has a similar attitude to yours.
He no longer believes me, too many Monday Starts! I told one friend and she is supportive. She is doing the 5:2 and is doing quite well on it. She cant handle cutting out the carbs. So we have a bit of a friendly competition between us and often compare notes to see what works best for each of us. When I reach my goal, and knowing both diets quite well, I might do a mix of both of them, so I can sometimes “have my cake and it it all”. 🙂

Hi
how long have you been on the diet ?
It’s usually within the first week that you get the sugar cravings.
They can be offset (believe it or not) by eating a small piece of cheese, a few almonds or walnuts, or my personal favourite, I have a couple of packs of frozen berries in the freezer so I just throw a few in the microwave for a couple of minutes to mak a sort of khuli and have them with some Greek yoghurt.

Hi
the long fast isn’t an intentional thing, it’s just that the only time I ever eat breakfast is while on holiday.
My normal day is lunch at about 12:30, dinner at around 7, and if I decide to have a snack that would be at around 9:30.
Others have noted that an extended overnight fast does help so why not give it a go ?

Thanks everyone! When you visualise it in packs of lard/sugar whatever, it is a lot.

Well done too to Bill.

I had a real urge for something sweet yesterday evening. This was extra to my planned eating as I don’t often want anything sweeter than fruit. I did Google for sweet options that would fit in, but without finding anything I fancied. I finally settled on 1 square of 70% dark chocolate and that did seem to do the trick. Thinking about it now I could have tried adding a sweetner to my final cup of coffee. But has anyone got a better option?

I’m starting my 8 week diet on Monday. I went to see my GP today – I was slightly nervous about the reception I would get but hoped that I would get some support. I was right to be nervous. All I received was a homily about “we doctors” not being in favour of faddy crash dieting, especially when people taking them up expected “us hard-working GPs” to monitor their progress and health weekly. I’m feeling too disappointed to recount the last part of the conversation.

I told him that I was going to do it anyway for me as I wanted to take responsibility for my health rather than relying on pills. I could see that I wasn’t going to get any help or even moral support so am going to go it alone. And that includes making sensible decisions about tapering down Metformin from my current 4x50g tabs a day and closely monitoring what happens. He said he’ll see me again in about 3 months if I’ve managed to lose any weight. That was encouraging – I wonder why he became a doctor?

Fch I do hope you will like the yoghurt – did you get the Fage brand? I haven’t found another brand that tastes anything like it. I second what hashimoto says, it’s really filling and I don’t feel at all deprived when I have it for breakfast (I have it with fresh raspberries, which I probably will have to switch to frozen berries soon for budgetary reasons!!)

Nice to know the mini ice age I experienced yesterday wasn’t just me or a cold coming on. I had to resort to an extra layer, two blankets and a hot water bottle. Oh and I had a pot of tea plus a couple of my pints of water were swopped to hot water instead of cold. My late afternoon chicken broth was welcomed too. It lasted a couple of hours. I did warm up after that. Nice to know if exercise makes a difference because I cancelled my walk because of the cold. What was amazing though after 1 day plus 2 meals on the diet, I lost a whole half lb at my weekly weigh in, after a terrible Easter weekend including a takeaway, a biscuit binge, a toast supper and loads of chocolate and marzipan. All foods I wouldn’t normally have. Do others find that cutting carbs works so quickly?

Hi everyone
Today was my second weekly weigh-in and I’m now finding myself getting more and more interested in the debate between using only shakes or eating real food.
In the first week I had 3 shakes per day plus the 200 calorie top up of good, fibrous veg. Using these particular shakes I was having around 63 g of carbs per day plus whatever was in the veg. In my first week I lost 2kg and 1 1/2 inches off my waist. As I only need to lose 10 kg I was really pleased with this, though more importantly I needed to lose around 7 inches off my waist (I’m a real apple shape!)
The second week included Easter which gave me more time to go for long walks and to introduce real food into my diet. In this second week I have lost 1kg and 1/2 and inch off my waist. Not nearly as exciting although I do realise that water could have accounted for a lot of my weight loss in the first week.
So on the face of it, the shakes win, however as you always lose more in the first week I intend going back to the shake only regime for this next week which should provide a more reliable comparison.
It’s all going the right way but what really counts is the blood sugar levels and I haven’t checked those yet. As a pre-diabetic trying to head things off at the pass, I was keen to monitor this, but my doctor did not approve of my going on this diet (gave all the reasons that Michael Mosley said she would) and told me that there was absolutely no point checking my blood sugar as this would not tell me anything. And so I need to wait until November for my annual check-up unless I invest in a blood sugar monitor myself.
Have other pre-diabetics found this useful?
Until next week folks with the update on the meals versus shakes experiment.
Hargsi

You’re right grumptoglam – and I have missed the window of opportunity for some practically new stored clothes. They were just too big for me! 🙂

That’s really interesting, Cherrianne. Smoke smells can wake me up in the night as well.

I didn’t see the Madame Flavour tea when I scoured the shelves of the Health Food shop. They had a variety of liquorice teas but didn’t fancy the additional spices some had in them. The one I got is Clipper organic liquorice. A friend came over last night and she always asks to have a spoon of honey added to her herbal tea ( she thinks it isn’t a sugar) but she found the liquorice tea sweet enough! 🙂

Cherianne, thanks and a big well done to your mum too!

Karra, thank you – so many people are saying “if I can do it so can you…” now I’m starting to believe them!

Bill, I feel very different already, I’m “walking taller” as someone else on the forum said (sorry can’t remember who!) and although I’m having lapses that other people are managing to avoid, I am doing well enough to be making a difference, and it’s such a good thing that my 3-month check up came now, as it’s a great push to keep going.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the encouragement, kindness and support. What a lovely bunch you all are!

Bill, there was something on sky news this morning about a 13-hour fast being a way to combat breast cancer and other ailments. They didn’t mention diabetes, but I think you were saying that you do a long fast? I am going to try to increase my fasting time now too.

Inka – one question. Do you want to be healthy and have a longer life or to be a slightly prettier corpse?

Don’t worry about your skin – it won’t be on show to the whole world! If you think about it, people with big belly’s, as they get older, end up with it sagging whether they stay the same weight or slim down. Nothing you can do about it.

I’m 63 and I have got to say that my belly was beginning to sag a bit anyway – even in the mirror it looks a lot better than it used to – and clothes look much better on me now that I don’t look 5 months pregnant!!!

Just enjoy the fact that you are a new and healthier you! 🙂

Bill, amazing!! I bet you still look twice at those readings!! You should happy dance all day 🙂

Spirit – 1 stone 6lbs!!! That is a lot of weight! 42 half pound packs of lard to be precise! Bet you couldn’t even lift that amount!! Like stringbreaker said – you still have some time to lose more! 🙂

Fch I think you will love the full fat yoghurt, it’s creamy but not sweet, and very filling! I like a few seed and milled flax on mine along with a few berries! 🙂

Porridge, Greek yogurt, rhubarb
Soup
Mackerel salad.

Gram flour scones, yogurt, rhubarb
Chicken salad
Pulled pork, no sauce, green salad, avocado

Too true hashimoto! I am fitting in clothes I’ve kept for aaages hoping to fit in them one day…. Just never thought I’d be wearing them all at once! 😃
Can’t wait for summer now. Hoping to loose another stone by then. Normally I’m hiding in the shade covered up because I don’t want my arms/legs on show and I get too hot too quickly… Recently been told by doc that I’m vit D deficient which isn’t surprising! This summer however, I’ll be soaking up the Rays and hopefully ditch the thermal vest! 😅

2st 9 is amazing btw! That’s got to be numerous clothes sizes down and a whole lot of energy up!

Hi Sue, 5 bags of sugar is a very sizeable chunk to lose – and you have done it with so much going on in your life.:)