Just a note on the pencil sharpener ones, I bought one but hadn’t appreciated that my wrists just couldn’t work it….. they aren’t the strongest part of my body! I am in my late 50’s but gave up + bought one with a handle etc off Waitrose because at that time they were cheaper than Lakeland.

I just love it, works a treat + has 3 blades for different styles : )

Hi Meredex
Have you looked on groupon, £4.99 +£1.99 postage for a hand held spirilizer, I nearly bought one however decided to wait a bit.

And I signed the petition the day it went live, number 20!

Hi everyone, I’m another delurker, thought it was about time I introduced myself, wanted to ensure I could stick with it first. I’m in Cheshire, UK, female, 51 years young. Not diabetic as far as I know but certainly overweight , really need to lose a couple of stone. First week was great, lost 4.5lbs, not as good as most but I’m pleased, felt fabulous, bouncing off the walls with energy. I weighed myself every day and weight reduced a bit every day – was wonderful to see. End of second week final weigh in today and I’m disappointed as I’ve gained half a pound (mid week it was 2lbs gain). Defies all logic as I’ve eaten so much less than normal, been really careful, not touched a bad carb (only had a bit of swede and parsnip one day) drank loads of water. I use myfitnesspal and worked out my daily averages over the 2nd week – 810 cals and 35g carbs. I’m not letting it put me off though as I’ve seen it works wonderfully for all of you so just hoping to get results nearer week one’s again soon. Thanks for being here all of you, your posts are inspiring 🙂

Evening All, it’s my first post (taking the plunge). Day 3 for me. The fog has lifted at last, thanks to plenty of water. I have followed a low carb diet before (it rhymes with fatkins). This diet seems very similar. Is the aim of this diet to get into ketosis also? I can’t find a mention of it in the book? Thanks x

I fell off the wagon over Easter too. However, since Tuesday I have been back on fast 800. What amazed me was how awful I felt on Sunday/Monday after just a few days back in the bad old ways! Headachey, fuzzy headed and drowsy – these have cleared already after a few days’ worth of good eating. If nothing else it was a useful reminder of how rubbish I used to feel- not to mention a super incentive to carry on with the good stuff! Keep going, friends, it’s good news all the way!

If you can ignore the foul smell as you rinse them, these noodles can be great when you are hungry and don’t have many calories left. I really like courgette spaghetti but it doesn’t quite fill you like these noodles. They are high in fibre and water and not much else, hence the low calories. Best used with a strong sauce like the arrabbiata in the book or a stir fry they are nothing like pasta or noodles as Sunny B said.They can seem expensive but I always buy them when on offer.

Hi lucia it’s great to suddely have more trousers all of a sudden

Monty Don is on at the moment……he’s a bit of a dish when he’s working in the garden. I. Could do with him in mine to do the spring weeding for me!!!!!
🙂

Penny – I’ve been cleaning the cupboards for the utility room. I’m an avid Freegler, and found these last year to (nearly) match our wooden fronted kitchen cupboards. The utility room is through the breakfast room and not next to the kitchen, so they will look good enough, especially in a few months, when we are painting the whole lot to match. Anyway to return to the scrubbing – they had a pretty good layer of grease on tops and bottoms, and had been stored in our shed since November, so they were delightful! I must have used up quite a few calories though! Two left to do tomorrow.

Loving your money diet idea! I’ve been browsing spiralisers today, I just want a simple one like a pencil sharpener for courgettes but the one from Lakeland was out of stock. Will have to invest after your glowing recommendation x

Thanks for the info hashi – if I can find out any more I’ll post it. Might even try the “contact us” on the website it we don’t get very far on our own.

John

oh mand my fabulous news is.

I AM A SiZe. 12!!!!!!!!!

Just found out that the USA sizes are two down from ours.so in the uk I am a 16
In the USA I am a 12.
😏😏😏😏😏😏😏😏
Looked for an emoji with a smug look. These will have to do.

I am so happy…………

I could go to a size eight… Give Kate moss a run for her money.

Ha ha ha

Love Lucia xxx

Sorry, just sitting here thinking about captain jack sparrow and that cheeky smile.
I used to like Richard Gere before he went white haired, liked him in pretty woman, and in Chicago where he sang.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm one of those please
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Still feeling slimmer, but the heel came off my shoe at lunchtime when I tried to walk 2 miles in 25 mins and still have five mins to eat lunch.

More shoes to buy, rats ,!,!,

It’s sunny here, a lovely day today.
Bet it changes for the weekend.

Trousers that were tight, I have worn them to work. So I now have a pair of jeans and trousers.

Love Lucia xxx

Evening All, it’s my first post (taking the plunge). Day 3 for me. The fog has lifted at last, thanks to plenty of water. I have followed a low carb diet before (it rhymes with fatkins). This diet seems very similar. Is the aim of this diet to get into ketosis also? I can’t find a mention of it in the book? Thanks x

Hi sunnyb, I nearly bought those choco/chilli teabags today but as I had just picked up some liquorice and some rosehip teabags I thought I’d leave them for another day. I might get some now 🙂

Hi Missay
Thanks for the clarification- that really helps.
What have you been scrubbing?!!
Penny

Hi Molly, ketostix are indicator sticks, and yes, you test your urine, if you are fat burning the indicator will turn anywhere from rosy pink to purple. The colour chart is on the side of the tub. You can order them online or get them from a pharmacy 🙂

Hi stringbreaker, I’m not an expert on the 50g of carbs or under. I am going on what Cherrianne has said. She is a district nurse and diabetic so she has a much better understanding of it all than me. I have only just started googling carbs in various foods and it is quite surprising. Meat and fish have no carbs but quarter of a cucumber has 2.7g!! I’m starting to collate a fact sheet with the foods I eat most often. I’m sure some of the others will give you much more help on this than I can.
I know what you mean about preaching!!! A friend has just left with my BSD book as she and her daughter are interested.
Very good news for you at the hospital. My blood pressure dipped a lot for a while but now it has settled.
🙂

Definite vote for cauliflower mash. Here’s what I do:
1 kg of cauliflower boiled and mashed. Add butter to your taste (50-100g) and cheese (pecorino for me). Finish off with salt and white pepper.

I think I can survive on this alone forever 😛

Hi Penny,
Re the carbs/net carbs, if I remember correctly, from my brief voyage into Atkins territory a few years ago, in the UK the fibre is already shown separately – as on your label, so there is no deducting of fibre carbs to do. In USA, the fibre is included as part of the total carb count, so your label would show something like:

Total carbs: 3.8
Of which sugars: 0.4
Of which fibre: 0.9

On UK labelling, the deduction of the fibre carbs from the total carbs is already done for you, and shown separately. I do hope that makes sense, my brain is a bit addled – I have spent all day scrubbing! 😉

Hi Hashimoto,

A technical question on the carbohydrate ration – which I see has just come up on this thread.
I searched the book but could not find the figure, but you have helpfully come up with 50g. If that’s from the BSD book, I wonder if you could advise me the page number.

However, I imagine a simple figure isn’t the whole picture – I suppose it’s more acceptable to eat 50g of lentils, than of white rice, differing so greatly on the Glyceamic index.
Am I right in assuming that it’s really the Glycaemic Loading which is the critical figure?
It’s all on pp 88/90 but MM stops short of giving a daily loading as it’s all “a bit complicated”.

During the 8 weeks we kept it simple by using the dinner recipes from the book and ate obviously good choices for other meals. Now we’re branching out into other recipes it would be good to know how to calculate what is a sensible daily ration/loading.
Can you or anyone else help?

Incidentally, the “Carbs & Cals” App is quite useful – you can make up different ingredients into a meal and it totals up the carbs, cals, protein, fat etc.

And, Mollytopmarx, I share your current frustration with the scales. However, I know it’s really just a matter of time. Trouble is, we all like to set deadlines – I’m an inveterate graph man, I currently have about 5 graphs on the go for this (final?) spasm of weight loss. It takes me about 20mins to fill them all in when I lose a pound. 🙂

Final bit – went to the eye hospital today for my monthly test/jab and BP was reduced to 115/69 – they said that was “very good but I don’t want to go much lower”. Better see my quack. (Incidentally, isn’t it hard not to preach? – I must have told about 3 or 4 people about the BSD – all seemed very interested and wanted the name of the book.)

I tried the noodles ages ago, and they’re pretty rank IMHO! Slimy worms spring to mind!
Try Courgetti or cauliflower rice instead 🙂

TP

Have to confess to having a 40 cal options chocolate after my meal……….better than a Mars bars I guess!!!!

Hi hashimoto, again helping me out 🙂 I have to admit I don’t know what ketostix are. I guess it’s something you test your urine with(?) I am pretty low carb – perhaps too low, I have 1 1/2 ounces porridge for breakfast and one shake at tea time. Otherwise, I am pretty low carb – protein and salad or vegetables (not starchy veggies). I’m not getting enough fat for Atkins, I’m just sticking as well as I can to the 800 calories really. Ooops, just realised you mean my fat lol, what a nana!!!

Also, thank you for your support Bill, very ecouraging.

Molly

Sorry you had a bad time over Easter, but great that you are back on track. Don’t beat yourself up for the lost week, just concentrate on the way forward. Good luck at next weigh-in.

I’m tending to be around 900 on my best days, so I’m working on being more careful. I do have the occasional day under 800 but you two put me to shame!

csmcnevin, I think it all depends on motivation – I’m sure you can do it and not let the calorie creep get the better of you! All I can say is this “diet” (in inverted commas because I intend to follow a version of BSD for the rest of my life, maybe 5:2 when I am happy with my weight) has done something no other has ever done for me… allow me to stop gaining and start losing again before I regained all the weight I lost last year.

These products are made with konjac – a plant corm – sometimes called elephant yam. I have eaten them in the past (not on this diet) they are nothing like pasta/rice though, with a completely different feel and texture, but I don’t see why they would be a problem on this diet if you needed them. Think Janet1973 is right though, if you give it a bit longer, you will probably find the cravings die down and your tastes change completely.

If you take the eight weeks as a whole, you are bound to have days when you eat less than the 800cals and some when it is more, but over the eight week period, it will balance out. My advice is not to stress, you have been quite decently under on you cals so far, so for today, allow yourself a bit extra – even at 1050 it wouldn’t be a complete disaster. If you are hungry and you need the extra cals I would go for it – you have had an exceptional and stressful day so be kind to yourself.

I try to stick with the 800cals, but Monday it was 907, Tuesday 702, Wednesday 744 and it looks like today will top out at around 850 – if I add those up and then average it out over the four days it’s a fraction of a calorie over 800 per day.

Hi all, I’m only in the second week of the BSD, but my results are very good. I know this is probably due to increased exercise and some better food choices, because it’s a reflection of the past 3 months, but I’m doing the happy dance anyway!

HbA1c down from 53 to 46
Cholesterol down from 6.4 to 5.7
Weight/BMI the same (meaning I have lost the stone I’d gained over Christmas/January)!
Blood pressure NORMAL!! for the first time in about 15 years!

I’m very happy with those results and confessed to the DN that I have been using butter and good fats instead of the recommended low fat spread/low cal fat sprays, and started the fast 800 diet (my dr already knows). She is very happy too.

It’s a really good motivator for me to continue with the BSD – I have struggled today and lapsed a little bit but am right back on it now.

One of the great victories about this is that the BSD has allowed me to do something I’ve never done in my life before – arrest and reverse weight gain after previous weight loss, before I gained it all back and more. That might not sound like much but to me it’s like having climbed Everest.

Edit: I celebrated by going for a mile walk around a country park 🙂

🙂 happy me 🙂

It’s a great driving force isn’t it? I’m off at the end of next week, but we’ll be in our own apartment in Turkey, so will be trying to stick to the BSD as much as possible even while I’m away. There’s bound to be a few glasses of wine though!

Just thought I would post today’s menu:

B – yogurt, blueberries, za’atar and psyllium husk
L – Bresaola and hummus
Snack – a homemade sesame cracker
D – fried chicken (from the chip shop, so no crusty coating) and salad

Today for the first time, I had a craving for some chocolate – surprising as I have never eaten a lot of chocolate, just the very occasional cube of very dark choc (historically a bar could live in the fridge for several months before being finished). I almost went there, then remembered I have some Whittards chocolate chai in the cupboard, so made a pot of that instead, which damped down the cravings nicely. The chai is a loose infusion made up of cacao nibs and various spices – delicious!

Thanks Sunny! Good to know it gets a bit easier! 🙂 I’m determined to get there! I’ve a holiday in May i wanna be in good health / shape for!

TODAY!
B – Full fate greek yogurt (Fage), Pumkin Seed, Strawberries, Almond Milk (Sweetened) – 252kcal
L – Walnuts, Raseberries, Wensleydale With Cranberries – 174kcal
D – Chicken, Egg, Beetroot, Spinach Salad with OO – 353kcal

It won’t be long until 800cals is just the norm for you csmcnevin and the long term won’t be scary anymore. I have found on diets I have done before, I have to know exactly what I’m going to be eating and when, whereas with the BSD, I don’t really think about it much until I need something. I keep the fridge stocked and can throw something together when I need to eat. Having the disruption of exams can’t help, but stay with it and you will be seeing results in no time at all.

Hi Neohdiver
Thanks for the info. I’m in uk.
I’m still not totally clear though!
Looking at a label now, ( Waitrose) it says
Carbs 2.9
Of which sugars 0.4
Fibre 0.9
So how would you interpret that?!
Thanks
Penny

Amazing!! Smashing achievement! Congrats and pat yourself on the back for doing a great job!

Hey Gang!

Hope everyone is well! Quick question – my calories have been 764, 748, 787 ,779.

My schedule was funny today (up super early for a 6hr exam at 6am which started at 8am (and i wanted to eat before) had a scheduled 15min break at 10am (where i had a snack), and had a late lunch at 3pm means i am almost at my max calories (765). In the book on some days he goes up to 840 / 860 on occasion. Do people do this? Is it recommended? I’m sorry i know it might seem neurotic but i’m afraid 850 will become 950 will become 1050 etc!

Do people have a limit they set themselves? How strict are ye?

Well done lostgirl! Your first big milestone! As you know, we are all better off from having this forum to laugh and cry with, ask questions and share stuff that works. Keep going, your doc will have to admit its all to the good.

You have to wonder when they are everything-free, exactly what is in them and is it going to be good for you? I would recommend giving it a few more days, you will probably find your cravings will go away soon. You can also try things like spiralised courgette and carrots and cauliflower rice and mash. These are clearly more natural and more nutritious.

I think either Hashimoto or captainlynne use an alternative for pasta, they might be able to shed more light in that one.

Hi all.
Having started the Fast 800 plan, I’m only onto day 4 but still craving white carbs. Having researched this i found a brand in Holland & Barrett called ‘Eat Water’, and there are a variety of products (penne, fettuccine, rice, noodles). They claim that they are only 9cal a pack, are gluten free, fat free, sugar free, carb free and wheat free. Im amazed, has any one tried any of these products? And are they ok to have on this plan? Thanks Kate 🙂

9.5 g of carbs per 100 g for raw carrot so better than chocolate or crisps but not quite as good as veg like cauliflower or broccoli which about 7g. In the grand scheme of things, not a lot carbs unless you are aiming for under 20 g a day

After a bad time over easter got back on track
Learnt that trying to cope with emotional trauma via wine does not help
Anyway back to the weight at 24th March – lost a week but hey ho!

Thanks janet1973. Have ordered and will pass on ☺

Hi folks, thought raw carrots = good, cooked carrots converts the starch to sugar = bad?

I love a raw carrot , please tell me they are OK to gnaw on when I get a nibble-need !

Awh thanks for checking in guys!

Day four went well, day five is not bad either! I’m doing exams at the moment (which usually would involve some rewarding / indulging treats) but really trying hard to stick with it. “i need the sugar hit” to get me through the evening in the library just isnt cutting it anymore! I do find I really have to take it one day at a time, and be like ‘today i will only eat 800kcals’ cos if i think of the long term i get overwhelmed!

Thank you all. I am not looking to lose weight but to stay healthy and keep skinny on the inside 🙂

Fch53, very best of luck with your weight loss, it’s a fascinating journey we are all on and we are all learning new cooking techniques as well as food ideas. I got a spiralizer do-dad as well, & yes SaraB, it really is a revelation isn’t it!? Once I got the hang of it & recovered from piercing my finger (oops) it has made life a lot easier to see something that looks familiar on the plate taht’s tasty and won’t cause weight-gain!

You can still cook same food for family ie chili, spag Bol, stuffed peppers, but make the healthy BSD versions, & make sure your families have larger portions if necessary, including relevant carbs, it doesn’t feel so bad if you are eating nearly the same as them. I have my hubby on the BSD too, so it’s slightly easier

I also agree on the windy-bum front, incredible isn’t it…… carb-bum

; )

Hi Bill

I am new to the forum but I want to see, not just congratulations on what you have achieved, but to thank you for all your inspiring posts which have been quietly spurring me on for the last few weeks. I have lost nearly a stone and my target is to get my BMI under 30 and to come off my blood pressure medication. You make it all seem so achievable. Thank you.

Pam 1954

Great results steve and ei!

Hi Bill and Susan, I remember watching a ‘Trust me I’m a doctor’ program where sweeteners were tested, saccharin v stevia. The results were not at all what was expected. The saccharin style sweeteners did all kinds of awful things to blood test results. The stevia didn’t.
I’m not recommending Stevia, though, I got rid of my own tub. I don’t want any more sugar then necessary – i.e. from natural foods. 🙂