>>Has anyone else considered this and have you thought of ways to deal with it?

Bill, I have long way to go before I get to my desired weight, but in a few weeks I will be switching to some variant of 5:2 (probably 3:4 – larger portions of low carbohydrate food at the weekend and a couple of glasses of wine and then Fast800 Monday to Thursday). I am hoping that if this is as successful as the past few weeks has been (obviously with proportionately less weight loss) then as I lose more weight I will reduce the number of fasting days. I assume that I will probably always fast at least one day per week.

Hi all, I’m getting intermittent headachey spells (middle of week 2) which mostly settle when I drink water. So hydration is clearly important. Most days I feel great overall (much better than preBSD) but I’ve had one day feeling crap (coincided with a stressful day at work) and some of the old food thoughts started to creep in. I drank water and got through it.

Hi cherrieanne a bit of stress waking me up at the mo – two nights on the trot! I have decided to just get up, make a cuppa, look at the forums and read for a while and when I’m tired go back to sleep! It’s worked quite well as I have ended up with the right amount of sleep. Thanks for your good wishes, I hadn’t thought about my early morning posts being spotted derrrr 🙂

Bill and hashimoto, I love that we can share experiences and thoughts in this way 🙂

The Grand Wardrobe Sort Out is something I’m sooooo looking forward to!
My clothes range over 5-6 sizes currently ;-(

Thank you Cherrianne. Some great advice. I’m amazed at how filling the meals are. After the first few days I thought I would be starving. However, I have been the exact opposite. Im actually FEELING hungry when I’m supposed too. Not grazing on rubbish all day and then eating huge carb meals and feeling awful.
I’m excited to see what my weeks results will be and hopefully my blip won’t be a huge downfall.

FoFI I think if you tried 2 glasses of wine on 800 calories you would be well and truly drunk – I have found that I get pretty tipsy on a small shot glass of wine now!!! Well, it saves money!! 🙂

Bill I actually find now that some nuts taste really sweet – I’m thinking of almonds and cashews. Do you find the same? I think I’ll google the nutritional value – I should have done it before

OK now I’m getting worried. Week 4 and this is the second week that I have not lost a single pound. Last week I had that extra lamb chop but not this week. I don’t have dairy so there isn’t anything sneaking in under the radar. I’m running more now. How can I not be losing weight?

Bill I totally agree with you, things like chocolate which I used to love so much make me gag at the sight of them now. Newlife I think you will find the same as Bill and I – you will just go off the old stuff. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you mentioned that diets such as WW and SW rely on a lot of sweet junk food. This doesn’t and your tastes will change given a bit more time.
I have said before that now I find the sugary smells in some shopping aisles quite nauseating – ME – a one time chocoholic!!! 🙂

I’m sure there are many like this. I get up early to go to work, so I prepare lunch the night before. I tend to have the medi platter – pepper, cucumber tomatoes, olives & feta with shop bought hummus. The Hummus says eat within 3 days once opened. so I tend to have the same thing 3 or 4 days in a row. I have to say it appears to be quite a large portion, but I do enjoy it. Is this a good thing or a bad thing to be repetitive. Breakfast and dinner are varied. I’m on my 5th week, up till last week I had lost 16lb, this week I put 2lb, a little bit disappointing

Hi Judith,
What were you doing up so early? That’s two posts I read from the early hours ( your time). I always look at the time of the posts cos I’m sometimes reading them in what is the middle of the night for you.
Hope you get a better sleep tonight. 🙂

Hi georgiarose, my blood pressure has always been on the low side throughout my life. I experienced what you are going through during the first month and then it sorted itself. In fact I had forgotten all about it until I just read your post!! So hang on in there! 🙂

Inserting is it not Bill 1954…

Different foods do affect us all so differently… I had eggs for dinner with cheese and went to bed on 7. Woke up with 8.9 but had some bad news about a friend in Oz in the middle of the night, SO…. is it diet, dawn Phenom or Stress??… probably all of the above. Haha we need a set of gauges on our body that we can reed, like a car dashboard…. sometimes I think it is like throwing chicken bones on the ground and trying to figure out the future…. But anyway. Lets keep at it and nutting it out when we can and hopefully helping one another too… Did you halve your Metformin yesterday??…
I am like you in that the weight just does not really matter… its the BSL that worries me…. coz if I blame the weight I have too many arguments in my head to defeat myself on weight loss….

Thank you Sunny B!
Once upon a time I would have scoffed the entire bag of Easter eggs. I managed to walk away today.
I’m glad I’m keeping in the carb range then. Onwards and downwards in weight that is.

I think that also there is something about none that is simple. If it is none versus some then why not 2 rather than 1? Strangely for me I have sat next to a half open box of cans for the last 7 days and for the last 3 or 4 days have had no trouble resisting. But I have decided none so I haven’t had one. My problem is that I am bored with water (3+ litres per day some of it fizzy) rather than having any real desire for the other stuff. Looking forward to the future with the odd tomato juice or miso soup – I would rather eat the calories at the moment rather than drink them!

This weekend I start drinking wine again (none since January). This I have missed and it will be interesting to see if I can keep it down to a couple of glasses per day (for 10 days back to Fast800 after that).

Hi buxtonmick, bill, newlife, Sharon

I agree that the future when target weight is reached is a scary thing, so much so that I was afraid that once I was eating more than 800 calories I would put the weight back on even if I followed the principles of this diet BUT….

I have quietly carried out a minor experiment over the last week to ease my mind…
I have increased my calories but stuck to the low carbs for a week now and I have not put weight back on, in fact, the ketosticks still show I am fat burning and I almost had an accident in town yesterday I was trying to keep my jeans up and carry my food shopping!! Surprisingly although my weight is apparently the same I have lost another inch of my waist! I have been eating roughly 1200 calories – pretty much the same as I was eating before this diet but was still putting weight on.

I now have the confidence to return to 800 calories to shift a bit more belly fat but am no longer worried about the future. A friend asked me yesterday if I would start eating carbs again when I reached my target weight – my answer? No, I haven’t felt this well in over a decade why would I wreck it? However I will treat myself to an odd roast potato and roast parsnip at Christmas, on other special occasions I might do the same and I will enjoy the odd glass of red wine. BUT I will effectively be following this way of eating for life.

I know that I run the risk of developing diabetes because I have hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. I do not want diabetes!!!! That is motivation enough for me and today I am going to sort out the clothes which are now too big for me and get rid of them – I have never had the confidence to do that before, hence clothes in every conceivable size packed away in my wardrobe!!!

Another incentive… I bought a new dress for my son’s graduation, it sort of fit OK but I didn’t look too good in it with all that belly fat. I have just tried it on again and I am over the moon, it looks so much better on me now!!!

Perhaps we should all keep one set of clothes which are too big as a reminder not to get back into that situation again!

To be honest I actually like the food on this diet – a besam flour flatbread with a nice jalfrezi really rocks my boat! 🙂

Hi Proodles,
Some people have chosen to go very low carb, around the 20g mark. There are nearly as many opinions about this as threads on the forums lol. Most aim for 50g a day or just under. This should give you a good variety of foods to choose from, and the chance to include full fat yoghurt and milk.
I have found by aiming for 15g carb per meal, with an extra 5 in reserve, I can keep a consistent blood sugar level in the non diabetic range. My fasting levels came down quickly to low 5’s, then under 5. A blip in fasting levels happened at the end of week 3 and lasted nearly 3 weeks but is now back down again. See the rising fasting blood sugar thread if you want to learn more.
Not a definitive answer, but hope it helps 🙂

Hi Proodles
Well done on defeating that blip with a nice long walk.
Carbs kept anywhere between 50g and 20g is good, so you’re doing fine. Keep up the good work and you should be telling us of good results soon.

Hi CurlyGirl,
I’m in Australia too. I bought my book from Big W. They had a few copies there. I think they were selling fast though. I had a woman ask me to point them out to her as i was walking to the registers.
Hope that helps… 🙂

Interesting
thinking more about it, I think that in the past, using the low fat approach, I’ve always retained the longing for food I couldn’t have, eg chocolate, chips, and my greatest downfall of all, milk !
I love the stuff and at one point in my life, when I drove a taxi for a living, it wouldn’t be unusual for me to come home at about 4 am and sit and drink a whole 2 litre bottle of the stuff.
The difference now is I don’t just not fancy these foods, I’m actually starting to dislike them when I see others enjoying them, including the milk!
I still don’t believe I can go to the fridge and not gulp the stuff down.
I’m hoping that having a low carb maintainence plan will keep me feeling that way.

Fasting level at 7.1 this morning 🙂
I have come to the conclusion though that mixed nuts are not the ideal late night snack for me.
I’ve monitored this for about 10 days now and I always have a higher fasting reading when I have nuts as a late night snack than I do when I have yoghurt or cheese.
I think I’ve learned more about my body in the last 8 weeks than I did in the rest of my life.

Well done Nic 🙂

Bill, as a yo-yo dieter in the past, I’ve been thinking a lot about the long-term…and I won’t say I’m not scared. I’ve been here before, lost 50lb only to regain it all. The reason why is always clear: I start to eat chocolate etc again, I kid myself that THIS time I can cope with it in moderation. I can’t.

So what’s going to be different? (nothing changes if nothing changes)

All my previous diets (WW et al) have still included sugar/refined carbs/junk. This one doesn’t and I’m hoping this will be enough to break the cycle, break the addiction. I plan to continue a low carb med-style eating plan for the rest of my life. For me, 40yrs experience tells me this is the only way I’ll succeed.

Easy.
And…hard. Temptation will always be there.

2 and 1/2 weeks and going well, except tonight blood pressure must be down. Slightly feint feeling and if raise head or get up suddenly, very dizzy. Didn’t even feel like eating tonite. Anyone else?

Thank you Everyone for all your warm wishes.
Today I had a blip and ate a tiny Easter Egg. I went on a 4km walk after that.
I do have a question for those further on in this new lifestyle.
How many Carbs do you average a day? I’m only asking because the last 4 days I’ve been averaging around 22g a day. Is this too much?
😁

Thanks Sharon for the welcome 🙂

Hi all,
I have lost weight only to put all back plus more so many times before on different diet. This one is more of a lifestyle change that is sustainable, I’m sure I will have blibs from time to time.
Like you said Bill this has to work for me, I want to be around for my grandchildren. I’m sure if our motivation does weaken we will only have to read some of the post on here and we will soon regain our mojo.

I love seeing happy people as their results start to show.
Well done FiFiP on recommending this to your brother, the more people who get ot know about this, in as many countries as possible, the better.
Imagine the attention this could get if there were petitions like judiths going to governments worldwide.

Hi Denise
you seem to have this all under control, good choices and a determination to succeed
Well done you.

Hi SOS
take a look at the rising blood sugar levels thread.
Quite a few of us have experienced this and it has been explained as stored sugar being released and nothing to worry about too much.
Levels seem to stabilise again within a fortnight.

I’m non diabetic, lost 12 lbs in 3 weeks and have found this new regime pretty easy to follow apart from the initial hiccups.

My concern is that my blood sugar fasting levels are rising from what was a very good level to a reading of 5.9 today. Still in normal range I know but not normal for me. I have read about the dawn effect which I get but googling this there is a lot of material about cortisol, the stress hormone, being pumped into the bloodstream when there isn’t enough glucose and long term this isn’t a good state for the body to be in. Does anyone else have experience of this, should I be concerned?

I only started taking BS readings in order to track progress on this diet, perhaps I shouldn’t have and remained in blissful ignorance.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Buxtonmick, what a great metaphor! Understanding the depth of lifestyle change needed as the price for success is not meant to put anyone off for a second, simply to make sure new travellers have read their diet ‘highway code’ to continue Mick’s metaphor 😀.

Must dash, this 53 year old has a morning jog to do.

I’ve thought about this a bit Mick
It’s all very well getting motivated while you are seeing great results weight and blood sugar wise but I wonder how people will cope once they hit their desired targets.
It’s easy to say that this will remain as our way of eating forever etc but I suspect there may be people who will struggle once that initial motivation is gone. We see and hear so many stories from folk who lost weight on other diets and then it came back once the diet had finished
I’m pretty sure that, if I feel I’m slipping, then recalling that image of a diabetic foot ulcer pre amputation will get me back on track.
Has anyone else considered this and have you thought of ways to deal with it.

Nic, my hat is well and truly off to you! One of the things that concerns me is that the more people are taking up the 800 or the BSD, it may start to look like an easy thing to do (like driving a car – when I was a driving instructor new pupils would get in the car and think they could just drive. Everyone does it so it must be simple, right?!).
Well the paths that we on the forums have chosen are a long way from the comfort zone, full of traps and pitfalls and call for determination, motivation and sometimes the support of the rest of the travellers here (which is in abundance!).

So to anyone considering attempting to embark on the journey back, be prepared for a tough hike some days – it is far from easy for a lot of people but think of the alternative…

And the view gets better every day. Some people can see their feet now!

Join us.

Thank you lovely folks! On phone so find it hard to type properly – give me a keyboard any day! Will post later on.

Hi Cherrianne. Thanks for the feedback. A little disappointing but it’s amazing what you learn just be asking. Appreciate the advice.

Fofi I think you are right about none is better than 1. If you buy a pack of cans to have one a day there is too much temptation to drink more in a weak moment 🙂

What a brilliant motivating idea julia18! 🙂

Well done lynne, very proactive of you. We should all take a leaf out of your book 🙂

Great results Nic, I agree that the fast results are motivating. Wonderful to drop down a category from obese to just overweight. You have achieved a lot in 5 weeks!

With regards to preparation, I think I was lucky there. I can’t tolerate gluten so hadn’t eaten bread or pasta for years so didn’t have to rethink lunches as I haven’t had a sandwich for years. It is just dawning on me how much easier this made it for me as packed lunches were already in line with this diet – though I did find it hard to ditch low fat yoghurts for the real stuff.

So a very big well done to all of you who have had to give up bread to do this diet as bread and cereals are the hardest part of the diet to drop and take the most rethinking about . 🙂

Hi janet and lynne, it must have gone very quickly because I saw your posts saying you had reported a spammer saying it would be dealt with tomorrow (now today) but there was no trace of it last night. So well done you two and well done the tech team 🙂

Hi BecLouLou,
Welcome to the forums.
Brown rice crackers are about 75% carbs, which is just over 2g carb for each tiny, thin little cracker. Given that you can easily eat 10 of them as a snack, they aren’t suitable for a low carb diet. The carbs in this form are much more easily digested than in whole brown rice so will affect blood sugars and fat burning.
Even whole brown rice should be taken in limited quantities, and not often, on the BSD.
Probably not what you wanted to hear, sorry. Just goes to show we have to be mindful of the so called healthy alternatives too.

Hi sabina, Michael mosley says the first 2 weeks are the hardest so hopefully you should find it easier soon 🙂

hey friends,
any idea of about how long the weak and feeble lasts? I am a massage therapist and work is physical, go to the gym 3x week as well. I hope I can cope on this plan. I tried Atkins years ago and found it too hard to work without the carbs! Any one have advise?
Sabina

Inquiring mind here. No bread, crackers etc but what are the thoughts on brown rice crackers? I know we can have brown rice. Are these a no-no as well?
Thanks.

Hi All,
We actually eat fairly well already. Butter not Marge. Olive oil for cooking & no pre-packaged salad dressings. I also frequently add pureed veg to thicken soups & casseroles instead of flour. We eat plenty of fruit, salads at least four times a week.
BUT. My husband is Italian and was brought up with the ”food=love” attitude. He expects bread, rice or pasta with every meal & feels neglected if he doesn’t get it. He is VERY active, being a bricklayer, but still has a “beer gut” despite the fact that we don’t drink alcohol at all.

All this means that even when I make a delicious healthy bolognaise with pureed lentils & carrot etc. it ends up being poured over an enormous plate of pasta! The kids have grown up with this (my youngest is 11) & now see it as normal, but they will adapt easier than he does. We have eight mouths to feed & have always bulked the meal out with carbs because they’re cheap. That will be my challenge.

However as I’ve just discovered, once you’re not in the blood sugar spiral you need so much less food overall that I believe it will balance out.

I’m serving up the cauliflower rice and replacing some of the pasta with spiralized zucchini. Smaller serves of potatoes have been easier, I’ve bulked up the other veg instead & nobody even noticed.

I think Bento Box lunches have solved the problem of sandwiches everyday for lunch. They actually prefer having a selection of fruit, veg, cheese, sliced meats (I’m doing an extra roast on Sundays & slicing it up for the week).
I have found one dessert alternative that so far everyone loves (we only have dessert about 3 times a week anyway).
I peel a couple of bananas and freeze them in a zip-lock bag where I also have frozen berries & any apples or pears that had started to look questionable in the fruit bowl. At dessert time I blend the bananas & whatever fruit I decide to use in a high speed blender with Greek style yogurt & just a drizzle of milk. You have to pulse it for a few minutes to get it smooth, but you end up with an almost ice-cream like substance. It has to be eaten straight away or the fruit starts to brown. BUT it’s delicious and there’s no added sugar. A little banana (two bananas between eight people) now & then can’t hurt & it really provides the creamy bulk the kids are looking for.

I haven’t discussed the changes with the kids although they know I am dieting, I’m just replacing things & so far there’ve been no objections (at least from the kids) . Hopefully it will just become a new kind of normal!

Found the mention- it was Curlygirl in the “I’m losing it” thread 🙂

The good news is that Xylitol and stevia aren’t artificial- Xlyltol from birch trees (and other sources) and stevia from a plant.
This link explains xylitol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol

Stevia seems to be more difficult to get in the UK, (the liquid one anyway) and the granulated version can often be bulked out with erythritol or even an artificial sweetener. Some people notice a bitter after taste with Stevia, but I’ve not noticed that, perhaps that’s just in drinks. Erythritol should also be fine, though I haven’t investigated that much, since I get on well with xylitol. It can cause some bowel “looseness” if you have a lot of it- perhaps a good thing on this diet!

Personally I don’t believe that salt levels are a problem as long as they are not eating a lot of processed food, which it doesn’t sounds will be the case with your children- so go for the marmite and nut butters!

WRT bread- I think wholemeal and wholegrain breads will be fine, the bread Michael refers to is likely to be the “brown” supermarket bread which is really white bread with colouring!

One post, not sure if it was on this thread or another, mentioned an 11 yr old who although eating healthy food wasn’t very active and wanted more food- from my own experience with one child doing exactly this, and my failure through ignorance to take action at the time so that he is now an overweight 29 yr old, I would really recommend doing what you can to get him moving more. I wish I had done that, and that I had been more proactive in limiting the unhealthy food. Copy of the book is on it’s way to him as we speak!

Thanks FoFi,
I will move this over to that thread.
Cheers

https://thebloodsugardiet.com/forums/topic/lower-sugar-foods-for-kids-uk/

I put the UK in the title as I can find several products I am looking for (via google) in the USA but not so far in the UK. Anyone is welcome.

I often look at Forums>>All recent topics, rather than confine myself to Fast800.

Our team are great aren’t are they? Gone already. Thanks team!