Just to give a little hope to fellow hypo dieters..I am on 150 levothyroxin and starting week 5 tomorrow and so far have lost 21 pounds. small fanfare as I blow my own trumpet !! Seriously though..it is working and I have never lost weight this quickly since my diagnosis. Prior to that i could lose weight at a reasoable pace with diet and exercise but after hypo diagnosis it has been sooooo hard to lose and taken soooo long. Frankly I could kiss Dr M I am o grateful ! Good luck all !

Thanks so much JoJo99-I’ll be really interested to know how you go and what recipes you find useful.
Good luck with your journey too!!

Hi Mandy
Sorry to hear you’re ill.
Get well soon. Looks like you’ve got the hang of the fats!
Penny

Hi Sunny b and sue
Michael suggested increasing walking by 500 steps a day til you reach 10,000 steps. To my corner shop and back its 1300- so 500 isn’t much! Worth a try.

Penny

Hi Silver
It does seem that normally weight loss slows in week 2 compared to week 1.
Best of luck
Penny

B Yogurt with blueberries
L Half an avo mashed with 1tbs Philadelphia cheese in lettuce cups
D roast chicken, cauliflower, broccoli
Snacks a little bit of white Stilton cheese, a handful of nuts and a glass of wine.
Checked on Easy Diet Diary, just over at 890. Will ease up in the week, no wine no nuts.

Hi flump
What a wonderful ambition!
Good luck with the diet
Penny

Hi Lilly, I’m starting today too. Also in Australia and saw the SBS programme two weeks ago. Ordered the book online straight after the programme, and have finished reading this morning. Tried two recipes over the weekend, they were fantastic, and already started feeling “cleaner” and my ankles are reappearing. Good luck with your journey.

Hi Carommartin
Take heart from Hashimoto, who is hypo and has lost 2 stone.
We ve all struggled with letting ourselves eat fat even tho we can all see where low fat has got us!
If you cut down on carbs, there is only protein and fat you can increase. increasing protein has various problems associated with it, including bad breath! And the fact you can store it as fat. But once you’re in fat burning mode ( ketosis) the fat you eat will stop you being hungry, and on 800 cals you ll be burning fat, rather than burning the carbs you eat which is what we normally do.
Eventually we seem to be able to accept that fat is good, not evil as we ve been told. And it’s sugar spikes caused by carbs that has made us all overweight.
Good luck
Penny

Hi Janet
As I have dairy intolerance, my partner also uses soya milk. It doesn’t seem to have made any difference. Still takes the same amount if thyroxin.
I think the juries out.
Penny

When my head gets a bit foggy and I find it hard to concentrate, I know it means I haven’t had enough carbs (the brain needs sugars to function and focus), so I have something slow release like an apple, or dried apricots and I find I feel better. It happened more to me in the first couple of weeks, but seems to have dissipated now.

Today:
Breakfast- 100 g Provamel almond yogurt, 20 g strawberries, 40 g raspberries, 10 g flax seed, 30 ml Almond milk
Lunch- home made veg soup with one teaspoon peanut butter added – 10 g
Boiled egg,salad leaves, 4 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 tsp French dressing
Home made yogurt 80 g with 20 g strawberries and 5 g hazelnuts
Dinner- slow cooker Mediterranean veg with 60 g chicken thigh.
100 g Provamel almond yogurt with 45 g Sharon fruit and 5 g almonds.
Snack. 1 tsp peanut butter.
Only 3,700 steps but 4 hours digging the allotment !
Well under my max target of 50 g carbs, only 30 g. 729 cals.

Great advice!! Thanks so much

Oh yeah, portion sizes are important. Mine were already reasonable, so my weight loss is genuinely down to the low carbs. One tip – use psychology to your advantage. Using smaller plates and bowls makes you think you’ve eaten more, because it makes your food look bigger. I have a dinner plate from the 70s that I love because it’s a size midway between a side plate and a modern dinner plate (dinner plates are soooooo much bigger than they used to be!). I use that silly plate all the time. I generally put my morning omelette and accompaniments on a side plate, and if I have yoghurt and blueberries in the morning I use one of my toddler son’s plastic bowls!

Hi Mateika- welcome!
You ll find so much from reading these forums.
A good place to look up calories is Calorieking.com.
A lot of us track them on MyFitnessPal app. Re the sausages. You really need to know how much carbs are in them. Maybe your butcher could tell you what’s in them?
A lot of us try to keep under 50 grams of carbs a day, some even less.
Good luck with the diet!
Penny

Thanks so much Celsa. Good to hear!
I think part of my problem has been portion sizes rather than a sweet tooth. I don’t buy sweet fizzy drinks or biscuits and we don’t eat takeaway or junk food, in fact our diet is relatively healthy. I do think it’s the “bad” carbs like bread and potatoes and portion sizes that have been my downfall.
Here’s hoping there’ll be a new, healthier me by the end of May

You’ll do great! Really, this way of eating keeps you feeling full, so you don’t feel like heading back to the fridge/cupboard all the time. And once you lose your sweet tooth after a week or two it gets even easier to avoid the old “treats”.
I am a few cms taller than you, and back in October last year I was 76kgs. By the time I started the diet at the end of January I was 71.5. So, I didn’t even do the 800 cal version, I just started eating a low carb med-style diet, and in six weeks I’m down to 65kgs! So even the slow way is faster than any way I’ve ever lost weight before. And I never feel deprived or hungry. Good luck!

I’m a newbie here and am starting the BSD 8×800 today. I watched Michael Mosley on TV (in Australia) a couple of weeks ago and ordered the books the following day. I read the Blood Sugar Diet yesterday and decided that today was as good a day as any to begin this journey to better health.
I don’t have type 2 diabetes but at 155cm tall and over 80kgs I think I can safely say I am overweight and am in need of a better way of eating. I exercise, for fitness not for weight loss, but still don’t feel quite right so today’s the day!

So, I would appreciate any help/advice/tips to help me stick to this and return to the “old me”

Congrats Denise, great results, especially with shifts involved….week 2, watch out! 😀😀

Hi Cherrianne,

Thanks so much for this, some great ideas, will marinate overnight as you suggest…also your mushroom tofu pie sounds really interesting, look forward to the recipe…..by the way, cooking for 7 must be a challenge every day?!

Thanks again, much appreciated 😀😀👍

ive been on this program for 7 weeks now and have experienced rapid weight loss lightheadedness weakness secret carb desires but above everything a desire to keep going and get back to the person i used to be.
i do a 30 min cycle hiit first thing and a weight training session in the early evening
at first i couldnt do anything much but by week 3 i became used to the new life
2stone and 4lb lighter sleep better feel better
i have now taken to walking up and down thw stairs 30 times hopefully getting up to 100 times in preparation for the fell walking in the Lakes.
can anyone advise me if my plan is a good one
8 weeks 800cals 2 weeks off and repeated another 3 times in order to get to 14 stone from 21 st by christmas or are there health issues

Hi Winstin

I just saw your post and thought you might be interested in a post I have just shared in the thread ‘Rising blood sugar levels.’

Sounds like you are in exactly the same boat as us.

Hi all.

I decided to read that article that Squidgy posted again and been having a think. Funny how you understand things so much more after a second reading. I think we all might be interpreting this blood sugar spike completely wrong I.e. It might be something we should be celebrating rather than getting us down. I’ll explain.

The article describes our liver as being like a balloon which gets filled up with stored sugar from the food we eat which the liver then releases at a time of fast right? In non diabetics this doesn’t cause a problem as the insulin produced can balance the levels out but with diabetics this means our levels go way high. BUT I reckon this could be happening for one of two reasons – or both.

Firstly, we’re not consuming sugars etc so the rise can only be coming out of our liver. Being as we are diabetic possibly for a very long time there must be a hell of a lot of sugar built up in there and there is only one place it can deposit it now it’s decided it’s happy to get rid of it – into our blood. And our blood is the only place we can measure any blood sugar levels in our body. Is possible that after five or so weeks (that seems to be the common pattern with us all) our livers have actually started working properly again because it’s lots all that fat which was inhibiting it before and it’s doing what it’s supposed to do but perhaps somewhat over enthusiastically because there is just so much sugar in there that has built up over time. If you’ve been diabetic for a number of years just imagine how much sugar has been pushed into that liver in that time.

Secondly, maybe it’s doing what it’s supposed to but the reason the blood sugar levels are so high is because we’re still waiting for the pancreas to do a bit of catching up or possibly it is working okay but a bit temporarily overwhelmed by the amount of sugar being pushed out because the liver has now decided to dump all this excess sugar into our blood to get rid of it.

These are just my thoughts and I’d love to hear what you all think. I’d really love to hear from someone that has had this spike and come out the other side. If there us anyone at that stage please come and say hello!

Hi Woofmum. I have just completed the first week and have lost 5lbs. I have read the book from cover to cover twice and am no following the weekly plans in the book. I’m lucky, no headaches, no cravings, and I haven’t been hungry either.
Hope your books arrive early tomorrow, then you can get reading! Good luck 👍😀

5lbs lost in my first week! Thrilled to bits with that. Week one is done and dusted so week 2, I’m coming for ya!

Hi another week on and I did lose about 5.5 lbs this week (scales not very accurate and my eyes sight struggles to see to my feet) and lost an inch off the waist so must be doing something right. Went down with a stinking cold and chest infection which I now think was the reason I was so tired. I always fry some of the vegetables in oil and I’ve been drizzling oil onto salad so fingers crossed I now have the hang of it

Hi Woofmum,
I’ve just finished my first 24 hours on the BSD…and I survived 🙂 Blood sugar dropped from 7 to 5.9 which is very motivating. I spent a few days planning before starting and made yesterday a day where I didn’t have to do anything too strenuous as I wasn’t sure how my body would react to the reduced calories. I’m very excited to see what the rest of the week has in store for me & look forward to hearing how you go – we can do this!!

Many thanks everyone. Yes its about motivation but I am feeling good and so that will carry me though 🙂 I hope!

Hi everyone, been offline for a while as had an op and been feeling rough! But now feeling much better and ready to go again. I haven’t been on the diet for a week but also haven’t been reaching for the biscuits or choc like I once would have! Am pleased my weight has stayed the same so from today am back on the plan. I did try to post at the end but it wouldn’t let me for some reason. Everyone sounds like they are doing brill and Bill you really are an inspiration and you haven’t given up despite the high readings which is brilliant 🤓. I would love to be able to know how long it takes to get all the stores out of my liver and pancreas and I guess the 8 weeks is a guide for all of us to strive for.
I love anchovies and have found one recipe in the book with them has anyone got any other good ideas I could try?

Hoping this posts ok 👍

Hi Purple – glad to help. Hope you get it sorted.

Hi captainlynne
Yes I am, will discuss with my doctor. Thanks for that

Hi Purple

Are you taking blood pressure medication? Mine needed reducing as my BP dropped as I started to lose weight and it made me feel lightheaded until dose was reduced. Just a thought.

Hi Silver, me too, first week I lost 7lbs, this week not lost anything ☹️
However my morning blood sugars have been between 4 – 5 mmol… So that & the fact I feel so well is keeping me going. Hopefully it will start moving again soon!

Good Luck !!!

Hi Silver

This would appear to be a common event in week 2 / 3 and is something I have had to contend with too! From reading other posts on these forums and indeed posted about being frustrated by the lack of progress and received responses, the general consensus seems to be plateaus have to be expected from time to time and as long as you stay focus and continue to stick with the diet the weight will eventually start to drop again – see the thread on Starting Week 3 After a Tough Week 2.

It will come right, just stay positive and focused – good luck.

Hi Winston,
It happened to me too, around week 5. A bit disconcerting after my levels dropped to the non diabetic range in the first couple of weeks of starting the diet.
Read the post titled: rising fasting blood sugars. You’ll see Bill posted advice from the team re this, and some posts from a few others who’ve experienced the same thing.
Hang in there, apparently it should improve within a couple of weeks.

Hi Col,
I’m guessing you used the soft tofu in your smoothie? You can also whizz the soft one into most dips and soups where you want a creamy consistency.
The firm tofu is best marinated for a few hours or overnight if you are using it in a stir fry as it takes on the flavour better that way. Try lime juice, ginger, soy sauce and some fresh coriander for a Thai style dish. You could use fish sauce instead of the soy if you aren’t vegetarian. In Aus you can buy it already marinated, maybe you can where you live?
The firm tofu is good in curries and stews. Add it at the stage where you are sautéing the veg with the spices, before you add water or stock. Then it will take up the flavour of the veg and spice, it’s pretty bland without it.
I also make a mushroom and tofu pie with a creamy sauce. Used to do it with pastry but now do it as a kind of pot pie with a mashed cauli on top. I’ll post the recipe as soon as I get round to working out ingredients for two serves, ( I normally cook for 7 of us) and take some photos.
Can you get tofu pillows? They are a puffed up version which are great in Asian soups like laksa, or with a handful of thinly sliced snow peas, mushrooms, capsicum, spinach and bean sprouts and hot miso poured over the top. Great ‘instant’ soup without the artificial additives of bought ones.
Hope this has given you a few ideas. 🙂

Couscous is coarsely ground wheat (also called semolina) – and you can get ordinary couscous (like white bread or white flour) or wholemeal couscous, which is not quite as readily available. However both versions couldn’t be classed as particularly good if you’re trying to avoid carb. White couscous has about 23g of carbohydrates per 100g and not much fibre. I experimented with cauliflower “rice” a few days ago and that’s certainly a good substitute for couscous – especially with strong-tasting things like smoked haddock or veg curries.

Great post thanks

My weight loss has been slower week 2 -anyone else?

Nothing more frustrating than 1-2 weeks of no weight loss, yet you are sticking to the 800cal’s!!!

I use an app. and count the cal’s but luckily it also counts the carbs/fat and protein as well. After 2 weeks of no weight loss I decided action was needed – far too depressing to keep going without results being rewarded. When I analysed the food I had been eating I realised the carb’s had creeped up in relation to protein and fat – so although yes I was OK on cal’s, where the calories were coming from was becoming more carb orientated. i don’t mean bread and cake and pasta etc, i mean carrots, kumara, pumpkin, beetroot & fruit. Lot’s of recipes from the book – like beetroot and carrot salad, a favourite of mine, were seemingly curbing my weight loss.

So I reined in the carb’s – only allowing one plum per day, going back to eating mainly green veggie’s and lot’s of raw salads with protein. I have a little carrot or beetroot for colour and taste, but it is a sprinkling, not the whole salad. The scales have started to reward me again :).

So my advice is don’t give up, try the following:

Firstly – are you using an app to count the calories? Highly recommend you do. Use one to count not only calories but your carbs, protein and fat as well. Using an app and adding EVERYTHING you drink and eat means you can’t fool yourself. Then you know you are around 800. Even cucumber has calories! I weighed everything in the last 3 days, even lettuce and cucumber!

Secondly – have a look at where the 800 calories are coming from! Maybe you store carbs as fat as well as I do! I now aim to keep my carb’s below 30g each day – the nearer to 20g the better for me. Creep up to 50g and I don’t lose any weight. I weigh myself nearly every day so I can really see what is happening.

Anyone else got out of a plateau? – any tips for someone struggling?

Oh yes veg mash – didn’t think of that. I just had the beetroot falafels with a bunch of steamed broccoli and basil – and the dollop of yogurt. But mash is now in my sights… thanks Janet

now i am confused….can anyone help please…..low carb med diet says wholegrains are allowed….but couscous and quinoa are wholegrains but NOT allowed????

Hi gillmap

I think even staying in hotels, it is possible to make menu selections which will fit the diet as far as the low carb aspect goes – portion size might be more difficult though and is a pit-fall to watch out for. It’s important to start to get a handle on what 100g of meat looks like for instance. I now keep my food scales permanently on my worktop and weigh everything when I am at home. Doing this is giving me a realistic idea of what a correct portion looks like and has given me more confidence when eating away from home.

Captainlynne is right about keeping a good stock of appropriate foods at home, so that you have things that don’t necessarily need much preparation, for those times you don’t feel like cooking. Make extra portions of things when you do cook and freeze in portions, ready to zap in the microwave – I did this with a lentil dish and a moussaka. It means you have something filling for those times when you don’t have the energy to be creating something from scratch.

Good luck with your journey. Be sure to make the most of the forums for support and to post your progress.

Hi Hetty – it’s worth pointing out that lots of us on the BSD diet experience plateaus during the process, where the scales resolutely refuse to budge, even though we are religiously sticking to the letter of the diet. I have has experience of this myself during weeks 2 and 3. Elsewhere on the forums, the conventional wisdom is this is absolutely normal and that if you just stick with the regime, the weight will start to fall again. Of course, it is worth reviewing what you are actually eating, but if tweaking this doesn’t work immediately, don’t be disheartened, if you are sticking with low-carb 800 cals a day, the weight loss will eventually start again.

Well done on progress to date and all achieved under particularly difficult circumstances as well. Stay focused and make the most of the forums – there’s lots of support and encouragement out there. It’s certainly helped me.

Hi Janet 1973 I am doing the diet that was in the daily mail its gives you all the meals for the for weeks re-doing them for the next for weeks, I have had no carbs at all for the five weeks that I have been on the diet, the only thing I have had that is not on the diet is a sugarless tea morning and last thing, ( still don’t like it but it’s warm!) also have to take certain medication. On the subject of thyroid I have had it tested a couple of times and the only thing the doctors have said is that it’s just ok! Whatever that means, my mum had thyroid problems, so I feel I need to keep an eye on it, especially as the doctor is a bit cagey? about my thyroid, one doctor two years ago said it was on the cusp? As you can imagine I am a bit suspicious about the results.
I do seem to have trouble losing weight, before this diet, I hardly ate any pasta, rice, potatoes or bread, however give me a cake or chocolate and I was sunk, even though we tried to restrict them to weekends, so I am my own worst enemy, on the plus side most of the meals are really tasty even hubby and daughter enjoy them, (they are also losing a bit of weight) thanks for the advise etc much appreciated

I have looked but I haven’t really found anything perfect and I have no idea what they taste like. Most seem low in fat and so I was hoping for some feedback on whether or not people felt full.

I bought a couple from holland and barrett and I might try a few from exante.

Ate out both Friday night and Saturday night, but kept calories during both days very low, to allow for extra calories in the evenings. So net result was, having totted up calories consumed each day as best as I could, there was an over indulgence of 200 calories over the 1600 cals for the two days – i.e. had consumed 1800 (well just a smidge under, but I’m rounding up). Have to say I am reasonably happy with this, but the scales will give me their verdict tomorrow (didn’t brave them this morning!).

Biggest sin was two churros, which I feel really guilty about because essentially they are all carb, plus two small glasses of red wine and a whisky. Just hoping I’m not going to be too heavily punished when I weigh myself.

Back to it properly today, bacon, fried egg and canned toms this morning and nothing until dinner tonight, which will be a pork steak and veggies. Although I have to say right now, I’m not hungry at all!

Finally, I too am using psyllium husk and it really helps to boost fibre and improve bowel issues on this diet. Be sure to drink plenty of water with it though.

Hi Sue1234

Like you I’m more sedentary than I should be and for me, motivating myself to take serious exercise is really tough. So my attitude is that making more of an effort to be mobile and active – even in minor ways – has to be a plus. Since starting the diet, I have made a point of being active in some minor ways everyday – a short walk, standing whilst sending emails, walking up and down stairs at home a few extra times etc. And actually, since starting the diet I have felt more vital and more like I need to be moving about.

Hi Christi

Just wanted to pick up on your comment that you are always cold and hungry. Have you had your thyroid tested? One of the symptoms is being cold all the time, as is difficulty in losing weight. Are you sticking to the low carb element of the plan? I ask because hunger is something that typically dissipates a lot on this diet due to the restriction of carbs. Are there any foods you could be eating that you don’t realise have more carbs than you thought? Also, maybe after five weeks of having virtually no sugar you might find your taste buds have realigned and you could face a hot drink of some kind without sugar?

Another way to look at this kind of diet (when you have finished the 8 weeks) is to count the carbs rather than the calories. By doing this, you can eat more of the things that don’t have carbs in them such as meat, fish, eggs, oils. A website I found that offers this kind of plan for people with diabetes is called diet doctor and the principles are the same as for the 800 diet.

Hi Col,
Thanks for the motivation.
So you are into week two. Do you have any tips to help me and everyone reading?

I am trying to eat normal plain food. Such as chicken and veg. It’s what I am used to ( but a lot smaller portions).
I will keep doing this until I get bored, then I will try the recipes here on the website.
I am trying to move about more.
And I am trying to stay away from the food and quantities that made me into a blob.

Just watching the start of the sunset out of the living room window. ( what, not glued to the TV? Another change for the best 📺)

Keep going!

Love Lucia xxxx