Hi Lucia. I am really not an expert and only in second week. Someone who loves her food and have managed to loose 3kilos so far in 8 days. Most days I go over my allowance, but I exercise and walk a lot. Just wondering if you are having enough fat! Only questioning it as your lunch and evening meal seem to be just veg and salad and meat, where is the fat. Are you recording what you are eating, it’s such an eye opener! Some fruits and veg are very high in carbs. I have under 40 carbs a day and usually this means sugars are very low too, under 20. I have always had a sweet tooth and struggle with not eating daily chocolate, this week better than last and now have berries with sprinkling of seeds, for fat or nuts, all weighed and that seems to work, I noticed a lot of natural yoghurts still have a lot of carbs, I have found a sheep milk yoghurt, so much lower in carbs, but fats and protein higher. You have done a great job, I have read your blog up until now, amazing steps. Just think what you are now putting into your body, great stuff. Keep going but check your labels and record your meals, maybe too low in calories! That won’t help, how many calories do you have a day? Probably a blip, but keep positive, get moving and check what you are eating. Don’t give up if I can do it so can you! 😀

Hi guys
Happy to say that my readings seem to be stabilising now.
Last few days fasting has been 6.9 to 7.1, pre meal 4.6 to 5.2 and around 6 an hour after food.
Just got my HbA1c results back from the blood test taken 4 weeks into the diet.
HbA1c 46mmol/mom down from 51
Cholesterol 4.3 down from 4.9
Weight 95kg down from 105
Kidneys 0.6gmol down from 1.7
eGFR up from 78.2 to 83.1 (higher is better)
So all in all a pretty pleasing set of results and all the motivation I need going forward.

Get your backside out of the sulking chair miss!
All that’s happening is your body hasn’t reacted as quickly than most to the low carbon assault that you’re putting it through.
You know you’re doing things right, keep glugging the water and weigh again in 3 days.
I have a feeling that you will be one of those that, when the weight loss hits, it will hit hard and fast.
People have reported losing 5 lb in a day, you may well be one of those.

Today my resting reading was way down. Surprised I did not keel over. It’s just all over the place, will track for another week or so and see if things settle down.

Hi lucia you are doing brilliantly, don’t despair, we women can have strange increases in weight at times :(. You will probably find you are minus a few pounds in a day or two 🙂

If you would like to walk a dog you could try http://www.borrow my doggy.Com. we have found some lovely walkers for our pooch. The dog owner pays the site and you are matched with dogs in your area.

Hi, so into the bathroom I went, no it’s okay to read on, nothing unpleasant , except for me.
Have I lost four or five stone since Saturday? Nope, I have put 1/4 on !!!!!???!!! 😮
Now I can do two things.
A. Stuff my face with chocolate, to comfort myself with the shame of it all. All that effort OMG.
B. It is only a tiny amount, but look back at my blogs , I have self taught some huge lessons.
So, I went into the kitchen ( after getting washed and dressed – no streaking here) and had an apple with one large tablespoon blob of full fat Greek yoghurt.
I have just finished lunch, pork and salad. Two slices of lean roast pork, 75 Grams, one celery stick, one spring onion, and three big leaves of iceberg lettuce.
Tonight it will be chicken or fish with sprouts and broccoli.
I am happy that , this is all I want to eat. I am not starving, and this is big lesson in itself. I am saving £5 each week doing this myself ( not going to ww or sw. )
I am not perfect, I did mutter a few naughty words, but I am not typing them here, that was to my scales.
So onwards and upwards as they say.
How did you get over your bad times? Were you able to cope, or did you do more damage?
Don’t get me wrong, if a large bar of fruit and nut had of walked into the bathroom at that point, maybe the outcome would be different. But all that stuff is two miles away from my home, at the supermarket.
Stay positive, stay together, and we will all get through this.
Love Lucia xxx
Just going for a sulk now …..

Hi SOS

Fatsecret does have a facility to record and track progress, but you have to become a member to use that facility. It is free of charge, but it’s one more site sending emails etc. As you say, there is variation of info from site to site and this one is no exception. Think it is best to find a calorie/carb calculator you feel comfortable using and stick to it as you have. At least that way, the values are consistent.

Hi penny, I want to wish you a lovely trip to India. I haven’t been on the forums for a few days courtesy of a nasty viral infection so don’t know what the troll attacks were but want you to know you are a very valued member of these forums and your contributions are much appreciated x:)
Judith

I want to wish all the new BSDers a hearty welcome, I’ve been ‘off the radar’ for a few days and will need some time to catch up with you all 🙂

Bill, I’m so very, very sorry to hear the bad news about your daughter. As a mother I can only imagine what you and your wife are going through and my thoughts, love and prayers are with you all. As cherrieanne has said you have inspired a lot of love and friendship around the world in a short time as well as inspiring us all to reach our personal goals. X

Hi Lachlan
I can understand that this is quite distressing for you. I’d be pretty upset with a reading like that too.
How long are you fasting for overnight, and what are your blood sugar levels doing during the day? It might be an idea to continue to skip the fasting tests but test two hours after a meal. Choose a different meal time each day to test after. This will give you a better idea of how your body is dealing with the food you are eating.
I think if these levels are reasonable, then continue to believe in the theory you posted above and just wait out this period of change. If they are also outrageous then you would need further advice from your GP. Just a random thought, as I have no clue about your age, but given that you are newly diagnosed could it be possible that you are a later onset type one and not type two? No need to disclose personal info, but if all your blood sugar levels are raised despite sticking to low carb. and you are in the 30-50 age group it might be worth checking.
Do the random tests over the next few days and see how you go, it might help you get to the bottom of this.

A bit glum at the moment about morning/fasting BG levels. Interesting to read others experiences in this thread.
When I (Steve) started the diet my morning BG dropped to 3.9, in the first week, from my old usual 6 – 6.5, which did surprise me a lot. Settled at about 4.5 after a couple of weeks, which I counted a success at the time.
Now Ei is not diabetic, according to the doc, just wants to lose weight, and hers were anywhere between 5.0 – 5.7. So the “normal” one had a higher/fasting BG than the diabetic!
Then in week 7, suddenly, I get 6.0 one morning. I had tried to re-introduced a bit of wine to my diet, and it had slipped over the “small glass with dinner” threshold sometimes. Was this the reason? Unfortunately, diet-wise, we have been on holiday for week 8, but stayed on track with food. Kept wine to just one glass a day. Came back to a 6.7 reading!
After 8 weeks diet I am now as thin as a racing snake, but with morning/fasting BG levels similar to before I started.
Lost my way a bit.

What puzzles me about the recipes in the book is that many of them are not particularly low calorie. It says earlier in the book that the calorie count is per portion I believe. Turkey burgers are 460 even before you put anything with them!

The scales say 1lb less to day, but I’m not cheering yet – let’s see what the result is at the end of this week. Hopefully it’s going to continue to drop and I can report a couple of pounds loss for this week, but we’ll wait and see. Not counting chicken yet. Thanks for the advice and support though Janet1973.

Hi Catgirl

I’ve been using the forum since starting the BSD and have found it invaluable – especially when things get tough and you need a little support. There’s lots of useful tips and info on here, so make good use of the threads and if in doubt ask the question, someone will respond.

Welcome to the BSD losers! Good luck to you both.

It is tough eating out while you are on the 8wk diet. I had two dinners out last w/e. I managed to save most of my calorie allowance during the day, for the dinner in the evening, limited myself to one small glass of red per meal (and a whisky one evening when I got home) also chose things not being served with heaps of carbs. I did my best to work out the calories each day and I know I was over, but not too seriously – approx 200clas over the two days. Anyway, net result was no weight lose …. but no gain either.

If you make your menu choices carefully and try to off set a bit by saving calories before each event, I’m sure your weight will not suffer too badly from the dinners out. Good luck with it, I’m sure you can make it work.

Really like the idea of drawing cups/glasses to cross off through the day, pmshrink – excellent idea! This would certainly help me to make sure my fluids are up, as it’s easy to forget if you’ve had three or four cups. Shall definitely be adopting this method – thanks!

Weighing in after finishing week 2. Not as good as week 1, but that was my own fault for not counting the milk for my coffee and the extra bites of this and that when I felt hungry. I pulled myself up, began counting everything and I’m back losing again. So it’s a total of 2.8 over the two weeks, but would have been more if I’d been more careful.
Unfortunately I have three birthday dinners in three weeks coming up, plus a family lunch at Easter. And I have no will power usually when I’m eating out. I won’t make rash promises to stick to the 800 calories on those days, but I’ll certainly be very choosy over my decisions. I’m very confident that at the worst, they will only slow my weight loss down, not cause me gain.

Hi BeckyCrew

Yes, I too experienced a plateau in week two, only dropping a pound towards the end of that week. Then in week three nothing lost at all. It is demoralising when the scales don’t shift. Using other threads on the forum though, it seems this is normal and people experience these plateaus at various points in the 8wks, but particularly in weeks 2 & 3. The collective wisdom is to keep going, as at 800cals a day you can’t fail to lose weight at some point.

I am just starting in on week four and because of the poor results in the last couple of week (lost 6lb in week one) I am this week, checking my carb intake as well as calories, to make sure I am genuinely getting my 800 for low carb foods.

Don’t waste time beating yourself up for the piece of cake and don’t be discouraged by the poor showing on the scales, it will happen as long as you stay determined and focused on making this change work for you. Make the most of these forums when you are wavering, as there is loads of advice and support here.

Good luck on more success this week.

Hi Sue
If you don’t like walking without a purpose, what about downloading some podcasts of radio programmes and listening to something while walking? You can tell yourself you are educating yourself/being entertained while walking! My form of exercise is jogging, I still haven’t learned to like any form of exercise – although I love the feeling afterwards!) but get through it by fixing the headphones to the ears and off I go… and I’m finished almost before I realise how far I’ve been.

Hi BeckyCrew,

I had the same issue, lost 7lbs in the first week & nothing in the second week. Now into week 3 & I have lost another 2 lbs. On the other hand my blood sugars have been brilliant & I have so much energy.

Also there is a weight plateau thread which has people saying similar things. So please don’t be demotivated & keep going!!!

Good Luck !!!

Hi, I now also keep my milk measured out in a separate container. I did really well in the first week, but over the next few days I put back 300 grams. I realised that I wasn’t counting the milk at all, telling myself it was only a splash two or three times a day. Yes, 1/4 of a cup splashes when I measured it. Also the odd extra bite of this and that, saying it wasn’t much, would hardly count. Now I’m back to losing again and am just starting my third week 2.6 kilos down from when I began.

Hi Lynnie62

Well done on progress so far. Blips in weeks two and three seem to be normal – certainly that is what is being reported on other threads and has also been my personal experience. It might be worth just checking that you are keeping the carbs low, in case there is anything you are consuming that it unexpectedly higher than you might realise. It’s possible to make a porridge from any grain, so if you really miss it, why not try making one from quinoa and topping with a few fresh raspberries? The texture would be quite different, but it might work to damp down the cravings. I’m just starting week 4 and really am not missing the sweet stuff at all, so your cravings will almost certainly lessen with time, so don’t despair. You’ll get there, as long as you stick with it … good luck.

Just checked my blood levels his morning and it was a whopping 11.5! Very disappointed and finding it hard to stay positive bearing in mind I’m now into week 7 but … I’ve not been taking the readings over the last week in order to not get too stressed out about it but I think the anticipation after such a long time is having the reverse effect and making me more stressed out. Any encouragement gratefully received!

Hi Lynnie62. Read the forums on rising blood sugar levels – stored sugar seems to rise at different points in the diet for different folk. I would keep at it and up the exercise to kickstart the weight loss. Or try mindfulness techniques – you might have seen on these forums folk reporting just how much stress levels can cause big rises and halt weight loss.

But good on you – you have still lost 10lbs and that is not to be sniffed at!

Hi All,

I started the diet a week a go and have found it really easy to stick to. I lost 6lb in the first week, which is amazing and this has encouraged me to keep it up.

However, over the last couple of days I haven’t lost anymore – in fact, I have gained a little. I’m not sure why as I’m still doing the diet and apart from a piece of cake at the weekend have been staying away from the naughties!

Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t want it to carry on as I know how easily I lose motivation 🙁

Thanks!

Hi Mick,
I agree with so much of what you are saying. There is a misconception that type 2’s somehow are responsible for developing the disease. Yet most of us are far from fat and lazy, but poor dietary advice coupled with insulin certainly does nothing to help weight loss.
You are absolutely right that the focus is on treating the symptoms ( reducing high blood sugars) rather than dealing with the cause. We are doing this ourselves though, quite successfully on this way of eating. The more vocal we get to our GP’s and diabetes nurses etc. the quicker the info will get out there.

Hey Gabby67

Welcome to the forums – you’ll find lots of help and support here, so make the most of them. Yes do make use of the recipes on the website. As long as you are sticking to the 800cals a day, you can use any recipe you like – needs to be low carb as well of course.

If you are feeling lethargic, be kind to yourself and don’t push the exercise for a couple of days while your body is adjusting to the new way of eating. Lots of people report lingtheadedness, headaches and lethargy during the first few days, so this is all normal. It won’t take long for you to adjust to the new regime and you will soon find you have the energy for exercising again.

Keep posting and checking the forums for info, someone will be able to offer help. Good luck, you’ll soon be seeing results.

Hi all, I’ve just started week 3, week 1 I lost 8lbs, and my blood sugar went from 5.8 to 5.7, week 2 however was only a 2lb loss but my bsl had gone up to 6.6😳 which was a shock. For the 2 weeks I’ve felt really hungry all the time but realised (with help from this site) I wasn’t drinking nearly enough. After the initial emotional feelings (upset etc) of my week 2 results and the fact my husband has had 8lbs then 5lbs weight loss (and I’ve got so much more to lose than him, he is doing it to support me) I have realised that this really is a life change for continued good health, I just need help with management of the odd cravings like porridge with fruit, fizzy orange squash being my main 2😊

Hi Sue1234

Sounds like you are forging ahead and making progress. Why not try a generous sprinkle of cinnamon on your porridge, rather than sweeter? It’s gives flavour and an illusion of sweetness without any calories. I’m finding myself looking to my herb and spice draw more and more on the diet, to give various dishes a lift or tweak to alter them slightly.

Hi I am on my second day and feeling very light headed and really tired and lacking energy to go for my walks.
do you have to keep to the diet in the book ? Can I use receipts own this web site ?

Great start Toofastblack! Amazing how quickly you get used to resisting carbs. Pretty soon the craving for them disappears altogether.
Messyhen don’t be nervous, be excited to meet the new you and your new energy filled life 🙂
We are all in this together so there’s lots of support and encouragement here.
Aussielou, lots of us on here now so if you need any advice about low carb foods in Australia or whatever just ask. All the best.

Hi CaptainLynne
The easy diet diary is Australian. Not sure if you can get it in the UK

Everything crossed for you Sunnyb. Carb counting worked for me.
Penny

Hi Chrissie
Re coffee etc-
I put my milk for the day in a separate container so I can monitor the amount (200 ml of soya milk ) and I also draw 5 glasses of water and 5 cups of tea in my notebook which I cross off through the day. This adds up to 2.8 litres.
Best of luck. A few tweaks and you ll be ok!
Penny
PS have a look at Jenny Ruhls book ‘low carb problems solved’ (£3 on kindle) which deals with just about everything.

Yes I’m the same with a lot of veg too! However this diet has worked wonders for my digestion! Let’s just say that with eating rubbish plus taking Metformin I was visiting the loo about 6 times per day with diarrhoea – this was normal for me over the course of the last 5 years. Now I’m “going” once a day. Metformin is well known for this side effect and with the previous rubbish diet I had no chance really!!

Hi Chrissie
I had an extremely slow loss until I started monitoring my carbs on MyFitnessPal. You have to pay to do this £7.99 a month but worth it. You also have to put all the foods you eat in ‘my foods’ with all the cals, carbs, fats and protein, which you can get off Calorieking.com, which I ve found reliable. ( if you use the lists already on MFP there’s no guarantee they’re accurate as they’re put on by the public) this is a fair amount of work at first but once you ve done it you ve got it, and it will give you a pie chart of your Macros every day.
Hope this helps
Penny

I’m also feeling light headed today after being fine since day 1 (day 9 today). Blood sugars are normal (I.e Have dropped from the 11s to the 5/6s). I’m also on a small dose tab for BP. Hopefully this will pass.

Bill – just wanted to add my voice to the rest of those on the forum, wishing your daughter, you and all your family, strength as you face this daunting period. Sincerely hope that the MRI results bring some more positive news for a brighter outcome. Will be sending healing to you all. SunnyB

Hi
I have also noticed that my BP has reduced, so will my medication, i also do not have the energy as before the diet, i am at week 2, and have lost 9lbs, my energy levels have dropped considerably, I usually swim 40 lengths twice a week, this week I could only manage 15 lengths.
But i will persist, good luck with your diet
Ally

Hello everyone.
I bought a cheap pedometer that clips on, years ago, but I keep forgetting to use it.

In a better mood today. Day 24 weight 10st 7lbs (-9lbs) over 4 bags of sugar
Blood sugar: 11.4

Decided to eat food today, rather than shakes. Had porridge oats for breakfast made with water and salt – a bit tasteless I might put a little bit of artificial sweetener on it next time. Having hummus with veg for lunch and peppers stuffed with vegetable curry for tea.

Yesterday I drank more sugar free pop instead of tea and coffee. I buy the two litre value bottles for 17p and refill 1/2 litre bottles in the fridge so I’ve always got some handy. I spent the afternoon baking coconut flour cheese scones and the bolognase sauce from the 8 week book – because I knew it was meant for 4 servings it helped with portion size, I put 3 portions in the freezer and had thr remaining one with courgetti.
Going to be doing more steps chopping veg today so hoping for a good result tomorrow.

Hope everyone is losing weight and staying strong, I feel much better now the sun is shining and the days are getting longer and warmer. 🌞

I’ve lost between 15%-20% (34 pounds, so 8.8 pounds to 20%) since starting on 19th December. Still another 55 pounds to go, to get me where medics say I should be), so I’m sticking with 800 calories for now.

Hi Bill1954

I’ve been absent from the forums as I’ve been studying what diet to go forward with when I complete 8 weeks

Please look at this web site. : ketogenic-diet-resource.com. click on keto medicine

This may be helpful for your daughter, if necessary . Ask the medics to explain how & why it may help & to consider it if it’s required

With every good wish to all your family
Eureka

Hi Susansilver

I’m at the beginning of week 3 and after a dodgy start I felt great but last couple of days have been feeling off again, lightheaded and foggy and tired. I am sticking to the regime so I think it must be another blip to endure and get over. These are huge and serious changes we are asking our bodies to make so I think it’s unrealistic to expect no side effects. Stick with it, I am sure in a week or 2 we’ll be glowing with health and bon homie. As Celsa says, it could be that we need a few more carbs than we’re currently getting. I think it’s also a case of experimenting a little to see what works for us as individuals. Good luck – to us all xx

Hi Nev

I get something similar if I eat too much veg. I googled it and found it’s quite common.

Just a thought.

Perfect, thanks for your replies. I am aiming for 20% and it would be amazing if I could get close to this in 8 weeks. Hope your journeys are going well.

Hi everyone. Great results from you 😃

I agree that this is for life.

Georgiarose, is Easy Diet Diary for UK or USA? Lots of the apps I’ve seen have more US foods than UK.

🙂

Orchid, your post appeared seconds after I posted 😃