Liver freezes well both raw and cooked – I freeze in portions and it’s lovely cold with salad

Hi Ju
Coyo coconut yogurt is lovely, and Tesco sells it. A bit expensive, but a real treat.

Hi Floraellen,
My Mum turned 75 this week and has been doing the BSD with me. This weekend will start our fourth week on the diet.
She only had a few kg to lose but was quite concerned about finding it harder lately to get her fasting BGL’s under control. She has had some cardiac problems and is on statins. She loves the food and the feeling of being in control now.
Her GP this week told her that she was her star patient and was very interested in the BSD. The GP couldn’t believe the results that Mum had achieved in such a short time. Her BP was down to 120/60 and fasting blood sugars consistently in the 4’s and low 5’s. She has promised to read the book and has sent Mum for another lot of fasting bloods. We are hoping that her cholesterol will be down too and that she will be allowed to cease or reduce some medications.
So the short answer is that at 68 you are definitely not too old!! Go for it.

5.5lbs is a great start Jennie, really well done. I agree about the 800 cals, I also manage around 850ish a day. I did really well on my training day, I only had my own food and I really enjoyed it. I had no hunger pangs or lethargy and wasn’t even tempted by the chocolate chip cookies and flapjacks which were all massive. My weight has been a little up and down this week but I think I understand why so I’m not concerned. I’m at 5.5lbs in 14 days which I’m chuffed about. If I was still on weight watchers, where I routinely only lost a pound or even a half pound a week, I could expect to lose that in 37 days – that’s if I could keep the will to live!

I can’t tell you how much I love love love cauliflower mash!

How are you doing Auntylil?

Hi Salky. Don’t see any reason why not as long as the calories fit into 800. Partial to liver myself 😃 Need to visit a proper butcher to buy some – can only get huge amounts in supermarket!

Oh and the thought of a Mars Bat actually makes me feel a bit sick 😳
How amazing is that.
As you (I think)said somewhere else, I wish this had been around twenty years ago!!

Thanks Bill.
You’re a star. 😊

Hi Ella

Thanks for your advice. I did notice some lovely looking coconut yoghurt online this week, not found a stockist near me just yet, but I’m certainly going to continue to investigate. Unfortunately I’m not great with gram flour either;/ but I’m sure with more research I can find a way to make it work for me.

Great to hear that you have had good results already in less than a week, very encouraging!

Best Wishes

Jules

Ok I’ve stuck a tenner in, don’t spend it all on Mars bars 😀

Hello Ju,

I just found your question. I posted something about dairy. Although I am not allergic, I am pretty sensitive to dairy and I was told by a couple of fellow dieters that soy products as an alternative are fine (I have not tried to soy cheese yet but, somehow, matured cheeses like cheddar seem fine); I was also suggested to watch the sugar/carbs content and gluten in some of the soy products.

I heard of recipes for omelettes made with Gram Flour (made from chickpeas) but I have not tried it yet.

I hope you will have a go at the diet as, personally, I am finding great and in less than a week I have lost some pounds already.

All the best!

Hello Lolo and AnnaJennings,

Many thanks for replying to my posts!

I am using the soy yogurt and it works fine, I managed to loose about 2kg in less than a week so I am pretty happy so far.

Best of luck to you too!

Is it OK to drink de caff coffee with soya or rice milk whilst on the diet?

Plus, what is the rule on alcohol?

Thank you

Well done Flora, that was the right move. I am 72 and started the BSD 2 weeks ago. Since then i have reduced my insulin intake by 4 units a day and my readings are in the pre-diabetic range for the first time in 10 years. My objective is to cease all medicatio n for diabetes over the 8 week period. Ill keep everyone posted either way. My wife, who not diabetic,, is following the same diet and has.lost 9lbs in the 2 weeks compared to my three..Im feeling so much fitter already.

Aww thanks Bill.

I hope this is the link:
https://www.justgiving.com/dechox2016janemunro/?prompt_event=236af4e&fb_event=5f54224&post_id=10154037557055087

Made a mistake earlier. It’s for The British Heart Foundation.
My family can’t believe this knowing what a chocolate addict I am 😀

Like what your saying about sticking g to the measuring tape! Otherwise I’m feeling fine in week 2, just not looking forward to the night shift, which is when I would offer over eat to “see me through” the long hours.

I used to have liver & bacon at least once a month but alas since starting the BSD i felt i should refrain until someone has evidence it was good to use on thr diet. Its a bit like smoking i suppose, if there was medical evidence that it was good for me I would start again,no problem. Here’s wishing.

I’m having the opposite problem, takes ages to go to sleep (even when using headspace) & wake up at 4am! I miss sleep……

Thanks hashimoto, I’m glad it’s not just me. Was going to give it a break for a few days. Will carry on now until Easter like I originally planned. 👍🏻😊

My headaches were worse in the first week. I am now nearing the end of week two and not having headaches . You probably need to drink more water as dehydration will cause this. Good luck.

I just had a blood test for a full range of ailments (turns out some symptons I was having are easily fixed) so other than being overweight I am fit and healthy.
(Reasonably, I have the worst cold ever at the moment)

Didn’t see a need to tell my gp as I am 24 and have no other issues, if I had any blood pressure or cholestrol issues I would have though.

Thanks so much Jane
I’m no expert, just another diabetic trying to fix myself but if my experiences can help others, so much the better.
Jane see my “this has to work for me” thread re donating for the chocolate thing

Hi Lesliy. I’m not diabetic, but had a blood test which was prediabetic. I was shocked to say the least. Did you still tell your doctor you were going on the diet. I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol so feel I must inform my doctor.

Hi there, glad I have read through these posts. I started 2 weeks ago and have lost 10 1/2 lbs and 2 inches from my waist so well chuffed, but no weight loss this week but another inch off. I will definitely be following up on some of the tips. I have drunk more diary this week and not enough water, so that may be my problem. I do love the lettuce cups 😊

Absolutely agree Bill!
See my post from yesterday. 😊
I don’t have them in the house anymore.
I’m sticking with my measuring tape and how good I’m feeling.
Keep up the good work. Your posts are a great help on here.
What a difference it makes having folks to cheer you on and also being able to do the same for them.
Happy Friday!!

I think the main problems are firstly, the book is wriiten american style and their measures do seem to be a handful of this a pinch of that and a little of the other 😉 Just watch the barefoot contessa to see what I mean.
Secondly this is not some high rep program backed by a big weight loss company with a huge marketing budget. Most of the recipes seem to have been taken from elsewhere on the internet so, if you’re calory concious, do your own research.
The price point of the book seems to me to be priced to just cover costs, nobody is making a fortune from it, there are no weekly classes or fees to be paid although, once the success stories become common knowledge, I have no doubt that the big companies will jump on the bandwagon and soon, supermarket freezers will be full of low carb meals which will taste awful because of the additives and production methods.
Do the diet the way it suits you, read the book, bear in mind that Michael doesn’t say increase the calories because you do some exercise but above all, do it in the way you enjoy it.
You are all founders of a brand new healthy way of eating

I did for the first few weeks to break myself in.
I initially used Boots own brand Slender Shake in the way that the Newcastle site recommends, three times a day with skimmed milk plus home made soup (they have a lot of good recipes on their site) or a stir fry. It was an easy way to slip into things, no thinking, and less chance of slipping little extras onto every meal. I selected the chocolate flavour as I have always found that it is one of the few flavours that actually taste as it should when in ‘artificial’ foods.
The following week I dropped down to 2 meal replacements, and then 1 in week 3. Mid week three I stopped the replacements altogether as I was well organised – soup on the freezer, and had got portion sizes and not finding it hard to stick to the 800 cals/day.
I also tried Oatwell – which I also got from Boots, lower calories (120) if you use skimmed milk, but higher protein. I used it for breakfast and the other 680 cals over the day. I suspect I should have used it with full fat milk and that would have taken it up to the 200 cals for a meal replacement. It was okay.
This approach worked for me as a way of starting – I agree with Michael however, that it is best during the 8 weeks to get used to cooking the right food and find out how it will work in the long run. So try it for a couple of weeks.
I had to order both through Boots online and get delivered to a Boots store as none of my local stores had them available.
I have lost 12lbs in 24days which is above what I was expecting.

lmao I did the same daft thing the other day, had to call to the chemist fro a prescription and jumped on the scales – half a stone on in 2 days !!!
Scales are the tools of the devil and should be used sparingly

Good luck and stick to it – you will flag during your first week and possibly suffer headaches.
I am on day 19 and since about day 6 have felt great – my weight loss so far is 11lbs.

I am not diabetic or (hopefully not) pre-diabetic so haven’t done my blood sugar. As both parents were diabetic and died relatively young I have to get my weight and eating habits sorted now.

I’m a couple of days into the diet so far (7.5lbs lost in two days!), and am drinking lots of water, maybe 3-4 pints a day, but have also stopped caffeine because I only drink tea with milk, and I don’t really have the spare calories for milk currently. I’m not quite sure whether the headaches are just from the fluid loss or the caffeine withdrawal, but did anyone else have this? How long did it last?

Not diabetic… yet!
I have lost 18 lbs so far by the way!! I love the No Carb Ploughmans for my work lunch.

Just looking for recipes as we are going on holiday in two weeks (just to the seaside with the dog) so am going prepared!
Going to do a big cook off the day before we leave and keep it in a cool bag so we can just microwave our way through the week!

Squidgy, this sounds strange but it worked for me.
Try a fatty snack at about 9pm. I use greek yoghurt with a few berries. It lowered my dawn reading significantly, the idea is, if your body has something to digest during the night, it prevents your liver from releasing stored sugar into the bloodstream while you sleep.

Note to self, don’t weigh myself between weigh days. Just needed a little encouragement so got on to see how well I was doing. . .
1 1/2 pounds gain!
Bum!

Hi Mrsjaffa13, glad to see you here with us, hopefully you are seeing positive benefits by now and glad to be on the journey with you

Hi Magwa61, I am exactly the same. In fact I usually wake up on the sofa by 9pm and crawl up to bed. I know I fell asleep at 7ish one night last week – the upside is having a lot more energy during the hours I am awake!! This may change when we increase calories when we have reached the desired goals… but like Bill1954 I intend keeping this eating plan for life – just more food when I reach target weight but carbs might be a once a month treat as I do not think they do me any good. It’s good your hubby is so encouraging

LMAO@Sue1234
Yeah Sue probably was the brand, I got mine from ASDA and I was amazed at the way the flour just soaked up the liquid.
I have some chickpea flour to play with this weekend, watch this space.

Enjoying reading all the advice to this. I appear to have gained (1.5lb) in week 2. It is my time of the month and I did have a sickness bug in week 1 so my weight loss was a bit too good (7lb and I’m not that huge – just over 10 stones) so I’m trying not to get disheartened and keep going. Am quite constipated so more fibre and water required I think. I also had some dark chocolate a couple of evenings and my calories crept up to 900ish which probably isn’t a good idea. Will reign this all in and hope for a good loss over the next week. Good luck everyone.

You know, it just brightens up my day to see all these posts from people who are doing so well on the diet.
By the way, I’m going to stop calling it a diet. I can’t see me ever going back to eating the foods that I used to, I watch friends and family eating them and it just doesn’t bother me, my sweet tooth has completely gone, I’ve even stopped my half spoon of swetener in my coffee.
So from now on I’ll be calling this my lifestyle, not diet, I hope others feel the same.

Essentiallyjane, let me know how to donate and I’ll throw something in to the pot 🙂

Hi, I have been on the BSD for nearly 5 weeks now. I have lost 21lbs (5lb on Fast Diet before I heard of BSD) I am feeling great. I have more energy in the morning and all through the day. However, I have noticed that in the evening, I am definitely more tired than normal. From 8.30PM my eyes start to get heavy, by 9PM I am ready to call it a day. I am waking up earlier 6AM (normal time 6.45 – 7AM) So, maybe this is why I am more tired in the evenings. Hubby thinks it maybe because I am on 800 cals a day, and my fat is being used for energy. He thinks I am doing well on the BSD and is very encouraging. As I say, I feel great during the day, just the evening that I am tired.
Is anybody else experiencing this? is it just me? Or do I just need to try an adjust my body clock back to 10-10.30PM bedtime 6.45-7AM wake up?
any ideas or thought welcomed.

Steph do what you feel comfortable with…I have full fat milk but water it down but I’ll also have semi skimmed if that’s what’s available.
Well done on your amazing weight loss and so glad your finding it easier than you thought it would be!
I haven’t been as strict this week, have gone over some days and haven’t lost any more but the weight I have lost has stayed off which is brilliant

Is anyone doing this the “non real food” way? I’m thinking it may be easier to start like this. What shakes do you have in that case? I’m in the UK.

My experience is the opposite of yours Squidgy. I always used to get the dawn phenomenon but in the last week or so my bedtime reading equals my morning fast read and there’s been the odd day where the morning fast has been lower than the bedtime read. I’ll get the occasional outlier reading, ie, a high morning fast reading, but my readings seem to have settled in the 5.5 to 6 range in the mornings. They were 10+ when I started the BSD. Given I’ve been a diagnosed diabetic since 2002, that’s very impressive. I’ve been on the program for about 4 weeks now and don’t necessarily stick to the 800 calories but I haven’t had a starchy carb, bread or pasta since I’ve started. I have a lot of weight to lose (8 stone) and its coming off but all I really wanted to achieve was the stabilisation of my BSL.

I’ve just got my latest HB1AC test result today and it was 8.2 and my GP was just about to add Gliclazide to my Metformin but I showed him my spreadsheet of my BSL readings since I’ve started the BSD and I’ve got a reprieve. He switched me over to Metformin XR a few months ago which apart from the side effects didn’t seem to work as well as straightforward Metformin. So I’m back on 2000mg of Metformin a day and will re-test everything again in late April by which time I would’ve done the 8 weeks and be on maintenance and hopefully see the improvements (and cross fingers a reduction in my medication).

Interestingly for me Squidgy, I get a higher BSL reading after exercise than I do before, so not sure if this is impacting your results too. I’m doing a water based exercise program here in Oz where I live specifically tailored for diabetics so I’m in the pool 3 times a week and try and do my 10000 steps the other non-swim days.

Thanks Pesco. I’ve just come from my GP and told him about Dr Mosley (even showed him the copy of my book) and told him to watch SBS on Tues night. He’s heard of Dr Mosley, so at least I didn’t have to educate him about that part of things. I’ll be recording the show just in case I can’t watch it live.

Thanks Pesco,
Will definitely be looking out for that one.

Hi Shadow,
Welcome to the forum, there have been quite a few people asking for more guidance on carb counts. All carbs count, including fruit, veg and any juice included in the recipes. As you are measuring your blood sugars and monitoring your intake, you will soon get a feel for how many carbs your body can handle. My advice would be to use the eight weeks to learn how your body responds and then use this information as a guide when you start eating the low carb Mediterranean diet that follows on from this. That should help you to maintain the good results you’ll achieve on the fast 800.
There are a couple of helpful threads too.
One thread is in the fast 800 forum called something like “how many carbs in the fast 800”. There are also a couple more in this forum but I don’t remember the name of the threads. Someone has quoted from a website giving advice on carb counts for people with different levels of activity. Another one has calculated the carb counts for the various recipes in the book and has said they come out spot on for the carb levels used in the Newcastle Zuni research. You might have to scroll through a few threads to find them.

Hi Landrews22
I also like a sweetened cuppa, so have done quite a bit of research on sweeteners. You are right that it is better not to use them, and to train your taste buds not to want them. However, this is one thing which I am finding difficult, especially as a sweetened cuppa can both fill me up, and hit the spot when craving something sweet.
Anything which contains aspartame is a definite no no for me, (just do a quick google if you want all the reasons), so I would advise against ‘no added sugar’ cordials as they nearly all contain it. For tea/coffee, I think xylitol is best. It is a natural product, not a chemical, and it does not raise blood sugar levels. The downside is that as it is not absorbed in the gut, it can produce gas, and have a laxative effect if you have too much. However, as one of the side effects of this diet for some people is constipation, that may be no bad thing!!! Stevia is another option, but most stevia products are mixed with erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol, and stevia on it’s own (if you can find it) has an unpleasnt aftertaste. Good luck finding what suits you best.

I think it probably is to do with production. The body will reduce its supply of breastmilk if calories are too restricted – which is bad news for a baby which is relying on breastmilk for sustenance, but wouldn’t be such a big deal for a toddler. The toddler may complain a bit is the only problem I can foresee!

Hi, pmshrink, it’s wonderful to be happy about clothes being too big, isn’t it? I’m going to delve deeper into my stored too small clothes and see if I can find some smaller sized trousers! When I reach my goal weight I am going to treat myself to some new clothes as a little reward! Hope you get replacement smaller trousers back soon!

Maybe it’s the coconut flour I got?! It was far too runny with just the 1 1/2 and I used proper measuring spoons. I got the flour from Holland and Barrett it’s called coconut flour frenzy.

I tried the cake things and they tasted alright. I used the same flour, so maybe if a different flour was used you would need less.

5 tablespoons of coconut flour frenzy ( 5 x 15ml)
1 dessert spoonfuls of granular sucralose sweetener (10ml)
1 teaspoon baking powder (5ml)
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil (15ml)
1 egg
Decent splash of vanilla essence

Fan oven 180 C

Mix all the ingredients well.
Put teaspoonfuls onto very well oiled baking tray.
I put 7 1/2 separate blobs on the tray

When golden brown take out of oven and use spatula to get them off the tray straight away and onto a cooling rack.

I don’t know what the calories are, but I didn’t think one would hurt.

This morning’s stats. Weight 10 St 13 lbs, blood sugar 11.6 (stress? Or my body releasing glucose into my system). Biggest surprise is Waist measurement it’s now 37 1/2 inches – it has gone down a whole inch.

I call my cakes “Sue’s coconut cake thingys”

Hope everyone is keeping going. I have felt hungry today, but I am keeping going, if I can do it when I’m stressed then how much easier is it going to be when the current oldie problem is sorted ☺

I’m doing the diet with my husband and we’re both getting on well, especially my husband, my loss slower. The recipes in the book are great guide, but unfortunately I have to work out the calories for each one myself after finding quiet a few discrepancies. The main one so far is the ‘Skinny Chilli’. It’s says in book serves 8 and 460 calories per serving. I’ve worked it out twice and, without the unspecified amount of Greek yogurt, it’s more like 270. No wonder my husband is losing weight fast, he’s not been having enough calories!,

Hi auntylil – I’m not vegetarian but I do have quite a lot of meat /fish free meals. (not vegan though)

For breakfast I enjoy avocado or grilled portobello mushroom & poached egg, or yogurt and berries with chia seeds, scrambled eggs , omelette etc
For lunches I make a lot of soup – todays was Brussel sprout and Butternut squash which was surprisingly good (I used to make this with chestnuts which are too high carb now so swapped for Butternut squash), but also tomato, spicy butternut squash, carrot and courgette, spinach, beetroot, lentil etc. I tend to make a couple of pots at the weekend, then divide into portions and freeze. That means I can mix up and have a different kind each day – either in a flask or a clip mug if I have access to a microwave. Other options are cottage cheese or hummus with salad – I make sure I have lots of variety in salad including peppers, radishes, capers, gherkins, olives etc.
In the evening I’ve had veg frittatas, spicy bean burgers (from the book), veg chilli, ratatouille etc. Feta, goats cheese or mozzarella is a nice addition if you can eat cheese.

I like the look of the mushroom risotto in the book – made with cauliflower rice but I haven’t tried it yet.

I’ve discovered coconut water which I love as a treat and have been trying soya/ almond milks as a change from dairy, not too keen on them so far. Good luck