That is great advice, and the list really helpful many thanks x

I have started today and so far so good. Have read the book twice. This morning I had cottage cheese, pear and walnuts for breakfast. Surprisingly enjoyable and filling. For lunch had the mushrooms with goats cheese, and I added a poached egg which was delicious. That was really enjoyable too. Have had lots of drinks, although need to drink more water. Have Type 2 diabetes, which is the bane of my life, hence starting this diet. Do feel a bit hungry. what do people do for snacks? not sure what/how much to have. I need to make sure my blood sugar doesn’t go too low or the diet will go out of the window in a blink! If you cook the meals in the books, can you add more above ground veg to your dinner, without counting additional calories?

I am still drinking as much tea as I usually do but have gone from semi-skimmed to full fat. I measure the milk in the cup each time and that milk counts towards my 800 cals. I”m also drinking coffee but with no sugar of course. I’m also having my night time cup of cocoa made with water and a little milk if I have enough cals left over at the end of the day. All that adds up to 7 fluid ounces of whole milk.

To stock up on the basics I have:-

Vegetables all grown above ground. Along with sweet peppers, mushrooms, garlic, onions etc.
Tomatoes, cucumber and a bag of mixed lettuce (love those ones with baby spinagh
Berries (strawberries, blue berries, raspberries)
Oranges and Apples
Lemons
Raisins
Sunflower seeds
Unsalted peanuts
Flaxseed (mainly for me to mix in with yogurt)
Eggs
Ryvita crispbread

For the Fridge:-

Butter
Cheese (chedder full fat)
Humus
Quark
Full fat milk
Greek style natural yogert

Tinned food:-

Pilchards
Tuna
Mackerel in olive oil
Chopped tomatoes
Plum tomatoes
Heinz baked beans

What I need to cook a daily main meal I figure out the night before what I want and then nip to the local shops the following morning to buy anything special I need for it.

Hi Vicky if you also click on Newbies under forums there are other posts where people are asking questions so might be worth having a look in there.

What I believe is that we can’t trust anything on the web at the moment because all the old information tells us to eat low fat or fat free. Even some of the 5 – 2 diet websites are giving recipes using skimmed milk and specifically listing low fat ingredients.

I think it’s going to take a while before information starts slowly changing around the web as more people realise that fat isn’t bad for us but sugar is.

Hi I am also trying to work that out !I am guessing that its a good idea to follow the guide in the book as they have worked out how many calories are in each meal and also what things you need to eat to make sure you have the correct proteins, minerals etc.
I have just been reading back through again and can’t find anything that says you can do your own version if you keep to the 800 calories a day though

From reading the book i think one cup of coffee a day is ok but mainly herbal teas or water. but need to drink 2-3 litres of water a day.

can’t find anything about milk, so not sure if you can have that. Fruit is rationed, but if you have it go for strawberries, cherries, blackberries and blueberries.

stick to leafy veg broccoli, lettuce, cabbage, lettuce, kale, chard, and cauliflower, peppers and mushroom also good. eggs, fish, chicken, nuts, eggs and spinach.

I guess if you are able to work out a menu plan for yourself using those ingredients to value of 800 calories a day you should be ok.

Im just going to go through all of the menu plan as there are some things I don’t like too. So Im going to pick the meals I do like and they have already given us the calories for them meal and I will make up a plan that way.

Don’t know if this has been helpful !
think it may be a bit trail and error to start with, but one of the key things is making sure you drink the 2 – 3 litres of water to prevent headaches and constipation.
Good luck!

Hi everyone, I too have read the book and intend to start Monday, although I am a little confused as what exactly to buy, I know there are the recipes to adhere too but can I produce my own recipes as long as they are within the same calorific value?? Also I am a little unclear to exactly what foods are allowed ?? Can anyone help please ??

I haven’t been following this slavishly, but have lost 4kg since starting a few days before Christmas, albeit with a huge blip over New Year when I was totally floored with cold/cough/temp for 2 weeks, and consequently my self control was at a very low ebb! I am now back to exercising (mainly running) and think that will shift things faster. I had a diabetes check last year at 41 and was told all was fine, but loads of family members have type 2, going back through generations before folk were as overweight as we tend to be these days, so I was keen to do this to reduce my weight to healthy levels (at 86.6kg I am still 16.6kg more than I was in years gone by). I managed to lose 20kg 10 years ago, but put it back on when a family member was very ill. I am now older and wiser to the risks of regaining weight and determined to keep it off this time. I find the menus are not complicated – if you stick to the right weights of protein, you soon get to know you can eat a fair bit of veg, and breakfasts for me are simple with either natural yoghurt fruit and seeds or an egg on red pepper or mushroom ‘toast’.

Some posters comment on their dislike of natural yoghurt. I find that natural yoghurt seems to cary hugely in taste across different brands. I can highly recommend Pakeeza live set natural yoghurt which I found at the orange supermarket!

To bean it is then. There are very mixed messages, as you would expect, on the WWW.

I made a chilli using 5% minced beef and kidney beans so I’m hoping that’s OK. I’m definitely losing weight but its early days as I’m in my first week – day 7! What I’ve done is make meals, use only complex carbs, lots of green veg, lean meat, lots of spices and herbs. Perhaps I should stick to the meals in the book?

I too am eating beans. Next week I plan to make a 3 bean casserole. As far as I can make out when reading Micheal’s book, pulses are an important part of the diet. They contain good carbs and also protein.

How about subbing seeds for nuts? Pumpkin and sunflower should work…

Beans are in the Mediterranean diet and they are certainly in the book so if you like beans, eat beans. They have carbs but they are not simple carbs, they’re complex carbs with a good amount of protein so they’ll give you energy for a longer period of time. From what I’ve seen, some people seem to be following a traditional low carb diet and hence some of the posts about too many carbs but I’m following the diet as written by Michael- I know I find traditional low carb/ketogenics too hard to stick with.

Enjoy your beans 🙂

Hi, I bought the book today. Just reading in bed and off to the shops tomorrow to buy veg!

I bought the book on Tuesday from Whsmith it was half price at 4.49 – bargain. I also bought the kindle version but returned it as the recipes were too hard to search on the kindle version.

I am starting the New Me on Monday and I don’t want to use meal replacements. Ideas please for complete meals that I can make ahead, freeze then microwave at work.

I like pulses, especially mixed beans, am I wrong to have these as a meal? I tend to have about 100-120 gm chillied for a meal.

Will this be ok as I am getting mixed messages as to the carb content, I thought beans were ok, high fibre protein with low carb.

Oh thanks guys, that all makes sense and good to know what works for you.

Hi
Today is my first day. Have about 31/2 stone to lose which has got more each new regime I try. Have been trying low carb high fat but some of websites gave been so nasty to each other it was really off putting. Reading the book I can identify with a lot of what has been written, although not diabetic, it’s my personal fat distribution system that is there in black and white!
Have had a lovely day, food delish, water glugged and emptied fridge and restocked. Fully intend to stick with it and have really enjoyed reading the posts. Good luck to all!

I am starting tomorrow, and feeling a bit nervous. Worked out my own menu for the first week and have been shopping – loads of veg no pasta bread or spuds in any format.

Hi Hopeful,
I am also cooking quinoa, but I prefer rice so the brown rice was ideal as it is on the low GI range.
Thank you.
Luis

Hi,
I’ve bought the book on kindle while on holiday and planning to start when I get home. My question is about flours.
I know that all flour, because it is milled, i.e. broken down/ partially digested, is higher GI than the grains that it’s made from, but are all flours equally bad? I am thinking of lentil flour (used in south Indian dosas) and chickpea flour.
I see that coconut flour is suggested in some of the baking recipes. Is there a reason for this?
I am very fond of pancakes, such as korean kimchee pancakes, and would like to try adapting sime recipes to reduce the GI. Is there a list comparing different types of flour anywhere?

Hi Hawkeye,
Use Greek yoghurt and where possible add spices to make it more flavourable.
Regards
Hopeful

I think that any full fat natural yogurt is fine Hawkeye. I love yogurt but hate natural yogurt, but I have found I am getting used to natural yogurt (3 days on the diet) by first mashing up about 6 raspberries then stiring that in the yogurt. Any soft berries will do.

I don’t really eat meat and my protein comes from fish, cheese and eggs mostly. I am still eating full fat hard cheese (cheddar) and I believe that as long as it’s all counted in with the 800 calories it’s fine. For soft cheese I bought some Quark, which is between a soft cheese and thick yogurt. I spread it on a ryvita and then layed slices of strawberry on the top to give it a bit of flavour as I found the Quark to be quite flavourless. I might not buy that again but find some other soft cheese that is allowed to be part of the diet.

At the moment I’m not sure what soft cheeses are counted as processed and what in natural if you know what I mean.

The thing is, we are so used to having sugar in our foods that our taste buds now have to get used to not having that. Over a few days we should find the bland tastes a bit more flavourful as our taste buds get used to them.

At the moment for me, as I am still learning, I am just making sure that I don’t eat any processed foods, only eating vegatables grown above ground, eating pulses, seeds and the occasion peanuts. As far as I know all meat, chicken, fish, eggs and cheese is ok.

I am eating nothing that is low fat or fat free and that includes skimmed milk. I only have whole milk now.

I”m hoping I am doing the right things to make sure I get a balanced diet.

Thanks veggie2. I will add that to the list! Good luck Monday!

Thanks Hopeful. I don’t need a fancy one as I have not been tested, but am curious as I suspect after reading the book that I may test as pre diabetic. I see that some do all sorts of things. I looked at the Aviva one that you could click the link to on here ( the one with the cartridge ) and this was where I saw quite a lot of people reporting an inaccurate reading. I will look at the strip prices thank you

Hello Lisa,
I am Type 2 diabetic on Insulin and have been using the Freestyle Freedom Lite which is very good, but be aware that the testing strips can be expensive(I get mine on prescription)you may use 4 a day, I test before each meal and before bed.
Can I suggest you go on Amazon or Ebay and type in ‘blood monitoring testing strips’ and see which are priced reasonably then go for that make of tester,I think most of them are pretty accurate, or speak to your diabetic nurse at your surgery and she may be able to help, may even give you a tester!!!
Regards
Hopeful

I too am starting on Monday. I could not get the book as it is unavailable on amazon, but have the kindle version, not good for following recipes. So I have the menus from the Daily Mail. Will shop on Sunday for the first three days. I like the Total greek yogurt (not 0%), as the texture is nicer.

Hi, I started th diet 5days ago now and immediately noticed that a lot of the foods weren’t really my kind of foods. I do cook a lot and am a bit of a foodie but from a Yorkshire background we like our meat and two veg in large portions as well. I’ve basically gone off piste this week making all my recipes from scratch not the book but incorporating then stuff I don’t like very much ( don’t know if they are correct nutritional but hey it’s working and I’ve lol 3kg already and my blood sugar is trending down daily) not been hungry once and strangely feel absolutely fine, no headaches etc. I’d be willing to share my recipes with you if it helps. As for frozen veg, this is just as nutritious as fresh providing the are low starch and there’s much less waste. As for not being able to use the scales I would suggest getting the book carbs and cals for him as its in association with diabetes uk and is a brilliant book generally as it has info along with pictures of portion sizes, for me it’s an invaluable resource I use many times a day. I got mine from Amazon and th ISBN was 978-1-9082610-6-9
As for cost, it doesn’t cost a lot to be on this diet for me. I didn’t buy loads of stuff, I am ploughing through loads of fresh veg though but that’s my choice, and I do supplement with frozen berries and veg if I run out of fresh. The portion sizes I make usually make 2 or 4 and I’m freezing the spare ones so this might suit your dad as well.
Anyway good luck, and a huge well done for taking on the challenge

I notice a lot of the recipes contain nuts; all very healthy but what do you do if you are allergic to them? For the recipes that contain nuts, do I add more protein and should I add a multi- mineral to maintain balance across the 8 weeks?

Hi all. Just finished reading the book and going to start on Monday. Looking for some advice from those in the know. Is there one type of yogurt I should be using? In the recipes different ones are mention and I know that plain yogurt is pretty awful? Also same with cheese as I love all cheese except feta and goats. Ideas and thoughts would be great before I do the new shop! Exciting but a little bit scary too!

Hi everyone! Looking forward to being a member of the Forum, and I am currently preparing to start the BSD. As part of this prep, I am going to buy a blood glucose test machine so I have an idea of my start point. I started to read the Amazon reviews on one of the machines linked on this site, and there seem to be quite a lot of mentions of inaccurate readings. Can anyone recommend one that is known to be consistent please?
Thank you! 🙂

Thank you so much for correcting the errors.

That’s now going to be my dinner for tomorrow. So looking forward to trying it.

Hi Luis,

I think the Brown rice has more Fibre, have you tried Quinoa rice, very tasty and really low in carbs.

Hopeful

A warm welcome Stephie and good luck. I’m on my 2nd day since getting the Blood Sugar Diet book but for 2 days before that I started cutting out some no go foods. I had to guess what they were at the time until the book arrived. I seem to have lost 3lbs in the last 3 days. Tomorrow is my weigh day so can’t wait to see what the final weight loss is for this week.

I’m on my 4th day and have already lost 3.5lbs and an inch off my waist more importantly. Haven’t felt hungry once and am really enjoying it. It certainly gives you the motivation to keep going!

Carbs = blood glucose. Insulin controls carbs. Not enough insulin production or it isn’t working properly = too many carbs for a diabetic to control unaided.

I need to know how & why things do or don’t work. I found these companion sites helpful

Google : prof Roy Taylor 800 calorie diet
Look at : diabetes uk = The Direct Study
: ncl.ac.uk. = Newcastle uni Magnetic Resonance Centre
: nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
: http://www.phlaunt.com. = Diet 101 the truth about low carb diets. (Jenny Ruhl)

We have personal FAT thresholds in our livers & pancreas. Too much in each = diabetes!
The 800 calorie a day over 8 weeks diet is designed to rid the liver & pancreas of this FAT. We should then be able, if we are fortunate, to use our insulin properly again & deal with carbs for energy

However, if we can unblock the drain be very careful not to overload the pipes again.

Find out what your own personal threshold of carb toleration is.

These sites & book have the info & recipes. Use them.
Keep going. Good luck

hi all, this is my first post although I actually started the diet on Wednesday. I remember the initial publication of Prof Taylor’s research a few years back, and was very interested in the results, so now it’s ‘official’ I’m all for it.
Day three going well so far, I think the ketogenic euphoria is kicking in now, which helps to deal with the ravenous hunger pangs lol! I’m sure it will get better

Steph

Hi All,
Second week of the BSD diet, all going well I am averaging 100g of carbs a day but finding the accurate calories counting hard. We are not use to weighing everything so I am probably over estimating the amount I am having. I am finding it OK except for the weekends.I miss my sugar in the coffee badly, so much so that I am drinking much less of it, which possibly is not a bad thing. I don’t want to have artificial sweeteners, so when I get pass the 8 weeks and get on to “normal” diet will need an alternative to sugar for the coffee will honey be ok? Anyway I bought some brown rice and my wife was just comparing the carbs and sugar labels with the ones of the normal white rice and they are pretty much the same. That got me a bit confused… Is it just that, because brown rice takes longer to be processed, is better for you or did we get the wrong type of rice?
Thank you.
Best Regards
Luis

Thanks Happywife. She’s I saw the book I thought ‘anyone can do anything for 8 weeks’ so decided to go for it. Cleared out the carbs from where they lurked in the kitchen and decided my plan for Christmas Day. I live alone, but my neighbour was sending a meal round so I had to decide what to do. I ate some of the turkey and froze the rest in portions. I replaced potatoes and parsnips with other veg. When the pudding arrived (with cream) it was replaced by blueberries. I hate wasting food, but rather that than upset the progress I was already seeing. I’ve been looking for new foods yo add variety. Unusually for me both fridge and freezer are full of fish and veg, with some chicken ne not much red meat. My treat (don’t laugh😊) is going to BHS once or twice a week for their small breakfast – no longer an ‘all you can eat’ breakfast, just 4 items. And no sausages!

Oh and Toedipper, your menu sounds lovely. Could I come round for dinner? 🙂

Today, I’m having grapes and nuts here and there through the day (all measured out) and beef stew for dinner. Not too Mediterranean either but I think it doesn’t matter, so long as the carbs you eat are “good” carbs and you keep away from processed junk.

Hiya – on day 3 here, but veteran of other VLCDs (the milkshake kind). Having real food is fabulous. 🙂

I posted this yesteday on another thread about how many carbs to have per day – hopefully it’s helpful here too.

***
There is a recommendation for grams of protein per day in the book – from memory I think it’s around 50g.

And there’s some research on VLCDs that suggests that you do need to make sure you have at least 7g fat a day (and preferably more) in order to reduce the risk of gallstones – http://www.foodedsoc.org/marks/MARKS34.htm
I’d go for at least 20g of fat, and there’s no reason to be scared of having much more than that now that we know fat doesn’t make you fat.

So, given there’s 4 calories per gram of protein and 9 calories per gram of fat…
4 x 50 = 200 calories
20 x 9 = 180

Total intake from protein and fat = 380 calories.

Which leaves a maximum of 420 calories for carbs – so up to 105g of carb a day (given carbs are 4 calories per gram).

According to many low carb gurus, anything less than 100g carb a day is considered a low carb diet.

But to be honest, it’s probably not worth worrying exactly how you spend your calories (quantities of fat and protein aside) provided you eat a good range of foods each day.

***
I’m tracking everything on an app call My Fitness Pal but there are loads of other apps like it. Yesterday I had 25g fat, about 60g of protein and the rest was carbs.

Hope that helps a bit.

Morning Captainlynne, brilliant news – you must feel really pleased with the results. An inspiration to the rest of us new starters, especially as you have been 800ing it over the festive period and in some really cold and gloomy weather. Fantastic!
All the best. Ax

Tomorrow I will have been following this plan for 5 weeks. Up to today I have lost 21 pounds. 😃. My BMI has gone from 40.9 to 37.1 and I only have another 1.4 pounds to lose to have lost 10% of my starting weight! From a fasting BG of 10.9 all my fasting bloods are now under 6, with those in the evening either 4s or 5s

Stop you’re making me hungry!!

I can’t say if what I’m doing is right or wrong either but the Mediterranean diet is not a low fat diet. It includes lots of fish, lamb, eggs olive oil etc so you don’t seem to be doing much wrong. I’m not afraid to use fat (mostly butter, olive oil) but the only restriction I have is that calories stay at 800.

I’m averaging about 60 grams protein, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less (about 240 calories), about 40 grams of carb (160 calories) and the rest fat (about 45 grams) to make up the balance to 800 calories. I often have a knob of butter on vegetables as fat enables the nutrients to be absorbed and used so I’d say just keep doing what you’re doing and look at it again if you aren’t making the progress you want. To be honest, the amount of fat you can have on an 800 calories allowance isn’t enough to worry abour 🙂

Hi all,
I am day 5 today. Was doing really well until today. I had started each day with egg and avocado, adding in a portobello mushroom on some of the days. Worked really well, then could have a salad for lunch and a more substantial dinner with chicken and veg/ salad.
Yesterday I tried something new, I started the day with yogurt and berries. I then had my salad for lunch and chicken with cauliflower rice and veg for dinner.I was hungry after dinner last night, and ended up having more yogurt and berries after dinner which helped. Still was around 800 for the day. I think I didn’t have enough fat yesterday, as I feel terrible this morning. I also didn’t sleep well due to stress about work, even though I used the headspace app for the first time last night.
I have gone back to my egg avocado and mushroom this morning, hoping that sets me up better today. Going to be a tough day today!
Janet

Hello all, started on Monday & already lost four pounds (probably water to begin with). Keeping within the 800 Cal’s – give or take, however not sure if I am incorporating too much fat (mainly olive oil & butter) and eating too much protein (red meat, chicken, fish, eggs & small amount of cheddar). Any guidance on quantities/grams per day of protein & fat? Old habits die hard.

Finding it easy & not hungry, so must be doing something wrong?? Maybe eating too much or even too little protein & fat. Eating lots of above ground veg and salad.

Today – two egg omlet cooked in little butter with chopped bacon rasher and two chestnut mushrooms for brunch. Slow cooked lamb caserole with french beans and broccoli (steamed & drizzled with small amt of olive oil) for dinner.
Tomorrow – kipper for brunch and red lentil dahl and veg curry for dinner planned.

Above not really Mediterranean Dishes.

Thanks for all of those responses, I’m pretty confident the carbs we are eating are all good carbs and we are trying to incorporate good fats into all of our meals so I am going to stop worrying about it! According to myfitnesspal I’ve been anywhere between 25 and 50% carbs, protein and fat each day, it’s been fluctuating a lot which I am pretty happy with, I’m sure it will all balance out by the end of the week. I am having trouble getting enough iron in though… definitely having a Friday night steak dinner!

I’d love to know the answer to this too.

I burn around 500 cals through exercise at least 2-3 times a week and as Pinkypie said the remaining balance of 300 calories seems way too little.

There is a recommendation for grams of protein per day though – from memory I think it’s around 50g. And there’s some research on VLCDs that suggests that you do need to make sure you have at least 7g fat a day (and preferably more) in order to reduce the risk of gallstones – http://www.foodedsoc.org/marks/MARKS34.htm

I’d go for at least 20g of fat, and there’s no reason to be scared of having much more than that now that we know fat doesn’t make you fat.

So, given there’s 4 calories per gram of protein and 9 calories per gram of fat…

4 x 50 = 200 calories
20 x 9 = 180

Total intake from protein and fat = 380 calories.

Which leaves a maximum of 420 calories for carbs – so up to 105g of carb a day (given carbs are 4 calories per gram).

According to many low carb gurus, anything less than 100g carb a day is considered a low carb diet.

But to be honest, it’s probably not worth worrying exactly how you spend your calories (quantities of fat and protein aside) provided you eat a good range of foods each day.