I may have missed this somewhere in the book, but I, and I suppose many other diabetics also suffer from high cholesterol. I take statin tablets for it.
Won’t the use of dairy and fatty products in the diet lead to an increase in cholesterol ? and if so, what can we do to combat it ?
Be just my luck to lose the weight, get the blood sugar down, and have a coronary. 🙁

My current GP is the one who found I have diabetes and he has been more than helpful ever since. I get regular check ups not only for the diabetes but for my eyes and feet too.

My Fasting BS has been dodgy for a few years now. My fasting BS was regularly over 7 and sometimes over 8. My cholesterol is high too. We have 2 lady GPs in our practice. The first one told me not to worry although my Hba1c is 48. The other one 3 weeks later wanted me to urgently go on statins and get my fasting BS done again. I have now changed to another practice. I started the BS diet over 2 weeks ago and I have lost 11lbs and my fasting BS is now 5.7 😄

Hi everyone,
Does anyone have any other ideas of what to eat other than eggs or cottage cheese for breakfast. I have tried the yoghurt, Apple and mango which is great but any other ideas I could try because I don’t won’t to get board with just yoghurt and eggs etc. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone who has posted about hypo experiences. Since mine started about 4 years ago I feel as though I have lived in a constant state of anxiety, afraid of what is going to happen every time I go out. It comes from not being taken seriously, and people (including me!) not really understanding. I plan every outing around when I’m going to need to eat. However, on the positive, I’ve just gone 4 hours, including going shopping, with no crash, and feel good. Just had lunch, but need to be careful now, as only got about 300 cals left.

Pmshrink..thanks for letting me know. On day 3…it’s nice eating filling foods, now to try some out on my son

I’ve had a few hypos, interestingly enough, if my blood sugar is 4 or above I’m ok. As soon as it hits 3.8, the hypos start in the same way as others but I find that I sweat a lot as well when having one. I keep a packet of glucose tablets with me for these occasions.

I have found a hot drink of bovril or marmite has helped my night cravings. It just seems to have a calming effect and the saltiness of the drinks seem to help. I haven’t looked into the health side just don’t want to give in to snacking

I have been riding mine out. I hadn’t really bothered about them before, felt a bit light headed, heart racing, yawning constantly all of these and as soon as l had something to eat, a big sandwich preferably the symptoms would go. So l am riding them out. I am on day 9 lost 6 pounds, blood sugar at last going down a little so hope l am over the worst. I suppose we have to train our brains that they are no longer going to be fed lovely carbohydrates to satify the cravings. It must be like an addict withdrawing.

Starting day 3 and I’ve lost 2kgs so far. That makes a total of 6kgs since Christmas because I was following the low card/high fat diet anyway, just fewer calories in this one. Yesterday I told my diabetes nurse that I had lost 5kgs and she said “well hopefully you’ll have lost 10 by the time I see you in September.” I’m hoping it’ll be closer to 30!!!

Thanks Penny. Its great having this Forum for the support from people in the same situation. This has helped me far greater than my Diabetic Nurse during the course of my diagnosis. To all of you on here Good Luck and keep up the loss !!!!

Well, 3rd day in. Yesterday I had home made humus with a half carrot and a stick of celery for lunch. For dinner it ws a small grilled chicken breast with 2 flat mushrooms sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese. I had a small handful of mixed nuts as a snack at about 8pm
Blood sugar at bedtime was 5.9, woke up this morning to a reading of 12.0 !!!
If this is the dawn effect I can only assume that my liver is releasing stored sugar overnight as I’m not putting very much in so, hopefully, we’ll get to the point where there is no more stored sugar and my fasting readings will start going down.
It’s great to get some support so thanks for replying folks, we’ll do it together and get there in the end.

Morning! That’s exactly how I feel, pmshrink, and you are right that very few people have heard of it, never mind understand it. My doctor didn’t have a clue, sent me to an endocrinologist who didn’t have a clue either, so have done extensive reading, and learned to manage it on my own. I have never actually fainted, but have definitely come very close on a couple of occasions. Thanks very much for your encouragement, as I gave never really found anyone who properly understood. As for today, onwards and upwards, with everything crossed for success! Good luck today to everyone!,

Hi Robyn
I have a Nutriblend and make a smoothie. I have discovered a book written for the 5:2diet with lots of very nutritious low carb recipes. It’s called the 5:2 low carb Nutribullet recipe book by Susan Fotherington. Kindle edition about £3.
Penny

Hi Freda
Since my sister and I have been doing the BSD we are more able to wake up.
Hope it helps you too.
Penny

Hi Bordercol
On My Fitness Pal you can write in what you’ve done and it works out what cals you’ve used.
Obviously you have to time yourself but it can be linked to various monitoring gadgets.
Penny

Hi GofH
By crash or hypo we mean our blood spikes then goes too low. The effects are to start feeling like your brain isn’t working properly , you can feel disorientated, get lost in a familiar place, feel confused and unable to think. Decision making is impossible. It’s a really horrible feeling. Quite frightening and we ve learnt to deal with it by eating carbs- the more easily absorbed the sooner we feel better. Of course this leads to more of the same.
Is this how you feel Malkay?
And it’s made worse by the fact that people in general don’t know about it or understand it.
Penny

It took me quite a bit of experimentation to see what worked and what didn’t. For better or worse, I am mostly home bound and that is making it easier for me to handle the difficulties as they come up.

Wishing you both the very best.

My doctor is writing a little paper on teaching the body to be fat burning rather than protein and carb burning – important for athletes with hypoglycemic reactions. He states that hypoglycemia is better controlled with fats than with proteins. I truly don’t understand all that he is saying. I am urging him to get the information out there. But in the meantime, perhaps increasing healthy fats might help.

Thanks, both of you! I am definitely going to try to divide my cals out the way you suggest tomorrow, pm shrink. II’ll let you know how I get on. When Im really careful I definitely feel better. I think I just need to be more organised. It’s definitely easier when I’m home all day.

Hi Malkay
I ve always had this as long as I can remember – and my son has it more than I do, and definitely had it as a child. Neither of us has ever passed out except once when he cycled up a long hill.
I think the key is definitely eating as often as you need but in a planned way so there’s no carb temptation and you stay on your 800.
Penny

I feel in over my head on this one, Malkay. Penny sounds like she may be of more help.

Hi Again Malkay
Maybe you don’t need to go more than three hours without eating, but could spread the 800 out differently. I definitely didn’t go longer than that today. I have a snack allowance out of the 800. So breakfast and lunch are 200 each, snacks are 100, and dinner is 300.
The snacks were non carb.
Hope this helps.
Penny

Are you diabetic? What is your blood sugar when you feel lightheaded?

To explain the pancreatic diabetes. I have chronic, progressive autoimmune pancreatitis. Steroids help control it. There is some thought that the Mediterranean diet lowers inflammation as does weight loss.
I am surprised that today quite a lot of prednisone was needed and i am not particularly hungry. Used to be i could eat the frig door, forget the food. I think the low carb is helping.

I have to be careful with fats (my pancreas loves olive oil – but not much else), but find that 1/4 C full fat milk added to decaf makes me less hungry. I have it with a meal that leaves me wondering if i’ll be satiated. The trouble is then later, i don’t feel like eating, but must eat to take meds, lol. This doesn’t help crashes to the best of my knowledge.

Hi gateofheaven. I feel very lightheaded, and anxious. Nowadays I can tell as soon as I’m getting low, so am able to avoid a real crash. But if I don’t eat, I feel terrible, and I guess I would eventually pass out. I have never got to that point, but in the early days (about 4 years ago), I came very close to it. I suspect I do overeat in order to avoid getting too low.

For the sweetness, on page 113, Dr. Mosley has some helpful things to say. He does say we can use Stevia and Xylitol instead of sugar, but he says, “try to wean yourself off your sweet tooth”. Perhaps that will make the oatmeal be a happy experience. I use Xylitol mostly for its laxative effect and am surprised by my sweet tooth disappearing on its own – although please don’t put a bunch of cookies in front of me, yet! I am finding that my urge for sweets is well rewarded by berries like raspberries!!! Into 4 th week and things seem very easy now, but were quite difficult in the beginning.

Hi Malkay
Poor you. It’s so horrible.
I’ve only done 2 days. Yesterday I did feel fairly awful in the afternoon but the nuts and yogurt seemed to help a lot. Then today I hardly felt hypo at all.
What are your snacks? I know the total urge is to eat carbs but if you are please don’t. 😞
I think Gateofheaven really knows her stuff.
I think the nervousness is part of what happens to our brains- a sort of panic sets in. If you can have 100 gms of yogurt and a few nuts and sit it out you ll probably recover. And maybe then they ll lessen.
Penny

It would be helpful for me to understand exactly what you mean by “crashing”, please. We may have different definitions.

Hi Aliba
Thanks.
I did definitely feel more awake than usual this morning despite sleep disturbance. My sister, who s a few days ahead of me, has found the same.
Penny

Some good ideas, gateofheaven. I like the idea of hummus at night, as it is filling and healthy. I have to have something at night, otherwise I just don’t sleep. You are right about fats, they definitely help. But I seem to struggle at going for longer than 3 hours without anything to eat.

Sounds good…
Penny

Hope you do sleep well Penny. Interestingly I’ve actually slept better and woken up feeling good last few days. Not knackered in the mornings like usual!

Hi Jan
I love that joke- another version is – I’m not overweight I’m undertall!
Me too- but not for much longer, fingers crossed.
Penny

To avoid the crashes, this is what i do. I eat 3 good meals a day. I eat 2 eggs, 1 tsp olive oil, 1/4 C. Daiya cheese (vegan cheese that has carbs in it). 1/2 C blueberries.

All meals I eat protein, fat and some carbs. Carbs mostly in low glycemic veggies. Sometimes a small mandarin orange or 1/2 cup berries.

Yesterday I had a high fat palak paneer for lunch. So for dinner I had 1 1/2 cups of asparagus (cooked in 1 tsp olive oil, lemon juice and salt) and pea pods (1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil and soysauce) (I was craving salt and need it cuz i don’t store it).

I have a small 4th meal to take meds a few hours before bed of store bought hummus. 50 calories of fat, protein and carbs.

I am finding that the extra healthy fats seem to keep me on an even keel.

I am under my doc’s watchful eye and going whole hog with this as i am heading towards pancreatic diabetes and want to avoid that at all costs. Once the pancreas is destroyed, there is nothing to tell the liver to release sugars, so hypo is a constant danger.

Good luck.
it will be interesting to hear what others do.

I like the idea of drawing the cups and glasses, I shall try that!!!

Today I had greek yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast, nothing for lunch (which is quite normal for me) but I think Michael Mosley seems to think this is OK (unlike so many others), then chicken and stir fry veg, with 1oz of noodles for dinner.

Hi pmshrink
I have been using MFP just to count my calories. I was doing quite well, having lost 4lb over about 4 days, and feeling as though my blood sugar was stabilising. Then yesterday, for no obvious reason, I had a crash mid morning, having had 2 eggs for breakfast. I had to have a snack, and then similar again in the afternoon. That took me well over 800 cals. Today I was working, and again haven’t managed to stick to it. I have had healthy low calorie meals, (eggs, chicken salad, courgette Bolognese), but have had to have snacks too. I have just weighed myself, and appear to have put 2lbs back on. Also feeling a bit bloated. I haven’t lost hope, but a bit disappointed. Am at home tomorrow, so will try really hard. But if I get a crash, I get nervous and just have to eat. Do you ride them out? I was hoping the crashes would have stopped by now, after such a promising start. Glad you’re doing well.

Well done everyone – so great to read your encouraging news and meal suggestions. Day two done, no hunger at all but slight boredom around 3 o’clock – this was always when I would tuck into a packet of biscuits and a nice cuppa but that’s so last week!! I’ve managed to keep to the 800 calls but only by counting every morsel. It’s scary how quickly the calories add up. Got another PT session tomorrow which I’m excited about with Michael’s day 3 menu to look forward to. Keep up the good work everyone

Hi Malkay
I hope you’re getting used to MFP.
I have just finished day 2. Yesterday I was hungry all the time including in the night- couldn’t sleep. And felt fairly brainless in the day in that hypo way. But today that didn’t happen. I wasn’t hungry and had a very slight hypo- y feeling late afternoon. I had a snack of yogurt and nuts then I was ok. So I think it’s working having absolutely no bread, potatoes etc, just like it should in theory. And I’ve lost a pound!
Hope you’re doing ok.
Penny

Hi All
A typical day for me food wise
Breakfast – greek yoghurt with some raspberries
Lunch – green salad, spring onion, 4 baby plum tomatoes and either boiled egg or prawns or chicken
Dinner – Salmon fillet or small steak with peppers, leeks, mange tout, green beans with a teaspoon of sun dried tomato pesto in a stir fry.
I ensure I don’t eat after 7pm. In 8 days I have lost 11lbs. However I am morbidly obese or too short for my weight (should be well over 7ft tall) 😃😃
Jan

Hi Jcee
I don’t know what would happen if you did but I think Michael says go on the BSD Way of Life after the 8 weeks.
Maybe if you felt you still needed to you could do that for a while then do another stint on 800??
Penny

Thanks Aliba
Much better today, no horrible hunger. I’m not used to it either but luckily it seems to have gone. We ll see if I sleep!
Thanks for the encouragement
Penny

Hi Nike70
I agree so much with you about the book- it all makes sense. Of course we failed with WW etc because they’re low fat diets.
I have just finished day 2 and I was a pound down this morning. People have posted that they’ve lost a lot of pounds in the first week so probably you have lost 4 lb.
I imagine you can monitor your blood sugar as often as you like. Why not if it encourages you.
Re the 800 cals- I think Michael says it can be slightly over or under as long as it averages 800.
Great you’re doing an hours walk.
Penny

Hi Bill – I’ve been diabetic for 8 years now, also with some background retinopathy, and my fasting blood glucose levels are often the highest of the day. I read somewhere about a Dawn phenomenon where your liver releases glucose around 4am as throwback to caveman days to get you ready to hunt!

Last October I went through a stressful time at work and my fasting sugars went up to 17 for a few days and I felt awful, even though my diet was pretty good at the time (I was doing 5:2) and unfortunately I had to go back onto Gliclazide to get it under control.

I started the BSD last week (26 Jan) and am sticking very strictly to the Mediterranean principles in the book so have cut out bread, cakes, rice, potatoes, pasta etc and mainly am having really healthy food – fish, shellfish, chicken, a little meat, loads of veg, some fruit and since last Monday my blood glucose has been between 4.7 and 7 (measuring 3 times per day!). So good that yesterday my GP agreed I should stop the Gliclazide again and see how I get on.

I’m also trying to increase my exercise and relaxation as I find that really helps both the stress and the sugar levels.

Good luck

Hi Squidgy
Your food sounds great.
Penny

Hi Smileysmiley
I think we re supposed to cut out carbs in general during the 8 weeks because they spike the blood sugar. I think to get rid of the internal fat that causes diabetes it’s necessary.
I think only a small amount of jumbo oats and a small amount of brown rice is ok. Otherwise only the carbs that come in other foods eg beans that are partly carbs but don’t spike the blood sugar. Cheese is ok I think if within the cals- so not much!
Hope this helps.
Penny

Hi Chinta
I have just finished day 2.
I ve managed to drink enough by drawing 5 cups of tea and 5 glasses of water in my notebook and crossing them off as I drink them through the day. Yesterday I did 4 of each to get used to it. – well it works for me!
Hope it helps
Penny

Hi Julia – I try and mix it up a bit but one of my quick breakfasts is Greek yogurt with blueberries and a tablespoon of oats and a few nuts or seeds. Seems to keep me going till lunchtime.

When I have more time I sometimes poach an egg and serve with avocado or scrambled eggs and a little smoked salmon or a small portion of porridge with berries.

Good luck

Hi Cheryl – hope you’re feeling better. I agree about the fluids. I have been much thirstier than normal since starting and so take a water bottle with a couple of slices of lemon or lime which I find much nicer to drink. Also herbal teas are great – I enjoy the Pukka teas – cinnamon, ginger or mint are all really good.

Hi Smileymiley – I’m trying to reverse my diabetes type 2 or at least reduce the medication (I was diagnosed 8 years ago) so am being very strict and like Andy cutting out all bread, cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate, rice, pasta, sugar, potatoes, starchy veg, etc

Today I had Greek yogurt and blueberries, with a few oats and chia seeds for breakfast, then homemade veg soup and a kiwi fruit for lunch, then scallops and stirfry veg for dinner, with a glass of coconut water. I also allow myself 200ml milk per day and make myself a flask of filter coffee which I take to work, and when that’s finished I have herbal tea – Pukka cinnamon or mint are the current favourites. And I take a water bottle with a couple of slices of lemon or lime. Drinking is definitely a must – I’ve felt much thirstier than usual even though my blood glucose is lower than usual. I can’t believe I have not been really hungry once since starting last week.

I track all my calories on Nutracheck

Good luck – the important thing is to find something that works for you.