Hi Vicfish37 et al

Optifast shakes were used in the original Newcastle diet x 3 daily. Also total of 250g non- starchy veg to provide another 200 calories Total calories = 800
Multiply x3 the following breakdown of shakes contents + the veg ( you will have to work that out) & it might help you
Go to Optifast.com.au (Australian company) hard to get shakes here, for more info
Shakes contain – VLCD = Very Low Carb Diet
Serving size 54g. Energy Kj 870. Energy cal 207. Protein 17.5g. Fat 4.5g. Carbs 22.5g. Sugar 17.8g Dietry fibre 3.6g Gluten No. Lactose Yes GI 24 – 33
Check this out yourselves

Also go to Jenny Ruhl (American woman very knowledgeable on diabetes) her book =Blood Sugar 101 web site
Phlaunt.com Or just enter blood sugar 101
Once on site go to Diet. Then Nutrtional Calculator for weight loss & Maintenance eg protein, fat & carbs = what proportions are healthiest. Complete & enter the form to calculate your ideal nutrient intake for weight loss or maintenance. This is a good info site whether doing this 800 diet or other
Best I can do til BSD put stuff on this site
Hope this fills a geeky hole!
Ps. Watch your fingers I keep catching the report post box when scrolling! Good job it doesn’t
Eureka

Peace & parsnips is a great cook book.
Good fats in avocado, tahini, protein in tempeh, mixed bean and lentil combinations will give ‘whole’ proteins. Being vegie vegan is a great way of learning to cook with flavour using Indian cook books can give really nice flavours though the fat content does need watching.

Hi there,
I am starting on Monday as I have just read the book and am needing to sit down and plan for the weekly shop on Sunday.
I have a problem in that my husband is slightly underweight and our daughters are young and perfectly slim. I am wandering if any of you have advice for adaptable family friendly dinner time meals? Breakfast and lunch will be no problem but I have to ensure hubby is getting recommended calorie count.
To my knowledge I don’t have diabetes but according to the quiz I am moderate risk. I took my measurements tonight and honestly could cry. I have 30kg to lose to get into a “healthy” BMI. Nearly fell over with shock when i measured my waist!! 🙁 I don’t even recognise the woman I see when I look in the mirror. Looks aside my main motivation is the health benefits I have various ailments, sleep poorly, low mood, hormones seem all over the shop no energy, constantly hungry etc
As a nurse I treat patients with complications developed as a result of diabetes and/or obesity every day so really really want to make a go of this. I don’t want to end up being treated myself and also want to be a good role model for my patients and daughters.
Hope everybody here is managing/enjoying the plan. Would be grateful for any advice/support. Thanks. 🙂

UPDATE:

Just found this incredibly useful tool.

http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com

Bearing in mind the similarities between the BSD and ketogenic diet, I googled “macros ratio keto”.

When you input all of your details, the calculator works out your minimum and maximum carbohydrate and protein needs. You choose a number in between. It then asks you to set a calorie goal- whatever is left over is your recommended fat intake. Based on these numbers, it works out your macronutrient percentages.

Hope this helps! Best of luck to both of you!

xx

Good stuff Aly, I’m on 840 for the day, and finding myself wandering round the kitchen open minded to eating… have taken myself to bed with a herb tea away from temptation.

Well done Annajennings a stone in 3 weeks is very very motivating.
To get into the middle of my ‘ideal’ bmi I could do with loseing 3 stone.

Being in bed with hot tea, after a long shift, I’m not really feeling hungry now. Hurrah.

Hi all
I’m on week three, lost 7lbs first week and 2lbs second, haven’t lost this week but must admit that I have strayed a bit, not been recording everything and gone up in calories but still following the general principles for most meals. Eating full fat milk, cottage cheese etc for the first time in years? Interestingly, despite no loss this week, I have suddenly developed a waist for the first time in years…..yes my figure curves in the middle so am hoping the visceral fat is beginning to melt.
want to lose another two stone and haven’t been that weight since 1984 but think it’s doable now.
Well done to you all….you’re doing a great job!

Penny speaks the truth!

Hey guys! Looks like everyone is doing awesome – bit of a tip on the coffee/tea substitution. I have switched it out for a cup of plain hot water. Give it a go – it’s actually really satisfying. I try and always have one on the go & drink it quite slowly. Think I’m having around 3l of water a day. 3lb down so far & day 4 tomorrow 🙂

Not looked into this particularly just yet (I’m just completing Day 5) and I’m quite geek about this sort of thing, so will be giving it some thought.

For now I’m probably around 60% protein, with a little fat within that (such as bacon and egg yolk, pilchards), the rest being either non-starchy veg, a piece of fruit and some beans or peas.

To be honest, I’m just trying to get the best bang for my buck calorie-wise, as we have so few to play with. I’m all in favour of fat consumption in principle, but it’s so calorie dense that I avoid it unless it’s part of something else. Then, by the time you reject the starchy carbs – which is the basis of the BSD – that leaves protein, pulses veg and fruit.

It’s all a bit had hoc at the moment, but so far so good.

It doesn’t have any added sugar. 4 grams of carbohydrate per 100g, which would be from the lactose in the milk. 10 grams of protein per 100. I guess on its own it would increase (slightly) the carb proportion of the meal, but then as I’m adding fat in the form of nuts or seeds I’m thinking that would re-balance it. I’ll have to look at a pot of the full-fat and see if it’s got less than 4% carbs.

Hey Rubytuesday,
Do you have a spiralizer? I take a homemade fresh soup to work each day by spiralizing some veg – courgette, carrot, chop some cabbage/pak choi etc. I will also put in around 30-40g of steak. To flavour I add half a stock cube, a small teaspoon of oyster sauce & a small teaspoon of chilli sauce. Add hot water at work, leave for a couple of minutes & bam – soup. Literally takes me 5 mins to put together in the evening x

Hey – sounds like you guys are doing great! I have my macros set to Carbs 25%, Protein 30% and Fats 45%. Seems to be working so far- but it’s early days. Just finishing day 3 & not having any side effects like headaches or anything. Think that is because of the bucket loads of hot water I’m drinking (replaced tea and coffee with just hot water – a surprisingly easy switch which is actually as satisfying!) and also I think because I add the odd teaspoon of olive oil to my breakfast and dinner this helps me with energy from fat. But we’ll see – 3lb down so far 🙂

Tin of tomatoes – with some seasoning of choice.

Shocking treatment from a health care professional!! Glad my diabetic nurses are less judgemental… although they only ever suggest more meds if my reading goes up at all.

I’m not due for a diabetic review until April. I’m on Metformin only, and will be adjusting myself – as I’ve done with great success in the past. I know if I eat well I need less meds – it’s that simple. It’s highly unlikely I’ll tell the nurse I’ve been on 800 calories, although I’m not concerned about mentioning low carbs. That said, if I just say, “I’m doing as you suggested – living the healthy lifestyle I’ve managed in the past”, she’ll be happy with that, so why dissolution her!

Yes I agree with fat free having way more sugar. I’ll stick to normal full fat just wondered what the soya stuff is like

hi, i try and not eat till lunch somedays, especially when i go to running club and the have my green smoothie at the end of the day

I asked my GP about going on the diet 2 years ago when I had my first post diagnosis appointment. I took the Newcastle Uni print-offs to discuss it with him, but he dismissed it out of hand and told me I’d probably suffer a fatal heart attack if I tried it. He also said that no one really controls their diabetes with diet. I’ve kept my blood sugars in the normal range with diet for 2 years, but really needed to lose weight and to get my blood pressure down. I went to see a locum doctor at a local walk-in centre 3 weeks ago (about a non-diabetes flu bug) and she said ‘give it a go’. Three weeks in and I feel great and have lost about 16 pounds. Blood sugars are the best they’ve ever been. Hopefully as time goes on the diet will prove its value and I won’t need to permanently wear a de-fib!

I was on my first day yesterday too and could have eaten the chair leg by early evening! Today I made some cauliflower carrot and ginger soup today and that really helped having a bit of that. I also ate half my Bircher at a time and half my falafels at a time and that has really helped- good luck and let us know if you come up with any tips!

Hi, fat free yoghurt has lots more sugar in it and the whole point of this diet is having less sugar

Cysters!! I love that queenvix. Thanks for the encouragement , I’m really glad I posted on the forum as writing it down reinforced the reasons why I wanted to do this in the first place . I was so inspired when I first read the book but that was a while ago now so am re- reading the book . So inspiration and motivation back and hopefully less slip ups and more weight loss! I know that this works because during my pregnancy I was so very careful with what I ate and with out realising it was actually doing a low carb med style diet I also walked an hour a day . After I gave birth and went for check ups my hb1ac was back in normal range .( not gestational diabetes was diabetic before I was pregnant ) But two and a half years later the typical mummy not looking after herself thing has happened so not so good with diet and practically no exercise and surprise surprise diabetic again . I’m so glad this time round there is the book and forum to help me . Your right lawnmower29 the food is lovely , my favourites so far have been the lamb and aubergine , the skinny bean burgers and apple, mango, hazelnut yogurt . It’s definitely been easier on the weeks I’ve planned the meals for the whole week . Hope things are going well with everyone else . Let’s do this !

Hi Newt2 I will be making them tomorrow I will let you know what happens and how the recipe went.

Hi Angie50 would be interested to know how your scones work out next time! I will try again too using 3 eggs……

I got a reply…

Hi Charlotte, thanks for getting in touch

It does seem that there’s an error there somewhere and I will pass it on so it can be revised if needed.

In the meantime, I would reduce portion size to cater for the anomaly but don’t worry too much as almonds are also a good source of fibre.

Thanks

So I ate the other portion but I probably won’t make it again…

I don’t measure it, but I’d say it was a scant 2 tablespoons…

Mine was like that to start with but I thought it was because I tried to do it while hot.. I left it for a bit then re tried and it went like peanut butter. But I had to keep shaking it and stirring it every few seconds and I did add a dash of olive oil to slacken it a bit…

Salky, your results speak for themselves – a fantastic achievement in 6 weeks. How frustrating. Good on you for coming out fighting. You’ll show her, and then perhaps she will eat her words!

The Marmite drink has really helped me as well. Loads of B vitamins apparently, and B12 is hard to find usually. I’ve also found a 0.6 l filter water bottle really useful. I just keep filling it up from a normal tap and I’m up to 3 litres a day (from roughly nothing). Seems to help a lot. Good luck.

Great idea. I would also really like to know this – I always think the fat percentage in my diary is quite high. It’d be great to get some clarification of what to aim for.

I’m not sure about soya yoghurt, but on the subject of yoghurt I’ve been buying fat-free, then adding the calories
back in with a small amount of flax seeds or nuts. I thought it might give me more good stuff for my calories.

I would also really like to have this info…

Happy to be of help Natasha. Would send some sunshine if I could but it’s not that warm here. I’ve told my husband he has to chop wood this weekend. Autumn has arrived a bit early and it’s nippy at night in the hills where I live.

First of all, thanks to the people who have responded, it’s kind of you to take the time to do so. Second, I reviewed the response I got from the blood sugar team and they didn’t actually tell me to stop exercising, but to drop the intensity so apologies for getting that wrong.

I am going to start the diet and cut back on the exercise. You are spot on Eureka, there will never be a better time. I am sorry to hear about your mum and dad, that must have been awful. I am sure they would be extremely proud of what you are doing to beat your diabetes and also of the support and encouragement you give to others 🙂

I want to be in the right place before I start the diet to give myself the best chance of success therefore I am going to wait until I have my 3 monthly review and bloods taken next Friday and will start the diet on Monday 29 February. This will also give me time to prepare a plan and get to grips with what I will be doing. I am also hoping the nurse will agree to take bloods at week 4 and week 8 but I am not too hopeful she will agree to that.

Best of luck to you guys, I hope you find the resolve to keep going to the end!!

Well I’ve eaten loads again on day two. Thought I was drinking enough but had a headache mid morning and decided to actually measure what’s in a glass and a mug. Shocked to find yesterday I only drank 1.5 litres. Today I had the blueberry green tea shake, very filling then the remains of yesterday’s peanut dip for lunch.tonight I did both husband and I spinach and pea omelette and he even had extra spinach, mushrooms and some asparagus with it and declared it quite nice. Mind you he had some chips too, oh well small steps.

I went out to buy full fat yogurt and saw this soya yogurt. Is it any good? Would like to try for a change but not sure if it’s permissible on the diet. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your help 🙂
Haha the title was a complete fluke!
I tried miso but I really didn’t like it – such a shame and very unlike me, there isn’t much I don’t like in terms of food!
Do people have soups that have cornflour etc in? Maybe I’m being too strict?

Hi Toofattorun
Your body has to switch from carbs burning ( ie carbs you’re eating) to fat burning( ie stored fat. )
If you go and eat chocolate you’re going back to square one and beginning again. The irritability, hunger etc is in the period where you’re not eating the carbs but are not yet switched to fat burning. It lasts a couple of days usually though it varies. The less carbs you eat the quicker this will happen. So maybe you’ve been having too many carbs?
I know some people on the diet do eat some bread, porridge, bananas etc. If you have no grains, potatoes or sugar ( including tropical fruit) you should soon switch to fat burning. Then you should feel ok and lose weight. I got all this from a couple of websites- I’ve put them on a thread called ‘useful links’ .
Good luck with it, if you follow it correctly and drink enough water/ herb tea etc and do as near to 10,000 steps as you can manage, you’re not going to put on weight, will eventually lose weight, and you ll feel a lot better.
Hope this helps.
Good luck with it
Penny

I have previously asked the forum for advice regarding the percentages for Fat Protein, Carbs that we should aim fro (or to be a guide) in the 800 calorie diet. A number of people have replied, each giving different figures. I would be greatfull if anyone could suggest a site or article where these details are explained. Dr Michaels book and the Newcastle report just says 800 calories should be the target, not the nutrients within them.
any help would be appreciated, thanks

Rainybow 👆🏻 Forgot to add your name!

it will be great for us PCOSers ( or cysters as I’ve seen us called!) to support each other. That’s good advice that the weight loss slowed when you deviated a bit- those words have rung in my ears when I have been tempted to get too creative!! I put on so much weight when I was pregnant and it was because of PCOS but I didn’t know I had it then so I had no idea why! Its great at least you know that you have so you know how to fight it as conventional diets don’t work for us (I put on weight when I did weight watchers as its more then I can eat.) I feel like this is working for hopefully it will for you too- good luck!!

I had the Bircher too- lawnmower29 it was lovely. Yesterday I was v hungry too and I also went to the gym so I could have eaten the cat/table leg whilst I was trying to get the kids into bed last night so I could go and eat my last meal!
Today I have made some sugar free jelly and some cauliflower, ginger and carrot soup which has really helped. I also had some celery and ate my falafels in two sittings so it’s been better. I also feel like or is working which is really motivating!

Hello Penny.

thanks for the link. I don’t have a lot of dairy, so will increase my fluid intake more.

Many thanks

Hi Salky. How unfair when you have done so well . I suppose the medical profession have strict guide lines and if it hasn’t been passed on to them then they can’t recommend it for safety reasons. That said the weight loss should prove to her that it is worth investigating. I do think one should be careful about dropping meds and l would only do it with consultation with GP or pharmacist. We have been fed a good deal of strong meds and our bodies will take time to readjust..
l also had a lot of negativity from my GP who told me l was too old to go on such a strict diet and to go to a slimming class and follow a low calorie diet. She obviously hasn’t read the book!
My diabetic nurse yesterday was a bit more enthusiastic, hadn’t heard of the diet but liked Michael Mosley so will probably read it. She was reluctant about the strictness. She also didn’t think l would get off any meds, so we shall have to see. I have lost 12lb in 3 weeks just messing around trying out different aspects of the diet so can’t wait until Fri when l am starting for real.

I made the cheesy scones and used 6 small eggs I put a small dollops on grease proof paper like you would with scones but they don’t look like scones when you do this the cheese seemed to hold it together they came out ok but very eggy taste I like a cheese taste so going to make them again soon with less eggs and play around with the recipe, hope this helps.

Hi Mother of the bride

Re yogurt- michael says all dairy to be full fat. So hard to get my head around that after all these years. Also good to add nuts or seeds for fat and nutrients.
Good luck
Penny

Hi Mother of the bride
I’ve lost even less – 5 lbs in 15 days!
But I’m not complaining as feel so much better.
Re yogurt- michael says all dairy to be full fat. So hard to get my head around that after all these years. Also good to add nuts or seeds for fat and nutrients.
Good luck
Penny

Hi Spirit
Have a look at this site
http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/low-carb-diet-side-effects.html

Deals with all the different side effects including constipation. I ve found dried prunes and sennicot tablets both good.
Penny

Just put it all in myfitnesspal and it came out as 864 calls, a little over but am really pleased with this.

Hi Salky

Words fail me! How dare you be bullied like this. Shame on her!
You are just brilliant , so proud of your attitude & achievement. Courage in adversity

Go to 5:2 BSD forum & How will my GP React thread. I’ve posted MP Keith Vaz email address there. Read it you may have some use for it

Keep it up. You are an inspiration
Eureka

Aly some modern vegan cook books, while defiantly not low carb do have some really adaptable low GI dishes that are super tasty. Baking squashes and dressing with tahini sauce is really nice, and french vegie markets can be ace.

This might be controversial, but … somehigher sugar condiments, like balsamic vinegar or ketchup manis (sweets sauce) used in sensible limited 1quantities, not daily make eating low carbon vegie and dishes more palatable and enjoyable.
Any thoughts?