I hope Allie or Skinny can explain why this book changed their life. I really want to know!i

Hi everyone, I am yet again dismayed to see that I have gained 2.5lb since Friday. No reason. However, in another discussion about salt I decided to do some research into magnesium and found that it causes weight gain as it drags the fluids into the cells and doesn’t release it easily. I have been taking a magnesium supplement for about 4 weeks now as recommended by my doctor for night cramps. It is in about the time that my weight has been lost and gained, lost and gained, and then gained yet again. I hope this is the reason as it is easily corrected, I just stop taking them. People recommend simple supplements all the time believing they can do no harm but you really have to know what you are talking about. These were on the advice of my doctor but he didn’t tell me about the side effects and I didn’t bother to read the inserted information. Oh well, another week to look forward to. Have you set up another thread yet allie – I will go in search of it.

Orgally, any chance you might be diabetic. Just a thought. Yes you need to drink plenty of water, I’m sorry to contradict you again Maggie but 3 litres is too much. We should all be aiming for 2 litres whether we are on a diet or flushing out our systems or whatever. 2 litres is the most you should have when drinking it, then your body takes in a further litre from the foods you eat. As Prof Taylor says in his video, water has two effects, drink too little and you die, drink too much and you die. Technically it is called hyponatremia or water intoxication. It is also important to spread the drinking throughout the day rather than in one big hit. The kidneys can only deal with 0.8 litre per hour. Sorry to be blunt about this but where did the 3 litres come from, it is not in any books.

Just one other thing, if you stick with this diet for the recommended 8 weeks you should kick the pre-diabetes into touch and be ready wean yourself back to normal eating. Because you are not overweight your body will not lose very much so dont be worried about getting to too low a weight. I would suggest you watch the video that I think it was allie put on anther thread, Prof Taylor explains the process is quite simple but detailed terms. Just off the find it for you.

Okay back in time to edit. If you go onto YouTube and type in Prof Roy Taylor there are lots of things about him. The one I suggest you watch is called Prof Roy Taylor – Freedom From Diabetes. He is being interviewed by a journalist called Gary Williams who himself developed diabetes and then had a heart attack. It is 32 mins but worth watching.

Violinist, I too cannot understand the Why We Get Fat book. I started reading it over a year ago and am about half way through and it has all been so technical or like reading a book on anthropology. I think I have just about got to the point where he gets to the point but it has been sat on the floor by my chair for the past 6 months.

I dont understand the comment about magnesium in relation to this posters question. Magnesium cannot be absorbed through the skin, magnesium ions are broken down by the acid in the stomach and the magnesium becomes liquid and is absorbed through the gut wall taking water with it. I dont know how this conversation started but thanks Maggie as it has just turned on a light bulb in my brain. I have been steadily gaining, then losing then regaining over the past 3 to 4 weeks. Light bulb moment – I have been taking a magnesium supplement for my night cramps. It causes severe fluid retention in high doses and taking it is a higher dose than the body produces or needs. I will stop that right now.

Californiagirl, I find the Taubes book a little overwhelming with technical info. Anyone else?

Hi Country Girl and welcome. What kind of dietary advice have you been given? Have you read the BSD book and is it your preferred option?
The really important measurement isn’t weight but ratio of waist to height. If it is more than half your height then the chances are you have visceral fat which you need to target.
In any case you need to minimise your consumption of those foods that cause glucose spikes, ie refined carbs and sugars. Do you have the means to measure your blood sugar so you can see how your body is reacting to what you are eating?
Maggie

Hi County Girl, this diet is designed to shock the visceral fat away – that is the fat around your liver and pancreas. This is where the magic starts and your liver can do its job properly and your pancreas can start manufacturing insulin again. I see from your 56kg that you dont need to lose weight but you might very well be a tofi – thin outside fat inside – and need to get rid of the visceral fat.

Ok, thanks. I’ve downloaded the Gary Taubes book onto my kindle. I’ll try using the myfatsecret app instead of MyFitnessPal. I’m in the UK, up on the moors, praying for some rain to put out the fires that are just up the lane!
Kicking myself this morning for having succumbed to a couple of glasses of wine last night. I’m really impressed with your losses.

Just been diagnosed as pre diabetic. I walk at least 6 miles a day, do agility training with my very active dog. I am 5ft 3″ and 56kg. I am changing my diet, what else can I do? Do I need to lose weight ?

Hi Orgally, amazing start! Congratulations. Yes, I think it’s normal, but every individual varies. Are you hitting your 3 litres a day or are you still thirsty after that?
Maggie

Another beautiful day again. I love the warm weather but finding it very difficult to be very productive. I’ve done a step aerobics class this morning but found my legs felt very heavy and achy – is this carb related do you think? Weight was the same this morning, hoping for a whoosh before tomorrow! 😄

Well done JGwen; it’s so empowering isn’t it? Fasting is what gave me the sense of really being in control of my eating. Not to mention that ketosis really takes off and you have the tools to get to grips with any slippages pretty swiftly.
Maggie

A lot of us use an app on our mobile phones to log what we eat. It depends which app you use and which country you are in, on if you have to calculate the fiber part of any carbs. – In the UK food labels show carbs minus the fibre. The app myfatsecret also records carb values minus fibre, while I understand the fitnesspal app doesn’t.

Ellen thanks for the link. The Halen Mon Pinch Me tin is a must have!
Maggie

Maldon is rather nice Allie, it is flaked which makes it lovely to use. It’s the one used as table salt by many high end restaurants.
Just a heads up for cider vinegar users; if you can access traditionally made cider then adding the mother from an (expensive) bottle of organic cider will give you much the same, minus the organic status for a fraction of the cost. It will take time because of the sulphites but it will work.
Maggie

My typing is really bad. “children” and “New York City”

Very funny skinny!

Allie, I have 9 brothers and sisters and 4 children and there are 22 chikdren between all of us! Yup, family in New York Ity, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, South Carolina, Minnesota etc etc

I like Halen Mon. It’s a small Welsh company, who harvest by hand, rather than using machinery.
https://www.halenmon.com/about-us/

Just a little hello as I have been away on a family holiday. MASSES of us and 5 little girls. . . Anyway I did quite well, only one night when I had a Chinese takeaway. However, I will be unable to weigh myself for a while, as true to form in the hot weather I am retaining masses of water. I will keep on going and just be patient.

Safe travels, Violinist! Do you have family in Manhattan?

Violinist, just do not put the suitcase on the scales too when weighing in 🙂
Coz losing 50lb in a week would be cheating – LOOOOL. Enjoy your time in NY
All the best,
Skinny to be
xx

Morning, everyone! I’ll have the new challenge up by the end of the day 🙂
That IS interesting, Krysia! There are so many “finishing” salts available today…I know that Celtic Sea Salt is
a very good one. I remember that Esnecca used one that was smoked, but I keep forgetting to look for it!
I must have it bookmarked, if only I could find it 🙂 Was it maldone? I mostly use pink himalayan sea salt.
I never use iodized table salt anymore..it tastes wretched to me now…

I’m going in to my third week on the BSD 800, have lost 12.5lbs and am still suffering terrible thirst and dry mouth. Is this normal?

weighing in

Morning skinny, allie, wendy, zinny,mixmatch, kazz.
I will be waying fully dressed before my coffee and water in the morning. Then I am off to New York from Florida, but will check in. Won’t be able to weigh until I get back next Thursday. Good luck everyone!

Hi Julie
The body absorbs magnesium through the skin so it helps to have a salt bath regularly- either Himalayan salt or Epsom salts.
Maggie

That’s a really interesting question, which foods are bad for each of us individually. I know fructose sends my BP soaring, for the rest I don’t know. We do know that taking vinegar with carbs mitigates the glucose spike, eating carbs with protein multiplies it.
There’s a lot that’s unknown about food combining.
Allie has said that a glass of wine shows up on the scales for her, for me alcohol doesn’t seem to be a problem and I can recover with a day’s fasting.
My weightloss is still a work in progress; when I reach my target I’ll certainly do a 42 hour fast at least once a week just to keep my liver rested
One thing to bear in mind is that every gram of carb consumed attracts 3-4 grams of water.
Maggie

Re: the salt issue – I use Celtic Sea Salt which is a rather horrible shade of grey. I used some of my daughter’s low sodium salt stuff and was shocked at how salty it tasted. When I looked at the labels the Celtic salt was actually lower in sodium than the low sodium salt – which was very interesting.

Good morning all,
Last day of the week before the weigh in. Hope you had a lovely weekend and are looking forward to the glorious warm/hot week ahead of us.
Wishing you all the best and if you fancy an additional challenge for next few weeks please join us also on ‘The BIG chase to 150lb’.
Weigh in day tomorrow and we aim to go all the way to 1st September to see who can get or how many of us can get there.
Lots of love,
Skinny to be
xx

Good morning all,
Hope you had a wonderful weekend. I need to say I probably had a little bit too many carbs as went fruit picking on Saturday and I kept still eating it on Sunday evening. Well, started this morning with two rashers of bacon, two sliced mushrooms and two eggs with two tomatoes 🙂 for breakfast. At the moment I am on my second coffee and second large glass of water :-).
Well, hopefully, I haven’t done too much damage to myself at the weekend and am ready for the weigh in tomorrow morning so we can start the chase to the 150 🙂
All the best to us all.
Skinny to be
xx

PS. Wendy, 147lb after your 3rd son? Blimey! I must have 3 last time I was 147 🙂 xx

I have finally done it, a 36 hour fast. For the last few months I have normally been eating 20:4 and over the last couple of months while my inches are changing my weight isn’t. I wanted to shake things up a bit but hunger always got the better of me. Maybe because it was a relatively inactive day, most of the time was spent on a course, but I wasn’t hungry last night, and still am not this morning.

Love the new names for the next challenge – it will be hard to choose between them.

Have had a week working on the computer. I won’t go into it because it is so tedious – but am all caught up after the computer breakdown and have got to grips with the newest version of word and working with one drive.

Will definitely be posting a loss this week – even though I have been so inactive.

Thanks for the reply !
I will go salt shopping today !
Have a great day !

Good morning! Plenty of suggestions so which shall we go for?
Kazzeexx

Ah black spot I’m thinking of Madness and also the wonderful Startrek. Can’t get that madness tune out of my head now!

Starting week 2 it would seem I am down by almost 3pounds….it would def have been more but I have been mixing some other low carb recipes along MM ones and may well have overdone the calories. Finding 800 cals hard if am honest!

I need a procedure ( have done for 12 months ) but local NHS hosp turned me down saying my BMI needs to be under 30! Just worked out that’s a 3 stone loss required!! felt so humiliated but it should spur me on , however, I find I wanted to eat everything not allowed…

I will give this week a real good go. Drinking water is so doable right now as its hot, hot, hot and that always traicks my tum into feeling full.

So, to all of us keeping on keeping on, lets do this….all the best!!

When you look at the carb number for a vegetable, there will also be a fiber number. Subtract the fiber from the carb for the “effective” carb number — i.e. garbanzo beans 1/2 cup is 20 grams carbohydrate and has 6 grams fiber. Subtract 6 from 20 and you get 14 grams carbohydrate for the 1/2 cup serving (this is the number you use).
This REALLY matters because you can eat foods with high levels of fiber in much larger quantities! So make sure you check.
I’m not knowledgeable about how My Fitness Pal logs veggies. Maybe someone else can let us know.
There is a GREAT discussion of this in Gary Taubes book “Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It”. I recommend it very strongly — its the perfect companion book to the BSD. Both Allie and I used that book — she lost 150 pounds and I lost 50 so it really helps!!

I had frozen avocado today
It wasn’t quite as nice as fresh avocado, but convenient – just shoved it in a box with a boiled egg and some prawns, and it had all thawed out by the time i went to eat it. Given the number I’ve bought recently that have either been bruised mush or as hard as bullets. it’s not a bad option.

Thank you , that’s very helpful. I already skip breakfast, just coffee as never been a breakfast eater. I didn’t know, & don’t really understand about deducting fibre carbs, I just count carbs from veg according to My Fitness Pal.
Thank you California girl for your meal lists, I can see that I’m going a bit wrong with my salads as I have tomatoes, onions, red pepper, sometimes beetroot which all have carbs so mount up I suppose.

Zoomers! To August & beyond! ( sod the poetry, it doesnt have to rhyme anyway!)

I have just watched a YouTube video of Prof Taylor, the instigator of this diet before Dr Mosley. He says when you get to your ideal weight and blood sugar levels you should be able to eat what ever you want – WITHIN REASON. You should start to increase calories slowly and the same with carbs. However, if you have lost weight you shouldn’t go back to how you used to eat as your body is now smaller and doesn’t need the same amount. It is a matter of trial and error. Sticking with a Med diet, lots of veg, some fruits, good oils and a few carbs might be the way forward but you have to try and see. Are you able to test BG to see if certain foods have an impact and, more important is to keep the weight down.

Hi Arianwen,
I did it in stages, I started out cutting out all the major sources of carbs, to get down to around the 40 to 50 g of carbs a day and gradually got my carb monster under control. Then my taste buds and my appetite both changed, so I both was quite comfortable making lower carb choices and started to skip breakfast, and gradually lunch slipped back in time, until I got to eating in a 4 hour window each day.

Add some chia seeds or some fibre dense foods to slow this down, you can take an Imodium in the meantime but it will settle down. I had it pointed out that I said not to have pink salt, I really meant if it is not the genuine thing, Himalayan pink salt is the real thing but some companies fake it.

Yeah Marxist, and dont let him be bullied into anything and push the BSD line

Hi Arianwen! It can take a bit of practice to get your carb intake very low. You have to wrap your head around a different way of eating! You say you are 40-50 grams of carbs per day, that’s good! — so you are likely in ketosis and it should be pretty easy to go even lower.
Here’s my 20 gram day (I’m two years of maintenance but I still do low carb every single day and very low carb as a corrective measure).
Breakfast:
Either skip completely to get more fasting hours or if I’m hungry, 1-2 Tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream in my coffee, 1 oz slice of cheese. (This gives hours of energy)
Lunch:
Kale salad with tuna salad on top with avocado, or fresh fish and some green beans, or a hamburger patty with a side of greens and olive dressing — kale, collards, chard and all greens great for filling up. Can dress with olive oil and lemon juice or homemade mayo.
Dinner:
Fish and veggies, or stir fry with veggies and beef, chicken, pork, roasted pork loin with veggies, homemade mousakka, etc etc..
I stick with greens and green vegetables (remember you get to SUBTRACT the fiber from the carbs).
Try this for a week or two — then evaluate your own body’s response. Every one is different and what works for one might not work for you. You are looking for your personal “sweet spot” — your own carbohydrate “threshold” — you are going to find it, and it’s going to be much easier when you figure it out!

Hi Arianwen – this is a list of low carb foods https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/44-healthy-low-carb-foods#section27
Search keto recipes. That should help.
Maggie

Look forward to it !!!

Yes, cutie, we are!!!