You’ve DONE IT again, JGwen…Getting me to use the left side of my brain 🙂 🙂 🙂 Very interesting,
although I’ll probably have to listen to this you tube presentation at least twice to absorb it all! If
you captured it all in one round, I’m going to have you nominated for the Pulitzer prize in Science…
I’m definitely searching back through this thread to find your earlier post on Dr. Bickman, though!
Thanks for posting the link! My email program is not being co-operative today, but I’ll respond to
your email when I get it beaten into submission! Coming soon 🙂

Hi Alliecat,
I know you are keen on your calculation on protein levels to aim for, so you may find this talk helpful https://youtu.be/z3fO5aTD6JU – Its by Dr Bikman its about the relative impact of protein depending on what makes up the rest of the diet.

Congratulations, Krys! I’m happy to hear that your IT issues are finally “sorted…There is really no
way to get around our dependency on technology, is there? Is your business related to your
commitment to teaching Pilates? So glad that the fasting is going so well 🙂 I’ve switched from
16/8 to 18/6, which is progress for me!

Have enjoyed sitting in the sun reading today’s posts.

Skinny-to-be – your courgette soup sounds lovely. Will make sure I don’t put in too much water.

Sunshine-girl – the pork belly sounded absolutely disgusting – no wonder you sent it back. Your blood sugars are going down brilliantly – isn’t it a great feeling when you can reduce the insulin.

Butterlover – you are right that it does seem easier in the summer to avoid mindless eating.

Have had a quite stressful couple of weeks trying to run my little business without my computer since it broke. It took longer to get it sorted because the excellent computer firm built me a new computer as well as repairing my broken one. From this morning I have two fully functioning computers working on Microsoft One Drive. I really should have had a second computer ages ago but felt my business was small to justify the expense. Stupid of me really because my time in the office is so limited and I often couldn’t get on the computer because my friend was doing the accounts or the admin.

BSD has gone brilliantly. Did a 21 hour fast over Monday/Tues and 17/7 since. Loads of energy and blood sugars brilliant.

I’m so happy for you Mrs T. I recall you saying that your family weren’t very supportive at the outset but now you’ve got them in your corner. That makes the world of difference.
To be honest I think families have heard it all before and they’ve got reason to be cynical. Now you’re firmly established in this way of eating no reason why you shouldn’t fly now.
I had a bit of a moment yesterday when I asked my daughter if she wanted a drink- tea or water; a couple of months ago it would have been Rioja or Prosecco! We’re both better for the BSD 😊
Onwards and downwards Mrs T.
Maggie

What a lovely thing for your husband to say, Mrs. T! Congratulations to you for hanging in there 🙂
The first couple of weeks are the hardest, but you are now part of the “family”, and we are all
committed to being “the wind beneath your wings” whenever you need us to be. Carry On, girl….
your healthy future is totally in your own hands 🙂

Allie

Hi everyone, hope you’re all having a good day. I’ve been really busy running around doing chores which has been good as I haven’t had time to think about feeling hungry! I made sure I prepped my meals yesterday and being organised has made a difference! Feeling positive today…thank you zoomers for encouraging me through the blip…I’d undoubtedly would have given up without you guys and your support, so I’m really grateful.
Yesterday my husband told me that he was proud of how I was doing and that I was trying to improve my health…I was so surprised and pleased… that gave me a boost! Xx

Thanks sunshine girl! I’ve managed to at least get on the horse without being thrown off the first day or two. Day four. Woke feeling clear headed and fine. Hungry as by late afternoon these last couple of days. I will go have a look see at Just Starting…Again.

V

My pleasure Allie 😁
I’ve subscribed to the site for a couple of months (one month free) to explore what I can take from it. In the Facebook group there’s a lot of competitive fasting with some very male posturing!
Maggie

I agree, Julia! Why is it that women are so hesitant to discuss this subject? There must be a
psychological component to it, as well as the physiological one. I remember those days! I
used to store a pile of cotton nightshirts in the drawer of my bedside table, so when I awoke in
the middle of the night I didn’t have to get out of bed to discard a damp nightshirt and replace it
with a dry one 🙂 Heavenly to have all of THAT behind me! I hope this low carb protocol helps,
fwooty. Welcome to the forums!

Allie

hello girls,

the courgette soup recipe came from me 🙂 a few weeks ago and ClarinetCathy was making in that very morning and loved it. Since then a few people have made it with little twists and turns and reported their love for it 🙂

V, I used 600g pack of courgettes (Waitrose packs usually come at 600g), 1x medium onion (mine was about 70-80g), then 2x oxo cubes (veggie) and a bit of oil for frying the veggies.
Not sure whether it was ClarinetCathy or Krysia or Nicola who put it through MyFitnessPal I think and it came with only 4g carbs and 60something cals.

S-g, if you ever make it, I cannot stress enough, you should only put enough water to barely cover the courgette so it can cook. Once it’s cooked, blitz it until smooth and enjoy 🙂

I’ve just been reading the blog on the site that Maggie posted for me….This is a fantastic resource!
Great article there entitled “the Failure of the Calorie Theory of Obesity”. We often see new members
to the community that still think in terms of calories in, calories out. Rather than attempt to refute
this theory myself, I shall be posting this link in the future 🙂 Great site, Maggie!!!! Thanks so much!

I’m not sure where the recipe came from either but it’s as follows

700g courgettes sliced
120g red onion sliced and fried
1tbsp butter
1 vegetable or chicken stock cube
Small amount of water.

Sweat the onion in the butter then add the courgettes and cook until softened. Add the stock cube and a small amount of water. Cook until soft and whizz.

I added 1tbsp of olive oil to the butter and some sliced celery to the onion and sweated both down.
Then I added the courgette and sweated down with a small amount of water for around 10 minutes.
Then I added a vegetable stock cube and about 500 to 800ml of water and cooked until the courgettes were soft. The mixture was too thick without the extra water.
I then added 85g of watercress and wilted down for a few minutes.
Whizz.
I have chilled a bowl down and added some creme fraiche but it’s nicer hot I think.

you make the cajun bean burgers sound a delight Sunshine Girl
I ate at a branch of Bills Restaurant last night – I had a starter that was a salad of peashoots, a mix that crushed peas with ham hock, and a poached egg – tasted delicious (despite my forgetting exactly what I’d ordered, and diving in expecting it to be avocado, because that’s what it looked like). It’s not listed on their online nutrition info menu, so poss not in all branches, but seemed very BSD friendly.
I’m defrosting some cod for this evening – I haven’t decided what to cook with it yet though; have just eaten a salad of avocado, egg, prawns and spinach for lunch.
I’ve just been given a big bag of gooseberries – I’ve not had those before, will need to find a recipe.

Hi V, here in France everyone grows their own courgettes, they are so easy. Not. I was told to only buy one plant and I will be inundated with the things. I planted 3, 2 were eaten by slugs. Managed to rescue one although it was eaten to a stump. I now have one grown, has flowers but no courgettes. The same happened with my melon plants. I could never be self-sufficient. Hey ho.

I saw your gaspacho recipe but cant find the courgette soup – our house sitters made some for our return meal and it was delicious.

Hi Fwooty! Welcome to the forums! Isn’t menopause just ducky? I think it is harder than anyone admits — I had hot flashes for four years and that was when it became impossible to control my weight. Thank goodness for the BSD — it saved me — I really think all menopausal women should be recommended a low carb BSD diet! Maybe that will happen in the future.

Happy mid summer day everyone! Yay! It’s the solstice!

Hi everyone! There is research that children are very healthy on a low carb diet also — they do not need all that starch either — Dr. Bikman talks about that in his videos. Not that they NEVER have starch, but that regularly you feed them more veg and meat and eggs. You know, eggs for brekkies, not toast or bagel. Limited starch and sugar for rest of the day.
It might require a bit of time to readjust palates but you can just cut back gradually and offer other good things.
Dr Perlmutter also recommends the same for children.

You’re an angel, Maggie! Thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂

Allie

Hi Stressed Out! Are you following the BSD diet? I could not tell from your post — do you have Michael Mosely’s book, the Blood Sugar Diet? I’m sorry you are struggling with stress — it is so hard on our physical selves. Have you tried the BSD recommendations for mindfulness?

Welcome adban! I wholeheartedly agree with sunshine-girl. If you keep it simple and just omit the
carbs from your own plate, that’s the simplest way to get started. There is a thread entitled “101
way with cauliflower” that might be helpful, too. It’s very versatile, and your family might get used
to it too! 🙂

Best to you,

Allie

https://idmprogram.com/refeeding-syndromes-fasting-20/ From Jason Fung’s website.
https://idmprogram.com/fasting-and-growth-hormone-physiology-part-3/
It’s all there 🙂
Maggie

Of course I remember you Bissell! It is so good to see your name and hear that you are also long-time maintaining on BSD. It’s wonderful that you’ve moved in with your fella — please keep us posted more often!

Thank you, JGwen. I was just about to report it, too. Those “trolls” that we have been talking about!

Thank you, JGwen! I found this most interesting, apart from the nervous laughter and dry coughing 🙂
As we discussed, I haven’t mastered extended fasting YET, beyond 17 hours, so learning about the
patient populations for whom it is recommended was very informative. Have you come across the
term “refeeding syndrome” in any of your research? The topic of HGH (human growth hormone)
was only briefly mentioned, so more research required, by me! It may be the answer to “loose skin”?
I LOVE this presently very active thread, so thanks to all contributors. I’m behind in my reading, but
many thanks to Verano for creating a thread that contains it all 🙂

Allie

thanks Sunshinegirl, good advice ! thanks I guess keep it simple is the best way. !

How many portions did you make Skinny to be? I made 4 large ones and used fatsecret to calculate but to be honest when you look at courgettes ie. Tesco, Asda, A cup(generic) you get a different carb count for each 100g. I think I may try Myfitnesspal again. The soup had been judged by my OH as ‘it could win a prize’ and ‘it’s amazing’ so I guess he likes it!

S-g that made me smile. Hope you had a good night anyway.

Hi adban and welcome. Your question is one asked many times by mums who want to lose weight but have the added responsibility of cooking for the family. There are lots of tips here and I will kick start it with. Dont make it too complicated. If you are cooking the same meals for you all then it is you that has to change, not the kids. Give them what they normally have and have the same yourself but with no starchy carbs and more veg or salad. There are lots of simple meals that kids will eat like bolognaise with pasta, you just leave the pasta off your plate and replace it with some spiralized courgette, beef stew with mashed potatoes, you dont have the potatoes but extra veg or find a veg you can mash like cauliflower or celeriac – but be careful, some veg are high carb – rule of thumb, if it grows underground dont eat it. The exceptions are celeriac and I also eat carrot but steer clear of sweet potato- the clue is in the name. This could be a good time to get the kids to try more veg and especially if they see you eating it. They say if you try something 10 times you will start to like it – sorry that has never worked for me with fish, but it is worth a go. Good luck.

Hi ,
I am very keen to start the BSD but don’t want to be cooking different meals for the whole family. I can serve up the meals for my kids but they are fussy with veg! I guess I can offer and see. Also don’t want to restrict their calories/carbs so was thinking id do their carbs on the side of my meals? Is is still a healthy diet otherwise for children? YThey are 4 and 7 and in no way are overweight! any advice here welcome!

Hi everyone.I had a good day yesterday.stayed on plan till the evening .then I felt like a curry .so we went to a local malaysian place to eat beef rendang. I avoided the rice but I did eat
A roti prata so I was happy this morning with weight static and Bgl down to 5.7.Interestingly I was discussing mindless eating with my friend Marsie whom I met on these forums and it seems harder to be mindful in winter when we are less active.after reading todays posts Ive searched out some knitting and banned the family from bringing any goodies into the house..Koko

yeah, me too JGwen

Had a night out and gained around 1lb since Monday but no worries as the pool is warm and I had 40 mins yesterday and will do the same again today so that should have some impact. My BG was 3.8 this morning so insulin will be reduced again.

I decided to have a complete change of menu this week so I went through the BSD recipe book and made a list. So far we have had the Spicy Cajun Bean Burger – absolute slop but I didn’t firm them up in the fridge first. Tuesday night was Stuffed Red Pepper (stuffed with lentils) – again not great but would make again using a meat filling as the lentils are not much better calories and higher carbs. Tonight we are having the chicken wrapped in parma ham which I have made many time, so not exactly new. At least it should be good. Although not part of the recipe I will put into a tomato sauce with onions and red pepper and top with hallumi cheese and add on the extra calories.

Hi all, well so much for the nice pork dish at the restaurant. It was belly pork and the fat was white and flabby. I sent it back and asked for the chicken in mushroom sauce and they said I couldn’t have it because the sauce was thickened with flour. Funny how when you make a request they turn into the food police. I guess once you tell them they are responsible. Anyway, I insisted and pushed to sauce to one side and said to the girl – see no sauce, no starch – at least they let me know. They dont understand it is a matter of proportion. If I had ordered the burger and chips it would have been total carb overload. They brought me a mixed salad which was very nice but I was so hungry I had a chicken leg when I got home. Downside of a night out was 3 glasses of wine and a 3/4 pound gain, so up a total of 1lb since Tuesdays weigh it. I did 40 mins in the pool and will be doing the same again today so that should have some impact. Still keeping on…

Verano,
P.s, your courgette soup with a twist sounded very appealin 🙂
When you try the original version only, I think we calculated that it has only 4g carbs and 60 or so cals.

Dear Verano,
thank you for your response. I am not worry about boredom eating tonight. As it happens it’s Thursday and I do fast on Thursdays. I do not eat anything from Wednesday evening until Friday morning so nothing can ‘throw’ me out of my comfort today.
I keep playing all kinds of games with the little ‘un but I think once she goes to bed and I ‘exhale’ then it kicks in. Most of the times it feels I blow the whole day’s commitment in 5 seconds.
I think I’ll follow your advise and will ‘attack’ the bottom of the garden in the evenings to make it pretty to keep me outdoors as far away from the cupboards as possible. Starting tomorrow after the baby goes to bed 🙂
Am taking my lunch break so will pop to Waitrose to buy 90% chocs and will follow your coffee drinking chocolate melting advise 🙂
Thank you,
Skinny to be
xx

Very helpful talk explaining the protocols used in Dr Fungs clinic on deciding what fasting program is appropriate for clients.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY3cHwOyCmw&app=desktop

Hi all, I have been reading the thread and admiring all your efforts.

I have been sticking to around 800/1000 (during the week)-1100 – 1600 cals (weekend) consequently since I last posted 9 days ago, I have lost the 6 pounds that I gained, so am back to where I was 5 weeks ago, with a 12 pound loss (logging on myfitness pal, so its a good way of keeping track of the highs and lows, I am still about 5 pounds up from where I was last year.

2 stone/28 pounds/12.5kg still to go though, and am really keen to get over this yo/yo of great initial weightloss and then blips of weekend drinking derailments.

5 weeks til my holidays now, so, even a conservative estimate of 2 pounds loss a week, would hopefully get me back into my summer shorts. I think for me, having the holiday target is good, it keeps me focused, also, I am very much aware that I will gain weight for the first 3.5 weeks of the summer holidays, so I am already starting to think about what I will need to do to lose again in the last 2.5 weeks before I am back in school in September. (I know, I know, stop drinking the wine!!!)

ps. confession time, I made home made pizza (very very thin bases) for teh kids at the weekend and I did give in to temptation and had one, but no breakfast and just salad for dinner (and 2 glasses of vino), so although bad, not too awful…?

Hi Skinny to be, Ive just made the courgette soup so your tips came a little late! Anyway, it is lovely but I couldn’t resist adding my own twists. I didn’t have quite enough courgette but I did add a little extra onion which has made it quite carby. My soup works out at just over 10g per serving. I also added 1tbsp of olive oil, a stick of celery and then at the end I couldn’t resist adding a bag of watercress! I also added more water as it was quite thick. So not quite your soup but very lovely none the less! I was surprised when I worked out the calories at just 96 per serving but with the carbs over 10 it’s not really that BSD friendly. Next time I’ll make it with less onion and maybe substitute white onions or shallots.

As for you evening picking I think it’s maybe just a case of mind over matter if it’s ‘mindless’ eating. There’s always the old stand by water, water and more water! When I really ‘fancy something ‘ I make a cup of coffee and have one or two squares of 90% Lindt chocolate. It has great ‘mouth feel’ when the chocolate melts with the coffee. It does sound to me like ‘boredom’ eating. I do jigsaws or you could knit or something anything to keep your mind occupied and your hands busy! Good luck tonight.

I have reported the recent post from someone trying to flog a different diet system.

– I know people have given others advice in the past that providing links to useful sources of information is fine, but not advertising paid services.

Hi fwooty!

Great start.

I’m over 50 and since starting the diet feel fitter and healthier than I did in my 20’s. I have been exercising too, which obviously helps with that, but having a better diet and shifting a few pounds is what gave me the energy to exercise more.

I agree – that’s not a low carb food. Sorry.

Good morning all,

Verano, good luck today with the courgette soup. If you remember, when I posted the recipe a few weeks back, there are a couple of things to remember. One, the most important is to just about cover the courgettes with water. A bit more and it’s too watery and without insufficient texture. The other one is to fry the onions first a bit and when translucent add the courgette to sweat a bit with the onions before you add the water and oxo cubes or whatever seasoning you’re adding.
I completely understand your feeling towards the soup as so did I the first time my Spanish colleague told me about the soup. My reaction was: ‘A courgette is just water so you cook water in water?’ Needless to say I wanted to prove her wrong and I made that soup that day, all those two plus years back. But what a surprise I was in for. Not only it was delish but my little girl who was two at the time polished the bowl and was eating like there was no tomorrow. You may have seen people’s twist to the soup like adding a bit cream etc. I’ve done it too but my preferred version is to get the creamy soup in its ‘naked’ version and then put different topic – e.g. cheese on top or chopped hardboiled egg and the other day I broke one small burger I made into little pieces and put it into the soup and it was surprisingly very tasty too.
I haven’t had the soup chilled as you’re suggesting as the soup could never get the chance to be chilled as it was always eaten. Or cooked at the end of the day so just took it with me to work and was heated up again. But if you try it and you like it and will chill it too, please do let me know how it goes.

I need to say I am struggling getting back to the routine of 800kcals 20g carbs. I am perfectly ok during the day but then when I get home and have dinner then I keep passing places where there is stuff I pick. and although it is BSD friendly it tips me over the calories. I’d get a little spoon of yoghurt, then a teaspoon of double cream, then a babybell or frozen berries with some double cream…. well, you get the idea. I am not sure how to curb that evening monster in me. I am NOT hungry or sometimes not even peckish but for the love of me I am struggling.

Any ideas who to get back on track please?

Have a wonderful mid-summer all.
Lots of love
Skinny to be
xx

Hi all. Just popped by to reiterate what CaliforniaGirl said. I’ve been at target weight for a couple of years now and find I just follow the low carb thing without even thinking really. And my hypoglycaemia is a thing of the past, which is great. BUT! If I do eat carbs, other than veg, a bit of porridge or lentils/pulses, it is immediately backly with knobs on! I ate some roasties and a pudding on Mothers Day, for example, and felt wobbly, dizzy and sleepy for the rest of the day. It’s just not worth it for me. I look at cakes in a shop window and they make me feel dizzy, so that’s good! Good luck to you all. For me, it’s keep the carbs right down and then the BS can’t rise and therefore can’t crash either. Not for everyone, obviously, but works for me!
Oh, and for anyone that remembers me, I’m still very loved up and just moved in with my lovely fella! That takes my mind off food, for sure!

Good morning and happy Midsummer day. Looks like a typical summers day here, sunshine and clouds!

Good to read of all the successes this week. Today I am going to make courgette soup, at last! I think I may try it chilled but will see when I’ve made it. I must admit I can’t imagine that it has much flavour as courgettes are so bland but I will make it with an open mind and report back later.

I hope you managed last night s-g. I have a difficult weekend ahead. We have the family here for lunch on Saturday and we are with friends for lunch on Sunday. Not sure which will be easiest!

Anyway, enjoy the longest day of the year and let the sun shine on our lives!

Vulcan463

Hope you’re still around?

Sorry to hear of all the stress you are under and hope that you manage to find some way forward. I did wonder though whether rather than walking away from the BSD completely you might want to consider doing it on a 5:2? Ie on a low calorie/carb basis 2 days a week then eat normally the rest of the week. Your normal eating could perhaps be along Mediterranean lines where possible, but when not there is no need for guilt trips or anything.

A gentler solution like this could lead to weight loss and body changes at a slower pace and without the constant attention to detail that the Fast800 needs. It would also gradually get your body into the groove of surviving on lower calories from time to time, which would help you when you do restart the BSD in earnest.

Good luck with whatever you do!

Well, been trying some of the recipes out from the Original book and forgot how tasty and substantial some are!
I now need to plan a weeks menu, and make a huge effort to stay on track throughout the day as am so tempted to pick at food ( even if low carb) although the medication am on creates a hunger that is at times uncontrollable!

I have the principles of this woe embedded in my brain , just need to create a menu showing 800 cals a day – will use ideas from menu in book.

Has anyone shared their daily menu on here?
How do you upload a picture?

Yes! I totally agree with you CaliforniaGirl.

I forgot to mention that I also changed over to the Paleo diet. I used to think that going Paleo was all about ‘meat, meat and more meat’. But I found its not. Its about getting rid of all the grains and sugars in our diet and you end up with a very balanced diet like what you suggested. The science behind Paleo is that our stomachs cannot digest grains and over time causes more and more inflammation, which then leads to all sorts of diseases such as diabetes, heart problems, cancers, etc.

Changing over to Paleo has helped both my husband, who doesn’t have diabetes but needed to lose a lot of weight, and myself. Its all still new (-ish) for me but I can see the gradual progress of my health returning in many other ways.

I still have to work on these stress problems to lose all the weight I put on in the past 10 years. I can lose a bit, but I have stopped the rapid weight gain that was previously happening to me.

JGwen, your experience is really helpful, thank you. I’ll see if I can keep the carb load for later in the day. That would totally work for my schedule as well. It’s also helpful know that it might just be temporary as my body adjusts.

Maggie, thanks for the info. I know fasting helps with clear-mindedness. It’s the lack of sleep that fogs it up. After asking about it last week I did switch to low carb (<50g), though I had a couple of days during the week that went above that, though not by much. Maybe that was enough to cause trouble? Or maybe it is just an adjustment period.

I’ll see what happens when I reserve most of the carbs for the evening meal, then.

Hi Stressed out, Mrs Honey and Riboflavin. I have some suggestions from my own experience in the past two years following BSD (five months to get to goal and two years maintenance on July 1) — maybe it can help you — I struggled with awful low blood sugar and symptoms — weird lip numbness, creepy cold sensations, hands tingling, dizziness, complete exhaustion — sometimes quite terrifying so I know also the adrenaline response to it all.
The number one solution to my issues was to keep your carb intake both very very low AND only eat complex vegetable carbs when you do eat carbs. Absolutely NO flour, breads, sugars, fruit juices, no grains, no oatmeal, no crackers, no fruit except in tiny quantities, no potatoes.
Once I got to a very low carb intake (and that is 20-30 grams per day of vegetables and nuts and seeds and a small amount of whole milk yogurt) my symptoms cleared up.
And, I can even fast for 24 hours now, with NO low blood sugar episodes.
I had only one creepy low blood sugar event in the last two years, when I ate a butterscotch pudding cup at a wedding. Disaster. But it reminded me that I have to be careful.

With regard to cheese, I recall reading an article once that said recent research studies found that people who ate cheese tended not to get diabetes. Not that I am advocating eating a lot of it, but small amounts when necessary – without carbs (crackers, bread, etc) – I have found to be helpful at stressful times of the day when insulin is very low. I think its the Casein in cheese, which is a slow-release protein, that is helpful.

Unfortunately, there are some people who are allergic to casein. Hopefully you are not one of them.