Hi maisiesmum
Thank you for your lunch ideas. I was feeling a bit daunted as to where to start, but you’ve given me some good suggestions. I only need to lose about 7lbs but as I’m only short any weight gain seems to be really noticeable, especially on my thighs 😕. Have you been on this diet for long and how have you found it works for you?

Hi friends!
As you will have seen, I’ve set up the next 4 week challenge.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend? I’m away at friends in Nottingham right now and am having a lovely time catching up with the girlies. We spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday at Fiona’s studio which she shares with 3 other artists. They each have a corner each. One does pottery, another glass wear, Fi and the 3rd person paint in various mediums. It was wonderful after 3 years to pick up a brush again but I am so rusty! The building was an old abandoned warehouse once used by a carpenter. He just up and left leaving all his tools and workbenches. It also has a roof terrace, where we sat and enjoyed the view over the city in the sun. It has a wood burner, fridge, microwave, sink, kettle and bathroom so you could spend days there! Lots of comfy old armchairs grouped around with plenty of plants,lots of artwork all over the walls and the wonderful smell of oils! We got back to Fi’s and their men had cooked wonderful bsd friendly food! They’re all on board with this WOE. Back home later this afternoon and on holiday at home for the week.
I have lots of posts to catch up on so apologies for not replying to anything specific.
Last 2 days, Zoomers. Once last sprint to the finishing line!
Have a lovely Sunday, my lovelies! 😁👍👍😘

Good morning Zoomers!
Here’s the next 4 week challenge thread ready for Tuesday. Does anyone want to host or shall we just run it between ourselves this time?
Good luck everyone!
Kazzeexx

Hello, lightswitch, and welcome to the community 🙂 Without knowing much about you, the best I can do is to generalize
about the BSD, and hope that it might help you to make a decision about whether or not this way of life might be of
help to you. There are other vegetarians here, and they have found ways to be very successful in lowering their carb
intake. Basically this is a low carb, moderate protein, high (healthy) fat lifestyle. A lot of us have researched low carb,
whole food based mediterranean diets, and the accepted definition of low carb is <50g of net carbs per day. The Fast800
is predicated upon calorie AND carb restriction, so limiting calories alone might be helpful in losing weight short term,
but the carb amounts per day that you are considering really couldn’t be called the BSD. I’m so sorry! 🙂

Allie

Hi Allie
Here I am back again with what I feel is a major problem . I am hoping that other respected travellers can also give advice on how to handle this issue as I am at the end of my tether. as you are ware my daughter has health issues such as insulin/leptin resistance, ibs, pcos and a learning disability and I have put her on the BSD diet on the 22 Nd of April so that she could improve her insulin resistance and also bring her weight down from the 79 and a half kilos she was at. Yesterday was weigh day and I am happy to announce that her weight stands at 75.2 kilos.
Now comes the bit that really frustrates me. I caught my daughter rummaging through the fridge and then eating slices of bread. I questioned her on her actions and she finally admitted that she whenever I dropped her off to my friend’s house, (I work part time as a support worker for adults with various disabilities-gives me respite and helps with keeping the kitchen fires burning)she would eat up bananas and ice cream from her fridge. My friend didn’t have the heart to stop her. My daughter said that her cravings were really bad and she couldn’t stop herself from eating carbs she so dearly loves.
I am not sure on how to handle this issue as she has been eating things secretly without my knowledge. Should I serve her a small fun sized apple after dinner? Keto desserts? On one hand I know that sweeteners like Stevia, Xylitol can still cause insulin resistance . Do I have any options at all on how to tackle these cravings? Her belly is still huge but she has lost weight which is positive. A friend suggested some dark chocolate. Are there any desserts that I could make for her, even something simple as ice cream? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I was also thinking of strawberries as well. I look forward for suggestions. So sorry for disturbing all of you with my issues.

Hi Amandalovescharlie
I also am a non-meat eater, I usually make my pack up the evening before such as: assorted chopped salads with cottage cheese or boiled eggs or feta, few olives. Tinned drained lentils or chick peas or other legumes made into a salad with similar additional protein or cold quorn sausages. I add something interesting like rocket, grated beetroot, pickles. Homemade hummus with veggie sticks for dipping, falafels, quorn or Linda Mc Cartney items marinated in tandoori flavourings then baked ( I just mix tandoori powder with plain yog) I make a crustless quiche with beaten egg, fromage frais or yog, seasoning and a selection of sauteed veg cut small (today we had loads of peppers and mushrooms to eat up so used them) bake it in a one person lasagne dish bought from Poundland and take it in the dish! I like zingy food so often add capers, olives, gherkins to meals for flavour. Hope that helps.
Sometimes I have enough of the previous evenings meal to warm up like a veggie curry or take homemade soup which I make loads of and freeze. I usually add a yogurt, a piece of fruit to ensure I’m full!

Will you loose weight staying around 90g of carbs a day. – The answer has to be ….. it depends.

The work of people like Jason Fung and Dr Bikman identify that if your carb intake is high enough to cause high insulin levels your body will not be able to draw on its fat stores for fuel. Instead the body will adapt to require less calories. How high is too high carbs or insulin levels, well that’s different for each individual. Its not one size fits all.

I bought my L-carnitine from Holland and Bennet. They had the 30 tablet bottles of 500g tablets on sale at half price. – But apparently the bottles containing more of the same size tablets were not on sale !

Personally I have aimed for around the 20g mark for carbs to achieve weight loss, but I realise this is easier if you have dairy products and eggs. – I am currently researching fasting mimicking diets, because I think that would be helpful to avoid loose skin, and for future maintenance.

Dear lessmuffintop,
Thank you for such an illuminating reply-you have a point about the fat molecules taking longer to go through the digestive tract. I feel that that’s what caused the horrible pain. These forums are so helpful, many of us know very little about this way of eating and it’s thanks to you all that we attain so much knowledge in the process. I thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.

Wow JGwen thanks for such a brilliantly illuminating reply, I really appreciate it.

As for whether I want to lose weight or fat, I should have been more specific: fat. I haven’t got loads of muscle by any means but have built a bit doing resistance exercises on and off the past year and would want to maintain most of it (though I would imagine on whichever fat loss diet some lean tissue will be lost, which is fine).

If I recall, Boots sell (or certainly did) L-carnitine as a supplement so I will keep an eye out.

So what is low carb for me is not low carb in the grand scheme. But will I still lose from the calorie deficit, albeit not as rapidly as someone who is under 50g and 20g of carbs?

I think I will give it a go. I shall continue trying to exercise as well. I know Dr Moseley recommends HIIT but I mist admit I prefer steady state cardio even if it is not as efficient. It’s easier for my motivation-wise and I like the calming effects of aerobic exercise.

Also, congratulations on a phenomenal loss of 6st in 9 months. You must look and feel like a different person!! Inspiring stuff. If I could lose 3 to get me down to 13st (at 5’11) I would be very happy.

Thanks again for sharing your experience and thoughts.

Hi new to the forum and wondered if anyone could direct me on lunchtime recipes? I work full time and need recipes which are quick to prepare. The 8 week blood sugar diet book has a very limited choice for people who prefer veggies to meat/fish. Many thanks ☺

I have used the 5:2 BSD for all my meals for the last 3 weeks and am really enjoying them but I have found only some of the recipes give guidance on how long excess food can be stored for and I would like to know more. In particular I was hoping you could tell me how long the seedy flapjacks can be stored for in a airtight container safely. I made awhole batch but the family are eating it slowly and I don’t want to throw it all out. Don’t know which stuff I can freeze etc as guidance is a bit intermittent with the recipes. Anyone know??? Thanks

Oh, that’s a shame Marie, but good that you know definitely. Best of luck with the rest of your fitness regime.

Another way to look at it is that every gram of carb you eat you retain 3-4 grams of water.
https://paleoleap.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-water-weight/
As we’re not camels crossing the desert it seems an insane price to pay for a few minutes of indulgence.

Hi Me too,
There seems to be a number of common themes on this forum, one of which is people who have done a few weeks low carb, have lost the weight they wanted to loose, but then come back to the forums months or years later because some of the weight has crept on again. – I think that those of us who have a lot of weight to loose have an advantage because we spend much longer on low carbs having multiple rounds of 8 weeks and our taste buds and what we consider to be a treat change during that time.
I think that its important to get into the mindset that moving to low carb as well as monitoring calories is going to be a change for life, not just for 8 weeks, especially for a diabetic, but doesn’t mean that there can never be a day in the rest of your life that you can’t celebrate with treats. – Its just that the nature of those treats needs to change. If you are eating low carb and low cal and are loosing weight then you know that once you reach your targets if there is a day when you eat more carbs and cals so that you put weight on you have the option of cutting back on carbs and cals for a time to get back to your maintenance.

Hi all. Some positives:
1) Really enjoying this website – so many achievements and continuing support out there
2) Successfully maintaining my 3 stone loss, even with the occasional indulgence (yes sushi #caro). Hopefully enough wriggle room for…
3) Heading to the UK tonight for 10 days of catching up with family and friends. Yeah!

Bless him. Isn’t he lovely 😍

Hi everyone, happy Saturday. I am still going strong and lost 1kg since Tuesday so I am keen to keep at it over the weekend. Last night I realised my hubby had not had his usual ‘weekend’ glass of red and I thanked him for being considerate. He said, ‘yeah well, I know you will look daggers at me’ – oh dear, I think he is right. Anyway, only 5 days before I see the doctor and I would love another kilo off to be the same I last visit. That is my goal for this week.

Hi there me too, the Fast 800 is a long haul not sprint, so one can expect fluctuations in cal intake day on day anyway, so the idea of saving calories to allow for a larger intake later on is fine, if you can realistically manage on only 700 for 5 days. However sunshine’s caution re: carbs is worth heeding. Do allow yourself some leaway to celebrate you special day though, enjoy it and be sure to get straight back to the full on BSD straight after. You’ll probably find doing this, that any transgression has little impact and any small gain will be quickly dealt with.

Have a happy birthday and enjoy.!

@ChimpTamer, I was thinking about your dilemma because I had people over for dinner last night. I am lucky in that I am not doing this for severe health related issues (just to prevent them down the line!), so I just ate what everyone else was eating with some minor adjustments. Plus it’s pre-start week for me! Ha!

I was thinking maybe if you expect to go to to someone’s how for a quick stay or a meal then just maybe you can bring something along either to share, or for a private snack if you can’t eat much of what’s offered. For more extended stays maybe you could offer to help with the cooking or to make one dish for each meal. These aren’t great solutions, I know, but just thinking through some possibilities to mitigate the damage without inconveniencing the host.

I’ve lost 1.5 kg in the last few days, as I feel out the process a little bit. I am guessing that won’t be consistent – I know there are just a lot of ups and downs and I’m hesitant to even attribute it to the change because it was so quick.

Hi Elaar congrats to you be your OH on excellent results. Have to agree with sunshine-girl on the carbs question. I know that many of us maintainers are very wary in our approach to increased carb in take, but find upping the calories has much less negative affect. As she says, if it’s possible for your OH to have just the occasional roast potatoes, or a scoop of ice cream without it becoming a habit or completely messing up his BS readings, then fine.

It’s all a question of trial and error and we are all unique and have to find our own balance, but if a cautious approach is taken, any potential fall out will be minimal and easily rectified. Many of us struggle in the early days of maintenance, suddenly being ‘let out on our own’ as it were, after the restrictions of the initial weeks on this wonderful way of eating. There will be doubts, wobbles and possibly errors, but we’ll be here to offer support when needed.

Best of luck to you both.

So many old names returned here! Welcome back to all of you!

Hi Caro and everyone else! Caro, you asked whether you will ever be able to eat carbs again (and congratulations on your excellent 8 week’s) — my experience is that of course, YES, you can eat some carbs, you MAY have some sushi, BUT only as a treat now and then — if you start back on the carb wagon, and you are carb-sensitive as you have stated that you are, then regular eating of carbs will start the weight gain again.
The research is getting more and more clear — we don’t NEED white carbs and flour and rice — we live most healthfully on a vegetable and good protein and good fat diet. Actually the research is amazing — it is supporting a completely different diet than the one we were trained to eat.
As you already discovered in your 8 weeks, carbohydrate intake affects the speed of your weight loss — so start experimenting to find your own “carb threshold” — eat a bit of good carbs (more quinoa, a bit of potato, sushi!!, and see for yourself where that takes you.
When you stop losing and start gaining, you will have found your own carb threshold. The only real problem is that one carby meal often leads to another and it can be a slippery slope.
Every person’s body is going to be different due to genetic differences and even different expression of specific genes — so you have to become your own body’s expert. But you are uniquely qualified to be your own expert because you’re living inside that body!

Hi everyone, hi Frog, good to see you. We are all in the same boat here. I have never come off the carb part of the diet except when given no choice but the pounds do tend to creep back so here we are, starting again but not from scratch. We have the knowledge and know it works.
Another good day yesterday. I havent been posting what I eat but at the moment my breakfasts are strawberries, yoghurt and a different choice of seed or nut as I have strawberries by the dozen in the garden. I put some to one side in the freezer and hubby will use them to make jam when there is enough but it is a shame not to eat them every day when they are there.
Another weight loss and sleeping a bit better now I am getting the wine out of my system. The pool was back to 24 yesterday so I had a 35 min swim and will be back in later today. Enjoy your weekend and keep it real – no carbs.

Hello. I hadn’t realised that this challenge was almost over but I’m delighted. I so need to get back to plan and the new challenge couldn’t come at a better time for me. As for a title …. a rose by any other name, and all that. Just looking forward to joining you all next week.

Elaar, well done to you and your hubby. Like Krysia I cannot help you personally as I dont know either of you or how your bodies would react. To your husband I would say, if he had been a smoker and stopped would he go back and have the occasional ciggie, if he was an alcoholic would he just have a few drinks now. I think the answer would be no. However, it is not as serious as that as we all have to continue eating food but carbs can have a terrible habit of creeping up on us. If it was me (and it is as I have seriously improved my diabetes to almost normal but still on some meds) I would not allow carbs to creep in on a daily basis, not even the good carbs like quinoa or brown rice as they are still high in carb. For me they are a now and then treat like one bread roll or steal a couple of chips from hubby when out for an occasional meal. It also depends on how your husband reacts – can he stop at one carb a month or will one bread roll become 2 and then every day until he is back where he started. You say sugar (and I assume cake etc) are a no, no, but surely he must know by now that bread turns to sugar just as do potatoes, rice, pasta etc. Some worse than others.

I little lesson I learnt while on holiday. My bloods were running at around 5.0 (90) and I kept away from carbs. One day we landed in Italy and in the restaurant there was no choice – pasta or pizza – I went for the pasta and couldn’t even eat it all. Next morning my BG was 8.8. It took me nearly a week to get my numbers back down. That was just one starchy meal. Also, if you watched The Truth About Carbs, given the choice of two foods (cant remember exact) how much sugar did they think was in say a chocolate muffin and a small portion of white rice – the answer was shocking at 10 cubs for the muffin and about 30 for the rice. It turns to sugar in the blood.

I think your husband has seen the Miracle work here and will want to do the best for him. Good luck.

Hi Frog yes all good here thanks just need to get back on track, again! I have read the guts book and did find it interesting but don’t think I need to follow the ideas in it. I think I may need to order the ‘ hard’ copy of Pioppi as it’s too cumbersome on kindle for a reference book. Enjoy both!

Hi KrysiaD
Yes he hasn’t actually checked his levels at home so that would be a good idea after meals.
He is not interested in bread so that’s ok. Thanks for the advice we will try things out

Hi me too – good you are supporting your husband. I know you can save ‘points’ and ‘syns’ on some diets (WW and SW) but this diet doesn’t work like that. For starters, if you are doing the Fast 800 (you posted in Welcome to BSD so I dont know) you are on a very low level of calories – just as it doesn’t allow you to store up exercise to increase calories. This is a completely different but balanced system to shock the body into shedding internal fat which is the important bit for diabetics and everyone else too but especially diabetics as it can free up the liver and pancreas to do their job better. Cutting to 700 and then having a blow out on your birthday would, of course, have an effect on your weight loss. BUT, and I will get into trouble for saying this, you are not diabetic and it will not kill you to relax for just one meal. The problem is that most people cannot stop at that and you have already done the hard work of getting the carbs out of your system so you dont want to spoil that. I would suggest that you both stick with the 800 and agree to have a small treat on the day, but stay away from the carbs. Hubby has the right idea with the steak without chips and that would do little harm. The carbs are the important thing on this plan for diabetics. Enjoy your meal, have a glass of champagne and get straight back on it the next day. Remember it might stall your weight loss or you might even gain but dont let that derail you. We are all here doing this plan, sometimes over and over (you cannot live on 800 for life) but we keep on keeping on…

Elaar – well done to you for supporting your husband (of course he has done brilliantly also). Actually that’s quite a difficult question to answer. If I was him I would stay off not just the sugar but the bread also and anything high carb because it is not just the sugar that causes the problem.

I was on insulin and my diabetes is in remission but because I have severe insulin resistance I cannot have more than 20g carbs a day. If I do my blood sugars go through the roof after meals.

Your husband may have more leeway than I have and may be able to tolerate more carbs. I am finding that testing blood sugars 2 hours after a meal very helpful. He could try a higher carb meal and see what his blood sugars are like.

There are many very experienced and knowledgeable members on this forum who will be able to give excellent advice.

Hello All supporting my hubbie and both doing well , husbands blood sugars slowly going down too
. Beginning of july is my birthday and I have asked our family to delay the celebrations they planned for me until at least we have done the 8 weeks
Although fingers crossed perhaps my husbands diabetes could be in remission before then ?? He only needs to loose another 12 1bs to be back to advised optimum weight. getting average 6.5 (few glitches)but still only cut the meds by half tab of met and half glyc.. so although the numbers are lower he is I guess still reliant on the meds ,
Anyway my husband wants us both at least go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday .I generally sort /cook our food actually love the challenge !! (he shops preps and clears !) He wants me to shave off 100 cals per day for 5 days so that he has 500 calories towards the meal It was interesting he wanted to use it for a higher calorie steak ….. and not the chips which is what I thought he would go for !!and 2 glasses of Champagne. your thoughts lovely people please ?

ps watched “truth about Carbs” bbc very interesting did anyone else watch this ?

Hi Lightswitch,

Welcome to the forum. – I am a life long vegetarian who has been following a Low Carb diet since October 2017. -I presume you are used to spending time researching diet, but if I have the tone of this reply wrong please let me know and ask any questions.
I have always eaten a low calorie diet, and have not eaten meat from as early an age as I can remember because I have a strong reaction to meat fat. I have always struggled with my weight, it has been a revelation to me the science behind the links between carbs, blood sugar, insulin and accessibility of stored fat. – On these forums there seems to be a mixture of people who need to loose a relatively small amount of weight (around a stone) and those who want to target health problems or who have a lot of weight to loose. For the latter group “normal” low carb level is around the 50g carbs spread over the course of the day, and some find that to be effective on weight loss they need to aim for around 20g of carbs per day. This is taking it beyond the figures in the BSD book, but is based on practical experience of people who are in maintenance having lost substantial amounts of weight. There are many members of the forum who enjoy learning about advances in science in this area and sharing the information on how they put them into practice with other forum members.

I would recommend having a browse through the Take a look at this thread on the forum for links to useful podcasts. Jason Fung podcasts are particularly useful in understanding how raised insulin levels prevent the body in accessing stored fat, and importantly how if you have a high carb/low calorie diet your body adapts to become more efficient so you need less calories to maintain that weight, while if you have low carb and calorie restricted diet your body does not adapt to the calorie reduction.
There is also a link to a video by Dr Bikman I posted about a month ago on that thread that I think helps with the science particularly regarding protein levels. I realise that one of the reasons for none meat eaters having higher carb levels than meat eaters is the concern about maintaining protein levels and therefore the mixture of pulses in the diet. – However, the current research into Autophagy suggests that periods of very low protein intake are positive for the body. Autophagy is the process where the body breaks down old cells and reuse the components to create new cells. It appears that Autophagy occurs when protein intake is low, and as one of the benefits of autophagy is prevention of loose skin during rapid weight loss its a target a number of us have.
Is your focus on loosing weight or loosing fat? = The two are not necessarily the same. Increasing the ratio of muscle against fat will produce what people on the forum describe as None Scale Victories. (NSV) inch loss, increase in fitness, but no weight loss. – As a result of the video by Bikman I have been ‘experimenting’ on taking L-carnitine as a supplement. The main source of this trace element in our diet is meat, you can get lower levels from some foods most of which are off the menu if you are eating low car. L-carnitine helps to transport fat, particularly long-chain fatty acids, into the mitochondria of cells. Once there, they can be oxidized—used as fuel. My experience is that since starting this Way of Eating in mid October I have lost 6 st, however since taking L-carnitine I have continued to loose inches but my weight loss has dropped down to the rate of 1kg a month but my ability to maintain physical activity and body temps have increased.

Hi everyone
I’m here because my Husband has reversed his diabetes and blood pressure/liver problems in 10 weeks by following this lifestyle and diet programme. He has lost 42lb in 5 months and is now 14 st 13lbs, now walks and actually enjoys exercise. He had been on blood pressure medication for 9 years. His doctor said it’s a MIRACLE!
It has completely changed our lives. Also I’ve lost 8lb by just eating the same foods, but supplementing my diet with extra carbs, so I’m feeling great too. On his day of diagnosis of being type 2 I bought him a step counter watch and the recipe book. I made sure he cooked the recipes too to understand how it worked. Lots of walking and we moved house and live on the second steepest road in the U.K. and two flights of stairs instead of a bungalow which has helped 😄
We are just so grateful. Now though the maintenance ? I understand to increase the amounts of food in a meal but
What about pasta, bread etc. I’m going to try pea pasta, lentil pasta, chick pea pasta occasionally for him , brown rice , dark quinoa. Any advice here? Obviously sugar is a big fat NO but he’s enjoying his new body so much he won’t go back EVER

result – Amazon special offer 2 for £7, Mosely “guts” book and Pioppi diet are on their way

Hi Verano, how are you
the book sounds good, will seek it out.
There was a whole vogue of “little and often” eating plans a while ago – but not snacking makes more sense – it’s the evenings where I’m not hungry and have a snack rather than a meal that I usually (used to!) end up eating a lot more!

Hi Frog! Good to ‘see’ you again. I’m reading the Pioppi diet plan at the moment and it’s really interesting. One chapter is entitled ‘Stop Counting Calories and Stop Snacking’.the summary of the chapter is as follows…..
1. Different sources of calories have a different metabolic effect on the body.
2. When it comes to satiety fat, fibre and proteins are kings, but sugar and refined carbs keep you constantly hungry.
3. Low-fat, calorie restricted diets do not improve health outcomes.
4. Low-fat, calorie diets have an adverse effect on HDL cholesterol.
5. Weight cycling from yo-yo dieting can harm health by increasing he risk of high blood pressure, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation.

From memory, which isn’t too good at the moment, I think what he was saying was that in times past we ate three meals a day. Now it’s six: breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack. If we go back to eating two or three meals a day without snacking the calories should take care of themselves. I guess with a little conscious effort they will.
A lot of what is said in the book mirrors BSD but I like the style of writing and I’m finding it really informative.

Hi everyone I shall try to be brief. Vegan for 23 years, have had success in the past following a whole foods, plant-based diet (with no added oils). Due to lifestyle issues I am looking for a rapid loss of around 28lb. I have lost 10-11KGs in a few months bit have stalled.

If I did the BSD I would eat pulses and vegetables (and eat once a day only, I prefer eating once a day whether I am following a plan or not). MY carb intake each day would be 86g to 93g (around 388cal worth) depending on the combinations of veg and pulses I eat.

Now, to the WFBP person this is ultra low carb. And I thought that I would benefit weightloss-wise from eating just 800cal a day, even if it is higher in carbs than the diet others eat.

Having read these forums I am not so sure. I get the impression that I will be caught between the BSD and WFBP stools, following a bit of each, but not lose much as a result.

So, my question is this: is it worth me doing the BSD if my carbs will be around the above levels each day?

Good morning and so it’s DAY 5 of 7. Sorry I’ve missed most of this week but I did get weighed this morning and the damage was slightly less than I’d thought. So good news there! Bad news is that I’m 1.4lbs over my absolute top trigger weight! I have kept away from refined carbs but with a little, or maybe a lot, of Allie’s ‘wine creep’ and generous portions I now need to get back to serious BSD to repair the damage.

I know the weekends can be difficult but I hope everyone continues to meet their goals and I will do my very best to get back on track for a brand new start next Tuesday.

HI Krysia
Yes, I’d never done supplements before – truly weird.
It has made me think about buying some of the high protein.low carb energy bars that are about to keep handy for when there aren’t easy low carb choices – I haven’t tried one yet, but the bars that I got with this diet were actually on the less sugary side of the spectrum compared to the shakes.
I suppose that if you restrict calories to 600/800 a day, you will lose weight – but for me eating dehydrated stuff out of a packet isn’t a sustainable way of doing it.
I mostly eat at work – we have a fantastic chef and a healthy food ethos, apart from the croissants and puddings, , so I’m trying BSD principles without weighing & counting obsessively like last time, There’s still a spreadsheet with a log and guesstimates, just making healthy low carb choices and small portions, so really keen to see how that goes. I watched that BBC white/beige and green carb program last night after reading about it on another thread – it was late and I fell asleep part way through, but it made a lot of sense.
Rebecca – water, still or sparkling, with several slices of cucumber in is my current favourite!

Hi All if you want to see the definitive exploration of sugar and carbs look no further than this. Be warned its quit sciency and you may meed to watch it more than once
https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM

Hi MaggieBath
Thanks, you’re question is timely.
As well as my waist measurement, my body fat levels and visceral fat levels are still a bit high (I’ve monitored both almost from the start of BSD using a body scan thing at the gym) which is why at some point I think I will definitely need to lose a bit more weight.
I was on an exercise on prescription programme from October until recently where I did a general programme of gym work and exercise classes determined by the trainer (and Pilates chosen by me).That’s just finished. I’m going to keep going at the Centre on my own but have decided to try adding in a few more targeted exercises to see if I can tone specific parts of my body – will see how it goes!

Hi all,
So I’m on day 6 of starting again and I’m 6lbs down…. sleeping better, starting to feel less lethargic but am in the headache stage… I don’t mind though as I know it will pass and the results will be worth it… it’s been ok so far – First hard moment was friends over last night and resisting a drink but I managed it…!!
Today I’m off shopping for a few holiday bits as just over 3 weeks until I go hence why I’m doing this… the swimsuit is hanging on my wardrobe door as my daily reminder!!!

So today will be 2 hard boiled eggs as usual, I will have a salad when I get back from shopping later and then tonight I’m making the chicken and mushroom “pie” from Michael’s book. It’s so yummy…!!
Tomorrow will be the same for breakfast and lunch – I am mixing my salads up by having different pickled things like beetroot or cabbage or onions or capers.. makes it much more interesting! We will then be having steak for dinner with salad again but somehow it’s easier this time of year… however… I get so bored of chopping!!! Lol!!!

Hope everyone is doing ok – my supermarket mission today is to get some low calorie drinks for the evenings… maybe some different fruit teas which I could let cool and have over ice… we will see… lots of ideas to move away from just slimline tonic….
Have a great Saturday!!!

Rebecca xxx

Hi All

Restarting again after doing really well and weight has creeped back on…..need to get off the carbs! Generally feeling rubbish and lacking in energy.

Love to join you guys for support

Thanks Meeshe

Ooh, I love this – “Zoomers, Reach For The Sky! Low Carbs in July!”. Great job, Buddhaswife.

So, I completed my first 8 weeks and lost 1stone 5lbs, which I’m thrilled about. I have about a stone and a half to go to get into my target weight. I decided to give myself a break and do 5:2 for 3-4 weeks and then do another 8 weeks 800kc/20g as I discovered towards the end of tmy first stint that the 20g carbs really does seem to apply to me. I’m finding it interesting that on my non-fast days I pretty much do the same as I was on the 800 days anyway. Not all the time, but the WOE is entrenched, even down to the amounts! My issue though is that I am *still* struggling with the no carbs thing, especially now that I have the freedom of non fast days. So yesterday, for the first time in 10.5 weeks I had half a jacket potato! And I ate some lentil crisps that turned out to also have rice and potato flour in them (I knew before I ate them). So, my question is to the long-termers and maintainers – do you ever have carbs and accept the spikes that go along with it? Or do you now choose to not ever indulge? I appreciate and accept that it’s better to avoid but I’m not sure I can do that forever. Seriously, no more sushi, ever?! I’m also wondering if there are any articles regarding the longterm effects of going low carb – is it healthy to permanently stay so low? I think I know the answers to these questions really, I just need to vent a bit and be encouraged.

Caro
x

Martymonster – thanks for the recipe book recommendation – I’ve popped it into my Amazon basket to have a look at later

Kazz – thanks for the alert – I’ll definitely be watching the ITV programme

MaggieBath – will look at Malcolm Kendrick’s work – thanks

Caro – what great news about your BP meds – my husband is on BP meds and I keep trying to encourage him to do BSD to help (I was never on meds but my BP has dropped from high/pre-high into consistent normal range).Not persuaded him yet but I live in hope.

Krysia – yes, it’s definitely the way forward for me. Btw, my husband is a bread fiend too, he didn’t watch the programme but I’ve already frozen the bread!

JGwen – it is quite exciting to think that the NHS might actually – at last – be making a U turn with regards to dietary advice for T2D.

Just to join in with the Freestyle libra bloodsugar monitor discussion. I used it when I was on insulin – but I wasn’t totally happy with it as it would show I was having a hypo when I wasn’t and I was often having to double check results with my Aviva monitor. I did have to send a couple back because they didn’t work properly. When they did work they were absolutely brilliant. That was 2016 so maybe they are much more reliable now.

Marie123 – you are absolutely right – the key to staying on this WOE is finding the foods that we really enjoy eating so that it is a joy to stay in the BSD and not a hardship.

Hi everyone – just popped in here to comment about what to say about changes to diet and drinking habits. I’ve told a fair few people the truth and they’ve all been very supportive. I say that I’m eating low carb and not drinking due to the calories, but that it’s not for ever. Otherwise, I say I’m on a diet for health reasons and leave it at that (because I think that then they don’t assume it’s “vanity” and try to talk you out of it). I think sometimes we also expect people to notice the changes we make and in fact they don’t, until we point them out!

Caro
x

Hi JGwen,
I’ve also put the fibre/carb thing on the back burner. Will need to get my head around it, though.

Yes, I looked at the Freestyle Libre but decided against it because of the cost and also because quite a few people are still experiencing problems with it. If I ever do get one my plan would be to use it for an initial 2 weeks to see what my bgls do 24/7 and see if I can make any improvements to diet, lifestyle etc, then purchase a monitor maybe 2 or 3 times a year to do a 2-week spot check of how things are going. When I was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes in August one of the first things I did was get an ordinary, finger-pricking blood glucose monitor. I found it really helpful to understand what was happening with my bgls, the general trend, and also specifically to see how different foods affected my bgls. More recently, I’ve just done tests every now and again to check things are still OK. But now I’m looking to systematically test before and after meals again.

One of the things that resonated with me in the carb TV programme was David Unwin etc talking about this needing to be a way of eating that you enjoy. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Reaching maintenance (for now) my primary goal is to become a really good cook. I’ve never really put much value on cooking (just not my thing – something to be done and gotten out of the way) but after years of yo-yo dieting it’s suddenly struck me that the key for me staying on this way of eating is to cook a wide, wide variety of meals that I really enjoy eating. (Talk about stating the bleedin’ obvious!! ). So, as I said on another thread, it’s time for me to learn to enjoy cooking. And start testing again………

Btw, maybe we should all move to your neck of the woods … that would really bring down the cost, and we could even help with those pesky lambs of yours!!

Hi Frog – nice to see you back. I used to enjoy reading your posts when I first started on the BSD. The supplement diet sounds horrible – and how shocking to have so much sugar in the packets. I tried the slimfast diet in the 1970s – it worked and I lost all the baby weight but I imagine that the packets were full of sugar also. They were truly disgusting.

I’m with you, JGwen! We all love “zoomers”… “Zoomers, Reach For The Sky! Low Carbs in July!” I like it, Buddhaswife!

Thanks for the news about the ITV program KrysiaD, It must be definite then that the NHS is going to launch a change in diet recommendations for diabetics. First the BBC then ITV have a special on the idea in 2 consecutive weeks.