Blood Sugar Diet & Fast 800 Thread 21

[NotDonna]

Here’s a link to our previous thread.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3950031-blood-sugar-diet-and-fast800-thread-20

[NibbleQueen]

I will start off the new thread with a strop. No bloody change in weight today AGAIN, still cruising at 9st9.6. Grrr. Have been sticking to under 50g carbs and 800-1k calories. Possible factors

1. heat!
   
2. stress! Am supposed to be moving house on Monday but we're yet to exchange contracts...
   
3. digestion - haven't "been" properly in a couple of days. Normally rely on pulses to manage this process
   
4. regular plateau - lost close to 3lbs last week so perhaps nothing this week is evening things out

[NotDonna]

Here’s the new thread for the BSD followers, plus those following the Fast800 plan. Everyone is welcome to join us. Here’s a quick recap!

The BSD/fast 800 is a low carb, Mediterranean style way of eating, with the primary aim of stabilising your insulin response when you eat. You achieve this by: eating fewer carbs, cutting out sugar and sweet tasting foods including most fruit, and by following a low calorie plan that reduces your visceral fat meaning that everything functions more effectively. Less insulin means less fat storage (in a nutshell, although more info can be found on this online). The diet was designed to reduce T2 diabetes symptoms (or even reverse it entirely) but can also be used for weight loss.

Eat:
Meats and fish
Oils
Eggs
Full fat dairy products
Nuts, seeds
Pulses/ beans
Veg that grows above ground
Limit fruit: apples, pears, berries- in moderation, with meals, with fats

Occasional alcoholic drinks allowed (spirits, red wine are preferable to beer, lager, etc)
Tea and coffee, herbal tea etc.
And water- drink lots of water!

Avoid
sugar, sweets, and ‘naturally occurring sugars’ such as fructose, maltose, honey, agave, puréed dates etc....

Potatoes of any variety
Pasta
Rice
Breakfast cereals (occasional steel cut oats are ok)
Breads/ flour based products

Exercise:
Michael Moseley recommends HIIT workouts to increase calorie burn and help to tone up, and recommends walking more (increasing your steps weekly until you hit around 10000 a day)

Mindfulness
MM also suggests a programme of mindfulness, meditation, practised for a few minutes each day.

How to follow the plan:
Fast800: follow the plan above, sticking to 800 calories every day for 2 weeks. Ideal to give your weightloss a real kick start, plus improve your insulin function and reduce your sugar cravings.
8 weeks BSD- 8 weeks, follow the guidelines above- 800 calories a day. You don’t need to count carbs grams because the diet is naturally self limiting.
BSD 5:2- for a more leisurely weightloss journey, or as maintenance, or once you’ve done an 8 week stint or 2 weeks of Fast800, you can play around with a combination of increased calorie count, ‘free eating’ and fasting days (800 cals) until you achieve your goals. Many of our long standing members now follow this approach.

You can stop 800 calorie days at any time once you achieve your goal. It’s advised to limit yourself to 12 weeks maximum at 800 calorie days, but you should get excellent results in 8 weeks. Depending on your weightloss goals, you can do further ‘rounds’ of either the 8 week BSD or the Fast800.

Time restricted eating/TRE :
In addition to the fast800/ BSD plan you can incorporate a strategy of time restricted eating. Put simply, this means only eating between certain times each day to maximise your fasting time. TRE has shown to have positive results for weightloss, even if there is no calorie restriction, and increases insulin sensitivity/reduces insulin resistance. At first, try for a clear 12 hours without food each 24 hours, increasing to 16:8 as you get more adept at fasting.

[Cantteach]

I would love to join you all if that's ok. I started the 800 yesterday. I think this has to be it for me. I have had several wake up calls in a very short space of time so I feel as motivated as I ever will to shift the weight. Dh wants to shift a stone so started with me. I think him doing it too could be the key to my success. We already ate in a roughly 8 hour window so I didn't find yesterday too bad.

I've woken up this morning not exactly hungry but wouldn't say no to a slice of toast if you know what I mean. We're having same lunch today as yesterday so it's already prepared so I have no excuses to not follow plan.

We're both vegetarian. The book has some good recipes but I think I'll need more if I'm to keep going. Thank you all for your posts, they are so inspiring

[Kimlek]

Thanks for the new thread!
@NibbleQueen I expect it’s all of those reasons. Again, the podcasts talk a lot about stress and the effect on weight loss. You’re quite light too so the nearer to goal you get will probs be slower. What is your goal?

[justanotherneighinparadise]

I did post right at the end of the last one so I’ll copy it over .....

Couldn’t see the new thread and I just finished the last one off with my ramblings 🤣 I’ll try and copy them over here so we can continue the discussion.

I’ve been eating the oat and pear porridge from the Fast 800 book but kind like it’s not a good idea?

How many carbs are in it do we know? I’m researching low carb every day and learning every day and it seems to me that the main requirement of this WOE is the fast of you want to achieve weight loss. So I can imagine the oats breakfast might be acceptable (depends on portion) as long as the associated insulin spike is contained.

Do for example if you had overnight oats with full fat Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast and a protein lunch, say omlette with salad for lunch and then fasted from 1pm onwards. I think you’d lose weight. But if you had three meals in that day I’m not sure. I linked to a fantastic Fung video last night on buntings thread where Dr Fung explained about your bodies reaction to 1200 calories eaten during a small window and 1200 cals eaten in small amounts across the day. Those small insulin spikes across a day is just not allowing your fat to get burned. So it’s very much a balancing act with low carb. Low carb alone is not the panacea.

I didn’t explain that last bit well. With the whole calories in/calories out concept it doesn’t allow for hormones, namely insulin being released alongside the food. So 1200 eaten in a two hour eating window is going to be metabolised by the body in one sitting and then if you fasted for 22 hours you will burn fat in that time.

1200 split into say six meals of 200 cals and eaten across the day is going to give you insulin spikes across the day which is a message to your body to store fat NOT burn it. So I think the key is in the meals your eating keep your insulin spike as low as possible but the fast is the key to it all.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

@NibbleQueen

I will start off the new thread with a strop. No bloody change in weight today AGAIN, still cruising at 9st9.6. Grrr. Have been sticking to under 50g carbs and 800-1k calories. Possible factors
1) heat!
2) stress! Am supposed to be moving house on Monday but we're yet to exchange contracts...
3) digestion - haven't "been" properly in a couple of days. Normally rely on pulses to manage this process
4) regular plateau - lost close to 3lbs last week so perhaps nothing this week is evening things out

I’m about 15 mins away from ending a 24 hour fast and have lost 3/4 pound. So you can see how hard weight loss is in this weather even if you eat nothing! 🤣

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Welcome Cantteach ✋

[NibbleQueen]

Hey @Kimlek I'm aiming for 9st7. Have never got to this weight with the exception of my wedding, but that's possibly because when I'm normally on a diet it means I'm 10st and losing 1lb or less a week, so I often lose patience before I reach 9st7 and settle somewhere around where I am now

[NibbleQueen]

Anyone else absolutely fed up of the heat? I've just ordered some swanky cashmere loungewear - roll on autumn!

[WeKnowFrogsGoShaLaLaLaLa]

Omg. After days of stupid tiny losses, this morning I have woken up having gained 3lbs overnight.

I'm not letting this heat win!! I'm going to keep on and when the temp drops, my weight will. It'll just have to!!!

[wrensandrobins]

Weighed in and have lost 3lb, taking me to 12st 1 and only 4 lb from not being obese!

It's given me a little boost this morning and motivated to get into the 11 stone bracket and out of the obese label!

I have a Chinese out for my friends birthday Saturday, literally nothing I can do about that, except try and not go mad and make good choices!

Tonight's dinner will be the pinch of nom lemon chicken, with salad! I do find it easier to make good choices in this unbearable heat, it's taken all the hunger out of me 🤣

[NibbleQueen]

Well done wrens! You can do it!
I had a similar situation last weekend - husband and stepDD tucking into kung po chicken, chow mein and various fried starters while I stuck to duck w ginger and spring onion.

[Beroltheperil]

Morning!
Thanks for the new thread. Plan for the day is 3 meals including lots of veg, good protein and olive oil and an apple to snack on. I'm going to do a 16 hour fast overnight too. Not calorie counting yet just trying to build up some discipline in my food and drink choices. The heat makes everything so much harder! I managed a walk this morning but a fraction of my normal. I'm pretty sure we retain water when it's hot so maybe that's why losses are so difficult!!

[NibbleQueen]

@Beroltheperil yes, the heat and lack of exercise! Normally I ride my bike or walk for an hour at lunchtime but at 35c I find my legs are unwilling to cooperate! Probably not sensible to do so in the glaring sun...

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Well done wrens. Fantastic job 👏

Commiserations WeKnow. So bloody annoying! I wish I had an explanation for why our body goes this crazy shit but I bet you tomorrow that scale jump will be gone.

I just ate a large portion of last nights dinner and some Greek yogurt with blueberries. I am back into fasting mode now as I’m stuffed and will stay stuffed for most of the day 🐷

[WhatWillSantaBring]

I need to watch the Jason Fung video, neigh but finding the time to do anything for myself is always a challenge (and i don't like letting the kids seem me obsess about diet and weight). But I think you've explained it quite well and that sort of makes sense in an evolutionary sense.

In my little cave man world, we are in a time of plenty, and the men have gone and caught me a bison. So we cook it and scoff it in one big feast that night. We have to eat it all because it's hot and the meat will go off. We do this every day, but it still takes all day to hunt, and then cook bison, so it's one meal a day, but boy its a good one. My hormones know this is a time of plenty so no need to store fat, but we're IF like crazy.

Fast forward a few years, and we've moved to a colder area, or maybe it's just winter. We can't stray far from the cave, so we have to catch hares or other small creatures, which we can cook and eat quickly and regularly, so we eat little but often. Maybe we have some days where we catch nothing at all. My body knows these are lean times as it's not getting the feasts it used to, plus its cold, so we put on fat stores to keep warm.

Disclaimer: I'm not an evolutionary biologist, so this could be all fiction, but it sort of makes sense as to why our hormones work this way.

[WhatWillSantaBring]

By the way, welcome bunting - really pleased to see you here. You got this!

[justanotherneighinparadise]

I think one of the experts did say yesterday that evolutionarily we are still hunter gathers with communities by the side of a fresh water source. We just don’t have the capacity to deal with the standard western diet. Insulin was only ever there to mop up the glycogen we used during periods of fight or flight. It was never meant to be released constantly to mop up excess sugar.

[Flibbertyjibbit]

Day 1 here of bsd, greek yog and berries for breakfast. We've got avocado and poached egg salad for lunch. I'm drinking lots of water as I'm crazily gardening in the heat wave to keep myself distracted. So glad to have this thread to keep me focused.

My DH is also joining me @Cantteach which I think will definitely be the thing that keeps me on the straight and narrow.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Flibberty I love listening to the low carb podcasts while I do jobs such as gardening. It REALLY helps if you understand the science behind the ‘diet’. I’d recommend a LowCarbMD but there are lots more out there. I just fell down the rabbit hole with that one.

[Flibbertyjibbit]

Thanks @justanotherneighinparadise I'm off to find that podcast, I'm a geek so I will enjoy listening to the science! Full up from lunch, I was worried that 800 calories would leave me starving but so far today I'm not feeling hungry at all.

[Patchworksack]

Hello, checking back in, I joined the tail end of the last thread. DH diagnosed as T2 diabetic a month ago which has necessitated a big change in our WOE. Following a low carb healthy fats/Mediterranean plan at about 1000 cals a day. Experimenting with fasting, 16:8 fairly regularly, trying 24 hrs from one dinner to the next. DH has lost 8kg and has another 7kg to lose (15kg weight loss seems to be kept to getting rid of visceral fat and this will take him to BMI of 22) and I have lost a measly 5lb. I am healthy range BMI so I guess it's harder going to shed the last few pounds. His swanky new scales have horrified me with body fat of 33% though, which is in the obese range despite BMI of 23. So am I a really tiny lean person with an enormously fat arse attached?? So I'd like to drop another 5lb but also get body fat below 30 if anyone has any brilliant ideas?

[Patchworksack]

We had Portobello pizza and salad for lunch and it was delicious - even better than the real thing!

[Madhatterhouse]

@Patchworksack I’m also really interested in what people have done re: exercise/macros to get their fat percentage down and increase their lean mass. I have a BMI of 23 after losing almost 9kg or 20lbs with this WOE, but I know just from looking in the mirror my fat % is still way too high.

[Dinnerfor1]

I’d got into a really good exercise routine but it’s totally gone to pot in this heat. Luckily the food side is ok as I only fancy salad anyway. As long as I can avoid the ice cream and wine...