Blood sugar diet and Fast800 thread 15

[thenewaveragebear1983]

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 weightloss.

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.

Some useful links:

Previous thread

Blood Sugar Diet and Fast800 thread 14 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3532374-blood-sugar-diet-and-fast800-thread-14

Meal planning ideas thread
Blood sugar diet recipe thread and menu planner meal planning thread

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=healthyeater.com/important-tool-weight-loss" target="_blank">TDEE calculator to calculate your daily calorie requirement

information about the ‘whoosh’ phenomenon

PhoenixMama thank you, I am on a waiting list for tomorrow, nearest town has two chiropractor practices so I should get in. Pain eased a lot, I’ve done stretches and hot water bottles lying flat in bed. Also taken ibuprofen. I do have to drive 3 times tomorrow, short trips but I am pretty nervous. Renewed sympathy for people who live with chronic pain.

Eggs are fab and so quick. Scrambled eggs are the best. My children are allergic, such a shame. They get crippling stomach ache for hours after.

I am finding the actual 800 diet book rather bland. I don't think they use enough ingredients... probably to get the calories down.

Anyway, I made this after lunch for the slow cooker after thinking the chicken casserole in the book looked uninspiring...

www.africanbites.com/slow-cooker-chicken-bean-stew/

It was delicious.

I don't know how much to trust the calorie counting on website recipes though!

I got caught up at work so I didn't make it to the gym in the morning 😔 So my two sad tasting fried eggs at work for breakfast were a wasted use of calories otherwise, so I ended up skipping lunch.

@GreyBasket Do you use MFP? You can enter the recipe ingredients and it adds it up for you, my experience is that websites are often terribly underestimated.

Also remember with the BSD cookbook you're supposed to add leafy/green veg (you don't have to count those) I'm living for spring greens with everything right now!

I'm totally over today, lunch just wasn't low cal or low carb (although it was delicious & I didn't give in to pudding). I swear one day I'll get back on track properly.

@PhoenixMama I do, and I am not finding that accurate either. For example if I put it the same ingredients as the actual 800 recipe book recipes, it comes up as a different amount 😩 It's just inconsistent.

And MFP is different to Calorie Counter app as well 🙈

I am also eating WAY too much green vegetables and plain salad, if that is even a thing. I am just not mentioning them as I was taking it as a given 😁

@GreyBasket Yeah there are known discrepancies in the BSD book - typos & totally wrong calorie amounts. I have a nutritionist friend and she says if you use the ticked items it's quite accurate

Grey the problem with the apps is that they aren't 'official' so the calorie counts can be added by any user. I find the book counts to be out as well. I use 'fat secret' app for calories as it seems to have the most accurate counts for ingredients such as veg/meat etc and any prepacked stuff I add myself and save. It does take a while at first.

I use loads of recipes books (I get one out of the library every few weeks) and try lots of new things, it keeps me motivated. I particularly like Jamie Oliver, his recipes are quite tweakable to fit the plan

Today, I've gone over a fair bit due to some rather delicious alpro soy yogurt. It's so long since I've had anything yogurty and I bought it, then realised that it has sugar in it- but it was yummy. I did 16k steps though, including a 5.5km run and a 20 minute hiit workout (day 6 of 14 of my challenge) , but my cals and carbs were high. A bit like you phoenix I am struggling a bit recently, I feel like I'm not quite in the groove. The impending holidays, my birthday, and various social events on the horizon aren't helping me much.

Tomorrow I should manage a reasonable day, I have no plans that involve food, my meals are planned out and nothing really should get in my way except me

@PhoenixMama Oh yes totally agree. It's just the way my brain works - shoot for the stars and you'll get off the ground kinda thing. I'm expecting at 1.5kg average over time but the start should be double that as I have SO much to lose.

So far I'm realising that (aside from emotional evening eating) I've been eating just as a distraction. I'll be out and about then think 'oh I'll just pop in there and get x' or 'I'm getting in the car for an hour, I'll just get y to keep me occupied' NO MORE!

And unsolicited advice always welcome - please don't hold back - thanks

I know that habit of eating out of distraction.
I also still have a mild panic whenever I feel slightly hungry, but there's no need for that at all and there's nothing in my past that would cause that.

Tomorrow is my last day of this for me for now
I'm going on holiday Thursday

I've stuck to it pretty well, apart from a meal out on Friday. Haven't had any carbs and have exercised 8 days out of 10

When I get back do I start again and do a full 2 weeks on 800??

Mozzchops it depends really on how you feel and how much you have left to lose. You certainly could do another 2 weeks fast800 if you wanted to? Hope you have a fabulous holiday!

Little midweek weigh in, 10.4.5 - so my week hasn't had a detrimental effect.

Hi everyone, pain free here , did a lot of stretching before jumping out of bed, I think I need to warm my back up in the mornings from now on. Had a strict day yesterday, bean salad for lunch, lentils and roast veg for dinner. Weighed and I gained1/2 lb! Never mind. Today is mushrooms and eggs for lunch, fish for dinner. Spending a few hours filling skip today. Hope everyone has a good day.

Ironically after the day I had yesterday I'm down 1lb and back to my lowest! Been absolutely starving though yesterday and today, no idea what it is but I could gnaw my arm off! Celebrating a major professional win today and still trying to keep an eye on the cals!

@Riddleofthesands please don't take offence but tat makes me feel slightly better been following the Fast800 plan since last Tuesday. Weight has been flying of but yesterday and today I've just remained the same despite being under on my 800 calories . I suspect I need to throw in some more exercise above and beyond 10k steps etc I'm hoping the scales finally move tomorrow.

Ladies - look up the information in the OP about whooshes! You don't necessarily lose weight every day, but you need to stay strong & be good and on cals.

I'm sure one of us can post you one of our charts (I'm swamped right now but will try later) but it's NEVER linear, always ups and downs!

MommyBear1 none taken, it can be frustrating to actually gain a little after a strict day and plateauing is maddening too. I will look up whooshes PhoenixMama when I have cleared some more clutter, skip filling up nicely! Congrats on your work win btw.

So many things affect your weight, not just your food. If you don't believe me, weigh yourself, then drink a pint of water (zero calories, zero carbs) and weigh yourself again- see? There's a pound on! Any weight 'gained' overnight, especially if you've been on plan, is water. Even if you've been off plan entirely, it's actually quite tricky to gain a pound of actual fat (you'd have to eat 3000+ calories on top of your normal food) - Michael M does recommend daily weighing but I personally find it too up and down for my liking which is not good for my Zen. Instead I weigh mid week, Saturday and Monday, and if I've had a rubbish day I get up and drink a pint of water to stop me weighing myself to 'check the damage' !!

a simple explanation: When you low carb, you use up glycogen in your liver and muscles as fuel. Each molecule of glycogen is attached to two molecules of water, so using this glycogen 'releases' this water, which is why when we first start we lose this 'water weight' first. Then, in this nice glycogen depleted state, we start burning fat as fuel. However, when we eat carbs, we restock these glycogen reserves, and the water reserves they hold. This causes those peaks and troughs of weight. The more muscular you are, the more glycogen you can store in your muscles as well- I know that if I run a long distance, I'll be about 3lb lighter afterwards which is a combination of glycogen/water (and sweat) weight.

I suppose the point I'm making is to try not to be too disheartened when the scales don't reflect your efforts. Our bodies are amazing and doing all sorts of things under the surface that we don't realise. That number on the scales only represents a fraction of the good benefits of this way of eating .

Thank you @thenewaveragebear1983 @Riddleofthesands @PhoenixMama I'm staying strong nearly wavered and had a biscuit with my afternoon cuppa but I've resisted! Hoping to get a HIIT in tomorrow to give me a boost!

I just thought I'd do a post for anyone thinking of starting
I've done 10 days (1 off plan dinner when out). The rest of the time I've stuck to 800 cals and none of the evil 5
I've exercised 8 times in those 10 days

I've gone from 10st 2lbs to 9st 8lbs which I am over the moon with pre holiday.

I feel so much better, my IBS is non existent, I feel less irritable and just generally good 

I'm going to try and lay off the carbs during the holiday but I know it won't always happen. I love a lager and that will be my downfall

Thanks to everyone on here for their unwavering support and especially @thenewaveragebear1983

I shall see you all on the other side of the holiday

Well done Mozzchops. Interesting that your ibs has calmed down! Have a great holiday.

Well done MozzchopsThirty you have done brilliantly! Have a great holiday.

Thanks for the glycogen explanation @thenewaveragebear1983, it made a lot of sense as I've got in a bot of a tangle with my reading.

@GreyBasket agree ref blandness I am always adding chili flakes, garlic etc

Ref the cals in MFP I've learned the hard way to opt for the 'verified' ones with the green tick . I've checked a few against the brands' info and they have always been accurate. For fruit & veg, I've used waitrose site to check and the results have been solid. So if it hasn't got a green tick I put it in myself manually.

Had a good start to the week, meals have all been on plan. Probably nearer 1000 calories than 800 but that's OK. Managed 2 runs this week and hoping to do a longer one on Friday.

Well shockingly down another lb today & exactly 10lbs to my goal weight! Seems like my body is preferring 1000 cals after 5 months.

With regards to the discussion yesterday about fluctuating weights, this chart is my weight over three months - it's super up & down. It's heading downwards but it's not like it gets there easily!

@HadleyM over seasoners of food unite 😊

I am cross this morning as I meant to make overnight soaked oats as per bears recipe in the Blood Sugar recipe thread I found, as I have a gym class this morning. I forgot before I went to bed and now I don't know what to eat 😬

My weight is also going up and down by a pound or two a day which is confusing. I did assume the first two weeks would just be losing. But oh well, I shall stick with this and see what happens. I have decided to go beyond the two weeks already and see how it goes.

I am surprised and actually pleased with how I am finding not drinking any alcohol. It's liberating. I am not missing it too much yet, and I am sleeping really well and not had any side effects. This is probably the first time I have had a run of more than a week without alcohol for over a decade 😮

Unfortunately I still haven't had time to read this entire thread or the book (it is my busiest week of the whole year at work) - I was hoping to start ASAP but want to make sure I know what I'm doing first. One question I wanted to ask - is anyone vegetarian? I am and I'm just wondering how difficult this makes the plan? Or is it ok?

xx