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

@Riddleofthesands oh I'm so with you

I could live without puddings and cakes but give me cheese and crackers or family bag of walkers and I'm stuffing my face 🐽

@PhoenixMama I better get the name ready get then! Rawson’s retreat (not Rawlings)... www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/295236926

@Gray I’d love an avocado soup recipe please!

@Riddleofthesands I’m 5’5, 9st 11 and squeezing into 12’s. I need to tone up and shift a few more llbs so I’m ‘safely’ in this stone zone!!

What snacks do people eat on the fast 800 when they get the munchies?

I have raw mushrooms, celery a spoonful of houmous or a cup of tea! I’d love to hear what others do?

Get the name right!

Bit disappointed that I've gone from 60.6 to 61.0kg today
I have eaten perfectly

Do you think it could be all the exercise and muscle?

I definitely feel and look slimmer

Don’t worry about it Mozz, it’s just a tiny blip, you’ll get another day when you lose more than you expected. It is annoying when it happens but just forget about it and keep going. It could easily be muscle as you say. Some weeks I lose weight easily and other weeks it is extremely difficult and I have to tell myself not gaining at my age is a triumph.

Mozzchops I think when you build muscle, the work you do makes slight tears in the muscle, which then means water is retained in the area and then new muscle forms. Something like that. But it means there is an initial increase in weight due to the process of the muscle forming.

My experiment with swapping 2slimfasts for 2 packs of chicken (same Cals) yesterday didn't go very well! I've been losing half a pound a day, but this morning I had put on 0.2 of a lb!! Maybe because of the salt increase and consequent water retention. I've bought a shitload of packets of chicken so maybe I'll stick it out for a little bit and see how it goes. It was nice to feel a bit more full.

I smell I've not eaten those fridge raiders but a lot of processed meat has things like rusk, potato starch, rice starch etc added either in the meat itself or in the coating. These can spike your insulin and make you feel hungry even if the total grams of carbs are low. This plan is about so much more than eating X grams of carbs; the type and quality matters too. Personally I'd ditch the processed stuff. If you wrap a chicken breast in tinfoil, season with salt and pepper, and bake - you could weigh 2x 100 cal portions out of that and have that instead? I know you say you don't cook but these processed convenient foods just don't scream 'healthy' to me and I think you'll find it unsustainable long term, plus you're having no fresh veg. In the 8 week BSD he suggests 2x 200 calorie shakes plus 400 calories of veg with olive oil as an alternative to real food for 2 weeks only. I hope you realise I'm not having a go at you but I'm just offering my advice from my experiences and others on this thread over the years

Be mindful also of msg added as a flavouring in meaty snacks - even pork scratchings which are normally ok on this plan, some brands have msg and it will play absolute havoc with your appetite. It's what they use on Pringles to make you 'not stop once you pop' and it's bloody lethal stuff

Ok, hope you don't mind but by way of example I've used this food packet to highlight with regards to processed foods.

So: pic 1. Label states 'added sugars 5.4g', green traffic light symbol, all good right??

Pic 2: nutritional info. The carbs are broken down into 3 types- sugars, total carbs, and fibre. This product has 5g fibre per 100g, which is good. The total carb grams per 100g is 15, this will include starchy carbs, carb 'products' (eg potato starch, rice starch) as well as the starches in the beans/ lentils etc. This total does not include the fibre grams as in the uk the fibre is deducted before the total (eg the actual total carbs is 20g, of which 5 is indigestible fibre, and 4.3g is sugar).

•sugars are easily digested because they are single chain molecules, starches are harder because they are multiple chain •

Then you need to look at pic 3 which is where the real truth lies.

I have highlighted the non-BSD foods in those ingredients. This product is quite good, the bulk of its ingredients is whole beans, lentils etc, but in the seasoning we have fructose, sugar, mollasses, glucose, cornflour (which is a starch), more sugar, dextrose, potato starch and it's these that are going to skew your blood sugars. It's important to balance out the added sugars with the fibre, so that their effect is limited.

It's only 5g, not much, but it's effectively a teaspoon of sugar sprinkled over your food.

Now with the fridge raiders as an an example, if the chicken is a) very low fat and b) very low fibre, but still have that teaspoon of sugar sprinkled over it in the form of seasoning, then that's going to spike your blood sugars even though the actual whole picture suggests that the item is low calorie, low carb, etc etc.

Then consider that we bloody love sugar, we miss it, our bodies miss it, we've craved it, and then you eat this sooonful of sugar on your savoury food- you might not notice it, but your body does! Carb monster is poked with the big stick and begins to wake up.

I really want to stress that I'm not criticising you- we all eat processed foods from time to time, and they can add variety and interest to our diets, and sometimes they're wholly unavoidable. But it does pay to be mindful of them and not always trust the calories/carbs totals but look a little deeper at the truth.

I don't have a fridge raiders pack but if you do and want to post a picture of the nutrition and the ingredients we can have a look at them - and it could be that they are absolutely fine, but it could be that there's something in there that could be causing your to actually crave more or feel more hungry.

Thanks, these are 100% seasoned chicken breast according to the packet, and I'm eating them to avoid cooking, portioning, storing etc, but I take your general point. For me, at this point, this is a means to an end and that's it. I need the quickest, surest way to lose the flab asap. I can look after my health in 12 weeks or so when I'm not obese anymore. I'd probably eat 100% seasoned cow pats if it lost me the weight I needed tbh!

X-posted. Thanks for your explanation it was very kind, I'm not at all offended. I'm trying to post photos of the packet but it seems to not be posting.

Yay it worked that time. You were right about the rusk - it says 100% seasoned chicken on the front in big, then on the back in tiny, the ingredients say it's 91% chicken!

Ismellbabies so that means the chicken they use is 100% breast meat but the product itself is not 100% meat. (McDonald's nuggets do this too, plus many others). These fridge raiders don't look too horrendous and have no actual sugar, but other brands might be different. (For example, Asda's seasoned chicken breasts have sugar as their second highest ingredient!). I suppose it's just about being mindful, and also checking your reaction to these ingredients. My biggest concern with slimfast and convenient foods is that they aren't varied and have no fibre, and that if you become too reliant on them that you might struggle to maintain once you return to real food.

There is a whole wealth of convenient, 100 calorie (ish) food portions that are on plan though- eg.
Spoonful (20g) peanut butter,
Boiled egg and cherry tomatoes/cucumber
Cooked chicken (preweigh into little pots for convenience)
Half a pepper with tbsp hummus
Half a pepper with tbsp goats cheese
25g cheese/babybels, (those variety packs of miniature cheeses you can get at Christmas?)
Philadelphia mini pots with cucumber sticks
Small bag of mr porky scratchings
Small tin of John west tuna with olive oil (around 200 cals)

If I vaguely recall @Lndnmummy Did her first round eating a spoon of peanut butter as her breakfast every day?

There's no pressure to cook especially, but it helps to have a bank of these grab and go things. Some supermarkets sell little single portion sachets of nuts at the tills too, or you could weigh out portions.

Thank you so much newaveragebear I'm doing this in toddler with stabilisers mode right now, just to make sure I don't go wrong with the calories, but will definitely try some of those suggestions once I build up my confidence a bit. Thank you.

Well...,,,last night was my big night out with my friends and let's just say it was very off plan, with nice food and desserts and cocktails and a rather drunk portion of greasy chips from a kebab van on broad street. Today has been also rather questionable. Tomorrow is a big family do- I'm hosting so everything is actually pretty good BSD wise provided I ignore the bread and pasta salads, but there will be puddings, cake. Alcohol. So.......

I will go for a run tomorrow though, to pre-empt some gluttony. I am actually quite looking forward to Monday, Dh will go back to work after 2 weeks off, the dc will go to granny's for 3 days and I am rather excited to have 3 days of long runs, housework and salad.

I dread to think what the scales will say on Sunday morning, I might ignore them for a few days until I feel strong enough to face up to my crimes

Hello I just wanted to say well done on all these great success stories! I wanted to ask all you knowledgeable lot if any one has any advice on maintaining. I have lost a stone and half on the fast 800 and now want to keep it here but I'm finding it really hard as once I up my carb intake I crave more and more! I'm going to stick to the 16 8 as a permanent life style. What's best to do alongside? Fast one day a week on 800? Or two days a week? Is it possible to do the 16 8 and eat everything I want in that window or will it just lead to weight gain? At the moment I'm just not striking the balance right as I'm either losing willpower and eating far too many sugary treats and then compensating for the next few days by fasting fastidiously which tips me the other way.

Hi everyone, weighed in and I have lost 4 lbs since Monday’s restart after holiday. Really pleased, no alcohol is a big deal for me and oddly I haven’t missed it so far. I have been strict all week but v chuffed. DH has lost 7 lbs and been less strict. I think my back is getting better so next goal is to get exercising.

Ididit2019 congrats on reaching your goal, when I reach mine I will weigh everyday and simply do a couple of 800 days if I gain. Not sure how brilliant a notion that is. I don’t think I will ever return to toast with every breakfast and lots of pasta as I know they set off carb cravings in me. I genuinely like med style diet which helps.

I really want to lose another 10 lbs as fast as possible and shift the tyre around my middle, and then it’s just a few vanity lbs and toning.

Upthread peanut butter was mentioned, if I am suddenly hungry and a plate of tomatoes with a little feta or a boiled egg doesn’t appeal I have a heaped teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter, high fat and cals but it does the trick. I also keep almonds in the car but only eat 6 at a time.

Thank you Riddleofthesands I will definitely try that tomorrow as I have a large jar of it knocking around after a disastrous smoothie making attempt!

Ididit hi, welcome to the group. I really floundered on maintenance, it took me months to get it right and even now I'm not entirely sure I've got a real strategy! for me it involved keeping up (and increasing gradually) my exercise regime, but also increasing my calories, sticking to the BSD principals and continuing to count/track pretty much every day. I usually have quite strict weeks and more relaxed weekends. It's the exercise that had kept my weight down though and also has continued to change my body shape even though I'm not losing any more. I have gradually regained some weight and these last few weeks have really taken my eye off the ball. And it's showing, both on the scales and also in my running performance so I really need to get off maintenance and back into weightloss mode for a few weeks!

All that being said, I'm not weighing today, I'm in denial family party went really well but there was loads of food and alcohol and my kitchen is still full of goodies. I've just been through and moved a lot of the really naughty stuff into boxes for them to take away with them this morning.

For the week ahead I'm going to try and have a really low carb, clean eating, week. My dc are away from Monday to Thursday so that's a perfect opportunity for a couple of long runs and some really healthy food. Going to get my ketosis cookbook out for some inspiration!

Hi all! Amazingly I'm still hovering around my first goal weight which is great (and slightly wood that I'm maintaining and eating crap but in all honesty I'm feeling awful, not sleeping, bloated. Yuck. Can't wait to get back to it!

I've stopped weighing
Despite planning on eating yesterday I fasted by accident 💁🏼‍♀️
I took this picture today and I am amazed at the difference in my shape
2 weeks ago I went to see a surgeon about a tummy tuck
2 weeks on 800 and plenty of exercise and I am (dare I say it) happy

You look great well done Mozzchops !

Yeah you look great MozzchopsThirty, well done and stay well away from any surgeon that thinks you need a tummy tuck! Once my bloomin back improves I will get exercising too.

Thank you I hope it's ok to post that
I'm just so happy with my progress

The surgeon actually talked me out of it
But now I've seen I can make such a difference with a bit more effort and thought about food

Woohoo mozz you look fab! My stomach has been destroyed by my giant 10lb babies so I'm always very envious of those with nice smooth tummies. Keep away from the surgeon, you don't need it!

And yes, definitely post them! I love seeing before and after shots, it's very motivating. Well done!