Blood sugar diet and fast800 thread 16

[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

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

<a class="break-all" href="http://go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=caliberstrong.com/how-whooshes-impact-your-weight-loss/" target="_blank">information about the ‘whoosh’ phenomenon

Hi, I'm thinking about doing this diet - what's the difference between the 8 week blood sugar diet and fast800 - is it just the length of time you do it for? Thank you!

Finsbury essentially, yes. The original BSD was devised as a medical plan to reverse T2 diabetes and in my opinion, the fast800 is marketed as a more 'universal' plan for everyone. It's basically the same principles. It's actually worth reading both books because they are both interesting and have different recipes; however, the fast800 is more up to date research wise, so if you're only going to read 1, I'd read that one! Good luck

Place marking

I’m down another 1.4lb this week.
Can I bore people with some data from my happy scale app? Also to inspire any daily weighers like me to try it, it really has been and continues to be so motivating for me. If you struggle with the daily ups and downs, it can mak a big difference to how you view them.

This is great...it divides your whole hoped-for weight loss into little chunks. You can decide how many. It starts red, moves through a sludgy yellow then into green when you are getting close. On the app you can click on the image and then scroll back and forward through time to see where you were at each date previously, and when you will get to the next targets if you stay at current weight of loss.
I think this graphic is even better than the graph for me - I had so much to lose, and this kept me feeling a sense of achievement .

This bit is great too...you tell it how much you aim to lose each week and it works out how long it will take you to do it, and how long to get to the next milestone. It will predict this on your actual loss per week or intended loss, whichever you prefer.

It calculates a moving average....there is a choice of how it can calculate it....usually it lags behind my daily weight, but if I have an off-diet date and my weight is up, it reassures me that it will come back down, and I haven’t really put on 3lb fat overnight!

Finally the graph...again lots of options. At the start it will plot every day, then when there is too much data it shows highest and lowest in the week. You can tell it to show the whole of your hopes-fro weight loss on the left axis, or to extend itself downwards as you go - I have mine like that and I love it, as it pops another number on the bottom every so often. Like another little mini-target.

I think I paid a small amount to have it advert free, but you don’t need to. If you like data and graphics, it could really help to keep you on track. I have it on iPad, don’t know if there is a version for other tablets etc.

I love your app Macca but they don't do it for Android annoyingly.

Also annoyingly I hit my lowest and instantly bounced up. I'm so frustrated. I literally cannot break beyond 177lbs. I have been hovering around there for months now. I'm on the verge of giving up to be honest. I don't see how I can keep doing it and getting nowhere. If I'm good I stay there, if I'm bad I stay there (within 4 lbs). Now I'm trying to do more exercise and running I'm always starving on those days. Like can't think about anything else hungry. I didn't exercise through any of the months where I lost the weight so maybe that's it? But i need the exercise for my mental health. I'm really fed up and so frustrated. If it doesn't matter what I do why not eat cake?

Phoenix it sounds like your body has found a new set point and likes it there. Which is good as won’t gain so easily, but a pain as you will struggle to get past it. A plateau effectively.
Can you do bsd on your exercise days and 800 otherwise? Or maybe a few weeks of bsd, then back to 800 to see if you can get through the plateau, if you need to give it a kickstart again?

BSD is 800 calories. Do you mean mediterranean eating, Maccalenny?

Brigit a lot of us who have been doing this a while do the variations of the Mediterranean plan that are discussed in the book (such as 5:2, or have 1 day doing 800 cals and don't count the cals the rest of the time) for maintenance or just for long term weight loss at a slower rate. I personally just allow more calories every day to allow for my exercise regime. I think this is what macca is referring to?

Pretty terrible day food wise (cake) but it was my little boy's birthday so I'm not complaining! Out for lunch with Dh tomorrow for his birthday and then finally, finally I can get back on the straight and narrow.

October needs to be a complete overhaul. I won't be able to cut calories too much next week because I am racing on Sunday but I will be cleaning my diet right up, getting lots of protein and fat and sleep and water. I feel very unhealthy right now and September has been pretty much and unmitigated disaster! I feel a fraud leading this thread with my current behaviour

Oh gawd bloody awful weekend. Was 10.7 on Saturday morning after a glorious week and then right now I just weighed in at 10.12! 5lbs in 72 hours. Please help me. That'll be Saturday nights curry and today's hang over junk fest. Oh pray no more weekend madness. The highs and the lows are insane.
A pure week ahead please. The ups and downs are crushing but what do I expect really? It all shows itself in the end. But I must say, apart from this weekend which of course was terrible, I've proved that as a plan it bloody works. As long as you stick to it. And it feels good and empowering for those committed days.
Plus on the up side, I ran 4K today which is the furthest I've plodded in a couple of years and it was raining. So that's good, the only good!

You are not a fraud Bear! Family life takes its toll. I have two asthmatic kids with severe bronchitis despite the best care, my attempts to fit in a size 10 age 52 have to take a back seat and that’s absolutely ok.

Bear - a child's birthday cake is a must, totality fine. MM always talks about the celebrations- they are fine and part of life all over the world. Never stop those celebrations .
(The weekly curry take out, not so acceptable, that we can pass on for a few weeks!)

Never a fraud Bear - you've worked bloody hard! Your photos say it all! X

The diet says you should avoid sugary treats and only have them occasionally - a piece of a birthday cake is fine! Bear, you're doing brilliantly. The scales don't matter that much, think of all the amazing things you are doing for your body. Be proud.

Northwood, you have not put 5lb of fat on over the weekend. It'll be retained water/ bloating from the booze - it'll go over the week.

I'm now ten kilos down, feeling good - clothes looser, movement easier but period due at end of week so probably going to all go to pot. I had a strange spell in the middle of last week where I lost 2kg in three days, I've been eating more fat and relaxing the 800 cal limit to + 80/100 cals extra a day and it does not seem to have slowed my losses down. Long may this continue.

Have a great week everyone - you're all doing brilliantly!

Ah thanks you lovely lot.

Plan for today: run this morning, then visit dh's folks with him as it's his b'day then we are going for lunch. We're killing 2 birds as I actually have a somewhat terrifying job interview on Friday in a town I don't know so we're scoping out the route and going for lunch there. Then dinner will be (probably) some sort of ready meal/Tesco finest or something. Hopefully he'll choose something that's fairly BSD friendly.

Tomorrow- I will weigh in and face the music!

It could be a big week for me, interview Friday (possible return to work after 4.5 y as a sahm -eeek!) and racing Sunday, so my nerves are already clattering.

I'm up 5lbs here too. Sigh. A huge part of me wants to give up. I've been here for 2 months, no matter what I do I stay here. Going to have a really strict week and see if I can get lower than my lowest and it I can't then I might stop.

Good luck with your week Bear. You're doing fantastic!

Don't give up Phoenix - I bet you've lost loads up until now and have retrained your way of eating. I've been stuck-ish for a week or so but just keep reminding myself where I might be if I hadn't started this WOE at the end of August.

I've definitely started relaxing more at the weekend. Still no booze but I have eaten cake too. I must say though that I'm getting full up much sooner than I ever have done before (I'm well known for my huge appetite 😂)

I've got a goal of 9st 12lbs by October half term so another 6lbs in 4 weeks (hopefully coinciding with my good cycle weeks too - period can't come soon enough as I've been hitting the 🍫 😂)

Phoenix please don't be too harsh on yourself . Plateaus are crap though. I know you've been doing this long enough to know all the usual 'drink more water, cut the carbs, yada yada' So I won't say all that! If it's been two months, is it just that actually you're at a good, healthy weight (I find I absolutely plateau slap bang in the middle of my normal bmi range) - whether that's the weight you want to be or not? Is your body telling you something? I stayed 10.3 for months and while it drove me mad, it was clearly my body saying 'enough'

If you've started running again that can do very odd things for weightloss so could it be that? Are you building muscle? Bear in mind, muscle needs FUEL. Muscle sends hormonal messages that make us seek out proteins and vitamins and calories because that's what they need. Are you feeding your muscles enough of the essentials?

Are you getting enough sleep- I listened to a very interesting podcast about sleep and insulin resistance and basically some people me are very sensitive to the hormonal upheaval. (This same podcast also mentioned coffee and cortisol/stress and that can also have a dramatic effect on insulin and therefore fat burning) You have had a very stressful few months, could it be this?

Failing that, I would simply if you are doing the right things, just keep doing them. Add more calories if you're feeling fed up, but keep the carbs low. Could you do a virtually carb free few days (eg meat and salad?) to give you a little kick start?

Also; I cannot wait to restart tomorrow, I feel sooooo unhealthy. But I am going to hide the scales after weigh in tomorrow. I have realised that I am becoming unhealthily, won't say obsessed, but focussed on the numbers and in doing so have completely overlooked all my own advice that I know deep down is right. I am not being very kind to myself right now: I am on a mission of health and self care and kindness this October, eating good nourishing food and actually caring what I put in and what I get out (eg my running but also life) , not draining my emotional and physical tank and then running on empty.

Right, I'll stop yapping on like some sort of lentil-weaving hippie...

Peace and love y'all
May October bring joy and happiness to us all!

10.11.5 'this morning, which means I lost precisely....zero pounds (ta-dah!) in September! It's testament to just how awful I was that my first thought was relief that I hadn't gained anything! I've had some good losses in September though, so it's frustrating that I'm still not quite getting there.

Anyway, onwards into October. I feel very positive and optimistic and above all, ready, for a good strict few weeks.