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

Happy Christmas all!
I’m going to really need that strict week...

Hope everyone had a great day yesterday. We're now off to do it all again, with dh's family. I agree with @Maccalenny , I will need that strict week!

Hi, lovely day yesterday. A quiet day today, it’s pouring rain and dark here so perfect day for board games. I will weigh tomorrow and get a plan together. Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas.

Hello all & Merry Christmas.
I have the original BSD paperback and a recipe book but is it worth getting the fast 800 book too? What’s the difference please?
I need to lose around 2 stones (28lbs) so should I do 12 weeks on 800 cals a day (& hopefully lose 2lbs a week) or is that too few cals for too long and too difficult? Any guidance very appreciated, thank you.

Hi Kimlek and welcome.
I’m re-reading my books starting today - I last read them in March so I cannot remember clearly enough to answer your question. I recall that the bsd was primarily aimed at type 2 diabetes, where 800 was weight loss. Maybe start with the ones you have, and get the 800 if you need more inspiration?
You can do 12 weeks of 800 without issues. Or you could do 8 weeks, then start moving onto a more maintenance version? You might need to wait and see how you feel when you get there.
Good luck!

I’m getting back on track today, having had four days where I seem to have eaten non-stop and drank rather a lot of red wine. I’ve avoided high-carb, but have eaten soooooo much! And the scales are making me pay....6lb up this morning. Which is clearly not all fat, but a bit of it might be sadly! My happy app scale is showing a red bit for the first time.

So the plan - I’m doing 800-1000 a day from now till return to school on 6th jan. I will then carry on with mon-thurs 800-1000, and uncounted on-plan fri-sun. The aim is that by end of Feb, I will have lost the last bit I need to to leave the ‘overweight’ bracket behind.

My kids are going to their dads for the next few days, and I will be using the peace and quiet to do a lot of reflection back at last year, and setting intentions for next year.

My first reflection - if someone had told me this time last year that I was going to find a way to lose nearly five stone, I would never have believed it!

@Maccalenny - thank you! oh my goodness have you lost almost 5 stone? That’s absolutely amazing!! How long has that taken?
I’m starting today albeit my parents are still here and I’ve a fish pie, salmon en croutes, and a shepherds pie that I made all in advance currently sat in the fridge needing to be eaten! I could portion the pies and freeze along with the encroutes and serve to DH and kids over the next 8 or so weeks. I’ve no idea how many calories are in those as they weren’t bsd recipes and I tweaked like crazy... the salmon en croutes will be shocking! I’ve got loads of turkey left too so may try and find a bsd recipe to use all that and freeze.
Today will be planning I think.
Do you plan for the week in advance?

Maintained over the last 4 days but I still have a meal out booked tonight and drinks tomorrow so trying to watch carbs if not calories .
Fingers crossed I continue to maintain ,
Looks like we are all ready to hit the floor running next week !!
Good luck to everyone

@thenewaveragebear1983 - you mentioned egg muffins, Asian meatballs and mackerel crustless quiche back in August for Bank holiday snacks (I thought I’d try read this thread 17 from the beginning) ... I’ve seen the mackerel quiche in my recipe book but do your kids eat that too? Where are the egg muffins & Asian meatball recipes from please?
In fact I think I need to know everyone’s recipe books please!

Kimlek there are loads of versions of egg muffins around and they are really easy and quick. I did one recently that had a piece of ham to line each muffin bit on a muffin tin, then I part-scrambled eggs to speed up cooking. Add eggs to each ham-lined muffin bit, sprinkle with grated cheese, cook till done. You can jazz them up with precooked mushroom, onion, peppers, herbs, anything you fancy.

Like you I am using up leftovers - just made a lentil and veg soup from all the extra veg I cooked, a pouch of Merchant lentils and some soft cheese. Really nice! And I still have enough roast beef for another 2-3 meals.

Planning is key. And if you can get in the habit of batch-cooking and freezing, it is really helpful. I’ve also found it useful to have a list of quick snacks or meals that you can grab when inspiration is lacking and you are starving! Things like boiled eggs, slices of apple with peanut butter, egg muffins as mentioned, few cubes of cheese with olives.

Pyjamagirl that’s brilliant! Well done. I’m feeling a bit relieved that the food-related part is done for me and I can get focussed again.

Morning everyone!
@Kimlek welcome to the group. The egg muffins are likely to have been a sort of ham/cheese/veg combo with a whisked egg mixture poured over into a muffin tray. As maccalenny says, there are loads of similar or variations. The Asian meatballs, I think, were from a keto cookbook? However, there are again loads of similar variations. Have you seen our recipe thread? It should have a clicky link in the opening post of this thread.
In terms of recipe books- I use so many, I just tweak them. Jamie Oliver's 30 mins or 15 mins are good, plus anything that's keto or aimed at diabetics etc..

I always try to plan very thoroughly and they always end up being my best days/weeks so I would definitely recommend it. Even more so if I calorie count it all first as a guide.

I'm in admiration of you all restarting today- I won't be. We are having a pj/movie/choccy day as it's the first day since Christmas Eve where we have nothing to do! My favourite day of Christmas. However, I will be doing a bit of planning for my big relaunch.

My plan for when I do restart is to go absolutely back to basics, 2 full weeks of 800 calories. It's a very long time since I've done that! We are really going to clean up our diet as a family, cutting out snacks and processed meat products and sugar, so that should help too. And no alcohol for January.

Hi,
Can I join in?
I'm currently researching ready to start on 2nd Jan and have the fast 800 book arriving today. I have at least 4 stone to lose so am planning the full 12 weeks of 800 calorures and intermittent fasting, and then see where I am at for the next stage.
Have got a family easter at my sil's newly rennovated house planned so that's my motivation to "wow" them all!

I am also going to do dry January

Morning all!

I'd love to rejoin, if that's okay? I have been wavering over what to do to lose the weight I have put on. I have thought about, and dismissed, the Cambridge diet and various others.

I have ordered a few of the Fast 800 shakes though to kick start me as lunch at work is a real issue. My plan is to have a shake at lunchtime and proper food in the evening.

Has anyone tried their own shakes?

Hi, FluffyEarMuffs welcome, I haven’t tried the shakes sorry.

A typical day for me when I am on it is: a coffee for breakfast, 2 eggs for lunch, big piece of fish (we have a good fishmongers near us luckily) and lots of veg for dinner, snacks are a spoon of peanut butter or half a dozen almonds, small piece of cheese.

I weighed and have only gained 2 lbs, really surprised as I have had big portions, eaten masses of roast potatoes, bread, crisps and wine.

16 lbs to lose, I am up 11 lbs on last January, also want to get my waist measurement down to 32 inches and get an exercise habit going, I have a cross trainer so there is no excuse.

DH is cooking a turkey crown and all the trimmings today (he is a foodie who overbuys). Tomorrow is steak, lentils and veg. I will avoid all the obvious big carbs, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice for the next few days and get ready for strict 800 as soon as poss.

Just making some turkey and ham soup with the leftovers! Yummy!

I made my own shakes using almond milk, Greek yogurt, frozen berries, peanut butter (or peanut butter powder to save calories and stop me eating the entire jar), frozen spinach, avocado etc. They are fairly high in cals but also fully sugar free and no sweeteners, and if you consider them a true meal replacement then 250 cals is not too bad. The other thing that's good is a soup/bone broth which I freeze in portions in jam jars. I like the fact it just cuts out all thinking about lunch; if you skip breakfast too then that means 2 meals are completely sorted before you even start.

I tried the fast 800 chocolate shake and really didn’t like it. I liked the idea - easy to grab one, one less meal to have to plan - but just couldn’t stomach the shakes!

Welcome nothing - you will definitely be ready to wow the family by Easter! And welcome back Fluffy.

Kitchen closed on about 850 calories. I’ve had a ham and mushroom omelette, lentil and veg soup, and stuffed peppers with salad. I’ve also had a couple of mugs of marmite, a few coffees with milk (calories counted) and lots of herbal tea.
I’ve also been re-reading the fast800 book which has reminded me of all the good reasons to stay low-carb long term, with at least a couple of 800 days a week. So that is my plan.

Ahhh because I’ve been cooking most of the day (turkey risotto with cauliflower rice & mushrooms portioned up for me plus another with arborio rice for kids & DH & a turkey Tagine also portioned up for me) I’ve been picking at bits and bobs and tasting away but think it’s around 880cals. The great thing is I’ve a few things portioned up & in the freezer.

When I read the fast800 again recently I was very aware of the time restriction element and I have to admit it had passed me by when I read it the first time. It's something I've never really done so I will definitely be incorporating it into my plans for January.

So, starting tomorrow - low carb week one, then 800kcals for weeks two & three (maybe four?). I have some questions though:

Are sweet potatoes & butternut squash ok or are they too carb-y?

Are bran flakes with milk too carb-y?

Can the egg muffins be frozen?

Eeek, I feel weirdly excited. I so desperately need to regain some control over my weight & cravings.

Thanks in advance!

@thenewaveragebear1983
I use the TRE , no food until 12 then approx 300 cals for lunch
Evening meal no later than 730 pm for approx 500 cal
When I’m doing this it makes it easier for me . As there is a start time and a finish time for eating .., it means I don’t mooch about in the evening looking for something to nibble at , 500 cal for evening meal makes a decent meal . Funnily I don’t feel hungry for either meal until about 10!mins before I am due to eat

@AppleBlossomTimeNow
Sweet potato- way too carby
Bran flakes - way too carby
Butternut squash- ok in small amounts. (As an aside, try oven baked with a peanut butter satay sauce!)
Egg muffins - probably can be frozen. They keep fairly well in the fridge for a few days anyway.

Thank you!

Kimlek - excellent prep work! You will be so pleased that you spent the time getting it all done when you are starving and uninspired one day.

I was also interested to recap the TRE section Bear - but I think you often say you don’t eat till lunch, so are doing it without realising! I do about 14:10 most days - start eating about 7am, finish at about 5pm. I do sometimes have milk in coffee outside that timeframe, like today when I’m awake horribly early with a cough....no way I’m waiting till 7am for my coffee when I’m awake at 4am!