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Fasting / 5:2 diet

Talk about intermittent fasting and 5:2, including what’s worked for others. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

Blood sugar diet and fast800 support thread #18

998 replies

thenewaveragebear1983 · 10/03/2020 17:03

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.

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.

Some useful links:
BSD and Fast800 support thread #17
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet/3787860-bsd-and-fast800-support-thread-17

Previous thread

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
31
Whattheladybirdsaidnext · 01/05/2020 18:37

I had a very very low moment where my husband had to tear me away from the Cheerios and all the crisps and the bread and the cat and possibly the children.....I was so hungry! And tired!!

I have since had emergency cheese and dinner, but along the process I stole a couple of quavers and teddy faces from him, so estimated to add them on to MFP!

So, I ended on 964cal and 33g of carbs.

whensmynexthol1day · 02/05/2020 09:30

Finished yesterday on 929kcal and 20g carbs. Finally the scales moved this morning for the first time since Saturday and lost 0.4kg so now at 66.6kg. Think it definitely makes a difference when I keep my carbs closer to 20 than 50.

thenewaveragebear1983 · 02/05/2020 09:47

@whensmynexthol1day well done, 20g is low! Is that total carbs or net carbs (eg total carbs less fibre?)

I weighed in this morning, had to be done and it was not nice but ho hum. Fully focussed from today. Going for a run very shortly. Lunch will be avocado and something (maybe prawns) and dinner will be a chicken curry from a diabetes cook book. I think these first few days will be tough because I've been eating a lot more than 800 cals but it needs to be done. You're all very inspirational carrying on during this chaos and I want to join in!!

@Cream123 I was right btw, AF arrived last night as predicted by my Fitbit heart rate graph. I should have suggested a little flutter...!! So no excuse now with hormones. Of course, it's her mother of all AF because I was a ridiculous 10 days late but hey.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

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whensmynexthol1day · 02/05/2020 10:07

@thenewaveragebear1983 gross carbs I hope! I presume MyFitnessPal doesn't use net carbs and that what I use to track.

I do realise though that I sacrifice eating as much veg as I should when I go to 20g carbs. There's only so much leafy green veg that you can eat!

thenewaveragebear1983 · 02/05/2020 11:27

@whensmynexthol1day 20g total carbs is certainly low. You might actually find that you can play around with it and increase fibre grams (so eg total carbs is higher but bigger percentage is fibre?) Especially if you start to feel constipated or are getting hungry. The health guidance is around 14g fibre per 1000 cals of food so we should be aiming for around 10g per day or more. Remember, fibre is indigestible so in theory you can eat more of it and it's effect on cals/carbs is negligible

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WellHurrahAndHuzzah · 02/05/2020 12:04

Checking in!
Day 1.

9 stone 7.4. Aiming to get to 9 bang on.

Broke fast at midday with 2 boiled eggs, salad leaves and pesto dressing. Coffee and milk. Pint of water! Approx 250 cals.

I'm really not getting hung up about counting calories to the nth degree - but of course I might change my mind about this if I don't start losing!

Good luck all

whensmynexthol1day · 02/05/2020 12:20

@thenewaveragebear so does that make things like lentils less bad than they seem from a carb perspective?

thenewaveragebear1983 · 02/05/2020 12:38

@whensmynexthol1day yes, although I think in uk on our packaging the carbs grams have already got the fibre deducted.

So eg. It might say carbs 10g, of which sugars 5g, then fibre is listed separately as eg. 2g
So the total carbs for that item is 12g

This can cause confusion a bit with trackers as American ones will then deduct those fibre grams again. It's why I usually recommend entering your own values in your trackers for things you use regularly.

I may be wrong, I get terribly confused. I will do a google tonight and check I've not got that horribly wrong!!

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CiorstanMI · 02/05/2020 14:34

Well I've had a bit of a wobble over the past couple of days. After I closed the kitchen on Thursday I raided the biscuit tin (yes the one hidden in DH's man cave Blush) and then last night I had 2 slices of toast (white bread, even worse) followed by some icing.

I'm putting it all down to a combination of a hideous working week (had to work until at least 21:00 every evening this week) and a nearly 2 week weight plateau. I was really, really fed-up and quite ready to give up. However, am feeling much better today and have talked myself back into a better frame of mind.

Of course the weight plateau paired with some weight gain over the past 2 days have rather messed with my progress but I'm telling myself that I've had a fairly easy ride so far and I really shouldn't give up at the first setback. Fingers crossed I'm back on track.

LarryUnderwood · 02/05/2020 16:58

@CiorstanMI it happens. Marathon, not a sprint.

I had a disaster yesterday, after drinking champagne with my husband to celebrate leaving my job - then just went hog wild on the oreos and crisps. Today is a new day. I did say I was going to ease myself in for the first week so i guess that true! Weekends are so hard though :(

CiorstanMI · 02/05/2020 17:17

Thanks @LarryUnderwood and congrats on leaving your job (I'm guessing from the champagne reference that you're pretty happy about it 🥂).

thenewaveragebear1983 · 02/05/2020 17:45

@CiorstanMI you are only human, you've been so unbelievably focussed up til now, I'm sure one night off will not do any harm at all.

Did a fast run this morning and lots of jobs so clocked in 20 steps already. We were supposed to be having a home cooked curry tonight but Dh wants a takeaway; bit annoying as I have it all here but I'm not going to cook just for me. However, I have ordered a lamb tikka starter and a chicken tikka stuffed pepper starter: no rice or naan and nothing saucy so hopefully fairly bsd friendly, and I'll have a big salad with mine.

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LarryUnderwood · 02/05/2020 19:07

@CiorstanMI yes I really am. Being unemployed in the midst of a pandemic is nerve wracking but mental health and work life balance is important. I'm a stress-related, and I have gained 18 pounds in the 2 years in that job having been at a stable weight (slightly higher than I'd like) for years - I think that says it all!

Closing the kitchen today at 1059 cals and 33g carbs. Fairly pleased with that. And I devised a recipe for some little wraps which were fab! 45g gram flour, 7.5g ground flaxseed and water whisked in to a pancake type batter. Drop onto a hot non stick pan, about 2 tablespoons per pancake (about the size of American pancakes). Cook till set then flip. 40 cal and 5.3g carbs each. I used 2 as burger buns. You could do them thinner and larger and they'd be great wraps, they're quite pliable.

LarryUnderwood · 02/05/2020 19:08

Not that anyone asked for my recipe, I was just quite excited Blush

thenewaveragebear1983 · 02/05/2020 20:05

@LarryUnderwood that sounds tasty, I have a big bag of gram flour but never use it as everything I make with it seems to be weird and cornfloury tasting. I hadn't thought to mix with anything else!

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CiorstanMI · 02/05/2020 21:24

Day 55, closing the kitchen at 868 calories and 45g carbs and no slip-ups (phew!)

agteacht · 02/05/2020 21:51

@CiorstanMI don't be hard on yourself, you genuinely are one of the most committed people on this diet!

Kimlek · 03/05/2020 08:12

Welcome @WellHurrahAndHuzzah and well done on your first day. I doubt it’ll take too long to lose the 7lbs & fingers crossed that’ll help with fertility.... make sure your bloke is taking zinc.
@thenewaveragebear1983 & @CiorstanMI where are you getting flaxseed from please? Ive almond flour but no idea what to use it for! Bought ages ago but no idea why.
@NathanNathan @Whattheladybirdsaidnext how’s it going? Hoping you’re both feeling better and sticking with it!!
@LarryUnderwood huge well done leaving your job! And we always love a recipe.
No news here... happily maintaining at around 10.11.6 to 10.12.4 - by BMI is right on the cusp so I do need to start losing again but whilst everyone is at home that’s just too tricky. How are you doing @Cream123 my twin?

thenewaveragebear1983 · 03/05/2020 08:43

@Kimlek I buy ground almonds from the baking section. I find the baking 'version' considerably cheaper than the 'almond flour' version even though it's the same thing. There is a health foods section within that aisle and they have the flaxseed, plus other things like spirulina, maca, cacao. In "normal times" Aldi would do a good selection in their health food section, considerably cheaper although not sure if they still do? Often they are In mixed boxes so you have to search through. I think coconut flour is just dried coconut so if you have a coffee grinder or blender you can make your own from desiccated coconut, again much cheaper. I think I paid £7 for my flaxseed the other day! However, I was pleasantly surprised with the texture of the bread I made so didn't feel quite so sore about it!

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WellHurrahAndHuzzah · 03/05/2020 10:26

Thanks @Kimlek - I hadn't heard about the zinc tip so I appreciate that!!

Day 1 finished yesterday at 7:30pm with a coconut fish curry and broccoli.

Day 2 for me today.

9 stone 7.

Broke fast at 10:00 with a decaf tea and a splash of almond milk.
Planning for lunch of salad leaves, cucumber, celery, tomatoes (not too many!) and feta.

Dinner will be pizza from Anna Jones recipe (base made from cauli, oats and ground almonds).

@CiorstanMI I'm sorry you had a tough day. Although there are some benefits to fasting during lockdown, it does mean there is an awful lot of general stress in the air, which doesn't make things easy! If you fall off the wagon, dust yourself off, give yourself and hug, and hop back on.

Whattheladybirdsaidnext · 03/05/2020 10:34

I broken entirely on Friday and ended up drinking too much wine and eating cereal. I then crawled hungover through yesterday and.... ended up on the cereal again at about 10.30pm. So far today I’m still knackered and have only drank coffee. I know I need to get back in the wagon, but I have no idea how. The house is a disaster. I’m tired and I don’t know where to start. I may just give myself the weekend off and start again tomorrow because at least then I will be crazy busy and have routine and school and whatnot. I don’t know how good an idea that is though. Early night wouldn’t go amiss either.

Pajamagirl · 03/05/2020 14:12

Hi I’d like to come back , I was here feb but got flu and various other ailments so dropped out , I see some of the names I recognise on this thread when I found you again ... well done macalenny ( I have happy scale too on your recommendation)
So currently my heaviest at 13 s 12 Lb and need to GET A GRIP

Will report back On progress as I get back on the wagon .

WellHurrahAndHuzzah · 03/05/2020 14:22

I'm sorry to hear that @Whattheladybirdsaidnext, perhaps you could do a sort of 'half way house' today and then start afresh tomorrow? It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
I share the house being a disaster Blush - would really like to try and tackle it a little this afternoon! But after 2 hours of gardening my back is killing me...

PhoenixMama · 03/05/2020 15:32

Here you all are! Been thinking of you all. I'm super impressed at those of you managing to do 800 cals in lockdown. Definitely not happening here! I can barely keep my head above water with homeschooling, work, the house & applying for all the funding I can find to save my job...

Good news is that I haven't gone above my 'normal' range from the 48lbs I lost last year. Bad news is I'm definitely gaining inches without my 10k steps a day!

Look forward to catching up on all the news!

LarryUnderwood · 03/05/2020 18:37

Checking in at 896 cals and 52g carbs today. I was so excited at my gram flour discovery that I made socca pizza today, which was delicious and filling. However I nibbled a bit too much on the leftover bits. Now drinking a redbush tea and feeling quite full. But also really craving a glass of wine and some chocolate or crisps. I will resist!