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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 thread 19

999 replies

thenewaveragebear1983 · 10/05/2020 22:25

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

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
35
mumoflittlemice · 02/06/2020 22:40

Wowser @thenewaveragebear1983 -well done on your Ds's cake!! incredible! I hope he has a lovely day tomorrow. Smile

I'm so looking forward to my eldest's birthday in 3 wks time as I've promised myself I'll be enjoying cake for the first time since starting this then!! (And for her obvs! Blush).

Cake enjoy your hard earned piece!

agteacht · 02/06/2020 23:29

@ilovemydogandmrobama2 I hate that, it's so unfair! It will drop off again...

@thenewaveragebear1983 phenomenal cake skills!

@Cream123 ah kind of you to say. Maybe it is that. Just annoying when I'm close. Need to get my ass in gear and push my carbs and cals back down a bit for a couple of weeks. Too many cheeky drinks have found their way in! Which is positive I guess for when I do maintenance but hard to cut now (blame lockdown 😂)

Also, a more likely culprit, my little girl has been waking up around 5.30 every day and I'm finding I need to eat a bit earlier in the day because of that. But I don't go to bed or finish eating earlier! So my fasting window has definitely been squeezed.

Kimlek · 03/06/2020 00:22

Flipping awesome cake bear!!
Fingers crossed those pesky couple of pounds drop agteacht & ‘dog and Obama*
Closing a very long day kitchen at 1064 cals & 27 carbs. Wine took me over as thinking it could be last day to enjoy a drink in the evening sun for a while. Always an excuse!

bluepixie · 03/06/2020 07:51

Another pound off. Gonna aim for a low cal and carb day today so I can shift the last one ASAP and then I’m back to where I left off of a stone loss in total.
Then it gets hard! But I’m gonna do it!

How do u drink 1 drink only kimlek and don’t let it derail you? This is my goal! If I have anything to drink I raid the fridge! And then also have more to drink!

Bestbees · 03/06/2020 07:58

I hope your child had a great birthday today Bear! The cake looks amazing and you deserve a slice for sure!
Agteacht this lockdown makes things much more challenging for me as I love food and planning and thinking about it and eating. It has given structure and joy to these mad weeks. Good luck today! I wonder if you could just have something first thing (egg?) That just boost you for that really long time until lunch so that you don't crash? Booze is a downfall for me too!
Mumoflittlemice that sounds absolutely delicious. Adding prawns to my shopping list!
I appear to have lost 3lb over night after my first day! Cannot believe that but assume it is mostly water and bloating. Still very motivating. Does anyone regularly do something like fast 800 during the week and then relax more at the weekend? Just thinking about long term maintenance? So keeping to principles mostly, but allowing roast dinner or a fish and chip dinner or something like that?

Bestbees · 03/06/2020 07:59

Cross posted cream. Well done!

RedLipsAndRosyCheeks · 03/06/2020 08:53

Bleurgh. Carb flu is back today. I'm pushing on though.
Bovril for breakfast
Turkish eggs for lunch
Lemon and garlic chicken thighs for tea (the thought of the crispy skin will get me through the day!

lightlypoached · 03/06/2020 12:50

Yay! 63 kilos today, another 0.4kg loss.

Fasting 16/8 800 today and tomorrow to keep it going. Then it's DD birthday weekend so anything could happen.

I'm finding that filling carby food makes me feel a bit clogged. Am weirdly enjoying the not drinking.

How's everyone else doing ?

lightlypoached · 03/06/2020 12:51

Love that cake!

Justasecondnow · 03/06/2020 14:43

Hi all, had a bad day yesterday. Was busy in the morning so pushed lunch back to 2 (I rarely have breakfast), and skipped my normal 2 cups of tea. Ugh felt horrible! Weak and headachey. Ate 2 Emergency chocolate fingers - and revived a bit. Clearly longer fasts don’t suit me.

Back to normal today though, lunch at 12 (speedy spicy beans) and dinner about 6 (Korma and roasted cauli) both from the BSD recipe book. As well as teas and coffee.

So I feel ok today. I must admit not fully fighting fit, easily distracted and lethargic. Is this just the reality of a VLCD, or am I doing something wrong I wonder. Will just keep on week by week but doubt I’ll do the full 8. This is hard! Need to have a think about a halfway house plan maybe. But then 2 inches off my waist is good motivation...

We’ll done to everyone else keeping on. And also a fan of the cake!

bluepixie · 03/06/2020 18:16

1000 and 37 carbs
Not great not terrible.
Was meant to have dinner no wrap but couldn’t resist !

Really want some chocolate but I won’t do it! But I want it! But I won’t! Waaaaaass

Happy bday to ur son @thenewaveragebear1983 amazing cake! Did it taste good?!?

thenewaveragebear1983 · 03/06/2020 18:40

Mmm @Cream123 yes it was very good. I've eaten crappy rubbish all day but my boy said it was the best day of his life so it's worth it!

I started the day with the most horrific period pain and didn't fancy running. Then have just eaten. All day. It's been great awful.

Back on track tomorrow though! Will run in the morning and then longer fast til mid afternoon. Dinner will be the pork in balsamic that was supposed to be yesterday's, with white bean mash. I should now have nothing standing in my way for A few weeks and a real chance to get a few good 800 cals days done.

OP posts:
Kimlek · 03/06/2020 19:23

@cream123 ahhh I don’t have one drink! I had 2 yesterday but I’d had 650 cals all day so knew one would be ok but then had a 2nd which took me over but worth it!!
I’m finding meal planning, everyone home and shopping a blinking nightmare!! When they’re all at work & school they eat what I cook but now they’re all home they’re in the fridge going off plan and/or not fancying what’s planned so either we have no veg to go with xyz or it’s expired or both!! Teens and a belligerent DH plus a fussy 10 year old is not helping!! I’ve not added mine up yet but think I’ll be adding wine again as I could scream!

thenewaveragebear1983 · 03/06/2020 19:28

@Kimlek I have this too! The constant food requests as well! And the snacks! I find it helps to freeze all the fresh meat as soon as I get in from shopping and defrost it each night because then we have To have that meal.

OP posts:
Postmanbear · 03/06/2020 19:36

821 and 27g of carbs. Glad you had a good day @thenewaveragebear1983. A diet is not more important than your sons birthday!
I’m now having eggs and streaky bacon for breakfast each morning and I’m really enjoying it, best bit of my day 😂.
Got to do a Tesco shop tomorrow so that means meal planning tonight. I really hate meal planning and writing shopping lists for some reason.

mumoflittlemice · 03/06/2020 22:21

Kicked off the day with 0.8lb loss, which gets me to 10st 13lbs dead on. It's only a smidge but it's the right direction..Miso again which seems to help get me through that late morning bit when you could just accidentally on purpose inhale a buttered scone.
Lunch: Natural cottage cheese in romaine leaf 'boats', tomato, titchy bit of brie and few dry Moroccan olives - tried to go easy to 'buy' myself a bigger dinner. Dinner: breaded chicken steak on a bed of cauli rice fried in coconut oil, tomato slices and a dollop of mayo. Snacked on a few strawberries and the tiniest portion of almonds, cashews and sunflower seeds it is possible to have, plus a couple of cups of tea and as always copious amounts of water.

Fasted till 1ish, all in by 6ish @ 857kcals 44g carbs.

Gotta say I am considering a slightly more relaxed day tomorrow as I'm finding it chuffing tough. I thought I'd got past the carb cravings bit, but I've found myself desperate for the aforementioned scone, bit of toast or a packet of crisps (I don't normally even eat potato crisps, I'm not that fussed for them, I prefer sunbites so that's weird). Not that I'm thinking of eating all those things I should add; I don't want to rapidly undo what I've achieved so far, but I was thinking of having a breakfast at you know, breakfast time, of proper porridge a la BSD recipe book, probably with blueberries as I've got early Zoom meetings and haven't got too much time to twat about grating apples and what have you. Then just go pretty much as per plan but would be more like 1000-1100kcals by days end.

I don't know, I'm toying with the idea... night all, here's to burning fat while we sleep.... Smile

Kimlek · 03/06/2020 23:19

@mumoflittlemice are you hungry at bfast time? If so then have something. I never am (or only if hungover). I find once I eat something (absolutely anything) it wakes up the munch monsters and then every 2 hours or so I’m peckish / fancy a taste of something. Not starving but preoccupied with it. If this doesn’t happen to you and you can keep your cals low (1000) then it’ll be fine. Maybe try intermittent fasting later. Im not familiar with the BSD porridge BUT watch it because oats are carb heavy. Then again if it stops you having a scone or two...
Kitchen closed at 9pm. Calories low as forgot lunch til 3pm so around 600 and carbs 23. Feeling bloated though and tummy looks swollen. Had Mediterranean fish bake for dinner so no idea why.

Bestbees · 04/06/2020 07:33

Ok, so my apparent 3lb loss yesterday must have been a scale error as I am 10.4 and 3/4 this morning! So day three and loss is 1.75 pounds which is fine.

I am hungry this morning, but trying to fast until at least 10. Hoping that the hunger passes and will glug lots of water.
Mum of little mice- better to stick to the principles than the calories I think for long term success. What about some eggs for breakfast? Allow yourself a day you don't count but has plenty of good stuff - omlette, salad with oils nuts and legumes, dinner of meat and lovely veg?

Postman eat yumm y to eggs and bacon. I love meal planning which might explain the weight gain!

Bestbees · 04/06/2020 07:36

Ooh forgot to put my meal plan!

Lunch tumeric mushroom omlette and salad from the fast book.
Dinner pork steak and bean mash with cabbage
Egg or cheese snack if desperate!

fufulina · 04/06/2020 07:38

👋 just piping up - I find the same as kimlek - eating breakfast unleashes the hunger. I’ve done two meals a day since day 1 (and a couple of one meals a day days - tougher).

Half way through week 5. 8.6kg down. Tantalisingly close to 10% of body weight lost and going under 80kg for the first time in years.

Benefits I wasn’t expecting so far:

  • Since DC my periods have been incredibly heavy. My last one, on this woe, was like pre-DC. Unbelievable. I didn’t have to take my usual meds to stem the bleeding. So presumably it also didn’t have nearly the same impact on my iron levels.
  • chin hairs - the long ones you find in a meeting? - they have stopped growing totally!
  • mental clarity. I know people talk about this, but I had been starting to lose words - just noticed I was becoming less articulate when I needed to be for work. This has stopped and I’m so relieved! I thought it was just age!
  • the weirdest one - I have had two c sections and the scar is a war zone. But, since starting this it has been the least angry it has been for years.

I’m 43 now and the health implications of my terrible food habits have taken on a totally new significance. Yes I want to be slim, but far more, I want to be healthy. It’s quite sad it’s taken me to 43 to really care enough about my health and myself to really eat well for all the right reasons.

As ever thank you all for posting. The regular check ins from a crew of fast800 people doing the same stuff is brilliant. So so helpful and inspiring.

ilovemydogandMrObama · 04/06/2020 07:53

Thanks for the all the support Smile

Seriously thought I was going mad there and will not ever weigh myself again in the evening Shock

But seem to be back on track and weighed in this morning at 10st 3 lbs which is a bit of progress.

Just heard from work that we will be working from home indefinitely which is depressing but also that the pressure is somewhat off if that makes sense?

Kimlek · 04/06/2020 08:08

Well done @fufulina it’s great to hit a milestone!! I was just over 80kg at xmas when I started this, 70kg by end of Feb. I decided to ‘rest’ and maintain through lockdown & took a break.

I’m 10.9.4 this am so it’s moving in the right direction again.
Im working this am (a rarity as freelance). Opticians this afternoon as going blind. Shoukd be able to squeeze lunch in. Squeeze in gig walk before dinner. Lunch will be either left over Mediterranean fish bake or lettuce cups with mixed bean pesto (fast800 recipes). Dinner will be salmon and veg. No alcohol. Didn’t have any last night either despite being grumpy.

Kimlek · 04/06/2020 08:11

10.3 obama huge well done 👏🏻 do you have much left to go?

thenewaveragebear1983 · 04/06/2020 08:16

@fufulina amazing! The non weight benefits of this healthy way of life are so impressive (as well as the weight loss) and thank you for sharing

@mumoflittlemice the carb cravings are horrible and can be overwhelming can't they? I can be a terrible emotional eater and I can feel myself wanting carbs to quash emotions sometimes, when I know I don't want them as food. I do agree with @kimlek about breakfast though; if I ate Oats at breakfast I'd be gnawing my own arm off by 11am. If you like breakfast and don't want to have the hassle of making it you can do little chia/flaxseed/ground almond pots (in jam jars if you want to be a real hipster) with peanut butter and frozen berries overnight, and that gives you a sort of overnight oats (without Oats) thing that you can then grab and eat when you are ready.

I feel yuck today after soooooo much sugar yesterday, but we had a fun day and I feel confident I can get back on it today. Meals planned, going to listen to my hypno today for a boost, and go for a run this morning.

Have a great day everyone!

OP posts:
frumpety · 04/06/2020 09:02

Can I ask one of those questions that's probably been asked a billion times before ? How many grammes of carbs is a good amount for the day ?
The reason I ask is I am looking to buy some meal replacment shakes and on one site I can get a good discount but each shake made up contains 18g's of carbs ( 0.6g's are sugar ) , I would only be having one a day though.
Thank you Smile

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