Blood sugar diet and fast800 thread 20

[thenewaveragebear1983]

Thread 20, can you believe it?

I rarely eat fruit except raspberries and strawberries. You can have apples (and I think one of the books suggests nut butter on them too?) but yes, eat sparingly. Eat the skins. I find apples incredibly sweet now and even though I love fruit I hardly eat any.

Thank you. I’m doing my Tesco order at the moment and being very mindful of what I’m ordering. I need food I can make quickly so I’ve ordered steam packs of cauliflower rice and boil in the bag fish for times when I want to fling something together without prepping it.

I like the recipe for porridge that I found online and was around 270 cals. Haven’t eaten porridge for ages and used to consider it a treat.

Is this coconut milk? Have I messed up my curry? It’s very watery

If it's coconut milk for a curry then it's a can you want, it will be with the Asian food aisle. That is more like milk replacement for drinking. It should evaporate a bit though if you heat it for longer?

Ok. Thanks. I’ll keep on simmering it and hope it thickens🤞🏻

It looks ok now. Thanks

Hello all, I’ve had the last 3 weeks off plan. For the first 2 weeks off plan my hunger was less and I managed to not gain any weight (I had lost 9 pound in 5 weeks) but the past week I’ve lost the plot!!
I’m constantly eating and craving carbs, my calories are over 2000 each day and I’m still hungry. I’m going on holiday in a week but I’m thinking of being strict this week with carbs so that I curb my hunger because if I carry on this way I will regain everything. I’m expecting a 3 pound weight gain tomorrow morning, just hope it’s not more!

@Postmanbear welcome back. A good strict week will see 3lbs off easily!

My weekend had been really lovely but totally off plan. I'm not even going to kid myself that it was remotely on plan. I probably shouldn't weigh myself tomorrow but I like to punish myself for these things so I will, but it won't be pretty. It's my birthday next weekend so probably the same again....

However, you know me. Ever the trier. So my menu is all planned out, workouts all written in including 4 circuits classes this week and 4 runs plus will drag ds out for couch to 5km a few times, much against his wishes. My menu is all done. I'm going to fast longer tomorrow just to give myself a break from eating and dinner will be pulled pork With some leftovers for the week.

It is incredibly annoying how I can undo 2 really good weeks with one weekend, plus when considering the amount of hard physical exercise I did last week (I ran a half marathon FFS) but I am a supreme retainer of water and so if I eat the sugar, BAM! There goes 5lbs of water! So in theory, a few days good low carb/fasting/ plenty of fluids and running and Whoosh, it will go. Yes???

@Borris your dinner looks lovely as well. I usually buy blue dragon or own brand cans of coconut milk and I do buy the light one as the full fat is very oily; the light doesn't usually have added sugar like some light products can do but check the labels. If you have any of your carton left it makes very nice overnight oats or chia seed puddings.

Closing the kitchen at 708 calories, after having black coffee for breakfast, chicken noodle soup from the Carbs & Cals book (285 cals) for lunch, an apple mid-afternoon, and Hungarian Goulash (350 cals) from the Blood Sugar Diet recipe book. I thought of having a chunk of cheese after dinner; decided against. Carbs came in at 83g, but I don't pay a huge amount of attention to healthy carbs provided that the calories stack up OK. Was 800g lighter at today's weigh-in - no particular reason I can see, perhaps a mini-whoosh, will probably be up tomorrow - so now down 15kg since I started. Happy with that, not feeling confident about shift to maintenance.

@thenewaveragebear1983 absolutely nothing wrong with your posts re DC and dieting- as always, you’re very eloquent!

Totally failed tonight- BBQ with friends and all my resolve went within 5 mins. I feel like I’ve just undone 2 weeks hard work in one night and I’m going to stay at this weight (still a stone over where I want to be) for ever .

Can you explain the sugar/water retention thingy to me please?

Hi all - weird day trying to eat healthy but with the last bits of random stuff in the fridge! Long day tomorrow but will force a meal plan into action. Will have eggs for a late breakfast, salad & a bit of ham for lunch and not so sure on dinner.

DD is at a really awkward age where she's suddenly filling out but can no longer eat anything she wants. I think she's also seriously addicted to sugar (she seems to be sneaking sweets too so I need to help her get sorted on this, without it being a punishment or make her feel like it's because her body is now in some way bad). I really struggle with how to deal with her, I talk about healthy, but I slip up all the time right now too. When I was ill we were just eating easy food and it always seems so much harder to get out of that habit than it does to get into it! I suppose sticking with it over the longer term will be better for both of us!

Plus with the holiday I don't want to be saying no to nice food I didn't have to cook all the time so I need to find some balance!

@WhatWillSantaBring ok in very layman's terms... we store glycogen in our muscles which we turn into glucose (it's effectively stored glucose, the 'battery' and once we are 'full' of glycogen, we then store glucose as fat. Each molecule of glycogen has 2-3 molecules of water alongside it, to enable this chemical reaction back to glucose. So when you fast, you use this stored glycogen and the water as fuel (hence dropping water weight when you first start low carb). However, if you're glycogen depleted (after a good week on plan) if you then eat a lot of carbs, you will replace that water and glycogen in your muscles. Hence how I could gain 5lbs overnight. It will be more dramatic depending on how muscular you are. It sounds like a tiny amount when we talk in molecules, but in real terms when I ran two hours the other day I was 5lbs lighter afterwards (so I must have used 5lbs of glycogen and water)

In an additional aside, fructose never gets stored as muscle glycogen, it will always be diverted to the liver and will always be stored as fat. In theory on a daily cycle we would wake depleted, eat, store some glucose as glycogen, go about our day hunting/gathering and end the day glycogen depleted due to our exertions and repeat daily. The cycle isn't an abnormal thing, but obviously cavewoman did not eat birthday cake and did not weigh herself daily....

@WhatWillSantaBring ok in very layman's terms... we store glycogen in our muscles which we turn into glucose (it's effectively stored glucose, the 'battery' and once we are 'full' of glycogen, we then store glucose as fat. Each molecule of glycogen has 2-3 molecules of water alongside it, to enable this chemical reaction back to glucose. So when you fast, you use this stored glycogen and the water as fuel (hence dropping water weight when you first start low carb). However, if you're glycogen depleted (after a good week on plan) if you then eat a lot of carbs, you will replace that water and glycogen in your muscles. Hence how I could gain 5lbs overnight. It will be more dramatic depending on how muscular you are. It sounds like a tiny amount when we talk in molecules, but in real terms when I ran two hours the other day I was 5lbs lighter afterwards (so I must have used 5lbs of glycogen and water)

In an additional aside, fructose never gets stored as muscle glycogen, it will always be diverted to the liver and will always be stored as fat. In theory on a daily cycle we would wake depleted, eat, store some glucose as glycogen, go about our day hunting/gathering and end the day glycogen depleted due to our exertions and repeat daily. The cycle isn't an abnormal thing, but obviously cavewoman did not eat birthday cake and did not weigh herself daily....

Hi everyone, I've lost 4lbs since Thursday so think this is my long awaited whoosh! I really feel I've turned a corner in terms of hunger (I'm used to it now) and I've made peace with the fact this is my life now. ie I'm not "missing out" on foods, I'm making a choice to make me healthier and happier. Your posts from the past few days have really helped with this, so thank you! Have a great day everyone

@thenewaveragebear1983 wishe I had sorted myself out yesterday as I stuffed my face again. I too ruin things with the weekend. Back on it today. Have family staying next weekend so imagine that will be a disaster too!
Plan lunch soup and cheese
Dinner lentil curry

@UsuallyJustLurk well done.

I am several pounds up today after the weekend, which is expected but still bloody annoying as I was doing so well and I'm now basically back where I started. It will be water/carbs as I posted above mostly, plus also a bit of water retention round the muscles as I did quite rapidly increase my hiit workouts last week (and I'm stiff as a board so there must be some waster in there) . Going to bootcamp this morning after dropping ds at nursery and plan to fast longer and drink a lot of water to get my head back in the game,

Feels so strange that this is the last week of term and there's no fanfare or celebration.

We went out for dinner with my sister and nephew - I chose good food and didn’t have pudding but had far too much to drink. I’m not hungover by some miracle, but definitely not weighing myself until tomorrow after a workout and day of eating well!
I am worried about what life looks like after I’ve lost the weight I want to lose - will I immediately gain it all back if I eat carbs? I don’t want to never eat carbs again. I’ll need to find a different WOE if so.
I’d be happy doing 5:2 with two 800 cal, very low carb days and also keeping the 16:8 TRE for the rest of my life, but I’d want to have wine at the weekend and the occasional pizza, pasta etc. Anyone on here maintaining with carbs?

"I am worried about what life looks like after I’ve lost the weight I want to lose - will I immediately gain it all back if I eat carbs? I don’t want to never eat carbs again."

My concerns in a nutshell, @alpinewalker35.

"I’d be happy doing 5:2 with two 800 cal, very low carb days and also keeping the 16:8 TRE for the rest of my life, but I’d want to have wine at the weekend and the occasional pizza, pasta etc."

I've done 16:8 or something very close for many years. Now I'm gravitating towards 5:2 with 800 cal limit for those two days (when I switch to maintenance). I definitely intend to drink alcohol / eat starchy carbs every now and again. Think it should be fine in moderation, but my problem is that I have in the past tended to take a moderate approach to "moderation". Find it difficult not to overdo it.

Was reading an article in a gossip magazine at the hairdressers where a woman lost a ton of weight by being in calorie deficit. In other words, she would exercise which would burn off, say 500 calories, so she would then, 'allow,' herself to eat 499 calories...

Thought this was insane and not a balanced view of food to the point of having a phobia.

I really enjoy food, so think once I get to my target weight, will probably maintain by eating an evening meal with the family, but having the vegetables, and meat/fish and control portion size.

Agree with the others on this board with teenagers in the house and needing to show a healthy relationship with food. It's a tricky balancing act for sure...

You won't regain all your weight if you reintroduce carbs; as in you won't gain 3 stone overnight after a weekend off. What you'll find though is your weight will fluctuate, so for me it's about 5lbs. Target isn't static, you will bob about and yes if you have a week away and eat and drink whatever you want, you'll gain some weight back. But then you get back on plan and lose it again. Repeatedly eating carbs and not getting back on plan will result in weight gain. Let's be realistic here, for most of us that's what has caused our weight gain in the first place.

I've maintained, not intentionally but fairly effectively, for 18 months. I do it by not eating carbs in the week, but I drink at weekends and eat occasional carbs. There's a lot of foods that I almost never eat now: potato, cereal, bread, bananas, pasta, rice, beer/cider/full sugar drinks, fruit juice or smoothies (even on a night off I would never have rice for example with a takeaway). I eat more sugar than I think is really healthy for me at Times (but I also think I am very sugar sensitive and possibly pre-diabetic) . To lose and then maintain it's more than simply calorie counting. For me it requires regular exercise, making this food a way of life and not a diet, and really tackling emotional and compulsive eating behaviour. It's the emotional eating which is preventing me from losing that last stone and it's something I always fall back quite heavily on when life is tough but I do work at it.

To be brutal and honest, "if you do what you have always done, you get what you've always got " - I would love to get to a place where, not so much that I can have pizza and cake and maintain, but actually achieve that elusive holy grail of not even wanting the pizza and cake in the first place. I want it a hell of a lot less when I'm on plan properly, and considerably less than I used to, but that takes work and mental strength that sometimes I don't have. However, for me, I know that if I go back to eating how I used to I will (and do, and have) regain some weight. Similarly I know if if I just stop exercising regularly, I'd regain some weight.

Morning all! Down 1lb this morning! 16 days till holiday so hoping I can lose 10lbs but lets see.

Last year I basically maintained for 9 months with keeping a vague eye on my carbs but not following 800 regularly and doing essentially 14/10.

But my weight always fluxuates by around 5lbs depending on time of the month, etc. which is annoying but at least I know its water/hormones/etc.

Went to bbq yesterday and did well, just meat and salad. I did however, have a huge slab of birthday cake which wasn't my finest moment! Think I will go ultra low carb and fast today to try and offset. Scales haven't moved in 2 days so need to give it a kick

@thenewaveragebear1983 I suppose I’m thinking back to my previous healthy weight years where I ate carbs every day and was never overweight, but I was also in my 20s and early 30s and now at 35 maybe things are changing.
I gained a stone and a half in a year, giving up smoking added the first 7-8 pounds then drinking too much and too often, with accompanying salty snacks did the rest. Both these things made worse by moving to a much more sedentary job and not exercising as much outside work, in my last job I did 14,000-20,000 steps a day just by doing my job and then went to the gym 4-5 times a week. I started my new job in October and gave up smoking in November. I was always between 8 stone 7 And 8.11 before, at my heaviest a few weeks ago I was 10.6!

"Agree with the others on this board with teenagers in the house and needing to show a healthy relationship with food. It's a tricky balancing act for sure..."

I agree that a healthy relationship with food is what we all want, but the prevalence of childhood obesity in the UK (said to be 1 in 3 at start of secondary) suggests that the real risk is that we're failing to prevent children from eating the wrong things, rather than that we're failing to ensure they're eating enough.

My kids know that they get to eat pudding but dad doesn't because he's overweight, which has been caused by him eating too many unhealthy things in the past. Don't see that decoupling the cause of poor dietary choices from the undeniable effect of weight gain helps anybody in the medium term. If anything, sugarcoating (groan) the issue is going to lead to worse outcomes IMO.

I just adopt a low-key, factual approach. "I did X, therefore Y occurred." Certainly would not conceal the existence or my use of scales from them. Each to his own, obviously.