Anyone tried the sirtfood diet?

[Miloarmadillo1]

www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article4647459.ece

Good luck. I actually started doing 'sort of' SIRT before I got the juicer and in all I have lost almost a stone in 4 weeks so pretty good going. I do think there is something in it but it isnt magical and you do need to count/watch calories of course (which is not what they say in the book)

I didnt have time to clean my juicer this morning before going to see a client. The smell of dank vegetation that greeted me on my return 4 hours later was quite horrific.

Yes after not really losing anything for 2 weeks (whilst repeating week 1) I am now experimenting with a bit of 5:2/ 4:3 if poss having one or 2 juices every day and trying to keep on the Sirt recipies. Agree that I think there is something in it but I had also come to the conclusion that it's a regime originally designed for people who can at least move about a bit ( and am ashamed to admit I don't exercise at all but have no time with desk-based work, kids, and husband away). Plus it was easy-ish to follow in Jan but I now have quite a few 'eating' occasions coming up so I'm going to have to play around with it a bit. 4:3 worked for me in the past with no exercise but would have liked to have found a regime where you can eat more!! Have decided to stop buying walnuts and dates - too calorific and not convinced enough magic in them v calories! Weight has budged downwards v slightly in the last couple of days despite eating out twice so am remaining hopeful!!....

Tryingtocatchup1 - Am pleased I'm not the only one on this diet who isn't a 'road-runner' so to speak, have you received the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet book yet? if so what are your thoughts? At least there are 3 'meals' a day, however small, they look tasty & the science is reassuring. You impress me; anyone who can do 4:3 without committing murder deserves credit, 5:2 nearly did for me.....

Q ....... do men diet/weight-watch like this....????

Yes the book has arrived and I'm really impressed - if I could commit to it daily for a number of weeks I think I would definitely prefer that to 5:2 or 4:3 but I've got 3 days away at a friend's house looming (who doesn't take kindly to dieters/non drinkers and I do agree it is really annoying catering for friends who hardly eat your food when they're on a diet!) plus the odd work/social occasion coming up so can see I will need to 'rob' calories from some 800 cal days for the bigger eating ones! Can't wait to get to the supermarket to try some of the blood sugar book recipies though - kedgeree with the cauliflower rice is genius! Anyone fed up with the taste of buckwheat, let alone turmeric??!!!! Will keep on with the sirt ingredients though as despite my hope for bigger loss 7lbs lost on sirt diet plus 2lbs from own DIY diet beforehand since 4th Jan is admittedly better than anything I've done before. I made the sirt Dahl for the first time tonight and it was good. Plus butternut tagine the other day was lovely. Making my own porridge with buckwheat flakes and a good shake of dessicated coconut with almond milk and berries - surprisingly tasty - almond milk really improves it. Sirt chilli and curry also good in the slowcooker for family meals whilst out at work. Anyone else come up with any DIY low cal sirt ideas?

I agree with the others that have found the maintenance diet with 3 meals too much. After the first week (which I also repeated) I stuck with 2 juices & 2 sirt meals and it appears to be working. I think thats still about 1500 calories a day & if I had any more than that a day I don't think I'd lose weight - however much kale & turmeric I consumed!
So after the first week losing 8 lbs I seem to be continuing to lose between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds a week. (i've been at it just over 4 weeks now)
Anyone been on it for longer? Curious to see if/how weight loss continues.

Sirt Dahl......? Try as I might I cannot find the recipe in my book. Odd...... I shall improvise with buckwheat grains if I can't find it on the web! I still find having a green compost-juice for breakfast on a Saturday a huge shock to my system, which is asking me for a bacon sandwich... a feature in our household as a weekend treat! Have finally sourced some buckwheat type 'oats' and am looking forward to having some 'porridge' later on with strawberries & yoghurt. Am also working on a 'lasagna' recipe using thin strips of carrot and courgette instead of pasta, with kale, celery & mushrooms making up the majority of the sauce. Planning on greek youghurt topping with some parmesan to finish it off.

Hi everyone.

I'm on day 6. I have been suffering massively - depressed, lethargic, I think it might be sugar withdrawal! :( Oh yes, and hugely irritable and snappy - my kids are suffering. I'm doing it together with my dh, which does help as he is doing a lot of the prep (it was his idea!). There have been some lovely meals - we were stuck in a food rut, eating food that the kids will eat without a fuss, but now we've cooking separate meals for us and them.

We ordered the book from the Times ages ago after reading the article, and it still hasn't come. V annoying to find I could've got it on Amazon for only £2.99 and it would've been here by now. So, I've been eating dark choc even though it's probably not included in the first week, I couldn't survive without it. I crumbled today after lunch - the salad with raw chicory in it was foul so I had a date and a strawberry afterwards.

I've lost 5 lbs so far, but this isn't amazing as I lost 5lbs the first week of 5:2, 2 lbs the second week, then the 3rd week of 5:2 I put 4lbs back on!!! (and I'd been exercising - my friend thinks probably muscle gain - I wish!!)

So, the longer term will be the proof for me - if it stays off. And if I start to feel good coz right now I feel rubbish. Also it's more about inch loss for me - dd is 3 1/2 and I've been trying to lose my tummy fat since she was born! Hopefully with the drop in refined sugar this will finally happen.

I am still subscribing to weight watchers on line so I will do my points as well as when I added up yesterdays 2 meals they did come to the full daily allowance of smart points, so I think 3 meals if not carefully portioned would definitely cause me weight gain.

I'd like to hear if anyone else has been suffering severe sugar withdrawal - it seems crazy as I don't even eat a lot of sugar - I do have a couple of ww cakes a day, but only drink water, but I think also I'm missing the carbs.....

Hi Emalina, sorry you are feeling so rough, i think you might have something with your carb theory, after all pasta, which children seem to love is a blood sugar nightmare. I have been watching the mildly entertaining Sugar Farm on ITV, where 'celebrities' stay on a farm for 3 weeks & have had sugar products, including all complex carbohydrates like pasta & bread as well as fruit withdrawn from their diets, it's been interesting to wath the results to put it mildly. So many of my fridge favourites like natural youghurt contain sugar if they are low-fat; a 'natural/normal' level of carb in yoghurt is between c5-6% so any yoghurt or low fat dessert with more than that level of carb has had the fat replaced with sugar.....also saccharine plays havoc with blood sugar & people on diet-foods like diet cola don't lose the expected levels of weight when swapping from full-sugar cola. It's the hidden sugars we need to watch like those in cereal, pasta sauces, ketchup etc. I noticed my prawns the other day ie cooked ones, in no sauce, had sugar in them.........Wine is my sugar issue, I love a glass of dry white, a big glass & more than 1 with a meal. Have cut back massively ie 5 dry days a week, all January which for me is significant also switched to Pinot Noir as the book recommends.

I also ordered my book from the Times & waited close to 3 weeks for it only to discover it was cheaper on Amazon too, irritating isn't it.... I found several of the recipes and the diet principles on-line, as well as in the Times & Good Housekeeping & these kept me going until the wretched book arrived.

Yes, that salad with chicory, turmeric, dates & strawberries is vile in my opinion too, it ended up in the bin... chicory is hell-food, always has been to my taste-buds, so I swap it with celery instead.

I have been on the diet for 1 month now (with a couple of adaptations) & have lost just over 1/2 stone, which I'm not unhappy with as to start with nothing happened to my weight for virtually 10 days my so called 'skinny-gene' never switched on, so I started the diet all over again. But I have found it much easier than 5:2 which rates as a positive in our household......... it does bad things to my moods..... they swing in the direction of BAD. All the time.

Good luck & hang on in there!!

Thanks H3. I managed 3 weeks on 5:2 feeling fine, but then I felt really hungry and couldn't face another fast day, also put off by the fact that my body obviously adapted to fasting, so lost 5lb week 1, 2 lb week 2, and put 4lb back on week 3 in spite of eating carefully and exercising!

I'm feeling the same about this - I've only lost 4lb in week 1, and do feel hungry! I've been interested to read you post above about those in the study working out in the gym as well - of course their muscle mass improved then! I'm thinking this might all turn out to be a bit emperor's new clothes...

Dh is convincing me to stick with it, but I will definitely need to watch the calories as well - out of interest I worked out how many WW smart points in the food I've been eating - and apart for the first 3 days of 1 meal a day, the food takes me way over what I'd usually be eating. So today I only had 1/2 the muesli, and the aubergine meal, but then was so hungry I ate 6 squares of dark choc (10 smart points, which is 1/3 of the daily ww allowance, as was the walnut and parsley pesto). I'd rather have a proper meal of sausage, 100g mash and gravy!! (also 10 ww points!)

Oh, and I forgot to mention the insomnia I am now suffering with. I haven't slept properly all week. I'm not having the caffeine part of the diet - I've been caffeine free for 18 months, so I didn't fancy spending money on matcha powder, I did try drinking a cup of green tea a day, but it was too foul!

Still waiting for the magic to happen, and am getting sick of rocket and kale ;)

Could you please share me some meal ideas as still waiting for the book. When can we start drinking the wine?! :D

Hi Emalina, it's great that DH is being so supportive, so is mine thank goodness! As I am a techno-plank I have absolutely no idea how to get photographs of the recipes/methods into this stream, however before the book arrived, i did find some recipes online. These 'links' on Google will get you some actual recipes as opposed to a list of top Sirt foods, Lifestyleone 13/10/16, Look.co.uk, Sirtfood diet, 12/1/16, Foodforthought.uk.com, 27/1/16, it should work. Apologies for being so technically challenged. I had a couple of weird sleepless nights too, to begin with, I just couldn't get to sleep, then I settled down & am back to my normal sleep pattern. Caffeine free for 18 months is brilliant, well done, the matcha tea is also the only really expensive part of this diet, so don't go there if you don't do caffeine any more.
Re wine, they suggest that you are allowed 1 glass of red wine with a meal, during Phase 2 on two or three days a week......

PS Dark chocolate contains caffeine

Have incorporated Sirt into my 5;2 which I do with 1000cals as cant survive on less and introduced lots of sirt foods into normal days, been on the juice for nearly a month now and a few people have mentioned that I look really well and had I been in sun as skin is good colour - have not been in sun ( I wish) could this be the juice or am i jaundiced??? Feel fine

Well, my hands are slightly green-tinged from squeezing the compost through the nut-milk bag.........has this helped you lose more weight than before adding it to the 5:2 please Annabelindajane?

I lost weight on the 5;2 3 years ago , it was 6Lbs - could have lost a few more but happy with that and still do the 5;2 with 1000 cals as maintenance, if I dont do it I put weight on again, have lost a further 1.5 llbs by adding the sirt foods in - that 1.5 llbs has gone over 4 weeks. i walk every day for an hour with our dogs and do hi intensity twice a week for 12 minutes, also am pretty active all day.

Hi, the sirtfood diet pioneers have gone awfully quiet on here! Please update us! Today is day 1 of the detox bit for me.I bought a juicer specially ( make - Andrew James, £30 + postage on Amazon)
The green juice is drinkable but won't be on my list of favourites when I finish the first week! My tummy is now rumbling so off to make the prawns with soba noodles.I don't usually have hot spices so just going to use 1/2 of the bird's eye chilli for 2 of us.....

Me Again! Just to say I can now read your updates- couldn't read any before I joined ! I also have been caffeine free for a while so will watch what effect the matcha tea & choc have on me. I need to lose about 3 stones , so not expecting the sirtfoods to do it on their own. Started going swimming twice a week & joined the gym but I HATE that part so can't see me sticking to it.
Ho Hum !

Day 2 - didn't manage the third green juice as it was making me gip!But I am pleased with myself as I don't usually eat spicy food & I actually enjoyed tonight's turkey with spiced cauliflower couscous even though it was quite hot.So this diet is introducing me to new flavours. Am I the only one struggling with the dark chocolate? It is so bitter ( I thought it would be a treat).I thought portion sizes was one of my problems but as others have said, these portions are over generous.Wish the recipes had calorie info with them as I think after this week ,it would suit me to combine it with the 5:2 diet.
Someone on maintenance diet might like the following recipe which I find delicious but don't know how many calories it is....

CELERY & NUT SOUP
1 1/2 tblsp ex virgin oil
2 heads of celery - chopped
garlic
5 oz unsalted cashew nuts ( or walnuts for sirt food)
2 1/2 pints veg stock
1 tsp turmeric or ginger

Cook celery & garlic gently in oil for 20 mins in a covered pan.
Grind nuts in blender & add to pan along with stock. Cover again, bring to boil & simmer for 30 mins. Cool a little before pureeing in blender .Pass soup thru a sieve into a clean pan to re-heat & serve.

Many thanks to all of you sharing experiences on here, it provides encouragement & support when I am flagging!

Karen

That's a great recipe painterlady, thank you. Another lady posted a recipe for kale & apple soup which is delicious, especially in this chilly weather. I also need to lose 3 stone & struggled with 3 juices a day especially as i had to start the diet again, the 1st week/10 days only saw me drop 1lb, so I did phase one twice in an attempt to kick-start my sluggish metabolism.The 2 a day level is bearable but to be honest I am now heartily sick of it!! I think that any 'rigid' diet like this will contain foods that aren't easy to swallow, i have always loved dark chocolate, 90% Lindt is what I nibble upon regularly, but as for chicory.....devil-food, I simply cannot swallow it, so have substituted celery instead. However if green tea, kale, chicory & dark chocolate make someone gag, then this isn't the diet for them!! After 4 weeks I seem to be on top of my wine habit, have slipped a couple of times, but I am consuming a fraction of what I used to quaff on a daily basis, I could do a bottle a night, no problem. No hangover either. On Valentines, DH & I shared a bottle of red between us, a real result. I have been pretty diligent, following the plan in the book & only wish I had been able to shift more than 9lbs in 4 weeks, I am sticking with it for another week then if I don't see a drop of more than a couple of lbs, will be moving on to the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet, it is free of compost-juice, has 3 meals a day & is full of foods I like already, which will help. I will however include 1 sirt juice every morning as I think it is nutritionally sound, although it stinks!!

Hi there everyone. Up date from me as promised.
So I've lost a total now of 18 pounds in 6 weeks. HOWEVER I only did the 3 meals a day maintenance thing for 1 week. I felt it was too much food - not that I wasn't happy to eat that much (!) just knew I wouldn't lose eating that much & I didn't. So I've stuck with the 2 juices (still disgusting) and 2 meals a day. I also did the full blown week 1 again. First time round I lost 8lbs, second time round only 3 pounds, so I reckon the first week must have included lots of water. I wanted to lose 2 stone, so I've got 10 ppounds to go. It seems to have settled at me losing about 2 pounds a week now, which is probably the same as most diets so who knows whether the "sirt factor" makes a difference?? But it was good to have the kick start at the beginning & losing a couple of pounds a week consistently is ok. Although the green juice & kale factor are grim to say the least. Although does have the added bonus that my stomach can't face any food for about an hour after I've drunk the liquid compost :/
So I'll keep going I think. Although have a girls spa weekend at end of Feb...

hi cakebaker! That's a fantastic result, I can only dream of 18lb weightloss, brilliant! I didn't lose much to start with and averaged out it's just over 2lbs a week across the 4 weeks I have been on it, which as you say is pretty similar to most diets. Like you, a glass of that compost has me gagging & I struggle to face food afterwards, the smell just does it for me, Stig of the Dump pong, DH calls it.....Mind you, even if I seem to be slower at losing weight than you & many others, if I can keep up c 2lbs a week for the next couple of months, I will be on tgt to shift the 2 of the 3 stone I need to lose before next October, when I have a big bash I want to look good for. Nothing like vanity to prompt action is there.....hmm......Good luck with the girls spa break, hopefully with it being a spa, there will be sensible food to consume along with the alcohol you will smuggle in!!

Thanks H313, hope you continue to lose weight this week. Well done re the wine.I like a drop or three myself ( ahem !) and was pleased with myself a few months before xmas as I swapped to drinking elderflower cordial with sparkling water ( in a wine glass of course !)I didn't miss the wine but found out calorie wise it wasn't much better !So then I went back on the wine.... & the lager.....
Anyway, I even managed to drink water whilst my DH had red wine on Valentine's Day.Off to polish my halo now !
P S well done Cakebaker , I will be thrilled if I can emulate your example !

Hi All - look what I found on the Food Network, Kale Crisps!!!!!

Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C

Place the kale leaves on baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Spritz with olive oil spray and sprinkle lightly with salt.

Bake in the oven until crispy, 5 to 8 minutes, for a potato-chip-like snack. Eat up!

PER SERVING: 64 calories, 1g fat, 212mg sodium, 13g carbs, 2.5g fiber, 0g sugars, 4.25g protein

Have tried this, they are yummy. Did 2 batches, one with a sprinkling of Parmesan, and reduced the salt. Equally scrummy. Not strictly on-diet, but a nice savoury alternative to the Sirtfood bites. : )

Wow what amazing results some people have! Not been on here for a while but good to check back in and see how everyone is getting on! HN313naGraham are you still losing weight gradually? I love the kale crisps idea - only problem will make me crave a glass of wine!! Cake baker - thats a fantastic result well done:)
OK so I've been on the diet since Jan 1 and am still sticking to it as much as possible. Its been quite difficult as unlike some others my DH although wonderful in almost every way is rather unsympathetic to my dieting. He's not actually critical, in fact he says nice complimentary things, but it feels like he is sabotaging my attempts by the back door if you see what I mean. We have a very active social life which last weekend involved 3 yes 3 meals out Thurs/Fri/Sat all having the taster menu, we were in large groups which means no choice, eat 10 courses. Plus wine. Basically nightmare for diet. Even when not doing taster menu its still quite crap having to sit there with DH and DCs all tucking in to high cal treats, starters, plenty of wine, cocktails, desserts etc and sticking to water, steamed fish and veg etc :( Almost every time we go out to eat we have an argument about whether to have starters or not and all the kids (teens and young adults) side against me so I sit there starving with my water while they tuck into mountains of calorific things. And then they start making little digs at me for being a kill joy/smug:( Of my 4 kids 3 of them are incredibly skinny both boys and girls, never get sick, and can eat for ever and never put on an ounce, the fourth and youngest is carrying a little extra, but no more than half a stone or so and he's very healthy and plays rugby 4 times a week, so none of them really need to cut back. There is no point discussing it with DH he just says he didn't marry a puritan. Eating out, socialising with people is a priority for him although he is about 1.5 stone overweight, drinks too much and could do with not eating or drinking half the stuff he does. Deep down he knows that so any type of lecture/nag from me results in a massive row so I just don't go there now. If I try to suggest we don't book so many meals out with friends that doesn't go well either :( This post has turned into something else not diet related - sorry ! Honestly, I think it would be pretty easy to stick to any diet if he was doing it with me and not booking endless meals out at gourmet restaurants. Anyone else got any suggestions for dealing with unsupportive partners or families????

Rant over, back to diet, in the context above, I've had to be extra careful on days when thankfully I can control what I eat. So I've basically stuck to a regime on weekdays of 2 very small meals , plus juices. Because I've not been able to stick 100% in any week because of the above I don't know whether I would lose weight in the maintenance phase with the 3 meals, I suspect not. The bottom line is that I'm now down almost a stone since Jan, and pretty happy with that on the whole especially given the difficulties! I even treated myself to a couple of new bits from the shops today and was very pleased to find I'm 2 dress sizes down from when I started and almost everything tailored in my wardrobe is now too big.

I have also started to vary my meals a little bit not sticking religiously to sirt. I've just had dinner with squash noodles (the spiralized ones- you can get them in Sainsburys) for example, made with a tomato, red onion, celery black garlic and flat leaf parsley sauce (delicious) also made myself a batch of Deliciously Ella's raw chocolate and orange brownies; I figured they had the cacao in them - highly recommended, just a small square really hit those chocolate cravings! I'll also be giving painter lady's soup a go - looks yummy. Another treat for me is having the buckwheat pancakes, topped with red onions gently sautéed in a little olive oil until soft, and the tiniest smidgen of strong cheddar sprinkled over the top then put under a hot grill or microwave until the cheese melts....(cheese in the wholemeal pitta is in the maintenance phase as a lunch so I just use that much) - that was an amazing post yoga class brekkie!

Good luck everyone wherever you are on your journey - I'm sure that if you have stuck to any kind of diet for this long since Jan you deserve a pat on the back for navigating through everything that life throws at you , and even losing just 1 or 2 lbs a week, if you keep it up will turn into stones before you know where you are - and is much, much better than putting it on!

Hello Chickenlips - good to hear from you, it's been a while! I do sympathise massively (bad choice of word, sorry!) with the eating out issue, kids have flown the nest, so not such a big issue, but like you DH has work & official commitments which mean entertaining & eating out more than is wise when trying to shift 2-3 stones of blubber. As well as fish, especially salmon I seem to be eating a lot of steak on these occasions, ratatouille, Ceasar salad, Waldorf salad, prawns (lots of prawns....poor little devils but great as a starter, grilled) and chicken with tomato based sauces ie Puttanesca, but if you have sharing plates to contend with, then I really sympathise. Have never been big on desserts (pass the wine instead....), but like a coffee, with milk. Oops. Since Shrove Tuesday I learnt how to make buckwheat pancakes and agree they are really nice, I have them with a couple of chopped olives & tomatoes, gently heated through with some garlic & parsley, as now heartily sick of parsley, chives are getting a look in. I am topping with a little Parmesan. Desperation with food choices is becoming the mother of invention for both of us by the sound of it!

Vodka, soda water & LOTS of slices of lemon & lime squished into it, (squished being the operative word here, otherwise it's tasteless) is low calorie & works as a sort of cocktail option... I am currently playing with the 8 week Blood Sugar Diet along with Sirt so Vodka has got a look in..... I am sticking to 90% Sirt this week, but after 8 weeks, nearly 9, I have lost a grand total of... 9lbs.....hmm..... I haven't fallen off the Sirt wagon very often & have cut back alcohol, massively, effectively only drinking twice a week now, plus starting walking 2 miles a day 3-4 times a week so had hoped for a better result. If I don't shift another 1lb or so this week, then I am switching to the Blood Sugar Diet, adding 1 X Sirt juice a day as I think I can live with the extra 100 calories it delivers.

I think you deserve a pat on the back for keeping going in the face of adversity, I am sure you will get there, because you are showing remarkable determination. Good luck!

Hi Again, I agree with the last poster chickenlips, you are doing an amazing job especially with all the eating out. I went to the gym today for the first time since xmas, weighed myself and have lost 8 lbs in 6 days.Really chuffed, as I have moved days& recipes around a bit ,& left out the matcha for the last 2 days. Don't think I had the proper stuff anyway, only 2% matcha powder in the teabags I split! I was wobbling a bit last night as I am getting sick of red onion/celery/kale, but as it is working I feel more encouraged.For the first time in ages, when I look down I can't see my stomach sticking out further than my boobs lol!
The test will come after this week when I allow myself some red wine... can I stop at one glass?