I’m thinking of doing the BSD med diet low carb and combining it with IF 16:8 and I’m wondering if I’ll lose weight. I’ve been doing a low carb high fat diet (not BSD) for 12 weeks and have lost 12lb. Which I’m really pleased about 😀😀 BUT my biggest issue is that I’ve been constipated throughout despite eating loads of veg and drinking 3 litres plus of water a day. I take magnesium and FOS/inulin too but still remain bunged up!! I have IBS and problems with my gut and took the advice given on the Clever guts site on sorting my gut out before I did the LCHF diet. I’ve also had issues with sugar and have probably been pre diabetic in the past. As well as the low carb high fat I’ve been doing IF 16:8 for 5 days each week
I’m now realising that I can’t keep the low carb up as a way of life if it means I’m constipated all the time and I’ve got about 7-10lb more to lose. So I started thinking I need to be eating more pulses like beans, lentils and seeds etc – they’ve always worked for me in shifting things!! I see there’s a.BSD med diet Low carb high fat version

So my point is if I do a BSD low carb med diet – which allows me to eat pulses and seeds and do IF 16:8 as I’ve been doing will I continue to lose weight?
Has anyone got any experience of this and successfully losing weight? And sorting out their constipation!,
Thanks for reading 😀

Anyone??

Without knowing much more about you, AND much more about the four ‘diets’ you mention, we can’t answer your questions.

Clever Guts is not a short term weight loss plan nor is it very low carb/ ketogenic; it is moderate carb and emphasises a really wide variety of wholefoods for improved health and nutrition over the long term. I haven’t read Dr Mosley’s other ‘diet’ books but expect them to be similarly varied and flexible.

Vegetables are primarily water: most cannot bulk the stool. If you are limiting or avoiding pulses and grains you must substantially increase seeds and some nuts to supply minerals and a variety of fibres.

Thank you for your reply Firefox. I don’t know what you mean by “four diets”

Why have you opted for inulin in particular to address your constipation? Natural sources of inulin (alliums/ asparagus/ Jerusalem artichokes) are fairly low carbohydrate, and it is easy to include the alliums (onions/ shallots/ garlic/ leeks) in a vegetable-rich diet. Even as a reformed veg-phobe I cannot imagine life without them!

Furthermore newcomers to inulin as a supplement report bloating gas and/ or constipation as side effects. Constipation is more often addressed with mucilagenous (gel-forming) fibres such as ispaghula husk or flaxseeds. Other microbiome-friendly laxatives include lactulose (consult your pharmacist or family doctor).

HTH!

As you are probably aware from being on this forum FOS is a known and effective prebiotic advocated for use to help repopulate the gut with healthy bacteria -along with probiotics, that is why I am using it – a side effect is that it help reduce constipation

Your initial post emphasises weight loss and relief of constipation, not gut health?
For a balanced and varied microbiome Dr Mosley and other authorities in the field advocate a *really wide variety* of prebiotic and probiotic wholefoods.

Not all prebiotics are bulking agents, far from it. Selecting inulin alongside a vegetable-rich diet seems illogical. Inulin isn’t widely used as a laxative within mainstream medicine or alternative/ natural health. Ispaghula husk, flaxseeds and lactulose are.

The ‘four’ diets I understood you to refer to are low carb high fat, blood sugar diet, intermittent fasting, Mediterranean diet and gut health. Apparently I can’t count to ‘five’ diets after three bottles of wine in as many days! 😉

Impossible to fully answer your questions without a lot more detail. But in principle combining the clever guts and 5:2 or 16:8 is a perfect combination and yes, you should lose weight (fat not muscle).

Thanks Graham. I’ve put together a plan based on the Mediterranean low carb diet and I’m doing IF 16:8 about 4/5 days out of 7 and I’m going to review/revise it in 2 weeks – so I’ll let you know how I’ve got on