The Fast 800 Recipe Book: Low-carb, Mediterranean style recipes for intermittent fasting and long-term health (The Fast 800 Series)

I needed to lose weight fast as going on a holidays in just three weeks and had been trying hard for weeks before and nothing was coming off. I exercised along side my previous diet resulting in the best maybe just one pound. I am in clothes, someone you would think would not need to lose weight but believe you me, it's hidden under clothes and my clothes were getting tight and uncomfortable.Keen to start this book after i heard how good it was from two friends. Firstly i took the time to read the front of the book rather than jump to the recipes. This helped me understand how it would work. Then i looked through the meals and was pleasantly surprised how tasty they looked compared to my past diets, if not smaller portions. What helped for me i am busy and cook after a days work and as i saw the meals mainly came in four portions I cooked the first day and divided into three other portions for the fridge. Easy to just quickly microwave the next day. You could freeze but i decided to have the same meal four days continuous, basically because it was so tasty. 20 mins before dinner i would steam some green veg to accompany the meal. Again if pushed for time i would steam more thank i needed and just warm up the veg as needed the next day.From a previous diet i followed what i did then and measured myself with a tape measure not just jump on the scales. i did this because previously i would be disappointed i hadn't lost weight but my measurements showed differently . I measured my waist, hips, thighs and arms.Another thing that helped me was that i was determined to stick to 800 calories a day for three weeks. Day 1 I thought i'd faint from hunger, so day 2 i ate in a 8 hour time slot only. So I made a note of my meals and how many calories including apples etc and spaced the food out in that time period. This helped me keep to the diet.I am due to weigh and measure this weekend as my three week strict diet is over and i will still keep to healthy eating but not everyday the strict calories i have been having. Two weeks measure and weight, I lost 5 lb in two weeks and 5 cm off my waist. It does work and you realize from this book what you were eating in the past thinking it was healthy can be full of calories.UPDATE: I have just measured and weighed as three weeks diet is now finished as going on holiday. I have lost 8lb and in total 10cm off my waist (that is the most noticeable in my clothes) Just 2cm off my hips and an unfortunate 8cm off my chest (can't afford to lose there but i can take it)

This book has become my go to! Easy to follow recipes and very easy to lose weight if you follow the guidelines. The recipes taste amazing and it’s so easy to keep track of your calories, protein and carb intake.

I was recommended this book. I think it's the best book I have ever had. The information, the recipes, the quick reference for recipes by calorie count. We're feeling healthier, losing weight and the meals are delicious. This is a lifestyle change for us not a diet. We love it. Can't rate it high enough, I have also got the fast 800 Easy book that goes with this.. these books are life changing.👍

The first thing I will say is that you will lose weight using the recipes from this book. If you follow the guidance given and there is some room for manoeuvre, you will lose weight and after a few days, you will not feel hungry. For me, having been using the book now for a month, this is my experience. -PROSThe lunches, soups and dinners are excellent. I have not made a bad choice yet in following the recipes. The celeriac and apple soup is lovely as is the red pepper and squash. I batch cooked these and froze them and defrosted them when necessary. They came out of the freezer and cooked beautifully. Some of the dinners take longer than others, but the easy weekday suppers are easy and quick.The choice of recipes is good for dinners and quick after work suppers. There could be more lunchtime recipes, but I think the purpose is to have a soup or a salad and there are options for those.You have to be very organised with shopping and making sure that you have the ingredients at home. Meal Planning is really important. There is a meal planner in the book, albeit we tend to follow the recipes which we really like.After a few days, sugar cravings and food noise goes away. I developed a temporary diabetes caused by taking steroids after an operation. After being on this plan for a month and having stopped taking the medication, my blood sugars have returned to normal very quickly.Breakfast were always an issue in our house because we don't eat eggs and don't like avocado. However, the kippers on tomato recipe is lovely as is the Greek yoghurt and fruit and nuts.CONSThis is a very expensive diet. If you have lots and lots of herbs and spices at home and you have ingredients which don't normally appear on a shopping list for most folk, then you will not be surprised by the cost. However, if you purchase 75% of the items for the store cupboard which are on the shopping list for the first time, as detailed in the book, it costs a fair penny. The first time we did the first shop for this diet it was a really expensive outing.This is quite a difficult diet if you are cooking for one. There are very few recipes in the book for one person and therefore, if you are eating alone for any reason, you will use, for example, a quarter of a tin of black beans with one recipe. Well, what do you do with the 3/4 of the tin? You have to put it in the fridge and eat the same thing with some regularity to use up the food.You also need a lot of fridge space, because you are using a lot more fresh ingredients than you may have done previously. It's the same with storage. Once you buy all the flours and nuts and seeds and spices and everything else, if you have a small kitchen, storage can become an issue. You will need a blender and/or a food processor or similar if you don't have these items, some of the recipes can become more difficult.Whilst the dinners and quick after work suppers, soups etc are really good, the baking section is really poor. The Parmesan crisps and in particular, the flapjacks are not good. The latter swim in coconut oil and unless you like eating flapjacks with a spoon, I would avoid them. There are plenty of much better recipes out there for sugar and carbohydrate free/vegan flapjacks.SUMMARYI am glad we are following the programme and overall I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. We are losing weight and we are feeling healthy and our craving for sugars is going rapidly. We would definitely rather have done it than not done it.

Great recipes and easy to follow. If you have done the 8 wk sugar free diet this is a natural book to have to keep the meal ideas going … something for everyone!

Great book, easy to follow recipe ideas. Just what I was looking for!

Great book with good advice and tasty recipes