The first of 7 Data Driven Fasting programs this year starts this Saturday in the new community. As always, the 160 page explanation of blood glucose, nutrient dense foods and how to lower BG by doing a DDF program properly, is FREE. You can join the community at:
members.optimisingnutrition.com/share/d3A0K_0b4-fRtnlS


- If you've already joined DDF, work through the Getting Started Guide at https://members.optimisingnutrition...6083080/content
- If you haven't yet, you can sign up at https://www.datadrivenfasting.com/optin
If you're a DDF Unlimited Member, you should have received an email invite.

Marty Kendall added a new post to his blog about the DDF App (available if you do a challenge) and explains in great detail what impacts BG (it's not only carbs). This free book is now 186 pages long in an FAQ format, so you can easily find answers to understanding why your waking BG is not going down, etc. here by chapter.

https://optimisingnutrition.com/the...en-fasting-app/

Also posted free on his blog is the new 109 page book on Optimising Nutrition, why being deficient in micronutrients impacts both health and weight, and how to get optimal levels without taking supplements.

https://optimisingnutrition.com/mac...class-overview/

And the final book on Micronutrients in the new Masterclass format is being loaded now….you can read all sections of a detailed guide to micronutrients for free.

It is especially interesting if you have wondered about getting enough Micronutrients in your diet (be it low carb, vegetarian, or a number of others)

Starting Jan 31, 2022, the Optimising Nutrition blog is adding all the Sections of its new Micronutrients Masterclass. Eight parts are there already today (2/1/22 ) but it appears there will be more. Reading How the Micronutrient class works, you can see how with the right data, you can craft a Micronutrient rich diet based on your own diet and food preferences, that meets all Optimal levels (not just RDI) of 34 necessary vitamins and minerals, without using supplements.

Find all sections here: https://optimisingnutrition.com/blog/

Today's post, Micronutrient Deficiencies in Popular Diets. ( including low carb)
https://optimisingnutrition.com/mic...-popular-diets/

The 4 week MicroNutrient class starts tomorrow…this is where the rubber hits the road on understanding Nutrient Density. The entire MicroNutrient Manual is available free at https://members.optimisingnutrition...3A0K_0b4-fRtnlS

Or you can download parts of it on the website blog and work through it in sections. If you are low on various micronutrients, you can learn how to correct by adjusting the diet you currently enjoy without supplements.

This new article on What Does Insulin Do in Your Body? is very helpful…



https://optimisingnutrition.com/wha...ody/#more-26618

A new podcast with Holistic Nutritionists, interviewing Marty Kendall about the basics of DDF, how it works with various diets including High Protein. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca...i=1000553129208

There is also a new series on his Blog about Satiety. Satiety per Calorie is key to weight loss. Ted Naiman's upcoming book is on this topic as well.

Low Energy Density Foods and Recipes: Will They Help You Feel Full with Fewer Calories?
(Including the lists of the best foods for satiety at the lowest energy)

https://optimisingnutrition.com/low...or-weight-loss/

Good articles, but I will not be making the Quick Mackerel Salad - it conjures up WW's Fluffy Mackerel Pudding recipe from the 1970s. https://vintagerecipecards.com/2014...ckerel-pudding/

:lol: :lol: Sounds yum, the soup too. The first time I joined WW was 1986, so I missed this recipe, Thanks for sharing. :)
Mackerel is satiating..mixed with eggs, egg whites and vegetables I can tolerate it.

Along with the New Satiety series, Marty is updating his Nutrient Density series. Each Micronutrient gets a long article about bioavailability, sources, recipes.

This is the new Calcium post, but there are many more.

https://optimisingnutrition.com/cal...nutrient-guide/

After reading Jey100's Success Story posted here, I went down the rabbit hole of reading about Marty Kendall (and Ted Naiman). Excited to keep learning and get started. I signed up for the April DDF challenge. Going to go look for a glucometer this evening. Thanks for all the great info everyone.

Great! See you in the April challenge.

The glucose meter recommended for both accuracy and lower cost is the Contour One Next. You do not need a prescription, you can buy it on the shelf in Walmart, etc. On Amazon there are also suppliers for the strips at a lower cost, but you will likely need to start.with a kit with lancets.

Agreed! Mine working great and the most consistent of the few that I've tried. Also small and can carry strips, poker and meter in small pouch, which you might need to do for the first portions of DDF. I didn't have the most compliant session last month but I think i'm back on track now with the protocol. I'll likely continue to work on pre-meal numbers hopefully down into the lower 80s without feeling hunger - but you never know hunger his part of the protocol - you just need to be at or slightly below your current BG number more often than not to make some progress.

Hoping to hone that hunger signal(s) and eat to appetite life long goal - no meters or counting - just good food choices.

Currently staring down the lancets over here.

What are the best lancets for the less-brave-type people?

Ones that come with a spring-loaded pen-shaped dispenser work well. They typically allow you to set the depth of penetration; start with a lower or moderate depth and only turn it up if you need to. Mine is similar to an Accu-Chek softclix. You just press a button to initiate the poke, no stabbing motion and no worry about stabbing yourself too hard or too lightly to draw blood.

What Deirdra said^ Most lancet pens are similar in design and Thin Gauge lancet refills easy to find if the regular ones hurt. Poke away from the tip of the finger, some members even use the palm instead, but on sides of finger, I barely feel it if the depth setting is good and lancet newish.
Edit: you have good answers from the community, I’m still working my way through a big bag of lancets that came with one of the kits, and mostly change it when the 35 count glucose strip bottle runs out :lol:

For Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Blood Glucose, Marty has updated the DDF Manual yet again. It is now 194 pages!!, available free in the community. Revision Date is April 2022on bottom of page so you know if you have the latest.

It is also available in Ten Parts posted on the ON Blog.
https://optimisingnutrition.com/wha...1-2/#more-23088

Next DDF starts Saturday! Lots to read ahead if you wish…or can take the short Daily Lessons day by day to not overwhelm.

Cool, I'm ready and reading!

Have to check out the new manual. The great thing is that it evolves as more is learned in continuing DDF sessions. Can't participate in this upcoming DDF, as I'm going to be remote and fishing for a couple months. Will circle back when I've got some time and more consistent access to the website.

Rob, I hadn’t seen you commenting lately, so I thought you were fishing last month. Maybe now you have just permanently "Gone Fishing"? Enjoy retirement! :wave:

Well, I have not yet been able to complete another DDF round since I did the first one. I'm not sure what my stumbling block is. Maybe just too focused on working.

I decided to join the challenge. A new supply of strips is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I've decided not to pay attention to my weight and to only concentrate on my hunger in relationship to my bg. I'll only weigh myself at the beginning and end of the challenge.

Welcome back, Jean!
Nancy, you can participate however much you have time for. I know now my best eating time is roughly noon to 6pm, so I only test when to have "lunch". My waking never changes and my Main Meal is fixed at dinner, so I don’t really "baseline" but restart where I left off. During some recent stress, I stopped taking BG completely, still did OK.

I've started my second DDF challenge after a 1-wk break of maintaining with no weight gain. I'm re-baselining (it does show your past triggers in the graphs, so you could still use the last one as your target to eat) just to see if anything has changed. I found that my 2MAD LC diet had hunger-trained me quite well and my DDF BGs confirmed that meals at 10-11am and 5-6pm still work best for me. I have intentionally nudged my protein up from ~30% to 40% (100g), carbs up from 5% to 10%, and my fat consumption decreased to 50%. That sounds high to low-fatters, but I don't find percents are the best way to describe it since I am undereating calories and losing weight. If I were eating 2000 cals per day, my fat percent would be considered low at ~25%. The best way to think of it is that my body is getting ~25% fat from my food and ~25% from the fat on my body.

I was skeptical of Marty's claim that going up to 40% protein would be satiating, since in the past plain chicken breasts or plain non-fat greek yogurt made me hungrier, not satiated, but eating them WITH or immediately before/after some vegs does seem to work.

My first week on my first DDF I was trying 3MAD and found that non-fat greek yogurt by itself (or whey protein powder) as a meal made my BG spike above of the desired range and left me hungry 2 hrs later. Someone suggested that I eat it with fibre, the thought of which made me gag as I detest chunks in dairy. So I decided to go back to 2 bigger meals a day and have my yogurt (or protein powder pudding) as a "dessert" protein top-up to a meal of meat/fish/poultry & vegs. This is working well for my satiation & gut, but dairy causes me psoriasis, so I'll probably have to go back to dairy-free again. I've stayed grain & legume free on DDF as they cause worse problems than dairy.

I would be seriously bummed if I had to give up dairy now that I have introduced it back into my lower carb eating plan. Meat and veg followed by yogurt and whey works well for me too.
After reading more about gut health, are there non-dairy yogurts with the live probiotic strains to still benefit your gut? I see quite a few different nut milk yogurts in the store but do they still have yogurts benefits? Marty's dairy-free recipe book shows a meal with a scoop of low fat cottage cheese and lists some hard cheeses too? Is there something about the cheese making process that makes it tolerable to someone sensitive to dairy? The rest of the list is fish, liver, eggs, and berries. If you can keep whey, maybe try the frozen berries and nut milk/water "fluff"?

Deidra, maybe ask about dairy-free options on the DDF community. There are thousands of members and many have health issues and food sensitivities, we're all looking for nutritional answers.

I am dairy free. I have lately been following Dr William Davis's Supergut program (he wrote a book about it) and I have been making coconut milk yogurt following his recipe. It's a bit of work but I am enjoying it. The book is quite interesting and worth a read, especially for anyone with gut issues. He advises homemade yogurt because store bought yogurts are not fermented long enough to create truly beneficial amounts of bacteria.

People sensitive to dairy may just be sensitive to the lactose but many, myself included, are sensitive to the casein which is the protein. While fermentation removes the lactose the casein remains. Most cow's milk in the US has A2 casein. By switching to A1 milk (either A1 cow's milk or goat's milk which is naturally A1) some people can tolerate dairy. I don't seem to be one of them, but I will probably try the yogurt again with goat's milk just to double check. I prefer yogurt made from milk to that made from coconut milk.

Jean's always ten steps ahead! Our library ordered Dr Davis's new book, but only know about it from a few recent podcasts he has done. Both goat's milk and A1 milk are easy to find around here, and Trader Joe's has most every plant-based yogurt, but I can understand making your own from real milk and letting it ferment longer would be beneficial.

After a week of DDFing, I am down 1.3 lbs (159 to 157.7). I got used to the lancet pokes faster than I could've imagined.

My waking BG is about 86. My trigger is 91. Hasn't been too hard. The highest BG I've seen was 121. My eating window is probably 8:30-4:30. I had already been eating early dinner since about summer 2020 because of GERD.

I'm also on week 4 of a 6-week Peloton bike and strength class.

Finding the challenge so interesting so far!

Alright Beebsbert! I'm enjoying the process this time as well

:wave: hi guys

I started a thread in the Research section about Dr Peter Attia's new thoughts on Nutrition, quoting Marty's excellent summary of the segment from The Drive.
This is the type of information that can be shared in the community without having to write an entire article for the website.
Also don’t forget the other free goodies in the community, while you are testing BG you can do 7 days of tracking to get some basic nutritional advice based on your current diet.

A new update and related article all about the PSMF diet for fat loss. Not only the higher protein percent but what micronutrients you should get from foods to increase satiety per calorie, e.g. importance of potassium from vegetables.
https://optimisingnutrition.com/the...ur-summer-body/

20 months ago I simply aimed for 1g protein per pound ideal body weight, but this has a more precise calculator 😉to achieve your Summer Body! :lol:

Cool! I'll check it out. My Q2 "Plan" has me shooting for a protein target aimed at trying to find satisfaction with eating yet hitting a lower calorie target than I normally would - not that I count calories :) they are a by product of using cronometer.