Dr Clare Bailey - The Fast 800 Easy

A note on ingredients: some recipes have been adjusted to account for Australian local produce and availability

THE FAST 800 EASY

First published in Australia in 2021 by

Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited

Suite 19A, Level 1, Building C, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Short Books, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd

Sydney New York London Toronto New Delhi

Visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.au

Parenting Matters 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 9781760857578

ISBN-13: 978-1-7608-5758-5 (eBook)

Recipe consultant: Justine Pattison

Recipe testers: Claire Bignell, Karen Brooks, Jess Blain

Nutritional analysis: Fiona Hunter

Project editor: Jo Roberts-Miller

Design and art direction: Smith & Gilmour

Cover design by Smith & Gilmour

Photography: Smith & Gilmour

Food styling: Phil Mundy

Cover design: Smith & Gilmour

Hand models: Emily Sanders & Lily Smith

The information contained in this book is provided for general purposes only. It is not intended as and should not be relied upon as medical advice. The publisher and authors are not responsible for any specific health needs that may require medical supervision. If you have underlying health problems, or have any doubts about the advice contained in this book, you should contact a qualified medical, dietary or other appropriate professional.

Welcome to The Fast 800 Easy, packed with simple, tasty and super-healthy recipes designed to help you lose weight, fast. You may already be familiar with some of our previous books. But if not, this is the latest in a our series centred on the Fast 800 diet, an approach which involves safe, rapid weight loss and is based on many years of scientific research (more on this in a moment).

Clare and I have been living and working together for a long time. We first met at medical school in 1980, fell in love, and got married a few years later. Clare went on to become a GP, with a real interest in weight loss, as well as in preventing and reversing diabetes through diet; I became a TV presenter and science writer, with a deep interest in weight loss and healthy living.

I began to focus on this area in 2012 when I discovered that I had type 2 diabetes. I wasnt particularly overweight, but I did have a bit too much fat stored around my middle (visceral fat, the kind thats linked to diseases, including type 2 diabetes).

I managed to lose nearly 9kg (20lb) in eight weeks and get my blood sugar levels back to normal by going on what I called a 5:2 diet, cutting right down on my calories for two days a week and eating normally on the other days. This also stopped me snoring the house down, which Clare was particularly grateful for.

I later met up with Roy Taylor, a professor of medicine and a world expert in diabetes from Newcastle University, who explained that by losing all that weight, I had drained the fat from my liver and pancreas and reversed my diabetes.

Roys studies had shown that going on a diet of 800 calories a day for eight weeks led to sustained weight loss of around 10kg (22lb) and big improvements in health. In his trial, for simplicity and ease, the participants had consumed their daily calories in the form of meal replacement shakes, before returning to more normal eating.

Inspired by this, Clare began asking her overweight patients if they would like to try the 800-calorie approach, but with real food, based on a low-carb, Mediterranean-style diet (high in protein and fibre, and rich in nutrients). She gave them recipes to try and they were delighted to discover how filling her low-calorie meals were, and how tasty. They were especially pleased with how quickly they lost weight and saw improvements in their blood sugar levels, blood pressure and cholesterol.

And then a few years ago, Clare contacted Professor Susan Jebb, a world authority on weight loss from the University of Oxford. Professor Jebb had, like Professor Taylor, carried out a trial in overweight and obese patients using meal replacement shakes, and shown average weight loss, sustained at one year, of over 10kg (22lb).

But would it work as well if you did the diet with real food? Clare worked with Professor Jebb to set up the Diamond study involving overweight patients with type 2 diabetes. Their low-carb approach meant eggs for breakfast rather than toast or cornflakes, and having a salad with fish or chicken for lunch instead of a sandwich.

When the Diamond study was published in April 2020 it showed that those sticking to a diet of 8001000 calories a day for two months lost an average of 9.5kg (20lb), which was almost five times more weight than those following standard advice (the control group); and, unlike the control group, they also saw big improvements in blood sugar levels and blood pressure.

At the same time, Clare and I, with the help of doctors based in the UK and in Australia, created an online programme, which you can find at thefast800.com. This provides weekly menus (which you adjust to suit your personal preferences), an activity programme and professional support.

So far almost 20,000 people have completed the programme and, based on tracking their data, we have found that people tend to follow a fairly reliable pattern: losing a lot of weight to start off with, and then continuing to lose weight more steadily, as they switch from the rapid weight-loss phase over to what we call The Way of Life. So far, the data shows that, at the end of the 12-week programme, people have lost an average of 9.5kg (20lb), and there is evidence from people who sign up for the maintenance programme of further steady weight loss at nine months and beyond.

We love feedback, and we have received lots of it. People like Anne, who wrote in to say, One word brilliant! I lost 28lb (12.7kg) in 910 weeks and 7 inches (17.8cm) off my waist. Also dropped 2 clothes sizes. Love this programme!

Or Mike, a former headteacher, who lost 20kg (44lb) and 5 inches (13cm) from his waist, and who has now kept it off for more than three years. I have learnt so much about food and about which are good for me, personally. My life has been transformed.

I do believe that the Fast 800 approach represents a new and highly effective way to help people lose weight and keep it off, fast and safely. I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do, and please do get in contact with us via the website or via Clares Instagram account (@drclarebailey), where you can watch her, some of our kids and me cooking some of her delicious meals.

This book was conceived during the early months of the pandemic. Aware of the impact that being stuck inside, grazing on food and box sets, was having on peoples waists and blood sugar levels, I realised it might be helpful to produce a super-simple new companion cookbook to the