Gnawing hunger. Deprivation. For so many people, these are the images that dieting immediately conjures to mind – until now. The incredible success of my revolutionary 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet is changing the face of weight loss. Research has shown that eating 800 calories a day for eight weeks is the best way to lose weight quickly, correct your blood sugar levels and dramatically reduce your risk of diabetes. And my diet plan is backed by studies which show that if it is done properly, a rapid weight-loss diet can be a safe and effective way to cut dangerous belly fat and achieve your weight-loss goals. And it’s really not difficult. Where’s the hardship when you can tuck into 800 calories of deliciously comforting cauliflower cheese, quiche or coq au vin? As your blood sugar levels improve you simply won’t feel hungry any more. Working with nutritionist, Dr Sarah Schenker, she has created meals which contain healthy fats and nutrients and are specially designed to banish cravings and keep you feeling fuller for longer. The real secret of the 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet is the effect it has on a hormone called insulin. Insulin is produced by your pancreas and one of its jobs is to keep your blood sugars under control. When you eat a sugary or starchy meal your blood sugar levels start to rise, rapidly. Because high blood sugar levels are bad for your body, your pancreas starts to pump out insulin, to bring your blood sugar levels down. At the same time insulin will also encourage your body to store excess calories as fat. If you keep on eating a lot of sugary, starchy foods then your pancreas will struggle to keep up, desperately pumping out ever more insulin. This will not only make you fatter and hungrier, but will also raise the risk that your body will either become resistant to the effects of insulin or your pancreas will stop producing it. Either way, you will have joined the nearly four million people in the UK who have type 2 diabetes. The way to break this vicious cycle is to bring your insulin levels down. And that’s where the 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet comes in. If you can cut right back on sugars and starches – bread, white rice, pasta and potatoes as well as cakes, biscuits and fizzy drinks – you will be heading in the right direction. The recipes featured all this week show you just how deliciously easy it is to do so. One way to boost this blood sugar reduction even further, is to go for slightly longer periods without eating food. Technically, this is ‘fasting’, of course, but you can achieve the blood sugar lowering benefits without any kind of suffering, simply by skipping the occasional meal, or subtly extending the period between dinner and breakfast. Overnight, or if you skip breakfast, your body gets a break from digesting food and is able to get on with the essential tasks of internal spring cleaning and self-repair. The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet plan suggests days when you might skip breakfast and have a more substantial brunch instead, or after a big lunch one day, perhaps skip dinner or just have a bowl of miso soup instead. Doing this means you can be fasting for around 16 hours almost without noticing. It shouldn’t be tough – research shows people who eat two meals a day feel less hungry and more satisfied than people eating exactly the same number of calories but spread throughout the day. Stick this out for eight weeks and the impact on your weight – and your blood sugar levels – will be dramatic.