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

I absolutely love this book, i have it out in the kitchen and i’m browsing it all the time. It’s become my ‘bible’. I am in no way a cook, i’m a Mom with grown up kids that now has time to cook for myself without accommodating a houseful. (My grown up kids, girlfriends etc and gym enthusiast husband, all like to do their own food) Usually i can’t be bothered with recipes as too many ingredients puts me off. Apart from some store cupboard items that i needed to get going, all the other items are fresh ingredients and readily available. You will need digital scales, proper measuring spoons to make sure the quantities are right. Most recipes are for two, just halve the ingredients or some meals can be frozen for another day. I’m not a big fan of red meat so the fish, chicken, food on the move and salads are perfect for me. I cook the casserole’s and roasts at the weekend for everyone. Absolutely brilliant book. After one week i’ve had comments on how well i look and shifted 5 lbs week one. I’m not particularly overweight but like everyone during lockdown gained a little weight, which i don’t like. I’ve tried all sorts of low carb diets and i’m quite controlled in the main, but usually get bored as i can’t think of things to eat. This book has solved the problem, the recipes are easy, quick, and taste fabulous. I honestly don’t feel like i’m missing out. There’s even a ‘speedy pizza’ which i feel like i’m having a real treat. Get the book and follow it to the letter. Can’t recommend it enough. 10 out of 10

Best book for good health

I've never ever been able to stick at a diet due to my appalling discipline and a lack of ideas on what I could eat (I'm an extremely fussy eater with a terrifyingly extreme sweet tooth). However, the meals in this book are exceptional and as a result I managed to stick at this one for a good 4 or 5 weeks, and then broadly stick to it in the 5:2 regime for another 7. The end result was that I lost 21.7kg / 48lbs / 3st 6lbs (depending on your weight format preference) in the 83 days between getting the book and writing this review. So, it worked for me. Possibly saved my life, in fact. It may not work for you and I know that some people should absolutely not try this diet for health reasons as it is a little "shock and awe" in terms of how hard it is at times. But for those that are wavering over whether to give it a go, here's a bit of advice - I found that once you get over the shocking hump (low energy, hunger etc) after a couple of weeks it's fairly easy thereafter, so do stick at it - It also helps if you properly count calories via a smart watch or app as it gives you objectives to hit - Get most of the cupboard essentials that it recommends in the back of the book. Absolutely invaluable. - Plan and shop for your full week of meals in advance. Know what you're having each day and have the ingredients in the house already. That a) gives you something to look forward to and b) removes the risk of panic-buying a microwave meal or takeaway or something else unhealthy if you feel you're in a rush or can't be bothered to cook. - The meals can take a little while to prep so make sure you give yourself the time to do it, but I really enjoyed learning new recipes and techniques, so I included this as part of the positive experience. - Fill yourself up on green veg with every meal. The portion sizes are obviously small but you really can load up with the "free" extras. It's healthy and it stops you being hungry - I've found that uncooked spinach (which I've never really liked before now) goes with most of the meals, for example. As I said above, this was all made possible due to the quality of the recipes in this book - the tikka masala and all of the fish dishes in particular are genuinely and rather surprisingly outstanding - as they gave me something to look forward to rather than some pathetic, boring salad that would have got very dull after a day or two and helped me maintain the discipline that you have to have to get through the first few weeks (I didn't repeat a single recipe from the book in those first 21 days). So, I hope other people have as much joy as I did with this book. It was a genuine, transformative, life changing experience. Good luck.

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. - PROS The 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. CONS This 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. SUMMARY I 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.

This book is easy to use with every day ingredients and the recipes turn out exactly as pictured. Delicious!

Buy this - also the Keto version. There are so many good recipes and most only have a handful of ingredients. Some of them have been on my regular rotation for years now - I am looking at you Dans Vegan Boulangese. Just about all are super quick to put together and lots of good ideas for a quick lunch.

Prima quality!

So pleased with the context of the book that I will be ordering another one for a family member Have already ordered a second book for family member

It cannot receive pictures and videos from copy. If I copy pictures and videos to SD card, but it has deleted from sd card by auto.