Anyone tried the CSIRO diet?

Hi all,
I need to lose a few kilos in readiness for Summer, but so far just trying to watch what I eat, and hiring a treamill hasn't done the job. My friend is doing well on the Tony Ferguson diet, but I feel like I need to eat actual food, and learn how to maintain a healthy diet permanently. The CSIRO diet looks great. I'd love to hear from anyone who'se tried it.

Susannah.........we follow the CSIRO eating principles most of the time........I like it because it is real food, real portions, but v.healthy, and great for GI levels, and an "easy" method of implementing good eating habits for us and the children........

We are not dieting as such (DH is v.slim so doesn't need to) but I have lost over 16kg through following it, along with getting pg and giving birth.

I would recommend it for energy levels and sense of well being if nothing else!

That's great Lucy, congratulations on losing 16kg, what an achievement. I really like the fact that this eating plan is healthy, and one you can maintain long term. I think that's exactly what I want. Any tips for managing to do regular exercise when you are at home with kids?

Susannah, I swim when I can at the weekends, which is a lot easier in summer as we have a pool.

Plus I walk with the kids and the dog...we live at the top of a steep hill, and that alone is good excercise!!

But I probably only do a 10th of the excercise I should.......it is just too hard to find the time!

What exactly is the CSIRO diet?

I'm looking for something that is more of a lifestyle change to eating healthy food, rather than dieting with a reduction in food, or with those meal subsitution things (which i can't use anyway).

My problem is normal the food you have to eat on this plan take ages to prepare, and i struggle to make dinner on a normal day..

Oh, and we only eat kosher food, so i find it hard to adapt some diets to this...

But that being said, i probably don't try hard enough.

I would love to lose some weight, around 15kg would be perfect, but i'ld be happy with anything... i only lost 7kg after having DA, but as i put on 15kgs, i'm still heavier than i was when starting out... And if i don't begin to lose some, when i get preg again i'm just going to get bigger... I don't want to end up huge after having heaps of kids!

I have not tried the CSIRO diet, there is too much meat in it for me ;)
But a man at my work lost 30kg on it. He followed it very srtictly.

I had a g/f who tried it but said there was too much meat in it for her. She's now doing well on the TF meal replacement diet

If you Google "Total Wellbeing Diet" or "CSIRO" you will get all the info........

This diet is great.

In essence it is low carb.

I followed a similar diet a while ago. No food with sugar, flour, no potatoes, no carbs.
Ate 3 meals a day, sometimes I would graze (ie, not have main meals but lots of snacks), ate bacon and eggs on a weekend for breakfast (just no toast), and drank a couple of litres of water per day.

Lost 15Kgs is 2 months. Was never hungry, had more energy - changes your life.

It may cost more - possibly - but how much money do you spend on your car, or your house, are you not worth more money - if you are not there the other things have no value.

my 2c worth

15kgs in 2 months, that's amazing ticvb. I've found a copy of the CSIRO diet book at my local library, so I'll borrow it from there which will cost me nothing. Now I've just got to sum up the resolve to do it. I tend to graze too, so my biggest worry is that I'll be hungry between meals, especially as the wholegrain/hi fibre bread and breakfast cereals don't agree with me. I'll have to use a substitute which may not be as filling. I wonder if I could email the CSIRO re. substitute foods......

Hi Susannah,
My DH and I did this 12 months ago and found it really easy to follow. We allowed one night off per week to have whatever we wanted and I had mainly eggs or tuna for lunch as I just pysically couldn't eat all of the meat, it was too much. The main meal recipes in the book are really yummy but there is a bit of prep time for some of them.
We were on it for 10 weeks, I lost 7 kgs and DH lost 11kgs. I have to admit, we did very little excercise though so that would have helped some more.
I'm with you though, I need to eat actual food. I wouldn't cope on a meal replacement program!

DH and I did it for a while, it did work but a lot of preperation as i felt like i was in the kitchen all day, and there is a lot of meat. I found you also needed to work out what you were going to eat for the whole day so that you could balance your portions out over the day. I also found it difficult at times because i do love bread, rice, potatoes and pasta, but it did have ways of incorporating this into the diet. Good luck with your decision.

Thanks for your help girls :)

Megan good luck with your IVF cycle, mine worked first go, I hope yours does too.

So, do I Susannah! ;) Thanks. :D

DH's mum and dad have done this and they have both lost heaps of weight. We started it before we went away and i lost 6kgs in four weeks - unfortunately i left my motivation behind on holiday lol. We're planning on starting it again next week - one thing MIL did say that there was a lot of preparation involved so she started cooking double quantities and freezing half so next time that meal came around on the menu it would only have to be defrosted. They're also bringing out book 2 - think it comes out on 30th October? It's highly recommended by doctors too :)

Great to hear of our in law's sucess boo. I know it's pretty hard to watch what you eat when you're on holiday and just want to enjoy yourself.

I have pre-ordered a copy of the second edition. It apparently has more recepies.

I've been in the diet for a couple of days now, and I've really enjoyed learning the new recipes. The food has been really yummy. I'm not keen on salmon sandwiches, so I put tuna in mine when they say to use salmon. I've noticed that I can save money next week by not buying extra herbs that are just used for garnishes, and will subsititue some vegies for other ones I prefer.

I find that the meals suggested are often even bigger serves than I can eat at times, but I still get hungry at mid morning and mid afternoon. I'm going to try spreading out what I eat a bit more.

Let me know how you get on when you get started again next week. I think I'll be swapping some of the meals for other ones in the book that I know I'd like better, do you do that?

I've just pre-ordered mine. I've never tried it, but after reading this thread thought it'd be a good thing.

I think i might get the 2nd book. How much are they? Because on ebay at the moment they are like $25 + postage. Might just be more worthwile getting the next one.

I did a similar diet before my wedding, lost like 3kg in 1.5 weeks, which was good. It involved a lot of meat, very little carbs, no dairy.

Can you have dairy on this one??

Its good to know people actually lost weight before i do it!