Advice please

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  • posted by Laura24
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    Hello everyone,

    I am now into my 7th week on 800 calories a day and have lost 28lbs. I am absolutely delighted with my progress but at times have been frustrated with weeks of little progress!

    I’ve stuck rigidly to the 800 calorie limit and in general this has worked really well for me, however for the last 2 weeks I have lost 1.6lbs and 1.4lbs (which is a big difference from the 4lb or 5lb per week loss that I experienced in the beginning!) Of course I expected things to slow down so this is not a surprise but I am anticipating struggling over the coming weeks if the weight loss hovers around 1lb per week.

    I still have another 40lbs to lose before I am in the healthy weight range for my height and I have started to think about transitioning to a 5:2 (or 2:5!) approach but I’m worried that if I up my calorie intake, the weight loss will be even slower and I will lose motivation. I am insulin resistant too so very wary of upping my carb intake as I have seen this hamper my weight loss through this initial 800 phase.

    Can anyone give me some advice about when to transition off 800 cals/day and what would be a good way to do this? I am scared of upping my calorie intake and gaining/maintaining weight when I still have a lot to lose.

  • posted by JGwen
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    Hi Laura,

    A number of us on the forum had to weigh up the same issues, we had been successful for the first 8 weeks but still had a lot of weight to discard.

    For many of us the solution has been to go on to research the science behind this way of eating and the work of other experts such as Dr Bikman, Dr Fung.

    In summary, the key is controlling insulin. If insulin levels are low enough for you to be in ketosis, then your body can access your fat stores to make up the difference in the number of calories eaten to those used. – If you eat enough carbs to trigger insulin your body can not access your fat stores and so after a brief period of time the body reduces metabolic rate.

    So the question is how many carbs can you take and be in ketosis. – The important point here is do not waste any money buying the pee sticks, our bodies produce excess ketones when we first go into ketosis and get rid of them in our urine. But this is only initially. once your body is used to burning ketones then it will not waste energy in this way.

    You can use a cheap breathalyser to check for ketosis, or keep carbs low enough to be sure your are in ketosis.

    As to rate of weight loss, 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, you didn’t put all that weight on in just a few weeks, and its going to take time to discard.

  • posted by WindyJulz
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    2 stone in 6-7 weeks is fantastic. Well done you!!
    JGwen’s advice is always spot on.
    You will find what works for you. If you say, did 12 weeks of 800 then allowed 2 days with a few more calories (but less carbs) in for a few weeks and monitor weight, you’ll get the idea as to whether you can do 5:2 etc and keep discarding. Whe you start to transition, you wont regain everything immediately even if you get it a bit wrong, just keep monitoring ketosis and weight and you can take action to rein it in again if you need. Its all a learning process.

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