Hi DD,
Thank you for sharing how you feel after reaching maintenance.

I am sorry I can’t answer the question on if the pattern you are seeing on ketones is correct. 🙁 I am still working on trying to heal to that stage. I grew up in a household with a heavy carb intake, and now that I know what the signs of Insulin Resistance are I am sure that I have been IR for over 40 years. – I think I can thank my lucky stars that an active lifestyle and regular control of calories to try to keep weight under control prevented me from being T2. –

A few years ago I fell with my foot back under my leg breaking the bones on both side of the ankle and had 6 months of not being allowed to put weight on the joint. The bone fragments had fortunately remained in place but if they moved I would need plates and screws to rebuild the joint. That period of inactivity followed by years of shooting pain in my ankle meant that I ended up spending to much time sitting around comfort eating and piled the weight on.

So far I have discarded all that weight so I am back to the normal for me body weight, but that’s still fat. Body scans show that all my fat is subcutaneous fat. But my metabolism has not healed yet to the point where I am no longer IR. My readings are that I can go to 26g of carbs a day and stay in ketosis. Anything more and it takes me 3 days to get back to having any reading of ketones. I do still crave carbs.

Right now I am focusing on improving my gut bacteria and the ph of my gut. – It comes from something I have observed working with horses which have health problems following a period of a high sugar diet. – I observed that just controlling sugar levels did go a long way to helping them, but they had to stay on a very low sugar, highly controlled diet because even after years of controlling sugar intake a small amount of sugar would cause a major setback in their health. – But one owner I was working with was using a coconut feed with her horses and they healed quickly and there was no need to control sugar levels excessively in the future. The feed she was using is coconut pulp. – There are 2 possible reasons why it had an effect, the manufacturers noted that the gut ph of horses fed with this meal became ph neutral. There is also a chemical in coconut which occurs in a more dilute level in milk and it seems to be that its role is to help control the levels of bad bacteria to help in the establishment of a healthy mixture of gut bacteria because it kills one particular strain of gut bacteria which is linked to causing inflammation and feeds on sugar. – I went on to recommend the same feed to all owners who had horses recovering from the same condition and it had the same effect every time. (Providing they didn’t also feed a high sugar diet at the same time.)

I came to me the other week that I was being stupid not applying this knowledge to my own healing. You could use fermented foods to also help balance the gut ph if you were not into eating coconut.

@FireAnt, I interpreted the nl part of your name correctly, then 🙂 I didn’t do the build-up in cals, because I’ve had a few really high calorie days since starting this WOE in January. So I couldn’t really see the point in it, unless you want to loose more weight, obviously. I stayed really strict for the first 8 weeks, then I started on a bit of feasting and fasting,where my feasting days were not all out, but around 1400,where I should be eating 1900 to maintain. Anyway, I had the fears you’re talking about as well. Big time. A friend of mine encouraged me to eat something that I was addicted to (speculoos spread) she expected me not to like it that much anymore. And she was right. After 6 months of low carb, I’m over it. Never thought it would happen, but I am totally capable of eating a tiny bit of sweet or carby stuff and not crave more. If I feel like snacking, cheese, nuts, olives or cold cuts are on my mind. I wish I could tell you how or why this changed, but alas, no such luck. If you feel you are still craving carbs, stay away from them. But if you feel you might possibly give it a try, I can totally recommend doing so. In my case, I helped me to get over the fear. Perhaps you need more time, though.

This is the site with great recipes in Dutch https://www.lowcarbchef.nl/brood-recepten I’ve had the ‘wit meerzaden’ , don’t be put off by the ‘wit’ because it isn’t white bread, obviously. Most recipes are great!

@jgwen,i love your research and fantastic you get new ideas from observing your horses. I might dive into fermented stuff at some point as well. Right now, I’m into ice coffee with almond milk 🙂
DD

Hi JGwen, DoubleDutch,

Thanks again for the advice and the sharing of your experiences. I don’t feel there’s enough experience of the stage between ending the diet and starting maintenance (i.e reverse dieting or simply upping food intake in one go to recommended calories as DD and Freester did) captured on the forum.

Now that I have been reverse dieting for the past week, and after having talked through my ideas and plans & used your experiences where possible to refine these plans, I feel less worried about this element of the process.
I was quite worried before. I didn’t want to lose a number of the things I’d gained over the past 11 or so weeks; Weight-loss (obviously!), body’s acceptance of such low calories, the loss of most sugar-related cravings & most carb cravings, the sense of positive movement, etc, etc… I really feel this is a risky stage, setting me up for the rest of my life, and I wanted to make sure I got it right!

Here’s hoping for a soft landing at the desired weight / waistline just as my calorie intake reaches the number I’m expecting to maintain weight…
I’ll post the odd update here for others interested in going from dieting to maintenance…

Hi may I suggest you search in the box above, top right for ‘maintenance’ threads. There are lots of them and you may just find the experience of others that you are looking for.
Enjoy the journey!

JGwen – can i jump on your post re horses and gut PH please???
Sorry – i realise this is not a horse forum and this will not make sense to non-horse people but I totally need to know about the coconut feed!
I have a horse who was chronically laminetic last year, he has been sound and well for 12 months now thanks to a muzzle limiting his grass intake, he’s been tested and does not have cushings. However he is leaner than i would like and just looks a bit under condition wise (he’s 17yo IDxTB). I have increased hard feed and included linseed but little difference (although he is delighted about a bigger bucket as he’s been on a diet most of his life). I’m too scared to turn him out on grass without a muzzle tho as the sugar scares me.
So what is the coconut feed? Never heard of it at all. And do you think it would allow me to get him short duration turnout on grass with no muzzle and to help with weight and condition??

I do often take learnings from horse health to try and apply to myself – if i looked after my own health and body the way we do horses I am sure I would be so much leaner and healthier for it!

Fascinating thread though – thanks to all those who are contributing.

🙂

Hi WindyJulz,

I am happy to share more information on the coconut feed and equestrians Its a bit of a long story, so will write it up this evening if thats OK with you. If you want to research the food, look for Coolstance. It is widely sold in feed merchants.

Brilliant – thank you! 🙂
do you want to share via email instead? Is there an easy way to share my email address with you?

Hi FireAntNl,
mind you, I didn’t up my intake to a certain amount of calories, I simply stopped counting and weighing. I trusted my body would tell me when I’ve eaten enough. And it does. I have honestly no clue how many cals I eat right now, but it feels like a LOT. As long as I am not gaining weight, I don’t feel the urge to start counting. If I do gain weight, I’ll try adding a fast day and /or one or two 800 days per week, for a few weeks but so far so good. I know it’s scary, been there, but I think you’ll be all right. Keep an eye on the scales, be honest and trust your body. Je kunt het!
DD

Hi WindyJulz,,

Right hold on to your hat here I do doing a full Aspie style data dump. – With regard to sharing this information on the forum, I think lets do that, horses are deliberately given a high sugar diet to create Laminitis, then are killed so that experiments can be made on the structure of their hooves. – I feel therefore that the more everyone learns as a result of the experiences of those horses the better. But first some background information.

—————–
A couple of decades ago my horse developed Navicular, (pain in the heels of the front hooves for the none horsey people on the forum). He reached the point where the vet gave me two options, bute (heavy duty pain killer that damages organs if given too long)
for up to 6 months and then shoot him or shoot him now. – I didn’t like those options so I searched for an alternative solution. It just so happened that a German speaking Canadian had gone through a similar experience with her horse, had discovered the work of a German Vet, followed the procedure herself, and was so impressed that she decided to share / translate the information in English online. The principle was that you pull the horses shoes and trip the hooves to allow the hooves to return to a healthy shape. I talked about the ideas with my vet, and she said, well you have nothing to loose. I talked my farrier into following the instructions I had printed off the internet, and the upshot was this horse who couldn’t walk downhill in a straight line due to pain was within months trotting down hill and jumped a 5 bar gate to get in for his feed one night.

During this period one person had travelled from the UK to Germany to study the professional barefoot hoof care course with this vet. – She then went on to organise training courses in the UK. I was so impressed with the improvement in my horse that I decided to study so that I could care for my horses hooves for myself in future. First I went on an introduction to trimming for horse owners, and then a 2 year long professional hoofcare orthopaedics course. During my second year, there was growing publicity on the techniques so people started to contact the course tutor for help. and she would pass on my contact details to people who lived in South Wales and contacted her for help. These were all horses in pain, and I ended up spending my spare time going out to help them.

One of the people who contacted me ran a racing yard. – I started off going to help one particular horse and eventually ended up working on all the horses she bought in. She raced Arabs, but also bought in thoroughbreds with fantastic breeding but they were on the scrap heap as three year olds because they had turned out to not live up to expectations in races. – Many of these horses had feet that looked like dinner plates. much larger and flatter than a healthy hoof should be. – It doesn’t matter if you are talking about a miniature Shetland pony or a shire horse the angles of the hoof and its shape should be the same and these were not a healthy shape as a result of being kept in and fed a high sugar diet from an early age. I realised that all these horses were recovering a healthier shape hoof with the new shape forming from the coronet band and growing down in a way that wasn’t happening with other horses. Yes I was helping other horses recover, but these you could literally see a change in angles and quality of horn which gradually grew out. from the coronet band (the point where the hoof wall joins with the leg) I studied everything she was doing to work out what could be the difference.

At the same time I was helping someone else who had a Section D cob with laminitis, so severe that his owner spent lots of time managing in detail every element of his fields, he was only on native species grasses, no rye grass. no hard feed, (Native grasses are between 8 and 14 % sugar levels, rye grass has been deliberately engineered to create species which are 48% sugar to bulk up as many beef and lambs to slaughter weight per acre as possible . ) No matter what she did we would start to make progress and he would be walking a little more comfortably and then wham, he would be back to being down with all four hooves inflamed. All the training I had had on hoof care was not enough, we had the hooves perfectly balanced so that there was no uneven pressure anywhere on the hoof.

So I ended up search for the latest research online which is when I came across the research published by Queensland University. – A horses hoof wall is made of lots of individual tubes of horn. each connected to the surrounding tubes. When the hoof wall grows the tube disconnects from the adjoining tubes grows and then reconnects. – A Professor had identified that when a particular bacteria responsible for digesting sugar existed in the gut, then a chemical element was found in the blood stream. When that element came in contact with the structures responsible for hoof growth it caused rapid hoof growth. When hoof wall growth is very excessive, so many horn tubules are disconnected that the structure becomes weak. If the heels of the hoof are too high then the forces cause the connective tissue between the front of the main bone in the horses hoof and the hoof wall to give way and the pedal bone rotates inside the hoof capsule if the hoof is balanced and the angles correct so the horses weight is spread evenly over the joint, then the bone is ripped away from the whole of the hoof wall and drops within the hoof. Wincing yet folks? Horses are regularly deliberately put through this in the Queensland University and then they and and the horses on a different diet are killed so they can study the damage to the connective tissue. in their hooves.

So then my search went on to research the bacteria responsible. I found there was a particular acid which appears in 2 natural situations. Its in milk, particularly in the early milk production and seems to be involved in the prevention of mastitis, (it maybe has a role in helping the development of a new born’s got bacteria mixture) the other natural occurrence is in coconut. At this point I had a light bulb moment. My horse training client was the distributor for an animal feed made from coconut meal and she fed that to all the horses in her yard.

I went over all the research materials I had found and shared photographs I had taken of the progress of the horse trainers horses hooves with the owner of the Section D. I brought a sack of the feed over for her and we tried it. – We started to see really positive changes in the hoof walls of this horse. It was a stressful time, the Section D’s owner had decided that she should not put him through further pain and if this attempt didn’t work he would be put down. But after a couple of months his progress was such that I started to share the information with the owners of other laminitics. – I saw the same success with all bar one horse. – I discovered that the owner of that horse was so hard up that she was struggling to buy hay, but she worked for a bakery and was bringing home sacks of left over bread every day to feed to her horses.

What I noticed with all the horses was that no matter how closely the horses owner controlled their diet, even those horses which didn’t have a laminitic attack had hooves growing faster than they should. In every case feeding coconut changed that. Some where the owners were reluctant to feed much, or the horses were reluctant to eat the coconut went through a two step process, with a positive result when they first incorporated coconut meal. better, but not right. and then as they gained confidence and indreased the amount of coconut a second improvement. Others had one dramatic change in angles and a sudden correction in hoof growth.

————–

So why does the coconut feed work? – Well as I mentioned there is an acid in coconut which kills the streptococcus bacteria named by the researchers at the university.

Other research into the health benefits of coconut came up with a description of how it cures leaky gut. – Apparently yeast infections in the gut result in the yeast roots entering the gut wall and then larger particles can pass from the gut into the blood stream. Coconut oil kills off the yeast infection.

Finally I can’t remember where I read it, but I understand different gut bacteria thrive at different PH’s. A balanced gut bacteria occurs with a neutral ph. Apparently the manufacturers of the coconut feed. discovered that the Ph of the horses gut changed to a neutral PH when they were on this feed.

Interestingly, there are multiple articles online about coconut oil being used to reverse insulin resistance and T2.

—————————

So there you have it. I did say at the start here we go with a data dump. – My horse was 14 when he suffered from Navicular, he did return to soundness and we had another 14 years together exploring the countryside before he had to be retired due to ill health put to sleep after a heart attack. All of the laminitics returned to soundness, and the owners no longer had to use muzzles and starvation patches to control access to grass, except 2. The one who was fed bread and the one where the owner was not willing to wait until the pedal bone had reconnected enough to the hoof wall to enable the horse to carry her weight. (The horses hoof capsule distorts under pressure as a shock absorber, put too much load on the hooves before the connection between the hoof wall and pedal bone has healed and it rips apart again.

—————–
WindyJulz, the product name is Coolstance, it consists of minced up coconut meal which is the flesh left over after pressing to produce oil. but it still contains a high level of oil. It has been dried, and you need to soak it before feeding, but it does not take long to absorb water. I recommend for a horse at least 1 feed size scoop a day of soaked Coolstance as well as controlling sugar levels in feed the rest of the time.

So the next quest will be does coconut help those of us who have been on a high carb diet long term. Don’t know that’s what I am experimenting with at present. – I am going through 2 small coconuts a week. That’s why at present I have stopped calorie counting. I can confirm so far its good for helping to control the carb cravings.

Queensland University has had for many years a

JGwen – you are a hero. That is all very fascinating and fits with my chap. We’ve found a way to keep him sound but he’s not back in ridden world yet (I tried once at the end of last year and he became lame again – ties with what you said about the connective tissue etc)
I would love to get him unmuzzled (also have another one muzzled as a precaution as she carries weight so easily). The lami one is Irish draft x thoroughbred and the mare is from the same TB mother by a Warmblood stallion. The muzzles are great as have allowed them proper turn out and to move, graze and socialise like normal horses but I’d like them to be able to have time without them.
I shall go and find the feed you mention and get going with it. Thank you so much.

It is interesting how stuff we learn about for horses could be relevant and transferable to ourselves. Another example of forgotten, I fed both these horses (before the laminitis but when they were overweight) a supplement high in vitamin Bs. I saw a significant change to their fat distribution making no other changes. I promptly went and got myself some Vit B and other vits that were in it. Kinda forgot to keep taking them…. must go back to it.

Really appreciate you taking the time to share this.

DD, thank you for correcting my understanding.

I had promised a quick update on the results of my strategy, mainly to benefit those considering different strategies for entering into maintenance.

I wrote about two weeks ago with a “reverse-dieting” plan to increase my daily calorie allowance each week and so, over time, reach a sustainable calorie intake. At the time of writing, 10/08/2020, I weighed 14st 7.5lbs with a waist-line of 39″
In the first week, I increased my calorie intake by 150 per day from 800 to 950. Based on the advice received in this thread (Thanks again, folks!) I used protein and fat containing foods to do so (Egg, meat, nuts, etc.) to keep my carb levels low.
In the second week, I increased the daily total again by 150 to 1100.
I have been keeping carb levels as low as I had them all along, averaging 30-40g per day, though I have found they did rise a little in tandem with the increased calorie intake as even low carb foods usually carry some carbs, especially veg.
I have continued to lose weight and past Monday, 14 days into this strategy, found myself at 14st 1.6lbs with a waist-line of 38″.
That day was also week 12 since starting.

I did encounter a series of days during the first week where no weight-loss was occurring, where I responded by sticking to 800 for one day, just to get things moving along some more. Having said that, this was also common during the 800-calorie weeks… I found it was easy to revert back to 800 for a day, which confirms its use for me as one of the great tools of this way of life.
I also experienced a birthday party and three meals out during this time where measuring intake was harder so I had to rely on guestimates plus “listening to my body” and relying on the portion-size-experiences gained. I did not feel comfortable with it, though it seems to have worked OK as there were no adverse effects. Still, I much prefer sticking to my rigid recording using MyFitnessPal for the foreseeable.

As all seems well, I increased daily calorie intake again to 1250 this past Monday and have continued to lose weight. I am now wondering if this process is going to bring me to beyond my goals.. Still, it’s a positive problem to have! It’ll be good to have some spare pounds to work with going into maintenance proper!

It’s great having all this extra food!

thanks again for the advice offered here!
I will keep you posted

Bumping this thread to the top, for those now at target and looking to maintain.

Your work is very fantastic and please continue next to fun in your work

Dear wonderful maintainers,

I have devoured your thread last night, and I hope you don’t mind because I am not yet at maintenance stage – in fact I am still 10kg off of my goal weight. However, your posts are incredibly inspiring and it gives me so much hope to read your stories. I was wondering if you might be willing to impart your wisdom, all of those who have ‘made it’ or had great success? I would love to know your top hints for worked for you in driving down the scales…..
Thank you so much and congratulations to all of you, you are truly inspiring 🙂
Hopeful in Oz

Hi Hopeful,
I’ve written some of my tips on the success thread, let me know if you can’t find it. Search box is very useful.. Also, Wendleg wrote some excellent posts.. The sentence ‘mustn’t overdo nuts’ rings very, very true 🙂

Anyway, what worked for me in the discarding stage, was to plan ahead. What will I have for dinner, and what, as a result, can I have for lunch. I put everything in a Dutch tracker, down to to dressing over my salad and the cocumber,eveb though, well, what’s in a cucumber. (olive oil is worth the calories, imho).

Second top tip, remember your why.

Third , and I’ve been thinking about writing a post about this, when I figured out FOMO was a problem, this helped me tremendously. FOMO is fear of missing out. If I don’t eat this cheese, my OH will. Ohh why can’t I have this or that. My father is cooking lamb chops, but I’m supposed to fast today… How can I not eat this, I will eat it or I’m missing out! Wait. I can go to the shop and buy the same. Or I can plan my day tomorrow and add the cheese I really want in my program. Etc. No need for FOMO, and now I realise this is often the problem, I can talk myself out of the temptation, easily.

Maintaining since July 2020 has been a bit of a Rocky road, I’ve stayed more or less at my lowest weight during last summer with relative ease. I gained max 2 kilo, lost them when going low carb again. My basis was low carb, but during weekends I often made many, many exceptions. In October, I had arthroscopic hip surgery and could not bear weight for about six weeks. The result was a 3 kilo gain, which stuck with me and became worse in the last few months. So I restarted fast 800 for 5 days a week and after two weeks, I’m nearly back at my measurements of last year. I want to stay healthy and definitely don’t want to slide down the slippery slope of accepting small gains, so I won’t stop till I am exact the same measurements. I expect I will be a few kilos more, but I only care about inches and centimeters. I exercise, walk, and bike way more than last summer, my hip prevented me from all that before. Not anymore, soon I can hopefully even run! This is the main reason I use the tape measurements as a guide.

Ask me any questions you like 🙂
DD

DoubleDutch – thank you so much. That is such helpful information. I really relate to the FOMO thing – the past month has been full of celebrations, eents and a family holiday, and as someone who previously had pretty much no restraint when it came to food, I have had to reign it in and it has been really difficult. So I think you nailed it on the head – it is FOMO. I need to remember that once I am at my goal weight I will be able to, on occasion, partake in the food, but that the enjoyment should be the celebration itself and the people I am socialising with, not the food so much. This one will take a while for me I think.

It is also so helpful to hear how you have dealt with the maintenance ups and downs. Even though I am not there yet, I am 8kg down with 5kg more to go, and I have given a lot of thought as to how to tackle maintenance. I have read a lot about ‘reverse dieting’ and will do that, but I got really nervous when I read ‘The Obesity Code’ and Jason Fung seemed to say that the only way not to regain weight is to fast. Fasting makes me nervous – not sure why. I do only have a 8 hour eating window, but I honestly feel like a 24 hour fast would just make me miserable. So to hear that you have had great success with monitoring your weight/measurements, having a threshold, and then going back to the 800/low carb until you are happy again makes me happy as this is exactly what I am hoping I will be able to do. It is great to hear that you are able to be so much more active since your surgery – you must be thrilled with the results.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to this, DD – I hope to see you on some of the maintenance threads in the next few months 🙂
Donna.

Hi Donna,

Glad I could be of help 🙂
I must admit it took me a while to gather the motivation to restart fast800, but now I’m there, I’m very happy I did.
Once I had the FOMO breakthrough, fasting became easy. My first 36 hour fast was suddenly a breeze! In fact, for me it’s usually easier not to eat anything, than to eat in moderation. But because I want a healthy relationship with food, I use fasting as one of my tools and I don’t want it to become the only one.
Having an 8 hour eating window is great, I believe that gives a lot of benefits. If fasting is not for you, then don’t. If you do want to try, I can give you loads of tips, I even did a 7 day / 8 night fast. By the way, don’t do this for weight loss, I definitely lost quickly but gained quickly as well.
Well done on your discard so far, keep it up! It’s great to prepare yourself for the ‘after’ period, I remember wanting to be ready.
DD

Thanks again DD. I think you have given me a FOMO breakthrough also 🙂
I think I will stick with the 8 hour eating window at the moment, but when I feel ready to give a longer fast a go I will definitely be in touch. Have a wonderful evening / day (depending on where in the world you are)
Donna x

DD has solid advice…
I reached my target weight in early September, you’ll probably have read some of my strategy musings… I was probably overthinking things at the time.
I remained off sugars (sweets, chocolate, honey, etc) entirely.
I allowed my carbs to creep up a bit (I really enjoy homebaked bread every morning)
I snack on cheese and nuts only.
I stopped logging food but continue to get on the scales every single day. I do gain bits of weight here and there. when I do bread or nuts/cheese in excess. I have an upper weight limit which acts as a trigger and I stick rigorously to it.

I use everything learned from this diet as a “tool-kit”. If it’s just a pound or two (1KG) over upper limit, I’ll cut out bread for a couple of days until my weight settles below. I may also cut out cheese and/or nuts. If, for whatever reason, my weight is more than a couple of pounds above my max weight, I may do the 800 cal / no carbs thing for a day or two… This has only happened once, due to over-snacking on nuts.

I tried the idea of a target weight a few pounds below the optimal weight, to act as a buffer, but I have never found the motivation to diet beyond the optimal weight… My weight therefore hovers between optimal weight and upper weight limit.

I think the key lesson here is that ALL maintainers have found their own personal life-style which works and is sustainable… Some stick to the super-low carbs, others fast regularly, yet others use these ideas as tools only when needed and eat whatever they want… So long as you keep checking your weight and/or measurements, take action immediately when upper limits are reached/breached and refuse to move these upper weight/measurement-limit goal-posts, you’ll be fine. Ultimately, it’s well known that the most common reason for failing to retain weigh-loss is that the diet / lifestyle was not sustainable over the longer term. Finding your own balance / new lifestyle is part of the challenge once that target has been hit.
I’ve been here for 8 months now. I have found a life-style which works for me, but which does occasionally bring my weight up. For me it’s unreasonable to never let that happen, but I have the Mosley tools to help me sort it. I also still tweak my life-style here and there and keep learning lessons about what I can and can’t get away with.

FireAnt, thank you so much for sharing your story and strategies. It is so great to hear of people such as yourself who have maintained over long periods…. and with relative ease. Like you say, this WoE gives us the tools to lose a bit more when we hit that trigger weight, and I feel like hat is the first time in my life I can actually say that – I have been overweight most of my adult life, and tried so many things with so little success until this! Just yesterday I moved back into a normal BMI for the first time in my adult life, after only 7.5 weeks of doing this. For me that is just unbelievable. So when I read your story and hear that you have kept to your happy weight for 8 months, and still been able to indulge in things you enjoy like bread, it makes me feel confident that I can do the same. Thanks for taking the time to tell me all about it 🙂
Donna.

Hi Fireant, medelander 🙂
cool to hear how you’ve been doing! It seems we have similar strategies.. I also tried to get below optimal weight, to create wriggle room, but could not find motivation… I’m happy and healthy the way I am now, so couldn’t be bothered… But, great job on maintaining!! I always wonder if the ones we don’t hear about anymore are happily maintaining of hiding because of gaining.. I’m glad Donna wrote something on this thread, it triggered me to become a bit more active in this forum.

HI Donna,
Just wanted to add, although I eat still eat low carb most of the time, I feel it’s a choice now. I don’t miss pasta or rice, I’m enjoying the veggie alternative perhaps even more than the real stuff. Bread however, if something I do eat regularly.. Freshly baked, either at home or from an artisan Bakery, it’s too jummy not to eat. I can stay in ketosis and eat a few slices or bread rolls or even pizza. Doing all of that on the same day, will knock me out of ketosis unless I cycle 80 km 🙂 🙂

So I’m convinced you’ll be able to eat whatever (my brother makes a wicked apple pie, how great is it so be able to take a slice!) as long as it doesn’t become a habit. As soon as exceptions are too common to be called exceptions anymore, it’s time for action. Like fireant, I’m often on the scales, and I am aware of how my clothes are fitting. I didn’t buy an entire new wardrobe to well, not fit into it anymore!

DD

Hi everyone
I’m now 4.5 years post goal weight and continue a strict keto diet. Carbs are my nemesis and I refuse to give in, even a little bit, that’s just what works for me. I feel breaking it for even one small thing would lead to a slippery slope and I don’t want to gain any of the 35kg I lost. I weigh myself pretty much every day, I still aim (and mostly achieve) 20,000 steps a day (not for maintaining weight – just because I have so much energy!), do a lot of intermittent fasting and I still fit into my size 8-10 pants and 10-12 tops.

I’ll never go back to carbs because I don’t want to look like I did before but that’s my story and everyone is different. The health side of low carb is also very important to me and I’m doing this not just for the weight loss but also for prevention of T2, heart disease, Alzheimer’s etc. as I want a healthy lifespan.

Every now and again I’ll make a low carb/keto dessert with almond flour and erythritol but even that tends to bloat me and I feel lethargic so it’s really a Christmas/birthday thing.

Pre Covid, I was doing a lot of travelling and have managed this way of eating all around the world as it’s just based on ’real food’.

I used to post a lot in the early days but now tend to be a silent reader of the posts but for those that don’t know me, I’m a 61 yo post menopausal female living in Sydney. If I can do it, anyone can. Any questions, feel free to ask!

You are all such an inspiration. It just goes to show that once you have reached your goals, there are so many different ways of tackling maintenance, and it really is about finding what works best for you, and for your goals (whether they be staying at the same clothing size, keeping diabetes under control, long term health etc). Whilst I do not have diabetes, there is a history of breast cancer in my family, and diabetes in my husbands family. I am hoping that a healthier life will help me to hopefully avoid cancer, but also enable me to be a role model for my kids in terms of what a healthy diet looks like so that they can avoid the Type 2 diabetes that my in laws have. Unfortunately, up until recently, I was serving all of the wrong foods without even really being aware of it. Almost every evening meal came with a side of rice or pasta or garlic bread or something carb heavy. And, like me, my daughter loves eating, and has a very sweet tooth. In the past 12 months she has gone from being quite lean, to having a bit of a tummy on her. I have never said anything and never will because I do not want her to have body issues, but I am trying to slowly introduce healthier foods. The kids are still having some rice and pasta but nowehere near as much as before, they are eating a big salad each night before their meal happily (its part of the deal – eat the salad or no dinner, but they actually enjoy it now), and the only dessert I have been serving on occasion is berries with fresh vanilla cream.

But getting back to what you have all told me, I do hope that there will be days that I can go ‘off plan’ and indulge a bit, really I am hoping that I can live a life of moderation (which has never been my strong point)….. so, you know, go out for dinner once a fortnight and not worry about what I am eating, but weigh each day and cut back where needed so that any weight gain only sticks around for a few days.

It will be an interesting, scary and exciting journey, and I can’t wait. Just need to shift these last 5 kilograms. By the way, DD, it was interesting how you noticed that when you did start increasing, your body responded by losing. There have been a few occasions over the past 8 weeks where I was just really hungry, so I added more protein to my evening meal than originally planned within the 800 calories, and if anything, my losses increased slightly.

Thanks again for all of your inspiring stories and for teaching me so much 🙂
Donna.

Hi I know it has been a while since I posted however, i thought I could encourage others not to give in.

I started BSD in 2017 and was probably the best thing I have ever done. I now realise that at the end of January every year that I have managed to gained around 10 1bs. So, on January 31st when I weighed 8st.12 (only 5ft 2″) I gave myself a goal that I would lose 1 lb per week and on May 1st tadaah ..I weighed 8st. I was being very strict and watching my carbs (sticking to 20-25). I use the fat secret App to track everything.
Also what I do now that I did not previously was drink lots of water. I drink 2 glass full before i have my breakfast every morning now.
Weighing things is also essential, it it so easy to mistake a teaspoon(15g) of peanut butter for a tablespoon …YUM…

I eat a lot more fish now, and every now and than give the eggs a break (excuse the pun) ..What I intend to do now is that instead of relaxing now that I have reached my goal, I will lose another 3 lbs to give me a bit of wriggle room. Then I will ease up a little but still keep the carbs low.
I am 61 and have just had a bone density scan which revealed that I have Osteoporosis. I was offered Bisphosphonates but have refused them. SO….I will be upping my Calcium D K2 and Magnesium levels. Besides all this I really cannot stress how grateful I am (especially to all the Girls who help me back then…a fantastic bunch) This is a diet for life and once you figure out what works for you you will feel fantastic.
Chris

Interesting to read, thanks!