Almost half way through first Fast800

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  • posted by chubby-squid
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    Hi everyone
    I have just registered after reading loads of posts which I found after googling ‘why am I not losing much weight on 800 calories’ and I am so glad I found this forum!
    Myself and my partner started the fast 800 on 8th Jan so we are coming up to the halfway point. I am only 5’2” and started at 215lb. I knew I was the biggest I’d ever been but that was such a shock – I’m heavier than my partner although I don’t actually look it (is ‘big boned’ really a thing?) To be at the very top of my healthy weight range I need to get down to 135lbs so a very long way to go, and a weight I haven’t been since 1992, aged 15!!
    I honestly don’t think I’d have stuck to the plan beyond day 3 had my partner not been doing all of the food prep and cooking, and just presenting me with my meals! That said, I work in an office where there is biscuits and cake galore and I haven’t slipped so I do have some willpower!!
    The first week was awful, I can’t lie! I was permanently hangry, moody, miserable and couldn’t stop thinking of food, it was such an extreme change, especially after the overindulgence of December. Imagine my dismay when I jumped on the scales after week 1 to find I’d only lost 1.8lbs! I had a right old strop saying it hadn’t been worth it, and this is how eating disorders start etc but my partner calmly talked me down from my high horse and I carried on (didn’t help my mindset that he’d lost 9lbs that same week!!) my weight loss is now 8lbs so much slower than I’d like, but at least it’s in the right direction. I wish my clothes would start to feel looser at least, to give me some motivation and physical indicaton that something is working!!! I tested my blood sugar on day 8 and it was 4.1 so low-ish.
    Anyway, waffle over, I just wanted to say hi and that I am glad to have found the forum, I am still plodding on and it might take me a long time and several cycles of fast 800/5:2 to shift the amount of lard I need to but I’m hoping I’ll get there! 🙂

  • posted by SunnyB
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    Welcome to the forum chubby-squid – well done on persevering when things were not happening as you wanted. Big pat on the back to your OH for the good week one result, for being a calming influence and keeping you going. We all understand how awful it feels when the scales are unkind and things just don’t seem to be happening.

    You haven’t said anything about your daily consumption, but I will offer a few pointers, just in case these might help. Firstly, good hydration is vital, so when you think you’ve drunk enough, drink a bit more. It’s so important for the body functioning at optimum and is a must for weight loss. Secondly, be sure to include fats in your meals, as these are important for kicking off the fat burning process. I know it feels counter intuitive, given all the low fat mantras we have been brainwashed with over the years, but on the BSD fat is our friend – it needs to be accounted for in our daily calories of course though.

    You don’t say if you are both tracking your calorie and carbohydrate intake, but I would advise that if things aren’t happening for you, you take a look at your daily carb intake especially. Some of us – and I am one – lose slowly and have found pushing our carb intake lower helps to move things along. Try starting at 50g carbs a day and if the weight loss is still stagnant, start to push those grams down. Many of us have a daily carb intake of 20g or less and find this is what we need to do keep the pounds falling.

    Finally, make good use of this amazing resource. The forum is a friendly and supportive place to come to find answers, vent when things aren’t going well, or to celebrate successes. There is a lot of experience and wisdom to draw on here, you only need ask. Feel free to join any thread you think has relevance to you and I have no doubt you will be welcomed. If you wish to search for any particular topic before asking a question, use the search box at the top of the page and it will show you posts connected to the topic.

    Hope you and your OH will keep plodding on and that you will both achieve your goals – please do keep us posted on your progress and we will do our best to offer advice, support, encouragement and a pat on the back as appropriate. Best wishes to you both for your BSD journey.

  • posted by chubby-squid
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    Thank you SunnyB for the warm welcome and really helpful reply!
    We’ve been counting calories, keeping within 800 per day (nothing processed) and using recipes from the BSD recipe book, Tom Kerridge’s weight loss cookbook and the Hairy Dieters. I have to say that I have only looked st calories though so will definitely take your advice on carbs. We’ve tended to have fairly egg based breakfasts so far (frittata/egg muffins) and either homemade muffins (tom kerridge recipes), soup or salad for a portable work lunch, and then various dinners from the books – all have been very tasty – such as chickpea and spinach curry, fish parcels, turkey mince chilli etc. No snacking in between (apart from week 1 where I had 2 walnuts mid afternoon but have knocked that on the head) and plenty of fluids in the form of tea (no sugar) in the morning then peppermint or ginger tea and water for the rest of the day/evening. I could probably increase this further, though it’s broken my sleep due to having to pee so much!!!
    A few years ago we followed the ‘fitter food’ plans for quite a while which are paleo-ish and include lots of good fats so got out of the mindset of ‘low fat’ however when we fell off the wagon with that we went way too far the other way with full fat and carbs, hence how we’ve got to where we are!!!

  • posted by SunnyB
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    Hi again chubby-squid – from what you say on the recipes you’ve been following, I would suggest you definitely need to look at the carbs. Not all calories are equal, so it really is worth looking at the carbs – it is surprising where they hide out, even in things that we think of as healthy. I’m afraid I’m a bit anti Tom Kerridge, as he’s sold out when it comes to low carb – it’s how he lost all his weight, but has openly admitted that is not the route he is promoting and supporting for others. Apparently, he is superhuman and can cope with low carb, but us mire mortals couldn’t possibly manage it.

    Sounds like you are doing okay with the fluids, but like I said, an extra cup/glass can’t go a miss. I find that if I drink the bulk of my intake before 9pm, my sleep is not so disrupted. Think if you curb the carbs and perhaps drop the fat a little, you should see some good progress soon – keep us posted.

  • posted by Esnecca
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    Hi chubby-squid, we’re the same height and I too had a large amount of weight to lose, about 100 pounds more than you do, as misfortune would have it. I did the Fast 800 non-stop for 14 months, dropped all 200 pounds, got below the magical 135 figure and am now stable at a pound or two under 120, lower than my high school weight.

    I very much second SunnyB’s wise advice about carb counting. It’s more important than calorie counting, in my experience, especially if your body clings to its fat stores like a baby koala to its mom. Use an app like MyFitnessPal or Fat Secret to calculate your carb counts. Pulses and legumes may not be the friends you think are. I had to cut them out entirely to bring my carbs down to below 20 grams a day to get the results I got. I am insulin resistant and process many complex carbs as faultily as I process pure sugar. You may have a similar issue that is slowing down weight loss.

    The recipes in the original BSD book are not carb counted and MM uses ingredients that can be quite carby, like apples, beets, carrots and oats. I’m not familiar with Tom Kerridge’s recipes, but if he uses those types of foods, even rigorously portion-controlled they may just not work for you.

    Bodies are weird things and we’re all different. You might see slow losses now that speed up later, or you might be consistent at two pounds a week, or go up and down like a rollercoaster no matter what you eat. The first step in cracking the code of your own body, however, is to count every morsel. That means hubby is going to have to weigh and measure and make a note of it when he cooks, and you’re going to have look up/input the data in an app to know for sure what the macronutrients breakdown is. Once you know, you can tweak recipes and menus in a precise way to reduce carb intake, jigger protein-fat ratios and make the changes that will help you achieve your goals.

    Welcome to the forum and best of luck to you!

  • posted by Watford Wizz
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    Hi chubby squid, I found the first 2 weeks really hard but then looked up sugar addiction and this gave me a greater understanding of my symptoms. So think it was more this than diet not working. Agree with the hydration I try to drink ASAP and found to start with I needed to night pee a lot but it settled after week 5/6.
    Keep going you will get there.

  • posted by chubby-squid
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    Thank you for the comments, all really helpful as I now feel I am getting over the initial shock of small portions, no snacking, low carb/cal/sugar etc and am at the stage of trying to work out how to make this work best for me. I just looked up the carbs in some of the meals we’ve had and most of the time it looks like we’ve had between 35g-50g per day so not too bad but room for improvement. However….this week we’ve had Tom Kerridge’s apple and raisin muffins on a couple of days for breakfast (and one day I had one for lunch too as I was in meetings all day and thought it was an ‘on plan’ alternative to eating the provided sandwiches) well, while they may be170 calories, they have 33g of carbs!!! Still better than the sandwiches though! I shall definitely look at the carbs now!!

  • posted by Gattina
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    Hi Chubby-squid
    welcome to the forums. There is lots of good advice here from people far more experienced at this than me so I don’t want to comment on the diet. I do want to wish you and your partner the best of luck and hope you get the results you’re after.
    The 4.1 reading for your blood glucose is low – it is well within the normal – non-diabetic – range. You don’t mention whether you have diabetes – if you do then this is a very good reading and an excellent NSV (non-scale victory)

    This is week 5 for me – I’m the same height as you and also have a lot of weight to lose. I’m finding the forums very encouraging and I hope you do too.

    All the best

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