I’ve been going over my food log for the week (I keep track on MyFitnessPal- I’m carey23452 there, friend me!), and noticed that while I’m staying at 800 calories per day, my carbs are usually well below 50. Is it more important to stick to the 800 calorie limit, or the 50 carb limit?

You will inevitably miss each by little bits – it’s the average that counts.

But for me, I stuck to keeping the carbs under control and not worrying about the slight calorie “overs”. Especially not worrying about exceeding on the fat count.

Hope that helps.

Hi BeachBabe – like Igorasusual I keep my carbs low and don’t over obsess with the calorie count but I’m probably around the 800-900cals per day. MFP shouts at me for not eating enough and puts my fat intake in red every time but I ignore it and just use it for a guide to the cals and carbs. After 5 weeks I’ve lost 12lbs which is very good for me.

One thing Igorasusual did mention to me and has made a difference is to keep my salt intake up. I’m so used to not having any due to high BP that’s it’s rather a challenge to actually add it to food. I do find that if I’m not careful I hardly have any and end up feeling a bit faint – like I did yesterday so I had a small bit of Feta cheese (could have eaten the whole packet given half a chance!) and made a bolognaise sauce with added Marmite (yum) and had it on cabbage cooked in salted water and tossed in butter and black pepper and it made all the difference and weirdly my BP is going down despite my salt intake going up. There’s so much help on these forums and I think whatever works best for you providing you keep to the basic principles of not eating too many carbs and not taking in too many cals.

Oldbluejeans those tips are great too, thanks
Love the recipe too…might do that this week…

Oldbluejeans and Igorasusual – your posts about the salt issue are very interesting. I have noticed that I have had to add more salt since starting the BSD otherwise I get awful cramps. This has always been an issue for me because I prefer not to have salt on food. I think Igorasusual mentioned on another thread that we are flushing a lot more salt out because of all the extra water we are drinking. Have noticed that increasing minutes of very fast walking – leading me to perspire a lot – probably isn’t helping with the salt issue. I hadn’t linked the feeling faint to low salt until I read Oldblujeans post. We walked for a couple of hours this morning and I began to feel a little dizzy. Blood sugar was 5.8 so low blood sugar wasn’t a problem. Added salt to my lunch time vegetables and dizziness went away almost immediately. So will be a lot more careful about my salt intake. I monitor my carbs only and find the calories seem to take care of themselves. I haven’t felt hungry on the BSD and feel it is a WOE that I can sustain forever.

I spent a long time reading through these forums and I noticed that often the people that lost the most weight weighed everything out and were strict about sticking to both limits. Logically the calories matter most because if you ate 5000 calories of food and 50g carbs youd gain weight but 800 calories of even pure carbs youd still lose the weight without too much hassle but youd die from lack of nutrition eventually. So calories matter most and I think its a good idea to weigh everything out too.

For example, yesterday’s totals were 825 calories and 32 carbs. I think if I had kept going to 50 carbs I would have ended up going way over in calories. I’ve felt okay this week and have been seasoning meals as usual with salt, etc.

Hi

Don’t misunderstand me – trying to keep there or thereabouts to the calories is the way to go and what BSD recommends.

The thing about carbs is that if – within your calories – you can keep to 50g or under in terms of carbs then this can help with weight loss

Don’t necessarily try and “eat up” to 50g carbs if you’ve had your 800 calories

Does that make more sense?

With regard to salt – if you are excreting salt with the increased fluid you’re drinking and also avoiding prepared foods which often have added salt, then you may find you are eating too little.

This can lead to light-headedness so a stock cube in boiling water as a drink or some feta or – as I had this morning, some oil and balsamic with a little heap of salt and a baby gem lettuce head to dip into both was really lovely.

Yes! Thanks for clarifying 👍🏻

It is absolutely right – that the people who have strictly stuck to the 800 calories and 50 grams of carbs have lost the most weight. In many cases their weight loss has been truly stunning. I started with bill1954’s thread ‘this has to work for me’ – which I found very helpful. I read all the latest posts every day and have picked up a lot of very good information. It also helps me to keep motivated and I have not eaten any bad carbs or sugar in 3 months. I could have lost weight much faster if I had been stricter with the calories but I now have only 7lbs to go so am very happy. I do find keeping portion sizes very small is very important – sometimes I think my meals look more like children’s meals. Have had a wonderful 2 days trying on clothes that I haven’t worn for a while and they now fit. The stock cube drink with feta cheese sounds delicious.

Is that thread in the Fast 800? I can’t find it …

BeachBabe,
Type ‘this has to work for me’ in the search box (top right hand corner) and you’ll find it. Also note that Bill1954 would comment that he ‘counts carbs not calories’ (if my memory serves me correct). Best wishes.

Thank you! I hadn’t noticed that box before (I’m on my phone). Very interesting reading!