Hi everyone,

I’ve been doing the BSD for just a week. So far so good. I’ve lost about 6lbs I think (had to change batteries on scale on day 2 so not sure first day weigh in was accurate). My aim is to lose 2.5 stone, maybe as much as 3.5 (long term, not necessarily in 8 weeks!). I managed 800 cals most days no problem really. I don’t have a sweet tooth and didn’t eat enormous amounts of carbs to start with. I’m allergic to dairy and I’m a coeliac so not like I can eat a lot of sweet/carb foods anyway. However I think the change in diet after being diagnosed coeliac 3 years ago is responsible for the 2.5 stone weight gain – rubbish quality GF versions now everywhere in the shops. I have had a few half glasses of red wine (only 60 cals each) and went out on Friday for my birthday and had some wine (felt rubbish afterwards though so not again!). I’ve also had some dark chocolate nearly every day. So they’re my ‘vices’. I was surprised to find when I started looking at the actual carb count about halfway through the week that I was way below 50g and even with the dark chocolate and a little bit of wine I’m way under the sugar and carb amounts I understand I should be aiming for. But I guess I’m not getting sugar or carbs anywhere else.

So anyway that’s the background. I’m a bit confused about exercise though. I’m halfway through couch-to-5K. I’ve done it a few times before and I do enjoy it. This time I’m thinking of going for a 10K. I’m hoping with the weight loss I’ll find it easier (at the moment my back hurts too much if I run for longer than 30 mins). I’m adding in a bit of strength training but I have severe tennis elbow at the moment. Have had it for 7 months and am in phyiso but it means I can’t do anything using my arms. But I’m a bit confused, as I ramp up my running time and the calories burned, whether I should be adding on calories to make up for the calories burned running. I mean a 5K is only around 5,000 steps so is not even 10,000 steps but you’re working at a much harder rate. On my 3 5K days 800 cals hasn’t felt like enough. Yesterday was supposed to be a 5K day but I felt too weak to do it after adding in an extra 40 mins aerobic dance on Friday because I knew I was going out later on.

I do have pernicious anaemia which isn’t contra-indicated anywhere in the guidelines but I do sometimes get weakness with that. I don’t think I’m going to have a problem sticking to the 800 cals most day. If anything though I’m concerned I might not eat enough on days where I’m exerting myself more. Anyone got any advice?

Also I ordered the cookbook – it’s due to come tomorrow. I love cooking and am a good cook but after a week I was getting a bit bored. In the meantime I downloaded another BSD type cookbook onto kindle and first thing I noticed was that an awful lot of the recipes have dairy in. Is this going to be the case with the official cookbook when it comes tomorrow? If so it will be a waste of money for me since I can’t eat dairy. If anything that’s been my biggest sticking point so far. Dairy seems to keep a lot of people going and add variety. On the plus side I guess that’s also why I’m finding it pretty easy since dairy has a lot of calories. I suppose where other people have daity I eat a few nuts.

Also anyone got any ideas for breakfasts? I ate a poached egg or scrambled eggs everyday anyway so it’s not been a huge change. I’ve been having 2 rashers of grilled bacon with a poached egg, or some scrambled egg. I add a couple of mushrooms and some tomatoes to it so I’m not eaten pure protein an it fills the plate. But I don’t want to suddenly start eating more processed meat than I was (which was virtually none – the odd but of bacon, chorizo or ham).

And would appreciate any ideas for meals generally that don’t involve chicken and fish. I don’t eat beef or lamb. Just don’t like them. Many years ago I was vegetarian and although I now eat meat (have to really with the pernicious anaemia) I never took to beef or lamb. Never did like lamb and beef has made me physically sick both times I tried it (to the extent I’ve wondered if I’m allergic to bovine products rather than dairy).

Lots of Questions. Sorry for the long post!

On exercise, I found that once the body adapted to fat burning there was no limit to the exercise I could do on 800 calories, as the fat was used as fuel instead, but during the adaptation period you may find you want to either add a few more non-carb calories, or moderate your exercise regime until it gets easier. I haven’t much experience with alternatives to dairy as I love it, likewise meat, but hopefully others can jump in here. My favourite non chicken/fish/meat dinner though is a Spanish style omelette but with other vegetables in place of the potatoes, with garlic and chilli and fresh herbs it makes a great meal (I do use cheese on or in it, but this could be omitted). Have you a similar allergy to goat dairy? One of my favourite cheeses is mature goat gouda.

Hi Mixnmatch – I’m a regular runner but have been struggling with relatively short distances (<3 miles) since starting the diet last week. How long did it take you to adapt to the fat burning as you mention? On my short runs it really did feel like I recall feeling at mile 20 of a marathon so I suspect you have hit the nail right on the head on the fat burn…

I am not a runner myself, but regularly do 2 hour long sessions of badminton and the first few weeks of doing this on the BSD I definitely hit a ‘wall’ of depleted energy which I now do not notice at all, I can even exercise well on a full fast day, ingesting nothing but carb and protein free fluids. I have many more problems trying to exercise after eating in fact, so often eat very lightly still on badminton days.

Hi MrThinontheOutside and Mixnmatch! Welcome to the forums MrT… I saw you had posted a similar question to this one on a different thread but I thought I might be able to add more information.
This question of exercise comes up a lot and I think everyone finds their own personal solution to the puzzle.
I’m a full sporty person, hiking, skiing, swimming, aerobics, weight lifting, cross-country skiing, biking — if it’s a physical movement I will do it! (Just as an aside, even with all that exercise I got obese, Thankyou evil carbohydrates!)
I had to cut back to about 20 carbohydrates per day to really get the weight off — I must have very high background insulin levels) — I lost about 50 pounds over five months and I’m keeping it off by controlling my carbohydrate intake — I don’t count calories anymore.
During the most strict phase of my diet I had to do two things — first, I ate a little bit more (1000-1200 calories) on big exercise days and secondly, I actually cut BACK the amount of hard exercise I was doing for a couple of months AND discovered that I lost weight faster when I was exercising LESS.
Counter intuitive, I know, but just doing the walking and some gentle weight lifting was the fastest way to weight loss.
I started to wonder if hard aerobic exercise didn’t trigger a “hold” in my body — like it knew it was going to need the calories or some other inflammatory process was triggered that held on to fat.
And, if I didn’t eat the extra calories, I just became famished and couldn’t control my eating — usually I had protein for the extra calories — that did the trick.
Good luck finding your own sweet spot!

Hi Californiagirl, I think the issue with weight retention/gain and heavy exercise is down to water and the role in muscle and tissue repair after a hard session, so it could be inflammation in a way, but not necessarily the BAD sort. I have stopped worrying about such fluctuations at this point, and just work as hard as I like, whatever it does to my weight. I don’t think the body holds onto fat during heavy exercise from what I have experienced, just water. On the other hand I rarely experience being famished now at all, and can quite easily go without food on a heavy exercise day, as I mentioned above. I couldn’t have done that before adapting to fat burning of course.

Yes Mixnmatch, that’s so true — I can go hours and hours with nothing these days, even while fasting but at some point I DO get really hungry. I try to honor true hunger with food (BSD friendly) as I want to “answer” the call when my body truly says “eat”!!!
In the same way, while I was on the BSD in a strict way, if I really was just “starving”, I ate something, even if it pushed me over 800 calories. I still say “eat” if you are just famished — but eat protein and fat and just a small amount.
This is definitely one of those areas that is personal to each person/body and they need to do trial/error and find a workable way for themselves.