Hi everyone,

This post is about my Mum. She’s 55 years old and lives with me.

A couple of years ago she followed the Fast 800 for about 6 months and lost an impressive 50kg, roughly half her body weight! We, her family, were all astounded and so proud of her success.

She kept it off for about a year, but slowly and insidiously the weight began coming back on. By the end of 2020 she had regained about 15kg.

Since January, deciding to lose the 15kg she gained, she has restarted the Fast 800. Or rather, her own version of it which I should call the “Fast 600”, as she is only eating 600 calories this time. She tells me if she eats 800 calories a day, she maintains weight and doesn’t lose anything. She says when she was regaining weight she was only eating about 1000 a day. She thinks she will have to eat 800 a day for the rest of her life! She seems to have accepted this as an unpleasant fact, but to me, this seems outrageously low.

I thought I would visit the Fast 800 community and seek answers among you experts and knowledgeable folk. Has anyone else had this experience? Is Mum correct in her belief that she will have to eat so little to maintain her weight loss? My Mum is a very sensible, down-to-earth, no nonsense type of person, I’ve rarely had reason to doubt her before. But surely this isn’t physically possible??

To enable us to help give advice, could you please provide us with a little more information on what your mum is eating.

The key to successfully keeping weight off is to focus on the macros, the grams of carbs, protein and fat in the diet rather than the number of calories. There are people on the forum who have successfully maintained their weight discard for a number of years by keeping carbs low and instead increasing the number of calories from fat.

There is a lot of information on all the research in to how our bodies respond to the different macros on the Take a Look at this thread on the forum, I would suggest starting at the earliest date and working forwards in time. But basically, the key is not calories but the impact the macros on insulin levels. Insulin is like a switch, when your insulin levels are high your body can not access your body fat for food. When low it can.

One of the books that has been very helpful for many members of the forum over the years is Why we get fat and what to do about it. by Gary Taubes. –

I would suggest that perhaps the best way forward would be to do some research on this point yourself and then maybe share links to the articles or copies of the books you have found most informative with your mum.

Hi JGwen, thank you for your response and the book recommendation! I am familiar with Gary Taubes! He’s excellent, I read his book The Diet Delusion many years ago, I will check out Why we get fat, to refresh my memories. Cheers

As for Mum, she’s told me she currently drinks two Optifast shakes a day
https://www.optifast.com.au/shakes/optifast-vlcd-caramel-flavour-shake
Nutrition per shake:
Energy 201 Cal
Protein 20 g
Fat-total 4.5 g
Carbohydrate 18.2 g
– Sugars 10.1 g
Dietary Fibre 3.6 g

And has one of these bars as a snack
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/95994/bounce-keto-salted-caramel-low-carb-bar
Energy Approx. 84 cal
Protein Approx.3.7g
Fat, total Approx.5.5g
– saturated Approx.4g
Carbohydrate Approx.2.1g
– sugars Approx.1.6g
Sodium Approx.18mg

I’m not sure what makes up the remainder of her calories, I only know she has several coffees

Previously she was having all her meals ready-made via a meal delivery service. I think it’s this one:
https://chefgood.com.au/meal-plans/weight-loss-meals/

She is always telling me how many carbs and calories are in her foods, so I think she is mindful of carbs, but I wonder if her reliance on prepared meals is part of the problem. I’m suspicious of nutrition labels as I’ve heard calories being sometimes under or over estimated. She refuses to make her own meals and has been on a meal delivery program since she started Fast 800 a couple years back. I’ll be fighting a losing battle trying to convince her to switch to home cooking (I’ve tried…) I’ve also suggested intermittent fasting, but she said she prefers to eat at the same time and the same amount every day because it’s easier.

I should mention, she blames her weight gain on eating too many nuts (I took this to mean an unusually large quantity, >100g a day). I doubt she was including those calories in her 1000/day estimate.

She’s 5’3″ and on her feet throughout the day (grandkids) though she doesn’t “exercise” per se, since she has a partial disability and a lifelong hatred of exercise

I’ve been giving it some thought today and I think she must be underestimating her calories, or the food labels that she relies on are doing so. I’ve never heard of anyone maintaining on 800 and I simply don’t think it can be possible. Today I read a study on former “the biggest loser” contests that showed their metabolisms took a maximum average 500 calorie hit after finishing filming. So if we take 800 and add 500, we get 1300, meaning her maintenance calories before dieting would have been 1300. It seems on the low side but perhaps not impossible

In any case, I’ve come to realise it will not do any good for me to continue questioning and doubting her on this point. I take your advice on researching myself, and finding what I can suggest to help Mum. Thank you for the point about insulin, I’m going to start off there. Much appreciated

Many of us who have a long history of eating a high carb diet have caused our bodies to develop Insulin Resistance. – Our bodies have have a high background level of insulin and a strong insulin response to carbs. Personally, I have to stick to less than 26g of carbs a day to stay in fat burning mode.

The normal advice is to try to stay under 20g of carbs a day.

I think from the food list you provide, especially if your mum is having milk in her tea and coffee she is probably having many more calories than she realises. – Perhaps working with her to record macros and calories will be a way forward? Does she have a smart phone? Could you set up my fat secret app for her with the meals she often has set up for her?

I don’t know how far away you live, but if you are really worried about her and she will not cook for herself perhaps you could batch book for her and drop the meals in to her freezer. It will probably be far better quality of food and better on price than buying in meals.

I appreciate your concern 100%.

There is anecdotal evidence on the Facebook group that much lower than 800 cals a day you don’t lose weight. Body goes into survival mode. Additionally they do not recommend a 2nd round of the 800 cals either (despite what the book says).

As Jgwen says. Either she is underestimating calories, or carb intake, or both.

I think you’re on the right track also about prepared meals. I just don’t eat anything like that anymore.

Good luck and check back in!

Hi again, I thought I might post a quick update for anyone interested

Mum has now reduced her carbs to around 30g per day, and for the past few days she says the weight has been falling off rapidly! She is elated 🙂 We found a few sources of “hidden carbs” – like her coffee sachets (10g each!) and were able to cut them out.

Previously we think she was eating around 60g carbs(?), and for about 3 weeks of 600 calories per day, no weight loss. So perhaps the carbs were the culprit just as JGwen said. Mum is thinking it has taken her over the ‘carb threshold’ into ketosis.

Over this past week I have realised my Mum expects her weight loss to be perfectly linear and correspond exactly to the number of calories she eats on a day by day basis, and gets frustrated if things aren’t going as she expects, but I tend to think bodies & metabolisms are more complicated than that. After all, many people have reported ‘hitting a plateau’ (which is what I think this was, essentially)

I also feel I should mention, please be warned, best take my figures with a grain of salt. I have begun to notice Mum likes to take a sneaky bit of food here and there, especially when making meals for the kids, and doesn’t count those carbs/calories (Not that I am food police or anything, I honestly never paid attention before, but just mentioning for the sake of accuracy regarding my info above and in the first post)

In any case, Mum is now happy with her progress and I am satisfied with what I’ve learned.
Cheers to all, and best of luck on the 800 journey

Lonoa, dont you know there are no calories in food sneaked from someone elses plate, or when you have your head in the fridge and no-one can see you or, especially broken biscuits – all calorie and carb free 🙂 🙂 🙂

Seriously though, well done on ironing out the crinkles and getting your mum on track. It is not easy and we are not nutritionists and just trying our best.

Hope my little emojies came us as laughing my head off.

Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious!! Scraping down the sides of the peanut butter jar is free too, right? Haha, thanks Sunshine Girl 🙂

Reported sarahayudiainara18 for advertising.