Just starting out….
Firstly has anyone done 800 on most days but normal healthy just a couple of days a week (kind of reverse 5:2)
And also if you exercise can you eat more calories?
Thanks!

Hey,

On the exercise front:

Firstly you should know I came to the BSD in full health with no diabetes problems. Also, I was about 18kg over my ideal weight.

I was training for a 1/2 marathon when my partner suggested we to the BSD800. So I was doing long runs and I also do a fitness boot camp twice a week. The only extra calories I took on was an extra pint of semi-skimmed milk post exercise for the muscle repair. So only 250 calories. This was a big change for me as I’ve spent years kidding myself that exercise allows me to eat loads more.

I often ran 6 miles home from work at 5:30pm when I hadn’t eaten since 12pm and at that stage in the day would have only had about 400cal total. Its weird running on empty at first as I was so used to always having a banana or something before I went out. The key is hydration and salt. I started putting 1/8 tsp of salt in 500ml water to carry with me. (Micheal Mosely made a cheap homemade energy drink on his show which was basically this and a bit of squash. So I cut the squash) It does taste like taking in sea water though! Be careful though and keep an eye on yourself. I am not a doctor!

As for the other question. I can see the need to not do 800 every day but I would recommend against it. It’s bloody hard, but you get used to it. I can’t imagine I would have gotten used to it if I eat all round me at the weekend. However, if you do go down that road, I would say up the calories but stick to the same types of food. The type of food on this diet is as important as the low calories. Having any sugar or carbs or booze once a week would be just a recipe for cravings all week.

Oh and good luck!

Oh and good luck!

I did this for a month, prior to doing the 8 weeks at 800 as a way of transitioning pretty painlessly from 5:2. I started on 5:2, then 4:3 with alternate fast days during the week, then all fast days during the week on 2:5. I lost weight fairly smoothly on all of them, but faster of course on the more extreme fasting regimes. I had a huge amount to lose though so was prepared to kind of ‘train my brain’ into finding fasting easy. It seems to have worked for me but I know I am a bit unusual in this approach.