My husband and I got off to a flying start – each losing 3+ kg in the first week, then 1kg in the second. But now we have reached the end of week 3 … and nothing! nada! no weight loss at all!!
Reading the “wow, I’ve lost so much” endorsements makes me feel sad!!
We are certainly not planning on giving up. We are eating really well (yes, keeping to or under 800; yes, checking those carbs and fats; yes, drinking lots of water). We have increased exercise. Can’t work out how come I am eating less and burning more and my weight is not changing!! I so envy those people that talk about massive weight loss!!
Today I was driven to look for answers and so arrived at the website and this forum. It has been helpful reading through the replies and knowing that others have the same frustrations.

Had 3lb weight loss in first week of the diet, however for the first few weeks have horrific headaches
now weight loss is stuck after 6 weeks only lost 7 lb So far, feeling totally depressed having read the book thoroughly not the reults i thought i,d have, due to hip injury i dont get a lot of excercise, can anyone help?

Hi Grandmarob don’t be disheartened, at least not yet anyway. Headaches have many causes but one is dehydration and another is stress s both things together would make life pretty miserable. Reducing carbs means increasing fluids and fats and proteins. If you keep a diary of food intake you will spot where the carbs and sugar are creeping in.. I only count calories and sugar and have lost over 33 lbs in almost 10 weeks. Stick with it, it is a simple formula, exercise is good for you but you would lose weight without exercising much because calories in are being reduced and once your body is triggered into burning body fat you will soar! Most people do…

I am following the diet plan to the letter, because I need to lose a fair bit of weight and Im also pre diabetic . When I was working we used to say a little tongue in cheek prayer when things got difficult ‘Thank you God, for this learning experience’. It is now Day 15 and in the last week I only lost on one day and I gained on one day. But my body shape is changing, my clothes are loose, my belly is shrinking, my blood sugar is normal and I am so much more energetic. Also I used the ketostiks and Im definitely in ketosis (fat burning) so all is good, but my scales – they lie and deceive and undermine !,!! So my learning experience so far – keep the big picture in mind And trust the process. It would be an interesting Phd to assess all the people getting stuck. It is so easy to blame the person, but I would wager that we tend to be older, habitual dieters and our bodies are trained to resist weight loss. Just a theory.
Grateful thanks to all the posters on this thread – at least I know its not just me!

Hi Grandmarob, welcome to the forums! A common cause of headaches, as Skywalker says, is dehydration so if I were you I would check that I was really drinking the 2 – 3 litres of water a day that Michael Mosley says is essential. The other cause – as Skywalker has already said – can be stress! Have you tried the mindfulness techniques that Michael suggests? Your mind will wander and you will need to refocus – but pmshrink says that is normal. Just the doing has a beneficial and calming effect.

I’m quoting Skywalker again here but the fats and low carbs are really important. In the first two weeks I didn’t dare move on to full fat yoghurts ( so brainwashed by all the low fat nonsense) and consequently didn’t feel too good. Full fat Greek yoghurt was a total revelation to me and I now have it most mornings for breakfast – with a sprinkling of ground flax seeds and a few berries.
Professor Taylor says exercise is not necessary when you are on the fast 800 so I really wouldn’t worry about it at the moment. Gentle walking is absolutely adequate and with hip problems I wouldn’t think of anything else until your 8 weeks are over and you get advice from your GP/physio.

Stick with it as you will get results 🙂

Hi Doola, you’re right. Stick with it! Measure your waists, that often tells you more than the scales! Buy some ketostix then you will know if you are fat burning. Lots of us have several days when the scales are stuck but low and behold there is a different, lower figure on the scales one morning!!!
I would check your carbs and fat levels – 50g of carbs or less, make sure some of your 800 calories include some fat at every meal.
Hope you see those results very soon 🙂

Dear All

I’m feeling the frustration! At the end of week 3 and although I have lost 9lb overall this week I didn’t loose a thing! I felt so disappointed but I’m guessing that’s what happens at times. I also haven’t been able to exercise much due to being unwell so that could also have an impact on weight loss? I feel slimmer but so frustrated! On a positive note I love the diet and don’t feel hungry ever! But more importantly am changing my relationship with food so in the long run that will definnately be better for me to maintain a healthy weight, hanging in there seems to be the best option as overall I feel better – not bloated and no IBS!

Hi AnneElizabeth, 9lbs is still a big weight loss!!! Sometimes the scales seem to ‘stick’ a bit and then you get a sudden loss so please don’t be disappointed! professor Roy Taylor and Michael Mosley say it is not necessary to exercise while on the fast 800 so put your mind at rest. You will still lose weight.
Can I suggest buying some ketostix to measure your fat burning – you may find that reassuring 🙂

Hi everyone, I too would love to know what it is about some of us that means we lose weight so slowly compared to others. I was intrigued by Pmshrink’s comment about weight loss being higher the more out of control blood sugars are and Odette saying maybe it’s because we’re older and regular dieters so mote resistant to loss and would make an interesting study.

Shall we try to analyze it ourselves? If those who are struggling to lose weight are happy to post a few details we could maybe narrow it down and provide useful info so newbies aren’t discouraged and feel it’s something they are doing wrong rather than it being normal? Then, if others have similar stats to us but are losing weight sucessfully maybe they could let us know what they are eating/doing so we can make adjustments in the right direction? So, my details:

Female in UK
Age 51
Height 5 ft 3 inch
Not diabetic
Asthma and osteoarthritis (both dramatically improved)
Previously tried Atkins, Dukan, Slimming World
BSD started 17 March 2016
Starting weight 11st 3.4 lbs
Week 1 – lost 4.6 lbs
Week 2 – gained 0.4 lbs
Week 3 – lost 1.4 lbs
Week 4 – no change
Currently in Week 5. Total loss 5.6 lbs

Anyone fancy joining in?
Jules x

Jules, I am very interested in the improvement to your asthma as I have chronic asthma and bronchiectasis. Have you kept peak flow charts? There is a staggering difference between my 2015 chart and the one I started 7 weeks ago when I was reducing my very large doses of inhaled steroids. I know some of the difference will be down to the fact that I have been taking azithromycin since December so I don’t get repeated chest infections now. All of which makes me intrigued about your improvement 🙂
PS I’m 63 and 5’4″

Hi All

I have just started this diet and am hopeful that I will lose my excess weight – nothing else has worked so far – I put weight on after following Slimming World religiously! looking at that diet again though it is based on a lot of carb so not a surprise really I suppose.

Are you all only weighing yourselves? If so try measuring yourself on a weekly basis instead of relying on the scales. If you are doing more exercise your body will be burning fat and be building muscle at the same time. Fat takes up a lot more space than muscle – look at fat versus muscle images on google and you will see what I mean – so if you burn a pound of fat and gain a pound of muscle you will weigh the same but be physically smaller – for me seeing the numbers come down on the tape measure is more motivating and consistent than the numbers on the scales. I also set up a chart of other symptoms/feelings as well such as energy, skin appearance, mood etc and gave them scores, that way if I am feeling better and looking better it will be easier to ignore the scales and concentrate on the positives. Just some thoughts…..

Hi fatwombat, welcome to the forums! Yes, it is certainly a good idea to keep a record of your progress. I keep a food diary in a little exercise book and all my other data on an excel document. I have a separate graph for my peak flow (I’m asthmatic).

I tried WW and SW and did not lose weight, so I know where you are coming from. It is the same for many on these forums. This HAS worked for me – 2 stones and 11 pounds have been kissed goodbye! Captainlynne has lost 46pounds – more than 3 stones. There are so many success stories on here from people who have failed on other diets!

So keep on keeping on and we won’t be able to call you fatwombat, it will have to be sleekwombat!! 🙂

Hi Hashimoto I just typed a long message, pressed back accidentally and lost it, arrrghh! Trying again. Re asthma, I haven’t needed my blue inhaler (Ventolin) once since starting BSD, I used to use it a few times a week. I still use the red inhaler (Symbicort), not because I need it but because I worry that if my asthma returns I will need the protection the build up provides. The way I feel now, I wouldnt know I have asthma! I haven’t kept peak flow records unfortunately, will try to dig one out and measure today. I can find previous records at next asthma review. By coincidence my last asthma review was the day I started the BSD. Nurse didn’t really ask about my asthma, just asked me to switch to a new inhaler which I haven’t done yet as using up old one – glad i didnt niw as might have attributed results to inhaler rather than diet. She was more interested in my last blood results, 3months earlier, which showed high cholesterol and wanted me to take statins. I refused and told her about BSD which I hoped would fix it. She was very interested as lost 2 stone herself on 5:2 so keen to see how I do. Nice to have a health professional interested. Jules x

Hi just do it,
If you want a good peak flow chart can I suggest the one I use? I found it on the internet, it’s a peak flow chart from Australia it is from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. I like it because it is an A4 sheet with an 8 weeks chart. It makes it easy to see what is happening over a period of time. I use different coloured pens for the morning and evening measures for greater visual impact when reading.

I’m pleased your asthma nurse is interested. Mine is too, it makes life easier.

Personally, I discussed with my asthma nurse and GP about reducing my steroid inhaler (from 4 puffs twice a day) and promised to keep the chart to show them. I would be a bit wary of dropping the preventer inhaler without your health team being involved in case you have a sudden asthma attack, especially as symbicort is generally only used for people whose asthma is difficult to control – or unless you also have COPD.

My recent blood test gave me a cholesterol reading of 5.3 so quite happy with that – it has been as high as 8 at times!!! So glad I refused statins as well!

It does sound as if we both are getting benefits with our asthma on this diet. As well as weight loss! 🙂

Hi Doola
Frustrating I know.
You could have a look at Jenny Ruhls book ‘low carb problems solved’ (£3 on kindle) it might help.
She has another more technical book – ‘diet 101’ in which she says the more out of control your blood sugars are the more of a big effect you ll get from low carb. My BS were ok so I think that’s why it’s slow for me.
I found really monitoring my carbs and trying to stay around 25-35g plus upping my fat, and having some intermittent fasting – which just means having no breakfast- helped me.
Penny

Hi Granmarob
It’s so frustrating isn’t it.
Have a look at Jenny Ruhls book ‘low carb problems solved’ that might help.
She also says in another of her books (diet 101) that the more out of control your blood sugar is the bigger effect a low carb diet has, which is why I’ve been very slow as my BS was ok.
What I did was really monitor my carbs keeping to 25-35g per day, upped my fats, and I do ‘intermittent fasting’ which really is just not having breakfast.
Dont despair, hope things get better for you
Penny

Hi Odette
Someone posted that as your fat cells empty they fill with water which can cause stalling – I don’t know if it’s true.
Have a look at Jenny Ruhls book if you haven’t ‘low carb problems solved’- it might help.
Penny

Hi fatwombat,
Welcome on board. I measure everything I can :-). I took weight, a range of tape measurements, cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, blood pressure, BMI, plus a few other metrics that my scales provided! I also put them into a spreadsheet and made graphs from them.
Initially I recorded my weight every day and FBS (I was not diabetic, but getting close to being prediabetic). Tape measure was twice a week. I only did cholesterol once as it was normal, will do another test soon to ensure no changes with the full-fat diet and BP stopped after a week or so. I now record all weight tape measurement, FBS once a week, although I step on the scales daily.
I added in fat burning about 10 days ago – ketostix, which I have been doing daily – and the last few days 2-3 times a day as I have been exercising a lot more and wanted to see the results of that. I now know I am in fat burning mode!
The BMI I used to set goals – under 30, under 25 etc. and calculated the range of weight-loss I should expect weekly if I were to lose between the range of 10-20%. It also helped set expectations as not everyone will be losing the 20%+.
I also have daily records for calories and grams fat, protein, carbs if I ever should need to compare that to anything else! Seriously – that is the one thing that must be recorded daily so you keep to the calories and carbs! Carbs are sneaky things and get into all sorts of places!
It has been fun getting to know how my body works and what things make changes where!
Having said – the thing that I got the biggest kick from and still do, was finding I was a dress size down, then two dress sizes down!
Enjoy the journey.

Yes that is interesting. My blood sugar is fine but my weight is not hence why I am doing this. I have also been eating mindfully for a long time so as a friend pointed out this isn’t that dramatic change for me whereas it is a radical overhaul of some peoples diet so of course they will see better results. Also interesting about your body needing a month to get with the programme. I am ramping up the exercise with minimum 5 km jogs a day, lots of water so something has to shift soon. Tomorrow is day 2 of week 3 for me and I am looking for a whoosh! May the scales be kind to all of us this week! Or perhaps us kind to the scales this week..

Hi Orchid, both mine and Bill’s cholesterol was lower on this diet!!! Always nice to check for your data collection though 🙂

Hi Orchid
I love all your weighing and measuring.
You certainly know what’s going on with your body, it’s great.
Penny

Hi Lucyjane
Yes I was also just on 1200 cals before, using MFP. Lost a stone in a year. Now another stone in 8 weeks.
That’s a major benefit, but perhaps more so is sleeping better, not hungry all the time, feeling in control, and getting a waist!
MM does say that excercise is not a major factor in weight loss but is a major factor in keeping it off.
I think the 10,000 steps is an attempt to get us off our backsides ! And standard advice which is doable for most. But one poster on here had injured a knee and couldn’t walk and still had spectacular weight loss. Which is reassuring!
I just had a 2 and a 1/2lb overnight loss after 10 days of plateau. I had had a semi fast day yesterday plus drank herb tea that helps with water retention. ( hawthorn tea) No idea if this is why.
Best of luck
Penny

Ok anoth kilo down this morning for a total of four kilos in two weeks 1 day….now for the next two weeks!