Hi everyone. I’m hoping for some inspirational, motivational support today. I weighed myself 2 saturdays ago prior to embarking on a lifestyle change(fast 800 combined with a Mediterranean style diet) I decided to hit this hard and and fast having one meal a day around 6.30-7pm when returned from work between 5 and 6 days a week. Allowing a Saturday or Sunday as more relaxed free days. I’ve been careful with what I’ve included in my one meal. Opting for salads such as cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, spinach. Veggies such as bell peppers, courgette, onion, mushroom. Avocado, eggs, smoked salmon and chicken and nuts for my protein as well as extra virgin olive oil and Greek yoghurt. I always have a low fat zero sugar bio fruit yoghurt to end my meal just to stave off the sweet tooth ! I’m drinking water throughout the day and black tea and coffee early morning and evening. This is my second week and having jumped on the scales this morning, I’ve lost a total of 1lb 😩 I have to say I had a little cry stood there on the scales of doom. I’m 49, soon to be 50 and a menopausal emotional wreck. I never had to worry about my weight before and always stayed around 8-9stone Mark at my 5ft2” height. Over the last 5 years I’ve put on over 3 stone and it’s mostly collected around my middle. I lead quite an active lifestyle being a nursery room manager 5 days a week from 7.30-6.00 I rarely get to sit down! The weekend is usually a lie in and first meal around 3-4pm. I will have alcohol, (not to excess) a pub meal in the evening and not restrict what I choose off the menu. I’m being super restrictive Monday to Friday, the only thing I can think I’m doing wrong is maybe dairy? I have a salad/ dip I make using fat free Greek yoghurt and a few teaspoons of full fat mayo. I doubt very much that I’m reaching 800 calories a day as my meals mainly consist of veg, salads and lean healthy proteins. Where am I going wrong? I expected to see at least 4/5 Ilbs off in the first couple of weeks. I know it slows and can plateau after a few weeks in but 1lb is ridiculous surely after such a deficit in calories / expenditure??? HELP!

Hello Mel. Do not despair! You have come to the right place for education and inspiration! There are others who are vastly more experienced than me, but as a newbie initial thoughts I would volunteer: are you counting carbs? I was so surprised to learn that onions and tomatoes pack a whole load for example. And for many it is carbs that count – and deficit in calories/expenditure is not the key (in fact possibly rather debunked). Also, low fat yog – a no no because of sugar (maybe a few berries would fend off cravings?) Also (and I know to my own cost!) alcohol does not help – and beer has been recently described on here by Alliecat, who you will see is one of the very experienced and helpful to newcomers posters, as “liquid bread”. And a “pub meal” might hide a lot! Maybe two meals a day, counting carbs etc and keeping an eye on protein as well, might suit you better to start with? No one should be crying when they step on the scales, so please stay on here and look out for guidance and support! this does and will work for you! Also, did you take measurements when you started? these can definitely change (for the better) with no movement on the scales and show your body is responding.

Hi,
Many of us have found the secret to success is to focus on the impact what we are eating has on our insulin levels. – The scientific reason for the success of the BSD is that if we eat carbs, or other products which raise insulin levels, then our body can not access our fat stores as an alternative source of fuel. –
I would suggest making 3 changes. 1. Use an app on a smart phone, or notepad and pen and record all you eat, with the break down of carbs, protein and fat. The aim is low carb, moderate protein. (The normal recommended level is 0.6g to 0.8g per kilo of TARGET weight) and make the rest of the calories up from healthy fat. – Some people find that they can loose fat at 50g of carbs, while others need to drop down to 20g.
The second thing is to avoid using low fat products, and products with artificial sweeteners. With low fat products tend to be high sugar. – Also when the body tastes something which is sweet it raises insulin levels in preparation for dealing with the sugar it expects. – So artificial sweeteners have an effect on insulin level.
Finally, don’t only rely on the scales to measure success, also use the tape measure. Sometimes our bodies start to heal, so bone density and muscle strength improves at the same time as fat loss. – So the scales stay the same or weight is gained while inches reduce.
Hope these tips help, stick with it , it does work and there are plenty of us here to put out a helping hand if you need it.

Hi, I’m new to this diet myself so no expert, but I was surprised myself how many hidden carbs in my favrouite veg, onions, tomatoes etc. I’m a techno-phobe but the app has helped me massively to keep track of calories and carbs, I think without it I would be way of mark. Pub food even healthy options can hide serious amount of stuff, I know years ago McDonald’s did a salad and the dressing had same amount of calories as one of their burgers, so I would always steer clear of any dressings. Fruits can be a problem too, apples send my blood sugar through the roof. Also water are you drinking enough, your body can hold onto a lot if it’s not getting enough. I hope you find your key to this diet and hope I’m not coming across patronising, this forum has helped me so much.

Hello Mel and pls have a big hug.

I am peri-menopausal and it is an utter misery – I know when my hormones are in play, what I eat and how my body reacts can be all over the show. I can also puff up overnight. For example, I did my checkin yesterday – measures and weight all headng in the right direction as it has done for the last few weeks (yeah!), get up this morning, can barely get my ring on my finger. I suspect if I had got on the scales / done my measures, there would have been a snotty blub.

As people have said above, recording what you are eating and the macro components is quite the eye-opener. This definitely got me in the weight loss zone – clearly I had no idea what portions weighed. Once I started weighing and logging, I knew exactly what was going on, especially with carbs (target being 50g for me).

Also, recording your activity levels confirms what they really mean in the context of what you are eating – my walking doubled once I started recording it.

Having a decent level of fat (EVOO is my go to being a non-meat eater) in all meals is helpful too I think – not only is it filling, its great for any inflammation going on in the body.

Stick with it Mel – your body will sort itself out !

Hello again Mel. I am bumping up your post so Allie sees it and can add. Re-reading your post, I think v severe restricting Mon to Fri and then eating out off the menu without restricting at weekends is what is really holding you back. Like small children, our bodies need consistency! There is no way that once you get into the swing of this you will feel hard done by in the food department. Do stay with us!

Thank you, six turkeys. Mel, my instincts agree with her. Usually, going to OMAD (one meal a day) is something only
a few can accomplish right out of the gate, and takes months to accomplish. Subconsciously, restricting yourself in
this way could easily give way to weekend “rewards” that can reverse all the good work that you’ve done for the past
5-6 days. Being an American, I’m not well acquainted with pub food, but what my friends here tell me, it is quite carb
loaded, mash and chips, etc. As we say often here, this is a marathon and not a sprint, and there is a learning curve
that we must all go through to determine what works best for us. Unfortunately, allowing carbs in even 1 day a week
in the form of alcohol can erase all the previous good work (Boo!) We will be here to help you establish a good
balance. The first effort is only 8 weeks, and then you can evaluate your progress and decide where you might be
on the insulin resistance scale, and adjust your carbs to suit the way your very individual body reacts to them. It’s
one big adventure, and if you’re able to see it in that light, you can’t possibly fail to achieve a great result 🙂 It truly
works, and we want this for each of you! Best,

Allie

Hi all. Thank you so much for the reply’s to my previous despairing post. I can report I have now lost around 8lbs although I’m not strictly relying on my ( completely useless )scales that basically give a different reading every time I stand on the things!
My waist line has certainly shrunk and my wife has noticed this as well as myself. I’m still with it and have ‘upped the ante’ by doing an hour long swim 3-4 evenings a week. I’ve upped my endurance by 50 x 25 metre lengths of the pool each session already and feeling really proud of myself. I’m sleeping better too which is a big bonus as this is something I have always struggled with especially recently having hit the menopause head on.
I must say tho, I’ve been particularly strict with my diet over these weeks and still think that this menopause state has a lot to do with the stalled rate at which i have had a slow start. There was a time when I could kick back on a few carbs and the weight would drop away within a couple of weeks. I’ve never had to worry about my weight until around 6 years ago and my metabolism seems to have changed drastically. I have a job that is a lot more physical than I ever had and theoretically I should be burning a greater amount of calories nowadays. I would love Dr Mosley to do a study/research on the the impact the menopause has on the body and how we can combat this with diet in a similar way to how the blood sugar diet has reversed the pre diabetes state. I would for one find it interesting. I was ignorant to the whole menopause phase and thought it to be a bit of a myth that consisted of a bit of occasional overheating and a whole lot of fuss about nothing! Well didn’t I get my comeuppance! I’ve never moaned about anything so much in my life and I’m normally a ‘ put up n shut up’ kind of a girl! It ain’t fun and it ain’t pretty 😩
Well if any ladies in the same predicament would like to share their experiences and interestingly if they have had similar experiences regarding weight and losing said weight, I’d be an interested and supporting ear.
Thank you again for the kind replies. It really does make that difference between sticking with it or throwing in the towel and heading to the nearest ‘ popular fast food burger establishment ‘ . Lotsa love from menopausal Mel 🤪xx

As it happens I came across an article about this topic which posted a link to on the weekly thread yesterday morning. Hope it helps.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/top-tips-lose-weight-low-carb-women-40?fbclid=IwAR2lBZNPoFa7uz5rKHtaqh0O8mxOoE5cFZymie7Li1HnN_iHMcmYaD80pWY

Thanks for the article JGWen. I thought it was very interesting – not just for post-menopausal, but for general problems with stalling or slow weight loss. Did you see that their protein calculation related to actual rather than target weight? “the general advice from our group of experts is to eat between 0.5 to 1.5 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. A 70 kg (154 lbs) woman would therefore eat no more than 105 g of protein per day, and perhaps significantly less.”?

Yes I did see that difference, its quite a wide range in this article, there are so many different recommendations on different sites for protein. – I suspect from the wording that these figures may be the recommendations for both men and woman and its usual to see the recommendation for men to be higher.
What I have also seen recently is advice to test your blood sugar levels when eating keto after eating protein and if the blood sugar levels go up you are eating too much protein.
One of the issues with protein levels again will be the amount of weight you want to loose and if you are including time restricted eating. If you have a lot of weight to loose then you will want to engage autophagy for your body to break down the loose skin which is a process switched off by eating protein.

This is a very helpfyl article, JGwen, thanks for posting it. It seems to validate a lot of the recommendations we
discuss here on a routine basis, and it’s eminently readable and easily understood. Just to add another data point
for you, 102g of protein from roasted pork tenderloin (for example) would be 635cal of our 800/day on the Fast800.
That certainly would be out of whack with the BSD, which is built on the premise of low carb, moderate protein, and
high healthy fat! When I was doing my own research almost 3 years ago, I found this data with respect to a restricted
calorie diet: #1 The average woman doesn’t require more than 50-60g of protein a day to maintain muscle mass. #2
I settled upon this formula to calculate daily requirements: ,5-1.5g of protein for every kg of ideal body weight.
I chose 1g for myself, did the calculation, and that turned out to be 62g. I interpreted that not to mean that I had
to eat this much, but saw it as a “not to exceed” quantity. Since this fit comfortably into the paradigm of 50-60g.,
I was comfortable with that. What you have to say about the use of a breathilizer is probably the most accurate way
of charting individual responses, and perhaps I would have considered it if I experienced weight loss stalls along the way.
I realize I was the exception, and could count on a dependable 3.0-3.5lbs lost per week, so I never investigated it
further. There are a lot of other variables of course, such as building muscle for a higher metabolic rate, maintaining
strong bones, etc., to name but a few. We’re so fortunate to have you here to uncover all the research, and keep
all the balls in the air! You’re an expert at it, so I generally leave that to you, which you of course already know! 🙂

Wow! There is so much to learn regarding correct approach to the diet. I will try and do some calculations based on my current weight and what quantity and ratio I need to be eating per day. I was hoping it was simpler and a case of restricting to one meal a day ( which I have to say, I’ve found incredibly easy to sustain without any side effects whatsoever) and of course being mindful to the calorie content and quality trying to stick to 800 calories and mostly under and mainly a chicken, salmon spinach eggs and med type salads and vegetables. I don’t want to be the ‘Diet bore’ on weekends but am still very mindful of what I’m ordering and have ditched alcohol in favour of mineral water and zero coke. It’s got to be something that allows the occasional treat tho. Life is too short and food should be a pleasurable and sociable occasion especially at weekends when it’s ‘down time’ ! I want to get that perfect Balance where I can literally ‘ have my cake and eat it’ I guess 🤔😊 But don’t we all eh! Is this achievable I wonder????

Hiya Mel, old timers on this forum will know exactly what I’m about to say because it’s a bit of a refrain of mine, but I can’t help myself. All kinds of foods are pleasurable. Why should sweets, pasta or bread be given a privileged status over smoked salmon or a spinach salad with a tangy blue cheese dressing or deviled eggs with kimchi or a filet mignon with green beans almondine? There’s nothing inherent in cake that makes it “better” than anything else flavor-wise, and its main ingredients are the direct cause of a global pandemic of diabesity so it is very distinctly WORSE by any other possible metric.

Embracing this way of life is so much more mental than anything else. I truly believe that thinking wistfully about certain foods as if they were this wonderful glittering gold treasure instead of a destructive force that puts your body under incalculable stress is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving your health and weight loss goals. You’ve been extremely successful already with time restricted eating. You attacked it head-on and look how quickly one meal a day has become easy for you. A few years ago I’m sure you would have blanched at the thought of not eating three squares plus snacks. Do not underestimate yourself. Do not flinch. Do not avoid. Get out your kitchen scales, weigh, measure and count. Find out what you’re really eating and discard the elements that are too high in carbs. You can do it.

Esnecca , thank you.
You are so right. And your words are very wise and ring true. I initially embarked on the 5:2 diet several years ago after watching the televised documentary. It all made so much sense and really resonated with what I’d previously thought about fasting. I’d read about a theory on a study of concentration victims from the Second World War and how the survivors seemed to have had increased life spans and a decrease in many of the usual age related diseases even tho their bodies had endured such extreme conditions including near
starvation. This theory talked about how the body almost went into a hibernation state, repairing itself and strengthening its ability to repair. I’d seen a few relatives taken far too early from cancer and my goal was to increase my resistance to illness and prolong a healthy existence for as long as possible.
You are so right. It is a mindset change that needs to happen. A total rethink about how we see food, how we judge it in terms of its real worth. It’s almost like retraining the taste buds, the sense of smell, as well as re programming the brain that has been previously programmed by marketing. Every other ad on tv or media is an ad to sell junk food. We’ve been drip fed this since birth. It’s mass brainwashing we as a society have become normalised to. It’s become a way of life and sadly it will only get worse as it’s quite simply ‘Big Business’.
I’m so grateful for the inspiration I get from these posts and it certainly gives me ‘food for thought’. It’s a long road as the brain is a complex machine and I’ve got almost 50 years of junk (food) data to delete 🤪 I will tho as I’m in it as a life change and not just for weight
loss. Hopefully that will just be one of the many beneficial side effects. 👍👍
and

I had the TV on for background noise the other day and they were rerunning a series on BBC2 where they followed a family who were being taken through the food/eating habits from the 1950’s onwards. – It really struck me when they were covering 1961/ 1962. Those where the years where breakfast cereals were first released and mass produced long life soft white bread. Even the presenter picked up on how the high sugar element of breakfast cereals was addictive and the children were hungry for a second serving very quickly.

Oh Essie you are so right. This is what I meant when I mentioned ‘ epiphanies the other day. I read somewhere that it takes 3 months to change a habit . I am at 7 months down the line and htere is NO going back .

Mel, it is truly a conspiracy, a massive shift in the Western diet bought and paid for by the sugar industry at every possible level from scientific research to government policy to advertising. Little wonder we’ve been so effectively lured into the fantasy that equates sweetness with happiness, warmth, comfort, pleasure, reward, victory, even good sex. To fight against this constant barrage requires acts of deliberate and mindful will. OH and I have gone so far as to change our endearments for each other. He calls me “Salty” instead of “Sweetie” and I call him “Treasure” instead of “Honeybun.”

I can assure you from personal experience that your palate will change and it will be such a joyous experience to discover all the new flavors. Things that used to make you shudder will suddenly taste like a burst of sunshine. I’m around people who eat bagels and bread and pasta and cake all the time and it never bothers me. I love how I eat now and can carry on whole conversations about things I used to love without feeling deprived or melancholic about it being behind me.

There’s so much more to look forward to in this journey you’re on than there is to mourn. This is a great change you’re making for your life and health. Congratulations!

JGwen, in Gary Taubes’ eye-opening book “The Case Against Sugar”, he writes that one of the advertising executives who modeled the 1970s campaign of General Mills’ high-sugar Baron von Redberry cereal on beloved childrens’ comic icon Snoopy fighting the Red Baron was asked if he let his children eat the product he flogged and he replied that he never did because “you need an insulin shot if you eat a bowl of that.”

First 10 ingredients listed of Baron von Redberry cereal: sugar, oat flour, degermed yellow corn meal, wheat, corn starch, dextrose, corn syrup, salt, gelatin, coconut, peanut oils, calcium carbonate. The rest is more chemical preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and the vitamins they crammed in so they could loudly broadcast to moms that their kids were getting 100% of the RDA of Vitamin D in every diabetes-inducing bowl. They didn’t break down nutritional info in as much detail back then so there are no sugar stats I could find, but 1 oz of this product had 35 grams of carbs, which judging from the ingredients was practically all sugar.

Not one step backwards, wendleg! 🙂

Don’t forget the grain lobby, E. Those are the main culprits, and of course corn syrup in EVERYTHING this side of the
Atlantic!

No fear Essie. My mind is very definitely set . I feel enraged at the way we have been misled and manipulated for so long. It is very much an essential mental shift and as you say to not mourn ‘treats’ in the form of sugar is the ultimate victory over the sugar drug barons.

How are you doing Mel ?

Grain, particularly corn, is huge, but they were latecomers to the game. The sugar lobby is almost entirely responsible for the sharp shift in health policy away from sugar as the cause of metabolic syndrome to dietary fat. I know you’re a big fan of Taubes’ work, Allie. You have to add “The Case Against Sugar” to your library if you haven’t yet. It’s unreal.

I will look at the Middletown Library site, Essie, and reserve Taubes book. Thank you for reminding me of it’s existence!
Post WW2 is when we experienced the cereal explosion in the U.S., you’re right. Grandparents and parents weren’t
raised on that junk! Or snacking either, for that matter. You know who is still wedded to his CHEERIOS, and it drives
me wild!

Hi, wendleg. I’m feeling inspired and motivated right now. I’m feeling a sense of having control. The first time in a long time. I feel I’ve finally taken some power back over my physical being. Sounds weird maybe but I think I have spent the last few years being seduced by every fast food outlet, supermarket bakery isle and grab and go counter to feed my addiction.
I’m saving £25 a week alone on what was my lunch brake ‘grab n go’ sandwich, sausage roll, snickers bar, crisps and juice. Now it’s a black coffee and a top up of the water bottle. Before it would be home after work to a massive plate of chilli con carne, rice, cheese and nachos. Now it’s stopping outside the house to pick up my wife en route to the pool for an hour swim. I’m eating once s day, usually when we get back home from the pool around 7.30 pm. I’m finding the once a day eating really easy however I’ve started having a few walnuts or boiled egg before swimming as I’ve had the occasional lightheaded feeling. My job is quite active so I think I need a little something to keep me going at around 5.30pm
I read in a post by JGwen, something about autophagy ? I know a little about this and how fasting for prolonged periods can switch this on and help with decreasing loose skin formation in weight loss. JGwen mentions this process is switched off by protein? Does this mean all protein or is there a limit I should be having to keep autophagy switched on ?
I must admit I’m not a big fan of meat and prefer to get my protein from nuts, eggs, salmon and tofu. What does a typical days diet consist of for you Wendleg ? Do you recommend any cook books?

Hi MenopausalMel,
It is great how the feeling of being in control on eating habits starts to ripple through the rest of your life isn’t it.
You asked about autophagy and protein intake. – This is an area of science which is very new and there is no clear answer on the best way to harness it. They know that it starts after about 12 hours of water only fasting, and the rates build up to the maximum after 3 days. They know that mTor is the hormone which controls it in the same way that Insulin acts as the switch between fat burning and fat storing.
On the one hand you have Dr Fung, with his practical experience of supporting many people to loose weight and heal using fasting who recommends water and black coffee only fasting if you want to be certain to switch on autophagy.
On the other hand you have Professor Longo who is researching autophagy and earns money by selling very expensive special diet packs, and running catering courses who is strongly opposed to fasting, but has written a book called the fasting mimicking diet which includes an eating plan for a 5 day program that he recommends you follow for a maximum of once a month. If you search for fasting mimicking diet online you will find different websites with descriptions of it.
My take on it is if you have a small amount of weight to loose then you don’t have to worry too much about autophagy. But when you get into the 100lb plus bracket there is a risk of loose skin which can be prevented or reversed by autophagy. –
My decision is that because I think I am still Insulin Resistant, its better for me to go with Dr Fungs protocol because that means that I am keeping Insulin low and engaging autophagy. But when I get to maintenance I will follow the fasting mimicking diet each month especially if I have any loose skin to resolve.

Hi JGwen ok I know I am going to have loose skin and I am dreading it! Have I got this straight I need to fast for up to three days to stop this from happening? Also where does the protein come into it. Sorry I can’t quite get my head around this one.💞🦜

Isn’t the body an amazing thing! We seem to have been fighting against it fir so many decades but it never gives up on us and a few simple changes can put it back into repair and optimum health. My theory is we need to go back to basics. Put into our bodies what we were designed to! Scrap all things processed, artificial and therefore toxic to the system.
I can’t tell you how much inspiration I get from all of you. I’m just a beginner to all of this but it all makes so much sense. It’s as if my eyes are suddenly opened again! Thank you all for your advice. I started out on a mission to lose weight. Im on a different path now. It’s all about optimum health and longevity for me. I initially wanted to lose a couple of stone ( 28 lb )
Not a lot really, however being 5ft2” and always around the 8stone mark, I never worried about my weight until around 46 when I could no longer get away with the intermittent junk food I was consuming. The menopause had kicked in and I was starting to pay the price of not looking after myself. The tiredness, lack of energy and motivation and a cycle of depression and over eating to ‘ make myself feel better’ . I didn’t know how to break the cycle. Everything has changed now. I feel positive about the future, even looking forward to my upcoming 50th in September!! All down to a different outlook on life and how I treat myself. The bathroom scales are gone! I threw them out ! I don’t need them to tell me I’m getting fitter. I can see this and so can others and that’s good enough for me!

Has anyone noticed an improvement in how their skin looks? Mine has never looked better!
What is everyone’s usual daily menu? I’m wanting to try new things and not get into a rut of having the same thing every week. Have you guys got any delicious recipes you could share?
Happy Saturday all 😊💃💃

Having said yesterday that to avoid the heat I would try to be up and doing early, I was true to my word, woke up naturally at 5am….I have mentioned before that following Duckie’s example (it will be good to hear how her NZ cruise went) I have been clearing cupboards/piles of stuff in random corners etc, and now have such a tidy house, it feels slightly odd… No more OMG, where do I start, now it is ten minutes, sparkling bathroom, ditto kitchen, and my sitting room is like a “Sundays’ only front parlour” in its neatness. Sadly, what I thought was a mini whoosh corresponding with going slightly off plan turns out to have been a mini whoosh corresponding with a subsequent equal (if not 1lb or so more…) gain. Now we have a new end date for current road trip, I want to try and recapture the novelty feeling of the first couple of months and discard my remaining turkeys. In my sortings, I found a really (ie 25 years) old “diet” book which I had followed then…I had noted starting weight of 8st5…..I am not aiming to discard a full 5 stone to get back to that but want to lose remaining turkeys and maybe throw in a large broiler for good measure. Birdy, three days is a long time, can you build up slowly? You are so enthusiastic. I wonder whether loose skin is also a function of age and some people just have more natural “elastic” than others….

Hi Birdy
It’s been a while since I’ve read/listened to the stuff on fasting but my recollection is that Jason Fung advises different types of fast and different lengths depending on what you want to achieve e.g. weight loss, reversal of diabetes and/ or autophagy. For autophagy he advises water-only (and maybe black coffee, I don’t remember that bit) and longer fasts. I think the protein comes in as some of the other fasts he recommends you can have things like bone broth during the fast to help, which will contain some protein. But if you are fasting specifically for autophagy, he advises you shouldn’t have that as even the small amount of protein that contains may well stop autophagy from being switched on.
Jennie xx

JGwen is probably full of busy right now, but I’m sure she’ll be along later. JGwen – how did I do?

Mel – yes, it’s one of the great pleasures for me with this way of eating. My skin was never brilliant but now it’s glowing. Isn’t it great!

Birdy, just to add – Megan Ramos, who is Jason Fung’s partner at IDM (Intensive Dietary Management), says she advises her patients to build up slowly to doing longer fasts – same as sixturkeys and wendleg are saying xx

Btw, a good book to get on fasting is Jason Fung’s A Complete Guide to Fasting’. On his Obesity Code website there used to be a Q&A podcast on fasting, but now you can only access it through twitter (unless it’s just my computer?).

sixturkeys – oh, how I wish I had a tidy house.

Enjoy the weekend everyone – it’s glorious sunshine here!

Oh Mel you are in the right place here and I love the way you are embracing this as a total rehaul of your way of eating. It will transform your life and you will not regret it. I am 60 and also decided I needed to focus on my health and stop constantly chomping. I weighed in at 16 stone last September but that was not my heaviest I reckon. I had tried all sorts of weight loss strategies but nothing worked long term as I was not prepared to make the necessary long term ‘ sacrifices’. I totally endorse what you say about regaining power and control.It’s exactly that . Food is food and we can make the right nutritional choices to feel well. I bang on about carb/sugar addiction all the time but we can beat it .

Just a thought , you are not defined by being menopausal .It’s a challenging time but I kept myself in denial for so long convincing myself that I couldn’t lose weight in my menopausal state and resigning myself to being fat and unhealthy. I had a hip replacement and pelvic floor surgery ( probably linked to the weight gain and hormonal issues I accept ) but I have lost nearly 4 stone and so it’s possible !!! You are approaching 50 and you are going to feel FABULOUS !!!
You are holding down an active job, and have a a disabled child to look after ( how is he ? ) I’d like to call you MagicMel !!

I get a bit obsessive and just load my Kindle with anything I can get my hands on about nutrition. Lots of book recommendations on the forum ( Jason Fung, Gary Taubes) and there are also lots of videos and podcasts.Check out the http://www.dietdoctor.com website.
There are lots of recipes on there too. O/H cooks a lot for me as he is retired but we keep it fairly simple in the week. Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, veg frittata, roasted asparagus with egg and avocado in a salad , prawn stirfry …baked fish and green veg….
Full fat Greek yogurt from Lidl with chia seeds and a few berries, maybe . Vey dark choc with my black coffee and I adore green tea.
Jamie Oliver’s 5 ingredients book (Quick and Simple) has some interesting low carb recipes too.
Essie and Allie are the GURUS (long term maintainers after spectacular weight discard) for advice. Keep reading Essie’s post on sugar and treats .It says it all so eloquently. Their recipes are so elegant too.
I don’ t do any ‘faux’ low carb cooking , low carb breads, muffins etc as I don’t need them. It’s about beating the carb/sugar addiction not finding substitutes, in my opinion.
My latest acquisition is a second hand copy of The Ketogenic Kitchen by Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly which focuses on low carb keto for long term optimal health ( both women recently beat cancer)
I regularly build a period of fasting in my week .OMAD most working days and some 36h and longer fasts but it doesn’t work for everyone. I haven’t got masses of loose skin but I can’t say I am toned !!

I love your enthusiasm and determination. Stay with us …maybe joining the Weekly thread( One Week at a Time so you can engage with us all there too ?)
Hope that has helped a bit . Is your wife on board with you too ?

Thank You Jennie I have just ordered Dr Fungs book from book depository for under £15 and free delivery😉. I look forward to reading it and getting a better handle on my fasting. I think you did amazingly thank you for your advice Jennie. I am now going to drink black coffee for a while and forgo the cream. As much as I love it I need that little extra push. 💞🦜

Six turkeys sorry for your gain but I am sure it will soon go. Congratulations on your house I wish I could get into doing mine. In fact my O/H is of out on his motorbike so I am going to fling the windows open in our bedroom blast some music and get stuck in🤣. I am building my fasts up slowly don’t worry but thank you for the advice. I mostly only have two meals a day lunch and dinner as I find fasting in the morning really easy and with the sleep it is a fair amount of hours between dinner and lunch🤣. Like I said also need my O/H out of the way as even though he is very supportive he eats what he likes when he likes🙄😉🤣. I bought two Easter eggs today, one for my son and for the O/H he bought me a most lovely vintage mature English cheddar for me to have a nibble of when I feel the need. I will count it in my macros though when I do. Your balcony sounds fab and I am so glad you are back on here six turkeys 💞🦜

Birdy, I think you joined just before WoodDuckie (who is in Aus, I think North of Sydney – far enough away from the local funnel webs…) went on her cruise to NZ, so don’t know how many of her posts you will have seen, but it is uncanny, she is also into blasting out music and also very enthusiastic – you will find a true kindred spirit when she is back on! She will get us all back into pom pom practice…..Allie has the balcony, I have the tiny London courtyard, already very warm out there! Enjoy your cheddar (and the sparkling water!)

Thank you 6T I will look out for her. Sorry about the confusion on balcony so many posts and people it is easy to get it muddled🤣. My O/H used to live in Fulham he had sole use of his garden being the basement flat but it never got used to it’s full potential. We now have a massive 175ft garden and it is blooming at the moment. Not from us but from the previous owners. We have raspberry bushes a conference pear tree, plums and three different varieties of apple tree. We are very lucky. I will need to give them extra watering this summer because last summer because it was so hot and dry they did not yield well. 💞🦜

My skin looks better than it has since adolescence. Small pores, pink cheeks, even the pimple I get on my chin like clockwork when I get my period is small, hard to see and disappears in 48 hours. I used to get full-on breakouts which is no fun when you’re in your 40s.

Regarding loose skin, I have a lot of it, as is to be expected when you lose 200+lb at my age. I do notice that an extended fast sort of sucks it in a little, but that may be wishful thinking. 😉

Morning all my skin has improved too, my pores around my nose have shrunk and my blackheads that covered my nose have gone too! It is amazing as although my blackheads were not big I could see them! My skin was dry for a couple of days but I upped my amazing of Nivea soft and now it feels amazing. 💞🦜

Hi Jenny, you did very well indeed in describing autophagy and fasting to Birdy.

Birdy, autophagy is a body control system that has only recently been discovered, but it appears to have a lot of benefits in treating disease and having a long and healthy life so there is going to be a lot of research carried out. – The best way to describe it is as a recycling process, breaking down cells which are not at their most efficient and reusing the materials to form new healthy cells. A process which helps get rid of excess skin. At present its not clear what level of protein causes the body to switch off autophagy and use the ingredients from the diet to build new cells. It appears that autophagy starts about 12 hours of fasting, the rate increases as the length of fast increases until its at its maximum rate after 3 days.
There are two different sets of advice on harnessing autophagy. Dr Fung has practical experience with many people who were morbidly obese, but has never sent anyone for surgery to remove loose skin, and his site repeatedly emphasises that in their experience the best pattern is 36 or 42 hour fasts x 3 times a week. – The other opinion is Prof Longo, who promotes the idea of a fasting mimicking diet of 5 days long once a month were you are having 800 calories but mainly complex carbs from veg. I tried this once and had a very positive experience, but as with all fasting its not good if you are fixated on the reading on the scales. There is always a rapid drop in the scales during the fast and an upwards leap again as soon as you eat the first meal.

I have found that mayonnaise has a really sweet almost sugary taste to it, but before I started this WOE I thought it was more salty than sweet. I have changed from Helmans to Stokes which I believe is lower in carbs than helmans.

Birdy I have found this too. And low and behold it does contain sugar!! Why???? Ridiculous eh!
I don’t take any pre packaged food for granted or ‘ at face value’ nowadays and read every back label for ingredients. I have a jar to use up but am doing so sparingly and will replace it with a nice French aioli when I get chance. A company called Delouis make a good garlic aioli and it doesn’t contain any sugar or fructose syrup. I wish I was more accomplished in the kitchen or had a decent sized kitchen to feel creative in ! My mother in law who’s French makes an amazing aioli and mayonnaise and there is nothing quite like the real thing. At lest with home made we know exactly what’s in it as well. But for now it’s going to have to be shop bought for me.

Mel I have seen that french brand in Sainsbury’s it is right next to the stokes one and I think it is lower still in carbs! I was a bit weary of it though as I find french Mayo a little vinegary 🤣🤣. But I will buy some and look out for the aioli too. Thank you 💞🦜

However, weight loss can be a tricky thing, and the body doesn’t always react as we expect it to. It’s great that you’re eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of water, but have you considered incorporating more physical activity into your routine?

Even just a 30-minute walk each day can make a big difference. Lastly, if you’re looking for additional support, have you considered working with a personal trainer or nutritionist? Check out their website at https://www.podaimaperformance.com for more information. Also, it’s important to remember that weight loss isn’t just about the number on the scale. It’s about feeling healthier, fitter, and more energized.