I grew up at the height of the low fat diet period, I suspect a lot of people doing this diet did too. Is it a struggle letting go of the “fear of fat”?
Any tips for a first timer? Also, I’m hypothyroid and worried about low blood sugar, interested to know other people’s experiences.

Hi Mrs Honey there are so many of us here that have grown up with the ‘low fat’ mantra but believe me you can change your mind set. It may not be easy, it’s easier for some than others. Just trust in the book. If you haven’t read it then try and get a copy.

There are so many people on here that can testify that the ‘nonsense’ we were fed about low fat has done nothing but make us yo-yo diet for years. BUT, low carb/healthy fat does work. Just read some of the success stories here…. Captainlynne, KrysiaD, Californiagirl, Esnecca, Mixnmatch and JulesMaigret to name but a few who immediately spring to mind. (sorry if I missed any ‘stars’ out)

There’s lots of support on these boards so my tip would be use the boards, ask questions and give this way of eating a try. Good luck.

Thank you! I’ve been surprised that I haven’t been hungry today, it looks like I haven’t eaten much (scrambled egg, feta and lentil salad, skinny cottage pie in the oven) but it seems to have kept bigger at bay. Perhaps it’ll hit me tomorrow.
I’ve got the recipe book but not the one explaining the diet, I’ve just read a lot online. I know the low fat line was a load of rubbish, and probably to blame for my expanding waistline! But it’s not easy getting my brain to override my instincts.
I’ll look out for those people, it’s always good to get some inspiration.

I must admit I very rarely feel hungry eating this way but when I do it’s usually because I’ve had carbs. I have a need for ‘crunch’ now and again and my go to foods are digestive biscuits, but not often now, sometimes crisps and oat cakes for my cheese.

I guess the tip that most people would give is drink, drink, drink ……. water ! You cant drink too much water really. I now enjoy some fresh lemon juice with a few ice cubes topped up with sparkling water. There are carbs in the lemon juice but it’s so refreshing and better than lots of other drinks.

Hope Day 2 is as successful for you.

Thanks, I’m on day 4 now and still surprised at not being hungry, seems impossible on 800 calories!! I think my biggest problem is going to be keeping it interesting, although the food has tasted nice it’s not like eating carbs. And no snacking seems a gloomy future. I just keep reminding myself it’s only 8 weeks and then I can relax a bit. Although, if it really works, by then, I might not want to.
I’ve been drinking loads, I expect I’ll have lost quite a bit of weight in water this week!!

I was a sassy little squirt when the low fat nonsense started. They were trying to sell the new spreadable margarine as healthier than butter. I wondered how can they possibly know it’s healthier than butter, it hasn’t been around long enough, and refused to believe that something so new and artificial could possibly be better than something that we had evolved with for at least a couple of thousand years. Thankfully my mother agreed with me and kept buying butter.
When they moved on to saying all fat was bad, I applied the same kind of logic, that it was fine for our ancestors so don’t blame the fat, blame the lack of exercise. These days I don’t even blame lack of exercise, I blame poor dietary choices and in my case especially, bad official advice.

I’m on my 4th or 5th day of 800cals now, and my biggest concern (because I was losing weight so fast) was that I’ll hit the ‘glycogen plateau’ and go into starvation mode, but this diet is completely different from the official advice of simply reducing total calories, that I don’t think it will happen. (Thanks also to some good advice and encouragement from others on here 🙂 )
Yes, I’m sleeping more, but that’s probably because I should be sleeping more anyway. I’m actually feeling much more awake in between times than before. I think my brain likes ketone bodies!

I’m also finding it weird how ‘unhungry’ I am on so few calories, it does make it easy to keep on track though. 🙂

I am slightly missing sweet stuff, but usually manage to fit some fruit in and still hit my targets. I am thinking of trying to make some proper old fashioned ice cream with just fruit, cream and eggs. I figure that actually, however it turns out, it has to be yummy!

Hello Ancient Weaver,
please share the recipe if you get the ice cream to work!
P xx

I’m on day 5 and feeling a bit weird. I haven’t been hungry at all today, in fact I’ve only eaten cause I thought it would be stupid not to. I was very tired over the weekend, I fell asleep in the afternoon yesterday which is very unlike me. I feel a bit shaky and my heart rate seems a lot faster and just walking normally I feel out of breath, is this due to lack of energy?
I read it can take a while to start burning fat rather than sugar. I don’t want to give in though. I’ve promised myself I’ll do the full 8 weeks.
That idea for ice cream sounds yummy. I was wondering if bananas are allowed, although I think I know the answer to that! I have lots of them frozen and have read if you whizz them up with Greek yoghurt it’s like ice cream.

Hi Mrs Honey,

I’m in my fifth week now and definitely went through the tired phase your describing. For me it lasted for about 4-5 days in the second week and got much better after that. Although I would caution against doing too much while you’re on the diet. I did an hour in the gym last Friday morning and could barely keep my eyes open after about 3pm.

Hi Pancita, bananas and greek yoghourt is a low fat way of making ice cream without additives, but is quite low in fat and fairly high in carbs. Cream, eggs and fruit will be high fat and low in carbs, but so far it’s also low in taste 🙁 I blame the raspberries. I snuck one before I mashed them and it was pretty tasteless. 🙁
I’ll try peaches next time.

eta or I could give up on fruit and just make vanilla ice cream! And actually the raspberry is ok it’s subtle though.

Try adding some mascarpone cheese for taste, I broke my ice cream duck after almost two years with a rather lovely orange and mascarpone one in St Ives, and it would probably work just as well if not better with a little less sweetness.

That’s an interesting idea. I did try adding a pinch of salt, but it didn’t make any noticeable difference, but savoury cheesy overtones could be really good, like pineapple and cream cheese.
Part of the point of using cream was that I could whip it to get more air in, but the egg whites were much better for that so there won’t be any loss of texture by using mascarpone instead.