Hi all
So I have completed my first four weeks. (Week 1-) 8lb lost,( week 2) – 3 lb lost, (week 3 )- 2lb (week 4 )- 1lb lost
really disappointed as its getting less and less, and its making me less motivated. I keep getting that niggling thought that if Im not even losing weight why arent I eating all the things I enjoy as its not working anyway…I feel really de motivated. Yes I have lost a stone in a month, but to be fair I have done this on other diets and still eaten bread etc. Please can somebody tell me that this is just a normal plateau and weight loss will resume as I dont want to give up. Has anyone else had this issue?? Please help as I still have over 2 stone to lose and dont want to blow it. Many thanks in advance……

This is the time to take your measurements and body fat. I went through a phase about weeks 5 and 6 which was slow and then it all moved again but in that time I went down a couple of inches on my waist which has become a perm reduction. Basically if you keep up 800 calories and keep going it will happen. If you are craving something then have it in 800. You have lost a stone obviously 🙄 it is working!!!

Well done you have lost a stone and that is a massive amount. Yes, this is just a normal plateau and not the time to give up or sneak in old habits. You say you have lost weight before and still eaten bread so why are you on yet another diet, because going back does not work and you have probably ended up heavier each time. As LessMT says, start using other measurements as the scales are not always a true representation of what is happening.

Right now your body is readjusting to its new weight and you will start to lose again but only if you dont pack it in. When the going gets tough the tough keep going. You could try lowering your carbs a little and drinking lots and lots of water or you could just keep on and wait for this phase to pass. Whatever you do, stick with it.

Good morning, Veiled1. There many maintainers here like myself, along with others
who are far along on this WOE. There are a myriad of suggestions and tips that we
would be happy to share with you, but without more information on the specifics
of how you have done your weight loss so far, we would simply be speculating
blindly. (carb levels, amount of water, exercise if any, etc. etc. etc.). Just want to
let you know that I lost 10 stone in 10 months, and have been maintaining for the
past 7 months losing an additional 7 lbs. along the way. I never lost more than
14 lbs. in any one month either. Every journey is a unique experience, and it’s
always best not to compare your rate of loss to others. I noticed that you’ve
also only posted a few times in your four weeks. I think it would be invaluable
to you to join the new Dec. challenge. The support available is what gets us
through the moments of discouragement and/or frustration, and you will meet
some extraordinary and knowledgeable people along the way.
I’d be delighted to help, but need more information 🙂
Best wishes,

Allie

Thanks for the replies, you are right, every time i do other diets and stop I just put even more weight on. My measurements have changed to be fair, I have lost 6 inches off my waist and 2 inches from my hips, but I have this number in my head weight wise. I will stick at. My carbs are very low anyway. Maybe I will drink more water. Onwards and upwards…

Hi Ally
I have been walking most days weather permitting. I always get minimum 10000 steps. I have never been over my 800 by more than say 7 cals . I didnt realise drinking water was such a huge thing, but I have been drinking more anyway as I seem to be very thirsty, but
maybe I should drink more still. I will join the Dec group. Thanks

Yes definitely the way to go. I try on clothes that motivates me and then find a dress that I can squeeze into but needs work and hang it on the wardrobe and have a date to wear . You should write down all the things that now fit because you are slimmer/ benefits of how you feel and what motivates you to keep going plus find some brilliant food that fits into 800. I bought the mimi Spencer’s book about this time and it really helped as I felt I was eating nice food. Bring on that xmas outfit !! Make it red and cheery!!

Well done on a whole stone lost in 4 weeks, Veiled1 – and all those inches gone too! You are doing great and the current situation will pass, as long as you stick with the 800 cals, keep an eye of the carbs, keep well hydrated and keep up the exercise. Once your body has adjusted, the pounds will start to drop again. Weight loss is not linear, there will be stalls and even the occasional small gain, but overall, you will see the weight decrease – keep an eye on the big picture. Try not to measure your success against that of others, as we are all unique and our bodies all behave a little differently.

Some good advice above, about finding non-scale victories to help keep you focused. Using clothes as a motivator is a good way to go, as regardless what the scales are saying, if you can fit into the next size down, it’ll give you a real boost. Also setting mini-goals along the way, helps to give a sense of achievement as you progress – getting into the next stone band, losing the next half stone, fitting into a garment you always loved but haven’t been able to wear in ages, etc.

Hope you stick with it and don’t give up. We all go through glum days, when we wonder why we are bothering, but when you take stock of progress and notice benefits other than the pounds lost, it helps to bring things into perspective and spurs you along. And soon, your palate and tastes will change and most of those things you used to eat and enjoy and right now want again, will fail to appeal in the same way.

Best of luck to you – hope you get to where you really want to be, Veiled1.

Veiled1 – a stone in a month is wonderful. But even more wonderful is a whole 6 inches off your waist which, for a healthy life, is the area that matters. Just think how much visceral fat has gone!! And how much healthier your internal organs are without it.

Like Allie, I have been in maintenance for 7 months but when I embarked on BSD, whilst I was losing weight, it took WEEKS AND WEEKS before my waist showed any measurable reduction. It was quite dispiriting. But everything eventually evened out and am now easily a UK size 8. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d be able to say that again!!!

Just stick with it and the results will come. Shout when you are struggling, join is as many threads as you fancy. State your goals, give and receive support – it’s all very motivational. Good luck.

PS Obviously this has to be a WOE for life. Once you reach target, if you go back to your previous eating habits, then obviously the pounds will go back on. So I just want to reassure you that this WOE is doable for life – obviously we can relax a little once our goal is reached but we still need to adhere to the principles, at least most of the time. I lead an incredibly active social life, entertain a lot, eat out at least 3 times a week, and have still managed to stay more than half a stone under goal. One just has to be mindful.

Feeling better about things having read all the lovely replies. I will continue.

Hello Veiled 1

Welcome to BSD and congratulations on your weight loss so far. I am one of the slow losers on the forum and have had many plateaux along my journey and wondered would it work for me! I started in January this year and have lost 3 stone since then and it was slow. I achieved my goal weight a couple of weeks ago. There were some weeks when the scales didn’t show a loss but my clothes felt really loose. I think I lost fat but it didn’t always register on the scale. I have always found it difficult to lose weight but BSD really did work for me. My top tip would be not to compare your loss to anyone else. We are all different. Keep on with the plan and it will work even if it doesn’t work as quickly as you would wish.

When you are losing visceral fat you see the waist measurements reduce, but often the weight stays the same. I speculated that as the fat is removed from the organs it was replaced by healthy tissue that contained a greater amount of water. It really isn’t all about the weight, particularly at the stage you are at. You won’t lose another 2 stone in your next 4 weeks, but after you have done them you can either continue for another 4 weeks, move to 5:2, or just stick to the principles until that weight is gone. You will be able to eat bread again, but a year after I started my maintenance after losing 8 stone I still eat far less of the white stuff than I used to. The bread I choose is far better quality too, to make it worth the ‘damage’.

Once you lose your 8 lbs. water weight in the first week, you should settle into losing about 2 pounds a week on your 800 cal a day diet.

This weekly weight loss is fat, so it is real weight loss. It is something to be proud of.

A person uses about 1800 calories a day, so you have a 1000 cal a day or 7000 calorie shortfall every week. A pound of fat is worth 3500 calories, so that 7000 calorie shortfall works out to about 2 pounds. Every week.

I found that I plateaued some weeks, but lost more than 2 pounds other weeks, so it averaged out. If I cheated with some potatoes or bread that would stall me for a few days until my body used it up, and then the weight would start dropping again.

I am a daily weigher and I found I could predict how the weight would move depending on what I ate, even though I was very careful not to exceed the 800 calories. Eating carbs would slow the loss for 2 days, but then I would have a big loss the day after.

Eat lots of vegetables at supper. They fill you up and they don’t have many calories. Today I had cauliflower, squash, broccoli, cabbage, green beans, kale and a bit of leftover carrots along with my pork tenderloin. The beans, squash, cauliflower, and carrots were all sauteed so I also had plenty of olive oil, which helps you feel full for longer. I prepare 5-6 veggies every night. An interesting side effect is my wife gets annoyed cooking this many vegetables, so I have now become the main cook around here (we are both retired) and she just cooks for special occasions. Its a great way to exercise your creativity having to find yet another way to prepare a carrot!

One more thing. Your brain runs on glucose and when you restrict carbs, the brain has to fuel itself with ketones. This will affect your mood. I found that I got seriously sad for a few days starting from about day 5. Then my brain got used to the new reality and I was fine after that. I am now back on the 800 for a few weeks after a holiday and I noticed this again, but it only lasted a day this time. Your bit of a rough patch right now might be part of this.

Good luck. Find an eating plan that you can live with and the weight must come off.

Jan

Hi Veiled1. I hope things are going well for you. I posted a reply to you 1 or 2
days ago, above. I don’t wish to add to your confusion, but I don’t agree with the
previous poster re 1800 calories a day. Our total daily energy expenditure TDEE)
varies from person to person and is based on age, gender, height, and how active
we are. You will find a calculator by googling “TDEE” and 5:2 (I think it’s mosley’s
5:2 site) that you can use to figure out what you can expect to lose and the max
allowable calories per day to achieve your goals. I am in maintenance, and the max
I can eat to stay where I am is 1627 cal. If, on the other hand, I was sedentary, that
number would drop to 1420 cal. I hope this helps! If you have any other questions,
just ask. I’m usually around 🙂

Allie

It will also vary with amount of muscle, one of the big reasons traditionally that the TDEE drops as we get older is that we lose muscle. So keep doing weights and you can eat (a little) more 😁

The 1800 calorie figure is a published average. People can use that to come up with a figure for themselves, whether they are big, small, heavy, light, high BMI or low, active or sedentary. You should understand that without a personal metabolism test, all these figures are very approximate. I think that this average is still useful to help you understand what is happening to your body.

It also helps explain how weight loss slows as you get thinner, because you use less energy as there is less of you. As MnM mentioned, exercise is important to minimize muscle loss, as is maintaining protein intake.

Using https://tdeecalculator.net/ I use about 2100 a day and my wife uses about 1600. However, I have to watch my food intake carefully while she eats like a horse, much more than I do, and never gains an ounce. There is obviously a lot more going on than a simple formula calculation could explain.

I am not an expert so I welcome any corrections or criticism.

Jan

Hi Jan – thanks for link, interesting. My PT always reminds me to try and walk with a backpack to reflect the weight I used to carry internally, but I always forget! Timely reminder.

Hi, Jan! We are all adding to our knowledge every day, so any and all opinions are
always more than welcome. I’m happy that both and you and your wife have done
so well! My husband and I are following the same program, and he finds that his
insulin resistance is much more pernicious than mine so he has to take more drastic
measures than I do. Your results are inspirational. How lovely that you and your
wife have made these changes together!

Best,

Allie

Hi AC. Thanks for your note but to be clear, only I had high blood sugar and went on the diet. My wife never needed to.
Thanks
Jan

Hi Veiled1. Just thought I’d check in and see how your next week has gone after this post. I’m also trying to deal with not feeling discouraged that my weight loss has slowed each of the three weeks I’ve been on the BSD – 2.3kg the first week, 0.7kg the second week, and almost at the end of the third week, I’ve lost 0.1kg. I have experienced this very same pattern on a lot of other eating plans and I still hope this one will turn out to be different, that this is just some kind of period of adjustment. How are things going for you?

Wow it sounds like you have done great so far! I bet the “stall” will pass.

Hi Veiled1, just to join in to congratulate you in super results for 8 weeks. The 6” waist reduction is stunning.

I’m mid Week 4 and my waist has reduced 0.5cm! Mind you I feel fantastic, am sleeping like a baby and my clothes are roomier despite the same measurements. My weight loss has predictably slowed since Week 3 and I’ve experienced three three day stalls (day three of the third one today). I’ve just hunkered down and carried on and the weight eventually started moving down again.

For me, the way my body reacts, not all calories are equal. Too many calories from carbs, or protein, seems to slow things even outside these mini plateau. And it’s possible to pick and choose meals from the BSD cookbook, stay under 800 cals but be consuming a surprisingly high proption of carbs. I find I have to weigh and log everything to keep track of the macronutrients over the course of a day.

Anyway, all the best, looks to me like you’ve made a terrific start, keep it up!

Hi All
Firstly thankyoufor all the information and encouraging replies. I thought I would check in and reply to a question asking if I had lost any more after stalling. The good news is that last week I lost 4 pounds, so it boosted me to carry on again! So I am now 18pounds lost in 5 weeks. I still have a way to go but this has certainly hardened my resolve.

Great news Veiled1, good in you for sticking at it!

I was just wondering about Christmas.I really want my christmas dinner, and christmas pudding! is it sooooo bad to have it and then get straight back on the wagon the following day? Is anyone else going to eat a christmas dinner?

Hi Veiled1, I had a ‘planned day off’ during my 8 weeks and quite close to the end of it where I indulged in a three course meal and some wine, got straight back on it the next day and had no ill effects, in fact I had one of the higher losses of the later weeks on average that week. If you are diabetic there are other concerns such as blood sugar levels spiking, but if just doing this for weightloss and general health improvements then it will do you no harm, and indeed has been known to kickstart a little extra weightloss if you get straight pack to plan afterwards. You may find yourself making considered choices about where to ‘spend’ your carbs even on indulgent days, I know I do.

Well I am now six weeks in. I have lost weight, which is brilliant, Im not diabetic I am doing this purely to lose weight. However, Im not going to lie, as somebody who despises cooking, and works full time, I am sooooo bored with the food. I dont have time to cook all the delicious looking stuff, and I am at the stage now where I would sooner eat nothing than eat the food I have been eating. Admittedly its the first diet where I havent been hungry which is great. I will have my Christmas dinner and get straight back on it until I reach my target weight, then I shall have to look at how to eat sensibly after that so as not to slip back into bad habits. Ideally, I would love blood sugar diet ready meals that I can bung in the microwave. Is there such a thing?

Can’t say I have ever had this problem myself, as there are so many delicious foods available to us. I am not aware of any BSD ready meals, but could you find the inspiration and time at some point in your busy life, to prepare and freeze some so that you have something to pop in the microwave? I’m thinking maybe cottage pie topped with cauliflower mash, or bolognaise frozen in portions to microwave and pour on to cauli rice or courgette, which can be quickly prepared fresh. Alternatively, think in terms of grilling or pan frying fish or meat and microwaving some veggies, which makes for a quick meal. Also have a think about spice rubs for these and about how you can add flavour with herbs, none of which needs to be complicated and helps to keep things interesting.

Don’t know if any of that helps or not, but hope you will find the inspiration to find something new to eat and to keep going.

Veiled – what about a slow cooker? Soups, stews, chilli? 10 mins in the morning to bung ingredients in the cooker and it’s cooked by the time you get home. Stir and serve!

This is a good idea! Thankyou