I’m restartng the plan as I failed to maintain the diet first time around. The problem seems to be that my exercise regime makes me absolutely knackered in conjunction with a very low calorie intake. I lift weights twice a week and do a cardio/ boxing session once a week, it doesn’t sound like much exercise but I work really hard and even without dieting I need a day in between to recover Do people think I need to increase my calorie intake to compensate?

Lovelyflower, the accepted wisdom here seems to be that you do not add in additional calories for exercise.
In fact, MMosley recommends that you cut back on exercise until you adapt from carb burning to fat burning,
and then you will have all the energy at your disposal that you could conceivably need. It’s known as ketosis.

Allie

Hi Lovely — I think you might surprise yourself if you cut back a bit on the exercise, try to stay on the diet — doing “less” in this case is actually doing “more” — I know it is counter intuitive (I’m a confirmed exercise addict) but I lost faster and easier when I did more gentle exercise.
You can go back to harder workouts later — I did and it was fine.

I forgot to say, that if you DO decide to do the harder workouts anyway, I would definitely add in some extra calories — maybe about 1/2 of what you think you burned. That is my opinion — it worked for me — but others may have different viewpoints.
Remember, this is YOUR diet and body — you are unique. It’s important to listen to what your body needs. Play around with it all — do hard and light workouts and eat a few more calories or don’t and see what happens.

Hi LovelyFlower,
I won’t argue with whats been said above. All good points.

In my own experience with the BSD… (No diabetes problems / using it to get from overweight to healthy weight)
I was training for a half marathon when my wife and I went on the diet and I continued my training.
I was also doing 1 or 2 BMF bootcamp classes a week.
I found hydration was more important than ever. A pint of water with about an 1/8 tsp of salt in it before exercise really helps.
After exercise I had a pint of semi skimmed milk for muscle recovery. This is the only extra calories I took on.
The first few runs on empty were weird and I did feel light headed but my body did adapt. I’d be wary about exercising hard while alone on this diet especially the first few times!

It was a revelation as I’ve spent years eating jelly babies and all that jazz for carbs when running. No need anymore. I did use gels on the race day, but I figure that was only a once off.

The main thing I think that worked for me was the pint of semi-skimmed milk was always directly after exercise and thus totally linked with exercise and only allowed then and back to the 800. I’ve had years of fooling myself into thinking exercise allowed a lot more calories than it does.

Anyway, we all differ and this is what worked for me!
I went from a blue to a red vest in BMF (We are blue/red/green in terms of how hard you want/can work)
After years being a blue no matter how hard I worked, it was loosing the extra weight that made the difference in the end!

Good luck!

Hi Martymonster,
I am about to start adding working out with weights a couple of times a week to my routine. I wondered why you decided to drink milk after each activity, and in particular why semi-skimmed milk. Was it the result of any particular research, or just what you enjoy doing?

Hi thanks that’s interesting, why milk in particular? Did you consider a protein shake at all?

I’m marathon training at the moment and my carbs are in the c50g (not diabetic) region. I use milk and good quality cocoa powder for my recovery drink after runs as milk has the generally accepted ideal ratio of 3:1 carb to protein and the cocoa powder has antioxidants amongst other benefits. It doesn’t really matter if you drink whole, semi or skimmed milk – it depends on what cals/fats/carbs you have available to you. (Milk only has the fat taken out of it and nothing added when it’s semi or skimmed.) To make I put a teaspoon in a mug add a bit of boiled water to dissolve and top up with milk. It can be left in the fridge until after exercise, so nice and cold – just needs a good stir or shake before using. I don’t buy protein powders due to expense and many have fillers/higher carbs.

Thanks

Hi Everyone!

Honestly I didn’t put a lot of thought into it. Semi-skimmed milk was what was already to hand in the house. A pint seemed toto be close to the recommended amount of protein for after a run. (Can’t remember the figures now!) I know the BSD is usually saying full fat for diary. However in this case I just wanted the protein and didn’t want to overdo the extra calories.

I stayed away from shakes because so many of them have sweet flavours and getting off the sweet stuff entirely was my biggest hurdle. If I kept that stuff in the house I’d probably find myself sneaking them at other times of the day!

It’s hard to find relevant data on this because there are so many conflicting articles about post and pre workout eating/drinking.
Normally its not something I’d worry too much about. In this case though on a seriously low calorie diet I felt I really needed it or I was going to totally wear myself down.

I remember watching a TV programme once where they did some experiments with water, milk etc (could even have been MM or another Trust Me I’m a Doctor presenter) where they identified milk as being the best drink for recovery after exercise.