Hi all – a little advice please.

I am just finishing my 2nd week and managing to stick to BSD800 quite easily as the food is so delicious and, in fact, my carb per day average is only about 27. Disappointed that I haven’t lost weight (or inches) this week, after a really encouraging start but I know that, if I stick with it, this will come – how can it not, on less than 800 calories a day?

My problem is that I am SOOOO cold all the time – normally I don’t feel the cold. I know the weather has been very cold recently, but my heating is going full blast, no one else in the house seems to feel cold and in fact my O/H keeps wanting to turn it down – he is walking around in Tshirts. I, on the other hand, am wearing full skiing thermals, 2 jumpers, a fleece jacket, 3 pairs of socks and, when I sit down, a big fluffy fleece rug tucked around my legs and I am STILL FREEZING!!! This seems to have become my “uniform” since starting BSD800 and, not only do I look like an old bag lady, feeling so cold all the time is making me miserable. Plus, even, if I lose loads of weight, I’ll still look fat with so very many layers on! I am drinking loads of water, and have increased it considerably this week, plus I have a constant cup of tea to hand (don’t take milk, and like it very weak, so almost as good as water) and I use it not only to keep up my fluids, but to warm my frozen hands on.

I think, if I can’t get over this, it is the one and only reason that may force me to give up, so any suggestions would be very gratefully received – I am averaging about 35 – 40g of fat a day, and occasionally much more – yesterday was 56g but didn’t make me feel any warmer! 🙁

Theodora
Exactly the same thing happened to me. I have always been a very very cold person. Even in the summer I wore a l lightweight fleece over my top while I was working because I was so so cold. Husband used to say ‘how can anyone be so cold and still be alive’.

I started the BSD in May and as the weight dropped off I just got colder and colder because I was losing the layers of fat. I lost nearly 3 stone and got to my target weight on 10th December. I had been increasing my steps since June when I got a fitbit and over the Christmas vacation I decided I must increase my walking speed and do more of my steps at a faster speed.

Over the Christmas vacation I really found that I was beginning to put more muscle on. I could feel muscles getting stronger. Then I began to feel warmer. Started back teaching classes in January and was so warm I had to throw off the fleeces. The halls I teach in felt too warm. People who had been coming to my classes for 16 years were in shock because they had never seen me without a fleece on.

I am not only not wearing a fleece – the tops I am wearing are really lightweight tops you would wear in the summer.

So why did my metabolism change. Was it because of the BSD and everything is working better now. Was it the BSD combined with the extra exercise. I really don’t know. I have no fat to keep me warm now (my BMI is 21) but I seem to be generating heat from somewhere. My carbs are low like yours. I haven’t had a bad carb or sugar since May – so perhaps my body really likes burning fat as fuel and it just took a long time to make the changes. Or perhaps my circulation had been so damaged by all the sugary starchy carbs and it has taken several months for my circulation to become normal again. It is a real puzzle but I have been a cold person since my early 20s and I am 68 now, so it is really a major, but lovely, change for me.

So there is hope that the same thing will happen to you. Believe me I do sympathise because it is horrible.

Hot water bottles stuffed down your jumper. ? Really helps I found.

Thanks for your replies.

Denis, do you know, I don’t even possess a hot water bottle, because I am normally a really warm person. I don’t know how much it will help though, because hugging a radiator doesn’t seem to – all it does is warm the bit of me in contact with it. This cold seems to emanate from the inside – O/H assures me that I am not cold to the touch – but I feel cold right down to my core. But anything is worth trying, so thanks for the suggestion – it will go onto this week’s shopping list.

Krysia, thanks for your words or encouragement – but how on EARTH did you survive from May to December if you felt this cold???? OK, I guess the weather wasn’t as cold then as it is now, and I did start BSD in pretty much the coldest period of the winter – today is the first day it has risen above freezing point here for the past 2 weeks – but I cannot even imagine coping with being this cold for months on end!! I cannot believe that it is losing my insulating layer of blubber that is causing it, because I have only lost 8lbs so far. I am usually SUCH a winter person, much prefer it to the summer, just love frost and snow and windy walks, but now I am thinking “roll on summer”.

It looks as though I may have to carry on looking and feeling like an old bag lady for the foreseeable future (and will look even fatter with hot water bottles tucked up my jumpers and down my knickers 😉 ) if I want to lose the excess weight. Unless anyone else has any miraculous suggestions, no matter how daft?

Theodora – I survived with lots of layers and my heated seat and steering wheel in my car. It wasn’t pleasant though.

When I threw off all the layers (I was still wearing a lot of my bigger clothes with thermals under them) and put on my size 10 tops and trousers after Christmas a lot of friends and clients were visibly shocked by my weight loss which they thought had happened over Christmas. It did cause quite a stir.

Theodora, lots of people on this site have diabetes, me included, and we suffer from bad peripheral blood circulation. In other words limited blood flow to fingers and toes, so I am used to being cold all the time. This should not be your problem but losing body fat could cause it, as you say you have only lost 8lbs it seems unlikely to be the cause. It has been extremely cold just lately so it could just be that you are not used to such cold weather.

HaHa, Krysia – what a shock for them all!

My heated car seat has become my best friend too – never ever even turned it on before starting BSD 2 weeks ago! In fact, until the last 2 weeks, didn’t even use the heating in the car, as I always got too hot. Used to have never ending battles with o/h if he was in the car, as he wanted it on and I wanted it off. These days, it’s the other way around!

And oh to be a size 10 again – if I can get through this cold phase, I’ll get there though 🙂

Sunshine-girl, I really don’t think it is just because the weather has been so cold. I took my granddaughters to Lapland for a week before Christmas and the temp varied between minus 24 and minus 30 !!!!! Didn’t feel cold once though, in fact we had an amazing time.

The highlights of my days atm is having a scalding hot 20 min shower just to warm up 🙂

Theodora
You won’t believe how much you will enjoy being size 10 again. I absolutely love putting on my size 10s. I even have size 9 troggins which fit like a dream.

I’ve always been naturally warm person. Even when I was slim in my youth any activity or a minute in the sun was enough to make the back of my neck sweat. I started the BSD in the sweltering heat of August and by the beginning of the third week, I was regularly shivering cold. The only time I wasn’t cold was during and immediately after exercise.

I can identify with how traumatic the shock of cold is when you’ve never experienced that sensation short of being outdoors in actual freezing weather. I get my inner heat from my father, while my mother is always cold. I called her and apologized for all those years of thinking she was crazy for wearing sweaters all the time while my dad and I were in tank tops.

In the beginning I quite liked the cold. It was a very hot summer and I loved the novelty of being cool after a lifetime of being the perpetually hot one. That allowed me to get used to the new normal before the frost descended and the deep cold became torture. I’m afraid that ship has sailed for you, but on the up side, this is the worst it’s going to be. Once the warm weather starts, you might enjoy the cool like I did in the beginning.

My methods of coping include the crazy bag lady layers you’re familiar with, regular long soaks in a hot bath (at least once a day when I feel the coldest), coercing the cats into sitting on my feet and coercing my bf into rubbing his freakishly hot hands against my frozen hands and feet. Definitely get a hot water bottle. They still beat the electric blanket by a mile, imo, because the sloshing, burbling water is soothing in ways beyond just the warmth it generates. Also, fleecy gloves, even fingerless ones, help.

I know it can feel surprisingly debilitating to be constantly struggling with the cold, needing layer upon layer to make it remotely bearable. I can tell you, however, that you will get used to it, maybe even grow to appreciate it in certain contexts. Don’t let this break your resolve, Theodora.

Errr, thanks for the encouragement, I think, Esnecca – but are you telling me that this is not going to get any better?

I was assuming it was just a temporary phase of the BSD800, while my body got used to it, and it would go away after a while!! I’m not sure I can live with being this cold forever – I have no health problems, so am dieting purely to lose weight, but can’t see much point in fitting into lovely clothes, if I then have to cover them up with layer upon layer of fleeces 🙁

And long hot summers? What exactly are they?

Sorry to sound so negative, but haven’t lost any weight at all in the past week, nor inches, and being freezing cold all the time (and I mean freezing) is just making me miserable.:-(

I had this to start with, Theodora and I am normally a hot person. The sort that old ladies spot in the street and say ‘ooh, aren’t you cold, dressed like that’s?’. But for the first three weeks I was on perma frost mode. But then it got better and now I’m back to normal. I live in the only non central heated house in the world ( according to my daughter) and even I feel the cold first thing. So I do 5 mins of exercises and that’s enough to warm me up for the day.
Nil desperandum. It will pass.

I’m still cold, Theodora, but as in Bissell and KrysiaD’s experience, that can change at any time. I’m assuming I’ll warm back up once I’m on maintenance and not restricting my caloric intake, but that’s a long ways away for me. Soldier on! Think of it this way, if a magic genie gave you the chance to lose all the weight you’ve ever dreamed of losing, but the cost was a few months of cold, wouldn’t you take it?

This may sound perverse, but the cold reminds me that my body is changing.

I too have always been the hot one. It’s horrible being so cold all the time. But it’s my body adjusting. I’m sure once I’m fitter and more toned my metabolism will sort itself out. Plus, I won’t be on 800 calories forever 🙂 once I’m maintaining I will be eating more and warmer.

Oh, thank you Bissell, that is far more reassuring – hopefully this phase will pass soon then, and I can start enjoying life again.

Esnecca – I am soooo cold, that I’m not actually sure I would. I’m not THAT fat (BMI only 27) – I want to lose circa 18lbs and I have no health problems, and so I may be able to cope with it for a few weeks until I can up my calorie intake on maintenance, but longer than that? I just don’t know…..

Certainly couldn’t live the rest of my life like it.

Ohhh well then, no wonder! With such a small amount of weight to lose, it seems to me like you could easily up your calorie intake to 1000 a day. Just keep the carbs as low as they are now. A 25% calorie bump might go a long way for you.

Try not to fret about your lack of movement on the scale this week. I didn’t start weighing myself until week 4, and that just so happened to be a plateau week, up and down with the same pound or three for 8 days. It was troubling, to say the least, but now I know it’s just the way our bodies are. They like to regroup when confronted with a new reality. As of this morning, I’ve lost 71 pounds since I first stepped on the scale on August 25th.

Seconding Krysia’s observation, I have also gone from really feeling the cold in the early stages when losing lots of weight, to a metabolism that keeps me generally warm all the time again, which was my previous pre-diet norm. The one exception are my hands which still get really cold. I think the building of lots of muscle has helped with this, along with the adaptation to efficient fat burning. Of course like Krysia I am now on more calories so this may not be directly relevant.

I find a hot bath warms me down to my bones! Showers just don’t have the same effect.

I’m about to get strict again with BSD, in my previous round in winter I felt the cold a lot too, but this time it’s heatwave summer in Australia (38 today) so I’m not worried! Maybe these peri-menopausal night sweats will finally stop.

Crikey, Esnecca, well done you! 🙂 You must be so proud of yourself – I’m proud of you 🙂

I have probably blown my 800 calorie allowance this evening – though not actually totted up yet (normally do the sensible thing and tot up BEFORE I eat) – I had 2 courses, consisting of a small portion of smoked haddock, with a dollop of greek yoghurt on top, followed by a sprinkling of grated cheese, baked in the oven (was delicious), followed by roast lamb, gravy and mint sauce,, roasted cauliflower, tenderstem broccoli and sugarsnaps, so all within the boundaries of BSD, but maybe a higher calorie content than I have been allowing myself. Let’s see if I feel any warmer for it. 😉

Natalie, hot baths are great, but I do like a steaming hot shower – my o/h can’t even put his hand under my shower water and cannot believe how hot I have it.

Mixnmatch, thank you for your contribution, I am encouraged to think that this may soon pass.

After today’s blowout, I will go back to a strict 800 cals for another week, as it is forecast to be much milder this week, and see how it goes – it may have passed by then. If not, I will try increasing my calories a bit, Thank you everyone.

Theodora,
I wouldn’t worry too much, Like Krystal and Mixnmatch, I was also cold in the beginning but things seem to have normalised now and I’m fine. Although, like Natalie I’m in Australia too and 37c where I am today! (Hi Natalie!)
I’m sure your body will do the same, it’s probably still in shock and trying to get used to its new fuel source!!
Delicious sounding dinner by the way 🙂

Hi Theodora,

I have always been a “hot” person but the BSD really hit me with how cold I felt even in a mild Autumn. For me it lasted six to eight weeks, but then I upped the exercise and that seems to have reset my system. I still do feel colder in my hands than I used to, but equally my hands feel “slimmer”, so maybe it’s a insulation thing.

So for me there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Good luck

Hi Theodra
I am justing week 4.Normally a warm person since starting i am cold all the time. The first week i lost 7lb but only a 1lb in week 2.
Good news is I have lost 4lb in week 3. I havent done anything differently just followed the weekly diet plan as set out in the book.
So please do not give up hope. Sorry dont have any tips about the cold
Good luck
Baz

JulesMaigret – I reckon it is the same with me. It can’t be a coincidence that when I upped my exercise over Christmas I ‘reset my system’ and suddenly become a warm person.

How are you feeling these days, Theodora? I’ve gotten warmer as the temperatures have gone up the past couple of weeks. I’m down to one sweater and very occasional fuzzy socks. 😀

Esnecca, thank you so much for asking.

I am fine now, feeling excessively cold is a thing of the past, thank goodness. I don’t know whether this is because, hopefully, the worst of the winter is over, or that my body has now adapted to low carbs, and is burning fat nicely 🙂 I was about to say that I hope it is the latter, but frankly, I hope the former is true too 😉