Hallo!
I started on this journey a week ago and I have about 8-10 kg to loose. I love exercise and I do; running, spinning, GRIT, horse riding etc. I am not diabetic, but just wanted to loose weight fast and then go on to the Low Carb Med Style to maintain my weight.The first 5 days all my workouts went fine, but on day 6 I felt that my body didn’t respond like before. I am worried that I might be doing my muscles harm?
Also, I am the living proof that overweight comes from what you eat, and once your body is used to being active, it doesn’t give you a reason to eat more…….
Shall I just accept that whilst being on 800 cal I won’t be able to do strenuous exercise?!

Sounds like you’re running on empty – the kind of exercise that you are doing is probably going to burn more calories than you should, especially spin classes. Personally I would never advocate reducing exercise but you might want to cut down a little and see how you feel – you may want to increase your calories if you want to carry on (from protein and fat only) – see how the weight loss goes – it might be a bit of a balancing act for a couple of weeks
TC

You could just be feeling the change from running on stored glycogen, which I think needs a higher carb diet to maintain, to burning fat for exercise. I can’t see it damaging muscles unless you have insufficient dietary fat to maintain the quantity of exercise you are doing. I don’t work out at such high intensity while on the 800 calories, but have noticed similar responses when playing badminton, which I do three times a week, particularly on the days when I do two sessions.

Thank you both for your advice. I tried porridge (30g oats) with 1/2 grated apple and almond milk this morning before hitting the gym. Maybe not ideal, as it takes me over my ideal carbs. I feel a little bit like a fraud, as I haven’t got T2D and only got myself to blame for loving food (and wine!) too much.
How long would it take get into Ketotis? I have heard about people that trained their bodies to use protein as fuel, but maybe its a myth?

Hi Kermit

I started the day with 30g porridge mixed in with full fat Yogurt and a chopped up plum, very nice, not a big carb issue as my lunch was cheese, Ham, cucumber and Tomatoes so balances out, but if you are hitting the gym hard early your body needs fuel so you need to find your balance between exercise and eating right, remember muscles need proteins for repair and carbs for energy, which does not mean sugar or processed junk food, I think my balance is more 1000/80 and still losing weight, I tend to exercise in the evenings, where I have eaten during the day and not had the overnight fast whilst asleep.

KerMit I was just reading an article about the Inuit diet, apparently they do burn a lot of protein as fuel, depends if you’re willing to eat a lot of raw meat and drink seal blood.

Funny that – FatSecret doesn’t have entries for seal blood 🙂

Saw a programme a few years ago, 2 doctors traveling the world looking at remote communities, the way they lived and what they eat. One of the Docs took it in turns to live on the local diet, measuring their blood sugar, cholesterol etc., when they lived with the Inuit, the doc was totally surprised at how fast his sugars and cholesterol dropped, this was against his medical training knowledge, the only fat family in the village chose to live on a western diet and not the traditional high fat high protein Inuit diet, so maybe there is something to be said for seal Blood? They actually court a small whale which the whole village shared, the Doc was happy he left before the locals delicacy could mature, Whale innards tied in a sack of blubber and left hanging in a barn for about 3 months, then cooked and eaten? Makes Seal Blood sound appetising or may be not

Hi KerMit!

Your question is whether you need to skip strenuous exercise while on the Fast800 diet. My experience is that I can continue to exercise as I used to in the past and which I have been able to start up again on now, after starting on the Fast800 diet. My training regimen is as follows:
Every day: 2-3 walks of 30 minutes with the dogs
Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the gym: 4*4 minutes high intensity (>90% intensity) running on a steep tread mill followed by 40 minutes of strength exercises
Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday: 40 minutes running in the forrest at about 80-90% intensity
My experience is that to do the exercising goes without any problem whatsoever, and that the high intensity training completely takes away any hunger issues. The one reservation I have is that I do not go on high intensity training over 60 minutes as I do not want to take in any quick carbs while on the Fast800, I believe the glycogen stored in the body only last for somewhat less than 60 minutes of high intensity exercise. So, if you are like me and enjoys to be active, I would go on as usual. The only flag I would put up is to focus on being hydrated, it could be a good idea to add some electrolytes in the water bottle, or just take in some salt.

Hmmmm sealblood for breakfast – you are not helping guys… I do think I have found the solution with my tiny little porridge portion. Otherwise I must say I love this diet. I never want to go back to my huge pasta dishes or low fat products…..
This week I have done all my exercise early before work, but I have two orienteering competitions over the weekend. On Sunday its long distance and that will probably be tough. But hey we have to do these things 🙂

Hi KetMit – I would definitely go prepared on Sunday – am I teaching you to suck eggs? Sorry if I am. Take high fat stuff with you, nuts, seeds etc just in case you run into bother and have to eat a Mars Bar!

Oh Topcat – Mars Bar – I’m drooling 🙂

Hi Kermit, I can add to my post above that I was today cross country skiing for 2+ hours. I had expected to feel low, but I actually experienced that I felt increasingly better throughout and felt super fresh when I finished. Almost like a runners high! That was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. The only thing I had to eat since last night was a glass of tomato juice. Seems like our bodies are capable of finding and using energy in what we already carry with/on us! !

I’ve had seal blood sausage when I was fishing in Greenland – like a cross between black pudding and morcilla, but quite rich and almost a gamey flavour. We were told that you can’t bring it into the UK – not sure why. Up there, they eat a very protein rich diet and I’ve got to admit I never felt hungry.

Kermit, how did you manage the orienteering events? 🙂 Did you, like me when I was cross country skiing experience a “runners high” or the opposite…? As I work out myself while on the 800Fast diet, I am keenly interested to know others’ experiences 🙂

Morten, i didn’t want to risk anything as we were racing. Hence I had porridge and it worked well. However this morning I did my session in the gym on a fasting stomach and that went OK. Can’t really compare that to an intense run though. So my findings are; if I compete I will have something, but if its just a session in the gym, I wont bother (not even with seal blood sausages :))
I would like to experience the elusive runner high though…..
Hey how lucky are you going out on your XC skiing!! – we just have a constant drizzle here in the West Midlands.

Hi, it takes around 6 weeks to fully transition to fat burning. The days of carb loading will be long gone as your body will rely on fat as it’s energy source. The reason you felt tired is you’re going through carb flu as you get off the carb drug. You’ll improve and then distance or endurance events should mean you’re running better than ever. No more hitting the wall 😀

Evening my fellow friends,
I started BSD in the beginning of November and I found it problematic with combining it with my training. However, 5 weeks in and all my initial problems have all gone. I’m lifting weights, running, horse riding and spinning without any problem at all, in fact I have added extra exercise and I’m coping fine.
I might be slightly over my 800 a day, as I tend to have some nuts and full fat yoghurt on an evening. I haven’t lost as much as my husband, but he has got much more to loose.
I LOVE this way of eating and it’s by far the easiest “diet” I have ever tried. I think I could go on forever, and this forum is keeping me going! I just wanted to say thanks to all of you posting and encouraging relentlessly.
Xxx KerMit

Interesting post as I have been on the 800 for 3 weeks now and am fairly active, cycle 18kms a day,to work and back, run approximately 12 kms a week and play tennis 2 to 3 times a week. I just wanted to lose about 10kg’s particularly around the middle and after 3 weeks I have lost about 6.5kg. I feel great and actually feel like I have more energy. I just came in from a 10km run having broken my personal best time.

I keep wondering how many calories do we really need to function well? My fitness Pal says I should consume about 2460 calories to maintain my current weight which after doing this diet for 3 weeks seems like a lot of calories. I wonder whether my energy levels seem higher due to the selection of quality calories on the diet and the removal of the majority of processed refined carbs? Anyway whatever is going on its great and much easier to keep to than I thought.

While you have largish fat stores the 800 calories is of course nowhere near the calories that you need to do so much exercise, but the body fat fuels the exercise well as you have found. After you get to your target body fat percentage, you will have to increase your calories to your calculated TDEE, and I found it works best for me if I increase it gradually, at around 50 calories a day. This would take about 5 weeks to get you to the number you quoted and you may well lose a few more pounds while increasing your calories, I certainly did. Congratulations on your personal best, and improved energy levels.

I agree totally with Mixnmatch. I too am on maintenance, and have been for 8 weeks now and I have been increasing my intake by approx. 100 cals a day each week. Which means I am now on approx. 1600 cals, but, like MnM did, I am still losing (5lbs in maintenance and happy with that as it gives me some wriggle room). I suspect that I will end up needing between 1800 – 1900 cals per day, but frankly having been on this WOE since the new year, I am struggling to eat much more than the 800 without reintroducing carbs, which I have decided not to do. Though I do use up some cals by having a glass of wine most evenings – just the one! Like you, I feel absolutely great, better than I have in years, and full of energy.

Of course, the lighter you are, the less calories you need, so have you updated your weight in MFP?

Well done on your PB, and good luck with the rest of your BSD journey.

Thanks for the advice. I have updated my weight (currently 86.4kg) on MFP and I’m 182 cm.

Will take what you said on board and start slowly bringing calories back in when I reach my target which is currently about 83kg. What do you guys reckon is it a good body fat percentage for a 51 yr old male?

Obviously men should have a much lower body fat percentage than women, and I reckon that at 51 you’d be doing ok if you could maintain at about 15% -18%, unless you are particularly fit and very athletic, in which case you could go as low as 10%, but you would need to be VERY fit to maintain at that sort of level.

Theodora, I think you are a bit on the low side in your recommendation for fat % for a 51 year old man. From my own experience I think a fat % of anything below 20% is quite excellent – but I have no statistic to back this up. I have read that fat % of 10 % is healthy only for top athletes…. Another aspect is perhaps whether fat % should be considered in isolation, to maintain good health muscle mass is also important.

Hey Morten, you may be right. I did say ypu would need to be extremely fit to maintain 10% – top athletes only probably. I was working on the basis that men should have between 5 -10% less body fat than a woman. I am 68 with a body fat % of 23 and, whilst slim these days, certainly not skinny, and pretty fit, but certainly wouldn’t call myself athletic. I am, however, very happy to bow to your superior knowledge.

Hi Theodora, I Googled “ideal body fat percentage” today and find that it is a huge variation in the recommendations. I will now target your 15% body fat. It could take a while to get there though 😎

MixnMatch & Theodora that was very clever! 🤗 To increase the daily calorie intake by only 50 -100 cals every week sounds like a very good plan. I am on my second BSD 800 trip now and find the eating regiment super, but I had problems with weight increase after my first trip. By using your method and increase the calorie intake very gradually, I may avoid or at least limit the weight gain when I reach my target this second time around. Good plan! Thank you for sharing! 😀

My 50 calories a day averages over a week as 257 calories increase every week, and as I said I actually lost weight during this phase. I will be doing this again if I ever hit my ‘upper trigger weight’ of 11 stone 7 again, back down to 800 for 4 weeks then + 50 calories a day until I am back over my TDEE. It shocked me that I was still losing weight while increasing my calories by this much, but it worked. If you follow Theodora’s plan for a more gradual increase then that should work equally well. I think the traditional increase for this style of post diet diet is 150 calories a week, so my choice was quite extreme.

According to my current Priceline Chemist scales I am about 23.3% body fat at 86.2kg’s (20kg’s of fat), I’m never sure on the accuracy of electronic scales for body fat but it does feel about right and it has been consistent. I think if I can get to about 20% body fat I’d be happy and healthy.

Still feeling great on the 800, and even though I have had a couple of days falling off the wagon it seems easy to climb back on and keep going.

Hi not been around for a while, I sort of got lost, but managed to stay 2.5 stone lower than when I started, I am just lowering my intake to start a fresh 800 8 week, I saw a knee consultant he was polite but basically said sod off fatly come back skinny? A**Hole, he just does not realise how hard lard is to shift of one’s body, so back into battle I go.
Exercise re gym work et all has be low of late, still walking dogs, have 2 now. But wife has decided to change the garden to be more useable, my extreme exercise has been take down old summer house kin heavy, don’t remember it being that heavy 20yrs ago, it must be water logged? Remove collapsing wall, dig earth back and dig out footing for new support wall, new summer house bigger than old so increase hard base and level out.
Not sure how much I have manually dug out, but I have wheel barrowed over 4.5 tonnes of Sand, Cement, aggregate and concrete blocks into my garden plus new summer house to be built.
Now wife has decided to patio the whole area in front of new summer house16Sqmtrs, that will be 2cubic meters of earth to dig out and god knows how much hard core plus slabs, as I am registered disabled with lower back injury, osteoarthritis of Knees, Ankles & thumbs, it has been a challenge, with very little help from my sons?

Hi all – been off the site for a while – but have success to report – made it to my goal weight – 150# – overall loss of 57# over 10 months – BSD – style eating all the way w/ 800-900 calories for about 4 months – I am finding maintenance a big challenge. I find adding back any calories results in rise in blood sugar – unfortunately the weight loss, diet change and exercise increase has not resulted in stabilizing or reducing of BS. That’s life – and I overall feel better so now to the current task: adding calories without increasing BS (of any sort). Metformin 500 mg BID with meals. AM fastings have climbed to over 150 again – snack or no snack. Frustrating. No MD for 3 weeks – will see how this one approaches the T2D. Last ones were luke-warm – their focus was telling how this is a progressive disease …… yeah, OK, and none of us get out alive -but I’m not ready to sign the DNR just yet, so now what.
I love these forums and reading the support and feedback from everyone – will dial down the sarcasm if people find it off-putting.
Good Weekend ! (unless you have other plans)

Hi Raintoday — wow, absolutely wonderful loss for you!! So well done! Interesting issue with blood sugars as you transfer to maintenance — you will have to keep us posted as you “play” around (investigate) with your food intake and if certain foods are the problem or if it is more generalized. Have you tried going very low carb (20 grams/day max)? Let us know what you discover but HUGE congratulations on your success.

Thx, Californiagirl – and to everyone posting – I’ve increased the exercise quite a bit – someone at the gym who trains people thinks I am down to about 20% body fat – age 60. On this WOE I rarely feel hungry and the cravings for junk have really subsided – if the Butterfinger bars start looking tempting then I know its time to get a meal going. Re: the <20 Gm carb – yikes ! I just started charting my foods again in My Fitness – generally under 40 – that berry mix in the morning protein shake may have to go for a couple weeks. I have also been doing some intermittant fasting – 24 hr, 16 hr but I don’t work out when I do that . May start doing some walking those days. My Fitness says my maintenance calorie count is about 2200 – sounds like a way lot to me – but they’re also figuring on about 240 gm of carbs – not any more !! I will be playing around w/ the foods/exercise balance and see what happens – will stay connected here.
Sumo – good on you for coming back here and for doing all that work ! I took down a garage once then used a sledge (?) to break up the cement pad – ( it was already pretty cracked but needed to be in manageable pieces to transport) – niece and nephews (boys were strapping teenagers at the time) took one look and bailed – their dad and I did the work of loading, etc.

Garden challenge seems to go on and on, to date just over 4.75 tonnes of material into garden, new supporting wall built be me, looks good for my first wall, now onto footings for new summer house, as there was a concrete base already there, I was just going to extend it. Base was built by my eldest son many years ago either it has moved or he used a broken spirt level? I am now levelling out using concrete blocks; worst misalignment is about 2” drop? Bigger job than I thought, once done build new summer house. To date half a day’s help from son-in-law, couple of afternoons from 32yrs youngest son back living at home, (mother makes his life to easy) but moaning all the time, most of work by myself I will be 59 next month, registered disabled with bad back, both knee severely cream crackered, both ankles knackered, and both thumbs have joined the pain game (osteoarthritis) so been slow going. Latest is the wife has decided that 16SqM area in front of new summer house is going to be slabs as a patio? Wish I could get a digger into my garden which didn’t look like me with a spade, dig 6” top soil, get rid of grass bit recycle soil lay 4” hard core1”OF SAND AND CEMENT MIX, put my feet up, no chance, hot tub ordered now to arrange a crane for an over the house lift, big lift my house is 30’ back and 20’ above road level, once this is all done turn attention to front garden?
To go with all of the pain and struggle I am enjoying myself doing something physical.