I hope this isn’t a daft question, but is the 800 calories important for any other reason other than it’s a low amount so will help us lose weight? Would eating slightly more calories but sticking to the principles of the diet have the same beneficial effects, albeit slower, as sticking to the 800?

The reason I ask is I’m on day 6 of the diet and surprisingly I’m not finding it too bad at the moment and am not overly hungry on it, but I’m feeling really knackered for lack of a better word. I have quite an active day including a daily 10 mile round trip walk to work, so I was thinking I might feel less drained if I upped the daily calories a little? I don’t want to do this though if the 800 has other benefits.

Alternatively, any advice on getting more energy would be appreciated.

Thanks

The 800 figure comes from the original Newcastle diet research where the guinea pigs were fed 3 x 200 calories meal replacement shakes a day plus 200 calories worth of green veg.
The idea being to promote the sort of rapid weight loss that those who have had weight loss surgery experience.
If you haven’t read the book it really is a good investment.
I don’t suppose increasing to 1000 calories would do too much harm but there are loads of folk on here sticking to the 800 quite happily, active or not.
As has been mentioned try increasing the amount of fat in your food to give that fuller feeling, the hard to digest carbs should be keeping your digestive system so busy that it doesn’t have time to feel hungry.

Hi CheesyPeas, I think it would be interesting to see how many calories you are burning on your walk to and from work. You could probably make up what you are burning with extra food/fuel/energy. This may help with your fatigue!

I definitely think you’d need more calories with that much daily activity. It wouldn’t hurt to up your intake a bit and see if it makes you feel better – I’m pretty sure you’d still be losing weight.
I haven’t been calorie counting, just eating the Mediterranean style diet, and despite not being very active atm (due to a foot injury I’m getting sorted out), the weight is still falling off me. Once my foot is better and I start walking long distance and running again I’ll add more calories back in, even specifically carbs because otherwise I feel like I might find it hard to get enough calories because I’m already eating plenty and still losing weight!