Hi!

After three knee operations my weight had crept up to 13st 3 (I’m 5ft 4) Despairing at my ever increasing girth I embarked on the BSD with little confidence but I have found it incredibly easy! I have had no problem sticking to the 800 calories / 50g carb a day and after 12 weeks have lost 2 stone. I need to lose another stone to return to a healthy BMI (and lose the remainder of my wobbly belly) but am concerned that I might need to take a break from the very low calorie diet. I am really nervous about upping my calorie intake and the effect it might have on my weight loss, has my base metabolic rate changed, do I need to introduce more calories gradually? I wondered if I increased my calories to 1200 would I still continue to lose weight or would I be more successful trying to 5:2 (I did attempt to follow the 5:2 a few years ago but found I didn’t lose much weight)? I am so happy with how everything has gone so far but am just a little unsure / nervous about where to go from here – I’d be really grateful if anyone has any advice / experiences to share
Sas

If you really want to have a break you can try 4 weeks or so on 5:2, using 800 for the fast days and your calculated TDEE for the non fast days (calculated TDEE of your target weight if you want to carry on losing more weight but slower). Many people have also continued on 800 until they reached target weights or just increased slightly to 1000-1200 for a period. If the weight loss slows too much then do another focused 8 weeks after that to get to the finish line, but don’t forget to increase calories gradually, if you don’t want to regain any weight.

Thanks so much for the advice, very much appreciated – I’ve just this moment been reading about increasing the calories gradually but I’ll also have a look into my TDEE and think about what I might find best