Hi all – messed up on the kg vs pounds! I need to lose 120-140 pounds – I don’t want to be ‘skinny’ just healthy. I am focusing on getting my waist to 34 inches. I used to be a size 16 with a 36 waist, so I think I would be happy around that. I have a few milestones before I make that ‘final’ decision. The first 8 weeks is milestone 1.

Hi Jeggy,

Welcome to the forum, there are plenty of people here who have a range of experience and weight to loose on the forums who are always happy to chip in with advice. There is even a group who have lost over 100lbs successfully and are now in maintenance.
My own take on your questions is providing you keep the carbs down really low, so you have switched over into fat burning mode, you don’t have to force yourself to eat 800 cals a day if you don’t want to. Once I got into eating low carb (aiming for around 20g a day) I found that I often only want to eat once a day and that means I am under 800 cals. But to be clear, I wouldn’t be comfortable eating sufficient carbs to cause insulin to rise and low cals as I think that would cause my body to adapt to a low cal diet rather than burning fat reserves.
I have only been on this journey for 4.5 months, but have found the advice to weigh everything and put it in one of the apps you can get for smart phones which calculates carbs and calories to be really helpful. As are the regular 4 or 8 week challenge threads, where people set themselves targets for a few weeks at a time to help break the journey into smaller steps which makes it feel less daunting and report on progress on a weekly basis.

Welcome Jeggy, and I look forward to welcoming you to the 100 club when you get that far. I found the more milestones or mini-goals the better when I was losing my 110 pounds odd. I even used both pounds and kg as it gave me twice as many things to celebrate. Don’t be nervous, it really does get easier, and as you have already found, keeping the carbs in check removes what many of us have thought for years is hunger, but in reality is just cravings. Listen to your body when the carb-noise dies down and you will discover what real hunger feels like and start to appreciate it.

Thank JGwen. I have a diary in which I capture things on a daily basis; stuck my goals on the fridge etc. The BSD Diary is very helpful and will order it again when I do my next milestone.

Thank you Mixnmatch. I have been capturing both losses in kg and lb, as you say it is real, brings it home stronger to me. In the BMI calc I have to lose 140 lb. But I have decided to focus on the 8 week blocks. I am discovering the tastes I used to love – had paprika today – haven’t had that in years! It was so yummy. I like my spice, herbs. Going through the recipes I am very happy with them – veg; goats cheese, eggs (love eggs!), chicken and salmon. I have been measuring. I do not have a smart phone (hate Apple products) – just a blackberry. But I love my diary and journal. I am a pen/paper girl. I also hope to go to these forums daily – love the success stories.

I’d like to offer a welcome to Jeggy. Seems you have made a good solid start and have things organised to continue your BSD journey. I recommend joining a 4wk challenge, as this doesn’t feel as daunting as 8wks. Setting some mini-goals is helpful for motivation too and these don’t need to be weight related – could be getting into an item of clothing you had side lined as too small, or maybe an inch lost from your waist, or something exercise related. Hitting mini-goals boosts the sense of achievement and helps to keep one focused.

Be sure to make good use of the forum, join any thread you feel has relevance for you and I’m confident you will get a warm welcome. Hope you will soon be telling us about some wonderful positive results – best wishes to you.

Thank you SunnyB – it is very kind of you. I will def check out the forums and post my progress. I hope to lose 20kg in the my first 4 weeks.

The very warmest of welcomes to you, Jeggy! You have found your way to a thread where we consider
daily laughter an essential ingredient to achieving/maintaining our goals. I can so relate to needing to
lose 140 lbs. I made short work of it in 10 months by weighing and measuring my food, and counting my
daily carbs. You will soon arrive at a carb level that yields the results you are after, too. Like you, I don’t
possess an iphone/smartphone, but quite enjoyed the diary I created. I’ve been in maintenance for 10 1/2
months, so anything and everything is achievable with this way of life. We are here to help with any
questions or problems that may arise, so use this extraordinary community for support. You can learn
a great deal from posting every day, and friendship is a powerful tool that we share. As Sunny says, join
as many threads as you find interesting to you! I’m not proficient in calculating in kgs, (I’m American) but
20kg (44lbs) in 4 weeks seems a very ambitious goal. Did I read it correctly?
We all look forward to reading your posts…Very best wishes on your journey to wellness 🙂

Allie

Hi Allie! Yes 20 kg is 44 pounds. 1 kg is 2.2 pounds. My scales are in kg, to the tenth – so every .1 kg is important!

Thank you for the warm welcome – it is good to see that it is achievable. I have been diagnosed as pre diabetic. My brother is a T1 diabetic – a virus attacked his pancreas. He was always the healthiest in the family – i was always ‘chubby’. The last five years have been so hard on my emotionally, and living alone can be hard. My wider network of friends are actually in Canada, and I live in the UK. I have family here, that does help. I have seen my brother suffer through so much and when I heard that my weight was the cause of my pre-diabetic condition I just cried. It took me a long time to do something about it (since last fall). So this past weekend, I decided.

I am a bit nervous about this whole process, hopeful, a bit scared (don’t know why). I want my life, my health back. I miss the confident happy me,

PS Allie – I am so pleased to hear of your success, it is so important to hear it from those who have been through it!

Jeggy, it’s very normal to feel apprehensive about a new way of life that requires you to reject everything you
ever knew about nutrition and dieting. The old wisdom about calories in, calories out has been turned on
its head, and we all acknowledge that all calories are not created equal 🙂 It took me 17 years to become
a morbidly obese, disabled woman. I couldn’t even exercise because it was too painful to stand for more
than 10 minutes at a time. I desperately wanted my life back too! I’m not prediabetic or T2D, but I am
highly insulin resistant. You have every opportunity to reverse your condition, and I know that friends
here will soon be along to share their amazing stories with you. Today I feel 25 yrs younger, and if you
trust the process and believe in yourself, you will enjoy the same outcome 🙂 I’m confident of it!

Allie

Hi Jeggy, I just want to add a welcome. I am quite new to the BSD as I only finished the 8 weeks on Monday, having lost 21lbs. From the start I have never felt hungry or craved bread or potatoes, which I used to eat daily. I still buy bread for my husband and our dogs & butter these at lunchtime, but am not tempted to sneak a piece!

It helps to plan ahead so that you know what you are to eat the next day. I also do not have a smart phone and prefer pen & paper, so I write the next day or two menu. I try to keep my meals simple but try a new recipe each week. I, too, was nervous when I started, even though I’d spent weeks reading up all I could about it. It will get easier & the lovely people on here are such a help, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

Hi Jeggy
I started at a similar time to Sandy13 and Squidge and we have all done really well. Today is my 8 week anniversary and just made it to 28lb loss. In that time I have had a knee replacement and been fairly sedentry for a few weeks, so it even works without exercise.
Good luck and welcome to the ‘bad gals’ gang!

Allie
Apologies for the delayed response, I had a day of meetings yesterday. To get there I had to navigate the rail system on crutches, not really an expereince I want to repeat! Back to the subject New Orleans, I have only every been post Katrina, but have been 5 times since then and evey year it changes. It really is an optimistic city. I like the idea of your Fat Tuesday. (I think you should now have “Thin” Tuesday) On the day that Jazz fest line up is announced we always celebrate with red beans and rice. This year we had red beans and cauliflower rice!
Have a great day everyone!

Hi Jeggy,

The reason I suggested using one of the apps available such as fatsecret to record your daily food is because it makes it very easy to keep an eye on the amount of carbs. As soon as you enter each item in your meal it breaks down on the amount of fat, protein and carbs. As one of the people on the forums said, those carbs are so sneeky hiding in all sorts of ingredients that you didn’t think of. I find the apps helpful because when standing in front of the fridge in an evening I can quickly check potential combinations to help me decide on tea for that night.

Hi Jeggy
Just to add in my two pennorth worth. I was diagnosed T2 diabetic last August with a high Hba1c and got my blood sugar levels back into the normal range in 4 months following the BSD. There are lots of posts on the forum from other people who have done the same, including people who were pre-diabetic.

I’ve also lost just under 5 stone to date (mostly since being on BSD but some before).
As other people have said, one of the most helpful things for me in losing the weight was to set myself small (but meaningful to me) targets. I never thought in terms of the big weight loss goal until recently. It would have made it harder for me I think.

Well done for starting and for posting – stick with the BSD and I promise you it will work.

Marie xx
nb – I definitely agree with JGwen about using fatsecret to record (and plan) your food intake. It is great for seeing how many cals/carbs/sugar/fats/protein you’re having. I haven’t got a smart phone. I just use it on my computer. Here’s the link if you want to take a look http://www.fatsecret.co.uk

Hi all – thank you for your comments, they are all welcomed, thank you for your support.
This is day four – I have more energy, slept a bit better (but o man had to get up quite a bit for a wee!!). So far I have lost 2.9 kg (6.4 lb) – very surprised! I craved a piece of toast with my oats this morn (had with rhubarb – yum!). So I had a coffee as well, that helped.

I have a bit more energy and looking forward to my first goal!

Have a grand day
J

I lost 200 lbs in 14 months by keeping my carbs below 20 grams a day. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you actually weigh, measure and count your calories and carbs. Oats, for example, are enormously high in carbs and while they ostensibly are slow-burning, I know from personal experience that they can hold you back as much as bread does. When you’re in it for the long haul like we big losers are, you have to be very focused. Don’t be afraid. Just keep moving forward and learn as you go. That’s what we all did. You can do it too. 🙂

Hi Escnecca thanks for the comments. I learned that a small portion (as per the recipe) did not have the desired effects – while it made me fuller longer, I only lost .3 this morn and felt a bit off. I feel fine now, had headaches today. Loved the salmon and veg; poached egg on half an avocado and a salad with feta for lunch. With a coffee – that is only 700 cal. So v pleased. Had to drink a lot today – 2 and half litres so no more headaches. I will post on Sunday with the end of my first week results! Have a grand weekend all. J.