Hi Kags
I can’t point you there but he definitely said it. ‘Eat half a plateful of green veg with every meal. Don’t weigh them’ is what he said. If it’s not in the book it’s on this website. It’s very confusing. I think he s trying to encourage greens eating and the cals are not that much.
Penny

Thanks, Penny. I did a little hunting on Google and found a post from Dr Mosley on here mentioning half a plate of greens and not weighing them. Didn’t say anything about counting the calories though. Had a load over the past two days, so will see if there is any effect on my current plateau. So frustrated right now. Blood sugar seems OK, but I’m so hungry and weight loss is completely stalled.

Hi Kags

I just caught the back end of your posts about greens and calorie counting. The calories are so small in ‘leaves’ that they will add negligible numbers of calories to your daily total compared to the benefits you will gain from nutrients and fibre. I think that’s why Dr M says you don’t need to measure. Your half plate might only come to about 30 calories. You said you are feeling really hungry. I wonder if you are adding enough fats to your meals? I am seven weeks in now and am almost having to remember to eat otherwise I wouldn’t bother, and I’m sure this is because, not only have I cut right back on the carbs, but I am having more fat with every meal.

Hi Janet,

You could be right. I’m not averse to fats, but I do think I’m being more cautious because of the high calorie count of them. Will just have to try and include more where I can and see if it makes a difference.

Kags

That’s why I stopped counting calories and switched to counting carbs only. I have no more than 50 g of carbs a day but that means my protein and fats are unlimited (no carbs in those!) I only have to work out the carbs in veg and legumes. I only eat when I am hungry and stop eating when I’ve had enough. Could also help you with your hunger.

Hi Kags
I thought if you’re not weighing them you can’t really count the cals. I swing between weighing and not weighing.
Re feeling hungry- I d say increase your fats and decrease your carbs- I had a horrible plateau and started tracking carbs on MFP which made a huge difference. It’s fats that stave off the hunger. I know many of us struggle to feel ok about fats after all the anti fat propaganda, but they’re definitely our friend! Now I’m on the last day of week 8 and I’m totally ok with eating fats which is great because I’m never hungry.
Hope things improve for you.
Did you come across Jenny Ruhls book ‘low carb problems solved’v (£3 on kindle) I found it very helpful
Penny

Hi, I was starving for the first two or three days, just like you and wondered how I was going to get through 8 weeks. I’m on day five now and the hunger has gone, I think mainly due to getting my head around eating full fat, it seems so alien for a diet, I guess that’s years and years of dieting conditioning, failed diets. Keep going and expect the odd setback. Don’t let it make you give up.

I have seen some people have stopped counting calories and are counting carbs instead. Where did the number 50g of carbs come from? I have the book, is it in there? I am in week 7 and think this may be the way to go at the end.

Hi Liz
I actually saw it elsewhere and I can’t remember where
Basically it said that 50 to 100 grams / day would help you lose weight while under 50 grams / day would put you into ketosis.
We know it works as some folk are testing for ketosis and getting positive results.
I would be too, but typically, I got a dodgy batch of Ketostix which apparently wouldn’t change colour if I dipped them in the deep fat fryer.

I think I’d be happier basing our diet on 50g carbs a day if it came from a source I knew about. I’ll have a look around on google and see what comes up. Thanks Bill.

https://authoritynutrition.com/5-most-common-low-carb-mistakes/

There is actually some very good info on that site

I love this site too, lots of good, sensible advice, well argued and referenced, and not too American.

Excellent article Bill, thank you.
My doc wrote up research discussing why we should be eating high fat and low carb. Basically we want to burn fat, not protein, nor carb. It took me several weeks to be comfortable eating fats after having 65 years of believing fat = fat. When I shifted my calories away from carbs to fat, I started feeling much better, less to no hunger despite being on high doses of prednisone. Think about the way they fatten up cattle. They put them in a feed-grain (high carb, low fat) lot and they gain immense amounts of weight. The doc also said that prime athletes with only 4% fat can go farther and longer if they are burning fat. They run out of carbs and protein quicker.

My doctor said that one receives sustained levels of energy burning fat and that the mind becomes clearer. I have found this to be true.

I experimented and came up with 50 carbs or less a day based upon my own experience.
However, I wish I had known ahead of time about ketostix, so that I could have refined exactly how many carbs i could get away with, lol. But, by the time I did my doctor said it was too late. In the beginning the stix will show ketones being thrown by the body. But at some point, the brain and body, as he said, “WOW, we like that stuff and let’s retain the ketones”. That’s why the ketostix won’t work after a while. You are no longer throwing ketones, your body is retaining them and using them as a preferred fuel. Note symptoms of ketosis like a sweet taste in the mouth, thirst. These and other symptoms can be googled.

I am well beyond the 8 weeks. During the 8 weeks, I followed the diet to a T. Weighed everything, counted every calorie. I lost 30 pounds and 5″ around my waist. Interestingly, I had to take large doses of prednisone through out the diet and in the early stages thought I could gnaw my arm off! The last time that I needed high-dose prednisone i had NO hunger what so ever. Hot diggity dog!

The only mistake I made was when I first came off of the 800/8 week process and I wasn’t quite sure what Dr. Mosley was having us do. I started eating ‘normal’ amounts of carbs and gained weight. Ultimately I found that bottom line, if i wanted to keep the weight loss going, I ONLY needed to keep the carbs under 50 grams and keep the fat up. Also, 50 grams of protein per Dr. Mosley. I could eat normal amounts of food and continue losing weight.

Frankly, I had had enough of counting and weighing etc. I do one day of 800 calories a week and keep up the low carbs, high fat, and 50 grams of protein the rest of the week. That’s all. By now I have a pretty good idea of what 50 grams of protein and carbs look like. Same with how much fat I need to eat. I have a diary of carbs that i eat regularly plus the ones that are treats. I just keep treats et al under 50. I was losing about 3 1/2 pounds a week with the daily 800 calories and now I’m losing about 1 1/2 pounds weekly. And this is with no exercise do to an accident injury. My blood sugars stabilized around 74 from 112 about the 5th week.

I toyed with continuing the 800/day diet, but had to discontinue the rigorous 800 calories because my endocrine system, particularly the thyroid was showing sub-par functioning through regular testing. This was predicted by my doc who said that rigorous dieting could affect the thyroid. He was watching for other signs of low thyroid. By the 7th week, the thyroid functioning had gone from high normal to low normal, so I knew that 8 weeks would be all that would be wise.

I have multiple autoimmune illnesses in addition to pituitary insufficiency. I had to watch blood pressure particularly as it went down way too low. Much salt and extra hydrocortisone later, I no longer faint.

While most would probably say that i should not have done this diet, with very careful and constant monitoring on my part and excellent doctor oversee, it was and is possible. I will say that the first week or two, I didn’t feel so hot. I learned that extra water and salt were very necessary.

I am not hungry. I have had a day here and there of dietary “indiscretion” and yet seem to bounce right back into no hunger and ketosis within a day. Because I must eat to take the medications, it sometimes is a hilarious process. I don’t want to eat, but must and i find that very funny after years of struggling.

Wishing you all the very best!

Hi Gateofheaven

Thank you for your insights, there is so much in there that I can identify with. I am also only counting 50g carbs a day and losing weight at about your rate. I wonder how long it takes for the ketostix to stop working? I guess they never stop working if I keep falling off the wagon and so out of ketosis? I certainly don’t bounce back into ketosis as quickly as you, I’m averaging 2-3 days to get back there. I will also be interested to see what my next thyroid test shows. Thanks again and best wishes.

Another set of tricks that I use.
The first meal is usually eggs per Dr. Mosley with ghee or coconut oil and flax seed meal to um, keep things moving.
The second meal I also keep the carbs down.
The third meal usually has legumes in it to give me sustained energy through the night so that i sleep better. According to my doc this has something to do with epinepheran and low cortisol (i don’t produce hydrocortisone).
If i feel puny, i eat a small mandarin orange, kiwi, or berries. But, at the END of the meal at my doc’s recommendation.
He said that the fat and protein stabilize the blood sugar and it doesn’t go up as high when carbs are then introduced.
Because i am not on medication for diabetes and have more freedom than most, i try to ‘fast’ longer periods between my last meal and breakfast and do not snack. This helps with fat burning per my doc and is quite easy now that i’m in fat burning mode.

Thanks Janet. It has been a long haul, but the fast weight loss was truly a great motivation.
I would say that if I eat 800 calories, keep the carbs down on day one after indiscretions, ah hem, that it is the middle of the second day of low carb that the hunger stops.
I simply allow myself to be hungry! until i get to the ketosis, which signifies itself with a sweet tasting mouth for me. 🙂

Btw, i did have my raggedy days, my days of plateaus and discouragement. But the blogs really did help with the encouragement. I think that it was soooo important for me to succeed, that every little set back was over emphasized in my mind. Once the diet became second nature around the 5th week or so, it was much smoother going. It was a piece of cake by the end of the 8th week. And now that I’ve figured out the 50 grams of carbs or less a day, I’m peaceful. And yes, I do Love a pat of butter on a small piece of bread, lol. It is quite the treat for me!

Yes, I agree its too easy to micro-manage every tiny gain and loss but its not really a healthy state of mind. I lost a stone in around 9 weeks and have another stone to go. But having got half way, I find my state of mind is much more relaxed and I am not weighing every day now. I don’t even count my carbs that strictly, I know roughly what my regular foods are and I still manage to get a very naughty latte in there for 15g a day. I would probably have lost an extra five pound by now without the lattes but I’m just not ready to let them go!

Hi Annie16
Well done for getting through the difficult bit!
Now for the reward.
The other reason- apart from remembering Fat is Our Friend – is that normally we re biting carbs which we re eating. If we stop eating them we burn stored fat. But that takes different enzymes in the body, and it takes 2-3 days to make them. So you feel starving, then it goes away
Penny

Hi Bizzylizzy
It may have been on diet doctor. com
It really works for me to stay way under that – nearer 30g. But it depends on the individual.
Penny

Yes bizzylizzy/penny, it is the diet doctor website

Hi Annie 16
Burning carbs, not biting them!!
Penny

The best way that i know that i’ve eaten too many carbs and am not in ketosis is that i’m HUNGRY!!! ROFL

Hi Penny!
How long it takes for the ketostix to stop showing ketones varies from individual to individual. For me, my doc and I theorized that it took about 5 weeks, although i was clearly in ketosis before then. Around the 5th week I had more sustained energy, my blood sugars stabilized, a general feeling of well being, a sweet taste in my mouth, and a much clearer thinking process. It was fairly dramatic for me. My doctor told me that my body/mind liked the ketones and was keeping them for it’s own use and was no longer throwing them, lol.

While i did not use the ketostix, the information above is what my doc told me expost facto.

Plateau at week 2 – then weight gain ! :[ This always seems to be my Neanderthal Woman post–menopausal response to less food- those of us who held onto our fat stores survived millenia- the ADF worked really well for me a few years ago – others such as juicing and shakes all grind to a halt after first week. Even complete fasts for medical reasons drop little, yet friends look like rakes. I’m sticking with the recipes which are wonderful , and retraining my slavish addiciton to carbs and sugar, moving back onto ADF with more excercise! As a veggie i did wonder if Quorn was throwing the metabolics but thinks its probably body type.

I am really sorry that your weight loss has slowed down, but relieved to read your post as I am on day 23 and have only lost 1 pound in the last eight days and I really have not gone over the 800. I am trying so hard. Knowing that I am not the only one with the problem really helps. I am determined to make this happen and hope that we can both celebrate a good weight loss next week. I really wish you well