Good evening just leaving this here so we can all jump on in the morning and begin our new weeks weigh results😁. Here’s to a great week ahead guys.

I got it wrong I am just going into my 11th week😮gosh I am so silly! I weighed myself just before my fast and I was 15stone 6lbs. So in 11 weeks I have lost 2stone and 8lbs😁❤️ I can’t quite believe it still! On WW or Slimming world I wouldn’t have managed that in over a year!! Once again proof they don’t work. Goodnight and god bless and see you all here tomorrow. Birdy 💞🦜

Morning all and a very happy Tuesday to you all. Kafin I love that you held Albert’s hand all the way to the vets, he is one lucky cat to have found a human like you.🤗🤗❤️❤️

My 46 hour fast has brought great results and I have shifted 6lbs! I am over the moon as I had been stagnant for 3 weeks! I will definitely be doing another one from Sunday.

Have a fab day everyone xxxx Birdy💞🦜

That’s fantastic results from fasting Birdy! Wonderful!!

Hi folks, I finally have some results to share with you.
For the benefit of newcomers I have been a volunteer on a research project being run by the local university. The project is to monitor the physical changes for a group of women in their 50’s following a 12 week program of a short (30 minutes a week) high intensity weight training session.
I didn’t want to screw up the results for the guy who’s PHD was behind the research, so I have not been too intense on eating program. – Its been almost a dry run for maintenance eating.
So at the end of the 12 weeks I have lost 3 inches bust and waist, and 4 inches from my hips. I know I have also lost inches from my thighs but don’t have a start measurement.
My maximum weight for the three exercises we did, chest press, chest pull and leg press has all increased substantially.
Here’s the interesting thing for all of you who worship the great god of the bathroom scales I have lost just 0.4kg over the 12 weeks.

I did have great hopes that the expensive body composition scanner would give me some useful information. I tried to find the details of the scanner online, and what looks like a more modern version retails for nearly £6K. So you would expect accurate results.

I was disappointed and surprised to discover that the inch loss doesn’t appear to match the figures for fat and muscle. I have lost just 1.6kg of fat and gained 1.1kg of muscle. – So enough spare tyre to run from 3 inches at the bust to 4 inches at the hips weighs only 3lbs. Something I need to research to understand.

Very interesting Jgwen. I love all those numbers!

Hi everyone, a new week. I am repeating my post from the last thread.
I am dancing around the house singing Happy…….. (by Pharrell Williams). I’m so happy. HbA1c 6.5 (up 0.2 points from 6.3), cholesterol 4.2 (up 0.2 from 4.0), triglycerides up a tiny tiny bit but still within normal. Now I just have to get back to losing weight. Why am I so happy that they are both up a bit – because I expected them to be up a lot. I have had nearly 3 weeks on a cruise and then, before I could normalise my diet, family came to visit and wanted to eat out constantly. I think this proves that even on holiday I stick to BSD principles of eating. Seeing the doctor tomorrow and I can brush off whatever he says about me gaining weight, my overall health shows I am strict about controlling the diabetes.

I dont see the point of repeating the same mistakes week after week so I look for something I might have learnt. This week it is that having fasted for 2 nights for a total of 14 hours each night I havent collapsed in a heap. Not losing any weight does not put me off deciding I dont need my night time snack as I know the weight will come off. The night snack has just become a habit so even if I feel a bit hungry before bed I wont have anything to eat. I wont be fasting exactly but going without between dinner and breakfast.

Have a good week everyone. Still singing.

Afternoon all – that’s a fantastic result Birdy in 11 weeks, congratulations! 🙂
JGwen, interesting results after 3 months. How do you feel now the programme has come to an end? Well done on sticking to it.
SG – good news for you too with those numbers, you must be delighted!
Kazzeex

Hi JGwen!

according to this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage :

“Irrespective of the location from which they are obtained, the fat cells in humans are composed almost entirely of pure triglycerides with an average density of about 0.9 kilograms per litre. ”

So (completely made-up numbers here for mathematical convenience!) if you weighed 100kg and were 20% fat – i.e. borderline athlete* – that fat would weigh 18kg. If you weighed 100kg but were 40% fat (you’d need to see your doctor pretty quickly!) you would have 36kg of fat.

Remember also that we’re 60% water (which is present in varying amounts in all forms of body tissue) so be impressed! And don’t worry, you won’t end up looking like a bodybuilder!

*Men should have a lower body fat percentage than women

So nice to see the week starting out with so much positivity!
Sunshine-girl – congratulations on your bloodwork. The weight loss will surely follow. I’m also going to try to extend my overnight non-eating time this week to see what impact it has on my levels.
JGwen – I like to imagine body fat as pounds of butter. It has a similar density. So 3 pounds does take up a fair bit of space. Gaining muscle through your core will also act like a bit of a girdle and will hold everything in a bit more as well. I think your inches and fat loss from just one, albeit hard, session per week is fantastic. I need to get back into a bit of strength training, so this is inspiring to see that you don’t necessarily have to be going to the gym every day to have results. Being back in the saddle this week has shown me exactly where I am lacking strength, and it is mostly in my core! My horse has been an absolute angel, packing me around like a school pony in a sedate walk, but I am still a bit concerned that if he does act up, that I won’t be able to stay centred in the saddle. So time for some emergency measures.
Birdy – 2 stone 8lbs in 11 weeks is amazing! Well done!
For this week I’m going to focus on maintaining nice even blood glucose levels and seeing what a difference that makes. My monitor tells me that I had 6 hypo incidents last week, so it would be nice to reduce or eliminate those. I’m still figuring out what spikes me and/or causes hypos and what doesn’t, so won’t necessarily be perfect yet. I’ve done fairly well today as I have not gone above 5.9 or below 5.1. I quit eating a little bit early last night, so I think that helped with my overnight pattern as well. I’m off work this week so I will likely be able to get home a little earlier, but if not, I will try not to eat anything once I’m home or if ravenous will just have some cheese or something.

Evening all, apologies for going AWOL for a week!
Last week was taken up by rather frustrating times at work and getting ready for my few days away. I’ve been staying with my folks since Friday night and am heading home tomorrow, so normal service will be resumed.
As I’m away, I’ve missed my week 5 weigh in today, so will have to wait to week 6 to see how I’ve handled the five nights away. Last week’s weigh in was a loss of 3.2lb, which took me to 20.4lb in four weeks.

For my two day course, I made the decision to skip breakfast, eat whatever was presented at lunch and then make a suitable dinner to try and keep in the area of 800 cals, not worrying too much about carb quantity. I’m actually really happy with how it’s gone, whatever the scales say next week. Yesterday lunch I had a small amount of lasagne (my absolute fav, so I don’t regret a single mouthful!), a bit of coleslaw and a bit of cheese. Dinner was a ham and feta salad. Today’s lunch was a slice of quiche and coleslaw, dinner was bacon and a fried egg. Most importantly for me, the willpower required to decline ginger biscuits, lemon cheesecake (my fav pudding) and baked potato at various points, was no where near as much of a struggle as I would usually expect. I also enjoyed a couple of glasses of prosecco (with edible glitter!!) on my son’s birthday at the weekend, which was a lovely treat – although no birthday cake!

The higher carbs mean I’m noticing a little more hunger than normal, but I’ll be fasting until dinner tomorrow night when I’ll be back on track so no issue there.

Interestingly, there was an orthopaedic surgeon on the course I was on and I heard him mentioning The Obesity Code by Jason Fung, and from what I heard he seems to be a strong proponent for fasting – it’s always nice to see medical professionals on this path.

Hi All

Just dropping by to say hi, and see where everyone’s up to.

Birdy, sounds like you’re doing amazingly well, congratulations!

JGwen, the report back from your 12-week program is just fascinating. Huge change in measurements, and in maximum weight you can exercise with, from just one hard session per week. I would honestly not have expected such a dramatic change, and it’s really encouraging for the rest of us that we can get great benefits without living in the gym. And yes, you’re quite right that it’s also a lesson for those of us – like me – who can’t tear themselves away from the scales, lol.

Martyn and arcticfox, I thought your observations on JGwen’s muscle/fat change were interesting too. Arcticfox, I’m with you on core strength – mine is shocking, and it’s *so* important. Another thing to add to my to do list, sigh.
Sunshine, good job on the bloodwork, that’s a brilliant demonstration of how much you’ve managed to get this WOE to stick in your life, even when on holiday.

BeeGirl, congratulations on your latest discard! And on finding that resisting things like biscuits is getting easier. That must be a nice feeling, I’m hoping I get there too! And yes it’s great that more medicos are starting to come around to this WOE.
For me, this last week has been a disaster. My feeling of unwellness continued over the long weekend, and I think I lived on toast and vegemite. (Fellow Aussies – and Kiwis – will understand this, though everyone else is probably shuddering in their shoes. Vegemite is mother’s milk to those of us who grew up eating it, the ultimate comfort food when we feel queasy, even though I understand it makes the rest of the world run screaming.) It was cold and wet, so I barely moved from the sofa in front of the fire, just sat on my backside, read books, and *ate toast*.

So you can imagine what the scales did to me. Plus I feel bloated and horrible. I know most of it is just water weight, but all the same I could kick myself. And my Achilles tendon is all stiff and sore again because of course I didn’t do any exercises or stretching for it over the weekend. Aren’t I too old for that kind of stupidity? Nope, apparently not. Finally, to add insult to injury, as BeeGirl said more carbs means I’m now hungrier. Sigh. Ah well, I will try to get back on the fasting horse and see if that sorts me out, because just now I feel pretty icky. All I can hope for is that I remember this icky feeling next time I want to stuff my face.

Goal for this week: get back on the low carb and fasting horse and get rid of the water weight I just added.

Elky.

Elky – I wish we could bottle that icky feeling, I need a dose of it no and again. I’m a non-vegemite (or marmite) loving Kiwi, probably because I had an American Dad and it wasn’t that common in our house. But I understand the comfort of toast and something, my pick is always peanut butter but I can’t be trusted with the jar at home so I need to work towards that! I’m sure you’ll get back on the horse, I’m finding the cheap breathlyzer is quite good at keeping me on track and I’m constantly checking! I don’t want to take myself out of ketosis and get a zero reading so I’m hanging in there for now xx

Hi Elky and everyone

Sorry you have been feeling queasy – but I can second the toast and vegemite cure! I love toast and vege, and it is very much my comfort food (and a good pick me up after a late night/few wines 😊) One of the main foods I miss with this WOE is toast.
This week I made some low carb coconut flour bread from the lowcarbyum website. It doesn’t rise very much (I might whisk the egg whites next time to see if that helps) but it has a nice flavour and you can toast the small slices. I had some toasted with avo and cheese yesterday.

Kafin – peanut butter is also a fave of mine. I have been using other nut butters, but it can be hard to stop at one serve!
Congrats Birdy – you are doing so well and inspire us 🌼🌼 And JGwen thanks for those results and you have made my twice weekly over 55s gym sessions sound very worthwhile. I will keep at them.
Beegirl and Articfox – so good that you are both on track and doing very good things for yourselves. And lots of happy music from Violinist and SunshineGirl.
One week at a time ✔

Kafin, a Kiwi who doesn’t like vegemite?? That’s outrageous lol I share your enthusiasm for peanut butter too, and agree it’s dangerous to have it in the house.

Merry, I haven’t tried any of the low carb bread recipes yet, but it sounds like I really need to give them a go. Might help me stay out of trouble! 🙂

I’m a non-Kiwi/Aussie who likes marmite, and if anyone is looking for a toast alternative with it or vegemite, the broccoli sandwich bread in the recipe section is very good with it!

Morning! Noobie here, just started a couple of days ago but already seen several pounds drop which is very motivating! Thought I’d join the thread to keep me going for the rest of the week. It’s actually been not too bad to stick to so far, but I’ll see how we go as the weeks go by! 🙂

Any tips for surviving a work conference tomorrow? My plan is to either skip breakfast so I can have a little lunch (not sure what the food options are though, if there are salads its a win if sandwiches not so much!) or have breakfast and take a snack bar thing made from one of the recipes in the book and eat that while going out for a walk at lunch (to totally avoid temptation and the questions about why I’m not eating!!). Thinking the latter might be a god idea – any suggestions?

Hi Jamlan, These work catering events can be a bit of a nightmare. First don’t give in and think you will have a little to be polite, because it will set you back. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for different food, if you were suffering from a nut allergy you wouldn’t eat nuts just to be polite.

Its rare now for there to not be a request for details of any dietary preferences so say ketogenic. – Or ask them to provide you with either meat or cheese and salad or omelette.

What I have found is that as soon as you come out to say you are eating low carb someone else in a large group will also say so am I. Its spreading, and you are helping the caterers by ensuring they think about low carb options.

Great to see people being so happy with their results and also just sticking to the plan! According to the scales, I have put on a kg, but (and this does chime with others on here on lbs v inches!) this morning I was able to zip up (and close button) the size 12 jeans. Still bit too snug/muffin toppy for everyday wear, but that’s what I thought just a cple of months ago with the size 14 ones which are now really quite loose. I might focus on muffin top ratio than scales for the next few weeks! Allie, I have not yet tried doing planks but have been doing Esnecca’s breathe out, tense in, and hold! I should try and progress to something with a bit more oomph. Hope everyone has a good day!

Good morning all and welcome Jamlam as JGwen said don’t be afraid to ask for your dietary needs there are so many people with them nowadays! Celiac people wouldn’t eat bread or other gluten to be polite either! If you felt you couldn’t tell them you were on a Keto diet you could say you are gluten intolerant! A little white lie won’t hurt.😂😂. Your idea of having breakfast and taking a snack is good and you seem to have embraced this woe already. The fast discard is what got us all sticking to it and there has never been a diet or woe I have or other have tried that gives you such good results right from the start! It truly is great as there is nothing worse than discarding 2lbs and the following week putting half or all of it back on!😢. Wendy does regular fasts and she has stuck to this woe and has never gained and this has been since September! Some of us go at a slower rate and some of us get stuck but our bodies are all so so different and no two bodies work the same. Allie lost 10stone in 10 months! So it all proves that we will go through our woes differently to everyone else. The thing to remember is never beat yourself up if you fall off of the wagon! Esnecca one of our veterans on here told us she had loads of frustration and off wagon falling but she got back on and has been maintaining for a long time and has discarded 100’s of pounds! So we know it works and by tweaking it to what your body is good with will give you the results you and all of us do desperately want❤️😉. Drink loads of water as water is our friend, really stick to drinking between 2 and 3 litres! It works! On another diet many years ago I decided to see just how much water aids weight lose. So I did a week of drinking 2 litres a day and kinda stuck to SW plan and in a week I actually discarded nearly 7lbs! The following week I only drank a few glasses of water a day and ate exactly the same as the week before and I only discarded around a 1lb! I did it again lots of water in the third week and again my discard was a lot more. I know this is not just my body as all of us in here discard whilst drinking loads of the council pop😂 (water) so it is very important that we do it. I also want you to know that each and everyone of us on here are friendly, non judgmental and supportive, no question is a silly one and we are always willing to help. If we don’t know something you can bet there will be someone else along who does. We have people that have been at this for years and some like me that have only been going for 11 weeks! But we have all probably come across most problems along our journeys so advice is in an abundance. Don’t be shy and jump on as many threads as you can as you maybe able to help and advise others too. This is a Way Of Life and we have all had experiences that could help each other. I am now at the 3 stone discard and if you had told me I would have done this in just 11 weeks at the start of my journey I would have laughed my ass off😂😂😂. But here I am almost 2 sizes down (on my bottom half, boobs are still big😂) and 3 stone lighter!! That never would have happened if it wasn’t for this incredible WOE and the incredible people on this forum. I have tried every diet and fad diet out there and I never got the results I wanted and I never lost more than a stone! Right I have waffled on enough! Welcome again and all the best on your journey Jamlam💐 Birdy💞🦜

6T that is awesome news👍👍👍. I wore my new size 16 jeans yesterday! They were a little snug, but I got them on and kept them on with only a tiny muffin top😂 the apron I have to wear covered that up though😉.

Great to see positives on here too. Have a great day everyone! I am off to the physio terrorist this morning! He will tell me off as I haven’t done all my exercises 😱😱. 💞🦜

It is a great feeling isn’t it Birdy!! I have kept the size 18 jeans I started off in in January, and aim to keep them to remind me what I do not ever ever want to go back to! Getting down to size 10, which I was until late 40s (I’m now 57) would be great, but let’s see first with the size 12! Like you, it’s my bottom half that is noticeably slimmer (but with a bit of apron/overhang and still jelly belly….) – still an F cup but no bra extender now at the back – in fact that went quite early on!

6T. It is a fabulous feeling❤️❤️💐🌺. I put my old jeans on as I have not bought too many new sizes and I am constantly pulling them up!! I need to get a belt😂. I am a happy Birdy and a double F cup and I am plateaued that I haven’t lost anything off of them as that will help keep them from going south😂😂. I just want to lose fat off of my back then things on top will start to fit better. But as we all know the fat never goes from where we want it too!!❤️ Ah well at least it is shifting else where😉. 💞🦜

Just back from the doctors and surprise, surprise he was not annoyed about the weight gain. He said it was only to be expected and he was very pleased with my other numbers (BG, cholesterol and triglycerides) and is not testing me for cholesterol any more as he is satisfied that this diet is working to keep it within normal limits. He couldn’t quite believe it at first and kept testing me every 3 months now for over a year but he finally gets it.

He is still gorgeous.

Thanks for the warm welcome! 🙂 and what a lovely positive forum. Looking forward to spending more time here as the weight (hopefully) continues to drop off!

Elky, for that bloated icky feeling you should try ginger. Tip from my hairdresser. I usually buy a chunk of fresh ginger when I am planning a curry and dont use it all. It sits in the fridge and goes yucky (another good descriptive word) and I throw it out. Tip number one dont keep it in the fridge but put it in the fruit bowl. Second, when it is past its best, lightly peel and slice and steep in boiling water and you have a refreshing ginger drink which is the cure all for sickness, bloating and digestive problems. I have taken it out and re-steeped it in boiling water with a teaspoon of cinnamon which is supposed to help with blood glucose. Or powdered ginger does the same job.

I am pleased SG that your doctor is supportive and acknowledged your results! But I have to say that, however gorgeous, it would raise my hackles if any doctor I saw expressed “annoyance”! Same would go for any other professional service provider, lawyer/accountant etc. There to advise not judge! Talking of commonly accepted and expected service standards, I can’t remember who recently had the ar**y estate agent selling their property – hope that is going well now!

Hi everyone ! I have been busy with late meetings, doc’s appointments etc so have a bit of catching up to do !!

First of all SG, SO PLEASED for you…..you smashed it ! Fantastic results xxx That must really give you a boost after your doubts and recent disappointments and you deserve it xx
Talking of things going south ( eeek !!!) I had my follow up consultation with my surgeon today ( who is also quite pleasant on the eye, SG !! ) All is well following my op early May which is a relief … but ….I have to see another specialist because I have developed a hernia in two areas …. I will find out my options next week but I think I have had enough surgery for the moment !
I did wonder if discarding quite lot of belly blubber has contributed to the hernia situation ??? Or maybe I just didn’t notice it under the blubber before ?? SixT I dare not do Essie’s exercises until I know what is going on with my insides !! Well done on the size 12 jeans !! Put that fag down 😉 😉
Enough about my bits !
I was thrilled today to find lacto fermented veg in a bio /health shop !! I bought white and red cabbage and mixed veg and it is yum ! It has given me the confidence to persevere and make my own once I have sorted the ‘followers’ and weights needed for my Kilner jars. SG and Skipping ( and anyone else in France ) , if you are interested the brand name is Nutriform and I paid about 3€ for a 380g jar.

I also found a low carb fermented coconut yoghurt as I am trying to wean myself off dairy. My meal was such a treat .I fasted from Monday evening until lunchtime today. I felt great. Fasting rocks !

I am sorry I haven’t responded to everyone personally as I like to do. Birdy is doing a fantastic job of rallying the troops and is fast becoming a total inspiration as well as a throughly delightful lady ! Thank you Birdy.xx

Just keep going everyone and believe in your own strengths Those carb adictions CAN be beaten.. As so many have reported recently, this WOE really does work and the health benefits are immeasurable !

Oh Wendy, your poor insides! If these are inguinal hernias, I can’t think your fantastic discard will have caused them; there would have been the muscle wall weakness there before and now just maybe more obvious without the “belly blubber” cover. Do take care going up and down those stairs at school!
I will put down the (immediate) fag IF ESNECCA COMES BACK. xx

Hi all, just joined the forum as I have decided to start the Fast 800. I am not (pre)diabetic to my knowledge but I am overweight with a lot of visceral fat and have family history of Type 2 diabetes. I was a little bit wary at first as I do intense strength training 3 times a week and my PT is not keen on this style of diet at all saying it will affect my progress. However I think I’m just going to maybe have a slightly carby snack before sessions purely for energy to get me through.
Experienced Fast 800-ers, what would be your top tips for starting out?

Hi StrongCurves. Your profile says you want to try out this WoE for fast weight loss round the middle. I don’t think (alas) that anyone has found you can target specific areas. When your teacher says your progress will be “affected”, progress to what? JGwen, I m sure you will want to add re energy boost and in light of the training sessions you have just done as part of a controlled academic programme!

Doesn’t MM talk about Fast 800 and 5:2 as being particularly good for removing the type of fat around your stomach? I know the general consensus is that you can’t spot reduce but I suppose my goal is to reduce overall body fat % with particular motivation to shift that around my abdomen.
He means that I may not have the energy to progressively lift heavier weights weekly if I pursue such a low calorie diet. He doesn’t believe in fasting in general despite recent research as quoted by Michael and co.

Hi everyone,
I did really well with my first 14 hour overnight fast. My overnight blood glucose pattern was completely flat and my fasting upon waking was 4.7. I weight myself this morning and I was down 0.4kg, although as it has suddenly got very warm here, that could just be down to dehydration. Things have gone a little haywire since first this this morning though. I went for a run before breakfast and afterwards my blood glucose reading was 6.7. Amazing how the numbers can change without even consuming any food. Presumably my body was releasing sugar into my system so my muscles could use it to refuel. I was really hungry after getting home, so I ate before it had a chance to settle down again and that spiked me up to 7.8. Just hoping that I have enough slow burning fuel in my system that I won’t crash down. The learning continues!
Sorry to hear about your hernia, Wendy. My dad has had a couple over the years. The surgery in his case was a fairly easy one to recover from, but can understand not wanting another when you’re still just getting over the last one.
Birdy, it is me with the estate agent! I’m managing her by only responding to nice emails and ignoring the snarky ones. I’m hoping that she’s getting the point that I just won’t engage with her when she responds in a juvenile manner. Unfortunately she locked me into a 6 month contract that is very difficult to get out of, and when I asked if we could do a shorter time she said that my flat would sell long before then. Of course now the market has tanked and I haven’t had a single viewing in 7 weeks. I’m trying to stay positive and to in the meantime work at purging some of the clutter that I packed away into cupboards before they came to take the photos. I bought some inexpensive artwork yesterday and hung it up this morning to try to make it look more attractive. Now I just have to figure out how to get people in the door to view!
Sunshine-girl, good news that the doctor isn’t annoyed. I had one gp get very annoyed with me several years ago because I went in to ask him to test my iron levels as I was feeling very tired and had gained weight and he decided to test my cholesterol, thyroid, etc as well, and then when I got the results back, I realized he had only requested testing my hemoglobin, not my serum ferritin. Unfortunately my cholesterol and triglycerides tested a bit high and he only wanted to focus on that and told me I needed to improve my diet. I told him I needed my ferritin checked as I have a history of iron deficiency even with ‘normal’ hemoglobin (low normal is not my normal) and as my thyroid was normal, that was likely what was making me tired and exercise intolerant, and he got really mad and yelled at me and threatened me with a prescription for statins if I didn’t want to improve my diet. I got out of there in a hurry and immediately went and found another gp right away who is supportive of testing my iron and b12 and isn’t worried about my slightly elevated cholesterol. I gather that your doctor is not the yelling type though, otherwise I’m sure you wouldn’t stick with him, no matter how gorgeous!

Maybe there is a confusion here between visceral and subcutaneous fat. You can obviously go with your PT’s views.

I do respect his views but I still want to give it a go and see how I get on. Will still eat a good amount of protein which helps.
Yes, I suppose I rather mean subcutaneous fat for the body image aspect. But if I have a lot of internal or visceral fat, it would be better to get rid of that too for good health!

StrongCurves – I used to participate in a very intensive bootcamp 3x per week that was at 6am. Most of us in the program exercised in the fasted state because it was so incredibly difficult that if you ate prior, vomiting was highly likely. We all made tremendous progress in spite of that. Your recovery meal afterwards is likely to be more important than what you have beforehand, as that determines the rate at which your muscles with replenish their glycogen. If you are going to eat carbs, eat them within 15 minutes of finishing your workout as that is when the enzymes responsible for making glycogen are at their most active. After that, see if your body can finish replenishing the glycogen from gluconeogenisis as much as possible (making sugar from your fat stores). It takes about 20 hours for muscles to fully replenish glycogen after a hard workout, so if you are not lifting 2 days in a row, you should adequately recover between workouts. You may have to play around with things and tweak them for yourself. I had to really watch my protein levels in order to recover properly, and if I was having a low energy week, sometimes I did have to up the carbs a bit too. But in general, stick to healthy carbs from veggies, etc. There is no need to be guzzling sports drinks or bars in an effort to maintain performance.

Hi Strongcurves and welcome

You could have a look at

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable by by Jeff S. Volek PhD RD , Stephen D. Phinney MD PhD .

They discuss the benefits of low carb and fasting on high performance athlètes and are considered experts in the field
Hopefully your PT will not be too inflexible !!

I am appalled at the yelling GPs! I come from a family with a long history on both sides of medical doctors; GPs to consultants. When I was little, I was conscious of the paternalistic “I know best” approach. But never any yelling! This is just not acceptable (at same time, we should not yell if we are told we have a viral infection which will not respond to antibiotics…some do!)

Welcome Strongcurves! Wendleg and Arcticfox have provides some great info and all I would add is that Gary Taubes book “Why we get fat” made a big difference to me and all the previous ingrained theories. It can be hard to ignore the opinions of people who we think are professionals and know more but I found that reading the science behind it made a lot of sense and I just ignore the “noise” from those who disagree because it’s my health and my body! There will be trial and error as with anything but we can all recommend BSD and the results are pretty convincing. I hope you join us!!

Thanks for your concern about my insides everyone. I am not in any pain and I am very relieved the previous op was successful as I had feared otherwise. I will find out more about these hernias next week . I just hope there is no concern about going away on holiday for a Week early July. Having said that it is likely as you say SixT that the muscle wall weakness has been around for some time.

I nip up the stairs quite easily these days as I feel lighter but I will not be lifting any kettlebells 😉

Goodness articfox , I am impressed by your bootcamp experience !! Hope you continue to progress, you are brilliant ! Good luck with the flat !

Have to turn in now . Late meeting again tomorrow but I will be checking in at lunchtime.

Thanks Wendy, I’m looking back now at the workouts that we did then (inspired by JGwen to see if I can start some strength training again) and I have to say that I am impressed by what I did then as well! All my measurements from those days are in my little book too, and I had got down to a 30 inch waist, which is tiny for me! It is a good reminder of what I am capable of for sure. Unfortunately I lost my good gym, group of people and trainers when I moved to my current town. I tried to make a go of working out on my own at the gym here, but kept getting harassed by patronizing guys who would come up to me and say things like “wow, so you’re doing front squats, that’s a really technical exercise”. My previous gym was a training centre for Olympic athletes and they treated us with the utmost respect and none of them would have ever dreamed of interrupting my workout to say something so stupid. Hopefully if I can eventually sell my place and move I can find a better gym again!

Wendy, I am sure you will have a lovely holiday – in Sardinia isn’t it?
In my own bolshy fashion, I might ask why surgeon for one bit of the anatomy, in an operation only a few weeks ago, did not maybe think more holisticly.
you are fab. xx

Maybe I used the wrong word. He might have been CONCERNED about my weight gain given I am his star patient and i always have good results, that as my doctor he might wonder why i had gained so much weight in 3 months. He was, in fact, quite understanding that i had been on a cruise (have i mentioned that before, surely not) and he his always very supportive of my WOE even though he doesn’t quite understand that i can live without bagettes. In fact i asked him to change some of my meds so i take less insulin but a little more glycazide and he agreed with me. He always listens and we have an understanding that i am knowledgeable about my treatment and he immediately changed my prescription. I think i am at fault for always wanting to please him, and even that is not the right word. He allows me to determine my own treatment and, because he trusts me and my diet, i dont want to let him down. Still sounds wrong but i hope you know what i mean.

Hi everyone

Just popping in to say hi, and this time not complain about how icky I feel 😊 I’m back to fasting again – at 24 hours just now and going strong – and feeling much less bloated and horrible.

Arcticfox, thanks for the recommendation about the broccoli sandwich bread, I’ll look that one up too.

6T, I am in awe of your size 12 jeans, that sounds amazing. And Birdy your size 16 is pretty inspirational too!

SG, thanks for the tip on trying steeped fresh ginger as a cure for generally feeling blah. I really like ginger, and like you often have bits and pieces left over after a curry or stir fry to just go yucky and end up in the compost. I will definitely give the steeping a crack, it sounds really nice. And I reckon I’d be prepared to put up with a grumpy doctor if he was decorative enough 😉 I’d just let the general grumpiness wash over me and enjoy the eye candy, lol But seriously, I’m pleased he’s on board with this WOE for you.

Wendy, you sound like you are really in the wars with your insides. I hope the news gets better soon.

Strongcurves, let me add my welcome to everyone else’s. I’m a newcomer here too, and the welcome has been fantastic. Like Wendy, I’d really recommend Phinney and Volek for advice on eating for high performance. It can be difficult to accept – and frankly kind of scary – but if we actually do some reading/research on this stuff (e.g. Phinney & Volek, Taubes, Jason Fung, Ben Bikman) then we end up knowing a lot more about it than the average doctor, dietician, PT etc. That’s not a criticism of them (well maybe it is of dieticians…) because they have to be across such a wide range of things, whereas we can get obsessed with just this and really dig down into where the current research is going. And the bottom line would appear to be that everything we were told about “healthy diets” is actually wrong. Frankly, some of my reading has left me genuinely incensed because the science has been *so* bad – it hasn’t actually been science, it’s just been “it stands to reason that”. It’s harder to get my head around than if the data had been falsified, because instead it was just *ignored*. OK, soap box mode off now! 😊 Anyway, I really hope you can make this work for you and your training regime.

And that’s it for me just now folks, hope everyone has a good day.

Elky

Just a word about fresh ginger, kids! I freezes very well…I cut a hand of ginger into chunks, freeze it, and then leave it out on the counter for 10 min. It’s easy to scrape the skin off with a sharp edged spoon, then grate as usual. I often make a quickie
stir fry with napa cabbage, green onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and ginger, and finish it with thai fish sauce and fresh
coriander leaves. Delicious with a squirt of fresh lime juice!

Ooooh Allie, that’s a great hint, thank you! I’ve always frozen chilli, but I never thought about freezing ginger (slaps forehead) – thanks!!

Hi JGwen
Thanks for posting your results on the research study you took part in. I have a follow up question. I know that you posted some information a couple of months back on the exercises you were doing in that program – about how many you did, until you reached your limit I think? I would be interested to read that again, but can’t find it among your many helpful posts 😊 I do some weight resistance work (very light!) at the gym, and would like to read what you did so perhaps I can make that more effective.
Thanks! Merry🌺

I just hit 0.5 on my breathalyzer for the first time…and then it beeped like crazy so I’m guessing if it was alcohol, I’d be in jail 🙂

Well done Kafin, I think that means you’ve hit the sweet spot for fat burning! And yes, if not actually locked up then certainly facing a long walk home without your licence or car keys…

Hi Merrymelba,
Each session started with 6 minutes on the stepper as a warm up. It was set to resistance level 7 and we recorded the distance covered to monitor progress. Then it was chest press for 3 sets, followed by leg press, followed by chest pull. With each weights machine you aimed for 10 reps at the highest weight you could manage, but if you only could manage 7 reps that was fine. If you could manage 15 reps you increased the weight. After a set you rest for 2 minutes, and do 3 sets on each machine before moving on to the next machine. Warm down was on the treadmill, or exercise bike for 6 minutes.

The research was to see what the muscle increase would be for one short trip to the gym a week.

Apparently the results coming in are that all of us increased strength, (the weights we were working with increased) but no change in power (how fast we can perform the exercise.)

The researcher is going to send out a set of exercises for us that we can do at home, when he does I will pass on that info. However, it also suits me to fit in a weekly session in the gym as part of a trip into town. So now that the research program is over I am going to do a weekly session in the main gym. I am going to do the exercises in the same way but I am going to add in extra machines to work on core strength and thighs to help tighten up the flabby bits.

Well done Kafin, before anyone worried, the police breathalysers use a different measuring mechanism which isn’t triggered by ketones.