Hi guys,
I’ve been on a somewhat Med Style BSD diet for about 6 weeks now. I’m doing the fast 800 shakes twice/day plus 2 pieces of fruit plus a healthy dinner. Usually I’m around 1000 cals/day. I swim twice/week and go for a brisk walk the others days.

I also just hit the menopause, so I was prepared that this is going to be difficult. It is! Bloody hell! I’ve been losing weight rather slowly the first 4 weeks (a bit over 2kg) and now I hit a wall. It’s almost like that damn scale is glued to the number!! I’m 5 kg away from my goal so I’m still really only at the beginning 🙁

I never really do breakfast anyway, so I have my first shake/meal around 11 am in the morning. I’m just not hungry before then, so that’s easy for me. Lately things are changing though. I’m feeling lightheaded in the mornings before having a meal, just like you feel after a sudden drop in blood sugar levels. This usually only happens to me when I have anything sugary (like a piece of fruit) in the mornings – my body just seem to be able to handle sugars in the morning. I’m not diabetic, I’ve been checked. All good. But now it happens before I’ve eaten anything? And I get hungry… and I mean… H-U-N-G-R-Y…!!!

WTF is going on? And how do I get out of this?

Hi nexory and welcome. As I read this, you are asking about plateauing and light-headedness, and have no diabetes issues. I couldn’t quite follow this bit of your post: ” I’m feeling lightheaded in the mornings before having a meal, just like you feel after a sudden drop in blood sugar levels. This usually only happens to me when I have anything sugary (like a piece of fruit) in the mornings – my body just seem to be able to handle sugars in the morning.” Is there a “not” missing somewhere?

There is an important caveat on all posts here that we are not qualified to offer any medical advice. If light-headedness persists, I would suggest you contact your GP and discuss.

On plateauing, I would not worry too much. It is a pain, but if you stick with this way of eating, your body will start to shift the excess weight. And, as JGwen may well comment separately, you may find that your shape is changing even if the scales aren’t moving. That said, you may find that the scales start to move if you replace some of the fruit (= fructose = sugar) with eg yoghurt and some nuts. That will be more filling and leave you less hungry. Think of fruit as sweets on trees, and stick to the less carby ones – eg blueberries and raspberries rather than sugary ones such as apples, mangoes and bananas. The dietdoctor website gives some good illustrations of which fruits do the least damage!

The other point that occurs to me is water intake. Are you drinking enough?

I am sure others will be along to offer more expert advice. We have a weekly thread (One week beginnning….) which you can find in the list of fora, which is very active. Feel free to join in! Best wishes

Thanks Caronl… I hate plateaus…

Re blood sugar. Apologies for being confusing. I didn’t expect medical advice – that’s why I added that I have been checked and have no underlying health issues. I just wanted to know if this happens to other people too. The light-headedness doesn’t worry me so much, but the veracious hunger attacks that come with it. They’re difficult to control and very unusual for me because I don’t usually get hungry in the mornings. But maybe I’m just eating too many fruit, messing with my blood sugar levels…

Hi nexory, You have my full sympathies. Plateaus are very frustrating! Maybe some measurements of waist etc will show some improvement to help with motivation!

I think if you cut back on fruit, and eat more protein and healthy fat – eg full fat yoghurt – this could help a lot. Good luck!

Hi Nexory,

Just one thing to add, have you read up on mental hunger vs physical hunger? My understanding that when hunger feeling is extreme and / or comes on quickly it is usually mental – either routine / habitual, emotional, stress related. Real physical hunger is progressive and never that strong a feeling.
If you have a significant amount of stress going on that could be causing it, otherwise, I would suggest it is merely your body and mind anticipating the next meal ad getting a bit carried away.
How to deal with it….well best option is to ignore it, it will go away. And your body will get accustomed to shouting, getting ignored and then eating later. Use destraction tactics – easier if your not doing a desk job, but get up, move, start a new task which needs focus etc. Easier said than done but a useful tactic.
Agree with caronl, eat less fruit and replace with yogurt and nuts will certainly help, especially with ‘real’ hunger.
I tend to go for a coffee if if getting strong hunger signals.

Worth thinking about. Your body is certainly not reeeeally HUNGRY after just 12-14 hrs of not eating….. so you dont have to listen to it telling you its starving…. its not!

Hope that helps.

Hi Nexory,
Do you know that the bacteria in your gut which digest carbs are able to signal to your brain when they want feeding.?

Because if you go for periods of time without feeding them they will start to die off they do get insistent about feeding them. The good news is of course that if you stick to your guns and do not feed them, then the number of the carb hungry bacteria will reduce and this will reduce their ability to push you into feeding them.