Hi all
I have a week to go of 800 cals a day. How do I return to a more normal diet without regaining the tummy fat? Very worried that I’ll undo all the good work. Any advice out there?

I’m in a similar position to you Madeline – have two more weeks. I think it depends on where you are on your journey – if you have reached your personal target, whether that be weight, blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure or just curbing the cravings, then you probably ought to think about 5:2 (by which you follow a similar diet but up calories to about 1200 5 days a week and continue on the 800 for two days – get the book 🙂 or just upping your carbs and calories until you reach a stage where you maintain your weight (and all the other health benefits). If you’re not quite there yet then feel free to carry on as you were – lots of people have and it’s fine!

Good luck – hope your journey has been an enlightening one – it has for me!

It is possible! I managed to be on a diet that included all types of foods for 2 years and still keep my weight perfectly. But you got to ask yourself what is “a normal diet” ? Is it to eat whatever you want as much as you want? is it to include all kinds of foods? Is it to be able to go o dinner with friends and not be an asshole? In my experience once I stopped caring about the amounts or carefully considering what I had already eaten that day and so on I started gaining back.

The secret to maintaining weight and also being able to include sweets and other kinds of “bad” foods in your daily life to establish rules for yourself and be sure to follow them. I find chocolate to be the biggest evil for me. I had decided to give it up completely and while I avoided it, I was ok. Once I decided to try it again, I lost control. So, start re-adding things slowly, take care of your amounts and set rules, like “no more than 1 portion of x per week”, “give up x completely”… you are the boss here, do what you think it’s best, but be honest to yourself!

you probably can include whatever food you have been missing but you probably will have to take care of the amounts and keep track of what makes you go crazy. Everything that makes you unable to stop yourself until its empty is a big no no.