I’m at the end of my weight loss journey – but my biggest criticism of this 800 calorie programme is that it is so VAGUE when it comes to what to do once you reach your goal. From memory, the main advice is go 5/2 (but even that has calories associated with it)? What if you want to be sensible all week and don’t want to continue with ridiculous 800cals a day 2x a week? I just want to restore my metabolic rate and be able to have a full and healthy life that includes all food groups (don’t want to demonise any of them – including carbs). I have so many questions:
1. Should you reverse diet? If so, what’s the best approach (how many calories should you increase a day?week?month?)? or
2. Do you go straight to maintenance calories (less popular advice but apparently your metabolic rate should be back to normal within a few days if you go straight to maintenance)?
3. If you reverse diet, should you stop cardio as you reverse diet (I’ve been doing cardio for 40mins every day) – apparently, cardio is the nemesis of trying to restore your metabolism?
I would be very grateful for experiences on how to restore your metabolism, without much (or any) weight gain.
Many thanks, ASarj

Hello, ASarj. The most thoughtful advice I can offer to you is to read through JGwen’s extensive contributions to
this community on her “replies created” history. She is very knowledgeable on the subject of metabolism, and you
may realize that you have some misconceptions on the subject. If your carbs have been sufficiently low throughout
your weight loss, there is no reason why your metabolic rate should be affected at all. There are many experienced
maintainers here also, and we would be happy to offer the wisdom of our personal experience to you as well.
Check out JGwen’s past posts. They should be very helpful in understanding why the BSD is different from other
calorie restricted eating plans. Good luck 🙂

Thank you for the mention Allie, I agree with your thoughts exactly. If someone diets by counting calories but not counting their macros then their metabolic rate will drop after a period of time because their insulin levels will be so high that they can not access their fat stores.
If someone eats low carb and counts calories, the lower levels of insulin (especially if you add time restricted eating into the mix) will enable your body to draw on your fat stores for fuel and you will have only reduced your metabolic rate to the new level appropriate for your new body weight.
What route you take in maintenance is a very personal thing. – Some people prefer to stay keto most of the time eating each day and just have carbs in a social setting, a piece of birthday cake or wedding cake type situation. Some people prefer to eat without counting calories some days and fast other days.
What you can’t do is go back to the way of eating that caused you to gain the weight in the first place and expect to not gain weight again.

JGwen as always your advice is invaluable, thank you as I often wonder about maintenance. Not that I am worried about my metabolism being effected as I keep my carbs to 20g or lower(not always intentional on the lower bit) but it is good to know that maintenance is a personal thing and what is right for one won’t be right for someone else. Love reading your posts JGwen thank you 💞🦜

Quite right, Birdy! Maintenance is a very different adventure, and there are probably as many ways to be successful
at it as there are old timers here on the forum. Since my past failures have always been maintenance, not weight
loss, I was both anxious and determined to get it right this time 🙂 Eating patterns are mostly habit anyway, and
when we change those permanently, everything falls into place! Believing that you can return to carbs as before is
a recipe for disaster. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel….only accept the fact that carbs aren’t part of our future!
With that revelation, the days of yo yo dieting are banished forever, and with it comes the most extreme form
of freedom imaginable. I’ve just reorganized my closet (thanks to Patricia!). I’ve tried on all of my skinny crop
pants from last summer, and everything fits beautifully. It genuinely makes me laugh with delight 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s a
miracle!

Wow Allie good on you! I am sure Patricia1066 will be ecstatic about you doing it🤗🥰, she has been a true inspiration to quite a few of us! Thank you Patricia1066 you are a 🌟.

Also thank you for backing up the maintenance part I am sure with all of your guidance the journey/adventure will be a lot clearer. 🤗Birdy💞🦜

Thank you all for your replies and advice to check JGwen’s previous replies, I have now read a number of them.
As I was aware, one of the key messages is to keep carbs to a bare minimum… I got that from the book loud and clear, further perpetuated on this forum. All that advice and steers around carbs – coupled with the fact that the book advises people NOT to count calories when you enter the maintenance stage (just to ‘eat a Mediterranean style’ diet (so, again, low carbs)) 5 days a wk and fast for two (unrealistic for long term success)… made me wonder: if people were to count calories, what would the results show (I did weeks on end on no/low carbs on this 800 diet, and the one thing that struck me the most, was by how huge the portions had to be just to hit that 800 number)? In other words, when you cut cabs (+ sugar) you are reducing a substantial source of calories.
My (un)educated guess, is that people may be inadvertently maintaining their weight by consuming far fewer calories than they realise – and probably closer to the 800 cals mark? Further making me think – for those maintaining weight on (dangerously) low calorie consumption (without realising it), DON’T really know if their metabolic rate is intact or not (the claim is that it wouldn’t have been impacted if you keep carbs low in the first place – but how would they know if still eating very low numbers on maintenance?)…
Has anyone on the maintenance phase actually calculated how many calories they’re consuming? Is it a realistic number? or are you maintaining for ever more on an unhealthy number?
Don’t you wonder, why STRONLY advocate a whole book based on a definitive 800cals count/number , and then when it comes to helping people through our ‘maintenance phase’, the author goes deadly silent on providing a number for that, and how to get to it in the most efficient way possible, which would help so many that don’t want to live on dangerously low calories for the rest of our lives, or unrealistic ‘fasting days’ x2 a wk? What about those that just want balance and consistency (not to subject our bodies through even more dietary restricting cycles for the rest of our lives?

I am not in maintenance yet, I am down to my initial target weight, which was the weight I was traditionally as an adult, but that was always overweight. Now I know how to successfully get down to the slimmer version of me that I always wanted to be I am working to get there.
However, Allie has been in maintenance for a couple of years. She has shared her formula on the forum frequently, I am sure she will jump in to correct me but I think she is around 1500 to 1700 cals a day. Of which 30g is carbs.
Personally, I find my tastes have changed. it makes having a piece of cake at celebrations such as someone’s birthday special if that’s the only time that month you have cake.
I think this WoE allows me such flexibility, coffee with cream is the norm, butter melted over veg. There are plenty of ways to add calories without adding carbs.
I love how I feel on a low carb diet, when in ketosis my brain is sharp and I have so much energy. I prefer feeling like this to the more lethargic feeling from eating carbs.

Just dropping in quickly before I am off to work. Am still.absolutely overwhelmed with work which is why I am not posting very often. I have now been on maintenance for 3 years now and record my food intake on fat secret every day. Probably don’t need to but I think I just love recording it. It also stops me going above 2500 too often – which I could quite easily do.

What I have found is that when I started the BSD I had to go below 1000 calories to lose any weight at all. Now I find that if I go as low as 1500 calories I lose weight quickly. So I am better to stay just below 2000. If I go above 2500 I put on weight – so I do need to be careful.

I keep to 20 to 30g of carbs to keep my blood sugars good and stay off the insulin. I would say that way of eating has probably revved up my metabolism rather than damping it down. Even so I still do have to stay vigilant and avoid going over 2500 calories very often as I would start to regain the weight.

Thank you KrysiaD. That is a massive help. Maintenance is going to be different for everyone, but your experience is giving us a good insight into it as your three years is a long time and has given you the time to see just how your body reacts. Awesome thank you. Birdy💞🦜

Thanks KrysiaD – and congrats on sustained weight loss. How did you go from diet to maintenance, did you just increase calories overnight (if so, did you experience any weight gain?) or did you do it slowly? If slowly, how did you go about doing it?

I am afraid I didn’t do it scientifically and just increased calories literally overnight. I know that other maintainers increased calories by 50 calories a week and found that very successful.

I did find.I kept losing weight until I was able to work out what.level maintained the weight. Fat Secret was invaluable as we are all different and it enabled me to work out exactly what works for me.

Krysia, thanks so much for sharing. I’m just about to start maintenance and other’s experiences are really useful.
Asarj, I can see your point. I think a lot depends on what your eating habits were like in the past, your relationship with food and how long you’ve been following this diet. So just as everyone’s way of losing weight is different so is the transition into maintaining their loss.
A traditional Mediterranean diet is not low carb but it is not full of processed food or fast food.

Hi ASarj. As you can already see, maintenance is different for everyone, so it’s a bit trial and era at the start. I eat
@ 1600cal./day, which is about all I want anyway. I keep my carbs at 35g max, which seems to be the tipping
point for me. I’m not a gym bunny though, and if I were more active, I would probably need to increase my calories.
In June I will have been enjoying this WOE for 3 years now, and I’m particularly pleased that maintenance isn’t
contingent upon spending hrs. at the gym. That’s great if you enjoy that sort of thing, but I enjoy a brisk walk out
in the fresh air a great deal more. For anything to be sustainable, it must be enjoyable! Keeping an eye on the
carbs has been a small price to pay for being healthy and vibrant and full of energy again. I began maintenance at
850cal./day, wk #2, 900, etc. I continued to lose weight until things leveled off at 1600cal. During my research
phase, I learned that @1500cal/day is the average for women, and it’s @2000 for men. The one big caveat though,
is it’s the type of calories that matter. I’ve never gone back to the carbs, and my metabolism seems to be
functioning normally with no deleterious effects, despite a 10 month stint at 800cal/20gcarbs
without interruption. I hope such news is reassuring for you. Let us know how you get on!

Allie