I did the fast 800 for a month, as I only have a couple of stone to lose and do not have diabetes/pre diabetes. I lost a stone and felt so good, planning to losing 1-2 pounds a week doing 5:2 and exercising lots to lose the final stone. Well it’s been 4 days since I finished and I’ve not had any huge binges or anything but I am finding it hard to resist snacking on crackers in the evening/picking at food more. Today was meant to be one of my 2 800cal days. I kept to it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But got a hot chocolate from a machine at lunch (probably super sugary) and haven’t been able to resist a few cream crackers this evening 🤦‍♀️

I feel like I do really well when I’m on a strict plan but as soon as I go back to being more ‘relaxed’ I can’t do it! I feel like I’ve gained weigh already! It is my time of the month so could this be affecting things? I really don’t want to gain the weight back and I really want to get another stone off, I’m just struggling to be positive about it. Any advice would be very much appreciated

Hello rhj 🙂 Congratulations of identifying your individual issues and requirements 🙂 This is ONLY my personal take on BSD. Not everyone does this for blood sugar levels . . . or weight loss. Those who have, KNOW it works for all those things . . . however . . . it isnt just a quick fix/quick result/go back to old habits (one of many) yoyo “diet”. This is actually a choice of “way of eating for life”. Seven months into my new way of eating, it has been my experience 2-3-4 weeks isnt enough time for the body to get the message carbs are no longer forth coming in the quantities it has become accustomed to 🙂 “Carbs = sugars and sugars = addiction”. Give the body a carb fix . . . it (can and usually does!) awaken the “quietened” endorphines which quickly RESPOND to the fix . . . and then come the demands. The I want more . . . which seems borne out by your need of cream biscuits later. Maybe consider using this experience as a perfect example of how your body responds to what you are looking to discard 🙂 If you need snacks, there are MANY friendly options to keep you satisfied . . and like a child when offered vege sticks or fruit – (when they have asked for a biscuit or icecream!!) – if they are hungry they will take one of the options. If not then – they realise the sweet fix isnt coming. 🙂 I feel at 4 weeks in, your body is still in the initial stages of adaptation . . . and suggest leaving the 5:2 for many weeks further on . . . when the craving stages have been quelled for longer. I hasten to add . . . 7 months on, I wouldnt even contemplate the 5:2 . . .simply because I remember only too well what the MINISCULE carb hits did to me earlier on 🙂 It is much easier now to make the choice to IGNORE the urges to “what about if I just try a mouthful of this . . .” – seeing a wonderful challenge of finding foods which fit my bill 🙂 PS: In winter . . . I found a container of Dutch Cocoa . . . which has 20g of CARB per 100g . . . and a serving is 20g – (of the cocoa). Doing the maths . . . that to me is 4g – plus milk and cream . . . (and a drop or two of vanilla) – which may result in 6-7-8-9 gs of carb per cup. For those of us staying under 20 a day . . . THATS around 1/3 of daily allowance. The other option for the chocolate fix is the dark dark 87% cocoa block. A square or two of that with a coffee!!! can have the same effect of the chocolate “fix” with way less carbs. Remember we are here for assistance . . . so share your concerns and questions with us . . . and I do hope these hints that have helped me adjust things to suit my indiciduality . . . assists in some way 🙂

Hi Research shows that the bacteria in our gut are able to signal to our brains to encourage us to eat. – Depending on how low carb you were eating during the few weeks you were eating the BSD you will have reduced the percentage of your gut bacteria which are designed to eat sugar. But they are the one bacteria which can multiply the most rapidly. Hence the cravings.
I know its impossible to avoid carbs for the rest of your life, there is always going to be the occasional piece of wedding cake or birthday cake. Or time when the family come in after a winter walk and want hot chocolate.
Just count this as part of the learning curve of understanding your body reacts to carbs. I would suggest rather than going to the 5:2 stay low carb and increase your calories from protein and fat. – Calculate the daily protein by using the formula 0.6g per kilo of target body weight and then make up the rest of the calories from healthy fats. One pound of fat is 3500 calories, so providing you keep your carbs low enough so that your body is in fat burning mode, you just have to adjust your calorie intake to control the rate of weight loss. Then you have a sustainable way of eating for the rest of your life rather than the yo yo of dieting.

Some excellent advice here from JGwen and Duckie, hopefully now you have an idea of what has been happening and how you can change things up, to get to where you want to be. It is daunting making the adjustment from 800 cals a day, but it’s important to understand that the low carb way of eating needs to be a long term lifestyle change. As JGwen says, there will of course be occasions when we allow ourselves a piece of cake or a few crisps, what’s important is that this is done mindfully in the knowledge that this needs to be a one off.

Thank you for the reminder on the formula for protein requirement JGwen, I think that is something that’s useful to revisit occasionally, even for those of us who have been eating this way for a long time, especially if we want to drop an extra pound or two.

I struggled on the 5:2, as I too find it more helpful to have more defined guidelines. Perhaps consider moving back to the 800 regime until you get to target weight and then stick with low carb eating and add in a few extra calories, until things stabilise.

Finally, you know you can discard the pounds – you’ve already proved that – so stop beating yourself up about the blip, formulate a way forward and plough ahead. For support consider joining in on the One Week at a Time thread, you’ll be very welcome.

Hi Rhj — these posts above are really good advice and they are from some of the most successful long-term BSD’rs!
What I might add is that the research on eating low carbohydrate continues to mount up on the positive side for EVERYONE and ALWAYS, not just for eight weeks and if you are diabetic/overweight.
This started out as a “diet” for me but the more I read and the more I watched how my body responded to carbohydrates, the more I began to realize that this is a way of life for me. I am almost exactly three YEARS into this now and I’m still maintaining my initial 3 stone loss and for the first time ever in my whole life I can eat enough food to feel full and I have incredible amounts of energy and I’m still keeping my weight stable.
Before the BSD, my story was depressingly similar to all you read here, up down up down, but mostly up and heavier every year …I was in despair about it because all my old “tricks” weren’t working and even non-stop exercise wasn’t controlling the upward trajectory.
The research being done on this is fascinating and it’s new — the studies are focusing on how insulin affects your weight — insulin is your “fat-storage” hormone and many of us have high background levels of insulin. You might have inherited them, or caused them to rise because of eating too many carbohydrate or they’ve gone up because of body fat levels, but one way or another they are elevated.
As long as your insulin levels are high, it will be very hard to lose weight or keep it off or even control your appetite.
Insulin “locks” your energy (your fat stores are your energy) into your fat cells and won’t release them EVEN WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY.
The only way to release them is to lower your insulin levels.
And that’s where carbohydrate comes in — when you drank a lovely hot chocolate (very sweet and milky) you raised your insulin levels, so now your body couldn’t mobilize your fat stores, so a few hours later you wanted cream crackers (more easy sugar) and so on and so on — been there, done that, got the T-shirt!
This is why the 5-2 doesn’t work so well for some of us; the days with more carbohydrates just destroy our ability to stay low calorie the other days.
You have a PERSONAL threshold of carbohydrates that your body can tolerate. Your job is to figure out what that threshold is — and the only way to do that is to go very low carb for a few weeks until you are steadily losing weight and then add back in small amounts until your weight loss stalls.
Mine is around 40 grams carbohydrate per day and others here are lower or higher. You will discover what works for YOUR body.
There are some great podcasts on this research — look for Dr. Bikmans podcasts and Jason Fungs podcasts — they will also help with the understanding of fasting and how that helps with insulin control.
Don’t despair — you are going to amaze yourself!
By the way, low insulin will also protect your brain from Alzheimer’s (says the research).

CG – thank you, that is a very good description of what happens to our bodies when they are given carbs and how that impacts on discarding the pounds. Again, I think some of this will be as valuable to long term BSDers as those new to the regime, as we tend to forget the intricate details and how we are improving our wellbeing by eating low carb.