Hi folks,

Looking for a bit of advice, i’m ready to come off 800 to stabilise where I’m at for a while. The thing is, I’m just not hungry! (I know, worse things could happen right!). I’ve lost about 15kgs since late August so just coming up to 12 weeks. I’m 47, 5’4 (162cm) and down to 63.2kg. BMI 24.1. I could stand to lose a bit more but I’d rather stop and make sure I can maintain this. I’m aiming for a regular intake of no more than 1500 Cal (desk job and gym only twice a week). I’ve managed 850 some days, but I end up uncomfortably full. I don’t want to snack, as I’ve worked hard to break that habit in the last few months, I don’t want to pad meals with bread. I am eating salads with beans and sometimes roasted vegetables (beets or small quantities of sweet potato). I recently tried millet (awesome!) but again, added half cup to dinner and just ended up overfull and still barely managed over 800.
Any advice on adding some calories without feeling overstuffed?
Keep up the good work all of you, it’s been great reading posts here, very helpful!

Fat, fat, fat and a little bit more fat 😊 The healthy kind of course : avocado, olives, coconut, nuts (peanut, almonds,…) – raw form or butter or cream or milk. I often add butter on top of my meals, or olive oil.
It adds up quite quickly and make you feel satieted without being stuffed.

I use MyFitnessPal, I have targets set to 40% each for carbs and fats and 20% protein.
I often exceed that by a touch for fats already with a calorie goal of 900. It’s ok to exceed those fat proportions?
I’m low on my carb targets but so reluctant to add these back, and the healthy grains are super filling! How important is it to keep those ratios in balance?

Best to talk in grams rather than %.
Carbs should be a limit. That limit is different for each person because some people are more sensitive to them. On the forum you’ll find most people aiming for staying below 40-50gr. The very low carbers aim to stay under 20gr.

Protein is a goal to meet and how much protein you should have depends on your age, your current muscle mass and your level of activity. On the days I work out ie lift weight, I aim to consume 70gr of proteins as I’m trying to build muscles.

Fat is for satiety. Eat as much as you need to feel just about full. Or alternatively eat enough to reach that 1,500 calories goal if you don’t trust yourself to stop once satieted.

Thanks for that, helpful advice to add fats being such a big calorie hit that does make it easy to add calories without bulk for now, have added seeds to breakfast yogurt and more oil to lunch salads for now.

Longer term though your plan sounds far more keto than I had imagined?
Mosley is quoted here (https://coach.nine.com.au/diet/fast-800-diet-michael-mosley-weight-loss/7f602665-129b-46f7-b87c-b29e34464b82) as aiming for 40/40 carb/fat and 20 protein, and encourages healthy complex carbs such as beans/pulses and vegetables containing carbs/fibre. The 2 x 800 days plus the time restrictions I guess are used to make sure that we burn up any reserves we build up in the interim.

Are most of you here basically just doing keto or are some of you following the intended Mediterranean diet and still having success?

Most people here with diabetes aim for low carbs, others just pick a limit that agrees with their body.
I don’t have diabetes, dropped to 20gr per day to lose the weight and now that I’m in maintenance I stay low carbs cause if I don’t I feel sluggish and depressed. It has quite a huge impact on the way I feel. Some days though I will have higher carbs but mostly not 🙂
Since you’re aiming to maintain your weight, I would just experiment with the amount of carbs that agrees with your body and lifestyle and adjust the fat accordingly (ie. if you increase the carbs, decrease the fat or the other way around)

Cool, that’s a really great summary. Much appreciated!