Hello,

Been doing the BSD for 11 days and have dropped 14 pounds already (much to my surprise) and feel generally better both physically and mentally.

I exercise perhaps slightly less than I should. Mostly 2 or 3 half hour walks a day with the dogs and not very strenuous at that, plus sea-swimming 3 or 4 times a week. At this time of year I can manage only 10 or 15 minutes in the water because of the temperature (I don’t wear a wet-suit).

So I feel I am heading in the right direction. But … for the last few days my legs have felt weak. Like there’s not enough energy to keep them going.

Has anybody else felt this? Did it pass?

Thanks,

David

Hi there. Glad it’s going well for you,

I’m a keen cyclist and was in a similar situation as you. Being very honest with you I didn’t do any significant bike rides for the first 2 weeks. My first 2 hour ride I felt like I had 40-50 miles in my legs before I started. I persevered without pushing myself too hard but it probably took to about wk6 before I felt anywhere near normal on the bike.

Some advice I had was to take an iron supplement (I went for Spatone mixed with a bit of lemon juice and tap water – tablets are notorious for causing constipation). Keep an eye on protein intake.

Some online research I did at the time suggested some athletes are moving to low carb diets. Traditionally alot of athletes especially endurance ones will rely on carb / sugar loading before a race and carbs / sugar during. The conversion can take up to 3 months.

Not sure this really helps but stick with it you’re doing well!

Hi David,
One tip is to take extra salt. – When we eat a high carb diet our body needs to hold on to water. When we go low carb our body releases that water, (hence the high weight loss initially) When our kidneys are releasing the water they also release electrolytes. so you need to start supplementing those. no need for anything fancy, you just need to increase your salt intake.

Your body does take time to adapt to the change in fuel. Your muscles need to make changes at a cellular level, but once that has happened then your body can work as it is designed to do and just use your fat stores for fuel during any activity. I spent 7 hours yesterday scrambling around in an overgrown, peat filled area of forest looking for some sheep that got into there when the storms damaged the fencing. on nothing more than a couple of coffees (with double cream).

I would recommend a podcast by Dr Bikman that I posted on the Take a Look at this Thread back in early 2018 for more information on the differences between fueling yourself on carbs or fat.