I have been on-off low carbing for a few weeks and noticing how much better I feel when limiting the processed carbs and sugar, so am starting this 800 thing properly as of tomorrow.

Motivations are varied but include
1) to lose weight, especially round my belly – for the sake of holiday photos but also guarding against the return of lower back problems
2) to avoid the shame of having to explain to my sister, a super fit triathlete/ medical doctor, that I have eaten myself into type 2 diabetes
3) to try and fix my relationship with food and stop thinking about sugar all the time
4) **TMI** to try and control IBS which includes HORRIFIC carb bloating, constipation and the foulest stinking gas known to man. Think the stench of Mordor, multiplied a thousand times.

I’ll be interested to see if and how these motivations change over the next few weeks.

But also, dear reader, I’d love to know what are YOUR motivations? Why are you here? Have the reasons changed over time?

Hi melb100
Welcome. Good choice.
I’m Type 2 Diabetic. Mum & dad died from type 2 complications. I’ve waited three years for this diet ( diagnosed 2013) can’t wait for the results of Prof Roy Taylor’s Reversal of T 2 trial. I hope this works for me but no guarantees! The Lord helps those who help themselves. I’m in for keeps

Hi melb100 and Eureka (and other dear readers), I’d thought at first that my motivation is purely physical- health driven, which it is, but for me it also encompasses the sense of wellbeing that the low carb mediterranean way of life gives me. Not feeling hungry constantly is life affirming and a great motivation for continuing the BSD. I can’t help but think ‘this is how I used to feel decades ago’ and when I reflect on that, back then I ate very few processed foods.

I’m not really doing this in the hopes of coming off medication, as I’ve been taking it for something like 15 years or more. I’ve been trying to lose weight for all that time, had a bit of success with Weight Watchers but was continually hungry and lost weight painfully slowly if at all.

I hated being so overweight, clothes shopping was a nightmare that made me snap at my poor husband when he kept pointing at displays in shop windows, saying they would look good on me. I knew the sales people would secretly have a good laugh if I went in and asked if they had them in my size! I always came home from clothes shopping sessions in a grumpy mood. So my strongest motivation is extremely shallow. I want to buy nice clothes in regular sizes, and feel good when I wear them.

This is the first diet that I’ve been able to stick to, that is actually working. I’ve lost kilos and a good inch from my waist, so I’m on the way to my goal. I can’t say I feel any healthier or more energetic than before, but the lower carbs help stop me from getting so hungry between meals. Seeing the scales go down so fast and feeling my clothes that bit looser is all the motivation I need.

Hi can relate to all of your feelings. I’m ready to start 100% tomorrow. My motivation is
Being sick of being addicted to / obsessed with sugar
Fed up pigging out on sweet food only to then berate myself and feel dreadful etc etc etc to begin the cycle again
Having a serious health scare and operation last year
Very overweight parent with peripheral arterial
disease
Father who died youngish of heart attack
Phew, feel I really should just get a grip of my life and do this, do I really need anymore reasons to get healthy!
How are you all getting on?

My motivators are fed up of being tired ,aching joints, not being able to feel comfortable in my clothes. I am hoping to lose the brain fog as well. All my family have succumbed to cancer!!!
Thanks got that off my chest.

Hello! My motivation is three-fold… My job changed to a largely sedentary one with a lot of train travel and the weight piled on because I had no time to exercise and I want to be fitter and healthier. Also I too want to be able to wear nice clothes and not look like a sack of potatoes. I do think that being overweight has had an effect on my everyday mental health and well -being so very much hoping to improve that! Today I bought 2 pairs of trousers that didn’t have elasticated waists – a momentous day I can tell you….

Wedding on 18 June – I won’t be slim, but I may well be less fat than I was when we met 2.5 years ago, and I hope I’ll be a size 16.
New job – I’m starting a new role in September, I’m 30 but the majority of my colleagues will be skinny graduates and I don’t want to be ‘the old, fat one’
Riding my horse – I want to be able to ride long distances on her again, which we both love, and not to cause her physical issues through my weight.
Joint pain – I have a duff foot full of screws and all sorts of compensations going on, my body will be better able to cope without carting round 50kg of excess lard.
Running – I love trail running, but don’t want to run much while I’m this heavy for fear of what it will do to my joints.
Snoring – I stopped snoring almost immediately I started this diet, so was allowed back into bed with my fiancee! Don’t want to be banished to the spare room again.
Clothes – I have an extensive wardrobe at smaller sizes, it’ll be nice to get back into them.

1) I suppose the final thing that made me start this, was worry about health. I was getting so very unfit, because of my size, I had trouble just climbing the stairs.. My knees hurt, it has stopped me walking with some friends as I can’t walk as fast.
So I want to join them again and stride out easily.

2) I haven’t had a diabetes test but suspect I may be pre diabetic. I take BP tablets.Over the last 6 years, I have got worse – since I lost my Dad, it really hit me badly. I want to get off BP tablets if poss or at least reduce my weight by at least 5 stone.

3) We have a family holiday in UK early June and I want to be lighter and fitter and happier with myself by then. I would love to have lost 2 stone by then.

4) I had almost grown out of my size 22 clothes, and the choice for me was sooo limited. I would love to get a pretty dress in a size 14 – cannot believe that’s possible yet, but sometimes dreams come true.

5) I was another who had food constantly on my mind. I’d binge on junk food when alone, hide the wrappers and then mentally berate myself for being such a pig.It is a relief not having those guilty feelings all the time.

To be honest, at times I still don’t feel totally confident I can keep to this. When I feel a bit lonely I do think having some nice junk food would make me feel better ( even tho I know it doesn’t)

I think this forum could be my lifeline, to keeping going, as so many of us are battling through together.

There’s so much I want to do and see and being fit and healthy will help me get to more places and do more fun stuff.

Last year I was doing a lot of DIY at home, and I finally got a plot on the local allotment. And it was all too much for me – I realised I was knackered all the time, found it difficult doing things which I had been able to do easily just a few years ago. I knew I’d been putting weight on but hadn’t done anything about it until the cardiac nurse at my annual check up said I really ought to do something. So general health is my motivation.

barby – your point 5 – know where you are coming from. Always seems harder when I’m on my own. I’ve been very good at eating the evidence – “No, officer, I haven’t got any junk food in the house, honest!” If you feel the urge to binge, have a drink, then log on to this forum and post a message – the liquid will help fill a gap, and composing a message will be a useful distraction.
There’s a lot of sense on this forum, ready to help keep you on the right path.

weight + looking good (vain I know!), being healthy, controlling my relationship with food, avoiding heart disease, diabetes + dementia and being more active and energetic

Diabetes reversal. Pure and simple. Generally I don’t believe very low calorie diets are a smart way to lose weight (the faster the loss, as a general rule, the more likely it is to return), and it is hard to get all the micro nutrients you need in 800 calories/day.

The research data is small – but compelling (remission in 100% of recently diagnosed, obese, type 2 diabetics, with a smaller remission rate in people with a long-standing diagnosis.)

I’m less than a year into my diagnosis (making remission a good possibility), significant weight loss alone has not made a dent in my insulin resistance (meaning if I can’t induce remission, I will be stuck eating fewer than 20 carbs per meal forever). Eight weeks isn’t long enough to cause significant harm – and it might give me the option to eat a moderate quantity of healthy carbs (and be better able to balance my diet) than if I just continue to eat a ketogenic diet and manage my diabetes.

Unfortunately I’ve been told I need to stop eating at a calorie deficit to prepare for surgery :(, so this 6th week will be my last. I plan to try a home OGTT early next week (after my next A1C) to see if I have been successful.

Diabetes reversal. I agree with neohdiver, I don’t think low calorie diets are the way to go for long term weight loss but IF I can reverse my diabetes in eight weeks I HAVE TO TRY! I owe it to myself, my husband, and others who love me to try and extend my life.

I know I have to watch my carbs forever. I know I’m going to fight this forever but if I can get diabetes into remission and stop the damage its doing to my body, I can fight a better fight.

What a good idea for a thread 🙂

What motivates me:

1. Stopping the binge-eating-feeling-crap-about-myself-more-binge-eating cycle. I don’t think about food 24/7 anymore and that’s a revelation to me.
2. Vanity and clothes shopping. I feel so much better about myself when I’m slimmer and clothes shopping becomes a joy rather than a just-get-whatever-fits expedition. I was size 20 nudging 22 and now I’m 14 🙂
3. Avoiding Diabetes. I have a strong family history and although my blood sugars were still normal it was only a matter of time.

Seeing tomorrow. 🙂

I’ve been told I’m high risk of becoming type 2. I’d like to avoid/minimise that if possible.

I’m tired of feeling fat and not liking what I see.

I’m sorry for all the times I’ve wasted money and time eating crap for little actual pleasure. I don’t want to be that person. I want to be true to myself and treat my body with the care it deserves.

I want to be able to have fun with my children.

I want to be able to wear my smaller clothes that are all stuck in bags in the loft.

Like most people, my motivation is two fold. As in the past, it’s vanity, I want to look better and be more confident. But this time I also want to improve my health. I’ve got reactive hypoglycaemia which means I overreact to insulin, dropping my blood glucose too low after eating carbs. And I’m finding not eating carbs means the BS doesn’t rise In the first place, so no overproduction of insulin and no hypos. Brilliant! I’ve got arthritis too, had both knees replaced which are now fine, but all the rest is crumbling a bit! So carrying around less weight has got to help. All positives!

Hello, newbie here, just registered.

I’m 3 weeks into BSD 800.

My motivation is health. I’m not pre diabetic (though I don’t know how), but am 4 stone over weight. One of my kids worries a lot about parental loss and I need to know that I am doing all I can to be as healthy as I can be.

These forums are v inspiring!

I was having a sort out of clothes a couple of weeks ago. One of my favourite dresses has never really fitted, so it went in the bag awaiting the charity shop.
I tried it on this morning, with great trepidation. It’s still snug (!) but at least the zip does up!
Yay!!!!

I want to be able to walk into any high street shop, pick something off the rail, and put it on, knowing it will be big enough.

I also want to avoid diabetes of course, and be able to get fitter.