I am about to come to the end of round one – the last few weeks have been really difficult and I have struggled to stick to plan, however I have lost 10lbs & 5 inches round my waist so will take that as a positive.

How long a break do you take before starting round two? And is it generally replaced with the Med diet – am a little confused.

Hello, Sarah – If you are feeling well, it isn’t mandatory to stop after 8 weeks. I had considerable weight to
lose, so I just continued on for 10 months until the job was done. Many, many others have done the same
with no ill effects.
Best wishes,
Allie

Hi Sarah,

When I started on the first 8 week program I was counting the days to the end, and dreaming about going back to eating more, but I had more weight to loose and decided to continue after the end of the 8 weeks.

I am glad I did because it took more like 13 or 14 weeks to get to the place in my head where I was eating when hungry rather than to the clock and worrying if I needed to eat before periods of physical activity. Now I am comfortable following a 16:8 program and living off my fat. I feel comfortable that once I get down to my targets I will be able to stay there, or be able to go back there if I slip up.

I don’t think I would have reached this place if I had dropped back to eating more at the end of the 8 weeks, so I am glad I decided to continue.

Hi Sarah
I can only reiterate what has been said above. I did 2 back to back rounds of 800, by which time I had reached target, and have now maintained for almost 10 months, no longer calorie counting, but sticking to low carb – in general, I think that the longer you do it, the easier it becomes and morphs from a “diet” into a way of life, which is incredibly important if you want to keep the weight off. Well done on your success to date and good luck with your continued weight loss..

Hello Sarah – firstly, well done on your results to date, you must be delighted to be so much trimmer. I wonder if you can identify the issues you’ve had sticking to plan and what has caused your struggle. Think if you can pin this down, pressing on will not seem as daunting and on the flip side, if you do decide to take a brief break, you can put in place strategies so that you maintain the weight lost so far. As Theodora says, it ‘s important that this way of eating becomes a way of life

Hi Sarah
Just wanted to say really well done for sticking to the plan when you’ve been struggling and also what a fantastic reduction in your waist measurement. I started BSD at the beginning of August and have only just (Feb) managed to lose 6 inches from my waist, so losing 5 inches from round your waist in less than 8 weeks is so impressive to me.
If I remember rightly in the book the Med diet or 5:2 are a couple of the options MM suggests people could go on after the 8 week plan but he also seems to assume that most of us will have got to our goal weight by then – and, as you can see, lots of us haven’t.
Everybody does it differently – some people pause for a period before coming back for a second, third round etc. Others, as people have said above, carry on doing the 8-week plan until they’ve lost all the weight they need to. I did 800 from August to December 2017. Although I still have a bit more weight to lose, I recently (Jan) upped my calories to 1000 (not the carbs) which I was initially OK with, but then my weight loss stalled and I lost a little motivation so I’m now going back to 800 until I get to my goal weight.
I think it’s about each of us understanding (or learning as we go along) what works best for us as individuals.
SunnyB’s suggestion of letting us see if we can help with any issues you’ve had sticking with the plan is a great idea. But, whatever you decide, really well done on where you have got to already!