Hi,
I’m sorry for what maybe has been asked many times before, but I started the Fast800 diet 3 weeks ago and I’ve lost a little bit of weight which I am pleased with.
I’ve cut out crisps, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, in fact all things that I think would have high carbs.
I bought some ketone strips and did a test. I’m not even on the keto scale!
Would anyone have any advice on what I’m doing wrong please?
Mainly my diet is a “low-carb” bar as a snack, and salads with eggs, and/or low calorie chicken sausages or tuna
I read that I’m obviously still having too many carbs, but I can’t see where I’m getting them from

Many thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark66, welcome to the site.

What are you doing wrong. Nothing. The ketone thing is not something I can get my head around having been on this diet for 5 years+ and never seen a ketone reading. First of all the strips are useless and not of medical qualilty (bought from chemists or online). I believe some people swear by a breathalyser but at an expense. If you are in ketosis it doesnt last as when your body is used to not having carbs and goes into fat burning mode it uses up the ketones for energy.

As long as you are under around 50g carbs (Dr Becky says 125g is low carb) you will be in ketosis so dont worry.

You have mentioned the main group of carbs but lets not forget sugars (even artificial sweeteners), processed foods and worst of all, breakfast cereals. Also fruits are high in carbs with the exception of berries – even an apple has 29g of carbs. Fruit juices are even worse and almost pure sugar.

Hope that helps.

Hi sunshine-girl,
Thanks very much for the reply.
Yes, a big help – Thanks.
I also avoid those other food groups you mentioned.
Good to know that I’m on the right track 🙂

Thanks once again,
Mark

Hi Mark
You’ve made a great start – and I’m sure you will make good progress. Each week there is a thread called “One week at a time starting and a Date” You can post updates and questions on there – loads of wonderful people. And there is also a Countdown to Christmas thread going too.
My suggestions would be to log the food you are eating to get an idea of carbs and calories – at least at the start. There are apps to help with this – such as My Fitness Pal, Easy Diet Diary, etc where you can enter the food and you’ll get fairly accurate carb count, as well as calories, fats etc.
I found that at the start it was worthwhile for me to weigh/measure food quantities. I know this can seem a bit of a pain – but it really helped me understand portion size. Also cleared my home of “temptation” foods – so if I needed a snack it would have to be fairly carb friendly – such as a few nuts or a slice of cheese.
And it’s also worth watching for hidden carbs where you didn’t expect – such as a cappuccino/latte coffee, fruits, energy bars and foods disguised as “health food” but are actually loaded with sugar.
All packaged food will have carbohydrate count on the packaging – so a glance at that will help you. And also the serving size – often a pack of something will look like it’s only 1 serve – but the Serving Sizes nutrition data may say there are 3 serves in the pack. Opps! I ate the whole pack 🤣🤣
As @jennie10 has said in a recent post : “But to start I’d recommend the diet doctor website. There are sections of the site which they charge for (and are promoting heavily atm) but still lots of free resources, such as infographics with amount of carbs in fruit, vegetables, etc https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/vegetables” The infographics are really helpful.
Jump in with more questions Mark! There’s lots of support here.
Merry

Hi Merry,
Thanks very much for the pointers, yes, I’d previously had a fairly decent idea on foods etc, but it’s only after starting the Fast800 that I need to re-think a lot of foods that are high in carbs.

haha and yes, I was going to buy a snack that I used to get, but when looking on the nutritional info the carb count looked like a telephone number!

It’s a great point about logging my food intake as well. This way I’ll be keep track and see if I’m going wrong.

It’s a really friendly and helpful forum and hopefully I’ll be able to contribute in the future.

Best Wishes,
Mark

Hi Mark
When I first started this way of eating in 2017 I simply cut out bread, rice, potatoes, pasta etc and lost weight slowly and steadily, I did what was known as the eight week blood sugar diet back then and I lost 17.5 lbs in the first eight weeks, I didn’t know about ketosis but just kept following the programme and eventually got down to my goal weight losing 42lb. One of the things I learned was that we all lose weight at different rates and some of us are slower losers. Don’t compare your weight loss to others but just keep on following this way of eating and you will be successful.

I do use Ketostix now and again if I have been off plan and it usually takes me three days of very low carb to get back into ketosis. Maybe you need to reduce your carb levels even lower and as has been already mentioned, check labels for those pesky carbs. I only eat berries for fruit now and even some vegetables are carb heavy, I was shocked when I looked at tins of soup, beans etc to see how much sugar they contained. Some high protein bars I was looking at contain lots of carbs. Keep food plain and simple is my advice. I am a vegetarian so don’t have the same food choices but I managed to get down to a healthy weight in 2017. I am an active member of the Countdown to Christmas thread as sadly I have gained some unwanted weight during the pandemic and am on a mission to get back in the zone. If you keep your carbs low you will definitely see progress. Once you achieve your goal weight, it doesn’t matter how long it took. Good luck on your weight loss journey. This forum is a brilliant resource with lots of lovely, experienced members offering advice and support.

Hi Cathy,
Thanks so much for the reply and advice.
Blueberries I guess are ok,
All of this is so complex and can be very confusing for the untrained eye.
I think that I’ll join that thread as well.

I really do appreciate all of the help and advice that I have been given

Best wishes,
Mark