In his original 5:2 days MM said auto phage kicked in after 17 hrs. I think Jason Fung advocates longer before it kicks in.

I might have to be brave and try some fasting! Any idea how long at a time we have to go without food for it to do any good?

Thanks both of you. I’ll keep using both then.

I’ve been putting chai in with my porridge and leaving it to soak for a while before cooking and found that just 20g of oats and a spoonful of chai makes quite a big, filling bowl of porridge. I sprinkle ground flax seeds on yoghurt when I have that instead.

Hi everyone,
I’m quite late to the table with this challenge. I have been having some issues with my horse again (even my vet has started feeling sorry for me and she very kindly didn’t charge me for her last visit!), and that has made me quite tired and not really able to focus on much calorie counting. I have been pleasantly surprised though that in spite of all of that, I’ve been maintaining at 81.3kg since just after Christmas. I was thinking that I would just focus on maintaining for this challenge and then get back on track for losing next challenge. However, after a few good days this week but without really trying too hard, I suddenly have lost 0.4kg overnight and am now sitting at 80.9kg. This is the lowest I have been without having a fast day the day before (I was once 80.6kg after a fast day, but then popped back up immediately over 81kg the next day). So now I am thinking that if I work hard enough, I might get below that elusive 80kg mark by the end of this challenge. I might be able to start riding my horse again this weekend, and I’m sure he’ll appreciate me being under 80kg as well (although I still need to get under 75kg to get to less than 15% of his body weight, but that is a work in progress). Motivation has returned!

Hello Squidge! I agree with the above, but one other consideration is
that chia seeds combined with a liquid and allowed to sit briefly, produces
a pudding like consistency that makes a nice substitute for morning
porridge, and keeps one full for hours! Additionally, chia seeds do not
need to be ground to release all of their nutrients, while flax seeds do!
Best,
Allie

Jackie, your body is forced into autophagy during fasting, one of it’s biggest benefits as far as I’m concerned. Autophagy, I believe, literally means to eat oneself!

My skin has certainly tightened. I have only a single chin these days, with no saggy skin left, I no longer have batwing arms and, come the summer, will certainly be going sleeveless (assuming we HAVE a summer warm enough of course😝). I certainly don’t have “saggy skin” on my tum, it’s just a bit wrinkly (above belly button, not below) but nowhere near as much as it was when I entered maintenance, so I have high hopes that this will all tighten too. I’m 20 years older than you, but I agree, what’s a bit of saggy skin / few wrinkles compared to all that excess blubber we used to carry around. Like you, I feel fantastic.

I do have some epically wobbly areas (upper arms, belly, thighs) which was very much to be expected given that I had 200 lbs to lose. They have changed over time. My ab regimen seems to have had a positive effect on my waist and belly in that the toned muscle sort of sucks the looser bits in. My proverbial bingo wings are now completely empty, so much so that you can clearly see my triceps because the extra skin is so flat it’s practically two-dimensional.

I’m still pretty self-conscious. It looks weird, I cannot tell a lie. The good news is you can’t see any of this when I’m dressed and the only person who has to see me nekkid is endlessly enthusiastic about it, bless his heart.

Jackie, autophagy is one of the advantages of fasting. It’s when the body consumes its own moribund and decrepit cells because you’re not feeding it anything else for a while. This speeds up the process of cell replacement and can have a positive effect on skin quality, firmness, etc.

Haha, V – maybe I should start a Futurelearn course on Futurelearning!🤗

Thanks for the suggestion of downloading the liver one now, I may have a look, but not sure I want to be doing 3 at once. But if not this time…………………..

Chia is slightly lower in fat and therefore calories, but it’s a negligible difference. Carb-wise flax is a little lower than chia, but again it’s a small matter of a gram per ounce. Chia has more fiber than flax.

The Liver one is just 3 weeks and so may be worth downloading. It’s available until mid February.

Hi Theo you really do learn something new everyday! I had no idea all the weeks were downloaded together. I’ve been waiting for ‘mondays’ to start the next week! Dim or what!!

Ps: I do kind of, now I’m not overweight or obese anymore, and due to a twice a week weight training workout (of a few years standing), look a bit like Wonderwoman. Well, without the boobs, hair or face. But lean. And nothing wobbles (not even boobs 😫) . Now I just need a magic lasso

I do also have a squidgy tum and saggy under chin bit where fat used to be. But I’m 48, and feeling good so a bit of skins OK. Also, a while ago some of the maintainers (Esnecca was one I think) were talking about how skin tightens up a over time. I think Alliecat called it autophagy?

Esnecca, I chucked ‘em. I figured if they were going to be a treat they should be perfect. I am going to KOKO with them. Though that doesn’t mean I won’t get them wrong again. As anyone whose tried my Yorkshire Pudding will attest 😂

I should add I love them both to bits

One time I lost weight (to get married maybe) and my best ever friend (now of 30yesrs standing) was properly enthusiastic but then kind of muttered ‘but you’re thinner than me …. ‘ (which had never happened before.)

Last time I saw her, about a month ago, I bitchily noticed she had put quite a lot on round the tum. If I was still fat this would have pleased me in the secret depths of my not so very kind heart. As it was I just slightly worried about her health.

Another very good friend has found my weight loss v hard, because she has health issues she didn’t want to face up to and cos we used to enjoy saying ‘s*d it’ and havingbthe cake together. Even now she’s losing she’s not doing it the BSD way, which says something about our friendship dynamic and nothing about the BSD!

V – I have all 4 weeks. They are all in a row at the top of the course page, and I just click on the week I want. Week 2 focusses on digestion, week 3 on ingredients and food labelling, and week 4 on healthy eating.

Further to my earlier post, I should say that although I completed the test at the end of week 2 successfully without having actually read week 2, now I have gone back to read the articles, I have learnt some things I didn’t know beforehand, not a lot, but at least some, so that’s a plus as I learnt nothing new at all in week one.

I start the Nutrition and Wellbeing course on Monday, but maybe I’ll give the Liver one a go later on.

Toby, a glass of wine a day will not damage your weight loss, providing you log the cals and carbs contained therein and include them in your daily allowance.

When I was wanting to lose weight (in maintenance now for over 8 months) I went totally alcohol free, but since reaching target (in fact half a stone under) I now have wine on Fri/Sat/Sun. We live a very sociable life, and these are the days we tend to be out with friends, wining and dining etc. So far at least it hasn’t caused my weight to increase.

O/H has done dry January for 20 years, and I joined him last year obviously (though I did Feb/March/April too) but I have now decided that it is probably better for both my liver and my weight, to have 4 alcohol free days a week, rather than 31 days t-total, followed by 334 days drinking.

Theo how do you have Week 2? I do have it from my original course last year but thought I would save that ‘treat’ until Monday when it’s released again!

I have to say the Liver Disease course is far more interesting and I have learnt quite a bit. I hadn’t realised just how important an organ the liver is. Fascinating really even though the course just skims the surface it does provide quite a chunk of science too.

JackieM, you’re a very wise person. I’ve told no-one at home, in UK, that I have started this diet, except a friend I’ve had for 60+ years, who has always been overweight. I have been trying to interest her in the BSD but she thought it was only for diabetics!
I plan to go back in April/May to see all the family & hope I’m a lot thinner by then!?

Just a quick dip in to the forum today, having been out of the loop for a couple of days. We are visiting with my folks and it’s not so easy to find time to check what’s happening on here. My email inbox was stuffed full of forum notifications – mostly from the 800 reboot thread – and I confess I have only skimmed them, rather than digested fully. Didn’t feel there was anything there that I should be contributing to, but did think I should add some positives, so here goes:

1) Caught up with some old friends yesterday.
2) Spending time with my parents.
3) Pleasant walk this morning – crisp but not too cold.

My Mum asked me today, with a certain tone in her voice, what weight I am and if I’ve stopped losing now. Rather than have to have The Lecture, I said of course I’d stopped now! Not sure what this says about me, but not going to lose sleep over it. Still aiming to lose those extra couple of pounds!

when I do the whole fast800 think properly I go completely alcohol free and the dry January is a big help to me because hubby if following it too. There have been other years when he hasn’t but his last blood test showed raised triglycerides and raised glucose although not quite pre-diabetes or liver disease just something he needs to do something about. It used to be hell when he savoured a nice glass of whiskey on a Saturday night – although not my tipple it still made me want a drink. Lets hope he lasts out, I’m sure I will as I am so determined to get this right.

I’m now 2/3 of the way through week 2.

In week one, I kept thinking “I know all this” so before I even began week 2, I skipped straight to the quiz at the end to see if I actually did have the knowledge contained therein, or only thought I had. But I did actually get them all right! To be fair, there are only 5 questions, so I went back to the beginning and am reading all the articles in the hope of learning something new. Interesting exercise though, so will probably repeat it for weeks 3 and 4 when I get to them. I do think, however, that week 2 is slightly more interesting than week one and, as I said previously, us BSDers have probably read more than a lot of people about nutrition before starting the course, as lots of the comments are things like “how interesting” or “I didn’t know that”, rather than debating the subject.

Currently I am the “friend who is not quite as fat as she used to be, but is still fat” – aiming for “skinny mate”

Nope, nor me. 😁 lucky we found BSD!

I don’t want to be the ‘fat friend’ any longer.

Can I just add people are critical of fast weight loss because it’s always more comfortable to have a fat friend. Losing weight rapidly is a big change for them as well as us, and lots of people do not take change well. When I was overweight (before my recent surge into obesity, so like ALL MY LIFE) i was always a bit sad when I lost a fat friend and a thin one emerged from her shell. People see themselves reflected in you and compare, and suddenly they can’t say ‘at least I’m thinner than ….’

Of course most people are basically nice, so they get over it, but I do think it’s still there and one of the reasons why they find rapid, noticeable change difficult.

Great, Mariet, that’s what I’m thinking too, good to have some (more) validation of that.

The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcom Kendrick is on kindle Uk for 99p if anyone fancies a bargain read (recommended on another thread, I think. He was, anyway)

I’m attempting dry January but I do miss my glass of wine (or 2) on a Friday and Saturday night.

Hi Allie, and thanks for your continued interaction and support. I live in Galena, Illinois – formerly from Chicago which is 3 hours SE of here.. It’s a touristy area close to the Mississippi River where Ill, Iowa and Wisconsin meet. A beautiful hilly and scenic area that resembles Ireland. 8 months of the year it’s fabulous to live here.. I live in a golf course resort community and still feeled blessed to do so – we moved here 15 years ago. The other 4 months – Dec. through March – not so fabulous. It’s not being cold I despise, it’s being afraid to go out and about.. slipping and falling.. getting into a car accident. The roads here are curvy with steep hills. I have 4 wheel drive, but still.. I’m a chicken after getting into an accident on the ice some y ears ago.. and slipping and breaking my arm in the past.

Why didn’t I choose the Fast800? I want to – but I seriously didn’t think I can do it right now – and didn’t want another major fail for my negative self-talk to go to town about. Also, I have a vacation at the end of this month to warm and sunny Palm Springs, CA and another one at the end of February (a themed Flower Power 60’s Caribbean cruise) – and then off on another cruise to Hawaii through mid-March – (yes, I’m very fortunate in that respect!). I went crazy with planning trips after my husband passed away.. Anyway, I kinow I’d be able to stay relatively LC, but not 800C. I figured I’d tame the appetite beast first with the LC and some fasting days.. And then do the Fast800 when I’m done traveling in March.

I think to be honest a couple of glasses of wine are necessary for me to make the whole thing bearable! Better this diet with the odd glass of wine than no diet…

I was at a talk about raising a specific breed of beef cattle which are renown for the marbling in the meat on Tuesday. (Marbling is the threads of fat through the meat, and there are grading standards from 1 to 12 depending on the amount/size if the threads of fat). The farmers had found that their grass fed cattle lost fat from within the muscle so that the meat was no longer marbled within 2 months of the start of autumn. (Sugar levels in the grass is less during winter) They have to supplemented the cattle’s feed with first cut silage (grass cut and stored at the time of maximum sugar levels) to maintain the fat levels within the muscle.

I thought people who are interested in where they loose inches might want to know this. If the same applies to humans then as soon as we go on a low carb diet our bodies will be drawing on the fat stored within the muscle structures throughout out bodies in the first couple of months.

Well done, Strawberry!

We had an adapted chicken chasseur yesterday – I cooked chicken thighs (skin off as I don’t like it unless it’s crisp) with leeks, tomatoes, mushrooms and tinned tomatoes, with lots of thyme and pepper. It was really nice – I’m glad I made a big batch! I’ve frozen some as ready meals for later on. (I’ve found it’s best to put the extra in containers before having our dinner, so we’re not tempted to have seconds). I served it with geen veggies – they fill up the plate without adding loads of carbs and calories.

SSB, I can well believe it about the outrage! One thing which annoys me is that so many articles, TV programmes etc come up with low fat/low calorie desserts and snacks. Nooooo! If we’re overweight we need to stop eating that stuff, not switch to an artificially sweetened, trans fat version. There’s no money to be made from people who leave the lid on the biscuit tin.

Hi Victoria, I do agree with what you say and, thinking about the rapid weight loss, people who have gastric bands fitted must lose weight even quicker than we might on this diet

At least saggy skin is underneath my clothing, although not reached that stage yet. You are probably right that some exercise is good for the sagginess and we always have big knickers to fall back on. Although I suspect that as we move closer to our target, the weight loss will slow down anyway. I expect to look like Wonder Woman by the summer.

Hi Squidge,

Our posts crossed. I think you are right about saggy skin, it does take time to catch up, and this adds to “helpful” people saying we’d be better with slow loss!

Hi all

I think there are several factors with people opposing rapid weight loss.

From a commercial viewpoint, anyone selling dietary advice will benefit from slow loss as you will be paying them for longer.

From a friends/family point of view, firstly they’ve listened to all the comments about rapid loss being bad for you and worry, secondly, you do change appearance rapidly and can look thinner around your face. People take time to adjust to the fact that you look different as they traditionally think of a thinner face as being “ill” and again they worry.

Bottom line though it’s up to us and our bodies.

I’ve been reading up on the saggy skin issue. Apparently it doesn’t happen to everyone, so maybe we’ll be lucky? Toning exercises and strength training are supposed to help – I can imagine they would. Also a healthy diet, low in sugar and high in vitamins, minerals and protein and drinking plenty of water is a good idea … hmm, that sounds familiar.

The only thing that goes against the BSD is the suggestion that weight should be lost slowly, especially if there’s a lot to loose. That’s to allow the skin to ‘adjust’. To me that suggests that faster weight loss might result in some sagginess to start with, but if we keep eating well and exercising, it will start to adjust and improve.

Oh toby wine, wine, WINE, whatever happened to dry January 🙂

Interesting discussion re small temporary weight gain. I certainly wasn’t suggesting people would want to eat below their maintenance calorie for ever!

As always, inspiring stuff. I am having difficulty being as strict as my last attempt, particularly with wine, but I have to say weight seems to be coming off just as quick, perhaps because I have thrown exercise (C25k plus lunchtime walks) into the mix…

Absolutely, we all need big knickers – the greyer the better

Big knickers – what would we do without them!

Haha Sandy13 that made me really laugh!

Hi Katon….. when I started on the diet I had to reduce my exercise to manage my energy levels. It is the food intake that causes weight loss with exercise adding very little value weight wise although good for overall health and fitness. Eleven days in you should be starting to get used to the reduction in calories or, as I did, time your exercise to coincide with having had something to eat so you are not exercising on an empty stomach. I see you are doing a triathlon in a few months and good luck to you. If the 800 is causing you problems then increase a little as Jimmy says, just dont give up on the diet as you can have both with small adjustments to both exercise, timing and calorie intake. Something I say and get pilloried for is – if you are not diabetic or doing it for serious health problems, then dont sweat it, just do the best you can, try to stick to the low carb principles and make it something you are able to stick with. Good luck with the triathlon – rather you than me but I am nearly 65.

Thanks for the laugh Jules, but that’s where I keep my nipples!!

Hi everyone – MnM, as predicted last night the quarter of a pound has gone along with it another whole pound so I am on the move again. Also, as predicted, when I have a weight loss I have an increase in BG and today it was up from 5.5 on Thursday to 6.1 this morning. Again, quite insignificant figures but useful to know these things about your own body. JulesMaigret I only mention the 1/4 of a pound as I weigh in kilos and then do the calculation into stones and pounds.

Hope everyone is keeping on keeping on…

Marsie – my Mum and Dad used a similar method to measure our height but with a pencil – there were six of us. That meant a lot of marks over the years – but no names, so I just remember squabbling with my brothers and sister about who’d been what height when. A spirit level is a good idea, though – must remember that.

I’m still 5′ 2″ (the practice nurse measured my height in August) but my friend was telling me just a couple of weeks ago she’s lost some height (we’re both 62). I wonder what makes us shrink? You’ve got my sympathy about the chocolate – learnt at Christmas I just can’t go there – whatever the type!

Good going on the walking – another reason to love that grandson of yours.

Mokovex – ooh, I’d love to be in the low 9’s – or even in the 9’s. I’m so close at 10 stone but that 9st 13lb is just so elusive. What a great idea – aiming for the flatlands. Me, too. (Another of those descriptions that captures the imagination – I find them so helpful).

Mariet – good on you for keeping going – I’ve often been at a plateau for a couple of weeks at a time, it’s so frustrating – but, you know it will come off in the end.

Busybee – great to hear you had such a good time visiting your son. Was it New Jersey you went to. My son and I are hoping to get to New York this year. For some reason lost in the mists of time, we both want to go to New Jersey while we’re there. Hope these last few days of refocusing has gone well.

Milalin, Butterlover and Natalie – hope you’re all doing well. Milalin, hope you’re back at home and things are on more of an even keel.

I’m off to a surprise birthday party for my husband’s brother this weekend. I’ve found I’m usually OK when I’m staying away (we’re in a hotel for 3 nights) because I’m super strict with myself. I’ve got to stay focused on that 9st 13lbs.

Have a good weekend everyone

n.b. Natalie/Marsie – My husband suddenly stopped talking about the cricket – hmm, I wonder why?

Sandy13

I also think that SW encouraged you to eat more than you need to, and not necessarily healthy food either.

I have that concern too. If (or should that be when?) I have lost the weight I want to, will my now huge belly hang like an elephants ear?
I will have to tuck it into my big knickers!

Well, I’ve tried most diets over the years & if it was WW or SW they always were pleased if you’d lost a pound or half! It was too slow & I think most people got disheartened.

The only thing I worry about now is the fact that my skin has little elasticity and I’ll be left with lots of baggy bits!? But apart from that I’m quite happy on BSD & if you are then ignore people’s comments, it’s only jealousy.

Squidge – have a look at Death by Food Pyramid by Denise Minger – it’s a comprehensive and scientific review of all the food ‘advice’ handed out over the decades. It’s quite long but she writes well and it’s very entertaining – just be prepared to be outraged at the political and big money interests which have skewed and damaged our health.
SSB

Hi Strawberry13, that’s amazing – it’s almost impossible to explain to people how different this woe is and how great you can feel. We just have to keep spreading the word.
SSB