Hi. I haven’t been strictly following BSD or even 5:2, more just adopting the complete Med approach. I’m on summer hols, with family around, so being really strict with cals is next to impossible. I will be going onto complete 800 per day approach as of Sept 5 when school starts again because I really want to accelerate the weight loss and hit targets ideally by end of year and then just maintain embedded healthier lifestyle.
I decided to change the way I ate on June 2, and in the intervening 12 weeks, I’ve lost 12 kilos, which I’m very happy with. I’ve upped my activity considerably, so that I am now doing 20-30 mins of warm-up/HIIT and then 50-60 minutes walking most days, which easily gets me over the 10,000 steps mark. I’ve also lost a lot of centimetres from hips, waist and bust, although I have a long way to go.
I am monitoring my food with a daily diary and I’ve kept to under 1500 cals every day apart from at the end of my first 8 weeks, when I decided to have a day off and eat all the things I’d really been craving, e.g. toast, honey, chocolate, wine and roast potatoes. I am going to give myself a day off every 8 weeks or so, as that really does keep cravings at bay, and the results in the 8 weeks are measurable.
It has been way easier than I thought – my appetite levels have diminished considerably since I gave up all products with added sugar and starchy processed carbs. I don’t eat pasta, rice, potatoes or bread any more, and my only sugar comes from fruit and vegetables. I already ate a quite healthy Mediterranean diet as a base line, but was very greedy with processed starch and especially with puddings/sweet treats. However, I don’t miss these at all. I love cheese, but am happy to eat it with cruditΓ©s, such as red pepper, carrots or celery and grapes rather than with biscuits or bread. My carb intake is usually between 90-150g per day because I eat quite a bit of fruit (berries in the morning, an apple at lunch and maybe a peach or cherries after supper).
Hope this helps in terms of advice/experiences.