Accountability thread: 14 days of Fast800

[Ontherebound34]

Last year I did so well and lost 3 stone. I then regained half of it due to binge eating. Feeling pretty rubbish and get so demotivated when the scales hardly move. I also hate the fact that one day of bad eating can undo a whole week of work. I get uncontrollable food cravings so I am interested in stabilising blood sugar.

I will use this thread to document my time on the Fast800 diet. Feel free to follow, comment or just ignore!
I have just finished day 2 so will do both days below and then try to update daily.

SW: 82.5 kg (13 st 1) - my highest weight ever was 14 st 7
GW: 71 kg (11 st 1)
Height: 5'7''

Day 1:
Fasted til 12 noon. Then had greek yoghurt, ground almonds, raspberries, followed by 2 eggs, smoked salmon, sauteed spinach, lettuce and dressing.
Dinner: poached salmon, spinach, lettuce. More yoghurt and some strawberries.
839 calories, 27 g carbs

Felt okay. A bit spaced out but no hunger really. Some trouble getting to sleep but nothing too bad.

Day 2:
Breakfast: greek yoghurt, strawberries, hazelnuts
Lunch: fried squid, squeeze of lemon, salad leaves
Snack: 40 g dried cured beef slices
Dinner: fried halloumi, cabbage salad, roasted broccoli

805 calories, 31 g carbs

Felt tired in the morning and I didn't last past until 10 am before I had to have breakfast. Felt pretty good after breakfast and then had a bit of a slump in the afternoon and felt weak but nothing too bad. Also feel a bit constipated so I have taken 2 senna tablets this evening.

I have been told that days 3 and 4 are the worst so I am pretty apprehensive. If it gets too much, I will eat more but keep it low carb. Have ordered some keto sticks so look forward to testing those out when they arrive.

Day 3: this wasn't as bad as I had feared (although some people say that day 4 is when keto kicks in so you get worse symptoms then so maybe it is yet to come...). I managed to fast until 12 noon today, which was good. I felt a little bit woozy but nothing too bad and I am still quite constipated but it's easing off a bit.

Lunch: 50 g smoked salmon, one tomato, fried spinach and mushrooms.
Snack: some parma ham, greek yoghurt, strawberries, hazelnuts
Dinner: Frittata made from egg, feta cheese, mushrooms, leek, together with green salad, spinach leaves and tomato.
Calories: 814, carbs: 25 g

Drank black coffee and peppermint tea. Overall, I think that today was easier than yesterday. Fingers crossed for tomorrow to go well too.

Hello, watching with interest ; your daily meals aready seem so organised and varied. Do you have an app to track carbs etc?

Thank you! I just have the free version of My Fitness Pal and if you scan the barcode of the stuff you eat, the macros come up. I think they say that you can go up to 50g carbs on this diet but I’m trying to keep it a little lower at the beginning so that I can get into ketosis. I also read that eating extra salt at the beginning is advised because it helps stop you feeling rubbish as you naturally lose salts when your body adjusts. That’s why I’m having stuff like Parma ham (although I love the taste of it too). Also trying to keep my protein between 50 and 60 g to keep hunger pangs low.

Hi! I'll come and join in your thread, though you're putting me to shame already- some lovely sounding meals from you!

I started something similar yesterday. Trying to do 16:8, no sugar, no processed foods and gluten free, keeping my carbs under 50g a day. I think this will naturally put me about the 800 calorie mark, but it's the lower carb/ low sugar that interests me- trying to tackle fatigue as well as lose weight.

Yesterday- chicken salad at 11, 30g oats at 3, chilli con carne with mushrooms and brocolli, followed by yoghurt at 6.30. All done by 7.

Today- chicken salad at 11, I've just had a babybel and a slice of ham, and it will be cod mornay tonight, not sure what with.

Any meal suggestions? Not a big fish lover unfortunately.

Welcome @KnobJockey! That would be great to have someone else doing it too. Your meals sound great. You could try something like spaghetti bolognese with courgette instead of the spaghetti. I also like chicken breast coated with a mix of ground almonds, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Spray it with oil and oven bake. It’s like low carb KFC!
How are you finding it so far? I will update properly later tonight but it’s amazing how your body gets used to eating 800 cals. I used to eat 2000 and was always starving! Just hoping to get to the stage where I stop thinking about food.

Day 4: I didn't sleep well last night and kept waking up. When I woke up in the morning, I felt dizzy and had the beginnings of a headache. I nipped it in the bud straight away with paracetamol and after I had some coffee, I felt much better. The rest of the day has been fine and I'm starting to feel normal now and have more energy. I am thinking about food quite a bit but don't really feel hungry if that makes sense.

I decided to weigh in this morning. After 3 days, I lost 1 kilo or 2.2 pounds. I am so happy with that result. When doing my normal diet, it would have taken at least 2 weeks to get that result. To get that in just 3 days is fantastic.

Food:
Lunch: scrambled egg, bacon, roasted tomatoes
Snack: raspberries, greek yoghurt, brazil nuts
Dinner: beef on a bed of spinach, salad with radishes, spring onion and lettuce, dressing.

Calories: 815, Carbs: 27 g

I have discovered that brazil nuts are the lowest in carbs of all nuts so am going to try to use them instead of almonds during this phase.

Hoping for another good day tomorrow.

Can I join late! Want to start tomorrow. I want something to kick start me as I’ve regained weight with illness and now I’m better, I know once I’m on my way the weight loss will motivate me to continue but it’s just getting started!
Well done on progress so far!

Definitely @UpHillandDownAle! Will be great to have you on board. Yes getting started is the hardest but just take it one day at a time. I didn’t find the first couple of days too bad and by the time you’ve done them, you’ll want to keep going and will power through the side effects.

Day 5:
I woke up feeling really energised and clear-headed. I was a bit hungry in the morning so had to distract myself a little bit by going for a walk. Black coffee really helped. I managed to fast until 12. I have felt great all day and enough energy to do a weights-workout. This definitely gets easier day by day.

Was down another 0.8 kg this morning, meaning total weight loss is very nearly 4 pounds in just 4 days. I know it will be water and glucose but I look a little slimmer and to get this in less than a week when I'd have struggled big time to get the same in a whole month is so so motivating.

Food:
Lunch: 2 eggs, lean bacon, salad with radishes and lettuce and dressing.
Dinner: Roast chicken, spinach, lettuce, dressing.
Snacks: mini babybel, greek yoghurt, strawberries, raspberries.

Hope everyone else doing the diet had a good day too.

Well done on the loss! Day 3 here- weighed this morning to a magic 5lb lower than Monday 😱 though I did eat all the toast on Sunday, so it's just my body getting rid of that.

Meals today- lunch was leftover chilli con carne and a bit of brocolli, dinner was a slow roasted gammon, shredded and put half in a homemade crustless quiche with leek and spinach, served with green beans and baby sweetcorn, snuck in 3 sweet potato wedges too. Snack of FF Greek yoghurt.

Ooh that’s, amazing. Five pounds! What a great start and your meals sound lovely too.

Day 6:
Felt fine today but a little bit hungry, which I put down to going for a run. I also find that I need to keep myself quite busy to avoid thinking too much about food. I also noticed that it wasn't proper hunger in that my stomach was rumbling - was more wanting to eat out of a sense of boredom. I found that making a cup of herbal tea helped a lot.

Weight has gone down again by 0.4kg, so I am now nearly 5 lb down. Am hoping to lose a total of 5 or 6 pounds by the end of the week, so hopefully I am on track for doing that. I have decided to try to do this phase for 3 weeks if I am able to. To be honest, it feels no less restrictive than when I was trying to eat 1700-1800 cals a day and I knew that I had to do that for about 5 months to get to a healthy BMI. Now I should be able to do the bulk of it in 3 weeks and have around 10 pounds left, which I can do through 5:2.

Food:
Lunch: mushroom omelette, smoked cured beef, salad with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, dressing.
Dinner: baked mushrooms with beef mince and grated cheese, baked tenderstem broccoli, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, dressing.
Snack/dessert: greek yoghurt, brazil nuts, strawberries, blueberries
Calories: 803, carbs: 29

Ooh, the beef salad sounds good!

Today was quiche for lunch, and a burger (no bun) with salad, baby sweetcorn, butternut squash chips and baked beans. Not sure if baked beans are part of this, but I enjoyed them 😁

Probably slacked a little on the water today though

And I am going to bed hungry!

I've been doing this since Monday. It's been working well, not as hard as I thought, but I don't think I can continue as I just don't have the energy.

I usually like to keep active, running etc. Just finding that I don't have enough in the tank. The diet includes the 20 min HIIIT exercises but I am tired enough doing normal household chores, walking the dog/kids to school etc. Anyone else feel like this ?

Example - I have run half marathons before, but a couple of weeks ago I wasn't at that stage but was running 5 miles at slow pace comfortably. Just come back from 2 mile run in 20 mins, so same time as the HIIT exercises. I struggled to even finish it and I'm exhausted now.

I think it’s probably not a good idea to do long distance running on this diet during the initial phase as it’s so low calorie. I have done quite short runs interspersed with walking and also some weights to maintain muscle mass but haven’t really been doing much HIIT because I’m not a big fan. I am finding I have more energy now at the end of the first week than what I did a few days ago.

Day 7:
Felt fine although a little bit tired in the afternoon and had a short nap before going on a walk. I also did some weights. Didn’t weigh myself today as I had a big glass of water when I woke which would have added weight. I will do tomorrow though which will be my official result for week 1.

Can’t believe I’ve done a week already. It’s really not that difficult. The hardest bit is in the morning before I have lunch. Other than that, I’m not really hungry so must be in ketosis.

Food:
Lunch: boiled eggs, smoked salmon, salad, dressing
Dinner: ‘lasagne’ made from layering mushrooms, spinach, beef and topped with a bit of cheese
Snacks: babybel, Brazil nuts, strawberries, Greek yoghurt

Why don't you hold off exercising til next week, to give your body a chance to adjust to it?

@KnobJockey

Why don't you hold off exercising til next week, to give your body a chance to adjust to it?

Yes, could do. Just doesnt feel like there's ever going to be enough fuel to sustain any kind of heavy activity.

Ooo I found this thread at the right time. Am starting today- I managed to edit fitness pal free version to 800 calories so will track on there. I've been fasting for a while (from 6pm-11am) but haven't restricted calories. Lost over a stone so far but have another three to go. Hoping to boost by moving onto fast800. OP, your meals look incredible. Keep posting! Lots of great inspiration. 5lb down already is incredible.

@Obviouspretzel yeah I agree with you that anything really heavy like long distance running is probably not going to be possible on the initial phase because you just won’t have the energy for it. I like running but I figured that I am happy to give myself a break for three weeks while I try to get some kilos off. I’m still walking a lot and doing weight training to keep my muscles from wasting. I also think that if I am lighter, running will be easier when I start it again. I felt sorry for my poor knees with 13 stone (and at my highest, 14 and a half) bearing down on them! I totally understand that you might not want to give up on your running routine though. You could always do the diet but increase the portions. I’m not that hungry on 800 cals after ketosis kicked in so I reckon if I was eating 1500, I’d feel quite full and would have loads of energy. And you’d still lose weight on that, just not as fast.

Hi @Mudandrain great to have you on board! If i count from my initial starting weight last year, my total goal of 3.5 stone isn’t that far off yours. Can definitely recommend it so far. Yes, it’s a bit restrictive but no more so than a calorie controlled diet because you don’t get those carb cravings. I walked past a pub yesterday and they had big pictures of loads of carb laden food but the thought of it didn’t even tempt me. Whereas when I do carb-heavy calorie controlled, I’m constantly battling with myself.

I realised that I’m in the week before my period now and usually I retain water and bloat and my weight goes up by up to 4 lb, which then goes as soon as my period starts. So I might go a bit easy on the weighing during the second week to avoid getting demotivated or skip it altogether. It will also be interesting to see if I feel any better than I usually do during time of the month (normally I crave all the carbs during this week and get quite bad PMS).

Day 8:
Today, I have felt quite hungry, more so than on previous days. It could be because it's the week before my period, as my appetite naturally increases then. I went over the calories by about 150 cals which helped a lot. All of it low carb though (cheese and nuts) and it feels like real hunger rather than sweet cravings. Hoping the hunger subsides over the next few days.

Am going to avoid the scales for a few days until my period starts, as I don't want to be demotivated by retained fluid.

Food:
Lunch: smoked salmon, 2 boiled eggs, avocado
Dinner: baked spinach and chicken topped with cheese
Snack: cheese, nuts, blueberries, cottage cheese
Cals: 976 Carbs: 20

Actually, looking at that, I have noticed that my carbs are lower than normal today so maybe that's why I felt a bit weak. Not sure but will try to increase up to 25-30 as normal from tomorrow.

Glad you're not beating yourself up over it, this needs to be a way of eating I suppose, not a diet, to be able to stick to it.

Today- leftover beef in gravy with carrot and swede mash for lunch
No snacks
A rather beaut chicken, ham and leek bake with broccoli and great beans for dinner (with 2 tiny new potatoes, oops)
I've gone over my eating window today, due to Saturday errands, but, meh.

Weighed again this morning and I was another 2lb down, so 7lb so far since Monday. Very impressed, but it really does say a lot about the amount of toast I ate on Sunday 😂