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.

Sounds like you’re doing really well @SpeckledyHen! I also have the Michael Mosley audiobook. I listen to it on walks and agree that it’s great to hear him explain everything.
Have lost another 2 pounds so 13 pounds in 5 weeks. No way could I have done that on a regular low calorie diet and to do it without feeling hungry is amazing. Trying to get my mum into it as she has high blood pressure and snores.

Thanks so much for sharing your tips OP, this thread is really helpful. I was trying to follow Fast800 but loosely, now I've gone massively off plan and need to start again 😬 so wondering if it's better to be stricter to avoid sugar binges?

Thanks for all your advice! I was thinking is it ok to have one day off a week, I’ve got a dinner and a bbq and other things. I cannot see how I can stick to 800 then 😢

It’s fine to go over calories for the odd day but if you eat carbs you will no longer be in ketosis and it will take you a few days to get back into it and you may experience tiredness and headaches. Therefore, if by day off you mean eating carbs, that probably won’t work that well if you want to stay in ketosis. On the other hand if you just mean going over calories but sticking to low carb, that’s fine. Alternatively you could try the 5:2 diet instead, where you eat normally for 5 days and have 800 calories on the remaining two.

First day back on plan, will be checking back on the great advice on this thread to keep me on track

@Ontherebound34
I was thinking more sticking to low carb but adding alcohol to my off days.
Will drinking bugger up the keytosis

On day one! Had a salad for lunch and I have fillet steak and lots of veg for dinner.

Thought I would have something I really like on day one.

Though I am bloody starving already

Weigh-in day tomorrow. Will be 2 weeks on Fast 800 , hoping for a reasonable loss since Friday . Had a late breakfast today, skipped lunch and now full of salmon and lots of veggies.
Ontherebound have you got to 14lb yet ?

How often does everyone weigh in. I was actually a bit too scared to do my first this morning. But I’ll do it tomorrow.
I’m thinking I might not weigh until 2 weeks In

9lb in 2 weeks. Very pleased I must say . Obviously it was water to start with but a definite loosening of the jeans .
I’m 5’ 3.5” and historically a stone loss is one size in clothes on my small frame.

Not going to weigh again until Saturday , a couple of times a week seems right for me .

Oh wow! That’s amazing weight loss Speckeldyhen! You must be so pleased.
I weigh in on Saturday but I’m pretty hopeful I will be at least 14 pounds down by then.
In terms of how often to weigh, I started by doing it daily but then stopped that the week before my period because I tend to retain water. Now I’m doing it weekly. I think when I get to maintenance mode that I will maybe try daily again because I’m not going to be looking for a loss then, just staying the same. And it will help me nip any problems in the bud early on.

Just weighed in and down 15 and a half pounds in total. Pretty chuffed.

That’s brilliant Ontherebound you must feel fantastic and it must show too .
I’m 12oz down since Wednesday which is fine . Start weight 12.2.2oz now 11.6.8oz always good to break a 7lb barrier for motivation IMO.
Next mini target is 11.2 ….

Hi, so I need to bite the bullet and stop kidding myself to start this FAST800 thing tomorrow!
Been reading the book for 3 months now....
PLEASE could someone confirm in simple terms if I am on the right thinking to shift some of this weight.

1. eat no more than 800 cals a day, with no more than 50g carbs
2. stick to the recommended foods in the book (low carb, low sugar, low starch)
3. TRE, try and fast for 16 hours, only eating in a period of 8 hours in the day.
4. What should I drink, I love a cup of Tea, but do i need to go decaf, and can i have a drop of mile, or am i better sticking to black decafe coffee or hot fresh Lemon water?

Sorry for all the questions, I just dont want to get it wrong and give up, I am 13st9 51yr, and not been that heavy since the day I gave birth !!!!

another question, does everyone weigh such things as salad leave, tomoato's, veg, fruit and count them into the 800cals per day?

Hi @Hels0beach0life. Good luck with doing the diet. In answer to your questions, yes it’s 800 calories (or as close as possible) and under 50g carbs. Yes, it’s basically above-ground veg, meat, fish, dairy and a few berries. I log on MFP which gives a total of carbs for the day. Avoid potatoes, beans, lentils, carrots, any grains and most fruit apart from berries. Green veg like spinach and broccoli is the lowest in carbs so fill up. Yes, do TRE. As long as you can do 16:8, that’s great but don’t worry if you start off with 12:12 when you get used to the diet. As for drinks, any black tea or coffee or herbal tea is great, as well as plain water of course. I think a squeeze of lemon is probably okay. You definitely don’t need to go decaf. That would be brutal on top of the carb flu.

I do weigh most things as it’s easy to overestimate stuff. Fruit is extremely limited - a banana is likely to put you over your carb limit for instance. I’d stick to berries but weigh them as they do have carbs. Spinach and lettuce you probably don’t need to worry too much about weighing.

Good luck!

@ontherebound34 thank you so much

Welcome and good luck Hels0beach0life

@speckledyHen thank you, I appreciate the encouragement and any top tips along the way

Ok so I managed the week. Had 2 off days at the weekend but not horrendous and averaged 1000.
One day I had carbs…oops

Do you count veg, Michael doesn’t apparently count leafy greens and stuff like that?!
I’ve also not given up booze.
So perhaps I’m not really doing it properly! But I’m not sure I can with a social life!
I’m not weighing I’m just measuring
Started at 42 in waist
Will measure again on Friday!

I don’t think you do need to measure/weigh leafy green veg but personally I can put away 25 cherry tomatoes in one go as I love them so I make sure I count out a sensible number as otherwise that would add up carb-wise. I don’t think you need to be obsessive with above-ground veg though as it will most likely be fine.
With alcohol, I don’t really drink and haven’t done for years as I had a poor relationship with booze when younger. So it’s not something I have a lot of experience with. I think the danger is firstly that alcohol lowers inhibition and is more likely to lead you to blow your diet and secondly that alcohol is immediately metabolised by the body rather than being stored, meaning that the food you eat is more likely to be stored as fat. Neither of these mean that you can never drink though, although MM doesn’t advise it on the initial phase. Make sure you don’t have high carb drinks - beer has a lot of carbs as do sweet wines and sugary mixers (and diet mixers still spike blood sugar). Spirits and dry wines have few carbs. Something like vodka and soda will be virtually carb-free.

Hi all just joining the conversation. Day 1 of fast 800 today. Only bought the recipe book so just cooking off that meal plan. Like the fact it's my style of cooking anyway but with less carbs and portion control. Was doing fine until after dinner where I was super hungry despite eating. Got a headache, so not fun. Caved and had 2 ryvitas. Still, I've only had about 860cals today.
I have pcos and potential for diabetes so hoping to stave off some of these dangers. I am skeptical about the longevity of zero-low carbs with a big family on a small budget. Pasta is our go to dish!

Ps weight at mo is 10st 5. Height 5'5". Used to be 8st but I think I'd look awful that size now. Jist hoping to drop back down to a size 10 / 9 st. I carry all my weight around my middle.

It’s pretty normal to feel a bit hungry but try eating something like a few nuts or a small cube of cheese instead of ryvita. It’s more likely to fill you up too. Otherwise, you’re not going to go into ketosis and will find eating 800 calories a day pretty unsustainable.

Cost is an issue but remember that this isn’t a high protein diet - it’s moderate protein and high fat so doesn’t necessarily up your meat intake, unless you were mainly vegan/veggie before. Stuff like frozen veg (green beans, spinach, cauliflower) and frozen berries is cheap. You want to pick fattier meat like chicken thighs over the lean cuts (breast) which are cheaper. Cutting out all condiments (apart from Mayo and Dijon mustard) also saves money. Smoked mackerel is cheaper than other fish and is great on this diet. You can also try tinned stuff like tuna in oil or sardines. My food bill hasn’t increased. I used to buy loads of ‘treats’ which I never do now, I no longer eat breakfast so that saves on food and I buy stuff I can put in the slow cooker and make meals that I can also freeze.

Also, I don’t think low carb is recommended for kids so I suggest still making rice, pasta or potatoes to bulk out your family’s meals and you have the meat/fish/sauce with veggies instead. I never thought that would fill me up but it really does once you’re in ketosis.

Good morning on my birthday!

Just weighed in and have lost a total of 10.5lb in 3 weeks which I’m delighted about .
Have got the date now for my gallbladder removal so have 9 weeks to lose a bit more around the middle to make the surgeons job a bit easier .

Ontherebound you are the most supportive person I have ever encountered in all the years of on off dieting I have done . Thank you .

In preparation for the operation the 2 weeks prior have to be very low calorie in order to shrink the liver so that should help .
4 slimming drinks a day or weight watchers soup and 4 pots of yogurt only . The fast 800 should be good practice ahead of it .

Thank you- that's helpful. 😁 Let's see how today goes...