Advice please
swalesinthedales
Posts: 5 Member
Hi,
I'm doing the Blood sugar diet and really struggling to just have 800 calories I'm managing around 920 calories! I go walking with the dogs and burning off about 450 calories each day. Will this diet still work OK? I also have a physical job to
Thanks Chris
I'm doing the Blood sugar diet and really struggling to just have 800 calories I'm managing around 920 calories! I go walking with the dogs and burning off about 450 calories each day. Will this diet still work OK? I also have a physical job to
Thanks Chris
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Replies
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800 calories a day? Wow. That is WAY too low. 1200 minimum no matter what that "diet" says. You won't be able to sustain that, especially burning 450 calories a day. There are lots of posts about this 1200 minimum, but I would suggest eating at least that. Or better yet, put all your information into this website and let it calculate your recommended intake. Best of luck.0
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Umm... 800 calories for the whole day? Your profile says you're male? Are you doing this diet under a doctor's supervision?1
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Is this a doctor prescribed diet because 800 calories per day is generally considered too low for your body to function? If it's not doctor prescribed you should use the calculator in MFP and eat back half of your exercise calories as a general rule.1
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What is a typical day of eating for you right now, like what types of food? Are you doing this because you are diabetic? Diabetes or not, anything under 1200 especially if you are active at work is not safe.
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My advice is to eat at least 1500 calories per day (using a food scale to log to insure you are actually getting the amount of calories you think you are).
Chris,
I'm a 41-year-old female, 5'9" and 177 pounds. I'm losing slowly and steadily on 1960 calories per day. I would freak out and eat the entire house if my calorie goal for the day was under 1200, much less under 1000.
Have you set up your profile on here? Did you enter your height, weight, activity level and amount to lose per week? MFP should have given you a calorie goal per day if you did those things. What number was that?2 -
Good God. Why are you torturing yourself like that? That sounds awful. Is your doctor aware of what you are doing? It seriously sounds very dangerous given the info you're provided. I hope you don't operate any machinery at your job. Or drive anywhere.1
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Very low calorie diets (VLCD) should be medically supervised, so ask your doctor.
I believe posts about VLCDs can get deleted here.
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My advice is don't do the blood sugar diet. In fact, don't do the ______________________ diet.
Learn how to eat in a healthy, sustainable way that includes not demonizing food, but learning what works best for yourself to create a calorie deficit in a good way.3 -
Don't diet! Change your lifestyle and maintain a slight calorie deficit until you reach your goal and then increase slightly to maintain. Its not radical or fast but it is sustainable and healthy.0
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Hi thanks for your concerns and advise, it was introduced to me by a friend that's doing it. I want to lose 2stone but I think I'll do more damage than good. I'm going to up my intake starting now. I want to cut out the crap and eat more healthy. When I'm in pain with my fibromyalgia I seem to comfort eat. I'm 6ft 6 and weigh 17.6 St, I only have extra weight around my middle.
Thank you again
Chris4 -
I'm glad you're increasing your intake. I'm sorry to hear about your pain problems and it's not surprising that you comfort eat to some extent, but as I think you've realised, the solution to that is not to starve yourself on an extreme diet. In actual fact, a lot of people find that very low calorie goals make binge eating more of a problem.
All you need to lose weight is a moderate calorie deficit - set your weight loss goal to either 1lb a week or half a pound a week and see what myfitnesspal gives you. It's important to be aware that myfitnesspal's calorie goals do not include exercise, so make sure you log exercise in the diary - it will give you extra calories to eat to fuel the exercise, and you need to eat at least some of those extra calories.
Good luck! You can do this.0 -
Chris,
I used an online calculator to determine possible daily calories for you to lose 2 pounds per week. 2184 calories, if you were sedentary (no workouts). You're a tall guy, you should definitely be eating more.
This is the calculator I used, if you want to play around with it.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/4 -
swalesinthedales wrote: »Hi,
I'm doing the Blood sugar diet and really struggling to just have 800 calories I'm managing around 920 calories! I go walking with the dogs and burning off about 450 calories each day. Will this diet still work OK? I also have a physical job to
Thanks Chris
If you are doing this on your own, to lose weight, this is a stupid idea.
If you are doing this because you are diabetic, under a doctor's supervision, to try to reach diabetic remission, and following it for 8 weeks and no more: It is safe for most people (see the doctor's supervision caveat) and can work. To those who are freaking about 800 calories for a man - that is the correct amount for this diet, for this limited purpose and time frame. It mimics the bariatric surgery diet that has induced diabetic remission in a large majority of cases, and is based on studies out of England by a Dr. Taylor - who hypothesized that it was not the surgery but the sudden dramatic decrease in calories that induced remission in a remarkably short period of time. (He's completed two studies - they are not definitive since they were small and relatively homogeneous populations. The first had 100% remission (very newly diagnosed diabetics) and the second had ~50% (but included people who had had diabetes for a very long time. Follow-up studies on these two small groups include remarkable success in remaining in remission following a return to a calorie level slightly below the pre-diet level - with a "normal" spread of carbs (something diabetics normally can't tolerate).
(I have followed this plan and have moved from full-blown diabetes back to pre-diabetes. I was only able to follow it for 6 weeks, since I was diagnosed with cancer before the 8 weeks were up. The doctors supervising me advised me to return to eating at maintenance level to ensure adequate calories/nutrition to fight the cancer, so I did. I'm now 8 months past the return to maintenance level eating (with another brief period of this diet in October - same precautions taken) & am still pre-diabetic, rather than diabetic.)1 -
swalesinthedales wrote: »Hi,
I'm doing the Blood sugar diet and really struggling to just have 800 calories I'm managing around 920 calories! I go walking with the dogs and burning off about 450 calories each day. Will this diet still work OK? I also have a physical job to
Thanks Chris
If you are doing this on your own, to lose weight, this is a stupid idea.
If you are doing this because you are diabetic, under a doctor's supervision, to try to reach diabetic remission, and following it for 8 weeks and no more: It is safe for most people (see the doctor's supervision caveat) and can work. To those who are freaking about 800 calories for a man - that is the correct amount for this diet, for this limited purpose and time frame. It mimics the bariatric surgery diet that has induced diabetic remission in a large majority of cases, and is based on studies out of England by a Dr. Taylor - who hypothesized that it was not the surgery but the sudden dramatic decrease in calories that induced remission in a remarkably short period of time. (He's completed two studies - they are not definitive since they were small and relatively homogeneous populations. The first had 100% remission (very newly diagnosed diabetics) and the second had ~50% (but included people who had had diabetes for a very long time. Follow-up studies on these two small groups include remarkable success in remaining in remission following a return to a calorie level slightly below the pre-diet level - with a "normal" spread of carbs (something diabetics normally can't tolerate).
(I have followed this plan and have moved from full-blown diabetes back to pre-diabetes. I was only able to follow it for 6 weeks, since I was diagnosed with cancer before the 8 weeks were up. The doctors supervising me advised me to return to eating at maintenance level to ensure adequate calories/nutrition to fight the cancer, so I did. I'm now 8 months past the return to maintenance level eating (with another brief period of this diet in October - same precautions taken) & am still pre-diabetic, rather than diabetic.)
He says later he was introduced to the diet by a friend...swalesinthedales wrote: »Hi thanks for your concerns and advise, it was introduced to me by a friend that's doing it. I want to lose 2stone but I think I'll do more damage than good. I'm going to up my intake starting now. I want to cut out the crap and eat more healthy. When I'm in pain with my fibromyalgia I seem to comfort eat. I'm 6ft 6 and weigh 17.6 St, I only have extra weight around my middle.
Thank you again
Chris
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Crikey. If you are 6' 6" and doing a physical job, and walking your dogs, I should think you will make yourself feel very ill on that. You'd probably lose at a good rate on an accurately measured 2000 calories.0
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Tacklewasher wrote: »My advice is don't do the blood sugar diet. In fact, don't do the ______________________ diet.
Learn how to eat in a healthy, sustainable way that includes not demonizing food, but learning what works best for yourself to create a calorie deficit in a good way.
You might want to do a bit of research before condemning something merely becuase it includes the word diet. This is a specific way of eating, with an extreme calorie cap, designed to be used for a specific purpose for a very limited period of time that is directly related to what it is being used for: blood sugar control (i.e. diabetes).
You may still not agree with it (and I think it is stupid, dangerous, and a misuse to follow it for longer, or without doctor's supervision, or merely to obtain a fast weight loss - as the OP has suggested he is doing). BUT - used for the purpose for which it was designed, under a doctor's supervision, it is darn close to miraculous.
By the time I encountered the studies the diet was based on, I had already lost about 26% of my body weight - more than double the 10% that is supposed to induce diabetic remission, with no change in my blood glucose metabolism. (My blood glucose has been controlled since days after diagnosis by strict carb limitation, but the moment I eat additional carbs, I have precisely the same response I had on the day of diagnosis.) In other words, losing weight, alone, was not making a difference.
Withn 2 weeks of starting this diet, I appeared to have moved from full blown diabetes back to prediabetes - based on my response to limited testing of higher carb meals - which, by the way, this diet includes. The change was confirmed after 6 weeks on the diet by an oral glucose tolerance test. There were some complications between then and now - a breast cancer diagnosis will do that, and my blood glucose metabolism definitely responds negatively to both physical and emotional stress - but 8 months later (back on a maintenance level of calories for most of the time since then) I am still partially remitted from a disease that is normally viewed as chronic and progressive.
I'm not in any hurry to repeat the diet to see if I can get the rest of the way, and would never use it for the sole purpose of rapidly losing weight. But in a year or so, with doctor's supervision, if I am still only prediabetic and not back to normal I might try it again.
For what it's worth, the blood sugar diet does not demonize any food. It encourages making healthy choices from of a variety of foods, but eating easily digested starches sparingly - as a condiment, rather than a main course.0 -
The reason people recommend higher calories is because on such a low amount of calories like 800, your body starts to hold on to energy and fat instead of shedding it. When you get enough energy through food to fuel your body's functions, but not enough for your body to have extra, that's when you lose weight. If your body doesn't get enough energy to begin with, it's not going to shed fat. Maybe for the first few days or weeks it will, but after that you'll plateau and your hair will start falling out. Not even joking.1
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I cannot imagine any doctor saying u should do an 800 calorie when u are wearing off half of it.
When I limit my calories beyond what's suggested drastically I do not lose weight. My body holds onto it. And everyone is right..first your hair..your skin..then..your muscles..eating is not the enemy..food is good for you..only four hundred plus calories is dangerous and can even affect your heart..
Begging u please to add calories..
Please no diet..no body is worth harming yourself
You might do damage to your body..that can harm u for life
Add lean protein..veggies and grains. .please
Please0 -
SunnyDayzMomma wrote: »The reason people recommend higher calories is because on such a low amount of calories like 800, your body starts to hold on to energy and fat instead of shedding it. When you get enough energy through food to fuel your body's functions, but not enough for your body to have extra, that's when you lose weight. If your body doesn't get enough energy to begin with, it's not going to shed fat. Maybe for the first few days or weeks it will, but after that you'll plateau and your hair will start falling out. Not even joking.
People actually will lose weight if they aren't getting enough to eat, even if their caloric intake is very low. Yes, they may suffer a slowdown in their metabolism and other serious side effects, but their weight loss isn't going to just stop after a few weeks.
If weight loss did stop when people didn't eat enough, history would look a lot different. Famines would just be an inconvenience and sieges and blockades would be exercises in relative futility.
There are dozens of reasons to fuel your body properly, but the theory that you won't lose weight if you don't eat enough isn't one of them.2 -
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Dangerous. And unwise. Please ditch the fad diet.
Agreed, if your goal is merely to lose weight, if you aren't being supervised by a doctor, and if you plan to remain on it for longer than 8 weeks.
I disagree as a blanket statement. The diet was designed to induce diabetic (as the name blood sugar implies) remission by mimicking the dramatic calorie reduction that accompanies bariatric surgery (that has been proven to induce diabetic remission), without having to actually have the surgery. It has been effective in doing so for a growing number of diabetics. Since diabetes is the most costly health condtion in the United States, putting it in remission is a significant health benefit personally - and it also minimizes the health care drain by people with diabetes.
Because my stint on the blood sugar diet was interrupted by a cancer diagnosis (at which point I followed the doctor's advice to return to sufficient calories to sustain my weight, or more), my diabetes is only partly remitted - but I have moved the needle back in time on what is assumed to be a chronic progressive disease.1
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