Someone in the the pub we go to has lost 6.5 stone since May by just having 800 calories a day.
He’s not lying on the weight loss as he clearly has lost a lot of weight. I could do with losing a stone is it really as “easy” as just eating 800 calories?
What would an average days food consist of?

well the RDA is 2000 or so… So 800 is a massive reduction on that.

Using the Horizon 5-2, your down days are 600c, so that’s seeing it as fasting.

800cals per day for a long term must be horrific

losing weight is just about curtailing calories, 800 will do it, it’s not healthy though. Does his skin look likes it hanging off him, people that lose weight that fast always look very gaunt i find.

He can’t be exercising though? Not on only 800 calories a day

Can’t see anyone being able to do any meaningful activity while on 800 cals a day. Also you have to be very careful and organised to actually make your 800 include the other nutrients you don’t stop needing.

Better to eat more over the course of the week and be more active to burn the excess.

My mates sister did the same, been living off 600 calories a day, well when I say living I mean existing. She has lost an impressive amount of weight, but I can’t help in thinking it’s not very good for you.

I could do with losing a stone is it really as “easy” as just eating 800 calories?

Eating 800 calories a day is not easy!!!

Footflaps ..did you mean eating ” just ” 800 calories a day is not easy ?
I can do that at breakfast alone 😆

I could drop to 800 calories per meal , well maybe .

You might want to read moselys blood sugar diet. thats probably where he got his 800 cals/day thing from. I did it for 6 weeks. Its effective, but as others have said you can forget exercising whilst doing it.

yes, you can. It’s not easy as others note, but to lose a stone on 800 cals a day – I reckon you could do that in under a month.

What to eat. Lots of lean meat / protein, fills you up, and lots of vegetables which have a lot of bulk for relatively little calories.

So example could be b/fast; porridge oats made with skimmed milk or water, under 200 cals if you weigh portions.

Lunch – fish stick salad, no dressing (soy source and if you must a tiny bit of sesame oil, in a tupperware box and shake vigorously to make your 1/2 tsp oil cover everything)

Dinner – 2 x skin off chicken breast (ca 1 kcal per g so very energy light per g) or white fish (not breaded, oven baked with maybe some herbs / seasoning) with veg

THE ISSUE WITH ALL THESE CRASH DIETS:

You can’t stay on it for ever so once you’ve lost your weight, you haven’t learned the ‘everything in moderation’ you need to then stay at that weight, and risk piling it all back on. Which might be OK if you have the character that can see a few lbs on again and address, but others are more like ‘Oh no, I’ve **** it up, I’m a failure, i don’t know why i bothered’ and end up back where they started or even further.

So by all means try 800 cals a day for a couple of weeks, then up it again to 1200 by introducing some other stuff, the weight should still reduce, then 1600, then 2000 and so on until you KNOW what a regular daily qty of say 2000-2400 looks like and how to build that qty up with appropriate food choices.

jeez, i talk a good talk 🙁

martinhutch – Member
Better to eat more over the course of the week and be more active to burn the excess.

Not going to be possible for most to do that in 6 months though!

1 pound of fat = 3500 calories, so 1 KG = ~7700 calories.

He lost 41 KG in under 6 months. So that’s 41*7700=~315700 calories over 6 months, 52617 per month or roughly 1754 calories he needs to burn per day.

Now, I look like billy bunter and according to strava on my last ride i burned 590 cals in 1 hour at normal pace.

So I make that 3 hours of cycling, every single day for 6 months. Never mind the weight loss, he is going to have calluses on his bum cheeks by the end of it!

(And that’s assuming he doesn’t eat more than maintenance calories)

I’ve lost about 8Kgs (17.6 lbs) over 6 weeks by eating less, probably down to around 1200 calories a day (I don’t count as I would get too obsessive if I did) but I’ve upped my exercise to include an extra 5Km run a week and a hard turbo session (both done fasted). It’s been very unpleasant but it’s worked and I’ve set a PB for 5Km at ParkRun and managed to do much better one the climb at Cwmcarn (Cafall) but I need to lose the same again to be able to improve more on the climbs.

For long term loss I think losing the weight by a combo of less calories and more exercise works but extremes of either (or both) are very hard to maintain and ‘shock’ you body too much. Just IMHO of course.

weeksy – Member
well the RDA is 2000 or so… So 800 is a massive reduction on that.

Using the Horizon 5-2, your down days are 600c, so that’s seeing it as fasting.

800cals per day for a long term must be horrific

The down days for 5:2 have now been increased to 800c. I’ve tried 5:2 on and off and I get grumpy on my “2” days. I can’t imagine doing it long term, you can’t drink booze for a start! 🙂

I have had one Weetabix with skimmed milk, 3 brazil nuts , one cappuccino and I`m on over 450 calories, 800 calories a day,that is a very sad existence!!

give up the capuccino for a start – espresso / americano is calorie free!

5-2 Diet can be very effective, if used as part of a wide program of healthier living. I managed to lose 22kg in 8 months with a combination of 2 consecutive days of 800-ish calories in take per week, 45 mins of daily exercise, and an approach of moderation in respect to food and drink on the ‘normal’ food days.
Since achieving my target weight I’ve been able to keep my weight stable without the diet days by just keeping up the daily exercise. 😀

800 Calories a day sounds unhealthily brutal! I lost ~15Kg by simply cutting back on the excessive carb snacking just after meals, plus then starting the cycle training this year.

800 calories!! That’s just a couple of medium pies ffs. You won’t function at all well on just that.

Given that you are only after a stone off, why don’t you just make 1 small change to your daily diet and stick to it. Eg miss one snack. Eventually you won’t miss the snack and you’ll be a couple of hundred calories less per day and the weight will drop off.

Can’t see anyone being able to do any meaningful activity while on 800 cals a day.

He made it to the pub what else is there?

800 calories!! That’s just a couple of medium pies ffs. You won’t function at all well on just that.

It’s more than enough to convert all that stored energy into something you can use.

The other problem with crash diets is that they apparently lower your BMR for years to come, so you can’t just go back to what you were eating before – you need to eat a lot less when you stop. Hence the yo-yoing that goes one

I can’t imagine being able to go on 800/day for any length of time.

One of my former students started Slimming World in January. He’s lost 6 stone since then.

Having seen the process, you could easily stick to a Slimming World diet forever.

Yak – Member
800 calories!! That’s just a couple of medium pies ffs. You won’t function at all well on just that.

Given that you are only after a stone off, why don’t you just make 1 small change to your daily diet and stick to it. Eg miss one snack. Eventually you won’t miss the snack and you’ll be a couple of hundred calories less per day and the weight will drop off.

That’s pretty much where i am now, i’d dropped the 5-2 diet as at times it was killing me to Zwift race on 600 cals or full on fasting depending on race time. So today, with my sandwich for lunch, instead of the bag of Mc Coys, i have a banana. I’ve cut out the nuts/raisins in the evening watching TV (mostly) so i’m hoping just that will give me a sustainable drop in cals.

Ref this (slimming world) ^

Yes, my wife’s done brilliantly on it, and so have some of her class mates with similar levels of loss as you said.

And after being an exponent of 5:2 since early days (and I still am to be fair) but I’d hit a bit of a plateau on it since mid year, my wife convinced me to try SW and see if it helped – and it has, 5.5lbs lost since 1/10 (on top of the 18lbs I’d lost so far this year on STW Chub Club / 5:2)

From what i can see of it – it’s a bit ‘mumbo jumbo’ about food optimising and stuff, but the basic rules seem to me to be lean meat, lots of vegetable, minimise usage of oils and fatty foods and dairy and sweets hence in the end it’s a means of calorie restricting but focusing on foods that are low in calories per portion.

I used the 800Kcal/day Blood Sugar Diet earlier this year on STW chub club. I lost 2.5 stone.

It cuts out all processed carbs, and most( not all) other carbs.

1. Easiest weight I’ve ever lost.
2. No hunger pangs.
3. Tasty food.
4. I still exercised/ cycled – just no 100 milers.
5. My lean muscle mass and water % both stayed constant – it really was just losing fat.

I’ve kept the weight off since – it really did change my life and how I eat.

During ww2 the government got a bunch of volunteers to starve themselves in the name of research. Pretty sure they were only on 800 calories a day and the experiment was to look at the effects. I sure as hell wouldnt be doing it. Sure you can starve yourself thin but what damage are you doing?

Not going to be possible for most to do that in 6 months though!

It should be.

You just need o maintain that deficit of 1600 calories a day. For example sticking to your BMR and commuting to work (~80min each way at 600cal/hr) would achieve the same as cutting those calories from your diet. Or a 40min commute and a 800cal reduction.

Its effective, but as others have said you can forget exercising whilst doing it.

I never found exercising on fast days that bad. The first one is horrible because you feel like you have no sprint. But after a few fasted rides you just stop sprinting and naturally ride at a pace that burns fat.

The issue would be nutrition long term, you’d have to be super careful about what you ate to make sure you were burning fat not muscle, lot’s of meat and veg, and probably stuff like ginger to keep your metabolism from slumping.

I’m currently on a bit of a diet as I never really had the motivation in the spring, just avoiding empty calories outside of meal times and riding more. Is still eat big portions of whatever I want, just restricted to 3x per day.

Breakfast – shredded wheat x2 (300 calories)
Lunch – supermarket microwave ready meal or leftovers (400-450 calories)
Dinner – whatever I like, tonight is sausage meat pie and wedges. Followed by Apple crumble and ice cream (who care’s how many calories, it’s tasty)

Probably averaging 2500-3000 calories per day depending on dinner, but my BMR is about 2800, and I try and do at least 4 lots of exercise a week (2x 90-120min night rides, 1-2 spin classes, 1 day sailing). So my net is probably an average deficit of 1000 calories a day.

With the exception of an extra portion of pudding when I get back from a ride or a bacon roll and coffee between races whilst sailing I don’t get cravings to snack because for the most part I’m not not eating anything I’d want anyway. The only discipline it takes is not having too many cheat days for dinner (it’s not always sausage meat pie!).

I’ve lost 4+ stone since January, down to 11st5lbs (5’8″ height).
Combination of marriage breakup, depression meant that I stopped eating the amounts I was eating and spent a lot of time on my bike.
Weight fell off really quickly. Ridiculously in fact – I’ve gone from L/XL to a small and 36″ waist to a 28/30.
There’s no quick fix. I didn’t do a diet as such – just ate when I was hungry.
I’m eating more now as mentally i’m level again and my weight’s finally hit a plateau.
I generally have an egg wrap for breakfast, wrap, banana and apple during the day and a normal dinner. Just mindful of portion size.
I ride my bike practically every day though – 15-20 miles on my CX bike. It’s good for my head and good for those days when I want to eat loads or drink.

I’ve also been doing 100 press ups a day since January (small sets throughout the day). This has had a great impact on my physique as my frame just sits better. If you do nothing else, try this as it only takes 5 minutes and you’ll see the results within a few weeks.

Slimming World is low glycaemic load diet, afaik – rather similar to the iDave diet in many ways. But the ‘club’ aspect of it is also hugely important.

So I make that 3 hours of cycling, every single day for 6 months. Never mind the weight loss, he is going to have calluses on his bum cheeks by the end of it!

Lots of exercise also increase your appetite. So even if you did all that you might not lose that much weight.

I’ve also been doing 100 press ups a day since January (small sets throughout the day). This has had a great impact on my physique as my frame just sits better.

Word of warning – a mate did shedloads of press-ups and ended up tightening up the muscles in his chest and made his shoulders hunch.

Bloke in the office has lost 8st over the last 6 months (from 24st mind you) on slimming world. He’s in his 50s so he’s ended up with a neck vagina, but he skin is shrinking back a bit now.

Crash diets are terrible for yo-yoing though, it doesn’t address the root cause of why you over-eat in the first place which is usually physiological so you need an exit strategy and acceptance, like an addict, that whilst you might never be over-weight again, you are always a Fatty (insert your own self-depreciating term here) so you will still have to weigh yourself at least once a month and watch what you eat.

Crash diets are terrible for yo-yoing though, it doesn’t address the root cause of why you over-eat in the first place which is usually physiological so you need an exit strategy and acceptance, like an addict, that whilst you might never be over-weight again, you are always a Fatty (insert your own self-depreciating term here) so you will still have to weigh yourself at least once a month and watch what you eat.

Depends, some people just like food too much or aren’t health conscious, or snack too much, and need a kick up the arse to eat less. Not everyone has some freudian issue with their mother to blame for being fat.

neck vagina

😯 😆

I’ve lost 12kg in 18 days. Dropped a Jean size too.

Lipotrim, meal replacement stuff

I feel great.

Getting back on food steadily for a few weeks.

Lots and lots of water being drunk too. No food, no alcohol, no drinks with calories in. It’s a brutal diet but it’s working for me.

By God it’s boring though.

I admire the regime, the fasting and the puritanical way of choosing food and sustenance all in the name of weight loss.

If you can keep up a regime that fits within your lifestyle then absolutely why not do it. Tricky if you get to a point when you feel “good” to ruin it with your old ways of eating..

Do we ever hear of folks dying after dieting? I can’t think of any.

I’ve lost about 5 pounds in the last 3 days. I can also shit through the eye of a needle.

It’s not exactly sustainable though, is it? What’s his plan for keeping the weight off? That tends to be the bit that trips people up (and rarely mentioned by any diet company!)

How is it even possible to lose that much your BMR would need to be about 4500 calories a day? And eat nothing.

You just at the wind up?

I’ve lost 12kg in 18 days.

That seems rather high considering the safe advice seems to be about .5-1kg a week.
Whilst the heavy you are the quicker the initial loss that seems insane.

I got down 24kg (about the same % of bodyweight) in 5 months. That was keeping to about 1600 kcalories with exercise meaning I could, ermm, have some flexibility.
Keeping it off longterm will be the challenge though and I cant see how relying on restricting diet so hard could be sustainable. For me I am wondering how I can amuse myself when I cant just do an easy sunny 2-3 hour ride.

i went from 96kg to 78kg in about 6ish months by doing 1500 calories a day, that was 2 years ago…

back up to 81kg now and can get down to 78kg without a lot of effort, but then something happens to my brain and i just shoot up to 81kg… i think my happy weight must be 81kg as a result