Back to the weekday diet after 3 years!

[Agent Shagwell]

Hi folks,
From my understanding, zigzagging calories is OK as long as you're still having a sensible amount *on average* over a week. At the moment, rach, you're having

800 cals x 5 days = 4000 cals
+ 2000 cals x 2 days = 4000 cals

which is 8000 cals over the week, or 1142 cals per day on average.

Ladies, would she be safe if she upped her average number but still zigzagged? It's the zigzagging that's safe, just not the low overall cals - yes? So, rach, if you worked out a number that allowed you to still have 800 cals for a few days, but in total your average was higher you should be OK.

for example:

800 x 2 = 1600
2000 x 2 = 4000
1400 x 3 = 4200

total 9800 which is 1400 a day average.

If you work out your TDEE and BMR - see the thread 'how many calories should i eat?' which is stickied at the top of calorie counting - then you can find out what your body needs each day to survive and also how much you can eat to lose weight.

I think this is right about zigzagging being OK as long as you have an OK *average* cals for the week (so, if you eat 800 on a few days you need to be having higher than you are now for the other days) but hopefully tracy and hotsue can help me out on that one!

Well done for your willpower by the way...I couldn't do 800 cals a day, unless I was on an approved VLCD and in ketosis - I'd feel so faint and hungry! It is an effort for me being on 1200 cals a day and usually I actually eat more like 1400 - 1500 and then exercise my way down to 1200.

 

[TracyGWill]

Hi folks,
From my understanding, zigzagging calories is OK as long as you're still having a sensible amount *on average* over a week. At the moment, rach, you're having

800 cals x 5 days = 4000 cals
+ 2000 cals x 2 days = 4000 cals

which is 8000 cals over the week, or 1142 cals per day on average.

Ladies, would she be safe if she upped her average number but still zigzagged? It's the zigzagging that's safe, just not the low overall cals - yes? So, rach, if you worked out a number that allowed you to still have 800 cals for a few days, but in total your average was higher you should be OK.

for example:

800 x 2 = 1600
2000 x 2 = 4000
1400 x 3 = 4200

total 9800 which is 1400 a day average.

If you work out your TDEE and BMR - see the thread 'how many calories should i eat?' which is stickied at the top of calorie counting - then you can find out what your body needs each day to survive and also how much you can eat to lose weight.

I think this is right about zigzagging being OK as long as you have an OK *average* cals for the week (so, if you eat 800 on a few days you need to be having higher than you are now for the other days) but hopefully tracy and hotsue can help me out on that one!

Well done for your willpower by the way...I couldn't do 800 cals a day, unless I was on an approved VLCD and in ketosis - I'd feel so faint and hungry! It is an effort for me being on 1200 cals a day and usually I actually eat more like 1400 - 1500 and then exercise my way down to 1200.

Yeah, Groovy, zigzagging's fine, but Rachel's eating 800 or 900 calories for days in a row according to her diary, which isn't. There are things like the 5:2 where you eat at 500, but ONLY for two days a week. I would say that, yes, she should definitely average out at 1,200 a day at the very least, but not eat at below that for more than a day at a time. I really cannot over-emphasise the devastating effect that eating at starvation level to lose weight has had on my life, it kickstarted decades of problems, so I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. xx

 

[rachfromwales]

wow thank you all for your comments! so to the replies!

Tracey - I firstly want to say thank you because i know you are aiming at educating and helping. I would like to respond by saying that i do know what you mean when people go on crash diets - i know what it can lead to and yes - i have been there, but kinda in reverse! I used to have a mixture of bulimia and anorexia which is called non-purging sub-type. I got over this but gained weight over a long period of time. I stated my diy diet similar to this one 3 years ago. it worked really well, however i was strict and if i did ever feel ill i would make sure i would eat or do whatever to sort it out - i no way felt out of control, ill or anything like that. I believe my body responded well to the diet as i was getting plenty of sleep, drank a lot of water and it was my first real diet, and actually, i hardly ever felt hungry as i ate small amounts through the day. However, i made the mistake of not changing to a life-long healthy maintenance plan, and put the weight on again. I no way intend to be a yoyo dieter - this time when i reach my target im staying there - i may well change back to slimming world for maintenance. I would also like to say that due to other health implications and my job, i do NO exercise - none at all! I know there will be a lot of people who argue against this, but FOR ME weight loss works without exercise - i physically cannot work out, therefore, no extra calories are getting lost.

supergroovy - thank you for your brill input! i am in no way here to give diet advice to people - only share what i do and how it works. i am not here to prove or disprove anyone but i really appreciate you coming to my rescue! I have been to dark places with diet and my body and i am intelligent enough not to do it again! i believe that i have worked out my calorie intake correctly, but unfortunately, there cannot be one strict rule for everyone - my body simply needs a tad less calorific intake than others. thank you for working out my average cals - however i would like to point out that i already did this, which is why i havent yet dropped to 800 (as i said i would!) and have hovered around 900. this gives me an average of 1215 per day - just over the bare minimum.

In conclusion(!) I am not actively telling people to eat less than 800 cals a day - sorry if it came off that way - all i meant to do is record what im doing and give food diary ideas to other people if they need them. I assumed that others would research professional diet advice before taking on ANY diet....i will state here and now - i am no expert! this diet worked for me once, so im doing it again! if you are reading this considering the weekday diet-please read about it first....i looked high and low through a lot of other diets before going back to this one as i knew its tough and does take a lot of will power!

overall, i want to thank you all for posting again - i would have hated for someone to look at my thread and copy me and make themselves ill. at the moment im sticking to 900 for 5 days and 2000 for 2 days - if i get to the point where i harm my body i will stop. I would also like to point out that this is a DIET, not a long term lifestyle change. i have mentioned this in an earlier post and want to stress this point. after thinking about it, i believe i only lost 1lb in 2 weeks because my body has not yet gotten used to the diet. i am still getting cravings, but hardly feel hungry so i know my body is falling into rhythm slowly.

please feel free to respond to this - knowledge is power after all!

 

[takemedrunkimhome]

my 2pence

Yes the forum has rules and for a reason we know and Rachel has said all the way through that she is not advocating and simply posting about her experiences.

Everybody who appears to disapprove of her has said so, so can I suggest we not alienate her from the forum and possibly make her feel unwelcome?

 

[takemedrunkimhome]

Rachel I tried to pm but couldn't could you pm me?

 

[rachfromwales]

unfortunately, as im still classed as a newb i cant use pm! however u can message me at [email protected] if you like. thanks!

 

[TracyGWill]

Rachel I tried to pm but couldn't could you pm me?

Oh no no, I was in no way trying to make Rachel feel unwelcome, I wouldn't dream of such a thing! I just get alarm bells in my head if people talk about eating too low calorie, as I've been there myself and it led to decades of problems. My point about the forum rules was just to be a bit circumspect about what she said, as I think they may frown upon simply discussing DIY VLCDs - I never thought that Rachel was advocating this approach, I know she isn't. xx

 

[TracyGWill]

wow thank you all for your comments! so to the replies!

Tracey - I firstly want to say thank you because i know you are aiming at educating and helping. I would like to respond by saying that i do know what you mean when people go on crash diets - i know what it can lead to and yes - i have been there, but kinda in reverse! I used to have a mixture of bulimia and anorexia which is called non-purging sub-type. I got over this but gained weight over a long period of time. I stated my diy diet similar to this one 3 years ago. it worked really well, however i was strict and if i did ever feel ill i would make sure i would eat or do whatever to sort it out - i no way felt out of control, ill or anything like that. I believe my body responded well to the diet as i was getting plenty of sleep, drank a lot of water and it was my first real diet, and actually, i hardly ever felt hungry as i ate small amounts through the day. However, i made the mistake of not changing to a life-long healthy maintenance plan, and put the weight on again. I no way intend to be a yoyo dieter - this time when i reach my target im staying there - i may well change back to slimming world for maintenance. I would also like to say that due to other health implications and my job, i do NO exercise - none at all! I know there will be a lot of people who argue against this, but FOR ME weight loss works without exercise - i physically cannot work out, therefore, no extra calories are getting lost.

supergroovy - thank you for your brill input! i am in no way here to give diet advice to people - only share what i do and how it works. i am not here to prove or disprove anyone but i really appreciate you coming to my rescue! I have been to dark places with diet and my body and i am intelligent enough not to do it again! i believe that i have worked out my calorie intake correctly, but unfortunately, there cannot be one strict rule for everyone - my body simply needs a tad less calorific intake than others. thank you for working out my average cals - however i would like to point out that i already did this, which is why i havent yet dropped to 800 (as i said i would!) and have hovered around 900. this gives me an average of 1215 per day - just over the bare minimum.

In conclusion(!) I am not actively telling people to eat less than 800 cals a day - sorry if it came off that way - all i meant to do is record what im doing and give food diary ideas to other people if they need them. I assumed that others would research professional diet advice before taking on ANY diet....i will state here and now - i am no expert! this diet worked for me once, so im doing it again! if you are reading this considering the weekday diet-please read about it first....i looked high and low through a lot of other diets before going back to this one as i knew its tough and does take a lot of will power!

overall, i want to thank you all for posting again - i would have hated for someone to look at my thread and copy me and make themselves ill. at the moment im sticking to 900 for 5 days and 2000 for 2 days - if i get to the point where i harm my body i will stop. I would also like to point out that this is a DIET, not a long term lifestyle change. i have mentioned this in an earlier post and want to stress this point. after thinking about it, i believe i only lost 1lb in 2 weeks because my body has not yet gotten used to the diet. i am still getting cravings, but hardly feel hungry so i know my body is falling into rhythm slowly.

please feel free to respond to this - knowledge is power after all!

Hi Rachel! I'm glad you seem to have taken my comments in the spirit in which they were intended - genuine concern for your wellbeing and wanting to offer constructive advice. I too have suffered from eating disorder problems in the past, and your history with your weight sounds very similar to my own, including the zero exercise thing. I suffer from ME/CFS, have done for 24 years now, and have a history of heart problems as well as osteoarthritis in my knees. So I think if it was possible to get kess than zero exercise, that would be me, lol. So I do know for a fact that you don'y need to exercise to lose weight - if you did, I'd still be 21.5 stone, not 13.5 like I am now.

I think what I was really trying to say was that trying to tighten up on your calories as you mentioned is probably not the way to go - irrespective of any health concerns. As Super Groovy advised, if you look at either the sticky she mentioned, or a CC thread called "Setting your recommended calories", it may well be that you aren't eating enough for weight loss. If you've only lost a pound, it could well be that you'll lose more by eating more, counterintuitive as that sounds - give it a try! I know I had a lot more to lose than you, but I started off at around 1,800, and have never eaten less than 1,400 (now on 1,500 - 1,600), and that's with my total lack of exercise. How tall are you? xx

 

[rachfromwales]

according to the harris benedict equation i need 2028 to maintain.

'If you want to lose fat, a useful guideline for lowering your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a deficit. As a guide to minimum calorie intake, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that calorie levels never drop below 1200 calories per day for women or 1800 calories per day for men'

So i believe my current levels are perfectly fine as i need to loose 4 stone.