Claire's occasional diary

[clairejen]

Hi Girlygirl, thanks for the comments. I am not actually on a VLCD, with JUDDDD you have normal calories one day and low calories the next to avoid just the metabolic slowdown you describe. With this diet you are cutting out around 4500 calories a week, which should be a pound and a half weight loss on average. I have been doing the diet for 2 months now, with a couple of weeks out for my holiday, which is why the plateau is expected but still annoying.

Scales are a problem, but when I let my weight go up I tend to avoid them, so the two go hand in hand in my mind. Weighing as a daily routine is better than ignoring weight gain, I try to look at the general trend rather than individual days, but since the trend atm is a horizontal line it is fairly easy to see!

 

[clairejen]

Still no weight change, which is actually quite a relief since I overdid it big time on the chocolate front yesterday. DD today, and I had a bp check at the doctors, now officially normal again - hooray. Back on 6 month checks (from 3). I don't know if it is just from weight loss - I was 11st5.5lbs when it first rose - or whether the much vaunted health effects of JUDDDD are helping.

DD today, and so far I have had no problems or hunger pangs. Ate breakfast about 10.30, fromage frais, quark and grapes (about 47 calories). Making sure there is some protein content does seem to make a difference.

 

[Barb]

Hi Claire

sorry the scales are not being more obliging! You are being good though and sticking with the plan, I as you know, have slipped and slid into non diet mode! I don't honestly know what to do; I liked JUDDD very much for it's percieved freedom but when I started to realsie I needed to count on UD's too I lost interest a bit. Then with all that has gone on with my parents over the last 4 weeks I am in a pickle. I have been looking (granted not closely) at the Unit diet and it does look like it could have a good success rate, although it is still rather new. My weight is creeping back up, of the 8lbs lost 4 have crept back which I am not happy about (not surprised either!).
I know I need to make a decision and stick to it. Accept being fat and live with it is one option. Find a plan I can live with and lose weight on is another. The answer should be screamingly obvious, but you know what? It isn't. I am so sick of the highs and lows of 'dieting'. I was so inspired by JUDDD but I just wasn't getting the results. OF the 8lbs lost 6 were in the first 2 weeks. I feel rotten deserting you as I know you enjoyed us sharing the Juddd, but I really don't think I can do it. I am going to take a breathing space, then make a decision about my future.

I wish you all the best for the rest of your journey, you have done so well and I know you have it in you to finish what you have started.

Good luck,

Love

 

[clairejen]

Thanks Barb. I don't have any doubts about JUDDDD as a maintenance system, and I am sure my current difficulties are a plateau which will end eventually. But I am close to my target, and reasonably happy with myself as I am, so it isn't too big an issue for me. I can sympathise with your position, you need to see the results and maybe this diet isn't the one you need at the moment. For me, I was failing to lose at all on other diets, so JUDDDD suits me better, at least if I'm not losing I can still eat half the time!

I looked at the unit diet, a new diet always attracts a lot of interest doesn't it. The sample diets and the things people are eating and raving about leave me cold, not the sort of food I like at all, but Natalie showed me the handbook which lists almost everything you can think of and the unit values. Seems like high fats and nuts are penalised severely, starchy foods score fairly low, proteins sort of average. If the thought of it appeals to you then why not give it a try? I did wonder if it would be a good UD method, more control than just eating what I fancy but less effort than checking every calorie.

 

[clairejen]

Scales finally moved downwards, now I am back to 9st13.25lbs, where I was 10 days ago! Keeping everything crossed that it is the end of the plateau, it seems like I've been messing about here for ever.

DDs on 470 calories are quite hard, there is no room for small treats or slip ups, it is really a case of lean meat and salad/veg and fatfree dairy with a bit of fruit, and not that much of anything. If that is what it takes to make me lose then I can do it, it is only every other day after all. I must confess I was hungry last night, in the end I went to bed early rather than risk eating anything.

 

[bakerfa]

Yeay!

They had to move eventually! Woohoo - under 10 stone. Well done! (The last time I was under 10 stone was when I was 15 so 14 years ago - maybe by the time I hit 30 next July I'll be back there again! Definite target I think!)

Well done anyway!

Love xxx

 

[clairejen]

Thanks Anja, I am really struggling to keep under 10 stone. That is my overall aim, never to go over 10 again. My target (which somehow seems a long way off although it is only 6lbs) is still 9st 7lbs which gives a good margin for fluctuations - I just hope it isn't between clothes sizes.

After yesterday's UD I am 9st13.5lbs, up very slightly but still under the bar. I was a bit bad yesterday but not overly so. I'm trying not to eat until midday today, DDs are easier when you don't start too early. The 470 limit is the way to go I think, unfortunately. 50 calories means a lot, but there's no point in doing it if I don't do it properly, the only person I'd be cheating is myself.

 

[clairejen]

After another DD I was 10st again, and still there after the UD yesterday. I really don't know how to tackle this. My DDs are 470, no way am I eating 3500 on my UDs so I ought to be losing. But I'm not, if anything I am gaining. I'm going to look closely at the unit diet today to see if I can use that for my UDs, I'm too scared to change diets completely at the moment.

 

[girlygirl]

Hi Girlygirl, thanks for the comments. I am not actually on a VLCD, with JUDDDD you have normal calories one day and low calories the next to avoid just the metabolic slowdown you describe. With this diet you are cutting out around 4500 calories a week, which should be a pound and a half weight loss on average. I have been doing the diet for 2 months now, with a couple of weeks out for my holiday, which is why the plateau is expected but still annoying.

Scales are a problem, but when I let my weight go up I tend to avoid them, so the two go hand in hand in my mind. Weighing as a daily routine is better than ignoring weight gain, I try to look at the general trend rather than individual days, but since the trend atm is a horizontal line it is fairly easy to see!

I know you're JUDDDing!

My point was that you have to consume 3,500 fewer calories to lose one pound of fat. You had an up day followed by a very good down day - and you didn't see a loss next morning. That was because you had not reduced calories sufficiently to promote a marked loss over a period of one day.

Also our bodies are very clever. They begin to anticipate what we do, calorie wise. If you regularly eat a lot one day and very little the next the body will get used to that pattern and not go into the shock weight loss reaction!

It might be better to have two modest up days followed by a strict down day. Have you tried that?

 

[clairejen]

My usual pattern is to have DD on Mon, Wed, and Fri, with UDs Tue, Thu and all weekend, so it is a fairly varied pattern. I'm not complaining that one UD plus one DD did not make me lose weight, I haven't lost any weight for two and a half weeks.

 

[clairejen]

Still stuck at 10st, after a 470 DD again. Forwhatever reason it just isn't working for me. I sincerely hope it is my body getting accustomed to it, the variations are supposed to prevent that, plus I don't do the same at weekends. But if it is, I will have to change somehow.

I'm counting units today, for someone like me who prefers to cook from scratch it is awfully complex, but, having decided that I will not eat food unless I like it, I must conquer the intricacies.

 

[clairejen]

Ok, I had a weekend of Unit, and guess what - I weigh exactly the same. I will give it a week or two before judgement.

 

[clairejen]

At last, after a DD yesterday, the scales have moved down :clap:. Now at 9st12.5lbs, this is the least they have shown on this diet. Perhaps my tweaking has worked, or maybe the plateau would have ended anyway, it has been nearly two weeks and apparently is quite common on this diet. I will never know. Anyway, now 5.5lbs from goal and feel that there is a light at the end of the tunnel at last.

I will keep to unit principles today but make sure I have at least 10 to keep above the JUDDD 1200 lower limit on UDs.

 

[Eclipse]

Thats good news hun. Probably just stuck for a little while, our bodies have minds of their own sometimes x x x

 

[bakerfa]

Yeay!

Only 5.5 lbs to go, you lucky thing! arty0049: It's going to be months before I can say that at this rate!

So glad it's going well for you!

Love xxx

 

[clairejen]

Thanks Cheryl and Anja, I had got to the point I was thinking of stopping dieting if I didn't see some results. I'd planned on raising calories slowly, hopefully without the weight increasing, so I had somewhere to cut down from. From what Karion says, and my own experience and that of many others I've seen, this plateau effect is very common in JUDDD. I don't know for sure that it is over but I'm hopeful.

 

[clairejen]

Down another quarter of a pound. The units alongside JUDDD really do seem to be helping. I did wonder if my decision to drink less coffee added to the plateau by slowing my metabolism. Whatever, it was probably a sensible move because coffee time equals biscuit time in my mind and that is a habit I don't need.

 

[clairejen]

Scales down again, 9st10.25lbs so only 3.25lbs from target. I can't believe it, after nearly three weeks going nowhere! At last it really seems achievable. I think I might be up a bit tomorrow after the UD today but I am sticking to the unit diet so possible damage should be limited. I'm definitely hopeful that three weeks will see me at my goal weight so it is time to work out how I am going to switch to maintenance. I think a gradual increase in both UDs and DDs while keeping a weather eye on the scales will be the way to go.

 

[Barb]

Well done Claire, you are so nearly there. Fantastic that despite the plateau you ahve kept going, tweaking away till you get the results. Brilliant.

Have a great day.

Love

 

[clairejen]

Thanks Barb, I am soooo relieved that this plateau is over. I have been on the traineo forum where there are a lot of JUDDDDerers and just about all of them have been through this. Being so close to goal has helped me because I knew that if I didn't lose any more I was still in an OK place and I will be continuing with JUDDD for maintenance so it isn't a huge deal - but rather dispiriting to eat under 500 calories every other day and have the scales just laugh at you, you've been there so you know what it is like.