Fast 800 Keto: Eat well, burn fat, manage your weight long-term (The Fast 800 Series)

Good book, full of info

Very happy with this book and I'm not new to keto either, I've done it for many years.. this is different to my old keto principles that is true, what isn't true is that you won't reach ketosis - you will.The calories are low so you can eat a little more carbs (still low just not the very very low I used to do). The keto sticks will reassure you it works.Bottom line is I found the traditional keto hard to do long term and this is better for my lifestyle. Its 12 weeks of low carb low calorie to lose up to 4.6lb a week (800kcal). Followed by slight relaxing of the rules which I personally appreciate. Its still low carb but means unlike the keto of old I used to do i won't be vegetable and fruit deprived. I just don't feel that lifestyle is good long term (and neither does Michael). It was great to drop weight but not to live on and this book follows that idea. You'll end up on a Mediterranean style diet at goal and that's been proven to be excellent for health.The bad reviews from strict keto fans are unfair. This is an alternative that still allows the body to enter ketosis and drop weight fast.Also the recipes are great - and many are less than 10g carbs. Pictured is Tandoori chicken kebab.(I for one enjoyed the Black bean chilli with 16g of carbs as one of my two meals that day and I stayed in ketosis (see attached pic of my Ketostix). Win. 😊)Another update - I've just done my first full week. I have lost a whopping 11lb. After the initial big loss I'm losing 1lb a day. My husband has lost a little bit more. We are thrilled and excited to continue. 😊

Been on this diet for a week and it’s working in terms of weight loss, it's just falling off.Recipes: easy to cook; quick; tasty; lots of veg; filling. No signs of cravings or hunger between meals.After about six weeks we have yet to experience ketosis and are thinking about switching away from Keto but sticking with the calorie reduction for a while longer.Anyway, I’ll list here what I’d like to see in a second edition, then say a bit more about why, below the list:1. OK, the first stage is 800-900 calories, but in the second and third stage there’s no explicit calorie ratios. I’d like to see recommended ratios carbs:protein:fat e.g. 40:40:202. I regular burn 500-1000 calories a day at the gym and/or cycling. Is it OK to eat additional food (protein) beyond the recommended 800-900? How much?3. I’d like the Contents to include the lower-level section names to make it easier to find information. This should include a list of the Recipes.4. I’d like to see a full list in a clearly labelled annex for each of the following: “Complex carbohydrates”; “Processed carbohydrates”; “Greens and Non-starchy veg” - (there is a section “Greens and Non-Starchy Veg”, but it’s unhelpfully buried in the Add Ons section in the Recipes chapter.5. Any food type listed anywhere should be in the Index. For example, if you look for “chicken” you currently won’t see the chicken recipes.6. Keto sticks. The ones I bought have several levels. But to what level should I aspire? What level indicates success?Grrr - so annoying - nowhere is there a list of the recipes!!The author wonders why people think that diets are doomed to failure. “According to research by the American National Weight Control Registry, 95% of people who lose weight on conventional diet programmes eventually regain it……most people neglect proper training while dieting, so much of the weight they lose is lean body mass, not fat” – quoted in Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. Incidentally, this is by far the best book I've found on nutrition/body shaping.I think there should be more emphasis on strength training - because if you go into calorie deficit your body is quite happy to sacrifice muscle – in which case your metabolism slows – requiring additional calorie deficit - you end up yoyo dieting. The author mentions some dieters who ended their diet and found that their metabolism had mysteriously slowed – surely, because they have shed muscle – no mystery.I have used a calorie-controlled diet plus strength training to drop from over 100 kilos to 73, losing fat and gaining muscle. I just don’t understand the reluctance here to count calories. Smartphone apps backed up by massive nutrition databases make it very easy and quick - it really is the best way to monitor what you are eating. For example, if you enter all the elements of your meal, MyNetDiary will give you a breakdown of the carbs, protein and fat by weight and calories. This is very helpful if you exceed your allowance (whether in carbs or calories) because you can track back from meal to constituents and find out where the issue is.The cover shouts "lost a stone in 21days" - a stone of what? water? fat? muscle? - if muscle you're in big trouble!In my experience, as a man, it’s not belly fat that is lost first - as it says in the book. Weight loss goes from outside in, so arms and legs first, but tummy fat is last, unfortunately. You may have to wait a bit longer for that 6 pack!Finally, I am minded of a radio programme I heard. On it a doctor treating obesity was asked to comment on the Keto diet. He concluded by saying - this is the gist not verbatim - regardless of the diet you follow, if you eat excess calories you will gain weight, if you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. So get into calorie deficit - if it doesn’t work reduce your calorie allowance by 100 calories - repeat until you get the result you want! Make sure you exercise to retain muscle. Check out classes in your local gym or use body weight exercises at home.

I decided to embark on the Keto 800 plan for 12 weeks a week ago after reading this excellent book cover to cover.For me, this is a wholly approachable plan that feels healthy and make sense, the science around protein was particularly interesting and new to me. I've read all of Michael and Clare's books, as well as having had the privilege of meeting this generous, kind man in person. I attribute him with doing nothing short of changing the trajectory of my life. I've followed his general healthy eating rules for years now through intermittent fasting, low sugar, vast reduction of ultra processed foods in my diet, eating more veg, quitting fizzy drinks (besides water) and cutting out those horrifically damaging artificial sweetners we were all encouraged to turn to instead of sugar. I also take a tablespoon of flaxseed a day and this has done wonders for my aches and pains. As someone with a strong family history of diabetes and being prediabetic myself, I was always warned I would be on diabetic medication by my forties if I didn't get my weight down into the healthy range.It has been steady for years, as I haven't made efforts to reduce only maintain, and have had some personal things happen that have made my cortisol levels permanently high. But I am 54 now and thanks to following these rules I have never been on diabetes medication.After some much needed time away to myself to heal from grief, loss and other traumas, I'm now ready to be back in the room and tackle that potentially deadly visceral fat.I do hate to use the word diet, I like healthy eating plan. I don't own a set of scales & won't be getting any.For me, this is about my overall health and wellbeing, keeping diabetes at bay, potential permanent reversal of my insulin resistance and, as a classic apple shape, worries over my visceral fat.My marker is that simple waist measurement. Also with the knowledge that I'm approaching full menopause I have a battle with hormones, and am certain my cortisol levels due to the stress/trauma of these past few years are key factors in making visceral fat loss harder.The way people approach progress reporting online annoys me with before & after photos, along with 'this is how I used to look and I hated fat me'. This rhetoric is so harmful. I like to gauge things on how I feel rather than how I look. All body types are acceptable and to be celebrated so I don't like the message this sends. We are all unique.Anyway, a week in I've lost 4 inches from my waist, noticed skin improvements, my once brittle nails are strengthened, my hair is thicker and my IBS symptoms have disappeared. I'm also not hungry. I didn't get the keto flu symptoms some do as I was already following a time restricted eating plan for a long time and don't eat a lot of sugar and white flour products.A thing I would highly recommend for anyone is loading the plan rules into ChatGPT, giving it a history of yourself and take time to journal your journey in it. It's incredibly motivating and feels like a personal coach. For instance, it's tracking all my nutrients, cals, carbs etc and advising me to up my calorie content this week as my period is imminent, telling me what my body needs more of right now. If I write a meal plan in it, it flags up anything I'm too low in for my specific needs & suggests adjustments.ChatGPT is my new healthy, supportive boyfriend now. I seem to be telling it everything & it bigs me up all the time. I also tell it please and thank you... :)It's a game changer, and free to use.I always believed in the righteousness of Dr Mosley's cause and was so sad to hear of his untimely death. When I met him, I told him he will never know the lives he has and will save.I hope he does now.There is so much rubbish in our food, and yet we've blamed ourselves for the obesity epidemic. It was not our fault, and a reset through plans such as this will show you that in a very short space of time.It's inexpensive to do, takes a little planning and may be hard for the first few days. But you will be astonished at the results and in my experience, it gets easier very quickly.Get the book, your renewed health and vitality will reward you for it.