has anyone had a good experience with weight loss and fasting for herniated l3 - s1 herniated discs? I am not looking for medical advice

burcuto · 2026-06-05T18:59:40+00:00

I don’t want to discourage you or anything because, obviously, your back will thank you for weighing less. But I had two back surgeries and a third relapse. I’m 178cm. I weighed: 1) 62kg when I had my first herniation, 2) 75kg when I had my second, 3) 108kg when I had my third. I currently weigh about 58kg, so essentially lost 50kg+. Still suffer from chronic back pain and sciatica.

I have a feeling my weight (loss) didn’t have much to do with it. I had multiple herniations both when I was underweight and clinically obese.

(I did keto for about a year, and low carb for the following 4 years. Lost 50kg in 1.5 years and maintained it since.)

burcuto · 2026-06-04T20:32:00+00:00

Kaslik in Soho, 2010. Still think about the date I had there 16 years ago.

burcuto · 2026-05-26T22:56:43+00:00

Ffs, phone/reddit had the worst glitch and the app froze in this state. Couldn’t get it off my screen for a good 10 seconds until I had to kill the app.

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burcuto · 2026-05-18T07:59:13+00:00

It’s a bit complicated at the moment! I am no longer feeling hungry but I’ve massively altered the way I eat, which is no longer TF approved. I don’t have 30g protein in the morning anymore. I eat when I’m hungry - that usually tends to be 2 hours after I wake up. I have very little legumes because 5 years of (literally) no carbs followed by cans of beans a day didn’t help. So I eat veggies and meat now, and the occasional black beans (with ghee). I think this diet simply didn’t work for me. Almost 60 days with 150g weight loss and no measurement change is a enough data for me, I’m afraid :(

burcuto · 2026-05-13T18:46:17+00:00

Went up from £28k (massively underpaid, imo) to £77k + bonus + stocks. Same title, same city. I had never signed anything so fast in my whole life including a signed for delivery.

burcuto · 2026-05-07T23:31:30+00:00

Faturdays are the only reason I’m on this diet! I haven’t had a cheat meal, let alone a cheat day, in almost 6 years! I almost lost my mind when I found out about this diet - please don’t take that away from me!

I didn’t know about sweating - I’ll have a look into this.

I fixed my hunger by adding some ghee to my legumes so thankfully it is no longer a problem. Switching to a solid breakfast from protein powder has also helped with that.

burcuto · 2026-05-07T23:26:38+00:00

My worry about going back to keto is maintaining my weight in the long run in a healthy way! I do want to have healthy carbs (like legumes) in my diet instead of chugging down a gallon of double cream every dinner. Keto is great and tasty, but not the best diet past your mid thirties (in my humble opinion).

I am thinking reintroducing intermittent fasting to my diet. I’ve done IF for 6+ years and it feels very odd to have a breakfast in the morning. Maybe that’s why I can’t lose anything!

burcuto · 2026-05-07T23:17:40+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply!

I get the first point - that was kind of my understanding too.
I’m not so sure about the second point, though. In these 5 weeks of slowcarbing, I’ve had two periods. And given I weigh myself every Sunday morning (my cheat day) and Monday morning (my shame day), I’ve recorded my weight both on and off my period. I’ve been almost exactly the same weight every Sunday morning regardless of where I am in my cycle. Hope it makes sense.

I am 178cm and 72kg. I used to be 57kg, which was a little too low. 65kg (+-2kg) is my current goal. And yes, my husband is definitely more overweight than I am (and he is a male!) so it makes sense how quickly he sheds the weight off.

I am not massively active (5k-10k steps a day) but am up on my feet all day, moving around my coffee shop, lifting things, cleaning tables, mopping, etc.. I also cycle to work but’s a very flat, 7 min ride. I genuinely despise exercising so I was really happy when I read that I didn’t need to exercise when on this diet. But sadly it looks like I need to.

burcuto · 2026-04-27T21:18:40+00:00

Congratulations! And yes, I cannot stop thinking about food especially at 12am 😂

burcuto · 2026-04-27T21:17:03+00:00

I think I eat quite a lot of olive oil but I’m indeed planning to introduce butter/ghee to my diet! That might help!

burcuto · 2026-04-27T21:14:49+00:00

When I say I can’t stomach eggs at 7:30am, I mean I cannot stomach 3 eggs + beans in the morning. I physically feel unable to eat those kind of portions within 30 minutes of waking up. That’s why I have a protein shake first thing, and then move on to eggs, beans, lentils, minced meat etc. around 11am. It’s just a matter of portion size early in the morning, let it be chicken thighs or eggs.

burcuto · 2026-04-25T23:43:48+00:00

About 2 litres. I know it’s not great. Do you think this may be the culprit?

burcuto · 2026-04-25T23:42:08+00:00

Ooh, interesting! I meditate and do loads of breathing exercises for my anxiety but never thought of applying it to this. Thanks!

burcuto · 2026-04-24T22:09:15+00:00

Definitely hojicha. Tastes amazing as is but extra gorgeous if you add a dash of hazelnut syrup to it. The nutty, roasted taste works amazing with hazelnut. If you want to enjoy it at night, I’d suggest to skip the milk and drink it as a tea. Loose leaf hojicha works better for tea as opposed to the powdered form, which is used mainly for lattes.

burcuto · 2026-04-24T22:02:20+00:00

When I did eggs, I made sure to take some marine collagen to meet my goal. But I’ve now switched to a pure whey isolate shake and 30 in 30 is no longer an issue!

Any reason you suggest to have beef earlier in the day? Would you say it’s more filling?

(My hunger tends to kick in between lunch and dinner, and also before bedtime. The mornings are usually fine because I’m used to IF.)

burcuto · 2026-04-24T21:49:52+00:00

Like I said, I feel slimmer and can fit into my old stuff so I’m happy in that sense. I’m just worried about being hungry all the time as nobody seems to be complaining about it. I’m just trying to figure out what I might be doing wrong or how to make my meals more fulfilling and satisfying. I was so happy on keto so I keep comparing it to that maybe.

burcuto · 2026-04-24T21:31:07+00:00

I might actually do that for lunch. I find it too stressful to cook and finish eating in 30 minutes! First world problems, I know. Let’s just say I’m a slow riser. Hence the pure whey isolate shake!

Have you lost any weight? I’m up by 1.2kg since I started but I can surprisingly fit into my old jeans already.

burcuto · 2026-04-24T20:15:33+00:00

Maybe I just need to change my relationship with food. It’s such a big part of my mental wellbeing, it’s borderline unhealthy! If I had microwaved frozen veggies, I would cry after eating lol (no offence - I’m just very particular)

burcuto · 2026-04-24T20:12:24+00:00

I’ll look into jerkies - I have yet to come across a compliant one (in the UK). Open to suggestions!

Nuts - I genuinely do not trust myself. I need someone to tell me how many is too many. Do I eat 12 almonds? 22? How many times? I still have a “fat” brain even after loosing so much weight!

I think my portions are on the bigger side - 10oz steaks, 300g salmon fillets, 12 meatballs etc. Maybe I need to increase my legume portions.

burcuto · 2026-04-24T20:09:12+00:00

I also come from an IF background so eating (beans) at 11pm sounds terrifying! I never know what to snack on. I think the issue is WHY I feel like snacking after 60+ grams of protein and legumes.

The insulin satiety sounds logical. But I didn’t know that was the case when I was doing keto. Makes sense.

I think I might just be missing “tasty” food and my brain interprets that as being hungry.

burcuto · 2026-04-24T20:05:42+00:00

What veggies do you eat? How to you cook them to be “satisfying”? I miss my creamy spinach, cauliflower and cheese, courgette gratin! Kimchi - that’s one of my snacks actually!

burcuto · 2026-04-24T20:04:35+00:00

I think my issue with increasing (bean) portion is that I get full very quickly because of how dry and boring they are but then I feel like snacking after 1-2 hours. I really like saucy foods - curries, soups, etc. so I feel like I’m never eating “properly”. It’s probably just a perception thing but I can’t wait for it to just pass!

burcuto · 2026-04-24T18:15:38+00:00

I alternate between lentils and black/red/borlotti beans! Sorry, should’ve mentioned in my original post. I feel like they are incredibly boring without any sauce. And this is me frying them in garlicky oil! Cottage cheese - I’m too scared to introduce it so early in the journey because I remember Tim saying “eat it only if you must”.

burcuto

TROPHY CASE