HEART problems

This topic contains 19 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by Filthy the Bear 9 years, 2 months ago.

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Erik DaNo

5:58 pm
26 Nov 13
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– Hello everybody!
This is a message from Denmark, where the 5:2 diet has become quite popular now.
I think the good thing about this diet is that nobody shall earn money on it (except the authors of the books). It’s only the honest feedback from people that will prove the effects of the intermittent fast.
I am a 58 years old man (why are almost 90% in the forum women?).
I have been on the diet for a month now and can already see some weight loss.
Although I’d like to weigh a little less, the main reason for my diet is the health aspects. I have high cholesterol values and have been taking statins for some years now. I also have Arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), for which I take medicine to normalise the heart rhythm. In addition I take aspirin to thin the blood, plus beta blockers (even if my blood pressure is normal).

As you can imagine; I would like to get rid of all these drugs. So my hope is that this diet helps, together with daily exercise.
Is there anyone with similar symptoms who can report about positive results after having practiced the diet for a longer period?

Best regards
Erik

Couscous

10:14 pm
26 Nov 13
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Hi Erik and welcome to your new life and new friends. I am a 65 yr old grumpy male but do not have many of your health issues, apart from high cholesterol and heart problems, more of that later. My positive results are a loss of weight – between 16 – 23 lb, at present I am up and down due to non fast excess days. Please stick with this health lifestyle, read the posts, there are some posters that are superb researchers and commentators, I enjoy their posts just as I enjoy reading all posters comments. This forum develops friendships across the continents, it truly is amazing the support we all give each other. Keep us all updated with your progress, your success and your doubts. Why are most posters women? Common sense really, they are superior to the male in many ways, all power to them. My heart problems?. My wife is the cause of that….married for 43 yrs, she still causes my heart to flutter.
Good luck.

dont diet live it

11:33 pm
26 Nov 13
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Hey, Erik (and everybody else!) this is my first post after lurking around here since I started 5:2 in September.
You’re right, we should see if we can get a few more guys posting on here!
I’m a 60 year old guy from Canada, and I started doing the 5:2 after my wife PVR’d the show a while back and I checked it out. Something about it just hit home with me. I think I’ve had 20 fast days so far and I’m loving this program! For me, it is very doable and sustainable and something I plan to keep at for ever, basically.
Like many others, I’ve done the yo-yo thing a bunch of times. I lose the weight but then I start slacking off and overeating and back it comes….grrr
Your post about heart issues prompted me to get on board here, I’ve got heart issues in my family, and had a ‘heart event’ (heavy chest pain / angina) 10 years ago …been on beta blockers, statin and baby aspirin since.
So, I’ve always exercised and played hockey, etc and I still exercise regularly to try and keep my weight down, and eat healthier, but while my diet is pretty good, there’s always room for improvement. My issue is portion distortion… I still eat more than I need to!
Anyways, I started this journey at 197 pounds and I’ve dropped about 11 or 12 pounds so far….my goal is about 175. My problem is not the fast days, it’s trying not to overdo it on the ‘feast’ days. Some are better than others, but it’s a constant battle.
Just got back from my cardiologist to follow up on a MIBI stress test I had last month. Everything is great at rest and moderate exercise, but some abnormalities start to show up under peak exercise effort. To make a long story short, now he is adding Plavix to the med mix. Like you, Erik, I wish I didn’t have to take all the meds, but I know they’re doing their job. Hey, I’m not sure if 5:2 will help me health wise, such that maybe I can get off one or two of them down the road, but we’ll see! Anyways, it’s motivated me to watch the intake a little closer on the eating days to see if I can move that scale a little quicker!
In the meantime, I think this 5:2 lifestyle suits me to a T, and I love the motivation and inspiration this forum provides. Thanks for all the encouragement, everybody!

rockyromero

10:36 am
27 Nov 13
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@ Erik DaNo
“why are almost 90% in the forum women?”

I imagine that dieting has been a way of life for most women, more so than men. Additionally, I find that fasting is a team sport and is served better when in a community. We all win when we can share our ongoing struggles.

I learned to cut weight in my early years for competitive sports such as wrestling, boxing, running and martial arts. Most of the popular male sports such as american football, basketball and weight lifting encourage males to increase weight. It’s manly to be bigger. It’s also difficult to reverse those years of ingrained thinking in later years. So fewer men than women participate in fasting.

This may be truer in the western world more so than other parts of the world. Although, I think that in some countries that it’s considered a sign of success to be overweight.

Times are changing.

With health consequences, I expect that the overweight population, which may tend to be wealthier in comparison, will shift to fasting as a healthier solution. The 5:2 lifestyle has made fasting fairly easier as compared to the alternatives.

Move over women posting.

The men will be joining soon.

➰

Erik DaNo

7:06 pm
27 Nov 13
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Thank you for feedback!
It’s great that also some men consider intermittent fasting as a possible way to achieve better health. Probably, it’s us men who will have the greatest benefit of the diet, – that is, if some of the age-related heart diseases, which still affect men more than women, could be avoided. Anyway, a certain weight loss is always healthy.

Nika

3:36 am
29 Nov 13
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Hey Erik!

A load of men are into intermittent fasting, but they all hang out on bodybuilder sites like leangains and stuff. When I was into the Warrior Diet a while back I joined a forum for 20 minutes, then I read a thread where a guy asked for advice because he was on a plateau and the first comment was “stop being a weak p***y”. Deleted my account.

Like Rocky said, it’s the norm today for men to be big and strong, so they like bodybuilder sites where they can yell at each other 😛

dilusha

2:18 pm
30 Dec 13
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my menstruation is stop now my 28 days over

jamesaero

3:58 pm
3 Jan 14
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Hi Erik,
I stumbled across your post by accident and am fascinated by your comments. I am a reasonably fit 70 year old in the UK and get ectopic heart beats which have resulted in a restriction on my commercial flying licence which I use for part time instructing. I fortunately do not have any symptoms but the ectopics are evident on my ECGs which I have every 6 months. The ectopics are easy to detect simply by feeling the pulse and the ectopic shows up as an apparent missed beat.
I got severe food poisoning in the summer I couldn’t eat for three days and just sipped water. The amazing thing was that the ectopics completely disappeared for the next four days and gradually came back as I got back to a normal diet. Now they are as bad as ever.
All this suggests that the fast diet might just help so the trial starts now and I will report back
Maurice

Speedy

6:16 pm
6 Jan 14
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For quite a while I had assumed Couscous was a woman until I read: I am a 65 yr old grumpy male! So there may be more men than you suspect behind the screen names 🙂

angelinaicebun

7:54 am
12 Dec 14
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I’ve been doing the 5/2 for a few months successfully but recently have started to get lengthy heart arrhythmias. I suffered from these when I started the menopause a few years ago. At the same time I was having a stressful time at work. I had all the checks done with no underlying problem revealed. The GP suggested withdrawing all caffeine for at least 3 months – even decaffeinated coffee, which really helped. Since then I only have decaf tea and coffee. I have now just retired and am much less stressed and I’m through the menopause apart from still some hot flushes. I am very healthy, take regular exercise and wasn’t very overweight in the first place – just a little middle aged spread. It is ironic then that the arrhythmia started again a couple of months ago with a vengeance – it was all the time. It did seem to coincide with my second attempt at the 5/2 diet and I was suspicious. I took myself completely off caffeine and alcohol for a few weeks and it abated. However, it has come back but intermittent now. I have had a couple of cups of decaf coffee, occasional glasses of wine and only decaf tea. I haven’t been to the doctor as last time the result was no cause for concern, no higher risk of stroke was mentioned, the missed beats were merely a nuisance to me. I expect I should see the doctor but I’m wondering if this can be connected to the fasting?

PeelyWally

10:21 am
12 Dec 14
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Hi angel. With something as important as your heart it seems to me that it would be right to address the very last part of your question there to your doctor.

angelinaicebun

5:12 pm
14 Dec 14
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Yes, thanks PeelyWally, that is certainly the wisest thing to do. I just wondered, before I go, if anyone thought the irregular heart beats were connected with the fasting, when from all I’ve read, it should be beneficial to heart function. If the response is that it’s very unlikely and the doctor says the obvious thing is to stop the fasting, I will be in a position to suggest it may be coincidental with the fasting and not necessarily due to it.

Filthy the Bear

7:18 am
5 Jan 15
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Hi there,
just thought I’d weigh in. I too have/had heart Arrhythmia and was also prescribed beta blockers and aspirin as well as things to ease the irritation caused by the aspirin. I used to get the irregular heart beats about once a week. Sometimes it made me feel so dizzy that I would take a day off work. I then heard about the fast food diet and gave it a try. I first went on a 5 2 diet and the arrhythmia stopped within a week. I didn’t have it for months. I then went on holiday to a country where you cant drink the water and they sell coke everywhere. I drank a lot of coke and went off the diet for 2 weeks as we were surfing for 8 hours every day and needed the energy. At the end of the trip I had one episode of Arrhythmia. Pretty obvious why that happened I suppose. I went back on the diet and its been fine ever since. That was almost 2 years ago I guess. Anyway about 3 months ago I thought I’d try the intermittent day fasting to lose a little weight and was suprised to find intermittent day fasting actually easier! I think why that is is that I get into a rhythm with my eating, where as the 5 2 felt like a shock every time a fast day came around. I have lost weight nicely and feel the best I’ve felt in years. Physically I feel rejuvenated, which was unexpected. I’m sticking with the intermittent days. I’m a 42 year old surfer. I eat meat. I work a physical job and I find day on day off to be easy. Even over christmas when we went to people’s houses for big meals I simply planned what days were best to fast and had no problem. Basically I ate on Christmas day and was so stuffed full that I didnt want food on Boxing day anyway. 🙂 Good luck with you’re diet. I couldnt be happier with it.

Filthy the Bear

7:19 am
5 Jan 15
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P.S. I havent taken my medication for about 2 years.

northernsky

12:21 am
29 Jan 15
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Hi I’m a 57 year old female who had a heart attack 2 years ago- I didn’t need stents but I take a beta blocker and ace inhibitor daily plus the usual aspirin. I had put a bit of weight on during the menopause but since the heart attack i gained a further stone or more ( i dont weigh myself now its too depressing)
I have been doing the fast diet for a year now-yes really and have not lost any weight -honest! I swim 3× a week ( a mile each time) & have carried on with the diet because of the supposed health benefits & the hope that I will lose some weight but the only thing diminishing is my hope. I think its something to do with my beta blockers but my doctor says not- I don’t really want to go on to a 4:3 diet or even 2:5! But I don’t what to do. Am I some kind of medical freak I wonder I never had any real weight issues until my 50’s but I see my friends doing the 5:2 & the weight just drops off them …..

miss dublinia

12:07 pm
9 Feb 15
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hi i had atrial fibulation in jan 14 still getting flutters and other weird beats am on cardicore daily doctor said i have ventricle fibulation and because of my age im at lower end of the scale for stroke i want to lose weight so i am going to try this and hopefully it will help my health aswell

Filthy the Bear

8:09 pm
9 Feb 15
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Hi! I was on the 5/2 for over a year. It seems to have stopped my heart issues but I didn’t lose any weight and honestly that wasn’t why I started so I didn’t care. I have since decided that I want to lose weight and have gone on the day on/ day off alternate fast days diet. The weight has melted off me and I feel fine. It’s actually easier for me than 5/2 because it doesn’t feel like a shock when the fast day comes around. I’m in a rhythm. People are calling me skinny for the first time since I was a kid and I find I have more energy and just general confidence. I didn’t realise how embarrassed I was about my body until I dropped the weight. Anyway, good luck. I hope you have to positive results that I have. Oh and I should say that on the alternate days fast diet I basically eat anything on the non fast days and probably pig out a bit. I still lose weight. Now I thought I might be training myself to have bad eating habits but no. I went off it for a week when on holiday and ate in a more mindful way than in the past.

Filthy the Bear

8:13 pm
9 Feb 15
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Hey miss dublina. It really helped for me. Please keep me updated with how you go. Btw I use a $2 electronic scale to weigh my food and an app called Easy Diet Diary to convert it to calories. Good luck!

miss dublinia

12:14 pm
10 Feb 15
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hi filthy the bear thank you for your reply today is my first fast day and already i need food im starving but reading to keep myself occupied

Filthy the Bear

8:59 pm
10 Feb 15
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Keep busy. I find spreading the calories out over the day is easier than one big meal and drinking lots of water helps. Work days are easier than weekends because my mind is kept busy and I don’t think about food as much, so yeah, reading a good book or making something would help. Your first fast day is the worst one I’d say. So keep pushing through.