Hello myggan ! It’s so good to hear from you ! Here’s to all of us on the journey of maintenance 🙂
This topic contains 11,627 replies, has 174 voices, and was last updated by hermajtomomi 6 months, 3 weeks ago.
Hi Lotta and Welcome
Auriga started this thread for the very reason you expressed…to thank Dr M and Mimi for the incredible changes they have made for SO many people. They really are heroes. I’s great to have a Swede joining our merry gang from all over the world. Keep up the postings, let us know how you go and, particularly, what you are doing on holidays. Purple 🙂
Thanks Auriga and Purple, that’s very welcoming. I feel galvanised to not do what I did last year and put on loads of weight in the holidays! 🙂
I wonder if you have some advice for me. I have an older sister who is very much like I was 6 months ago. Overweight, unhappy with herself and feeling powerless to change. She has seen for herself the results I have had with the FAST and she seems genuinely interested in changing her life. But when I answer her questions about how I monitor my calorie intake she keeps saying she really doesn’t want to have to keep counting calories… I don’t know what to say to her… Any tips?
Thanks! Lotta
Yes Lotta I have two friends like that.
My suggestion:
Buy her the Fast Recipe book so she has recipes and doesn’t have to count the cals.
Suggest starting with just one fast day. Tell her exactly what to eat that day. See how she goes. Don’t fret about anything else. Just get that day right. She will probably find she is surprised that she can go without food for a few hours. Then suggest she ups that to two. etc etc. Slowly slowly for some. Me, I jumped straight in and got very quick feedback. Horses for courses.
Good luck with her. Not easy. Purple
Hi Nicki.
I don’t know how you have been eating, but I’m maintaining on 16:8 most days, and pretty much no processed carbs/sugar/alcohol (week days only!). You could try increasing the fasting window on some days (16hrs plus, to lower insulin/ get into fat burning) or reducing carbs?
If 6:1 isn’t enough and 5:2 too much, you could split the difference – maybe 8:2?
Or how about 5:2 light – maybe half TDEE rather than quarter?
Or carry on with 6:1 and throw in another half TDEE day per week, or another full fast every second or third week or when your weight goes up by maybe more than 2kg?
Sorry if you’ve already thought of/ tried these!
I suspect we’ve all had to play around a bit to find what works. Who would have thought maintaining weight was harder than losing it!
I’ve just read “The Big Fat Surprise” Simco, not only was it fascinating and I couldn’t stop reading it but it totally backs up what you’ve said about the role of saturated fat and Dr Mosley recently came out in favour of fat too. I eat quite a lot of fruit and veg because I like them but I know its the fat (olive oil, cheese, meat) that keep me fit, strong, healthy and good looking LOL;-)
Welcome, myggan
We are a happy lot with tips galore on how we are all maintaining. Right now I am fluctuating madly in a 2 kg range. However, I am still shrinking. Have gained a kg over this week and lost a cm off each of my vital dimensions. Now figure that out! I blame it on the renovations to the house 🙂
Am fasting today. Happy fasting or feasting. B 🙂
Isn’t it great, this time of the day, we are all “in the zone” and can post in real time
I have always eaten full fat products. I never see why we have to adulterate our foods. Fads come and go, but all things in moderation seems good advice. (Apollo) Keep it natural and stay healthy, I say. Cheers Purple
Hi Lotta.
Re: your sister.
I have never actually counted calories on any day, and still managed to lose 20lbs in 16 weeks (and more after that, although I’d then reached my goal). I looked at the recipes in the book and got a rough idea of what 500ish calories looked like and then just made it up.
My Dad is in his 80s and he’s doing a version of 5:2 and losing weight (maybe 14lbs in 5-6 weeks) and feeling great. He couldn’t cope with calorie counting either, so on his fast days he just doesn’t eat until lunch (yogurt and fruit, or a tuna sandwich) and then has meat or fish and salad or veg (no spuds) in the evening. No snacking, but he still drinks wine on fast days! He was initially confused by it all but, and although not strictly by the book, it works for him!
So yes, as PVE says, get the book but also perhaps give her some simple rules just to empower her to start. And don’t stress over calorie counting.
Good luck!
Morning Auriga.
Hope the headache doesn’t impede packing today!
I am a bit tired, but due to stomach ache in the night. As I worked at home yesterday, and did all the cooking, I have no one else but me to blame for poisoning me. Oh well…
So it looks like it might be a bit of a fasting day for me, at least til gripey symptoms subside!
I wonder how much more efficient our bodies actually are now at fighting infection and repairing, etc? I suspect the positive mental attitude that fasting seems to bring (I believe I am now healthier and my body better able to repair itself) will play a large part also?
Actually, I think I feel better already…..!
Anyway, All. Happy fasting or eating/packing/skipping and streaking/bowling/relaxing in paradise, etc!
Good morning Auri and Happy! Glad the alcohol cheered you A.
Bay and I have worn our little fingers out supporting some new folk on the Southern Hemph thread. SO great to see this WOE really taking off.
Confession time:
I did a great 24/12 fast on Monday. Got up today, fully intending to do it again, but needed to support a friend and offered to eat a salad with her. Once I was committed to the idea it turned out she thought I meant tomorrow! As I was out and had 2 hours to fill, I chose to eat 1 1/2 beautiful sandwiches and A GLASS OF WHITE WINE. Not really FD food! Came in at something over 400 cals, but hey, this could be counted as part of my maintenance experiment, couldn’t it? Happy, you are always saying we don’t need to fast normally 🙂 So, I’ll eat something really light tonight (I won’t sleep if I don’t).
Will let you know how it works out. A walking, talking experiment…that’s me! Have a good day girls. P
Ha ha, PVE! It’s normally you telling me to relax and lighten up!
You aren’t going to know what effect something has unless you try it. And we’re all always banging on endlessly about how the beauty of 5:2 is it’s flexibility. And you should now be a super efficient fat burning machine anyway. And life is for living. And tomorrow is another day. You get the gist….!
Enjoy! And now really to work…
Hi Auriga (really really my last post til later!)
I started 5:2 about 07/01/14. By 31/05 I’d reached goal (22ish lbs lighter). Since then it’s been mostly 16:8 with very few very low cal fast days as even 6:1 caused more weight loss (I’m now 28lbs lighter than start weight).
Except for the first few weeks, I haven’t actually kept a record except on the forum. I must go back and extract it and chart the journey properly.
Hi Auriga I started on 15th February and had lost 21 lbs by 13th June so four months later (I lost 4 lbs first week then around 1 lb a week) and in all that time I only gained 1 lb once. So I’m a relative newbie to maintenance – have lost another 1 lb whilst maintaining (so 22 lbs now) maintaining on 16/8 same as HappyNow and am aiming to lose another 3lbs at some point but for the time-being I’m happy as I am.
Thanks Mirjam. I started way too heavy (first time in my life) at 85kg after a series of operations and accidents. Lost 1kg a week for months, plateaued a few times, but the long overview of my graph shows a continual downward progress (still does) I am currently between 58 and 60kg, lighter than I have been for 30 years (I’m obviously very old) and will probably end up at about 56kg. I wear smaller sizes than I have since I was a young woman and I love the new body with shoulder definition, small hips and bottom and the beginnings of a proper in out waist. It is a work in progress 😉
Thanks girls for sharing your histories. It is interesting to review the amazing success of this group occasionally. Champs, all of you. P
I started 5:2 on 25 January 2014 at 77 kg and in 23 weeks I lost 15 kg (33 lb) and 17 cm off my waist. This included 3 weeks in China.
I went down one size in shirts and two sizes in trousers. Since then I have maintained with 5:2 fasting. Maintaining takes more effort than the first 5 months. While maintaining, I have lost some more cm off my bust, waist and hips.
My weight fluctuates between 60 and 62 kg. I now own a number of size 12 pieces of clothing and am about to buy a size 12 bathing suit. Not seen since my 30s. A long time ago! 🙂 I also bought a pair of size 11 trousers that seem like a miracle to me. B 🙂
PS in my life I have lived in four States of Australia, and each place has a different word for swimwear, eg, bathers, swimmers, togs, bathing costumes, etc.
Hello Ladies x
I seem to have been so busy this last few days , that why i have not posted , but i have been reading what you are all talking about on my phone ,
there are some very good and positive posts ,
oh yeah and i liked the ones on how we wiegh in . well i too wiegh in Naked and i get Liz to measure my waist each week , My pancakes dont bounce around but my chipolatte does hee hee , i hope that is not to over the top , just a laugh xx
Ok have a great day everyone nad i look forward to your replies ,
love
ken
x
Well I have no idea what you are talking about Ken! All my make acquaintances refer to bratwurst….. I see that they vary quite a lot, from ‘Nurnberger Rostbratwurst’ (no longer than 3-4 inches and weighs less than 1 oz, usually served in sets of 6 or 12 depending on appetite) to ‘Nordhessische Bratwurst’ (around 8 inches in length, traditionally served on a roll with mustard)…..
I’ve spent a pleasant afternoon “shortening”the crutch of my swimming suits. Why, I hear you all ask? Because, having lost the majority of excess weight from my stomach, hips and bottom, I was emerging from the sea looking like I was wearing a wet nappy! Hmmm, not a sexy look! So having tidied things up a bit in me neither regions, hopefully I won’t frighten the natives when I next emerge wet from the ocean like Aphrodite…
Elaine,
My mother was badly traumatised by a school trip (probably late 1940s) to the beach. My grandmother had knitted her a (wool) swimming costume which I understand did not maintain its original shape particularly well once wet…!
I’m sure your baggy swimsuits will have better covered your modesty, but I have an unflattering mental image of you at the beach now! I suspect if it was PVE she would have brazenly dispensed with the costume altogether….
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30 Jul 14