Is not losing weight normal?

This topic contains 9 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by beckrrta 10 years, 10 months ago.

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beckrrta

2:37 pm
23 Jan 14
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Hi, I’ve been doing 5:2 for 3 weeks now. My weight has increased by 100 grams, but according to my scales I have gone from 38% total body fat to 31%, metabolic age 50 to 40 and visceral fat reading reduced by 2 points.
So…. I guess the diet is working well on internal fat loss….but when will I notice a difference on the outside? My clothes feel tighter and I’m losing heart. Anyone else had this happen? Should I just keep preserving? Should I restrict calories a little more on my non fast days.? Thanks

TracyJ

3:00 pm
23 Jan 14
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Why on earth are you losing heart? Those sound like fabulous results to me and at least you have scales to show what’s going on internally.

If your total body fat has gone down then it’s either the visceral fat being munched away (Yay!!!) or it’s your fat being converted to lean muscle instead (Double Yay!!!!) Fat weighs less than muscle so if that’s what’s happening then you will put on weight slightly until it reaches a critical level. Either way – it’s all pretty damn good news for you and your long-term health.

You mustn’t use this lifestyle as a quick-fix ‘diet’. A bikini diet from any magazine will work in the short term if you stick to it rigidly but you wouldn’t want to be on it for the rest of your life, which is why they don’t work. You lose a bit of weight, come off the diet and instantly put all of the weight (and then some) back on again. This is NOT that kind of ‘diet’ you do this forever (in one form or another) so who cares if it takes a while for the results to show on the outside.

I actually think your results are really really encouraging to anyone who doesn’t have a set of super-dooper scales like yours. This is the ‘good news’ story that’s going on inside you. For those who only have their weight to go by – your visceral fat loss and/or fat-muscle conversion (whichever it turns out to be) is fantastic encouragement.

TracyJ

3:07 pm
23 Jan 14
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Incidentally – I think that what’s happening to you is exactly what happened to me during my first month or so on the 5:2 lifestyle. I had never expected to lose any visible weight (all I was hoping for was the visceral fat loss and the health benefits), so i hadn’t even bothered taking a starting weight or measurements, nevermind weighing once I’d started. It took about 6-8 weeks for me to notice that my trousers were hanging better and get around to weighing myself. I’d lost something between 14-18 lb by that point.

Slow & steady wins the damn race every time when it comes to weight loss.

Hang in there.

beckrrta

12:29 am
24 Jan 14
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Thanks…that’s all I needed to hear. I am very happy about the internal fat loss….one of the main reasons for choosing this diet….but yes I’m so used to being on other diets where you see kgs/lbs drop early too I wondered whether I was eating too much on my non fast days. I’ll definitely hang in there!

arla

9:58 pm
24 Jan 14
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At the very end of 4 weeks I’ve finally lost 400g – though my measurements have gone down a little. My scales don’t measure anything other than weight, but I’m happier with the waist+hip+thigh loss than the weight lost.

TracyJ

12:14 pm
27 Jan 14
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arla & beckrrta – Are your muscles firming up though? It’s taken a year and a half for me to be able to tell but when I have an objective feel of my arms now I can actually feel the definition between the muscles and they are definitely firming up slowly but surely. As my weight loss slows throughout this next year I will be constantly reminding myself that my body is finally moving out of the ‘just get rid of all this excess blubber’ mode and into ‘right, let’s convert what’s left to muscle’ mode.

I’ll help it along as much as I can but I won’t kid myself that I’ll be changing the habits of a lifetime and taking up running or gyming or anything else ridiculously outlandish like that. I’ll be trebbling up my swimming and seeing what that does.

arla

3:04 am
28 Jan 14
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With only 4 weeks & 400g lost, it’s far too early to tell TracyJ.

I get & lost 3-3.5kg hormone bloat every month, so {shrugs} who can say. I’m sticking with it – and I’ve never yoyo dieted or done a fad diet in my life!

beckrrta

1:10 pm
29 Jan 14
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I can’t say I feel any firmer. I’ve been training for over year now through swimming, cycling and running…so had some muscle before starting 5:2 anyway.
I’m going to try and keep my cals in the right zone on non fast days and see if that helps. I wasn’t really tracking them before. Took the eat what you like message probably too literally. Hopefully I’ll see some difference, although I’ve noticed a few other posts with others having similar issue…and they’ve been on it longer.
Thanks

TracyJ

1:34 pm
29 Jan 14
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Hi beckrrta – Yeah everyone tends to say “eat what you want on non-fastdays” but that’s misleading. You can’t just eat AS MUCH as you want and expect to lose weight.

This is basically a slightly easier to stick to form of a calorie controlled diet (as far as the weight loss component goes) and it is all about the numbers. You MUST eat somewhere between your BMR and your TDEE on non-fastdays if you expect to lose weight (and you’re not actually the size of a house currently – if you ARE very overweight, like I was to start with, then you’ll be able to skate along without really paying attention on non-fastdays for quite some time before the weight loss grinds to a halt).

It does get slightly more complex when you take the ‘fasting’ aspect and its associated health benefits & fat-muscle conversion properties into consideration but if you’re mainly interested in weight then you do need to pay attention on non-fastdays and stick between your BMR & TDEE.

beckrrta

2:39 pm
29 Jan 14
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Thanks TracyJ….it all makes sense. Will get the few kilos off that I want to by sticking within BMR and TDEE…and will reap the health benefits too!