Hi Beatriz. Plateaus are pretty common on any weight loss plan. I’m doing maintenance now (same 5:2 fasts but eating a little more on NFDs) but have been living the 5:2 way of life for about 18 months. I hit a couple plateaus along the way too. I never counted calories on NFD, just tried to eat mindfully. When I thought my NFDs were ok and I wasn’t snacking too much, I just added an extra FD for one week and that usually broke the plateau and got things moving again. .8 lbs is really not much. My weight can vary by over 2 pounds between some FD and NFD. I weigh everyday but concentrate more on the general trend downward.

Eating a lot of fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits works well for me because they’re so filling. A whole bag of frozen broccoli is often a good part of my meal. (I like broccoli.) Keep in mind that this is a long term way of eating . If you treat it like a diet, you’ll just gain it all back when the diet is over. It gets to be so routine after a while that you’ll hardly think about it, other than to occasionally move a day around to accommodate a holiday or other event.

Do you have a lot to lose? When your weight gets close to goal, things tend to go a little slower too. Good luck to you. You can do this!

Hi

Yep! I have hit it. Not sure why. I am getting back into ADF again though.

Hi

Yes, alternate day fasting. It seems to work for me most of the time. I just naturally don’t get hungry a lot! We will see how it goes.

How are things for you? Any progress?

Sounds good. I am about the same with ADF. I love it actually. Just sometimes I get hungry on FD when I workout, but not starving. obviously! I totally have enough on me to keep me going;)

Have a great day. Today is FD for me!

Yeah – i hit plateaus but then i’ve been fasting for nearly 18mths now. I just do 5:2 and don’t calorie count on non-fast days. I used to get very annoyed if i had a disciplined week and the weight didn’t move! But you learn that your body has a mind of its own and if you feed it well then it decides when its ready to shed the weight.

I find my body holds a lot of water weight if i eat processed carbs – white bread, crackers, beer, sugary things. Even if they are within the calorie limits. It makes for bigger swings one week to the next. So i try limit them but its not easy! Keep going and don’t worry if it takes a while to shed the 6kg as you want to keep it off.

Start think now about what you will do differently when you hit your target – fast 1 day a week or go vegan! My grandmother was a dancer and she told me she fasted a day a week to stay slender while on stage and that was in the 1930s. I should have listened to her yrs ago.

Hi hilali1 and BeatrizFD, I’m not an expert (still have stacks to lose), but an extra tip that has been going the rounds in the past few months is 18:6 – i.e., fast for 18 hours in a 24 hour period, and only eat within a 6-hour window. That could mean no breakfast, lunch at 1 p.m., and dinner at 6 finishing by 7 p.m. The idea is that it is a daily intermittent fast that puts the body each day into ketosis so it burns fat instead of glucose. I’m trying 17:7 rather than 18:6, and it’s going okay. A friend has been doing 18:6 eating for a while and lost stacks of weight. Anyway, it’s another option you might like to add to your routine.

Don’t know much about the 18:6. Does it have the same health benefits of the 5:2 and when you are fasting can you still have tea, water and coffee?

1)do you mean i do this in the non-fast days and keep the fast days as they are with the calorie restrictions?

2) can you eat anything in the 6 hour window?

I’m not doing SW, but I did want to respond as stalls are so frustrating!

I do think losing weight is hard, and once you’ve lost as much as you have, your body really fights for every pound. I’ve lost just over 9 stone, but the last 2 months have only see me lose a pound or two. Things that have helped me:

have goals that are not scale number related eg walking more, going down clothes sizes, finding you fit in a space you didn’t before
focus on how much better you feel, and how good your skin/hair etc. looks.
measure inches. So many times I haven’t lost weight, but have lost inches
vary food. I read that sometimes your body gets used to eating the same meals. So I have tried to vary. I have no idea if this is based on anything scientific, but I figured it can’t hurt to try
I went on holiday in June, and had a small gain. But 1 week of not counting meant I lost when I came back. So you can think about upping your syns for a week and see what happens

Other things you may want to look at are:

check your water intake and make sure you’re drinking enough
have you ever looked into food intolerances? Sometimes this can cause water retention.
are you eating a lot of carbs? Maybe up your protein?
have you started exercising? This can affect scale weight
do you drink/eat a lot of sweeteners? Some people claim this affects them, although I’ve never had issues
are you constipated?
do you eat a lot of fruit? This can add calories, so you can think about cutting back
Are you sleeping properly? If not this can affect weight loss.

Good luck

Hi Hilali and Betsylee,

Yes, the ‘window’ approach really does work.
My husband and I lost about 10 kg last year just by skipping breakfast and having lunch and supper between 1 and 8 pm.
After a few days of getting used to this, it was very easy. We started this instead of 5:2, as that felt too much like dieting. 🙁 (That feeling has changed by now, but we’re happy this way!)
Apparently you don’t compensate the loss of calories with the two meals in your eating window. That makes it effective.

Give it a try and good luck to all. 😋

Depends on what causes the weight plateau.

It could be that you gain muscle at the same time you’re losing fat, which is really a good situation if you ask me.

However, if not, it could be metabolism syndrome that comes in undereating. That is, after caloric restriction, even for a week, the body starts to regulate the body metabolism to compensate. So, when eating the similar amount of calories may results in fewer fat loss, until eventually your body shed no fat – weight plateau.

As solution, you could either just eat more and workout more, more so, start strategic cheat eating to spike your metabolism every week. This works for me sometimes

I am currently stuck in a plateau, juggling the same two lbs. for 2 weeks. I have lost 12 lbs. and have 26 to go. My daughter suggested I try carb cycling to get me back on track. I’m not sure I understand it. Has anyone else done that to jumpstart from a plateau? Thanks.

Yes, after losing consistently for two months and a total of 13 lbs., I have losing and gaining back the same two lbs for a month now. I am trying the 16:8 for a couple weeks to see if the change helps. Still working at the remaining25 lbs I want to lose. Not giving up!

@fartogo – I totally hit a plateau around 4 or 5 weeks, I had only lost about 12lbs, but the plateau got me. Just stick with it, also hormones play a big part in what happens on the scale. I changed over to water fasting for some of my Alternate fasting days… I do that too. Weight wont budge on a 5:2 maybe later for maintence. But now its 4:3.

So Yeah I did WFD for a bit and it kicked it into gear. WFD can be a challenge tho, so be prepared with a dash of salt under then tongue when you are close to ending your day or if you feel dizzy or nausious.

Good luck on your journey, you got this!