After 40 years of battling my weight (I’m 56) with a wide variety of “diets” I’m hoping that I’ve finally found a strategy that I can stick to long enough to make the difference I need. I started the 5:2 today at 17 stone 12lbs (BMI over 40) and need to get down under 13 stone… AND STAY THERE. I’m prepared to take a couple of years to fight off the looming type 2 diabetes and to ease the painful joints that are clearly down to my weight and eating habits and am currently feeling positive about the chances of being able to stick with this. I haven’t seen many posts from people aiming for quite as much weight loss as this, and I’m under absolutely no illusion that it’ll be a simple job, but would be interested to hear from anyone who’s in a similar position. I’m expecting to become quite an expert on the ups and downs of the diet eventually but today I am a newbie! 🙂