Please help! No weight loss what so ever!!!

This topic contains 7 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by annette52 10 years, 6 months ago.

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Laureyjo

8:49 pm
9 May 14
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4 weeks ago I began the fast diet.

I am a 27 year old female 5ft8” 4 weeks ago after topping the scales at 12st8 I embarked on the fast diet. I am motivated, I watched the documentary, I bought the book and I began.

I do no formal exercise except horse riding 1x per week but I am a physiotherapist so constantly on my feet.

Hand on heart I have stuck to this. I even did a 3 day fast this week. I have lost 1lb!!!!!!!!!! And probably only cos the clothes I’m currently wearing are lighter than they were 4 weeks ago when I stood on the scales and faced the music after a Chinese!

I could cry! In fact I might!

On non fast days I have gone out for tea and had treats but I am not gorging. I am eating a ‘normal’ days recommended calories as the diet says I should be able to do.

I admittedly have switched to the 24hr fast method fasting 9pm-9pm with a small snack at the break of the fast to allow me to sleep not absolutely starving.

I appreciate 24hr fast yields slower loss but not NO LOSS!!!!?

To put the nail in the coffin: husband has lost 10lbs! (So the 500cal days I’m planning for us are working for someone!)

I know it’s Friday evening but please someone help! Someone assure me that after 4weeks of no weight loss they just woke up a stone lighter one day?! Nah…. Thought not!

The only thing keeping me sane is the hope of all these health benefits I haven’t proved to myself are happening.

There’s a measuring tape on its way from ebay but aside from a marginally slimmer face I wouldn’t say I even look or feel particularly different.

Any advice/reassurance most welcome xx

Amy C.

9:48 pm
9 May 14
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The number from the TDEE is only an estimate. Your results have shown that eating up to your TDEE is what is needed to maintain your weight. At least now you know!

Try eating fewer calories on your non-fast days.

I eat 500 calories fewer than the TDEE and exercise very hard and am losing at a snail’s pace.

Each person is different.

simcoeluv

9:50 pm
9 May 14
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Hi and welcome:

First, you are not doing 5:2, so I can’t help there.

The usual reason for no weight loss is eating too many calories. Your focus on eating normally during your non diet days may have something to do with it.

If you were gaining weight before you started dieting (that is, you had not maintained your weight for several months, but your weight was rising), that would mean your normal eating was greater than your TDEE. When you started dieting you cut calories for two days but continued eating above your TDEE for the other five. The results would normally be to stop weight gain, but to not lose weight, or to lose very slowly. That sounds like the problem.

The answer is to count calories for one week (accurately) and see if the count is above your TDEE.

Here is information about TDEE: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/tdee-for-the-curious-or-why-dont-i-lose-weight-faster/

And here is a typical weight loss pattern (at least with 5:2): http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/really-no-weight-loss/

Good Luck!

Jaruic

9:57 pm
9 May 14
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What did you eat on the fasting days? Have you tried My Fitness Pal app to support you on eating/fasting days? If you stuck to 500 calories including drinks and within the calories allowed at other times you should lose weight. It honestly does work. I have been on it since mid January and have steadily lost weight. I have lost 2 stone 4 lbs and gone down 2 sizes in clothes.I have done no exercise and have a non physical job. However it isn’t easy and you have some bad days!!! I have had a couple of really bad days of headaches and feeling faint….but most times it’s okay!

char6

10:13 pm
9 May 14
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Hi Laureyjo! I wonder if part of the problem is breaking your fast at 9 PM instead of the next morning. Is your “small snack at the break of the fast” in addition to the 500 calories you have consumed throughout the day? If so, I would say that you are actually consuming the total number of calories (600? 700? More?) on your “fast day,” which I consider to run until the following morning’s breakfast. I agree it’s no fun to go to bed “absolutely starving,” so I drink water and eat just enough carrots to put some fiber in my stomach, then go to bed. Just a thought… I also think the above comments are good.

Laureyjo

10:26 pm
9 May 14
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Thank you for all your comments. To the person who said I am ‘not doing the 5;2’ I would have to defend myself and say the book itself presents the option of 8-8 or 2-2 or another 24 hr period you find works. Michael himself admits yes technically his fasts are 36 because he does ‘night-full day-night’ but correct me if I am wrong there are 7 24hr units in a week so eating 500cals over 2 24hr periods Is indeed a 5:2 ratio. TDEE says I can eat 2148kcals.

I would not expect that is what I am eating. I have been dieting for 10years and can count calories in my sleep. I’m bored of fads tho and it’s the health benefits that are keeping me going. But il be honest I’m in it for the weight loss and it’s just not happening!

I will ‘count’ on non fast days this week to be sure and eat a couple of hundred cals under my TDEE to be sure.

Does everyone else fully do the 36hr method?

I’ve seen posts about it but people seem confused. I was willing to accept slower as I feel 24hrs is very sustainable but I’m not willing to fast 2 days a week to stay the same! 🙁 x

simcoeluv

12:22 am
10 May 14
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Hello:

The book presents 24 hour ‘fasts’ as an alternative to 5:2 if a person does not want to do 5:2.

As you watched the program, you know 5:2 was not created as a weight loss diet. It was created as a life extension diet. Its effectiveness for that purpose, if any, depends on caloric restriction, not hours between eating.

I often see people using the 24 hour fast to get around the caloric restriction part of the equation, thinking that eating only 500 calories in 24 hours, by itself, will cause weight loss. To explain, some like 2 to 2. But then they eat their TDEE before 2 one day, and after 2 the next, with 500 in between. The result is they have eaten their TDEE two days in a row, plus 500, and have no caloric restriction in their diet at all. They usually stop the diet, claiming it doesn’t work. The 24 hour option only works if you count calories and make sure you come in under your TDEE seven days a week because, by itself, it has no built in caloric restriction. That is why I don’t recommend it, especially to those just beginning IF.

9 to 9 is an interesting choice. If you eat 500 calories in that time frame, and have no ‘snack’ before bed, you are actually doing 5:2. With the snack, however, you are going over 500 on the diet day. From a TDEE counting aspect, if you think going 24 hours with only 500 calories is the way to go, the calories in the snacks you eat should be added to the calorie count for the day following.

As you are aware, to lose weight, you have to cut caloric intake. It is a fact that most TDEE calculators over estimate the TDEEs of many people. It is also a fact most people using the calculators over estimate their physical activity. Finally, research indicates most people underestimate the calories they are eating by almost 50% (even experienced dieters) and even dietitians underestimate their caloric intake by 16%.

The link I gave on TDEE will show important it is to get the right TDEE, and how delicate the numbers are. It is hard to lose weight, and the lower your TDEE, the harder it is (which is why men lose weight ‘easier’ than women).

Good Luck!

annette52

7:03 am
10 May 14
Permalink

Hello,
Men lose more weight and faster as they have more muscle.

The scales are not the only way to measure loss, clothes and how they fit are another along with the tape measure.Bear in mind that you may be shrinking but not from the places that you measure!Do include your upper arms, I forgot and they are so much slimmer now.

I would suggest that you count calories for a week and accurately log exactly what you consume in food and alcohol.Once you have that figure then you can make choices.

I miss breakfast on a fast day, eat either 200/300 calories at lunch and then eat the rest at around 4pm when I am hungry.I cook a meal in the evening for my 4 chaps while I drink water and then go to bed early.This works very well for me.

There are also plateaus in weight loss, just part of the package. So be mindful of that and don’t give up. I wonder if you are over estimating exactly how much exercise you are taking in a working day. I suspect that you are not coming any where close to 10,000 steps a day. Get a pedometer and see.