Well?

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SueWR
I have been on 2:5 for 6 weeks. I weigh myself everyday. I don’t need to lose much (3-4kg) but nothing else has worked so far, even though I am very active and eat very well (no alcohol, sugar, lots of veggies, etc). My weight used to fluctuate wildly, sometimes by 2kg a day. But now it stays stable between fast days, with one exception. Since starting IF and weighing in everyday I have discovered something that’s solved the puzzle for me – if I eat just one serve of grains (say 2 slices of spelt bread), I put on 600-800 grams over night. That weight stays on until my next fast day (I usually lose 600-800g each fast day). I thought grains made me retain fluid but I now know its more than that, or the extra weight would come off without needing to fast.

I’ve tested this four times now to see if it was a real effect or something else and each time it’s been the same thing. It’s actually been a really disheartening thing to do in a way – to actively ‘give up’ my weightloss after a fast day just to test this theory but now I know for sure that grains make me put on weight, so all I need to do (and what I’m doing now) is avoid grains and I maintain any weight I’ve lost on fast days.

I always suspected I had sensitivity to gluten. I’m not going to start testing gluten-grains vs non gluten-grains as summer is coming and I’d rather the weightloss! But I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what it was about.

Perhaps you can try tracking your weight the day after eating carbs/starches and see if any patterns emerge. Good luck

Dear all

As I approached my 60th birthday on 4 February this year I weighed around 99 kilos (about 15.5 stones) despite following a wholefood, mostly vegan diet. I was in denial about my (over)weight as everyone kept saying ‘you can carry it’ – I’m 6 feet tall – and since I walked and cycled everwhere I was obviously fit (!!) [Never mind that cycling up the hill to work every day nearly killed me and if I had to go back to the same campus for an orchestra rehearsal in the evening I often wimped out and got a taxi/lift]

At Christmas I broke my ankle so exercise had to be parked for a couple of months. Demoralisation set in; I was in pain, old and sorry-for-myself. My slim husband was also whingeing about his weight as he’d just recovered from a year-off following a cycling accident. We’re not heavy drinkers but we decided to go on the wagon i.e. no alcohol from my birthday to his (28 March) to see if that would help.

Just then, the cavalry arrived: a supplement about the 5:2 diet fell out of the Radio Times. I’d heard of people intermittent-fasting but thought it was for nutters/masochists. Certainly not for the likes of me who could not last until 11am without a biscuit (blood-sugar levels, you know). We had not seen the programme on Channel 4 (no TV) but as I read it I realised I needed to give it a go.

I found 5:2 surprisingly easy (so was being on the wagon ;-)) and I have since lost about 20k, Alan about 10k. I have had to raid the charity shops for UK size 12-14 instead of 16-18 clothes – oh yes!!! My ankle healed in record time and, in September, we cycled 200 miles in Brittany fully loaded with all our camping gear and we had a brilliant time. The cycling was a doddle! And yes, we drank lots of lovely wine – and cider! The hill to work is now a breeze – I sometimes do it 3 times a day now and barely notice it. I jog up it on walk-to-work mornings (remember I am 60…)

What has this to do with carbohydrate sensitivity? Well, both of us are now on 6:1 but we’re still losing weight. Early on, I noticed I’d lost my taste for carbohydrate, especially bread, which I’ve suspected for some time was doing me no good (‘often felt bloated, heavy, tired etc). I used to blame soya and had cut it out but I am now sure that bread/wheat was (also?) to blame. I’ve read up about it now and I am convinced that a so-called low-fat high-carbohydrate ‘diet’ is a load of cobblers and too much carbohydrate/too little protein was almost certainly the reason I was fat, tired and frequently unwell. It has proved easier to be vegetarian rather than vegan which is a little sad but maybe we can work on that one.

To summarise: if you’re not losing weight on the 5:2, consider cutting down the amount of carbohydrate you eat and slightly up your protein. I find it more filling than high-carbohydrate and I get a lot less hungry now. I don’t think you need to do an extreme ‘carb-cleanse’ i.e. cut out carbohydrate almost completely for a couple of weeks unless you want to lose weight fast. Also, Michael Mosley’s research suggests that you shouldn’t overdo protein i.e. aim for around 50g per day.

Personally I find this more enjoyable/sustainable than 4:3 or starving your self 2 days a week. I know these approaches work for some but as my fellow folk-musicians say, ‘I shall love you but I shall not be with you….’

Good luck, fellow 5:2-ers and 6:1-ers – if this Grandma can do it, anybody can. I am so impressed with the goodwill and encouragement in this online ‘community’; it makes a refreshing change!

Hi Cathyork

Many thanks for your kind words and I think that your challenges make mine look trivial! I do hope that you manage to trim down for the op (I am absolutely sure that you will) and that it all goes well for you.

Reading the postings on other threads from time-to-time, it’s fairly clear that after a short while on 5:2, many people naturally go off a carbohydrate-rich diet and that, rather than feeling deprived, they feel better than they have done for years – I know I do! It struck me recently that the people I know personally who can’t get along with 5:2 are either the ones who’ve tried the total fast lunch-lunch and quickly ‘fall off the wagon’ or the ones who can’t quite kick the biscuit/cake habit (very strong here in Shropshire where the damn things get pushed at you at every social occasion….)

All the very best to you and I hope you’ll let us know how you get on. Miriam