Will I still see weight loss on 5:2 if my BMI is already healthy?

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by PuterMan 11 years, 4 months ago.

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KJ

1:42 pm
9 Jul 13
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Hi,

I’ve only recently started the 5:2 diet with my mum, and am in my 3rd week. I’ve had some issues with very inaccurate scales which I’ve now replaced, but still only think I’ve lost perhaps 1lb maybe 2.
I’m not overweight but would still like to lose some, as I’ve been very conscious over the past couple of years that a stressful desk job with long hours is the devil for maintaining weight! I’ve always been slim, but am very aware that I’m not anywhere near as lean as I used to be.
Can you still get good results with the 5:2 diet when you started at a ‘healthy’ weight and BMI. I’ve been sticking to it religiously and been very careful on my feats days to stay well within my 2000 cal limit.

Any thoughts or words of encouragement would be greatly received.

Thankyou 🙂

PuterMan

1:15 pm
22 Jul 13
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There are two sides to this. First, if your BMI is healthy there are other benefits to IF.

in “Michael answers frequently asked questions” the first question is:

Q. Who benefits from IF (intermittent fasting)?
A. As well as offering a fresh approach for people trying to lose weight, IF has been developed by scientists wanting to help people reduce their risk of developing diabetes, dementia and cancer
IF has been most extensively studied in volunteers who are obese or overweight. In a recent study of 115 overweight women, those who restricted their calories two days a week lost more fat and had a greater improvement in biomarkers that relate to breast cancer risk than women doing conventional daily dieting.
The benefits in people who are not overweight are less clear because there have been fewer studies. In one experiment, a number of fit young men were asked to practice IF without losing weight for a few weeks. During that time they saw improved insulin sensitivity, a marker for reduced diabetes risk
Studies of IF in animals have shown that it reduces risk of dementia. Human studies have just started.
Fasting also has a spiritual dimension and has been advocated by most of the great religions.

And second another one from there:
Q. Can I fast if my weight is normal?

A. There do seem to be benefits from intermittent fasting which go beyond weight loss, though these benefits have been less studied. We know, for example, that a lot of repair and routine maintenance goes on in the cells when we are not eating

So KJ, for you with your normal healthy BMI (grr) there ARE benefits. Don’t make the mistake of quantifying success with lost poundage when you are already in a good place with that.

In some ways you can look a 5:2 as similar to the Paleo diet in that it is what would be a normal pattern for the human animal. I don’t agree with some of the tennets of the paleo diet as it is a fact that humans ate grain/seeds even before we had bread. Fat Hen (Chenopodium album) has been found in quantity in the stomach of early man.

If you killed your sabre toothed rabbit and ate it, you could go some days browsing on other things you could find before another sabre toothed rabbit came lolloping along so IF is a natural thing.

Don’t be too disheartened if you don’t loose a bunch of weight (sounds like you don’t need to anyway) but remember the other benefits (longer term and not so tangible) that you will be gaining. Life and health are not instant in this world of instant everything. You need to work at both.