Beyond IF – simply a lifestyle

This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by TracyJ 11 years, 3 months ago.

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eustress

8:51 am
4 Sep 13
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I am curious to hear from others who have being doing the 5:2 for more than a year.

For me, I initially loss 12kg over four months starting the IF 5:2 in conjunction with extra exercise and reduced calories on non-fasting days (approx. 1900). Once I reached my goal, I maintained the 5:2 and have kept the weight off, which is not the norm for most diets inasmuch as people, as we know, typically rebound.

I am now experimenting with high fat, low carb diets. I am sure that it would be ok to promote a Prof Ludwig’s “fat chance” here, as this has also been a large part of how I regulate my diet. A big thing to consider, according to Ludwig, is that a “calorie eaten does not equal a calorie eaten”. As crypto as this may appear, types of calories have differing affects on metabolism and simply calorie counting is not the answer. For instance, calories from carbs versus fat are metabolised differently.

So my question is, how are people regulating their fasting diets to trial high fat and low carb options – any notable differences?

Humphrey

9:42 am
4 Sep 13
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don’t know about anyone else, eustress, but most folk who have done Atkins or similar high fat/low carb diets have found it ultimately unsustainable. For me the whole point of 5:2 is that it doesn’t aim to restrict food groups and therefore IS sustainable. I can’t see the point, now, of a high fat/low carb diet.

TracyJ

10:13 am
4 Sep 13
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Hi both, yeah I’d be suspicious of anything that restricted my choices because I’d be less likely to keep it up. The 5:2 is a lifestyle for me now (having been at it for 13 months) and though the actual weight loss has reduced recently it is still heading in the right direction and I have a way to go yet before I need to tweak it to a maintenance only pattern. I’m happy with this lifestyle and I don’t ever feel deprived or like I’m compromising in any way, so for me this is forever and when I reach my goal weight I will need to experiment to see how I can maintain without compromising the ‘fasts’.

eustress

9:31 pm
4 Sep 13
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Fair call on wanting to keep your options open with regards to food groups. I guess what I am reading is that people have different reasons for doing the 5:2. For me it is about health rather than weight loss per se. The 5:2 was the beginning of my journey and has made me more conscious about what food I do put in the plug-hole given that the ultimate aim is about keeping degenerative disorders, especially those pertaining to metabolic syndromes, at bay.

I do have treats, I love my cream-filled apple turnovers every now and then, though I am curious and open to discovering how to reach peak health (if there is such a thing). I feel alert and alive on my fasting days and enjoy the mental acuity. The 5:2, I hope, is providing the system with a way to become more efficient, both mentally and physically.

So beyond weight loss is the goal of living longer – it’s in the title of the book. I am not convinced that the 5:2 is a compensatory diet that means we can go crazy on non-fasting days because like any system, if we push it to extremes then it has to cope beyond its limits meaning that something will eventually give. For me, the 5:2 is the start, but certainly not the panacea.

TracyJ

10:13 am
6 Sep 13
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I hear what you’re saying about wanting to push the health envelope and I wish you luck with it but I’m happy with my health benefits as they are. I got all the benefits I was looking for in the first couple of months and they’re all still there. Now I’ve proved I CAN shift the excess weight too (something I genuinely hadn’t even considered would be possible, although I did hope to get rid of any visceral fat and I think I achieved that too), that is the new goal. I’m in no hurry, so I’ll stick to foods I like and wouldn’t want to miss and that way this is less of a ‘diet’ and more of a lifestyle. Maybe I’ll start looking more closely at the other health aspects of my diet once I get to the maintenence point but at the moment I just want to make this easy on myself and that way I am more likely to remain happy and stick with it.