2nd time around, with a few new challenges

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TDMB

9:37 am
24 Sep 14
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Hi all, I’m a 47 year old female and have just started the 5:2 diet (on Monday) for the 2nd time. I did it from April to July last year and lost just under a stone, but then went on holiday and never quite got back to it after. During the autumn I got a knee problem and was diagnosed with arthritis, and about the same time I started getting stomach pains and am now on Lanzaprazole for excess stomach acid (after a scary set of tests for all sorts of nastier things). So I feel like I aged about five years in one!

Anyway, am generally now feeling much better, but am my heaviest ever (due to having a partner who loves to cook and eat out!) – currently 16lb more than last Summer after the diet. Not happy! I have two challenges – my stomach doc tells me I cannot have an empty stomach as this is bad for me, but my knee doc says I need to lose 2 stone, as each pound of weight is equivalent to 6lb of weight on the joint! Bit of a quandary :o)

My plan so far is three small meals a day on 2-days – on Monday I had 20g cheerios with milk mid morning (to keep the stomach happy), then a smallish banana early afternoon, then a ham salad in the evening – plus drinking water and V8. Touch wood, no stomach pain so far – so I’m just hoping I can maintain that! The calculator on here says I need to have 1,800 calories on my 5-days, and I managed that easily yesterday, so things are looking good. Happily my partner is dieting too, so he is inventing yummy low-cal recipes for us both on 5-days. I’m also doing a diet challenge with my sister between now and mid Dec – winner is the greatest loss by percentage of body weight, and the loser pays for a weekend away!

I’ve been going to the gym 2 to 3 times a week for a while now, to strengthen my thigh muscles and generally get fitter (on the advice of the knee doc!) and was planning to increase that – though after reading the long thread about exercise I might just keep it the same, to start with at least.

Anyway, that’s me. Am looking forward to being part of the forum, and if anyone is facing similar challenges I’d love to hear from you!

SSure

10:27 am
24 Sep 14
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Hello TDMB and Welcome to your re-boot of 5:2 🙂

As a reminder, in case anything’s gone a little rusty, there is some basic guidance and FAQ for newbies/re-booters in this useful thread:

https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

I eat 2-3 meals on my fast days as that suits me best. I’ve been in maintenance for some time (I shed 60lbs) and keep to my 4:3 fasting pattern.

On the issue of gradually increasing your time at the gym – this may reflect whether the gym is working to help your knee and your present schedule works because you need the recovery time or if you do need a little more exercise to help your knee, – too difficult to know for others. I’m shortly about to start a series of surgeries on both knees and shoulders and I’ve been working out a rehab schedule for that but I know that I may need to adapt it in response to how I’m progressing (I’m sarcopenic/low muscle mass despite my age and activity levels so it’s not entirely clear how straightforward rehab might be, at present).

Good Luck with integrating fasting into your re-booted WOL.