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@at – please count me in for March. My first FD will be Wednesday, 1st March.
I did the February challenge and I can tell you now that I’m not very good at signing in every day – but I always post on the day after a Fast Day with my weight, as a minimum.
Aim for March: same as for February! 2 kilos off – ambitious as ever as I lose weight incredibly slowly. In February I lost one kilo – at least that’s better than January where I managed somehow to put on weight in spite of 5:2 dieting for three weeks. My ultimate aim is to get to 60 kg; currently at 67.3. It would be nice to be in the 65 kg range at the end of the month, at least, even if I don’t make it to the lower end. So although my stated aim is a 2 kg loss, I’ll be very happy with 1.5 kg.
@nw1990 – I don’t know that it matters that much whether you have your calories spread out or in one go. Many people here limit their eating to just one hour a day, so you’re not alone. I think you have to play it by ear and see what works for you, everyone is different.
Like you, I have low blood pressure and have an alarming tendency to faint, so I try to give myself an eating “window” of 8 hours in a day, every day: on Fast Days I have a bowl of soup and maybe a piece of fruit at lunchtime, and then something light in the evening. Sometimes I need to top up mid-afternoon with a raw carrot or something; that’s enough to keep my head from spinning. On Non Fast Days I just eat normally but moderately, within an 8-hour window – lunch to supper. I find I can skip breakfast comfortably, but not lunch.
And finally, however you fast, make sure you drink loads. On normal eating days you’re getting lots of hydration through your food, so you need to replace that on Fast Days. I find herbal teas are lovely because I can vary the flavours. If you get a headache or start losing concentration, the culprit is probably a bit of dehydration.
Please count me in. I too have a birthday month. 69 this year. I did really well in the Jan challenge but bombed out in the Feb one. Hopefully I can get my mojo back and do well this time. I really must measure myself again. I have decided to give up sugar for lent so that should also help. I’m sure it will not be easy but I will do it.
Hello, I’m new to 5:2 and to this forum. This is my first post. I would like to join the challenge. Many thanks for arranging it. I’m an avid ‘Diet’ reader – Gary Taubes, Jason Fung, Michael Mosley, so I understand the theory – just reread John Yudkin’s “Pure White and Deadly” – looking forward to being supported and supporting others. Many thanks.
Hi, thanks for helping us continue in our battle through March @at it is much appreciated, please add me to your list.
Hi Everyone! I’d like to join for March please! I have been involved in some ‘biggest loser’ type challenges over the past year, and I find now that what started out as motivation has now turned into unnecessary pressure to rush things, and setting myself up for disappointment because as I get closer to my goal, weight loss is slowing down.
Is it okay if I am here for the information and moral support without weighing in and out and setting a goal? @at, you are the authority on this – if I’m not right for this board, that is completely fine – your call.
Thanks, and best wishes to all!!!
@ebell13 Hi, you’ll find this is a very supportive group and not a competitive biggest loser. Many of us are in it for our long term health, with weight loss a necessary component, but also a bonus of this WOL. Thinking of 5:2 as a quick loss “diet” and not a long term WOL is no more sustainable than any other quick fix diet we’ve been on. Enjoy the support. Of course you don’t need to report unless you wish too.
Hi,
Up to now I could not handle sticking to 5:2 since last year that I read about this life style for the first time. I do it like all my previous on and off diets. So I want to join the group of March to try it in this way. I am sure group activity is always a go. Please consider me and thank u for hosting.
Chris274 & all our new Fellow Fasting Friends:
So that we are all on the same page & to make it easier for AT to track us, everyone should start their posts like this:
1– Day #. It matches the day of the month, not what day you began 5:2. So if it’s March 5th, you’ll write Day 5.
2– where you are from.
3– and if it is Fast Day (FD) or Non-fasting Day (NFD) for you.
Example: Day 5– Colorado, USA– FD.
———
Also this challenge works best if you pop into the thread daily! Write as much or as little as you’d like to.
Stick around & you should have very good luck!
Checking in daily, reading everyone’s posts & feeling Accountable are all incredibly helpful. Been steadily losing since November. December 2016 was my first round of Holidays I can remember that I did not gain weight (even lost a bit!) Hit a mid-winter slump for January & February, but am ready for a renewed, recharged March!
Thank you for volunteering to watch over our group in March, AT.
Checking in.
I have completed my first-ever FD on 5:2.
I drank herbal tea and water all day, allowing myself 150g of radishes, celery and sugar snap peas throughout the day. Then in the evening, I ate a huge 450 calorie dinner. This consisted of a whole can of drained chickpeas, radishes, celery, rocket leaves, tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Delicious, and actually really filled me up, the salad filled a large glass Pyrex mixing bowl. All carefully weighed and totted up. Today I’m on my second consecutive day, feeling good! Feeling strangely energetic, and I slept like a baby last night. Repeating my snacks of radishes, celery and sugar snap peas. Tonight I’m going for a plain baked potato and low calorie chilli-con-beanie (without the ‘carne’ as I’m vegetarian).
Thank you @ajcaroline 🙂 What you have said makes total sense. I didn’t get a headache at all, which was probably to do with drinking much more than I usually do! I always thought it was lack of sugar or something. Can safely say, touch wood, that I didn’t feel faint yesterday either.
I just want to add as well, for those saying they are noticing fluctuations in their weight, and sometimes even putting on weight. I remember asking my doctor some time ago, why sometimes I appear to have gained 5lbs without bingeing etc. She said that a few days before and during your time of the month, your weight can be up to 10lbs higher than it is the rest of the month, but then it will suddenly drop back to normal.
Thanks again @at!
March goals:
– Continue daily check-in
– 140lb start — <= 135lb by month end
– Resistance training – 2x per week
– Hiking when possible – 3x in March
@at Is it too late to join this 31 Day challenge? I am brand spanking new to the 5:2! Looking forward to getting started!
Day -1, Winnipeg, Canada, FD (day 2 of b2b)
Good morning everyone, and thanks for the warm welcome! This is indeed a WOL, not a diet – I loathe that word. I’m 9 months in now, and the odd blip aside (namely vacations and xmas), it’s been going really well.
I am ending February with a bang…did my first all liquid FD (which did include about 100 ml of part-skim milk in my tea) yesterday. I will admit, I was a little ‘hangry’ last night, but decided to go to bed early and get over it. Feeling good today (FD#2 b2b), but it will not be all liquid – I intend to make the most of my 500 calories today!
Looking forward to the comradery and support in March! Best wishes to all for a great day, FD or not 🙂
Day1, NFD, Sydney Australia.
Began 5:2 for first time. Had a FD yesterday (First ever). Managed to keep just below the 500 Calorie target (fruit, carrots, tea & coffee with skim milk). Drank a lot of water on everyone’s advice. its now the morning after (March 1). Feel a bit tired, but pleased I made it. Had ok amount of energy through the FD, and managed to get through a full day at the office. Hunger came in waves, but totally manageable. Looking forward to the challenge.
Hi @at Thanks for organising. Please can I join?
My aim is to get down to 78Kg by the end of March. Feb was good, but tough. And I’m really hungry now after a double FD! KFC calls to me every time I pass it… Aaagh!
Day 1 FD NZ
Thanks AT for hosting this month.
I feel like a IF failure at the moment.
I started 5:2 in September last year and as of this morning have lost a pathetic 1.7kg! That’s not this week or even last month…1.7kg total in 6months!!!
I set out last month with lofty intention to weigh weekly and count my NFD calories every day. For the first two weeks I stuck to it then went away for a few days and didn’t pick up the tracking again.
I went from 63.3kg in the second week of Feb back up to 64.9kg today.
My March goal needs to be personal accountability.
I have strict adherence to 4:3 fasting and don’t exceed my 1/4 TDEE on a FD but clearly this isn’t enough…how many times do I need to have that revelation before it sticks?
Goal 1 = NFDS must be counted and controlled this month
Goal 2 = daily weighing
I have so much personal resistance to daily weighing and counting having been chronic calorie restricted for sooo many years but I’m just about defeated and ready to give up the IF approach after putting in so much effort to a FD and getting almost no where.
I really want to get back to actual comfort in my clothes and I feel like 58kg was that place for me. I’m not getting close to that with my current approach to NFDs and aversion to weighing so that’s got to change.
Sorry to start the month sounding so negative but I’m really feeling down about my failure to follow through and I can’t sound positive when I feel so unhappy with myself. I have so little to lose compared to some and I am grateful for small mercies, but my journey is stalled and my small amount of weight loss still needs to get lost!
Maybe I’ll take it as far as posting my daily weights and making my real progress transparent, hiding from reality clearly isn’t working.
Day 1 NFD MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA
@lany36 I’m so sorry to hear you are struggling. I so relate to your aversion to long term calorie counting. It can do your head in can’t it. This is what I did when I started in Oct 2014 to help on NFD.
– reduced the size of plates, bowls, glasses and mugs to assist with portion control
– placed measuring cups in all dried goods e.g. 1/4 cup in rolled oats container. No more calorie counting, the measuring does it for you. I even measure milk for coffee and tea! It’s easier to reach for a measuring device then work out calories!
– weighed protein such as meat in the early days so I knew what a portion looked like
– removed all trigger foods I couldn’t stop eating from the pantry – potato chips, savoury biscuits …
– increased vegetable portions and didn’t worry about calorie values.
– the two fast days reduced my overall appetite, therefore if I wasn’t hungry I didn’t bother eating. I never felt the need to eat a healthy breakfast and used to force myself to eat it because of all the hype.
– allowed myself a glass of wine on all NFDs and food I love such as cheese.
– I didn’t track food in the early days. Too much like calorie counting.
I’ve been under my official goal weight with a BMI below 22.9 for well over 12 months.
I’m a serial weigher. Often weigh myself two to three times daily. I know my weight can vary by a couple of kgs over a day. This allowed me to understand how my body works BUT if the numbers on the scale have a negative impact on your eating I wouldn’t recommend it.
Good luck and hang in there.
Australia Day 1 FD – thanks @at for managing this challenge. Starting weight is 92kgs. Will do my other measurements tonight. Good luck all!
@lany36, boy, do I know how you feel. I am 37, and have been on a diet most of my adult life. I have tried everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING. It seems it has been a perpetual roller coaster – always either gaining or losing, never getting to a point where I could comfortably maintain.
Since I started the 5:2 9 months ago, there have been blips along the way, but overall I have been successful in losing and keeping off about 30 lbs. I found that weighing myself daily proved to be more stressful than helpful, so I have limited myself to 1 weigh in per week, and to be consistent, it is always the same day, same time. For me, it is first thing Wednesday morning.
I started out doing 5:2 because at the time, even that seemed daunting, but I wanted faster results, so I switched to 4:3. However, my approach is 2 days back to back (Mon-Tues), and then 1 day later in the week, usually Thursday, leaving my weekends free to enjoy. I noticed that I lose quite consistently when I do the 2 days back to back, and the 3rd day later in the week is enough to keep it from returning. I wonder if this might be something you could try, just to shake things up and see if it works for you as well as it has for me?
That being said, now I seem to be down to my ‘long-term’ fat stores which have been with me for a long time, so the rate of loss is slowing down. Therefore I am setting some new goals.
My goals going forward are to:
1)add more exercise (so that my muscles look good once I finally unearth them!)
2)make a more conscious effort to stay within my TDEE on NFDs
3)shake off small, short-term failures, and keep my eye on the big picture
4)drink less alcohol (it is cold here…I need it to keep me alive 😉 )
5)get more quality sleep
After that long post, I will confess that I broke down a little while ago and ate 200 calories worth of crackers. Not my proudest moment, but it didn’t throw off my day too much.
Keep going everyone!! Tomorrow this really begins, and I will be on a NFD…seems wrong, but oh well!
Day 1 – Tokyo, Japan – NFD Starting at 79.0kg.
I don’t have a well defined goal other than to have a good solid month of 5:2. Last month started out as a mess as I started in the states. While I did do a couple of shorter fasts in the states I didn’t do any full day fasts.
I would like to keep my weight below 80kg. However since I’m upping my exercise that may be hard to do. My real goal is to get my body fat under 15% but that will probably take another six months. I figure I’m losing about 0.5% / month or about 900g of fat a month. Wow when I write it out that way it seems like a lot. At around 18% to 20% I still have plenty of body fat to lose.
@onahealthyhigh – I’m also a serial weigher! I pull out the scale 2 to three times a day, sometimes more. I even have a scale that will make body fat measurements and even estimate my biological age. My weight often varies by more than 4kg throughout a week and sometimes more than 2kg during a day.
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