4 Months of disciplined 5:2 dieting and almost NO weight loss!

This topic contains 14 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Anna77 10 years, 4 months ago.

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JTEdwards

12:13 am
1 Jul 14
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I am 46 years old, male with a pretty sedentary lifestyle (work at a computer). Since I began alternate fasting I’ve also been walking 1.2 miles, usually 3-5 days per week. I’m 5’6″ tall and currently weigh 194 pounds. I was 200 when I began 5:2 back on March 4th.

I use the Fatsecret app on my mobile devices and have been religious about keeping my exercise and food diaries every single day. I never cheat or fudge the numbers (if I were to go over, I’d note the circumstances why). I count every calorie down to a stick of bubblegum.

My fast days are Mondays and Thursdays with exceptions made only for unusual occasions and when those happen I bump the commensurate fast day before or after in that same week to compensate.

I have also used the app as well the TDEE calculators to determine that I should be eating no more than 2000 calories on my feed days. Although this isn’t a strict component of the 5:2 as I read in the book I have nevertheless attempted to keep under 2000 even on non-fast days. (There have been a few days each month when I go over this limit on non-fast days, usually by 200-300 calories.)

I’d been losing weight down to about 192 a few weeks back, then briefly touched 189 for a couple of days – only to shoot all the way back up to 194 in the last week and a half! That leaves me with all this time and discipline netting me a grand total of 6 pounds after nearly four months. I am hardly anywhere nearer my goal weight of 164 than I was at the beginning.

I am no longer convinced this works – at all. Does anyone have any ideas why this has been the case for me?

I don’t know if I can post screenshots of my diet calendar from the fatsecret app but I have collected them on my Photobucket account and if I can I’ll post them in a follow-up reply.

JTEdwards

12:17 am
1 Jul 14
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My calorie count and calories burned numbers for the following months:

JTEdwards

12:18 am
1 Jul 14
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JTEdwards

12:18 am
1 Jul 14
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JTEdwards

12:19 am
1 Jul 14
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JTEdwards

12:19 am
1 Jul 14
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Here is my weight loss tracker since I began:

Karusimjah

12:38 am
1 Jul 14
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I don’t have any answers for you but I am very interested in the replies you get. My husband and I started the 5:2 at the end of March and have done very well with our fast days (we, too usually do Mondays and Thursdays with an occasional switch due to schedules.) At first we also had great success but, like you, we have stopped seeing any losses and have actually been experiencing gains. I have a total net loss now of 5 lbs. and my husband is at 7 lbs. SO FRUSTRATING. I just don’t know what to do. How long do I keep fasting 2 days a week without seeing any results? What if I keep on gaining? At what point do I call it quits?

Amy C.

1:20 am
1 Jul 14
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I don’t have answers but suggestions:
First, it appears you are doing the 5:2 diet by the books and you are to be commended for your persistence.

I am discovered that I must change things up a bit to lose weight. When my loss slowed fasting 2 days, I went to 3 and lost weight.

I am about to try alternate day fasting for a couple of weeks.

Another idea, try to eat only dinner on the day you fast. This means going from dinner the day before until dinner on the day you are fasting with a few calories as possible.

Drink lots of water – especially on the fast days.

simcoeluv

1:26 am
1 Jul 14
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Hi JT:

I quickly went over the numbers you gave and it appears that if your numbers are accurate you should have lost about 18 pounds in 16 weeks. That would be typical for someone on 5:2.

A 5 pound gain in a week and a half while on a diet can only be water weight – your numbers did not indicate you have eaten 17,500 calories (5 pounds)over your TDEE during that period. I note you eat a very high carb diet. Carbs assist in retaining water. The recommended carb level for diets these days is under 20% – yours is over 50%.

Absent the water weight, you would be down about 11 pounds in 16 weeks, instead of the 18 your numbers suggest you should be down. That would mean there is probably an issue with your numbers. I have no doubt you have kept them as accurate as possible with the tools you have, but perhaps the tools are not all that accurate? The actual number of calories burned by a body is unique to each body. The only way to know is to use equipment that is not readily available to individuals. The equipment on the market measuring calories burned etc. gives, at best, estimates, as do the TDEE estimators. At worst, they are meaningless (like many body fat calculators attached to scales). I have no idea where your equipment falls on that scale of estimate to worthless.

I would suggest the difference between the 11 pounds you lost and the 18 pounds your numbers suggest you should have lost is an ‘exercise’ measurement problem. I don’t know what ‘exercise’ that purports to measure, but if in fact you have cut the number of calories your measurements say you have, then there is no problem with the diet! And you should be closer to 18 pounds down.

simcoeluv

1:39 am
1 Jul 14
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Karusimjah:

I would guess some calories have been unknowingly added to your diets. Just a guess – this might help identify the problem: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/on-plateaus/

JTEdwards

4:14 am
1 Jul 14
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Amy, I am thinking that perhaps changing up is the only other way to give this a chance. I’m considering doing the 8-hour fast schedule and just doing like 1600 calories a day that way. Maybe that would make a difference.

Simcoeluv, I know that I have never even come close to losing 18 pounds over these last four months, despite creating on average about a 500 calorie per day deficit (according the fatsecret stats above). Believe me, if had lost anywhere near 18 pounds I’d be ecstatic! The truth is that even the 11 pounds now looks like a mirage. Since my weight’s been back solidly at 194 for over a week now it seems unlikely that it would have been just a temporary water gain. That leaves me at just 6 total pounds lost over four entire months…

But let’s say even if I had been eating whatever I’d wanted on my feed days I was still strict on my fast days – which is what Dr. Moseley prescribed in the Fast Diet. The simple fact remains that despite all my effort and discipline the diet just didn’t work.

simcoeluv

4:35 am
1 Jul 14
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JT:

You provided the numbers. The numbers you provided indicated you should have lost about 18 pounds. The fact that you did not would indicate the numbers are wrong, not that the diet does not work. All a diet does is provide a caloric deficit – it causes you eat less than your TDEE. Your weight loss is roughly the difference between your TDEE and your caloric intake. The diet clearly did that according to your numbers – your average intake was well below your estimated TDEE. But you did not lose as much as you ‘should have’ given the numbers you generated. That is not the fault of the diet, it is the fault of the numbers.

Food calorie counts are usually in the ballpark. I don’t know how your equipment works, so I can’t comment on settings. But I checked a TDEE calculator that I have found as reliable as any and it gave a TDEE for your information of 1850. That would subtract over 5 pounds from your ‘estimated’ 18 pound total loss, meaning you should have lost around 13 pounds instead of 18. You lost about 11, so that is close.

One other way to put it is to say your TDEE is 2000. The diet subtracts 1400 calories twice a week, or 2800 calories. That leads to a .8 pound per week loss, or 12.8 pounds over 4 months. You came in around 13. About as expected, even with a 2000 TDEE.

As for your water weight, it often stays for a week or two (sometimes 3). In addition, I see your last weekend was above average in caloric intake – meaning your ‘food in transit’ is probably a bit high, also.

The conclusion I draw is not that the diet does not work, but that your TDEE is lower than you believe. You have been eating over your TDEE on your non diet days. The result is a slower loss than you would like. But you are losing weight, so the diet is working. Just not as fast as you would like. To lose faster, I would recommend you eat to a lower TDEE number – say 1850 – and see if your weight loss picks up speed.

Good Luck!

JEH1522

6:09 am
1 Jul 14
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Surely there are other reasons this may not work – for example thyroid or similar??
It looks to me like you’ve been absolutely hot on watching every item and it’s really unfair you haven’t lost more. I’m amazed you kept going!!!
If I were you I’d check with the doc. I have something that makes it harder for me to loose weight, but now I know about it, I know what foods to avoid to exacerbate it & now hopefully might have some luck loosing. It might be all you need to trigger weight loss with the 5:2!
Good luck to you!!!!

JTEdwards

4:56 pm
1 Jul 14
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I do have an under-active thyroid but am taking 100 mcg of Levothyroxin daily to treat it. I’m so down now I don’t know what to do. I mentioned my near-inability to lose weight to my doctor on the last visit but he seemed to shrug it off.

Anna77

8:37 am
2 Jul 14
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It seems to me that your metabolism needs a bit of a shake up and I would defo try 4:3 for a couple of weeks and maybe even reduce your calorie intake on your non-fast days for the same period. It might just be the kick start you need. It’s also a good idea to cut back on the carbs as they force the body to retain water which is going to affect your weight.
I think it’s also important to remember to recalculate our TDEE as we lose weight as that number will also decrease and by not keeping an eye on that we could be over eating without even realising it!
Don’t give up, you’ve done so well to stick at it for this long which shows you are determined. And let’s face it, there aren’t many other ‘diets’ out there that have been proven to work as well as this one!

Good luck, I know you can do it!