Hi Vi, welcome here. Hopefully 5:2 will work wonderfully for you.
I have a chronic illness that makes exercise difficult (me/cfs) and it hasn’t stopped me from losing my excess weight.

My best tip for 5:2 is to make it a sustainable part of life. Keep it as simple and easy as you can.

All power to you.

What day are you planning on starting?

Hi Vi,
Thanks for your understanding about CFS, it is frustrating! I bet you know more about living with frustration than most people.

I’ve just passed the anniversary of my first fast day, last year on the 14th of July. I had lost 20 kg over the few years before that by cutting out sugar, but I was starting to put it on again and I was still hovering just above the healthy BMI weight. (I haven’t got scales, so mostly work out my weight by standing on my daughters dodgy bathroom scales every few months!). I had about 12 kg to lose.

5:2 has been an absolute life saver. It fits nicely into my life. If it is a difficult fast day (they vary) at least I know it is just one day.

I’m in Australia, so my days may be out of sync with yours (it is 8am here!). I usually fast on Thursday and Sundays, but I will be cheering you on for Monday.

Have you decided how you want to manage that 500 calories you can have on your fast day?
When I began I had a small breakfast (porridge) and a light evening meal (soup). However I love my cups of tea, and pot of coffee, so much (and I have milk in them) that I gave up breakfast and just have my cuppas through the day and then soup in the evening. This has worked so well for me I have been doing it for months.

Once I worked out how to make 5:2 fit into how I live, it really has become a way of life. I am close to being lean now, just the last few flappy bits to get rid of. I am at the interesting stage of watching to make sure I don’t get underweight (no sign of that quite yet) and to think what I will do (eg only one fast a week) to stay in maintenance mode. It is a very nice problem to have!

Cheers

Hi Vi,

I don’t have any advice, but just wanted to say hello and wish you great success with your weight loss goals.

Fasting days might be difficult to complete at first, but almost everyone doing 5:2 will say that it gets easier after you’ve done a few. Some even say they look forward to fasting days.

Bronx

Good luck Vi…

It’s difficult for you when you have others cooking your meals. Maybe you can see what’s on the menu and choose carefully…eg have soup, or have meat and cut down on potatoes, cut down bread would help. Do they cook you a three course meal? Just have one course.

Lots of us on here who don’t do excerise, age or having different health problems.

I have lost 24lbs without excerise over 7 months, I think take it slow and get into a different eating pattern as its a way of life and not a diet.

On your non fast days try and miss one meal out occasionally and see if it helps…keep off the sweet stuff, I think that is the downfall of lots of people, have it as a treat but not every day.

Look on the forum and get to know people, write in and join them it really helps, I am with a friendly bunch we have ups and downs but help each other a lot, after 7 months we are really good friends and we include anybody who wants to join. We are on every day lots of times. If you don’t get out a lot it may be nice to chat.

I wish you a good journey, it’s a bit hard for a couple of weeks but it gets easier.

Xx

Hi Vi!

Welcome to 5:2. where you will find a way to control your weight how you want to. It is very adaptable to everyone’s personal circumstances, and food needs, nationalities, relious foods etc.

You have already met Cinque and I am another with ME/CFS (18yrs) and I also live in Australia. There are others on the forum with chronic health problems normalising their weight with 5:2. My weight mostly went on after I became ill. I’ve been on 5:2 for 1yr 9months and lost 18kgs (40lbs). For 8 months of that time I maintained my weight at a constant level within 1 1/2 kgs and now I’m in a losing phase again with only a few kgs to go to my goal weight. The break was for a couple of reasons totally unrelated to 5:2 or my health. I’m now in the normal weight range and have gone down 2 sizes in clothes. Like Cinque I had been able to lose some weight before 5:2 but it took me 6yrs to lose 10kgs (22lbs) Since 5:2 I have totally gone off BP medication, my yearly cardiac round of tests are no longer needed, my medical team are very happy with my progress on 5:2, and they’re very happy with 5:2 as a healthy way to normalise weight.

I too see 5:2 as a way of life now and I will stay on it for life. My body seems to be happy on it. I fast on Mondays and Thursdays and although I started off with 500 cals split between 2 small meals with a couple of little nibbles. I found the 1st few FDs not too bad but I discovered, after a suggestion from a longterm 5:2 er, that I was one of those people where as soon as I started eating, at whatever time, it awakened The Hunger Dragon. So now I eat all my calories in 1 meal at 6pm, hunger doesn’t bother me at all, and Iook forward to FDs. I add 1 thing to 5:2, and it’s called 16:8. On my non-fast days I eat in an 8 hour window, and don’t eat anything for the other 16hrs. So on those 5days I eat after 12noon and up to 8pm or 1-9pm or 2-10pm. I don’t eat breakfast, and just have 2 meals in a day. If I snack it’s a piece of fruit or a few nuts.

I discovered also, that I’m one of a group of people who can’t lose weight while eating starchy carbohydrates. So I don’t eat any grains or grain foods e.g. Breads, pasta, rice etc, and also starchy carbs in veggies like potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, and for me this includes lentils, chic peas, red beans etc.I’ve spent time working out foods in each category that have the lowest calories and have a low glycaemic index e.g. In protein it’s calamari, prawns, basa fish; in fruit it’s strawberries, rockmelon, and so on.

You will discover people who eat in various different ways, some more passionate about their particular way thinking it healthier than other ways, but I’m encouraging you to eat the way you work out is best for you. You will already know some foods that your body is happy on, stay with the foods you are used to to start with, and get ised to keeping it simple while you get used to 5:2, sticking to the basic 5:2 plan i.e. 500 cals on FDs (fast days) and under yout TDEE on nonFDs. What you eat is totally up to you. It’s the calories that count, so in effect you can eat “what you like”. What you’ll find, though, is that as the weeks go by you will start to want to eat healthily, because somehow 5:2 seems to change our personal relationship with food for the better. It also means that when there is a special occasion or celebration or festivity we can eat celebratory foods and still stay within our TDEE.

Read Dr Mosely’s book and look up “Information for Beginners” by simcoeluv in the forum search box. It’s excellent. You may also like to read an inspirational personal journey by Buttonboots, also on the forum. Buttonboots is a longterm 5:2 er and also a non-exerciser for health reasons. Good luck Vi and I’ll look forward to hearing how you go on your 5:2 journey. See you around the forum🙂

Cheers,
Merry

Oh, to be 18 again, lol, nope, I’m mid 60’s and have had ME/CFS for 18 yrs following a severe viral infection. Is that 3 days fasting and 4 nonFDs?

The forum doesn’t have a private message system as far as I know.

Hi Vi,

If you go to Body…..’Weight Loss…’..Fat Busting Brits!!

We are all Brits or half Brits…we are not bothered where you come from….you would be most welcome…the girl who started it has now gone…open to all…we all have weight to loose.

No private message feature on here..😬

Loads of information on here as Merryme says everybody tweaks it to suit yourself, as we are all different.
Xx