This topic contains 842 replies, has 80 voices, and was last updated by penguin 4 years, 7 months ago.
SBC. Welcome. Most of us have tried some other method of weight control before coming here but after a while this becomes a way of living, not a diet. The fasting days have become the days I feel best. I am currently on holiday, have not been watching what I have eaten and had to drink and was beginning to feel sluggish. Today I have thrown in a fasting day and, only 12 hours in, I feel better already.
Stay with us. This system works!
@sbc: Welcome and best wishes; I have the same sleep issue after an FD and was told to have a small bit of protein prior to bed. I think the idea is that our caveman ancestors thought a lack of protein meant we had to be alert to find some so a hormone is released. Maybe that is where the old “cup of warm milk” idea originated.
Hello Penguin and August2024 thanks for your replies, I saved some food for last night before bed and slept much better thankfully so I’ll be doing that in future. Enjoy the rest of your holiday Penguin! It’s been a good week so far and I feel better already, no doubt from cutting out much of my normal sugary rubbish. I may fast tomorrow as well depending on how I feel but we shall see. Do many people do 4:3 here?
Re 4:3
Check the post from simcoeluv on oct 11 about 4:3
Seems there’s not a lot of benefit from fasting the extra day.
I was thinking about it too.
Just take it easy. Don’t starve yourself. Follow the 5:2
Cut out lunch on another day of fasting if want but it will take time to lose the weight you want and you can’t rush it.
As said by others, this diet is a change of lifestyle more than just a diet. Just roll with it for a few weeks and see how it goes.
Thanks SBC. Going well. David V is right – it is better to follow the basic 5:2 until you get your mind around the changes you will have made. After that there a number of possible variations and you will have the knowledge of how your body works and the confidence to try them. My own approach is now very different to when I started. Initially I found 600 cal per day hard, now I fast totally Sunday pm to Wednesday breakfast and feel good doing it. My wife has stayed with basic 5:2 and eats three small meals on a fasting day. My daughter eats only in an 8 hour period. We are all making progress.
Hi David:
All research shows that exercise has very little impact on weight loss. There are many reasons. Some are that you just don’t burn that many calories while exercising, and research shows that even if doing x hours of y exercise burns z number of calories, genes mean that many, many people do not burn z, but z – up to 50% fewer calories than might be predicted by the ‘charts’. Other reasons are that people that do exercise sessions tend to do less other physical activity during the day than they otherwise would – so the exercise is not all ‘additional’ activity – and people that exercise tend to eat more (because they have been good and exercised so it is OK to eat a bit more). Here are some general comments: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/exercise-is-dangerous-for-your-diet/
Good Luck!
I’ve only read a small part of this thread so far, but it is interesting …
I’m a 56 year old man. Almost two full months on 5:2. It is hard to stay exactly how much weight I’ve lost because there is so much variation throughout the week. However my low weights are almost 6kg below where I started. (13 lbs.)
I did portion control and it worked pretty well for about a year. My weight went from 106kg to 92kg. Then over the next two years I worked harder at it and really exercised hard, I gained 2kg over those two years. Exercise isn’t great for weight loss but it does help with health and body shape. Anyway for those 3 years I suffered a lot of hunger, it wasn’t fun.
In May I cut all deserts and my hunger basically went away. I even added back healthy foods and I still lost weight. In four months I went from 94kg to 86kg and lost 17 cm around my midsection (across the belly button.) Why studying what happened I came across fasting. At first I thought it was crazy but I tried it. While fasting the calorie math works like a charm and I found it wasn’t that hard, much easier than living on a reduced calorie diet.
At some point I watch the BBC documentary on fasting and slowly decided to give 5:2 a try. So sometimes I’m hungry while fasting like I used to be all the time, but now it only for two days a week and I’m losing body fat. Much better than suffering all the time and not losing much fat.
I mostly water fast and I shoot for 36 hours. That is basically two nights and one full day. I’ve kept my calories to less than 50 while fasting, if I do have something it is mostly some soup broth. The last couple of times I’ve done a HIIT workout while fasting, but that has made the fast a little more edgy. Generally when I wake up the second morning I feel great and not in a hurry to eat. On non-fast days I eat from around 2500 to 3000 calories / day. However my diet is low refined sugar and I try to work in some healthy foods. When I was doing portion control I was eating less than 2000 calories / day and for two years I didn’t loss any weight even though I was often exercising as much as 1000 calories a day. So I’m actually eating as much or more than I was with my calorie restriction but now I’m losing weight. The fasting days aren’t always fun but they do wonders.
@dykask: Welcome and thank you for encouragement to stick with 5:2.
I had a good FD yesterday, made better by a happy dental surgery follow-up exam that showed all went well and is healing properly. The scale reads, post FD, 83.9 kg this morning, down from an official 5:2 start on August 8th of 88.2 kg. My waist is currently 98.5 cm from a start of 104.4 cm.
This is a busy weekend with social activities and volunteer work that all involve group meals. Monday, normally an FD, has me in an all-day situation that also involves group/shared meals. I am still learning to navigate these caloric “battle grounds” as I find them a great challenge.
Hi August2024, I’m guess 2024 is your planned retirement date? 4kg in 3 months is actually a pretty good weight loss. I’m a sort of stuck around 81 kg, but I think it will start dropping in a few weeks. I dropped so fast to this weight that my body is still probably catching up.
Anyway in May of this year my waistline was 103 cm, right now I’m at 83 cm. Most of that came off after I cut my refined sugar consumption from 60+ g/day to less than 20 g/day. I live in Japan and most of the sugar was in my deserts. I also did some food swaps and found I wasn’t really missing the sugar. I seem to be very sensitive to refined sugar and respond by packing on the belly fat. However my sliming plateaued at 86 cm and 86 kg. Fasting has taken me down to 83 cm and 81 kg. I think fasting will get me to 75 kg and hopefully about 12% body fat.
A year ago I would have told people that fasting was crazy. But I think my brain was impacted by the low calorie diet and excess cardio exercise. Fasting isn’t always comfortable it is never really as bad as it was when I was exercising hard and trying to keep a calorie deficit. Now I feel good and when I’m hungry it isn’t as bad as it used to be. The fascinating thing about fasting to me is that the calorie math pretty much works for me, but it wasn’t working for me when I was eating everyday. In my case that is probably because I had too much insulin preventing me from accessing my stored fat. Whatever prevented me from burning fat made me miserable and I won’t go back to that kind of slow futile starvation. Now I really enjoy my non-fast days. Five days of enjoyable eating a week is a lot better than very few enjoyable days.
It is hardest though when I’m around others eating when I’m fasting. It turned out that there were conflicts interfering with family suppers on Monday and Friday so those are my current fast days. Even so my wife isn’t that supportive, although she is better than she used to be. It is hard to argue with the fat loss and my gains in energy. Most weekends I have too many social conflicts to fast easily. So I think I understand what you mean.
@dykask: Thanks for the good words and good example.
I was talking to stranger at a party when she said “But you have probably always been thin”. My first thought was “No, I wasn’t and I’m still 10 lb above target” My second thought was “What did she just say?”
Further thoughts on that:
1. The general idea off appropriate weight isn’t ours. If 10 lb above target is thin, overweight has become the norm.
2. I was a quite pleased with myself.
Two weeks in guys and I’m feeling pretty great, last week I thought I’d just maintain as I was away for a few days and while I didn’t overeat/make bad eating choices, I did consume quite a few beers with friends and family.
I had my two fast days and after going to the toilet for the first time in a few days (due to eating less which is normal when I diet) I weighed myself and found I had another two pounds off! I’m assuming that while I did go over my tdee due to the drinking, the fact I walked a lot during my time away between 6-12 Km’s daily must have helped burn off the extra calories. I’m very happy and can feel a difference in my clothes as well as what I believe is a 4 pound fat loss in two weeks. I’m counting calories on non-fast days where possible and over-estimating calories in foods with no labels so as to try keep under my tdee.
Good luck to all
Strange weigh-ins recently.
The ususal Friday weigh-in was a little dissappointing. For the last two weeks, I’ve been dropping just 100g or so.
Then this weekend, no social eating moments. Hardly ate anything on Sunday as I was out nearly all day. Then Monday was a FD and a really low one at that.
Got a cold coming on so hardly ate yesterday and weighed myself this morning to find that more than 2 kg has fallen off me since Friday.
I do not understand how that can happen in such a short length of time apart from maybe the scales playing up.
We’ll see. Clothes are starting to look too big on me now for sure !
Great stories of loose clothes lads, as that is surely what we are all looking for, along with health improvements. How long is everyone been on the 5:2 and how much weight have people lost in total compared with the total weight people actually want to lose? I want to lose two stone and so I’m interested in people’s overall goals and how close they are to fruition. Thanks and continued good luck
Hi SBC. I have been on 5:2 for about three years and am 42 lbs down. I have about 7 to lbs to go, which will take down to 210 lbs (I know that the charts say that is too heavy, but I’m 6’5″ tall and I need a bit of muscle for my country life style). It would have been quicker but fasting works so well for me that after the initial loss I became very confident that if I relaxed and put on weight I could lose it again. I also managed to have colon cancer, now fixed, but that did compel me to eat weight gaining food. My weight loss chart is far from a straight line, but the overall trend is down. The scales are always an encouragement but you realise that you are winning when your clothes need replacing because they are too big and your knees/back don’t hurt like they used to.
SBC – 3 months for me today. If I believe the scales, then I’m 10kg down.
I think they’re optimistic ! But I’m a good 8kg down.
Fat mass from from 26,5% to 20,3%
BMI from 26,5 to 23,4
And I measured my waist – I’ve lost 10cm – that’s 3 inches. Abour 4 notches on my belt ! Still need to lose 1cm to get to what Dr Mosley thinks it should be. Half your height. We’ll see.
Health improvements ? Well lighter feels so much better. More sport too.
As said, the curve goes up and down.
Radical change in what I eat. I do hope I don’t get obsessed with weight and food though. If I can stabilise a little lower than my current weight for a few weeks, I could be near my target.
Going to the UK this weekend for a big family reunion.
It’ll be interesting to see what people have to say.
Penguin those are great results, congratulations and I’m so pleased you got over your cancer that’s even more fantastic. I suppose the whole thing is a gradual process, which is the way I should look at my weight loss. Likewise for you too David, excellent results in such a short time, you guys really are a setting a good benchmark for us noobs! Enjoy the UK David and good luck this weekend lads. Cheers
The past weekend was a challenge with dinners or lunches out each day;a holiday atmosphere seems to have started early this year as amazingly good weather returned. As an added “test”, Sunday evening was the Championship Game in the Canadian Football League (imagine a lower key Super-Bowl Sunday), a traditional “guys night” with wings, pizza or Chinese food. I opted for mainly veggie/seafood Chinese but did not exactly exercise restraint around the carbs! Long walks taken every day in an attempt to counter the caloric over indulgence but I have not ,yet, made HIIT a regular part of my life. Now where is that 2017 resolutions list…
Well I’ve done it. I’ve reached my target weight ! And a little under. I was aiming for 75kg.
Actually it was last week but I was waiting an extra week to see if it was really true. That’s 3 notchs on my belt and to be honest, I am starting to look a little thin. So I’ll have to build up the top a bit.
So after 10 weeks, I have lost 10kgs.
Weight 84,9kg to 74,2kg (target 75kg)
BMI 26,5 to 23,4 (target under 25)
Body fat 26,5% to 17,7% (target under 20%)
So what to do now??? How to stabilise ? Or keep going ? I’m going to keep Monday as a fast day for sure. and keep on roughly the same king of food.
Stay away from alcohol during the week. We’ll see what happens in a month.
Way to go DV. You obviously didn’t let yourself go as badly as me having to drop only 10 kgs. Ive stabilized at 71 kg, been there since March from a high of 92 kgs. Yep Mondays is my 6:1 fast day as well. I think its good to keep doing one day per week. Keeps you tuned up and in the right frame of mind.
Apologies, but I’m answering for my hubby. We both went on the diet together. He has less weight to lose than me but he’s been soo pleased that he’s almost at his target weight. Despite a short break from the diet, because I had to recover from surgery and he was my carer, he didn’t put much weight back on so he’ll be back on track from this week.
HeatherJ. Both doing it is good – saves all those silly discussions about the mythical dangers of fasting. Surgery recovery is tricky – for me the medics banned fasting, which combined with the lack of exercise resulted in weight gain.
We are now entering the dangerous time of the year. I had my first Christmas party last night, there is a Christmas lunch today and everything we do seems to require a mince pie and mulled wine, even getting my hair cut. Not accepting a mince pie seems to have become an anti-social activity.
It helped that I had bought the latest book by Michael Moseley so we could both read the background. It also helped that there were some helpful pointers to studies to show why intermittent fasting is a good way to approach dieting.
For me, I know this diet is for life, though I hope to go to a maintenance diet of 1 fasting day a week or every other week once down to my healthy weight. Hubby has less to do, lucky boy.
After surgery i was delighted to find I could get back to some light exercise quite quickly – just building on a short walk every day. It helped me stopweight gain. I’ve started the diet after three weeks of the second surgery. I will stop again, probably, when I have radiotherapy. But we’re just going to see how I feel.
I’m happy to refuse mince pies. Don’t feel guiltyjust join the “no minepie” brigade, there’s more of us out there than they want to admit! I’ll try and keep portions small when celebrating Christmas. My downfall will be the family in Belgium sending me chocolates!
Well it’s a complicated season. With the weather colder, I’m feeling hungrier.
The long ice cold drinks of water and lime slices that helped me lose so much weight in the summer, just don’t feel right now.
My daughter has been buying spiced cake and mince pies. We’ve been to wine and food tasting fairs for the last two weeks. I hit the scotch this weekend too plus sausages and potatoes. And it’s pear season. I love pears. Our favorite fruit seller at the market saved me a whole crate on Sunday. 90 cals a pear..
On top of that, the weather has been cold and wet and I haven’t gone cycling for at least 2 weeks.
Have decided to go back to a strict 5:2 till the new year.
FD today. 600 cals max. So back to smaller portions. I’ve noticed my portions have been creeping up again. Coffee and water to get me through the day.
I have also hidden anything that tempts me.
Out of sight, out of mind. So not yet on the maintenance diet.
Thanks @penguin and @david V; good to know I am not alone in my seasonal induced challenges. We had a first blast of real winter weather yesterday with an Arctic “Vortx” of cold forecast through the week; my inner cave man just wants to hibernate and store fat! My health resolve is not helped by an active social life,trust me I am grateful… not complaining, that revolves around food. Lunch and dinner at restaurants this past Friday, dinner at a friend’s home Saturday night, I was the host last night. Hard not to indulge in seasonal fare,shortbread…etc. FD today, will try to stay below TDEE on NFDs but it seems there is a gathering of some sort every other day. Of course I could exercise will power over quality and quantity but I accept the reality of Christmas fare on dark and cold short winter days as friends and family want to gather together.
So I guess this is not the right time to say that I am still losing weight…
Despite the family gathering and French “raclette” – cheese, potatoes, ham and wine etc… this weekend. Although I’m at my wieght now, I still did a FD Monday after the excess. Was looking forward to it too.
Enjoy the season and socials. There will be plenty of time in the New Year to get back on track.
Hello and best wishes to all in 2017. Weight is up, of course,on this 2nd of January; The Holidays are a time for celebration and some excess so I am not overly negative in my thoughts, just resolved to do a turn around as best I can to my pre-holiday point and head into greener pastures from there.
Like many others I have fallen for the Seefood diet (no mis-spelling here). But I can almost enjoy a diet, when I get into it. It’s still food, just different food and in different quantities.
I like exercise too but as others have said already, exercise is at best irrelevant to a diet and can be counter-productive, because muscle is heavier than fat.
Good luck and good health to everyone in 2017!
@mark Mywordz: Take heart and take it one day at a time; I am a “Foodie Astronaut” in current reentry stage from my voyage to the Yuletide Culinary Universe. Coming back to 5:2 Earth a bit heavier but definitely happier!
@ Mark Mywordz, sorry but some exercise is good particularly resistance/weights etc because you build muscle which is more metabolically active than fat so more calories are burnt -> more fat lost. Plus other benefits e.g. joint stability, minimises muscle loss during fasting and more. Unless you are after absolute weight loss ?for a dicky knee or some such (or just chasing a number) some weight trains is good. Cardio might be good for fitness but HIIT is the new-ish thing. See Moseley’s book Fast Exercise.
I’ve been following the 5/2 plan since mid-Oct. Down about 15lbs/6.7kg. Even lost a few lbs over the holidays althought I dropped to one FD a week or less.
Regarding exercise, I am a fan of working out/staying active – normally go to the gym 3-5 times a week depending on my schedule. I do it primarily to keep muscle tone & cardiovascular fitness. I find that if I don’t keep busy I get “stir crazy” -in other words prefer to be active&/or have an active metabolism (I am a furnace regarding body heat compared to my wife).
PedroG – you have any solid scientific research that backs up claim regarding muscle cells burning more energy than fat cells? I’ve often heard that claim & it makes “sense” but as Drs Moseley & Fung have shown; what is accepted as common sense & taken as “fact” is often wrong. I’d especially be interested in seeing the metabolic requirements of resting muscle vs resting fat (other than muscles involved with keeping our bodies alive; I.e. Heart, lungs, etc). In other words – do large muscular biceps burn more energy than large fat biceps if you’re not exercising? Wondering if this is another myth perpetuated by the weight loss industry? Sti
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