Can HIT make you gain weight?

This topic contains 33 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by FastEnough 8 years, 7 months ago.

Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)

martina

9:58 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

Hi Guys
I’ve been on the 5:2 diet for several weeks now and I noticed that I tend to lose about a pound a week, which is great. I’ve lost four kilos so far.

I have bought the fast exercise book and last week I decided to give a try to HIT. I started with the simple fast-fitness programme, 3 times a week, for 30 seconds fast part twice, etc, with the warming up part at the beginning, cooling down at the end, and slow down in the middle.

Well, considering that before I was losing a pound a week with no exercise, I was hoping that this week I would lose even more. Well, it turns out that not only I didn’t lose any weight, but I have actually put on half a pound!

I am surprised and disappointed. I have not compensated with over-eating – (sometimes people do that because of taking up exercise, and I am aware of that), so what is the reason for this result? Could I have gained muscle mass, instead?

kampernaut

10:33 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

Hi martina,

Congratulations on the four kilos, that’s great!

I’m no expert but it could be that you have simply hit a temporary plateau in weight loss and, whilst it is difficult to do so, the consensus seems to be that it is better to focus on the success of sustaining your eating and exercise plans. Otherwise you may undermine all that excellent motivation you developed to achieve the success you got so far. Apparently one should only be concerned with the long term trend rather than changes from week to week and that motivation should be derived from ability to persist rather than the numbers.

The fact that you didn’t lose weight this week might be due to the exercise but then again it might not. It is also nothing to worry about and nor will it be if the same thing happens the next week or the week after. It would be more interesting to see what your weigh in another four weeks compared to the same time five weeks before.

What is certain is that both regimes will be of benefit to you in the LONG term. If you browse around here you will see lots of posts from lots of people who get frustrated by what appears to be a complete halt in weight loss after steady progress. For most of those that persist, it transpires that it is not a halt in weight loss but a temporary pause. Some of them report changing shape during that pause. There is quite an amusing post about trousers that I will try and find in a moment.

These plateaus seem to be a characteristic of almost every weight loss programme and 5:2 is no different. Consistent loss of weight every week is an unrealistic objective. After all, you aren’t a machine. Might I suggest that this is the conclusion you should draw from your observations?

The book recommends you stick with it all for at least three months to ensure you don’t sabotage your efforts as a consequence of a hiatus like this. Try to think back several weeks to when you started 5:2 and how you felt. How excited would you have been at the prospect of losing four kilos by today?

Again, well done on sticking with it for several weeks, starting an exercise programme and losing some weight. That’s fantastic!

kampernaut

10:35 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

This was the post I was thinking about: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/really-no-weight-loss/

TracyJ

10:54 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

martina – please, for your own sanity, lock your scales away for a few weeks and give it a chance. You will have converted some fat to muscle (which weighs more) that’s all. It’s also possible that your TDEE has changed so much (with your weight loss so far) that you need to recalculate.

People are too quick to throw themselves out of the window at the first sign of the scales ‘sticking’ or horror of horrors – going up a bit. Unless you have a set of super sci-fi scales that can give you a breakdown of your fat & muscle composition then weight is pretty much meaningless when you take it every single day. Once a month is more than enough – it’s a marathon not a sprint.

vicki

10:56 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

Hi Martina
Your weight loss is great. I also lost a lot at the beginning, but when I started to exercise stopped losing for about 6 weeks, didn’t put weight on but definitely changed shape. Remember – MUSCLE IS HEAVIER THAN FAT. So if you exercise and agin muscle you will gain weight (temporarily) or stay the same. But it is very positive, WEIGHT ISN’T EVERYTHING, look at the measurements.

A pound a week long term is fantastic, I’ve lost 46lbs since January 2013, in spite of the muscle gain (about a steady 7 weeks) and being sick for a month last July.

So keep exercising and measuring, the weight will drop again soon and you will be much trimmer
Vicki

martina

11:34 am
11 Feb 14
Permalink

Thank you, guys. Your messages are very encouraging, it’s great to have such a forum and to be able to discuss our progress. I really appreciate your feedback 🙂

Amy C.

2:25 pm
11 Feb 14
Permalink

I had the same experience of gaining weight while doing HIT exercise. Unlike the advice given to you, I had to drastically cut the calories on my non fasting days to just above the amount needed for the base rate and drink an incredible amount of water.

Lindyw

3:54 pm
11 Feb 14
Permalink

HIT will not (directly) cause you to lose weight nor will any exercise. Together with lower calorie intake you will lose weight.
It has been proved that exercise can impact on the amount you eat – and lessens the appetite.
You have to burn an incredible amount of calories to lose just one pound in weight and I think only the most dedicated of athletes would stick to this for any length of time.
What exercise does is improve the way hearts, lungs and muscles work. It helps to exercise while ‘dieting’ for tone in muscles to hold your body in a better shape 🙂

JC

3:23 pm
16 Feb 14
Permalink

Martina, I reiterate all thats been said above, some great responses and is a response I get very regularly with my clients who go through plateaus. Keep at it, don’t give up and remember the weight you’ve already lost.

As has already been eluded to above, weight itself is quite a temperamental factor to weigh in week by week, and anything from actually fat loss, muscle growth or body hydration can be a factor in weight change (remember the majority of the what makes up your bodies cells is water). Like what TracyJ said, lock those scales away until you’ve had 3 weeks or a month to let a change happen.

You may like to try taking your body measurements with a simple tape measure as well to provide some more data to have a look at when comparing your results, will only a take a couple of minutes more than when you weigh yourself. You may find it interesting to look at where the fat is being lost from as well. I’d advise to do your waist, chest, arms and thighs as a start. The Fast Exercise book as some good advise in it about this too.

martina

8:03 am
2 Apr 14
Permalink

Hello Guys,
it’s me again. I thought I could share with you my disappointing results after seven weeks. I have reached a plateau. I’ve carried on the 5:2 diet as normal, but my weight is still the same after seven weeks. I can’t tell whether it’s the result of HIT (I’ve only been doing the simple fast-fitness programme 3 times a week, but after four weeks I gave up and only did it once or twice, seeing the lack of results.)

Following your advice, I’ve also taken the measurements of hips, waist, thighs, etc and then compared them with today’s’: no difference whatsoever 🙂

My new TDEE (after losing the first few kilos) should be 1500 calories for sedentary life (I’ve considered sedentary even if I was doing the HIT exercise) and I stuck to that. A friend told me that if you eat less than your ‘allowance’ apparently it’s not good, is that true? The TDEE for lightly active is 1717 calories, should I be sticking to that instead?
Does doing the HIT 3 times a week count as lightly active?

I am really fed up now and wondering what to do. Should I go crazy and try the diet for three days a week? Go for 4:3? Part of me is tempted to just give up the whole thing, but I must be strong…

simcoeluv

8:19 pm
2 Apr 14
Permalink

Hi:

Two very common themes from newbies here.

First, while exercise is the best thing bar none to benefit your health, it can temporarily cause weight gain: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/exercise-is-dangerous-for-your-diet/ As an aside, a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat, so converting fat to muscle does not cause weight gain. You need to take in more calories than you are using to gain weight.

Second, weight loss is not consistent. A person can follow a diet perfectly and go for weeks without losing – and then lose two or three pounds in a week. ‘Really No Weight Loss’ (above) addresses that, and here is some info on plateaus: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/on-plateaus/

The answer? Just keep on keeping on. If you do 5:2 right, over time, you will lose.

martina

2:14 pm
3 Apr 14
Permalink

Thank you Simcoeluv for your reply. I have read your links and they’re very helpful.

I am considering going 4:3 though for a couple of weeks (possibly more, if I can stand it) and see how I get on, as I really doubt that after 7 weeks of ‘doing everything right’ anything will change with this plateau. I have the impression that somehow I am stuck. I don’t want to sound negative, but in the past I have had the same situations with other diets. I reach a point where I just stop losing weight, and even if I continue dieting I lose no more. So I’m worried I’m going through the same pattern again, and I want to see if I give it a kick and do something different, it may shift things.

Has anyone tried going 4:3? How did you find it? What were your results?

simcoeluv

5:26 pm
3 Apr 14
Permalink

Martina:

If you think about it, if you have gone seven weeks without losing (or gaining) weight, you are eating to your TDEE on a weekly basis.
There are usually two reasons that can happen on 5:2.

First, and most common, is that you are eating more calories than you think you are eating. Research shows that people not counting their calories eat about 50% more calories than they think they are eating. To find if this is the case for you, you have to actually count calories for a week to see what they are. Many people are surprised by not only the number of calories in the foods they are eating and the real size of a ‘serving’, but also by the calories they forget to count.

Second, and only if you are counting calories accurately, is the possibility that your computed TDEE is too high. Regardless of what your ‘computed’ TDEE is, it may be wrong and what you are now eating is the actual number. That would mean you will have to cut the number of calories you are eating on your non-diet days to your real TDEE or below.

By adding another diet day, you will be eating less to try to restart weight loss. But I would first count some calories to see if that is the problem. Here is some information on TDEE:
http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/tdee-for-the-curious-or-why-dont-i-lose-weight-faster/

Good Luck!

martina

9:05 pm
3 Apr 14
Permalink

You may have a point there, Simcoeluv.

I stopped counting the calories ‘exactly’ on non-diet days since November, so there could have been a shift there. In my head I allocate a rough estimate of calories per meal, that is 1500 calories per day (the mayo clinic calculator gives me a TDEE of 1600 whilst the Fast Diet website gives me 1500 for the sedentary level of activity – I chose that one even if I am ‘somewhat active’. I have underestimated in the past, because I wanted to be pleasantly surprised, but heck, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, hand on heart, I cannot 100% be sure I stuck to my 1500 calories per day, if I have exceeded it though, I doubt it would be more than 5%, but I guess even that is too much. I ought to go for your advice of measuring again for a week or so and see what happens.

One thing I’m not clear though is this: does it matter if some of the non-diet days you have a little less and some a little more than your allowance? Say some days I have 1300 cals and others 1700? As long as the total for that week doesn’t exceed what it’s supposed to? I like to have some treats at the week-end, but am not bothered during the week, that’s why.

simcoeluv

11:50 pm
3 Apr 14
Permalink

Hi again:

You go on a weekly average so more on one day and less on another is fine.

That same research I mentioned found that dietitians, who are much more in tune to caloric amounts and portion sizes, underestimated their intake by 16%. So I would guess your 5% is still a bit low. But there is no way of telling until you actually measure. Your TDEE is quite low, so even a small difference will materially impact your weigh loss results.

Good Luck!

franfit

3:13 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

Martina, I find that I really do have to measure my portions out on a digital scale at least some of the time, or I will experience “portion creep”. Some foods I always measure; it’s amazing how small a tablespoon of peanut butter really is, for example. If I just eyeballed it I would think it was only about a teaspoon and a half. I’d be off by 50 calories. For those of us with a TDEE of 1500 calories or less it’s difficult, I think, because it’s just not all that much food, and every bite starts to count. I’ve also found that, even though I’ve lost 33 pounds in 33 weeks, it hasn’t been at an even rate; my weight loss seems to stall every 10 pounds or so. My doctor tells me that that happens to him, too, and encouraged me to just keep on doing what I know works for me, that the loss will start back up again, and he has been right so far. If you want to try 4:3 but it seems like too much, I added an 800-calorie day to my 5:2, I call it a “half-fasting day”, and that has been do-able and may be helping me to keep on keeping on.

martina

3:57 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

Thank you, Franfit, it helps to hear from another 1500 cal TDEE person 🙂
Today I’m on my first 4:3 day, I have decided to give it a go this week, and will try again next week. I want to see a shift after 7 weeks of plateau, otherwise I’ll get depressed. Unlike you, my weight lost has not been that great. I started last October and I’ve only lost 4.5 kg. Your idea of half a day diet with 800 cal sounds great.

I’ve also started measuring the calories on my non-diet days, but I really struggle when I cook the meals for the family. When it’s only me, I tend to normally eat protein, but the family expects something with more carbs in it.

So, when it comes to calorie counting, it’s generally OK if it’s just me, for breakfast and lunch, but for dinner and week-ends when I do a casserole, a rice stir fry, or a pasta dish, how do you go about it?

I can weigh the pasta and the rice separately for me, but when it comes to putting the rest on top of it, I really struggle to quantify the calories on that specific “topping”. Casseroles are another dilemma. Especially because it’s not like you make an X quantity and you sub-divide it equally between people. Hubby eats at least 50% more than me, my daughter half of what I eat. So, it’s really hard to work out how many calories have ended up in my portion of that specific condiment, whether that be the pasta sauce, the rice stir fry sauce, the casserole.

Do any of you have the same problem?

franfit

4:32 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

martina, I know exactly what you mean about family cooking, with the addition that half the cooking here is done by my son, who is a former preemie with a GI problem that means he has to be on a calorie-*dense* diet (cooking that all these years is one reason I put on weight in the first place, lol!)

So I don’t try to count calories exactly on non-fasting days, but instead try to be very mindful of my serving sizes of the more calorie-dense foods, like fats, cheese, peanut butter, ice cream, bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc., and any foods containing the above.

With a dish that we enjoy a frequently, I will actually work out how many calories there are in the whole recipe, then weigh what that comes out to, and work out how many calories there are per gram of that particular recipe. It’s a project, but worth it for things we like to eat a lot.

With other things I try to estimate a ballpark figure based on the main ingredients and how much added cooking fat is in there, and then try to serve myself conservatively, especially since I like to go back for seconds.

When my son cooks, I try to have larger portions of strictly vegetable side dishes and eat smaller portions of the main dish, and save room for a piece of fruit for dessert. When I cook, I try to cut back on the amount of cooking fat called for in a recipe. I find that it can frequently be cut in half (or even by two thirds) and the dish still tastes great. I didn’t used to do that because of my son’s required calorie-dense diet, but he is old enough now that he can eat larger portions of the main dish, have larger portions of potatoes, bread, pasta, or rice, and/or eat a big bowl of ice cream for dessert if dinner is otherwise a bit slim on calories.

I bought some medium-sized plates and very small bowls so that my small portions don’t look quite so small.

It’s an ongoing project. Having dinner together is an important part of our family time, so I keep working at it.

franfit

4:35 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

martina, good luck with the 4:3 this week. I would feel really discouraged if I didn’t see the scale budge in 7 weeks, too. Good for you for keeping on working at it.

martina

7:49 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

Thank you Franfit for your precious advice and encouraging words. I am curious to learn how you count the calories of a whole recipe and then figure out how much they are per gram. That could be very helpful for me to know, especially for the dishes I cook more regularly for the family. Can you please explain how you do it, or is there a website that teaches you how? This would actually allow me to count the calories of my portions, on those occasions, in a more accurate way.

franfit

8:21 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

martina, you are so kind.

This is how I do it. Let’s say I want to figure out how many calories per gram in my vegetarian spanish rice dish.

Having a digital scale that weighs food in both ounces and grams is really helpful.

OK, I start with 1 and a half cups of brown rice — I would go to this web site: http://www.acaloriecounter.com/ and type in “brown rice” (if that didn’t work, I’d type in “rice, brown” — if this web site didn’t have it, I would just type “calories in brown rice” into a search engine like google) and click on “rice, brown, long-grain, raw” and find out that there are 684 calories in 1 cup of brown rice; multiply 684 by 1.5, since I’m using a cup and a half, and get 1026 calories.

I would go through this process for each ingredient. Under “onion, raw” I could choose the calories in “1 cup, chopped” or in “1 large”, or measure the number of grams, enter them into the calculator on the web site, and get the exact number. Under “oil, olive” I would choose “1 tablespoon” and multiply the number by 2, because I use 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the dish.

When I add the canned tomatoes and beans, I might take the number of calories off the can instead of the website. Same with the Muenster or Monterey Jack cheese, I might take the calories off the package. The only thing you have to be careful with there is when the labels say that there are “about 2.5” servings in the container; sometimes it’s more accurate to pour the can of whatever into a measuring cup and calculate the calories with the web site numbers. But sometimes the cheese you have might be different from the cheese in the web site’s database. So use your judgement.

Anyway, measure each ingredient and find out/calculate the number of calories in each one. The garlic, the cumin powder, everything.

Add them all up.

Make your dish.

Now, weigh the whole thing.

Then, divide the total number of calories by the total number of grams, and you have calories per gram.

Let’s say my vegetarian spanish rice works out to be about 2.5 calories per gram. Then, if I serve myself 100 grams of it, I multiply 100 by 2.5, and know that I’m eating about 250 calories worth of vegetarian spanish rice.

It’s a project, but, if you make the dish the same way each time, you only have to do it once. Just make sure to write down the number somewhere; you don’t think you’ll forget it, but in a couple of weeks you won’t be sure any more unless you write it down.

storitelr

11:32 pm
5 Apr 14
Permalink

I will say what no one wants to hear. Muscle Does NOT weigh more that fat. A pound is a pound, a kilo is a kilo. Muscle simply takes up less space, so you can put more of it into an area that may have at one time been filled with fat. You can put 3-4 lbs of muscle where 1 lb of fat once existed. If that is the case you will lose inches and body fat % even if you are gaining weight.

If you are gaining weight I am going to guess you hit a plateau. You will not lose a pound of fat in a week and replace it with .5 lbs in muscle. You would gain quite a bit more. When I started to run long distance, I lost 7% body fat and gained 12 lbs. That is because I was replacing every pound of fat with 3-4 lbs of muscle.

I hope this helps. Keep it up. Exercise is never a bad idea.

SAMM

12:03 am
6 Apr 14
Permalink

I don’t believe HIIT itself can help lose or gain weight. What it can do is help with the amount of fat that is in blood after eating. So I believe HIIT is to help with arresting visceral fat issues.

I tried to do fasting with the family meals and just simply couldn’t resist. I had to make it me, myself and I Diet days when others ate eating. The disaster of waiving off family dinner was drama at my house. However I didn’t waive family time. First I made my spouse cook on fasting days. After the apocalypse my wife realized it was one on one time with the kids so it actually wasn’t the end of the world. Not to mention if they want to fast with me was only alternative I was offering. They like the opportunity to eat what I hate. Then Tuesday, Thursday we have family meals we all enjoy on the non fasting days.
The trade off for us is game nights. Instead of big dinner time it’s still family time on fasting days. Just simply moving the family from the dinner table to another table for fun and games.

I think over the years I would eat what others didn’t. Where as since I’ve been on IF I control what I eat alone. When I first started 5:2. I tried on Saturday, I never noticed how much salty,crunchy,sweet treats we were eating that are not actual food. I mean no nutritional value. So even when moved to 100% paleo for a time. My mouth still watered for it. I kept notes, a journal of sorts, on a device. It seemed the main reason I would fail on fasting days was eating food that wasn’t on the menu- food I didn’t buy or prepare. After I became the invisible man , going to my cave. While they feast. I had my will power intact without being around it. My favorite line for when they ask if I want some. After I suspected they were doing it to sabotage. I would say “yes” and go put it in the fridge for the next day. They quit offering their goodies. Especially when I would ask for more.

martina

9:36 am
6 Apr 14
Permalink

@storitelr: I think that when people say that muscle weighs more than fat, what they actually mean is that if you cut a square inch of fat and put on the scales, it will weigh less than a square inch of muscle. We are talking volume to volume comparison here, so basically we’re saying the same thing 🙂

My original post was done on the 11th Feb, almost eight weeks ago.
At that point I had been doing the diet since October, with little exercise, apart from long walks at week-ends, and had lost 4.5 kilos. Not much has changed since, I have been doing HIT on top of my long walks and my weight has not budged. My measurements are the same as beginning of February,
The only thing that has changed is that I added HIT. I eat in the same way as I was eating in November, December, and January when I WAS losing weight and centimetres.

What has caused this plateau has been the topic of this post. Some have suggested that perhaps I may be consuming more than my TDEE on non-diet days and I’m going to look into that, although I have not changed what I was eating before, nor portions sizes. I have also started this week going 4:3 just to shift things a bit.

Thank you all for your feedback, it’s really great to have you on this forum and share this journey with you. Sometimes it’s really tough, especially when you get stuck.

martina

9:49 am
6 Apr 14
Permalink

@franfit Thank you SO much for explaining how to calculate the calories for a family recipe. This is going to be very useful 🙂

SAMM

12:40 pm
6 Apr 14
Permalink

Here is another site that helps with understanding calories and other properties of foods item by item.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000997000000000000000.html

BusyMummaM

9:07 pm
21 Jan 15
Permalink

I know this thread is a little old, but I’d love to know how you’re going @martina!

I’ve just started to incorporate HIT into my routine. I was a bit stuck with weight loss doing 4:3 and even though I’ve started HIT I haven’t necessarily started to lose more weight, just to get fitter. I also include longer runs into my fast fitness days.

I also used to find it hard with family meals, but now I make things that I can split up. For example, if I’m doing chicken burgers with chips for hubby and my son, I’ll just have the chicken on it’s own with the salad that would be in the burger and have extra salad on the side instead of chips. If we have bolognese, I’ll have the bol sauce without the pasta, etc.

I use this link to calculate recipe calories as you can copy and paste a whole recipe into it:
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php

After one week of beginning HIT I’ve gained a kilo, which is a bit devastating, but I must admit that I do feel better. I’ve recalculated my TDEE and log EVERYTHING using the myfitnesspal app (even if I pick from my son’s plate or the stray tiny teddy biscuit) and eat at a sedentary TDEE. However, I know that 5:2 is slow and of course I’ll just stick it out. I’ve already been doing this for 19 months and have lost around 15kg. So, like many of you have advised, away go the scales. Here’s to working on a healthier lifestyle with exercise and just feeling stronger! 🙂

simcoeluv

10:00 pm
21 Jan 15
Permalink

Hi Busy and welcome:

Yes, exercise can cause you to gain weight, even if you are being good on your diet. See number 5 in this post for an explanation: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

martina

12:13 pm
22 Jan 15
Permalink

Hello @BusyMamma, thanks for dropping by. 15 kilos in 19 months is a massive achievement, well done you!

It has been indeed almost a year since I posted this and I’ve now been on the fast diet for 15 months. I have stopped doing HIT soon afer this post as I got fed up with it not helping with the weight loss (or at least this was my perception at the time). What are my results after 15 months on the fast diet?

I lost 8 kilos in the first year and then it stopped. I also lost various cms here and there which is great and my old clothes feel loose. Last summer I reached a plateau again, after doing 4:3 for two months, I couldn’t lose any more weight, so I went back to 5:2 and my weight has been stable every since, at 62kg. My target weight was 60kg, so I’m only short of 2 kilos, so it’s not too bad.

The minute I go to 6:1 I start gaining weight. If I want to keep stable I have to stay on 5:2. It’s annoying because I feel I can never come off this diet and I will always be on 5:2 to stay in shape, and I don’t cheat, I always keep to my TDEE. I don’t understand why I don’t get any slimmer on 5:2 but then I don’t do any exercise either, so that must be it.

On the other hand though, my appetite is not great (except on the diet days, I feel hungry then), I no longer have cravings for sweet things, like I used to. Before I really craved chocolate and biscuits, and carbs, now I don’t, so I’m not finding it so hard to stick to. I find that this diet on the whole is easy to maintain.

How are the others on this thread getting on?

BusyMummaM

5:21 am
26 Jan 15
Permalink

Hi @martina – interesting results! I also stalled for a long time (maybe 3-4 months) then it kicked in again. How awesome is it losing the sweet cravings!? I lost the cravings too and it’s so weird. I used to be able to slam down a whole family block of chocolate in one sitting or crave tim tams all the time, but now I can’t make it past a row of chocolate or two tim tams before I feel gross.

I bake a lot still, but most of it goes into work to make my coworkers fat 😉

In terms of exercise, I find I stalled in winter when I wasn’t walking anywhere. In the summer, I’ll walk my son to the shops and back (30 minutes) or walk around the grounds at work at lunchtime, etc. Can you increase the incidental exercise? I reckon it really helps.

FastEnough

3:48 pm
18 Apr 16
Permalink

@martina – I know this post is really old but wondered if you were able to finally shake off the last few pounds you had? I don’t have a lot to lose but I’m dreading the inevitable plateau.

martina

6:19 pm
18 Apr 16
Permalink

Hello @fastenough – it is indeed an old thread and I’m pleased that I never gave up the 5:2 diet. In reality for the last year, since I had noticed that on 5:2 I wasn’t losing any more weight, I decided to try 6:1. Well, the good news is that I haven’t put any weight on, basically I stayed at 62 kilos for a whole year.

It’s almost as if my body decided that ‘no matter how hard you try, 5:2, 4:3,’ I want to stay at 62 kilos’. But the incredible thing is that during 2015 I went on holiday to Italy for two weeks and consumed daily well over my TDEE, cakes, pasta, pizza, irresistible ice-creams twice a day, and not once I did that 5:2 or 6:1, and when I got back home I still weighed 62 kilos. And I kept that weight for the subsequent months.
How was that possible?

The same happened last Christmas, when for 2 weeks I gave up on the diet and repeated the experiment, I ate whatever I wanted, sweets, desserts, plenty of carbs, and yet by January 2016 I hadn’t put any weight on.

It’s almost as if this diet has changed my metabolism and whatever I throw at it, it won’t let me put on weight, but then, it won’t let me lose those 2 extra kilos either. Because in the last 8 weeks I tried again going 5:2 to see if I could reach my famous target of 60 kilos, and well… no chance, I still am stuck at 62 kg

Our scales work OK by the way, because my husband and daughter get weighed occasionally and their measurements do change 😉

I think I just have to resign myself to the fact that I will weigh 62 kilos forever. People tell me that I look slimmer, and probably I do, but I don’t think the weight has come off from my face and neck, which annoys me a little. On the plus side, I guess I’ll have less wrinkles 🙂

FastEnough

9:16 pm
26 Apr 16
Permalink

It sounds like your body is telling you 62k is where it’s healthy. Fantastic job losing the weight and then keeping it off. A lot to be proud of. I wonder if its the food your eating why your face/neck aren’t slimming? Maybe try incorporating more vegetables and lean meats?

I carry all of my weight in my stomach so although my legs and arms are thin, my stomach doesn’t seem to want to shrink. I hope that will come with time. I have 14lbs to go and am finishing up my 1st month this week.

I am incorporating exercise but am concerned about the scale not moving but I want to do an obstacle course race and want to train for it. Also do not want to be skinny fat. 🙂

FastEnough

9:17 pm
26 Apr 16
Permalink

Also, my diet sucks! I do not eat healthy but am slowing making changes every week to change that.