Read Dr Jason Fung’s The Obesity Code. Fasting is the trick to reset your set point to avoid gaining again after losing. PVE

It does make for depressing reading!

I think the key difference between intermittent fasting and other diets is the duration of calorie restriction and effect on metabolic rate? The 5:2 duration of fasting, alternated with ‘normal’ (not calorie restricted) days, isn’t a long enough period of calorie restriction to lower metabolic rate?

Although for those of us who’ve been yo yo dieters I’m afraid the damage will have already been done (and hence why a lot of people don’t lose weight if they eat up to TDEE – because the TDEE calculator is presumably based on people who’ve never dieted?).

Having read the Obesity Code too, it seems like intermittent caloric restriction and intermittent fasting (i.e. total food abstinence) may be realistically the only way to keep the weight off long term!

Hannah,

Ditto on what Happy said.
Your using some reality show as the basis of your information???? What they do is unsustainable and motivated by ratings and profits. Hopefully this is not the case for you?

5:2 is not a destination it is a journey. It is a journey you will take for the rest of your life. I now do 6:1 after reaching my target weight and I actually enjoy doing my fasts. Its like hitting a big reset button every Monday. I have found that I now eat more healthy without really trying. Sweets hold no interest anymore. On the few occasions that I do have them they are pretty much an anticlimax. Rather than craving more Im left wondering why I just had them in the first place.

5:2 works if you want it to work. Its not some magical treatment that will allow you to eat anything you want after you reach your target weight. You need to develop a pattern of eating that will be sustainable for the rest of your life. That is more than do-able using 5:2 or for me 6:1.

Good luck it works, if you want it to work.

Lots of us have been on this wol for quite some time (my husband and I for 3 years) and know it works as a maintenance tool, too.
Set your goal at a healthy weight for height, do proper 5:2 and mindful eating on the other days. Don’t go back to your old habits, reinvent your food choices with all the wonderful, healthy, fresh and tasty food out there.
All the best with your journey. PVE

It IS interesting how our food tastes change, bigbooty.Sugar loses it’s appeal, fabulous alternate foods can easily substitute for highly refined carbs. You wonder why everyone doesn’t do it.
Increasingly I’m finding cafes and restaurants who are producing much better low carb, fresh foods and it is always easy to just eat around the refined carbs (the bread, rice, pasta) They can just stay on the plate. Fill up with the salad and veg instead.
The flexibility of this means we can choose to overindulge sometimes and simply slip in an extra fast. No problem. PVE

Yep. And people keep saying, “But I don’t have blood sugar problems” but it IS the insulin spikes that cause us to end up with fat.
Interesting, also, how incredibly sweet things such as Brazil nuts, tomatoes, berries etc taste when yoy have cut down on sugar. 😊 P

Well sugar is addictive, some people are more susceptible to its effects. Some people don’t think they’re addicts, even though they say they’d die if they couldn’t have cake. Some people want to have their cake and eat it. Me, I’m happy that my sweet tooth has largely left and I can now take or leave sweet ‘treats’.

Hannah, I’ve been maintaining a 13-14kg loss for two years now, still a novelty for me after a lifetime of being on the chubby side…

Like PVE and BB, I’ve largely cut out added sugar and refined carbohydrates (and naturally prefer other flavours and less processed options), and that makes a huge difference.

Bigbooty, PVE,
I am so glad that I read this thread. To learn that eventually your taste change and you don’t crave sugar anymore is a wonderful news for me. I thought I would have to battle it for whole my life.
I am starting 5th month of the WOL, and still struggling with my cravings.
Thank you for sharing of your experience!

Can someone just explain to me what Dr Fung defines as a fast? I need to order his book today.

I feel like tastes do change, for me it’s been a slower process, but I wish my whole family could crave the vegetables the way I do! I am trying, I really am. On the other hand, my mother seems to be a lost cause. She is a Type 2 Diabetic and in denial about her sugar/carb addiction. She thinks as long as she can “control” her spikes she is okay. She denies eating sweets and bread everyday. Yet much of her food is actually based around sugar and bread!!

Hi Hannah- Unfortunately the media don’t know how to read research articles and often give sensationalist and innaccurate articles for us to read. It’s also necessary, when reading an article like this , not to extrapolate it out to other things. The reasearch and article talks only about former contestants of The Biggest Loser, not other people. The way they lose weight on that show is pretty unnatural. It’s nothing like 5:2, and They also seem to focus a lot of time on those hours in the gym and sensational physical tasks. Just not realistic, and unless you are an elite athlete, exercise isn’t going to use up heaps of calories in a normal life. Exercise gets us fit , not slim.

“Ludwig says just cutting calories isn’t the answer. 5:2 doesn’t do that either, as others have said. Re savoury things – it’s surprising how much sugar is in savoury things if the food comes out of a factory, so check the labels. Sometimes it’s disguised as maltose, dextrose, fructose, maltodextrin, fruit syrups, cane or corn syrup, all sugars. Good on you Hannah for taking the steps you’ve taken to normalise your weight and better your health. Good luck, and perservere with your Mum.