Just thinking out loud….

My TDEE is about 1500 calories. So in on a normal diet to lose a pound a week I’d have to have 1000 calories a day. However, with fibro apparently your metabolism decreases by about 75% (no idea what that figure means). Which in theory means that my TDEE is actually about 1125 calories, meaning I’d have to eat only 625 calories a day to lose a pound a week!

I’m probably eating a bit more than my TDEE on non fast days and on fast days I have 500 calories, which is probably a bit much. Yet I’m still losing around a pound a week.

If all of the above is correct, there’s definitely more to this diet than calories in vs calories out….. I think the way I do it helps – fasting completely from dinner time to dinner time.

Anyone have any thoughts?

My husband has Fibromyalgia, and just does the 5.2 as it says… We did this 2 years ago and lost 30 lb each in 5 months with no problem. Some weeks 2 lbs or 1 lb. lost.

Due to his double knee surgery and not being mobile we have put it back on …..but on our third week of 5.2 again and it’s going down nicely. We just want the weight off again as we felt so much better. This is the easiest diet ever you just have to be positive on fast days…..and take it easy in the week..

My daughter has chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. What I would like to know is the effect this way of life has on the symptoms of the disease. Can anyone enlighten me?

PJBR,
Just thinking husband was sent to hospital for his confirmation of him having it.

My Daughter ( not his) was told at Doctors she had it, which I doubted, 18 months down the line a different Doctor said she was low in iron, she takes a iron tablet every day and all the symptoms have disappeared if she stops taking the tablet all the symptoms return…

Has she seen the right person?

PJBR fasting is supposed to increase levels of human growth hormone (HGH). We fibromites don’t produce enough of this but what I don’t know is if the diet can do this for us too….

Been doing the diet over two months and no changes in fibro symptoms so far. Might take years to undo the damage IF it even does have an effect on our HGH levels.

Where did you get that 75% figure from? Seems odd to me I would like to look into it. I have never heard of Fibro reducing metabolism and I work in health care.

My understanding is that you can eat whatever and whenever as long as you do not eat more than 500 calories in one day.

I have MyalgicEncephalomyelitis commonly known and badly named as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), along with a small amount of Fibromyalgia.You may know that it is very common for these to be together. About 60% of people with ME/CFS also have Fibromyalgia.

I was 32kgs overweight with most put on after getting ME/CFS. It took me 6yrs to get 10kgs off. I won’t do ‘diets’ offered by the diet industry. My husband and I saw the Dr Michael Mosely documentary on Intermittant Fasting. It made sense and was an outcome of good solid research. We bought the 5:2 book the next day and began 5:2 the day after. That was 16months ago. With 22kgs to lose, I began with some trepidation not knowing if my ME/CFS would affect this or I wouldn’t be able to do this. One of what I thought was an ME/CFS symptom was a need to eat something, however small, about 2hrly to stop low-bloodsugar/hypo type feelings. This has disappeared on 5:2.

I’ve been on 5:2 for 16months. I’ve lost 16kgs and maintained that for 6months, and I’m now in the healthy weight range. My long term goal is to lose another 6kgs, although staying in the healthy weight range, and getting back to my normal weight I was for decades as an adult. The last 6 months has contained some travelling and later 3months of being very stressed. I’m very pleased that I’ve maintained my weight steady though doing some stress eating. All credit to 5:2. Previously, I would have gained weight through a time like this.

atcgirl, on the CFS thread, I think you’ll find that the ‘increase in energy’ you’re talking about, is not an actual increase in energy, but the energy that was used to support the previous weight and it’s toll on the body, is now freed up to be used in other ways. I’ve been active on that thread, and certainly I’ve gone up a bit on the ME/CFS scale, but it’s purely because I’ve lost 16 kgs. My body isn’t producing any more energy. My body just isn’t carrying the strain of an extra 16kgs. Every 5kgs of overweight taken off means the heart functions a bit better. So, for me, that’s multiplied by 3, and although I still have a smal, problem with cardiac function from ME/CFS, I no longer need to go through yearly cardiac testing. My balance is a bit better from not having more weight in front; I can walk a little bit faster, go up another couple of steps before I have to stop to get heart rate down; go up low slopes a little easier; get up and sit down easier also; my heart rate ceiling is now 120bpm instead of 110bpm. All of these are great, but not from more energy;all from weight loss which 5:2 has done admirably.

I fast Mondays and Thursdays; eat 1 meal of 400-500cals after 6pm. Eating anything earlier wakens The Hunger Dragon. On my other 5 days I eat in an 8hr window e.g. 12noon to 8pm or 1pm to 9pm, but I don’t eat till after 12noon. I am rarely hungry. Both my body and mind seem to like 5:2 and 16:8 as a natural way of eating and I intend to do it for life. I don’t drink calories except a small amount of milk in black coffee. I drink water, sparkling water for celebration, peppermnt tea, weak Earl Grey tea.

I discovered I am one of a group on 5:2 who cannot lose weight when eating any starchy cars from grains, processed grain foods, potato, sweet potato, pumkin, sugar. Regardless of calories, these stop my weight loss.

My degree of fibro hasn’t changed. I do have to be careful not to overdue repetitive movements as before 5:2, or the pain increases.

PJBR, my symptoms haven’t changed except for the low-bloodsugar thing I mentioned. BUT my quality of life has improved. Having a ceiling heart rate rise of 10 bpm has helped a little too. Ceiling heart rate is the rate at which I can safely operate under. Over that, and I am using energy too fast and I’ll deteriorate. Soft hugs to you and your daughter.

If you haven’t already found info on this, look up Dr Bruce Campbell. Bruce is now retired but is a PhD Dr who worked in rehabilitation, got ME/CFS himself, and promoted ‘pacing’ and staying within your ‘energy envelope’ as the way to maximise life with ME/CFS. Their is a book and online pacing courses.

What do you eat that makes 500 calories that is good for you that’s home made .If any one has ideas as I dnt seem to loose anything

Down to 9 stone 3 ish now, back fasting for a few weeks now after wedding and honeymoon. Because I’ve lost weight but my belly hasn’t budged an inch, I look even more pregnant than I did before the weight gain and cannot find a bra that doesn’t cause me agony 🙁 I think the only solution to the bra problem is to try and lose more weight (but try and stay a health bmi of course). If I can at least shrink the boobs, even if I don’t shrink the belly, I might find a comfortable bra that doesn’t put too much pressure on my rib cage.

I really hate fibro

I have fibro and i am praying that the weight loss can reduce my pain. Has anyone else experienced this?

ATCgirl, how have you been feeling? What kind of foods do you eat and drink? I was just wondering because fibro can be linked to a constant acidity diet where your body fights hard to bring your system to it’s set alkalinity. In doing so, it strips your bones, which leads to pain. I know this because it happened to me. I was drinking a lot of soda which is acidic and I had constant pain in my joints. I went to a specialist and he got after me, told me to stop overconsuming sodas and other heavily acidic foods. It’s not about total elimination, more about a balance that your body can keep up with. There are some vegan proponents out there that believe all acidic foods are bad and I do not believe that to be the case because the protein and nutrients they provide outweigh the acid they may carry. just me with ideas 🙂

PinkQueen – just had a look: I have a cup of tea a day, don’t avoid dairy, have alcohol at the weekends and eat a reasonable amount of meat so my diet is probably more acidic than it should be. Although it’s only one cup of tea and rarely do I have soda (once a fornight or less). I think that to have less of these acidic things I like would make me feel too deprived. I think if I had to chose between giving them up and experiencing slightly less pain, I’d rather have the pain – not to mention the brain power involved with making all this work with OHs fussy eating too.

Thanks very much for the suggestion though 🙂

I guess adding something improves the balance over all, will definitely try hard – no bad reason to add more fruits and veg! Might err on the side of veg though, potentially less sugar!

Well several months into this way of eating I’m much improved. For the past few months I’ve been doing water only intermittent fasting for between 3 and 5 days a week. I eat dinner, then have only water until dinner the next night. My lower limb joint pain has practically disappeared (leaving only the usual fibro ache) and my upper body main has significantly reduced. I’m also seeing the chiropractor much less.

It’s getting harder to maintain this though because of stomach acid issues. I also think that the reduced lower limb joint pain is partly due to the fact I’m over 10kg lighter.

Merryme I’m past my goal weight which was 8 stone 7, currently 8 stone 5. Belly now down to a respectable 33 inches – one more and it’s less than half my height and I’m out of the diabetes etc danger zone. However the bottom healthy weight for my height is 7 stone 12 so I need to be careful how I approach this last inch. Really trying with the core exercises but they’re exhausting.

Proper fasting days down to 2 per week but on the other 3 days I still don’t eat until lunchtime. My acid reflux is much improved with that. Weight loss has slowed to a pound a month roughly.

I feel tons better than when I started in terms of joint pain/tension headaches etc, but in terms of proper fibro symptoms, I still ache all over most of the time and have fog/fatigue etc. Will still fast at least 2 days a week for the rest of my life and will potentially eat more on other days/do one day a week if I need to to stop me becoming underweight.

PS Seems we have ended up with the same outcome atc : 5:2 for life and no food till lunch time on NFDs! Works wonders.

Hi, I am new to the 5:2, just on my second week.
I am 51, so in the middle of menopause. I also have Thyroid issues/Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue (not M.E)
I am of slight build 5ft 4inches and weigh 8st 13 or 125lbs but that weight varies on certain days as I also have bladder issues and sometimes retain fluid. I know some people think that is not heavy and they’d be right BUT the extra few pounds are on my stomach and I am not happy with that. I also think I would like to keep doing the 5:2 as a lifestyle choice as I feel better on fast days.
I calculated that I need 1300 calories in non fast days. I have chosen the sedentary option although I do manage a little exercise most weeks.
Any tips greatly appreciated.