Hi David,

There are a few males on this forum. I think you have to temper your enthusiasm for weight loss and set realistic goals. I went from 202 lbs to 158 lbs over the course of 2015 and have been in maintenance mode 6:1 since about March this year. So that works out to be about 0.7 lbs per week loss for me.

Based on your data your TDEE is about 2400 cal per day. Use it as a guide. OK based on this lets do some number crunching. 9.3 cal per gram of fat. Lets assume your fast day is a water fast so zero calories. What can you expect to lose? 2400 divide 9.3 = 258 grams or 0.568 lbs. If you do 5:2 then that’s eight fast days per month. So 8 x .568 = 4.5 pounds. If you wanted to lose 10 pound per month then you would have to be doing a water fast for 18 days per month. Unsustainable in my opinion. Also as you lose weight your TDEE will drop significantly and so your weight loss will also slow. If you can achieve one pound per week loss you will be doing VERY well.

I used to do two consecutive water only fast days on Monday and Tuesday. So last meal was on Sunday night at 7pm and then breakfast on Wednesday 7am. 60 hour fast per week. I now do water fast every Monday, so its a 36 hour fast every week.

You have to be very mindful of what you eat. Get rid of ALL sugar and be very sparing with simple carbs. No bread, pasta, pizza, rice, potatoes. Soft drinks with sugar or artificial sweeteners are a complete no go zone. Fruit juice is a compete no go zone.

Try and get the majority of your carbs from vegetables and some fruit. Only whole fruits, never in smoothies and never dried fruits. Don’t be scared of butter and high fat yogurts. Avocados and almonds or walnuts are good foods.

The food pyramid is wrong. Simple carbs like breads and grains should be a sometimes food. Sugar is a never food.

Good luck, it works if you are serious about it.

Im male 178cm (5’10” I think?) 72kg (158 lbs). BMI is about 22.7.

Don’t get me wrong 10 pounds per month is do-able but would be at what I would call the extreme end of what is possible and sustainable over any length of time. You do not want your body to think it is in “trouble” with regards energy intake otherwise it will slow down your metabolism to compensate for the reduction in caloric intake. 5:2 is a reasonable compromise which I think will have a minimal impact on your metabolic rate (apart from the expected decrease as you lose weight).

My example above was just for fat loss. There will also be an associated loss in water as well. If you can do 1 pound per week you should be very content with that. That is sustainable in my opinion.

Im 54 and it was a slow increase over the last 25 years. Roughly 2 pounds per year. I got to 202 about Feb 2015 and finally said enough is enough. I think the trick with 5:2 is to set realistic goals. It took 25 years for the increase so losing it over one year, well that’s fast but do-able. Is faster possible? Probably. Is it sustainable without a weight gain rebound? Probably not.

Your body isn’t stupid, if it knows it will consistently be deprived of caloric intake it will reduce your metabolic rate so that the reduced calories in is now matched with a reduced calories out (metabolic rate is reduced to compensate). Personally this is why I think 5:2 works. It tricks the body into not reducing its metabolic rate (apart from the natural decrease that is expected as a result of less body mass).

2500 to 3000 cal seems a little high. Maybe 2500 is just OK based on your current weight. OK this is what I have found as a result of doing 5:2 (now 6:1). After a while I found that I was naturally eating smaller portions even on non fast days. I was not seeking sugary things. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a piece of cake but its a rarity. I became satiated I lot quicker. I believe this is a result of my stomach shrinking. Leptin (satiety hormone) is signalled and produced when stomach is in a stretched state. With a smaller stomach it becomes stretched more quickly.

Avoid sugar and simple carbs like bread, rice, pizza, pasta etc. They are sometimes foods, not an everyday staple. Avoid sugar loaded drinks, this includes fruit juice!! If you want fruit eat whole fruit. Never dried fruit.

I encountered two plateaus along the way. One at 84kg and then one at 78 kg where the weight just wouldn’t budge for about 2-3 weeks. Im sure my body was attempting to reduce my metabolic rate to compensate for the reduced caloric intake. I just increased my physical activity (I like riding my bike, its my happy place) for a while and that kicked off the loss again.

Good luck with it. If youre genuine about it, it works.

The alcohol may be making it difficult. I drink alcohol but would probably have one glass per week (or less). So 12 oz per day might be a problem. 7 cal per gram for alcohol. That’s 340 cal just there alone. And its straight to the liver and processed and stored as fat!! Are you drinking on fast days? Cant see how youre going to come in under 600 cal? It leaves you with 240 cal of real food to play with. Processing that much alcohol means your liver is working hard. Your call though.

Atkins chocolate? Read the label REAL closely. How much sugar and carbs does it contain? I saw a “health bar” call Paleo Brunch bar the other day in the supermarket. Read the label and sugar + chocolate content was 49% and the protein was highly refined grains. Give me a fricking break. Paleo bar?? WTF. Really??? What a joke. The 1oz of cheese was probably OK, the 3oz of noodles probably didn’t do you any favours after your meal.

Hi

I’m male, nearly 60, and have consistently lost about a pound a weel for 14 weeks on 5:2. Mis counting fast calories has been very scrupulous on the whole, but I was slow to look closely at TDEE (getting it right) and being scrupulous about that too. A tip I read here that’s useful is to put your target weight into the calculator INSTEAD of your current weight. Then you see what the difference in TDEE is. You might want to reduce yours to spped things.

Great that you don’t drink on fast days. I calorie counted for the first 2 weeks of trying 5:2 and I counted be bothered so I decided to make my fast days water only. That way I didn’t need to count anything. To my surprise I found zero calories easier to do that 600 calories. Everyone is different I know, but for me water only was easy. I tend to be mindful on my non fast days but I don’t count calories. Everyone is different and you need to do what works for you.

Sounds like you’re doing well!! Maybe youre one of the lucky ones that just has to be a bit mindful of what you eat and it works well for you. Keep it up.

Good question. Its like Ive found the secret code and want to share it with others. I read some of the posts and I shout Noooooo don’t do that. There are a few poster that are in maintenance mode, most just post in that section though.

Thought I would check out this forum as the guys on 5:2 seem to be a minority…not very active