Hello from Brisbane…am quite new to this 5/2 stuff. Last week fasted for 2 days to prove to myself that I can do it (surprisingly easy, but novelties often are!)…but am on holidays so decided to re start next week when I go back to work and life gets a bit more structured and ‘normal’. I’ve spent the last year or so on the no sugar bandwagon and have kicked that habit successfully (sound like a diet junkie!)and feel heaps better for it in so many ways, but still need to lose around 15 kg. I’m someone who needs to be held accountable so here I am …declaring that I will do this and check in with struggles and triumphs…well, I hope there’s triumphs anyway!

Oh joy, oh joy!

Doctor was very pleased with my 9kg weight loss and has taken me off the blood pressure tabs for the time being.
My BMI is down to 27 and I am feeling just fine 🙂

BTW, his scales are the old fashioned style Avery and assured me that they were very accurate, so I was chuffed that they weighed me at 1.9kg less than my digital ones!

He’s now suggesting I look at shedding another 6 kgs, which I’m sure I can do!

Thanks for the support,successes and humps along the way 🙂

Leela and Pippa in Aus..hey there..like you, I’m a newbie but I have found this to be a great forum for inspiration. Good luck 🙂

Aussienow, well done on an amazing weight loss!

My Update..second week down and second weigh in:
Starting weight: 68.5kg
Week 1: 66.3kg
Week 2: 65.8kg

Loss in 2 Weeks: 2.7kg!! 🙂

Arla, hope you get better soon!

I also had a weird gain after yesterday’s fast, I’m blaming the fetta which I added to my vegie omlette, which caused the excess fluid to add two kilos that I really didn’t need!
Memo to self ****I must remember that salt isn’t my friend!***** Even if it doesn’t have any calories, it’s still causes me bloating and edema!

Congrats all of you with wonderful results! I admit I’m a little jealous, but tomorrow is another day, and that’s what’s so great about this WOE/Life.

Hi Everyone, I’m from Sydney. I have been following the posts on here for a while and I finding lots of encouragement, so thank you. I started fasting back in Oct 2013 and I’m loving it as I have lost 7kilos so far. Fast days can be quite challenging, as I tend to do them during the week while I’m at work. I am aware the I may get a bit ‘hangry’ in the afternoons but try my best to control this by drinking lots of water. I tried fasting on weekends but found that if I wasn’t busy I would be conscious of how the slow the day was going and everywhere I turn there seemed to be things about food- cooking shows on TV, aromas of people having weekend BBQ’s etc.

So I’ve settled nicely into routine and I love the way that if something comes up I end up needing to eat on a fast day(it happened once -forgot about a dinner date) I don’t feel that bad, I just back it up on another day.

It is a fantastic feeling when your clothes start to feel a bit looser, I think it encourages you to keep going.

Thanks again for the great feedback people have been posting on here!

Hi Mel
Don’t despair, 3.1kg is a great result so far. And believe me, we all fall by the wayside every now and then, The whole point of this is that it is not a diet and you don’t “fail”. If you stuff it all up today just fast tomorrow! By Monday you probably won’t have gone all that badly, squid rings and chips is not a hanging offence. Just keep at it, and keep posting
Vicki

Don’t worry, Mel (@smarte), you can enjoy the occasional high-fat treat on the 5:2 WOE – you’re only “dieting” for 2 days a week. Although, if you have a lot of weight to lose, like me, you have to limit your portion sizes and keep active for the rest of the week as well. On the Thursday before last, I enjoyed a fish and chips meal (plus a few pieces of salt-and-pepper squid from someone else’s plate) at the Currumbin Surf Lifesavers’ Club. It’s a great place to visit if you ever come to Queensland – good food, beautiful view, literally on the beach at Elephant Rock, on the Gold Coast. @susan333, I like your “hangry” word to describe how we can feel on fast days sometimes! They do seem to drag by when we can’t find enough to occupy ourselves. Thanks, @aussienow, for your continuously generous feedback. Well done, @ihaveawaist, for your weight-loss success this week. I’ve done all right this week, too, with a 1 kg loss. I’ve now lost 8.3 kg in 3 calendar months (with at least another 24 kg to go).

Jaybee do you have any exercise equipment with clothes on? Or an outside trampoline?

G’day Southerners. I’ve had a few days staying with my Mum and going on very early morning walks with my sisters and brother. I’ve had more exercise than usual, but all those cups of tea, and the ubiquitous biccies, have me thinking I need to do a some extra fast days over hte next few weeks. When will I ever get under 70kg!!?? That is sooooo elusive. I feel that if only I can get under 70 I can make it to 65. And if I can get to 65 I can get to 62. More importantly, I need to keep up the morning walks to keep my creaky joints rolling.

Hi Kiwi are you splitting your days ? Lots of us seem to do Monday and Thursday. That would mean a break in the water routine. there are heaps of new flavours in herbal teas that might tickle your taste buds. I personally steer clear of any soda drinks since starting this regime because it is so much about good health, my advice is to study up what is in the product and then make a choice, Pelegrino with a slice of lemon got me on a different track.
all the best and there are some great recipe ideas to keep the interest going.
this is a fabulous site for advice and encouragement.

Hi Kiwi25, this forum will give you the greatest support out. I have been on this WOL for almost three months now and any other eating plan would have long gone by now, but whenever you have ups or downs if you take the time to post you will get great support. This week was a muck around for me with visitors calling in unexpectedly, so meals had to appear at short notice, and it was easier to eat small meals than try and explain. I have found that now I eat much less even on normal days which is a great help. I did still manage to loose 400grams for the week, so I am getting nearer to my next small goal. Busy milking cows until Tuesday night, as well as doing irrigation on our farm, roll on Autumn and some cooler weather, and the arrival of this seasons babies (calves). Stay cool everyone, cheers, Charlie.

@kiwi25 I wouldn’t give up the Coke Zero on your fast days – though perhaps start cutting back on it in general (for the other ingredients not the caffeine). I know how bad caffeine withdrawal can be, so that twice a week is bad enough to deal with, when the first few fast days can be a little difficult. Though fast days really do get easier.

Hi everyone! 🙂

Like Jaybee I have been AWOL for a week or so. Great to see so many newbies and catch up on what everyone is up to. 😀 Lots of success stories – and for those of you who aren’t losing kgs as you would like, stick with it, the kgs and cms will shift!

For those of you who feel you have over-indulged – it happens! Enjoy the food that you have, and try not to feel guilty or too disappointed. As others have said, the great thing about this WOL is its flexibility and that there is always tomorrow to do things differently. I over-indulge from time to time but the weight loss has still happened. I have read elsewhere that it may be important to eat the less healthy foods from time to time if you don’t plan to cut them from your diet forever, so that the body is used to having them and doesn’t overreact if you do indulge. This seems to have worked for me. I put on 1-2 kgs after a week at my parents with some serious over-indulging, but a week and 2 successful fasts later, I have lost those again.

Lots of good tips and suggestions in the recent posts. I like Sylvestra’s cool drink ideas and will try these. On both fast and non-fast days I generally alternate between weak black tea (Lady Grey), fruit teas (orange and cinnamon is my favourite) and black coffee (max 2 per day), with water whenever.

On fast (and other) days I generally eat as many veggies as I can (minimal spuds on fast days tho) and on fast days try not to eat white carbs/ grains/ sugar (apart from a small amount of choccie if desperate in the evening!!). I don’t worry about exact calorie counting (and I count cals not kjs because I know the rough calorific values of many foods after years of dieting!!!!). I find veggies more filling than other foods and also nutritionally v good of course.

You may not need to do much exercise to still lose weight on 5:2. After my knee op, all I was doing was a few mins of muscle strengthening each day, and continued to lose weight over that 3 month period. My main exercise now in terms of how much time it takes is walking the dogs, but I have just started the 3mins HIIT that MM recommends – will see what diff that makes! 🙂
If you don’t like exercise, Jaybee, can you find someone to walk with – it’s a good way to catch up with girlfriends – or get a dog??

I think I have mentioned before that my scales also measure water and body fat. I find this most useful. I am now on maintenance, and have decided to weigh daily for a while to get an idea of how much my body composition varies, and see if I can relate it to fasting, over-indulging and (TMI) bowel movements, etc. There certainly is considerable variation, not always easy to explain. So try not to get upset over small gains from one week to another – it is the long term trend that is important.
I read somewhere that we should weigh ourselves (at least?) an hour after eating/drinking/ exercising, and at the same time of day/ in the same situation (of course).

Hope all of you with school-age children have had an ok start to the school year. This year is the first one in many where “back to school” does not affect me! (Younger son will start uni at the end of the month; older son is in his 3rd year. Must admit it is nice to be at this stage.)

It is now definitely lunchtime after a fast day yesterday and no food eaten yet today – so am v much looking forward to it. 😀 (Writing this post has taken ages but helped keep me busy!!)

Best wishes to you all.
Sassy 🙂

Hi Mikayla,

I do find that having a 12 hour break in the day (ie. I have breakfast and then nothing till night-time) works faster for weight-loss for me. I think in Michael Moseley’s book there’s a medical explanation for that which I can’t remember now.
Today is a fasting day for me but around 11am I had a couple of moments of feeling light-headed (which is unusual – wondering if I’m coming down with a cold) so I had some miso soup at lunchtime – it just felt important to consume something. So it won’t be a complete fast for me but I will now hold out till around 8.30 before having fish and veges for dinner.

Hi mikayla and everyone else, especially if you’re fasting today.

It seems that a new page on this forum forces your device to renew your log-in. It’s happened to me too, and as long as I can access my password and code thingy on file, it’s easy enough to get back on the forum.

The best idea to remember about when to eat and how much you lose, is to see what works for you. There are some who don’t eat all day, others skip breakfast, some have two, or three meals, and others just one.

The fasting part, where you are meant to give your gut a break from digesting, leading to a healthy change in the way your cells behave, is the goal to achieving better overall health, rather than just weight loss. There is still a lot of research being done on the science behind why fasting can be beneficial, but in the mean time do what feels right for you. Don’t panic or worry about fitting into what other’s do. This is a long term, sustainable way of eating. You are the boss and are the one who makes the choices! Remember you are the one who can change the small details about food.

If you look after the calories, the kilos will look after themselves.

Happy fasting!

Welcome to newbies, hello to everyone, congrats on successes, you can do it hugs to those struggling….have I covered everything???

Fast day for me tomorrow. Doing Tuesday and Thursday with an occasional extra one thrown in. Looking forward to it and to getting back into routine after a very disjointed January. I have 3 weeks with no distractions hopefully after which we will be away for several days down the south coast.

@dumpling..not sure what you mean by “exercise equipment with clothes on”. I don’t have any type of exercise equipment..only my legs which I don’t use enough except for my 2 or 3 linedance classes a week
@doublehappy, I will Google lymphasizer and see what I can find out
thank you both for your suggestions

Have a great evening and a successful Tuesday.

Hi all I’m enjoying reading all the results and tips. I agree with @ihaveawaist about doing what works for the individual.

@mikayla I do three small meals on a fast day keeping to 500cal as I have hypoglycaemia and need to keep my blood sugars stable. I don’t believe it makes any difference to the weight loss outcome as the key is the overall reduced calories each week (and eating to your TDEE) plus the inner health benefits that IF achieves.

Everyone will have an eating regime that works for them and as long as it fits your lifestyle and comfort level continue to do what you like and is working.

Two weeks ago I only had a 200gm loss after consistent 500gm weekly losses with no change to my fast day eating – I’m a creature of habit – and no overindulging the other 5 days. Yet last week I had a 1.3kg loss – again doing the same on my fast days – but with two nights eating out!! Now I made healthy choices when out but I didn’t worry too much about having two courses and wine but I just can’t fit too much food in these days now that I really know what hungry feels like. The moment the empty feeling disappears when I’m eating I now put the fork down no matter what is left on the plate – difficult when its enjoyable and yummy but I find that so empowering! I’m listening to my body’s needs and not just eating with my eyes!

There will always be weekly fluctuations and plateaus, plus temptations, but as long as the weekly calories are reduced the weight will reduce over time.

Jools

When you do your line dance, for 30 seconds imagine a snake is trying to wrap itself around your ankles…you will jump faster and harder, that is HiT
You just need to get your heart rate to 80% of it’s maximum, and then you release growth hormones ( re news cells, like having a face lift but no surgeon )
Hence asking if you had any clothes horses, cos those are great to do HIT on, 3 mins done…
Get all the benefits of a 2 hr gym session health wise they say. Might not build huge muscles but it is the health benefits and a healthy heart being pumped to its 80% maximum is the goal.

i have plateau with my weight the last 4 week been still doing the 5.2
but stayed the same
help a 56 lady to lost another 1/2 stone my march 5 th

Briedog cut off a leg

Dumping,,,lol

Actually you could try dumping….

Haha @dumpling. 😉 I didn’t even notice the “l” was missing from @ihaveawaist‘s comment until you pointed it out. Personally, I find dumping particularly effective just before a weigh-in! @briedog1, losing 7 lb (3 kg) in a month is possible if you are strict with your calorie intake on non-fast days and do a lot of exercise (even just walking daily) every week. I find it’s easier to lose up to 1 kg a week if you have a lot of weight to lose (like me, with another 24 kg to go), but not so easy if you are within 10 kg of your goal already. Why the rush?

Hi Cath, stay strong! I’m fasting today too – usually I find it pretty easy but Monday was my first difficult day, today’s not too bad so far and I have lots of chores to do at lunchtime.
Re measurements – I hadn’t ever had scales in the house (I’m 57 now) and only knew my exact weight at about 3 year intervals throughout my 20s, 30s and 40s, whenever I chanced to be near some scales. But I knew it had gone up _ was about 9 stone in my 20s, 10 stone through my 30s, then about 10 years ago I hit 11 stone+. Then I went to my GP in early November and she took my weight, it was 75kg (11s 11 lb) which was the highest I’d ever been – okay, it was at the end of Melbourne Cup Day and I’d had a huge lunch! but still, that’s what spurred me to seriously start the 5:2 (which I’d been toying with for months). Given that I knew my starting weight, I quickly decided to buy some electronic scales so I could track my weight.
I’d read ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue’ in my 20s which argues that women should not be slaves to a set of numbers but base our sense of ourselves on how we feel in our bodies – I still think that’s a good idea. On the other hand, there are lots of studies that show that people who weigh themselves regularly tend to stay at a steady, low, weight, and that makes sense too – you can nip problems in the bud if you’re tracking your weight.
And I feel that at my age, weight isn’t simply a question of self-image but of health. My goal with 5:2 is to lower my BMI.
Anyway, so far I have lost 7kg and my BMI has gone down from 26 to 23.5 or thereabouts.
My clothes size has stayed roughly the same – size 14 – but lots of my clothes are loose on me now (and I got rid of a pile of them) and if I tried, I’d probably fit into a size 12. But I’m waiting to lose a few more kilos before I buy any new clothes.
Like you, I saw changes in my face almost immediately and that’s so nice.
Best wishes, Peg.

Thanks Peg and ihaveawaist!
I’m feeling a LOT happier now that I found a delicious Thai pumpkin soup at only 98 calories for lunch 🙂 Maybe now I can concentrate for the rest of the day. I’ve got a lovely greek salad (with low fat fetta, beetroot and basil from my mum’s garden) for dinner. Fast Day not so difficult all of a sudden!
I like your comments re weighing yourself Peg – thank you. Will consider for myself but I’ve never owned a set of scales… perhaps its time.
I’m off to Christchurch in March for a girlie weekend including hot pools so am working on looking my best in that swimming costume!
Good luck fellow Fasters
Cath

CathB – I am jealous of your girlie weekend – that sounds divine! What a great motivation tool – I like it!

ihaveawaist – 1cm off your waist? Way to go! That is great.

Well DH and I are tracking along very well. We have been doing 4:3 for about 3 weeks now and are going strong. DH has now lost a total of 4.2kgs (since beginning of January)and 10kg in total since middle of last year. I have now reached my goal weight, so I will be in maintenance phase now but supporting him on his journey.

We are both really pleased by how generally ‘well’ we both feel. More energy, sleeping better.

We rewarded ourselves last night with a lovely dinner at a restaurant with a friend and some red wine (one glass for me, a few for hubby). No guilt at all. I couldn’t finish my meal – which for me is something new 🙂 oh and that was followed by 2 small pieces of chocolate.

Glad to hear everyone is going so well. Stay focussed – stay strong (and away from them damned biscuits! hahaha)