Good evening everyone,
Welcome JodyW. You did very well, that tricky first day! Hooray!
I’m fasting tomorrow so you have at least one companion!
Hopefully you will find 5:2 the sustainable thing that stops the gain and keeps you at your lovely healthy weight for the rest of your lovely healthy life!

So good to read everyone’s responses to Vaderz, including Vaderz’s!

Just about to have chicken and salad and a piece of zucchini slice for dinner.

You know how they say to wait twenty minutes for the full feeling? I think I have to wait and hour and twenty minutes!

Ooh I’d like to be at that Perth meeting. If my health pics up a bit I’ll see if I can organise a Melbourne one. For those Melbourne lurkers! 😉

Best wishes all!

Hi Jody – welcome 🙂

Actually, 400KJ = 96 Cal, so you may have miscalculated a little… the general rule of thumb is to just divide KJ by 4 to get Calories (makes it easy to do on the fly).

It’s worth experimenting on a few different ways to tackle FD’s, I find that having nothing more than a little milk in my coffee a few times a day is enough to get me through to some soup and a little ham or chicken for dinner… but if I start eating early, I’m more worried about being able to stop 🙂

Anyway, all the best – try to have fun with it 🙂

PS Thin I have just seen your post re a coffee catch up – that would be lovely.
What day are you catching up?

Hi JodyW
I also think in kilojoules and kilograms and am always doing mental conversions as so many websites and blogs still use imperial measurements of calories and pounds.

As has already been mentioned if you need to do a quick conversion from kjs back to cals divide by 4 – this will be a slight overestimation of the calories consumed but for small items the difference won’t matter much.
The actual conversion rate is 4.20462, so you divide kilojoules by this amount to get calories, or you multiply calories by this to get kilojoules.

For a fast day, 500 calories roughly equals 2100 kilojoules.
On NFD I don’t do careful conversions as I think an approximate calculation is close enough. On a FD every kilojoule counts!

* * * PERTH LOSERS’ COFFEE MEETING * * *

Tuesday 24 Jan @ 11am, Sprolo Cafe, 138 Canning Hwy, South Perth.

Please join us!

Hi all and Vaderz,

Have been reading all the posts on competitiveness with great interest, and reread mine. I realis that my posts didn ‘t explain quite enough – I knew the connections to competitiveness in my head but it didn’t always read that way. Also the last section could be taken as intolerancae of others views when that’s not what I meant at all. Now my didgy memory has to remember what I said when it’s on the other page and I can’t just refer back…sigh…..nevermind.

So….I’ll try to explain a bit further – gratefulness stops any competitive urge I have. The competitiveness doesn’t occur for me because my health situation makes competitiveness irrelevant and possibly dangerous.

I use the words “weight normalisation” which has a connotation of becoming healthier, rather than the words “weight loss” which has an inference of quantity which translates as numbers which can put me in a race to the end. So… Weight normalisation as concept I strive for and am actuating also makes competitiveness as a concept irrelevant to me.

I have great respect for just about everyone on the forum, whether they stay or go. We have people from every continent, many religions and nonreligious philosophies, many styles of eating through preference or beliefs about the health benefits of eating various ways, varying medical needs impacting eating and nutritional needs, varying ages, etc etc. as I said earlier I, along with others, float around the forum, reading, learning, observing, and sometimes commenting. There are quite a number of people who have helped me along my journey in various ways over the time I’ve been here. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say and do, or that I think what they do they shouldn’t do if it’s different to what I do. Quite the contrary. What other people do is really none of my business, and unless there is a question asked that I may have some relevant experience to offer as a possible assistance I don’t usually comment, unless it’s to offer encouragement. If what works for someone else is vastly different to what I do that works for me, that’s fine by me. But…. As far as competitiveness goes…..for my needs for my 5:2 journey, I need to consistantly, daily be reading where I feel comfortable, supported to make, and be, in my own choices. And to consistently offer that support to others who are like minded.

Maybe what I’m naming as competitiveness in this aspect here is more akin to influence e.g. I can’t consistently hang out on a thread where there are many frequent posts daily about back to back fasts, putting time goals on weight loss targets, losing 2lb a week, multiple day fasts, water only fasts, 24 hr fasts as being harder than 5:2 (I don’t get that one since in 5:2 a fasting day lasts from end of dinner 1 st night, all the next day and through the next night which is more 32-36hrs). I spent some time on a thread like that where there seemed to ge an element of competitiveness building up. In my personal experimenting I tried b2b fasts to get to my 1 and only time related goal. First week of b2b – fine. 2nd week of b2b fine but I started finding fasting 2 days in a row starting to change my thinking in a detrimental way – fasting gecame too easy. I seriously contemplated doing a 3rd fast day in a row. I have observed this phenomena in others where it goes to 3 then 4 or more. The thinking is if 2 FDs a week is good then more must be better, and even more is even better. I don’t believe that’s the case. Third week I tried my 2 FDs as b2b again to observe what would happen psychologically, but I started having adverse physical medical responses on the 2nd day so aborted that FD. I didn,t like what doing b2b FDs was doing to my head. My thinking about my FDs is stable and solid on the Southern Hemisphere thread. If Ihadn’t been on that other thread quite a bit I would never have set a time goal and I would never have tried b2b FDs, both of which were the wrong strategies for me. Is that competitiveness or just influence? It could be either or both.

I just know that the variety of styles, the variety of people, the acceptance that 1 style does not fit all, the acceptance of various food beliefs, even contradictory ones – on this thread, more than anywhere else, has supported my 5:2 journey, and continues to support it. The calmness and respect about differences here does not engender competitiveness or influences adversely.

Keep getting back on the horse,
Onwards and downwards,
Merry

Thanks Joffy I’ve taken that as a compliment.

My mind is too muddled to even think about replying to all the very lengthy posts but can only reiterate that this is an individual journey and the final decision on how, why or whatever is down to us no one else. Whether we take on board all the advice given is our choice. In the beginning I personally did not like being told what I should be doing and thought who the hell do these people think they are telling me what to do, they don’t know me or my circumstances. Wake up call – these people have done the walk and have every right to do the talk.

FD yesterday 67.7, this morning 67.1. I would like to get back to 65 which I briefly saw early December.

Thin, Cinque and Merry, thank you for being the constants on this thread.

Good morning everyone,
Wednesday Fast Day for me!
(And Thin! And Jody! 🙂 )
It is lovely in Melbourne, sunny and breezy and a bit of rain watered the garden overnight.
Hoping you can keep cool if you are in a hot place!

I’m going to make a salad in the afternoon and then miso soup tonight.

Then I have a busy rest of the week. Granddaughter overnight tonight and then young mister 10yo, (younger brother of mister 14) is coming for a couple of days tomorrow. Sushi is his favourite so we will make some!

Merry I love what you wrote!
It was me who asked about your FIL. I do hope things get less hectic soon.

Intesha I hope you can keep taking it as easy as you can. You really need someone to pamper you for a week after that huge output of energy and stress.

Thin, I will be there next Tuesday, in spirit at least!

Cheers all

Absolutely gutted, changed the battery on my scales, and then weighed myself, and was told I was 1 kilo more than I thought, 😣😣😣😣I am starting to actively hate my scales, they can now reside in the shed and only come out once a week.

Good morning all, Its still very hot here today so I got all my exercise and housework done by 6.30am today. Today is my first fasting day! For breakfast I had the Parmesan tomato eggy thingy on toast. NICE ! I am going to have a veg stir-fry for dinner. Went out yesterday and stocked up on all my fruit and veg and pulses. so if I get puckish during the day I shall snack on celery and capsicum strips.
I have blitzed some chickpeas and other beans that I cooked up. I put some spices as well as fresh lemon juice in. Tastes rather nice. Presumably I can have a little bit of that with my celery if I get hungry??? Can someone let me know about that please.
I downloaded an app on my phone to keep track of my calories on my non-fasting days, there were so many to choose from so I chose “Spark People ” I dare say they are mostly the same.
Pintinlin, my scales are the old kind but I have been saying that I will get digital ones for ages. It may sound silly but that will be my first treat to myself when I have lost a couple of kilo.
Cinque, I noticed that you are fasting as well as me today, you said that you are going to have a salad for lunch and soup tonight, do you just have 2 meals or do you have a small breakfast as well, as long as you are keeping to the calorie amount ? I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and personally I am hopeless if I don’t have something with my cup of green tea!
I must say that reading that some of you only weigh in between the 60 and 70kilo mark I FEEL HUGE, I am 87 kilo, all my weight went on through stress eating and no exercise, Hubby flew away with my EX EX EX best friend, ( saw him recently and she is welcome to him, lololol) and my hips went kapoot. I used to love going for a walk early in the morning but cannot do so now. I am flat out walking around the shopping center! But I love the pool and the village where I live has one so I go there early and fluff around deep water running etc. That has got to do me some good, I hope! I also have a treadmill but it is way too hot to use it at the moment!
Oh well all, typing this has taken my mind off food for an hour. Looking forward to reading more posts tomorrow.
take care all.

Thin, Cinque, Merry

Thank you for posting and encouraging others. 🌺🌺🌸🌸💐💐

Cheers, Bay

Today I’m fasting in the midst of a heatwave. Did all my housework by 9 am. As we drove up the Hume Highway yesterday it was 40-44C the whole way from Seymour to Yass. ☀️☀️

Charlotte, my GP says I was 87kg at my worst (I don’t believe him as my records only go up to 83kg, ha ha) but anyway, I’m just telling you this because I am now 60kg and you can be too. Please stay with us! That will be the ultimate revenge when you see your ex-friend and your ex-husband. Being slim is such a confidence-booster. Could you put a floor fan in front of the treadmill for the hot days? I use mine on very hot days but it’s in the garage with an outlook to the garden and it’s a very cool spot. But, if not, don’t worry, exercise has many benefits but you will still enjoy substantial weight loss if you just follow the 5:2 plan.

As for the chic pea with celery question, yes, you can have anything you want on your FD. But you must count absolutely everything. This includes all milk in tea, any herbal tea bags, etc. I think it’s one reason that it’s so easy to stick to a FD – calculating everything is so much hassle that it’s easier to limit what passes your lips.

Don’t worry about conventional thinking on aspects like breakfast being the most important meal. Many of us have found that eating awakens the ‘hunger dragon’ and we find it easier to hold off until later. When I started this, I planned one month’s worth of FD meals ahead of time as my OH was doing it with me and he needed to feel as if he was eating three meals. Over time, I came to realise that if I wait until 2pm for my first intake (homemade soup), I could have a more substantial meal at 5pm and a small protein snack before bed. Just do whatever works for you. If you like breakfast, that’s fine but I personally find it easier to have ‘calories in the bank’ rather than spending all day knowing I’ve already consumed them.

Hi Everyone,

Charlotte 5:2 has been a real journey for me. I started after watching ‘What’s the right diet for you?” http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ddsd9
And on it, they had the 5:2 people eating 800 calories on their fast days.
I wanted to do Mosley’s method, but as I was pretty stressed when I began, I wasn’t fussed about going a bit over 500, and I was especially aware that I had milk in my tea and coffee and didn’t think I could manage fasting and cutting it out at the same time!

I like my breakfast so I had a small bowl of porridge in the morning, and a big bowl of soup in the evening. Just 2 meals, but also lots of cuppas with milk. I think I was 100 – 200 over the 500 calorie limit.
BUT IT STILL WORKED!

However I wanted to get below 500 and decided it was easier to cut out the porridge than to cut out my cuppas! So that is what I did! I enjoyed having my cuppas through the day, and then my bowl of soup in the evening. (Ofcourse, afternoons were always hungry times!)

Then when I got to the point I didn’t need to lose more weight, I added in a salad. Early afternoon seems the best time to eat it as my cuppas keep me going through the morning (although I was VERY hungry this morning!). I’ve just eaten it now. So I am back to a bit over 500 calories a day, but that is because I am now on maintenance.

Re the low numbers you hear people talking about here, it is because there are so many old timers! I was about 84kg at my heaviest. I just wanted to get down from ‘obese’, through ‘overweight’ and into the healthy range!

I remember when I was about 72kg my doctor congratulating me and saying I should try to get to 65kg. She has a good eye, and is understanding about making a goal easy, as that is right at the highest end of my healthy weight range. I remember thinking “65! I want to get below 60!”

But it wasn’t until someone linked a photo on one of the threads here, and it showed a person who wasn’t just not overweight, she was wonderfully slim! And I thought, Oh my! Maybe I could get there too!

I’ve been overweight all my adult life, so that was a really big brain challenge! Anyway I just kept plodding on with 5:2, making it as easy as I could, and sustainable in my life, for about 16 months, (and no scales 😉 ) til my doctor said “Hmm, you are below 50kg, I don’t think you should lose any more weight!”

So here I am, nearly at the bottom of my healthy weight range! And doesn’t it feel lovely.

Hi Everyone!

Charlotte – welcome to the group and your fasting adventure. I too am new to this lifestyle of fasting and have my apprehensions + determinations. It’s great you know where you are starting off from on the scale – I do too – but I am focusing more on how I feel from the inside out rather than what the numbers on the scale reveal.

I’ve tried other food restriction diets before, and consider myself very active (going to the gym 4 or days a week) but no matter how much I worked out or restricted certain food groups the scale never went down.

I don’t care anymore. I’m trying 5:2 for science reasons. Watching Mosely’s doco recently inspired me to get healthy from the inside out. I find the science REALLY interesting behind this diet: for a number of years now I’ve read countless books reminding me why I went vegetarian over 10 years ago. I highly recommend The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. What he discovered after conducting over 150,000 studies on food and nutrition actually compliments a lot of what Mosely presents in his discovery of 5:2.

Anyways, no need to bore you all more.

Today is my 4th FD on the plan and i feel GREAT! The last 3 FDs have ben full of mind games, hunger pangs and dreaming of food! The only obstacle from today is a feeling sluggish. But I adjusted my day and worked from home doing as much as I can – there is always tomorrow, isn’t there?

I hope this is an indication that I’ve made it over the hump (the most difficult part) and I am looking forward to my next FD (on Monday).

Cinque that’s interesting about the 5:2 people in the documentary eating 800 calories and still losing weight. Was that Michael Moseley’s documentary or a different one? I must watch that after my Australia based sister in law told me about it last week. I think I’ll watch the other one you mentioned too, thank you. I am a scientist after all. I really don’t agree with the diets that exclude whole food groups, these are probably the only ones I haven’t tried, that’s what I really like about the idea of 5:2. I may have finally found the one for me.

Fasting has always been super easy for me as I don’t really ever get hungry, I was a very skinny child and young adult because of this, I’d regularly forget to eat. We have a 40 hour famine here in NZ where you don’t eat for 40 hours and raise money for charity I always found this very easy. Problem now is I’ve discovered I like food, and not getting hungry it’s really hard to know if I need to eat or if I just want to eat.

Hi again all,
JodyW, how do scales know what body fat you have???????
Well my first fasting day is going well and its already 4.25pm. Breakfast was that parmesan eggy thing from the book, mid morning was black coffee, lunchtime was
a fresh peach and a stick of celery and I have just made a veg stir-fry and have put a teaspoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of oyster sauce in to make it a bit less dry. I have made enough for 3 servings so will freeze the other 2 for another time.
I have drunk that much water I reckon I could pee a pool full!
I only drink black coffee or organic tea so I don’t have to worry about milk if I want a hot drink. I must admit that I miss having a sweetener in my coffee though.
I am already planning what to eat tomorrow! lolol Next fasting day is Friday for me.
Bye4now

Re weight: Female, mid 60’s, mobile but unable to exercise for medical reasons, 6′ 6″ or 169cm, medium frame. Muuuuuch taller than Cinque!

Weight for several decades as an adult – 58kgs.
Highest weight ever – 93 kgs.
Took 6 yrs to get 10kgs off
Start 5:2 – 83kgs
Reached goal in mid November – 62 kgs. Took 2yrs exactly with 8 month maintaining delibereately in the middle because of high stress period …so actual time of loss was 21 kgs in 16 months.
Weight this morning 62.7kgs and slap bang in the middle of my healthy weight range,
New goal – 60kgs.

Loss on 5:2 – 21kgs
Previous loss – 10kgs
Total lost – 31kgs

Clothing size now 10-12.

For newbies – I’ve been where you are now – but it was a couple of years ago. Don’t be daunted by some of us oldies having lower weights. If we meet in person we’ll happily show you our fat photos!

When we were new bayleafoz was here as a successful 5:2er to encourage and to give us info we were looking for, along with purpleveggieater, and Barata. That’s bay, purple and Barata in ozzie speak. Thin, who was here about 6 months before me is our Official Kicker of Behinds. She does it so well and we thank her for it!

Here’s how it works:

Bay, purple, Barata, simcoeluv – (that’s simco or just sim to you , he of the info for newbies and pants falling down fame and Honourary Ozzie) : Official Wise Yodas who pop in and out

Thin: Official Kicker of Behinds and All Round Inspiration who holds WA together
Intesha: Official Glamour Queen, Overcomer of Adversity and Fear Overcomer Extroardinaire
Cinque : Official Nicest Person in The World and Ozzie OpShopper of the Year (I have seen, and it is true)
Lael: Official Confounder of Medical Advice and Overcomer Extroardinaire
Me: Official Travel Director, Official Writer of The Longest Posts (especially when I’m tired) and Unofficial Conferrer of Official Awards

Official Mottos: If you fall off the horse/wagon get back on the horsewagon. If you fall off it again, get back on it again. And repeat as many times as you need. No guilt.

FD tomorrow! Yay!
Merry

Merry, I’ve been hoping to suddenly get taller than my 161cm for decades – never happened.
I was born with crooked legs and they were straightened a bit, but not properly when I was 5-6 years old. When I had a knee replacement done in 2015 my surgeon said he could straighten the leg as well. One of the first things I did when I got home was to measure my height in the hope that one straight leg might mean I was taller – no such luck. Oh well, maybe when I have the second knee done…

Where did the glamour girl tag come from? I’m very flattered and humbled by your comments Thin and Merry.

Sabotaged myself yesterday by eating way too many chocolates. It was so hot here and I just didn’t know what to do with myself so I ate. I don’t have air conditioning and I couldn’t leave Dad in the house to swelter on his own.

Today’s another day and an FD. Same weight as Tuesday’s FD 67.7.

Also for the newbies I started 5:2 at 87kg, my two year anniversary coming up but 10yrs ago I topped the scales at 105. Don’t be hard on yourselves and don’t think this doesn’t work because it does. My motto “how do you eat and elephant? One bite at a time. We’ve all been where you are. This is a for life way of life not a quick fix.

My ‘healthy’ weight range is 59-79kg apparently… at 116kg, I can’t even fathom being 79kg… 59kg just seems like complete crazy talk, lol.

I don’t think I’ve been below 100kg since the end of high school (now early 40’s). 4 years ago I weighed 141kg… scares me to think that I would be about 150kg now (or more) if I hadn’t done something about it then. Twice in the last 18 months I have been down to 112kg, so getting below 110kg is going to be a pretty important milestone and is my immediate goal… getting below 100kg is going to be major.

…that ‘healthy’ weight range isn’t even on my radar yet (but it will be once I get below 100).

It’s good to see so many people who have already reached where they need to be… AND still continue with this WOL – really reinforces that this isn’t some temporary ‘3-month diet then go back to your old ways’ type thing (so thanks for sharing!)

Charlotte – scales can measure body fat by an impedance analysis… basically they send an electrical current through your feet and measure the time it takes to come back. Electrical current travels faster through muscle than through fat, and it gets an idea of the percentage via that. The actual percentage isn’t terribly accurate, but the trend should be pretty decent if you are consistent with when you measure (hydration level makes a big difference to the reading for instance).

Oh dear Merry, am I really that bad? I’ll have to try to model my posts more on Cinque’s. Have a lovely GD day today Cinque (that’s grand daughter day).

CR, as mentioned in my previous post, yes, you can have celery or anything you want on a FD. But you do have to count every single thing that passes your lips – that includes whatever you used to fry the egg. Well done with the first kg gone.

Vaderz, you can do it. I think it was LJ who’s recently told us that she’s now half her worst weight. We all wish we’d known of this decades ago but we’re here now. Don’t worry about the past, this is the beginning of the new healthier you and we all want you to succeed. A downward trend is all you need IMHO.

Lael sent me a link to a recent Sydney Drive interview with Dr M. dispelling myths surrounding topics such as low fat foods, rate of weight loss and artificial sweeteners. In it, he said that it’s a myth that weight loss should occur at a slow rate (which was something I’d always believed unless the patient was at risk of imminent death or disease from morbid obesity).

However, the justification didn’t seem to have much physiological basis wrt long-term IF, more that people would simply give up if they didn’t see a rapid loss. I get that vibe from many newbies but I do believe maintenance 5:2 is essentially the same as weight loss 5:2 so there’s no hurry to get here.

Although he still practices a modified form of 6:1 himself, I get the sense that, Dr M. has moved on from Fast Diet and is now focussing more on his Blood Sugar Diet, promoting a more rapid weight loss to reverse the effects of diabetes thus preventing the need for medication and subsequent insulin dependency. This is great for pre-diabetics but like so many ‘diets’, that 8 week diet offers no maintenance plan. What happens once they’ve lost all that weight? As someone who’s lost a significant amount of weight twice before I found 5:2, I see a flaw in that type of weight loss. And I know of several people diagnosed with diabetes who got terrified, lost a lot of weight and have now gained it all back and more. Discussion?

One other interesting aspect that Dr M. mentioned is that there is no nutrition education provided in medical school.

Thin – interesting!

Oh Merry you make me smile. What do you think of that cookbook, some really great recipes!!!

I’m up for travelling anywhere for a 5:2 meet. I will be in Melbourne again in July but I have never been to WA. Will be in Canberra next week from Friday to Monday.

Has anyone read the book “Buddha’s Diet” (by Tara Cottrell and Dan Zigmond)?

I’ve had a quick flick through it and looks pretty interesting (spoiler alert, it’s about only eating during a 9-hour window each day, so 15:9, but says some monk’s do 18:6, but feel 15:9 is more achievable for most… so, a book about 16:8 essentially).

…seems to cover a lot of good stuff, I think I might have to read it properly.

Wow! I took a technology/internet free day yesterday and this thread has been a flurry of activity!!!

I’ve read through the top half of the page and wanted to comment before I forget! If I wait till I get to the bottom, this thought would have escaped me…

Merry, I live very close to the Gold Coast on the Tweed Coast or about half hour from Coolangatta. I’d love to meet up with you in February if possible. I start back at TAFE, so time is more limited, though maybe it can work?

Charlotterose, since you are on the Gold Coast too, maybe we three can get together in February, Merry and you and me?

Okay, back to reading posts!