Good afternoon SHs,

My nurse did arrive on time this morning so I’ve had my infusion. Feeling rather tired (which is normal just after treatment), but no nasty side effects thankfully. I’m just pottering this afternoon, no big tasks planned.

Nancy, I had big issues with my NFDs because I had years of binge eating habits to deal with. I did find that initially I had to monitor calories on NFDs otherwise they cancelled out the FDs and I got stuck on a plateau. Over time I eliminated most discretionary foods to just one modest thing per week and ate a healthy balanced diet the rest of the time. Then I found that I could ease off on the monitoring. Many people never have to monitor their NFDs. I think it depends on how low your TDEE is (mine is 1400 cals and I need to stay at this level on NFDs), and also what your “normal” eating pattern is. The general guideline is that if you are following 5:2, sticking to the 500cals on FDs but not losing weight, then you need to look at what foods, quantities and calories you are eating on the NFDs. So I’d suggest you wait and see how things are going after 3-4 weeks. It’s a lot of extra monitoring and it can make you feel like you are on a diet every day, which is not helpful, so only take this step if it’s really necessary.

Quacka, the nurse takes my BP 4 times over the 2 1/2 hours that she’s here doing the infusion. It’s always lower than at the GP’s surgery, and both my BP and pulse fall the longer I’m sitting on the lounge. So taking your BP at home can be very helpful at giving you a more reliable indication of what it is in real life. You may find that you get quite different readings at different times of day – I have an uncle who monitors his BP at home and he sees a lot of difference in time of day – although in his case I suspect it’s connected to when he takes his BP meds and they take effect.

Paula, Thanks for the tip, but I’m in Adelaide, so a trip to Perth to buy sheets might be fun, but a bit pricey – I’m on a budget here.

Cali, something I learned yesterday is that I need to see and touch textiles before buying. I had found and chosen everything online before heading to the shops yesterday, thinking the preparation would save me time. But none of the online colours were the same as in real life and you can’t determine texture, so I ended up buying mostly different things to the plan. So many sheets have a “sateen” texture these days and I want a crisp linen feel and I can’t see that online. There are also more shades of white than you realise until you try to match different bedding – this was also a sticking point when I was looking yesterday – I need a warm white and most of the bedding was a cool white.

There is a Sheridan factory outlet only 10 mins drive from me that I haven’t tried yet and their prices are usually reasonable, so I’ll try there later in the week.

I fasted yesterday and just broke my fast with a large bowl of raw muesli with extra bran, almonds and a banana. Tasty, masses of fibre and very filling as a combined breakfast-lunch. Even though I don’t eat at breakfast time it doesn’t mean I have to give up breakfast foods.

CalifDreamer & LJoyce Thanks for the Info. Monitor the NFD sounds the plan. :))

Hi everyone

Successful NFD today – came in just under 1200 calories (allowance per My Fitness Pal); TDEE is 1526 cals; 76.4kg today – lowest yet; only 1.4kg to 1st goal of 75kg – fingers crossed I won’t have to wait too long! Feels really good.
We currently have weather warnings for flooding rain over the next two days, so I hope they are wrong!

Merryme: look forward to hearing from you again in April – best wishes for your secret venture!

Intesha: Here’s hoping for a very relaxing travel time away for you – all the best

Cinque: Hi to you. I will try a liquid fast again – have done two successfully this year, but 36 hours is enough for me – could never do 5 days like some! Hope you have kept safe from all the bad weather, and bushfires, recently

Penguin: You should be settled nicely back in Gloucester UK now – hope the weather is very kind to you

LJoyce: Your new floors boards are probably looking pretty spectacular by now – still don’t know where your energy comes from, but good on you, very impressed. How are the soft furnishing purchases going – what fun for you, or maybe not after reading a later post!!!
My scales are currently on a downward trend – maybe you waved a magic wand!

Thin: congratulations on your weight loss

Hi GDay, Stay, Calif, LindsayL, Quacka, Paula, Nancy and all others.

Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now!

PS: noticed I missed reading page 308 – so sorry, catch up later!!!

Penguin, welcome home! Good to see you back home on this thread and knowing you’ll be posting again on a regular basis. The six pounds should be gone quickly with your fasting. They could at least warmed up the UK before you arrived! 😁

Arel, congrats on the weight loss and hitting your new low.👏🏻 Keep your eyes on that 75 kg which you’re probably going to see very soon. A shopping trip for new, smaller clothes can’t be far behind, even if it’s a trip to the op shop. Having a few new smaller outfits is great motivation to stick with the program. I know that I look at my new skinny jeans and think twice about eating anything that would make them too tight again. And feeling then growing looser by the week is also a great motivator!

Hi penguin:

Welcome back!

I had a problem once with a quick six pound gain. If you have not read it, it might give you a chuckle: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/easy-on-easy-off/

Take care.

Hi penguin:

Agree on scales. I calibrated my old one mentioned in the post by setting it to ‘accurate’ scales I happened to stumble upon – like those at my doctor’s office or in a gym. My wife hated the scale because it gave her unfavorable information.

A couple of months ago I broke down and purchased an electronic scale. I put it on a solid floor where it wouldn’t have to move for much of any reason. When I got on it, I was surprised to see it gave me a weight that was very close to my old scale. When my wife got on it, she came over and kissed me. Seems it read several pounds less than the old scale read for her.

One of my best investments this year!

Morning all, fasting Wednesday. I’ve spent some time reading backwards up the posts trying to catch up.

CalifD, I read that you have put your large clothes away. It took me some long time to accept that I really was a size 10. For months, I continued to take the larger sized clothing into store fitting rooms with me just in case. I culled the size 18s and 16s pretty quickly but it was a matter of years before I got rid of the size 14s and eventually the size 12s, finally accepting that this is my correct weight and where I belong. I have come to accept myself as a slim person only after having maintained this weight for nearly 3 years.

Arel, well done! 75kg is a great milestone. You’ll be there soon.

Welcome back Penguin and Sybs.

Nancy, I can see that a Friday weigh-in followed by a weekend of indulgence could set you back a bit each week. I chose Sunday for one of my FDs because it was the day we were contemplating starting fasting and I thought why not start now? But Sunday has proven an excellent choice because it limits the weekend damage. If something comes up on a Sunday, I switch to Saturday, continuing to limit any weekend insult.

Quacka, sorry to read of your BP issues. I was over-medicated for spiking BP years ago with awful consequences. Thankfully a new doctor put me on a 24 hour BP monitor which determined I didn’t require any medication at all. My new weight has seen my BP stay low for the past several years. My OH who’s never gained an ounce since high school, has been on BP meds for decades. It’s inherent in some people. I wish you a good outcome as you take control over the aspects that can make a difference.

Cinque, good luck tomorrow with your scan results.

Sybs, welcome home. Good to see you back here! How was your trip to Bali? You were there on holidays, right? Or was it for business? Cairns looks like a beautiful vacation spot to me, so I can see why you’re happy to be home too.

Quacka, BP changes a lot over the day. In fact, if you check it 3 times in a row each reading will likely be different. I used to make myself crazy checking it throughout the day. Now I usually just check once a week or so. There are lots of different BP meds. Sometimes they need to be changed or a different one added. By the time you get down to your goal weight you may not even need them. It’s good to have the monitor to check.

Thin, it is hard to think of giving away or donating my old clothes. They are in a box that I stashed in the attic. I guess I still have fears of gaining the weight back again. But it’s been almost 3 months and I’m maintaining easily with the 5:2. Having the 2 FD is just part of my normal routine now. It does seem to be kind of a feast or famine thing lately though. I overeat on a lot of NFD and then lose it on FD. It seems like it’s not the healthiest way to eat, but I’m staying mostly in the 58s.

Hi everyone

We have some beautiful rain that’s supposed to last about 3 days, with temperatures averaging 22 to 24 ‘C – feels so much better than 45’ heat. Hopefully we’ll get more Autumn weather.

Down to 76.1kg this morning, CD today – feels good, but not too excited just yet! Carb intake and water load can play funny games so I’ll just have to wait and see what eventuates. Currently counting all calories, each day, to get back on track! It’s working.
Calif, Penguin and Thin: Thank you all for your encouragement. My clothes are all loose fitting just now, maybe 75kg will be new clothes time!!!

Calif: I’m with you – I need to make sure never to miss 2 FD per week, and am happy to change the allocated days to allow for life events; I also need to watch my carb intake – it affects my weight so easily due to insulin resistance.

LJoyce: Hope you are feeling a lot better today after your infusion and the tiredness is waning. It’s so good that your Nurse can come to your home and make it all a bit easier for you – travelling when ill is not much fun. Also good for your blood pressure! Glad you found the sheets – it’s a happy feeling and a very big relief, when you find exactly what you are looking for. Sheridan has a vast range and I usually find what I’m looking for there. Wish we could see the finished product of your renos – I’m just amazed at what you’ve been able to accomplish!

Simco: Enjoyed reading your link to ‘easy on, easy off’ – just what I needed to read, very informative and understandable!

Sybcairns: Welcome home from Bali – hope you are all relaxed, and that JJulie will be home soon to accompany you on your morning walks!

Cinque: Best wishes for very good scan results!

Hi to everyone else!
Must go – enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now!

Good evening SHs, hope you’ve all had a good day.

Arel – You are inching ever closer to that goal of 75kg, well done. Your garden will love the rain. I think the rain starts here on Sunday.
I am lucky to have a community nurse who comes here to do the infusions – my only other alternative would be to go to Flinders Medical centre where the chemo day patients have their treatment – a lot more stressful and time consuming. Because the medication is so expensive the PBS scheme pays a very large amount of money for each patient’s treatment, so the drug company is making good profits from it. Because of this they actually fund the community nurses.
You might get so see photos of the finished reno, I’m hoping I’ll be able to post some photos online with links.

Nancy, I concur with Thin’s advice and experience. Letting my hair down (food-wise) for a whole weekend would cancel out my 2 FDs and probably leave me in deficit. I feel nervous if I don’t do a FD on the weekend as it does keep my week in better control. I also like a Sunday fast if possible. I think it’s also worth thinking about your current goal – to lose weight. How you approach 5:2 and the food choices you make when trying to lose weight will be different than using 5:2 for weight maintenance. To lose weight on 5:2 it is important that you stay around or under your TDEE on the non-fast days (even if they fall on a weekend). Once you reach your goal weight then your daily TDEE will be lower than it was when you were heavier (it deceases for every kilo lost and every year older – sorry). However in maintenance, you can go over your TDEE either a little bit every day or a lot on one day if you do the 2 FDs weekly to balance it out. A few of us here are using 5:2 to maintain our weight so it can be a bit confusing when we talk about how we approach our NFDs and what we eat – because we aren’t trying to lose weight. If you haven’t done it already, I’d suggest going to the “How it Works” link at the top of the page. They use 2000cals as the example of TDEE but it’s important to know your own as for most women here it’s much lower than 2000. Be conservative with your activity estimate when using the TDEE calculator. I think there’s a lot of merit in calculating the TDEE for your goal weight and seeing if you can stick to that on NFDs as this will be the foods and portions you’ll need to be eating when you get to goal. I think practicing this while losing weight makes maintenance easier, especially when the FDs in maintenance mean you can have those occasional indulgences and still maintain that lower weight.

Penguin, I’m glad you are home safe and that your kefir survived your inattention.

Cali, you could always compromise and cull the bigger clothes. My weight fluctuated a lot over the years and I found that even when I regained weight there were plenty of larger clothes that were so out of fashion they couldn’t be worn again (remember the fashion for dropped waistlines). So if it’s a style that will date quickly, don’t keep it. If it’s a classic, especially if it’s good quality (eg a good work suit or expensive classic overcoat), then it’s worth keeping for a while if you have the space. If you were sick of it anyway then get rid of it. Once you’ve been at your current weight for a while you will probably be ok with ditching even more of the larger clothing. I got rid of things in stages and only in the last year did I finally get rid of all of the big clothes, except for a couple of oversized shirts which were good for gardening and have made excellent painting shirts. I also kept a small number of high quality garments that I loved and have I’ve cut down and remade for my current size.

Quacka, good luck with the BP monitoring and the meds. At least by checking you have reassured yourself that the medications are actually necessary.

Sybs, I think your indulgences on holiday were remarkably restrained actually. It’s so easy to throw caution to the wind on holiday. I hope you had a lovely holiday despite not being able to go for walks.

Well I’ve finished nibbling on my dinner now. I think it’s time for a cup of tea.

Thin & Cali, I don’t think what I do now is feast & famine. Even on NFDs my food intake is modest compared to most people I know. A true feast would take me more than 2 FD to counteract. I proved this over christmas – the extra christmas foods required at least 3 FD per week to keep my weight stable, and I actually had to do 4 FDs in that last week after christmas – just to maintain my weight. With a low TDEE I feel like the FDs allow me just enough leeway to feel normal on my NFDs, but I still need to be careful with food choices most of the time – definitely not feasting.
I might also add that my dietitian has said that calorie variation between days is normal.

Hi everyone

Just popping in to say good morning and hope you all have a wonderful day.
Our top expected temp is 21’C – so different from the last few weeks, and it’s still raining – all so nice. It’s 7.30am and still fairly dark – daylight saving finishes on Easter Sunday.

Really enjoyed all the wonderful information in the above posts – thank you LJoyce, Thin and Calif for sharing your experiences and knowledge. It’s all so helpful and much appreciated.

Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now!

Good morning everyone, it is beautiful here! Must be the whole east coast Arelkade!

Thanks for good wishes re the scan results but they rang me up to change the appt to April 5th. I was taken aback as I thought if the specialist was away someone else could easily tell me the scan was fine, but my sister has assured me that my specialist will want to see me for 2 minutes so he can put his bill into medibank.

I’ve had a nice couple of days with family, but overdid it, so taking things slowly. It is Thursday fast day, but every 90 minutes my brain keeps asking “What’s for breakfast?” I gently remind it.

Nancy I also got confused about normal eating on a normal day, but then I realised I did have in my mind a picture of what a normal plate of food looks like, and that snacking should only be a couple of times a week, not a couple of times a day, and that is what I am training myself into eating on Non Fast Days. Work in progress though.

I am finding I need to have something specific to do after a meal, because that thing of ‘feeling full after 20 minutes’ doesn’t seem to work for me, I need to distract myself for an hour or so.

Cali, it seems to be part of the journey working these things out slightly differently at every phase. Good luck.

Penguin welcome home. Enjoy that ‘no calorie beer’, and those excess 6 lb will be gone in a moment! 😉

Sybs, welcome home! I hope you had a wonderful time in Bali.
I was thinking of you as I read a wonderful piece about tempeh making in a book I got from the library about vegetarian dishes around the world. The Indonesian section included a piece by Sri Owen on watching it being made.
I also saw some for sale when I went with a friend to visit the superyuppie store in nearby Westgarth. Proper white! I will buy some sometime.

Quakka, if you bought your miso paste from the refrigerated section, it will have the added bonus of containing millions of wonderful microbes to help your microbiome.

LJoyce, glad you got your sheets, and your infusion out of the way for another month.

Thin, thinking of you waking up and looking forward to your frothy coffee.

Yes I’ll be fasting Sunday this week.

Thanks Cinque & LJoyce – this is great info. I will re-read how it works – and find my TDEE – which is what by the way :)))

Nancy, are these the HCBs from the supermarket or some you’ve made? I take a particularly dim view of the marketing. Our Coles began selling them at the entrance of the store on 3 January. I didn’t mention it at the time because last year when I had a whinge about it, it sparked several pages of posts of HCB recipes. I think the marketing stinks to high heaven. When was the last time you saw some healthy fruit & veg. on special at the entrance of the supermarket (unless rotting)? For this reason, I refuse to buy them not only in January but also at Easter whenever that is. Their job is to push equal fat/sugar ratio products that make you keep coming back for more. My job is to fight back and resist. I’m winning.

Cheer up! That HCB will still be there tomorrow and, if you still want it, you can have it then. A walk with the dog sounds way more fun to me.

Treat yourself to some expensive indulgent herbal teas. Madame Flavour offers a good range if you have that in NZ. There’s one called choc orange which smells divine and you can feel a little bit naughty on a FD drinking three cups from one tea bag (sorry LJ, eyebrows raising).

Your TDEE is your daily energy expenditure.

P.S. Ah Cinque, you beat me to it. 😆 Yes, I am psychic, yet have no idea to what you’re referring.

Nancy, I added a bit more to my post above before I saw your reply. You are losing weight, no? 12.3kgs down didn’t you say?

On your FDs, are you calculating absolutely everything, milk in tea/coffee, herbal teabags?

Well meaning OFMs have a tendency to forget if they’re not fasting. This is another reason I rarely change my FDs – it lets my friends and neighbours know that I mean business on those two days. I will change if I have to but I prefer that people work around me. Yesterday, two of my neighbours wanted me to join them for coffee, knew it was a FD, and that I can’t deal with black coffee and went and checked that the new cafe offered herbal teas before inviting me along! I had a nice peppermint and ginger.

Good morning SHs,
I’ve had my 2 cups of tea and am now feeling like an almost alert human.

Nancy, sorry I made some assumptions didn’t I.
The calculator on the link I suggested will tell you two things:
BMR – basal metabolic rate (energy needed if you spent the entire 24 hours confined to a bed or chair)
TDEE – total daily energy expenditure (energy needed for an average day with an “uplift factor” included to account for your nominated activity level).
https://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/
The premise of 5:2 is that you will eat at approximately your TDEE on the NFDs. There is so much public promotion of 8400kj(2000cals) as a normal daily intake that it’s easy to overestimate how much we should be eating daily. Gender, age, height, weight and activity level all affect your TDEE – and unfortunately most of those can’t be changed. When I first understood my TDEE I was shocked as it seemed so low. But I’m not alone, there are others here who also have to live with a TDEE that is in that 1300-1500 range. I had to actually learn what my serving sizes and food choices needed to be to “live within my means”. It was an adjustment process and I had to count calories on NFDs for a while. The changes are well bedded in now and I no longer count calories any day, not even FDs as I eat the same range of meals that I know will be within 500 cal. Basically I had to change my thinking and behaviour regarding what “normal” eating should look like for me. That doesn’t happen overnight, you have to give yourself time to make those adjustments and make them permanent. I find at home I adjusted easily, but eating with family or friends I had to remind myself that just because someone else could eat a larger serve or a high cal meal, it didn’t mean my body required the same amount of food or calories.
PS, I haven’t bought any easter buns yet – I can’t be trusted around them. I have to divide them up and freeze them so that I just thaw one at a time. Just remind yourself that there will always be another easter and the buns will be back in the shops by next January!

Cali, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if my previous dieting has had an effect on my metabolism. I suspect it’s always been on the low side (just thinking about how easily I gained weight as a child when I ate the same foods as the rest of the family who were all thin). But my weight has varied by up to 50kg several times over the years and I’ve done more diets than I can count. In the end, why it happened doesn’t help as I can’t change my past behaviours. I have accepted that it is what it is and I have adapted. I also know from this reno process that the more active I am the more food my body requires. So I do have a behavioural change that is within my control that increases my TDEE. I just have to find a way to stay active after I move from this house.

Cinque, that’s frustrating about the delayed appointment. I’m hopeful that if the news was serious they wouldn’t have delayed it. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for you a little longer. Like you, I also find that an hour is about the time after a meal that I have to finds ways to not eat more food. I need to find distractions immediately after meals, especially lunchtime as it’s my first meal and eating it seems to be the “ON” switch for my appetite.

Cinque, I have just seen your 10.59 post. I missed that one somehow. All is clear now!

Have a great day everyone. Stay strong fasters!

Good afternoon all.

I managed to get some sunshine today by doing a few outside repairs that have been awaiting my attention while I worked on the house.

I’m just about to order some bales of pea straw which will give me more jobs in the garden. I’m actually looking forward to spending time in the garden again. It will make a nice change. I also have some help from my niece over the next couple of weeks to get the final cleaning and presentation ready.

I had though about doing a FD and couldn’t make up my mind. In the end I went for a controlled NFD. So far I’ve had muesli and yogurt and a banana. I’ll reheat one of my legume stews from the freezer for dinner. Tomorrow and Monday will be FDs as fasting this weekend would be too difficult.

Good morning,
Another lovely day in Melbourne.

Thin, that was a well deserved rum!
I’m glad you found my post. 😀
(I said in it that my brain was asking for breakfast every 90 minutes, when actually it was every 90 seconds). (But it is day after Fast Day today, so it is a very happy brain getting some good breakfast).

Nancy I hope you are contemplating your well deserved hot cross bun! Enjoy every bite!
3kg in a month is brilliant!

Sybs, I am so glad you got your fill of tempe in Indonesia, and gado gado, yum. Ofcourse you would have at least one of Sri Owen’s books! (I have borrowed them from the library). I hope your fast day went well.

LJoyce, thanks, yes, a meal does seem to put the ‘ON’ switch and forgets how to turn it off when I have had sufficient.
Enjoy the gardening!

I’m off to make my coffee. Lovely.

Thinatlast & Cinque – :((((( 100grams – at least its in the right direction. Think I better watch my calories on those NFD. Did you get up a dance to the Jazz Thin :))) ???? OH – Explain please – I think I understand the H = Husband – but O?

The HCB was there this morning, I had 1/2 and then thought I am not really enjoying this, replaced with Porridge for BreakFAST, then slices of smoked chicken for lunch. :))

LJoyce – legume stews sounds nice – any chance of a recipe – I am not that familiar with working with Legumes and that kinda thing.

OK off to work – hope you all having good days FD or NFD :))

good morning all – another beautiful day in Cairns. Just making some stewed apples with 1 tbsp of sunflower seeds (I like crunch in my food), 1 tbsp of sultanas for a little sweet treat, and a pinch of cinnamon and mixed spice. The smell wafting through my place is beautiful!

this is so weird, yesterday was a NFD and I wasn’t hungry at all, didn’t even bother with dinner, but had a small glass of white wine instead :-))

Been to Coles and bought 2 x 10l casks of drinking water, stocking up my cyclone kit – I have a bad feeling about cyclone Nora which is tracking in a south-easterly direction.

hope everyone is having a wonderful day

@cinque – you are an “old” bushie just like me – I used to work at Wave Hill cattle station in 1967 :-))

Hello everyone,

I just signed up to the forum, I am in my very late 30s and living in WA fairly remote. Wanted to try out 5:2 because after a while on any other diet I seem to get bored and start eating unhealthy. I would like to lose between 5-9kg.
I did the dukan diet a year ago it worked well lost about 10 kg and put 5 back on. my BMI is 26 so classified as overweight. I don’t like exercise and never stick with it, but have a very physical demanding job and get around 10.000 to 15.000 steps daily. Basically just would like to join the forum to not do the journey all alone.
Regards
Teapot2018

thank you simcoeluv, will check it out right away