jeana1: Your reference to magnesium for the problem under discussion reminds me of a health food shop incident a couple of months ago. I had been getting the most excruciating cramp in my legs and feet. When I asked if there was anything that could help they recommended I take magnesium citrate. I duly bought some and promptly took the recommended dose.
Whoops! as you found, magnesium is fine as a constipation remedy, not so great if you want to relieve cramps. I decided if I had to choose between the runs and cramp, it would be cramp every time. When I returned to the shop to suggest they tell customers about this side effect, the woman who served me said she was not aware of the problem. A bit of in-house training is called for, I suspect.

Hi blue and all, glad you had an easy fast day, me too.I’m not sure why. Just getting a bit hungry now, but that’s probably because my daughter is in the kitchen making brownies for a school Christmas party aaarg! I think I have a few calories left for some warm almond milk,my go to snack at 30 calories.

HELP! Dear LOACA’s I’ve just been back to the doc and had my suspicions confirmed that my right hip has deteriorated and I’m now on an “Osteo Pathway” which means I’ll be on a waiting list for hip replacement surgery. This is not a surprise, in fact it is why I set out to lose weight and why I’m loving 5:2.

The waiting list is about 18 months (I don’t have private insurance) so I’ve got plenty of time to lose another few kilos and get as fit as I can be so that rehab is short and effective. They do amazing things these days so I’m going to fight my fear of surgery and anesthetics for the chance to keep bushwalking for as long as I possibly can.

In May 2013 on my 56th birthday I weighed 83kg. Today I weighed 72kg (clothes on at the dr surgery). I’m as slack at 5:2 as I am at everything else so I’ve not counted calories, failed to finish more fast days than I’ve started, and been a very naughty girl, but I’ve still lost weight and feel I can keep going to a size where surgery results will be optimum.

So, help me, ladies. I need an e-shoulder to cry on and an e-hug. Maybe I should start a new thread for joint replacement cronies but I’m happy here.

RoBa

So sorry to hear the news about your dodgy hip. I can’t think of a better place to come to than the 5:2 forum for what in our family is called “a cup of tea and a moan”, albeit in cyber space. I can’t speak from experience about the “osteo pathway”, something I’ve so far managed to escape, not because of anything I’ve done to avoid it, I’ve just been lucky so far.

However, I can sympathise with your fear and dislike of surgery although, again, I’ve only ever been a day case for a tooth extraction under anesthetic, but I’m still a complete wuss about anything to do with hospitals. As a kicking and screaming 3-year-old it took 6 people to hold me down while a nurse attempted to put drops in my eyes. I can still remember it. My poor mum was mortified. Seventy years later, I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t do the kicking and screaming routine all over again in similar circumstances. As for messing up on fast days – tell me about it!.

Fortunately, there are others, like sylvestra, who share your experience and whose thoughts and advice can be much more helpful. All I can say is well done for already doing so much to help yourself, like losing 11 kg since May (I’m green with envy!) with the prospect of losing a few more before having surgery. Hang on in there, be kind to yourself, and feel free to bend our ears. Big hug!

Aw RoBa – you poor thing – a big virtual hug from me too – it is not a nice thing to face.

My left hip just got stiffer and stiffer over an 18 month period – an osteo I paid for myself said he thought I had an arthritic joint which was why he couldn’t help me, but my ex-GP insisted time and time again that there was nothing wrong with me at all! (Notice he is now my ex-GP!)Eventually a simple X-ray (under private healthcare) revealed hip dysplasia which has led to the joint becoming arthritic. In other words I was born like this (the ball joint doesn’t fit the socket and never has) but it took 48 years to become a major issue!

I do remember the day I got the diagnosis – I genuinely just thought they’d inject or send me for physio so went on my own to the consultation – I was really shocked and sat and cried! So I know how daunting it can feel. I think my main thought was how old it made me feel as it is the first time I’d had something that wouldn’t get better without major intervention.

HOWEVER, 2.5 years later and two small ops later (hip manipulations under anaesthetic to improve mobility) I am just 4 weeks away from my full hip replacement. They did want to wait until I was older (I am 51 now) but my mobility is crap – I can’t walk far without limping and I can’t reach my left foot at all – so I feel like an old crone! And I have a great consultant who cold see how much I was struggling.

After agreeing the operation date with the doc (crazily I chose January to accommodate work – and I’ve been made redundant anyway!) I had a stern talk with myself as he told me that any weight I could lose would make both the operation recovery and rehab better. So I have been extremely motivated and have dropped 1.5 stones since 19th August.

Since having a definite date I have talked to loads of people who have had the op or who know others who have had it and everything is positive. Although I am still in slight denial about the gory details (!) I am so looking forward to getting back to my old self – and being able to dash around rather than limp!

Hopefully you won’t have to wait a full 18 months – but it gives you a fantastic target for weight loss. I only wish I had known about and started 5:2 sooner. even though I’ve lost a lot – I am now aiming to get back to the weight I was all through my 20s and 30s – 10 stone – and for the first time ever I am 100% confident I can get there and stay there.

I wish you all the luck in the world – you know you can do it – and I’m sure in 18 months you’ll be a slim mobile active person again. 🙂

Cath x

Congratulations! We missed you. Welcome back!

Welcome back PBB and well done! Woo-ooh for you! Super to learn that you have dropped a stone AND moved house! Quite an accomplishment….!!

Hi RoBa sorry to hear about your hip trouble. Good for you for sticking with the program.Also congrats to boo not exactly sure what a stone is but it sounds Like a lot! I’ve not been able to get anyone to do this with me in “real life” so I really appreciate all your comments. Last fast day before Christmas tomorrow, and I need to bake treats for some of the people my husband supervises. Aaargh! I think I will do it right in the morning and then head out to do a bit more shopping. That way I won’t be tempted to eat my creations…

@ Veronica

I sympathise – thankfully for me the menopause has been and gone. You DO come out the other side feeling much better 😀

You say – ‘my eating is horrible.’ & ‘I guess I have been over indulging and letting myself have what I couldn’t have when I was trying to keep within the 1200/day calories’

It’s not about WHAT you eat on non fast days – it’s more about HOW MUCH. Did you perhaps take the ‘eat freely’ part too literally? On a non fast day you should, ideally, stay at or below your TDEE. There’s a handy link in the right hand column on this site to calculate this if you don’t already know what it is.

I have been calorie counting for so long now I do it without thinking about it but not everyone wants to do this indefinitely. However recording your non fast day calories for a couple of weeks gives a good idea where you in regard to portion sizes.

Good luck …5:2 really works and it gets easier as you get used to it.

Stef: many thanks for your kind suggestion. I already drink tonic with dinner and often again just before bed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I understand that cramp can be due to insufficient potassium in the blood, but I’m told my potassium levels are a little too high, would you believe, so it can’t be that. Fortunately, the cramps come and go. It’s at least 4 weeks since I had a bad one. Often, the remedy seems to be to stand up, put as much weight as possible (and there’s plenty of that, I’m sorry to say!) and try and flex the muscles. For cramp in the feet, vigorous toe-heel exercises help considerably.

I had a row with my other half about the latter exercise. He seemed more concerned that I was disturbing the downstairs neighbours with my stamping, not to mention the loud effing and blinding that I tend to emit when in severe pain. I’m afraid I don’t have the generosity of spirit to give a s**t about the neighbours when I’m in agony. Besides, they keep ME awake with their midnight hawking and spitting.

Weissdorn……well done on your weight loss. 😀

I’m not a pharmacist so I can’t comment on the supplements you are taking.

Just a minor point 11 lbs is 11 lbs – 2 stone would be 28 lbs.

PBB… welcome to Scotland!!! Which part of our wonderful country have you moved to?

I am on fast day number 3 this week. Yesterday ‘accidently’ turned into a fast day. I just wasn’t hungry at all for some reason – despite a 7km walk, with a couple of mini ‘jogettes’ fitted into it. At around 6.30pm I ate a veggie bolognese thing with ‘courgetti’ and then a couple of rice cakes with home made smoked salmon pate (I sure know how to push the boat out 😀 ) so my total calorie intake for the day was less than 400. Today was my usual fast day so I decided to go ahead with it.
Monday will be my next fast and then Thursday and hopefully I’ll get a fair bit of walking done next week and then when we’re away over New Year.

I agree with Lindy about supplements- on a well balanced, vegetarian diet I have NEVER spent a night in hospital since I was born in one – I turned 60 this month- and have had no significant illnesses, perfect blood pressure, cholesterol etc. However I was interested to read earlier on this forum when someone suggested I take magnesium to stimulate my sluggish digestive system-and another poster said they were taking it to relieve cramps. A couple of years ago I was the buyer on a TV series, and was spending LITERALLY half my 10 hour days sitting in the horrendous Sydney traffic. I was actually starting to get a pain in my left leg from it, as well as a sore bum. Another buyer, doing the same job on a different show, told me she had asked her doctor about this, who referred to the condition as ‘Taxi Driver’s Leg’ and suggested magnesium….anyway digestion has returned to normal so I guess I won’t try the magnesium. But the results from the poster taking the iodine / potassium combo are impressive. I must admit I am tempted, as I’m pretty sure I won’t reach my goal of 57k before New year without actually severing a limb.
BTW- don’t all EU countries use metric weights & measures? I remember lbs., stones etc. from my childhood, but find it very confusing- I know they still talk in pounds in the USA, but UK?

Thanks Sylvestra- I thought I was going mental- I lived in London in the mid 70’s, visited twice a year for work all through the 80s and have been regularly since then- and was convinced all Europe was metric (as, indeed you have confirmed it is)…… we changed over about the same time, (Australia) and there is no sign of the old system, except for people like my husband referring to extremely hot days as over 100 degrees- sounds hotter than 36 I suppose.
I don’t hold on to any relics of the past except that I still find it easier to visualise measurements in inches than cm-both are used in fashion & costume workrooms here, although in the 8os, the changeover rules were so strict that it became impossible to buy the double sided tape measures which have both on them- so I used to stock up for all my colleagues when I went to the USA!

BooBoo- went to the gynecologist yesterday, and just so your weight loss doesn’t go to your head, I also have lost one stone! since Aug 2012. So ha!

Roba- I can also go to the loo and shed so many grams or ounces or point something of a pound. It doesn’t matter to me what measure we use, if I get stuck I can google it.

Loretta- 100 degrees is much hotter than 36–I don’t care which metric is used! 😉

Sorry about the Stone thing. We don’t use that measurement on the continent. It was 5.5 kg today (total) be precise, and now I just found out it was slightly under one Stone.

Why iodine supplements? Because I was suffering from chronic depression and I’d been having concentration problems over a longer period of time. Plus, during the spring and summer I’d been exercising regularly, walking up 30-50 km per week (19-31 miles) and just exercise and sensible eating wasn’t contributing to significant weight loss. I was doing up to 160 push-ups against park benches, and becoming none the happier, slimmer or more “with it”. The only positive thing that happened was I had more endurance and lower blood pressure. But I was still fat, still dull-witted, and still pretty much unhappy.

So, a friend lent me her copy of “Attacking Anxiety & Depression” from Lucinda Bassett, and one of the first things they recommended was to get one’s thyroid tested, which I did. It was within the “normal” range. Then I began to wonder what hypothyroidism could possibly have to do with depression and weight retention.

So I googled it, and I found this video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/JY933qdOF_o

I asked my physician that despite my normal thyroid levels, if it would be alright to take iodine supplements. He said that I could try, and to inform him if there were any negative results.

After a couple weeks, I noticed my depression was not so severe. It sort of “weaned” off. I wasn’t full of so much self-doubt.

The negative side was despite my weight level of being down to a BMI of 33.0 at the start of summer, I was hungry all the time. Plus, I slacked off on exercise. The result was gaining weight and having my BMI go back up to 36.4 over a five month period of time.

Now, I am noticing that with the Fast Diet, I can go from BMI 36.4 to BMI 34.9 in one week.

Before my doctor suspected I might be going into menopause, but now he’s not so sure, because:

– my hair loss has slowed down
– some of my wrinkles are not so visible
– my skin isn’t as dry as it used to be
– my periods are not so “heavy”
– my depression has pretty much faded
– my concentration and ability to remember things has significantly increased
– my weight can sink significantly if I stick to a diet and exercise
– it can also increase just as fast if I don’t stick a diet and exercise!!
– I don’t feel so tired
– I don’t have the usual fall/winter joint aches and pains
– I’m not cold all the time

I have NO IDEA if a combination of iodine supplements and intermittant fasting can actually help postpone menopause or reverse aging effects. I haven’t found any conclusive information on this at all.

Just in case my bathroom scale was playing a joke on me, I took my measurements too, and found out that I had lost 2 cm pretty much everywhere on my body, including my neck, bicep, thigh, calf, belly, breast, waist and hips. Even if the bathroom scale is unreliable, how can the tape measure also be unreliable?

The only facts of note are: the average European and North American do not receive enough iodine even in an exemplary healthy diat, due to soil depletion during the last Ice Age, and iodine is essential for a properly functioning metabolism.

definitely 1971 Precious BB!! On 22nd February.

I remember it well as my lovely grandmother died, aged 84, the day decimal coinage was introduced. I had told her a couple of days before that I would sort out the coins in her purse for her as she was in hospital after falling and breaking her hip. She told me not to worry as she ‘wouldn’t need to bother with that nonsense’. True to her word she didn’t.

She was a wonderful lady and an inspiration. Far ahead of her time – she loved travelling and would often take me with her. At the age of 72 and by then a widow, she set sail for Australia to visit my uncle. It took a month for her to get there via the Suez Canal, India and Ceylon (as it was then).

Sorry I went rambling there……. 😀 I do that….it’s me age you know 😀

Decimal coinage – ah yes I was in the sixth form and had a Saturday job in Woolworths where we were trained in the New Money. It wasn’t easy in old
or new as in those days the tills did not add up and on the sweet counter you sometimes had to add up over a dozen items. Mars bars went from 9d to 4p I remember … OMG I sound like Grandpa Simpson – stop now.

Hi everyone, and special hello to PreciousBooBoo,

I haven’t posted in some while on this topic… I can’t have been as busy as PBB with her house move, but I have had a few things on and so have not been able to find time to read very active topics such as this one. But I just checked in to see if PBB was back, and am very glad to see that she is (you are!) and CONGRATS on the loss of one stone. 😀 😀 That is a very significant milestone. 🙂 🙂

We head off early on the morning for almost 3 weeks holiday – first of all to spend Christmas with my parents, then 2 weeks of caravaning. So not sure what chance I will have to either read posts or post myself during that time either… But once we are back home I will do a big catch up if I haven’t been able to before.

So in case I don’t get another chance before Wed, have a fantastic Christmas everyone! 🙂
Cheers!!
Sassy

Hi Iwfama, not sure about the whole calorie thing.800 calories seems really low. My understanding of 5/2 is that there should be some difference between fast and non fast days. I try to eat TDEE on my non fast days.For me that’s around 1600 calories. On fast days I try to stay around 400. Maybe someone else has a better answer? Thanks boo for the stone definition, that is a good amount! I live in the states. Iowa farm country to be more exact. We use pounds, inches, feet, miles, and Fahrenheit. I enjoy getting to hear folks from different countries, it’s all good. I’m going to enjoy my feast “week” which actually started yesterday.It will extend to next Sunday when the last family members heads home.So you all have a merry Christmas, also a happy solstice.

Hi everyone
I haven’t posted for a while but do keep watching.

Just want to say I ALMOST made my goal of 70kg by Christmas! Not quite, but have now lost the magical 20.1kg (3 stone 2 lbs) since 22/1/13 (exactly 11 months). Now 70.7kg from 90.8 in January!!!!!!!!!
Had blood tests last week and
Cholesterol from 7.2 (January), 5.9 (April), 5.4 (last week)
Tryglicerides from 3.2 (January), 0.8 (April), 0.6 (last week)
BMI from 34.8 to 30.1 to 26.61 today.

I feel great and will fast forever, and I am determined not to put on ANY weight over Christmas – last week bought a 16C, unbelievable feeling! Onward to 66kg.

Merry Christmas everyone, Vicki

Hello Vicki – we share Hobart as a not very warm place to be this Christmas season. I’ve kept an eye on your posts because of the similar geography, and because we seemed to have a similar trajectory. I’m just in awe of your 20+kg weight loss. You good thing!

Assuming 16C is your bra size I have to say that getting my boobs down from a huge something-bigger-than-F to fitting comfortably into an E cup has been great for me, but I wonder if I’ll ever wear a C cup again?

Onward to 66kg is an admiral goal — for me the target is my birthday in May.