Thanks for the pep tak Cinque
I have read more posts, specifically on weighing. I am one of those people who likes to weigh every day. My thinking – if it is good news, I am motivated, if it is bad news, I am disappointed. The good thing is that it usually makes me think of what could have happened and I shore up. The bad news is, if it is one of those ‘no rhyme or reason’ occasions, there is a temptation to stray. Today, after a lovely first five days, I regained 1.75lbs. I can feel the empathy flooding over the ether. The bitter taste of disappointment is enormous after two days fast and a further three of staying within my normal calories rather than eating what I want. I have decided to (wo)man up and so I am on black coffee and awaiting the weekly result on Wednesday morning.

Hi Southy! I saw your message but had a tricky couple of days and couldn’t write. How did your fast day go?
I’m just adding some carbohydrates (nice unrefined complex ones) back into my fast day as my insomnia tends to be worse after a fast day, and carbohydrates in my soup might help.

I’m making a big veggie soup with chickpeas in it, just a bit ‘brothier’ than your stew Madnana! It will be lovely for my meal tonight (it is my Fast Day today) and plenty to have over the next few days too.

How are you Little Sparrow? Do you keep a graph of your daily weight so you can see it over time? I bet if you have been on lots of diets you will have seen this sort of graph before: https://meggoesnomnom.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/graph-yearend.png But the first time I saw how up and down our weight is, I was amazed!
Did you have a motivating result on Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed you did!

Best wishes everyone!

My first fast day went well. Beginning in the morning I checked this blog for inspiration and drank a lot of tea. I liked the suggestion to approach the fast day in a mindful way. Throughout the day, I reminded myself about my larger goal, which is to eat for improving my health and thus life. Focusing on my overarching goal was more inspiring rather than focusing on hunger or denial. I found that my hunger was rather mild. I am just used to eating at certain times therefore that is what I do without much thought. Also I my reduced hunger might possibly be due to more conscientious eating on my non-fast days. The last time I tried fasting, I allowed myself to indulge on non-fast days so I didn’t make a lot of progress. This time I am eating lots of veggies and some protein.

Today is my second fast day for the week. I am actually looking forward to it. I will try to be mindful and use short meditations. Thanks for your support.

Anyone have any tips for a 56 year old female who starts Today 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Welcome Sagosha, I’m new too; going on my second week. Participating in this forum is helpful to me. The previous time I tried the 5:2, I read some other forums but they didn’t fit as well and I wasn’t active. I need support from people who understand what I am trying to do and I find that here from the generous people in this forum. I regularly reminding myself about my larger goal of eating healthier as a life style feels less like denying myself. Instead I feel like I am doing something good for myself. Inspirational stories also motivate me and I sometimes like to reread them when I am flagging. Last week I found this one (https://medium.com/personal-growth/myifguide-38037b3b1ec4#.cjxnacx7y) and there are some good links in it.

Thank you Cinque for the support. You may call me Southie. I have two fast days under my belt and I am going into my third one tomorrow. I am prepared with a variety of tea bags and miso for work. Your advice to Sagosha to prepare is a good one. The most difficult times to fast or choose healthier foods comes when I am tired or frustrated. Anticipating that these things will happen encourages me to prepare and check in with myself. Self-care is so important and I think many of us unintentionally neglect ourselves sometimes.

Tuesday was really hard and I must admit I didn’t do a complete fast even though I prepared. I was really tired. Now I know it was the beginning of a cold. Even though I didn’t complete a total fast, I am allow that I am not perfect. I’m not going to say negative things and instead try to learn from the experience. I know that when I am tired, I am much more vulnerable and eat for energy and comfort. On the bright side, once the cold set in, I didn’t eat much yesterday (my appetite was gone) and the scales continue to drop about a pound for every fast day. Today, a fast day, my goal is to stay hydrated and since I know I am sick, I will allow myself broth or even soup should I need it. I am prepared.

Hi all. I had been a very active poster about 3 yrs ago on this thread when things fell apart badly between posters, and I bowed out as the negativity wasn’t doing my weight loss journey any favors.

So glad there are a nice group of supportive ladies back on the site, as I had missed it terribly.

So now back for another go.

I have reached the “will do whatever it takes” place. 5:2 worked well but oh so slowly for me. Lost about 1 lb a week doing low carb the other 5 days.

Was reading the posts on 5:2 and saw references to Michael’s other diet plan the Blood Sugar Diet.
After reading decided that I will kickstart by campaign with the BSD for the 8 weeks Michael recommends and then return to 5:2 at that point (doing the 800 cal on the two days).

I had always struggled with the 600 calories and often found myself sliding to something more like 650 or 700.

I am hoping this works for me as I have about 70 lbs to lose.

Am 3 days into it so far and finding 800 cal manageable, and am splitting them into just 2 meals a day (a 10 am meal and the 2nd at 6:30).

I was also very gratified so see so many anti Trump comments….who would have thought a weight loss forum would do that for me as well. Counting the minutes for mid term elections to get this country back on the right path. Have become an avid viewer of Stephen Colbert as well. Must keep the Dump Trump movemment alive. He is too filled with hate and lies.

Thanks for hearing me out. Hope there is room for another poster in this very fine group.

The majority of the American people voted for neither candidate. Only 57% of registered voters actually voted. The current occupant of the White House got less than half of those votes. The losing candidate got more than half of those votes.

As a matter of simple arithmetic, it is incorrect to suggest that the majority of Americans support this person.

Hi All,

I have to say I agree with Cinque, this forum and this thread has been a welcoming informative place for people from all walks of life. In my case I came on here to look for support and advice from those more experienced in this plan. I have to say I’ve found lot of tips and support for sure.

There’s too much political commentary on everyone’s facebook and twitter feed and certainly on the news, it’s nice to have a place that’s just for us focusing on our health and wellness!

Have a lovely evening….

Hi Everyone,
It is a rainy morning in Melbourne, the garden is happy. It is fast day for me, I’ll do my usual cuppas all day, and have a bowl of ratatouille this evening (since I have all the summer vegetables here!)

Southie those snacks at work would make it so hard. All power to you, especially on those tired stressful days.
At least home is good, and if fast days are kept, an occasional snack to make the day bearable is actually fine.
There are some snacks I think to myself: if I just have that once a fortnight (or once a month etc) it will be fine. And then I try to enjoy them to the max when I do have one!

I hope your cold is over!

How is the BSD going Luvtcook?

Miso is a paste made from fermented soy beans. It is used in Asian cooking most often as a soup base. It comes in different intensities. I prefer the red miso, but I have seen white and yellow. It is salty and rich so on my non-fast days, I mix it with hot water for a hearty satisfying beverage. Look for it in Asian markets in the refrigerator section. I also boy packets of dried miso soup, which includes dried tofu and seaweed. Many grocery stores carry this.

I have been doing the 5:2 since January (the 2nd week not from New Year!) and steadily lost 1 pound each week, however, I seem to have hit a plateau 🙁 I’m sticking to it, walking about 15 miles a week but I also think my hormones are playing up again (I’m per-menopausal) so I will just carry on and see if there any changes over the next few weeks.

Hi all. I haven’t visited this forum for a while – just busy with life. This WOL is great for me. It’s the first time where I have felt in control of food/weight. I started the last week of Feb and I’m down roughly 6 lbs. It doesn’t seem like that much, but I guess it’s about 1 lb a week. I’ll take it. The best part is what others have said – my relationship with food is changing and my thought process is different. Plus I’m drinking less red wine! Who would have thought that was possible?! I’m walking everyday and trying to make 10,000 steps a day. I’m doing push ups and planks but that’s about it. I’ve decided to not worry about any other kind of work out. When I get down another 20 lbs or so I will start incorporating more muscle building into my routine. Thanks for listening and all the great advice.

Good morning from Shanghai, just started on the site but I have been on the 5:2 plan for a whole 12 days. So far it has been good, I see some changes – waist has gone down and weight also. I know this will take a while but I am determined to continue. The Fast days are actually not too bad, sometimes I even do 3 fast days per week.

I am not a big fan of exercise and since I have 2 bum knees, I have to be selective of what I do. So some elliptical and biking in the gym, following Micheal’s Hi-Impact Training suggestions works for me. So far so good!

So down 2kg in 2 weeks is a pretty good thing for me. And the waist has gone from 94 to 88cm, thumbs up. My clothes barely bulge in the middle now.

My fasting sugar has also dropped on average to below 7 although there were that 1 or 2 days that it touched 7. But more often then not its 6+ or even a few days of fitting within the 3.9-5.8 ideal range.

Waiting for results from today’s medical check up, hoping to see improvements on the high Uric acid, HbA1C and slightly elevated cholesterol levels of 2 months ago.

Some days I am all gung-ho to head to the gym, others I have to talk myself into going. This part is not at all easy. But overall this plan is a sensible and definitely doable plan for me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I’m new to the 5:2 diet and did my first 2 days as fast days. I lost 4 pounds, likely mostly water weight. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. They were a busy 2 days for work. (Which is a lot of time behind a desk!) And this morning I’m having coffee but don’t feel hungrry even though it’s an eat day.

I’m 68 and now have 22 pounds to lose. This looks like a wonderfully supportive group and I look forward to “talking” with all of you.

Well, another pound off today. I wasn’t fasting yesterday but I didn’t eat a lot. I was stressed with job related stuff and busy, so I wasn’t that hungry. It’s really sort of unbelievable because normally when I’m stressed I look to food. I guess after the 2 days back to back at just under 500 calories the cravings went away. I would have guessed the opposite would happen.

I plan on splitting the two days apart next week and probably in the future. It was just especially busy this week so it was pretty easy to do. I need to get more exercise too. These last few days I did very little moving around, I was mostly at my desk. I should stop weighing everyday too. My weight will probably go up a little after these first few days of not eating much.

How long have the rest of you been doing this? Do you find it easy to stick to it long term? It sure is a different way to lose weight. Do you have normal fast days or just change it up every week?

Hi everyone,
I am just coming up to two years of 5:2. I’ve concentrated on making it an easy and sustainable part of life, and I plan to keep doing it forever. I got down to the lower end of my healthy weight range at the end of last year, but it still seems to work best to keep up 5:2. It resets me for the non fasting days so I don’t get too far into an overeating cycle.

Good luck Yvej, I hope the weight starts shifting again. Everyone is different, but it is so nice to understand what is going on! I hope the non grain/dairy/sugar works! I avoid sugar and anything that is very sweet! (These days roast sweet potato tastes SO sweet I could swoon!).

I’m having my Sunday fast day today, but I have my 2 year old granddaughter here at the moment, so it isn’t the quiet, meditative Sunday fast day I usually have 😉 .

Hi Calif,
I decided when I took 5:2 on that it needed to be a longterm health strategy, rather than a short term weight loss diet.
You will see plenty here that have been 5:2ing for a lot longer than me!
And most of us are still working out how to make it work best in our lives!
My fast days settled down to around 350 – 400 calories, but since I have been maintaining I have played around with more like 500 – 600 calories. I like it best having a good low cal fast day though, so I am back to the lower amount. I really like the feeling the next morning!

I have to say, that the best fun is when you are starting and having the lovely rewards of weight dropping off, and having to go out and find new clothes! So enjoy!
But I am pretty sure that if I stopped 5:2 now, my excess weight would come back, so there is a lot of impetus to make this work longterm. The fast days not only help reset, they give that little break that helps me to understand my food patterns (physically, socially, emotionally and psychologically!) and I am still working them out!
I am sure a lot of other people are less complicated than I am though!

After eating normally yesterday and then having 3 pieces of pizza and a thin slice of Kringle, a sugary rich pastry last night, I only gained .2 of a pound when I weighed myself this morning. I completely expected a couple additional pounds of water weight at least. I think I really like this way of eating! I’m down exactly 2.27 kg in my first 4 days. A lot of that is the initial water weight, to be sure, but I’ll take it.

Please remind me of this a few weeks from now when I’m sure weight will come off a lot more slowly and I’m here complaining about it. 🙂

I decided to do my fast day today (Sunday) rather than tomorrow like I was planning to do it Monday’s but I’m traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday and I want to have one eating day in before I leave. Today has been pretty easy now that I know what to expect. I just got the book last week and discovered this way of eating, so it’s all new to me. I did the 2 days back to back last Wed and Thurs but I think from now on I’ll separate them. Psychologically I think it will be easier. My second day will be Thursday.

How often do you weigh yourself? I do every morning. I think it may be better to do it once or twice a week, but I wanted to see what everyone else does. For those who have been doing it for a while, how much does it usually go up or down when you’re following the plan?

Hello,
I am one of the rare people who don’t have scales in my house. I had some years ago and got ridiculous jumping on and off them all the time, so now I just don’t worry.
I occasionally weigh myself: my doctor has scales and so does my daughter (although hers are pretty unreliable), but I prefer to use my clothes, the mirror, and how I feel, to see how my shape and health is going.

I know that for many people here the ritual of weighing is an important tool to keep on track.

Re going up and down, here is a good article from Australia’s science organisation: https://www.totalwellbeingdiet.com/community/blog/are-your-weighing-scales-telling-the-truth/#XUlaUOLpTG3HDpHt.97

Califdreamer (do you mind being shortened to Calif, or would you prefer a different shortening?) I will be fasting with you on Thursday!

Thanks Calif, and now I want to call you Cali! It is a bit prettier and even shorter to write!
(Some people here have just called me ‘5’ 😉 )

Day before fast day, so I will appreciate every bite I have today!
I hope everyone is well and happily 5:2ing.

Hello all LOCA,
I’m at the end of my Thursday Fast day (that what comes of living in Australia!).
It’s been a good one. I hope yours is going well too Cali!

Nice post LilyMartin. Great overview. I so agree about the mindfulness. On non fast days and fast days too! But non fast days are fascinatingly tricky!
That plateau must have been SO frustrating! Congratulations for getting through it!

Cheers all!

Yesterday was my second fast day of the week and back down to 150.6 this morning. I’m trying to follow Lily’s advice of being more mindful on NF days. Yesterday was a little difficult a couple of times during the day, but most of it was just fine. I think I will like this plan.