Hi CalifDreamer
Thanks for your reply.
I do weigh daily but only record Saturday’s weight. I have bounced up and down for months ( 71.5 lowest, 73.9 highest) and often for no apparent reason – up after a below 500 calorie FD, down after a 1500 calorie NFD.
Certainly some days recently I have eaten over TDEE simply because being very mindful and eating under 500 calories on FDs and below/to TDEE other 5 days has seen me on a plateau for 4 months.
I have reduced what I used to eat portion-wise and been mindful as above but it is starting to discourage me that despite all this I cannot get below 71.5 kgs.
When I reached 71.5 kgs it was only after eating very little for a few days. Starving is not healthy nor sustainable.
I am unable to do liquid only fasts as I get very bad migraines if I try to.
Over many years I have tried liquid fasting for charity etc and always the same result no matter how I tweak it.
I was plugging in the figures for a few months with MyFitnessPal. Not a fan of calorie counting but tried it to get a handle on portion size and what 1500 calories looked like. Have been spasmodic lately but am about to go back to that for a few weeks to see if that helps.
Just hate to think how big I might have been had I not been doing 5:2 for the past 8 months !!!!

Lilymartin, I use myfitnesspal on FD and once in a while on other days when I want to get a handle on where I am calorie-wise.

It’s frustrating when it seems like you’re doing everything according to plan and still not losing. How about eating 500 – 1000 calories over your TDEE one day and see if that shakes things up a little? Maybe it would give your metabolism a jolt and get the scale moving again. Maybe a few days after that you’d see a drop. I try to be careful not to eat too little on NFD’s. I know one theory is that IF isn’t long enough to change a person’s metabolism, but following that with several days of not eating much might.

Fasting_me, what about preparing some brown rice for yourself ahead of time. It still has calories, but also has some fiber that will fill you up faster. A few ounces of beer won’t make a lot of difference but a few glasses will! I would sit there with my diet soda or sparkling water and participate in the festivities, but not the beer other than an occasional sip. And you don’t have to feel bad about it. He know’s you’re trying to lose weight, right?

Your health and self esteem are important! No need to apologize. In situations like that, I just substitute and don’t make a big deal about it. I don’t even offer long explanations. A simple “No thanks, I’m eating/drinking this instead.” Is sufficient. After all, the social interaction is the important thing, not what you’re putting in your mouth! Stay strong!

Hi to all LOAC, enjoying reading your posts. I started the 5:2 4 weeks ago, lost 12lbs and few inches – can’t quite believe it. 2 FDs at 500 then eat my TDEE for the weight i wish to be. I know things will slow now but feel so much better with this wol. Well done to all on this journey, altho weight/inch loss is one reason for this wol the health benefits need to be considered. For me my blood glucose more stable, bp lower (yay), repeat cholesterol due about 2 months so will be interesting to see the result! Keep on keeping on – stay safe all. M

Haha. Hooray for a brain so full of things LilyMartin!
Definitely go by your clothes instead of the stupid scales!!!!!!
I so agree that the long term view is the one to have.
Also, watch out, but I think there is a secret society of husbands who lose weight nice and easily just to drive their partners to distraction! Pay him no attention! 😉

Thanks for your insights, Cali. Here’s the ironic thing: we ASK our son to cook for us, so I can’t exactly tell him how to do it… But I do take smaller portions. This occurs mostly around Christmas when we are lucky enough to have both our sons home. The 5 days before Christmas are filled with “family ritual foods” — you know, the things we all expect to eat. Most of them I make before-hand and whisk out of the freezer for dinner.
But after Christmas, we ask the boys to cook and each takes one day. Our older son went nuts last year, preparing a Japanese breakfast and an Ethiopian dinner. Both delicious, but he was cooking for 6 instead of 4. I had to talk him down on the breakfast so that portions would be more normal.
Then our younger son made Thai food for dinner. Amazing! We don’t usually eat rice [I’m just not too fond of it] and when we do it is brown rice. But when the boys cook, it is up to them. They do know that we are on the Fast Diet, and on Fast Days they eat what we eat with no complaints. [Younger son is amazed at the Fast Food I make. Thinks I should do a cook book. As you know, I blog instead].
As for the beer, we’re talking ounces, not glassfuls. And yet the pounds are added. Therefore I conclude that the culprits are beer and white rice. These have no effect on Dear Husband, so I think it is idiosyncratic to me. When I avoid those foods, I’m OK.
Hope your 4-day trip goes well and that you are so careful that you will be happy on your return to the scales.

Lilymartin, I agree with Cali about the exercise. Don’t have to go all Jane Fonda, but add some endurance training to your day and see what happens. I’m wondering what you eat on Slow Days. When I look at recipes on line [not Fasting recipes, but everyday ones], I am struck by how much FAT and calories they have. And Sodium! We just cooked a Blue Apron meal: 660 calories/ serving and 25 g fat! Yikes — if I ate like that every dinner, I’d gain more than I weigh now!! We have to be vigilant about our food on Slow days so that we don’t slip into bad habits. Keep the faith.

Hello, Matron. Glad you are having successes. Good numbers!

Cinque, happy that your Fast Day was good. Thank goodness tomorrow will be a Fast Day for us. I think I’ll need it. We’ll have Tostadas for breakfast.

Happy Monday to you all.

Cinque, my trip went well for the most part. Except that as I was getting off the plane in Las Vegas I could feel the beginnings of a UTI. My doctor called in an antibiotic to the pharmacy next to my hotel and I started Tues. I tried over the counter pills first. So that was kind of a bummer. But I got in over 10,000 steps each of the 4 days because the hotel and convention center was massive. Good thing I had comfortable shoes!

I managed to eat pretty well in spite of all the lunches and dinners. I mostly had broiled fish and skipped all the wonderful desserts! I had to move my Monday FD to today so I have B2B yesterday and today. The fasts have been getting easier since I now know for sure that I won’t die of starvation on 500 calories. 🙂 I’m down to 65.4 as of this morning. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my goal of 59 kg. With all the plateaus my weight loss is averaging a little over a pound per week.

I wish we had your crisp cold temperatures here. We’ve had really hot weather the past week in CA. You don’t usually do a fast day on Saturday, do you?

Morning everyone.

My Saturday Fast day went well! Sunday is my set fast Day but it has been interrupted by these lovely days of cooking with my daughter. Also Thursday has been my other one, but that has been messed up by having my granddaughter overnight, and it was hard to make it work.

We are working out these things and I think my fast days will be Wednesday or Thursday and then Saturday or Sunday. I prefer them to be set, but no doubt living on the edge like this will be good for my brain 😉 Hoping to keep Alzheimer’s away!

Cali, you did so well through that trip. And isn’t it a relief to lose that fear of a bit of hunger. You are losing at an excellent rate!
We are having our coldest winter for a while, but I still prefer that to a hot Summer (our turn will come!).
I am on antibiotics too (chest infection), they are causing havoc with my hunger signals! Lets hope they do their job for both of us though! I have another week of them to go.

Cheers all!

Hi Fasting-me and all the other Ladies of a Certain Age!

It is my last day of antibiotics. Hooray.

Enjoy getting back to your new normal tomorrow Fasting-me.

It is quiet here at the moment but, incase there are lurkers and random readers, here is a shout out of good wishes for those who are fasting today, and a wonderful delicious sensible eating day for those who are on a non fast day…. like me!

Good morning.

Well today is my first day and after the shock of the scales this morning (in which I weighed 10 lbs more than I thought I did) ! It’s made me a very fired up person. I have Agressive Rheumatoid Arthritis and had a rather large Steroid injection on Friday which doesn’t help with the “heck I could eat a whole cow at one sitting” syndrome but of course makes moving around slightly easier.

I’ve done my measurements and am having my black coffee and hot lemon water prior to getting up. Rather glad I read some of the previous posts as ah ha that FitBit is lurking in the spare room so that will go back on today.

Good luck to one and all and I am delighted to have found this forum.

Hello Dextersmom and welcome here!
How did your first day go?

Hi Everyone,
It is morning in frosty Melbourne. I’m having my first fast day after the nasty antiobiotics (not that I am not very grateful for them!). Yes I did have to eat with them Cali, and they also made me feel slightly nauseous and/or ravenously hungry. So I am enjoying the thought of a good fasty fast day!

Cali after losing about 20kg by cutting out sugar, it was the last 15kg that I lost with 5:2. I came into my healthy weight at a nice glide. I lost weight more and more slowly and even though I have now ‘landed’ at the weight that suits me I am still adjusting and settling, rolling along the runway I guess! Just as you thought. Enjoy that glide!

Fasting_me, I know diet soda isn’t great but I love it. I do drink a lot of plain water or carbonated flavored waters without sweeteners. But A & W Diet Root Beer is so good on a hot summer day. I am drinking less of it…

The artificial sweetener in most of my diet drinks is sucralose, brand name Splenda. While I think it’s better to avoid them, I think it’s one of the better ones. The sugar lobby in the US is very strong (we subsidize sugar to keep the prices artificially high compared to the world sugar prices) so I’m always a little suspicious of sugar substitute articles that condemn them. I think that added sugar causes at least as many problems as the substitutes for the majority of people. That said, I still try to limit them.

Carbonated water of any type does make me feel fuller and is a great help on FD. It seems more refreshing to me than plain water.

We have a bunch of spearmint plants growing in the garden that is great added to water or tea. I’ve also been making leaf or herbal teas in a very large cup, filling half the cup with hot water and steeping it for at least 10 minutes, then removing the teabag and filling the cup with ice. It’s been so hot here that the ice tea is an excellent thing to drink. (Without sweetening) Indian Spice or Bengal Spice is a current favorite. A big sprig of fresh spearmint stepped for at least 15 minutes is good too.

Hi everybody, new to forums but did 19 weeks on 16/8 and lost 2.8 kilos in 19 weeks. Not huge, but the first eating plan to shift anything significant and keep it off. At 59, I thought if I didn’t lose weight by 60 I had to accept being overweight for the rest of my life – depressing! Have just completed 12 weeks on 5:2 and lost 5.15 kilos, so thrilled and encouraged to go further, another 4 kilos off will have me no longer classed as overweight. I have both coffee and tea with milk on FDs as black anything gives me migraines, plus lots of iced water. If I plateau, I measure myself as often there is a loss here if not on the scales. Since I started I have lost 5 cms on hips, 4 cms on bust and waist. I don’t coung calories on NFDs but I do weigh everything. Yes ladies of a certain age, weight loss is possible, take it from somebody who nearly ended up fat for life!! Love not feeling deprived, everyone can wait until tomorrow for a treat and it is only 2 days a week.

I lost 10 kg over the last 4 months and I’m 68. I still have a couple kg to go. I’ve been following the 5:2 way of eating with 500 calories on FD. I don’t think there’s any age limit for losing weight or for fitting into size 6 jeans. 😉

Good report on your weight loss, Cali. Let us know when you get into those size 6 jeans!

Good attitude, RubyR. You have the outlook that will make you successful.

OOPS, Cali, there I go again. Excellent on the size 6 jeans!! And closing in on the size 4. I think I read that size 0 US is size 6 UK. but then it depends on how they are cut, doesn’t it. I currently wear a size 4 in LLBean slacks, but the waist is not right for me. Maybe I need to find another clothing manufacturer. But I do not like to shop.

We are off on a 3-day vacation. Not much walking in the past 2 days, but I am trying to control what I eat for breakfast and dinner. Tomorrow is a Fast Day, so I’ll have to tweek the menu offerings to make it work.

Breakfast today: 1 egg omelette containing onion, red bell pepper, scallions. Along with ham and fruit. For dinner, I saw a beet salad on the menu, so I’ll try that. This could be OK!
It is sunny and brilliant today, so plan on lots of walking.

Hi Dwellers, I am sorry you are feeling down about this forum and 5:2 in general. You may be right that this woe doesn’t suit you. However, if you would like a few suggestions: use home page to calculate TDEE and weigh and “cost” calories accurately for a week, keeping within TDEE on NFDs and 500 on FDs. List all the foods you love and see if you can include some and still be within calorie budget. Hunger can be a problem, egg or very low fat yogurt help, home made soup and licorice tea, nice and sweet, other than that, having a few jobs, emails, craft, gardening etc all help to keep your mind on something other than food.

Dwellers- like you I really struggle with the cold. On fast days I have found a couple of herbal teas I like, so have those to warm me up, and have soups to eat. I get the hoover out too as a whizz round with that can help get me warm. And I have a hot water bottle and a snuggly blanket for the evenings (or any time I sit down really!)
Have you had your thyroid levels tested? Feeling cold all the time can be a sign of that, as can low mood and weight gain. UK doctors are reluctant to treat low levels though.
I do keep a count of what I eat on non fast days too as sometimes what you eat can really add up and surprise you!
That said I do struggle to lose the weight- I’m doing alternate fast days and the first 2 weeks lost some but not so far this week…

Hi Dwellers, glad you are feeling more positive. I know what you mean about feeling resentment, I have to watch my intake now. I spent the first 30 years without a care in the world about weight or what I ate but not so the next 30 years. I would love to go back to eating anything but time marches on and it is more difficult now. I am so glad 5:2 proved doable, although initially I felt it wouldn’t be. As regards a love of food and cooking, this is a plus as cooking from scratch means you know exactly what goes into the meal and there is a wealth of info re low calorie/low carb recipes on line. How about date night playing 10 pen bowling, if you can get a sitter?

I am very grateful to the successful followers of this plan who have taken the time to advise me. I am also pretty amazed by fasting_me who describes food i would happily eat on any day. I do realise that what I eat at night is not always within my control as I live a very random life without much regularity or ability to plan and often my food type is decided by others. But not the amount, I freely admit. I am convinced that I have a metabolism that has adjusted over 40 years to intermittent eating and simply grinds to a halt as long as I am fasting. As I do little regular exercise ( again, occasional huge spurts of heavy manual work) , it is almost impossible to follow a regime. I think perhaps simple calorie counting may be the answer. Has anyone has success this way?

Moggy, it sounds as if you have found exactly what works for you. Well done.

I have noticed that the Autumnal Equinox has some unfathomable affect on my weight. Once Fall arrives, my weight finds a higher sticking point. In full summer, my weight easily dips to 23- pounds below my Target. Come this time of year, it bobs back up to my old target or higher. Now you will say that my exercise has changed, but I’m still aiming for and mostly making my 5 miles/day. The diet hasn’t changed either. And this is not anecdotal: I can see the graph from FitBit. Darndest thing…

Dwellers, I counted calories for years and usually had success with it. If you did ONE Fast Day [600 calories] a week and counted calories the other days, you should see some success.

Fasting today: Ricotta/herb Scramble with applesauce, fruit smoothie and blackish coffee for breakfast. For dinner, Chicken in Kashmiri Sauce with green beans, carrots, and some brown rice.
Happy Fast Day to all.

@fasting_me. Where do you live? I suspect that you are not getting enough vitamin D. A drop in vitD is a signal to store fat. Go to the doctor and get your D levels recorded. Are they in the normal range? Take a good vit D supplement to boost your levels.

@fasting_me. Just because your talking VitD doesn’t mean you are absorbing a lot of it. Make sure your taking in lots of magnesium. Eat pumpkin seeds or take a supplement. You need mag to help process the vitD. Also a good vitB to help your liver which then helps the liver produce the necessary bile to help process the vitD into a useable form.

Or move to a climate where you get a lot more sun!! Falling vitD is associated with the onset of winter and that means the body goes into fat storage mode.