Hi, bjanna! Yes, I am right there with you! I didn’t mention the boob thing but there I am, too! I am not sure I can do anything about that but I really hope I can do something about the waistline. Either that or the clothing industry needs to come up with stylish clothes we can actually fit…and I don’t mean old lady frumpy, either! LOL

Hi everyone, I did this a few years ago & it felt good. However, there were days when my acid reflux went a bit nuts, so I stopped. I have started again & having become wiser about the causes, triggers of the acid, I have been enjoying so far. I am 53 & think I am post the menopause, just. The best thing for me is the no bloating, I am also mindful on my non fast days, so it’s kind of 2 fold for me. I practice yoga, most days now, ranging from 40 minutes – hour in the morning depending on work day or not. I attend an aerobic Fitsteps class & a 90 minute yoga class once a week. I am training to teach Yoga. I am also a veggie, I do have fish sometimes. I have noticed a change in shape from the yoga & improved reflux or lack of.

About the waistline…
My son the PhD in biology says that the little round post-menopausal belly is due to hormones. Specifically the fact that the ratio of estrogen to testosterone has changed. The former goes down while the latter remains the same. Testosterone causes the deposit of subcutaneous fat in the belly. My son said, ‘Like a man’s beer gut.’ Ugh.
So it seems we might just have to accept it. My MD says you can’t diet or exercise it away. But I do notice that when I’m on one of my LOW weight days, the little round belly is at its smallest. But staying at my lowest weight would take a LOT of work on a daily basis, so…..

Right now I’m 1 pound above my Target Weight due to having made a chocolate cake for my ODH’s birthday. That took a toll on both of us! Fasting today, you betcha.

isn’t that so frustrating, bjanna! You mentioned earlier that you drink wine on Slow Days — how much? That’s a source of calories which could be reduced. What was in those ‘warrior dinners’? Was that 500-600 cals on Fast Days or the same amount/volume daily? What you eat matters, even if the calories are less than 600. What you eat on Slow Days matters, too.
Maybe this is just a blip and you will drop back down — hope so.

That’s not Fasting. If you want the benefits of the Fast Diet, you need to follow it. Are you a warrior or a Faster? Fish or cut bait. On Feb 4, you were losing weight by Fasting. Now on Feb 26 you are gaining weight with Warrior. I see some writing on the wall…
Learn to do some chair exercises or other things you can do at home on a winter day to get the metabolism up and strengthen some muscles. Becoming less sedentary will help with lots of things.

bjanna, I feel for you! I have an idea! I do this! I never eat my largest meal at the end of the day. I eat it in the middle, so I have time to burn off those calories before becoming sedentary while sleeping. Why don’t you try that?

Dear ccco, thanks for your kindness and suggestion. It’s been a routine in our family – work during the day and get back home for a warming nice meal with a glass of wine. Now that we no longer work, we have continued in the same way. It’s no problem for me not to put anything in my mouth all day long, but in the evening one of us sits at the bar of the kitchen island and the other one cooks. It’s so nice and pleasant. The fast diet is about feeling comfortable and happy, that’s what attracted me to it. Yes, I am willing to make sacrifices and I do, but certainly not willing to go beyond that point that would make me feel miserable like with the other diets. Fasting_me is criticising me for trying the warrior diet, but we human creatures like to explore different options to see what works for us best. Well, I am not married to the fast diet, but went back to it, and hopefully there will be some weight loss, probably more slowly than with other ladies, but that’s life. Have a nice day!

Hi, bjanna! Just read your post to me. I don’t know too much about the warrior diet. I googled it once and decided it was too much work for me! LOL I also like my wine in the evening. I will go back to it once I lose the weight I want to. For some reason, I am fine dieting in the daytime but at night it is a problem. All the stress of the day comes out then and I look for ways to calm myself, even tried meditation and yoga. I will keep adjusting until I find my way. I decided to do the Mediterranean diet while doing 5:2. I am looking got create not only a new WOL but a healthy sustainable approach to eating. It’s a work in progress! Getting older doesn’t make it any easier either! LOL I do exercise. I power walk, do yoga twice a week, and personal training 5 days a week! Those exercises make me feel so good and for some reason I find it easier to diet if I am also exercising! Don’t know why, but I think it’s psychological. Do whatever works for you and you will succeed. Good luck out there! 🙂

JamJam, yes, men do lose weight faster than women. I always thought it was because they had more to lose 😉 What do you eat on a Slow Day? If I ate the same as my husband, my weight would soar. See if there are some calories you can eliminate. maybe that will help

ccco USA
Welcome, MontyCJ! We are always here for you! Good luck and stay strong. Many people have succeeded with this way of life! 🙂

Thanks for your encouragement CCCO!
And thanks for the protein prompt Fasting Me.
Eggs are back on for breakfast, and I’m keeping the water glass topped up.The book has been read cover to cover so today is the first fasting day, it’s a sunny day both inside and out!
Have a good day 😃

Emma-
I, too, am 50. I’m finishing week 10 on 5:2. My weight loss has not been as rewarding as I expected: I started at 163 pounds and am now 157 pounds. Not very inspiring. I have found, though, that I feel better knowing that I’m at least doing something to move in the right direction. It just may take much longer than I initially thought. I used to not eat the 500 calories, but I don’t think it was making much of a difference so now I eat about 450 calories around 7:00pm. Usually a bowl of high fiber cereal with sliced banana and toast (which is one of my favorite comfort foods). My plan had been to do this for 12 weeks (and of course I thought I would have lost most of the weight I want to lose!), but now I will try to continue and make it a lifestyle habit. At least it will prevent me from creeping up. I’m exercising almost daily for about 40 minutes. It helps me to hear how others are doing and their suggestions so I wanted to share. Good luck!

Thank you CSLB for sharing your story. It helps. The overall health benefits make this way of life pretty appealing, but I’m with you, I’m motivated by results so I’m keeping my fingers crossed 🙂

Fasting me, thanks for the encouragement, I’m definitely recording everything moving forward. It’s so easy to underestimate what you eat otherwise… :p

I just finished week 11 of 5:2 and have lost 6 pounds total. Not exciting. I started this plan with the idea that I wouldn’t have to count, write down, etc. on slow days since that is the way it’s presented in the documentary. I’m whining a bit. But I get that if I really want to take off 10 more pounds, I’ll have to count or add another fast day to the week. I’m going to the doctor on Tuesday to get my blood drawn and tested. I hope to see the results of fasting in my lipid panel. Have a great week everyone!

There are some foods like fish, chicken breast you can eat as best appetite suppressant that work for your body. They are mainly contained with fiber, protein and fat which take longer to pass through your digestive system, helping you stay fuller for longer.

Thanks for all these great tips! I definitely want to start cooking with coconut oil. And I have heard that green tea is fantastic in clinical studies but Dr. Fung mentions in his talks that you would have to drink 10 cups a day to get the amount of tea the test subjects received (https://idmprogram.com/blog/). That’s a lot of tea, even for me who is tea obsessed. What is Glucomannan Qamapro?

Fasting_me, I’m doing well I think. I’m still trying to decide if I am going to fast 3 days a week or 2. Lots of ups and downs in my weight and some weeks I have added a day while some weeks the prospect of every other day seems too daunting to do. Yesterday after my Monday fast I was down to 138 (yeah!!!!) but today after eating 1500 calories yesterday, I was at 139.4 (still roughly 2.5 to 5 lbs down –depending on which scale I use as a start point– but out of “yeah” territory :p)

My husband who is doing ADF instead of 5:2 is refusing to weigh himself every day. He’s big into keeping his mental state positive (he’s an executive coach) and he feels it messes with his head/motivation and ends up being too detailed to be helpful. He prefers to weigh himself once a week and gets a smoother reading that way. Probably should do the same thing and avoid all the drama. lol.

Yesterday I was about 200 calories over what I should do:
Breakfast: avocado toast (sprouted grain bread, 1/2 avocado, topped with 2 scrambled eggs)
Lunch: vegetable and goat cheese frittata and the other half of that avocado
snack: 10 almonds and 1 GF chocolate chip cookie (Yep! this is where is all went wrong…. lol)
Dinner: Tortilla chips with black beans & corn salsa, 4 oz of lean pork chop, kale and spinach salad (with olive oil/vinegar dressing, tomatoes, 1 tbsp of blue cheese).
And lots and lots of tea and water throughout the day.

I know I’m hydrating enough, but I have read that the stevia I put in my tea could be problematic for weight loss. But I have to admit I only like tea with stevia and my black and green teas are flavored so on my fast days it’s maybe possible the flavoring and stevia and doing something with my insulin? I’m into my 5th week, so I’m still trying to figure this out… Seems odd that 1500 calories would bring me back up 1.5 lbs, but I realize it could be water or all kinds of things.

CSLB, your news is SO encouraging! Thank you for sharing!!! Ultimately, it’s about your health. We all want the pounds to melt, but we have a long time to live yet, and living well is what matters most (or so I keep telling myself 🙂 In any case, congratulations on all your hard work and these great results!

Stevia leaves in tea could work… Thank you!

ccco, we know that Spring has arrived in NH when the sap is running. Most days the sun is strong and the air is ‘warmer’ and that is Spring. The daffodils will bloom in late April then the black flies come out. Not looking forward to that, but it is Spring too. Apple blossoms in May. Until then, I’ll take milder days and sap to boil off. I know it is not the same in Maryland, having lived many years in southern PA.
Happy Easter to you, too.

Bleu Cheese Scramble this morning. Lentil/Vegetable Stew for dinner. Both delicious. Hope your Fast was successful, Emma.

CSLB: We still Fast 2 days/week. Many people go to one day, but 2 works for us to make up for the occasional splurge on Slow Days. It depends of the individual.

Yes, Emma. That is a common occurrence and many people on this website have mentioned it. I have had it happen. As far as I can tell, it’s not dangerous! Well, at least warm weather is starting and hopefully that will help us!

Hi everyone 🙂 I’ve been on the 5:2 diet in the past (2014) and lost a good amount, about 12kg, with not too many tears! I maintained it for about a year with 6:1 and thought I could go back to old habits…but…so many things have happened and after two years of not being in the right head space, I’m back to rectify the damage. I’m turning 60 in Sep, and want to look and feel well! So I have around 15kg to lose 🙁
I had a first fast day on Sat, and now back to Mon and Thurs, same as before.
5:2 is the only program that has worked in the long term for me. I also have a difficulty with “happy hour” since retiring from work, so giving up the tipple in the afternoons! 🙂
I liked this thread because you all seem to stay on subject, and don’t go into personal details of general life as some threads do, which is basically why we are all here 🙂
Well, enough rambling, have a nice day everyone, fasting for me 🙂

Great to see all the new and returning people to the fasting forums! 5:2 is the only dependable way I’ve found to lose weight and keep it off. I think if you go on a diet, lose the weight, and then go back to eating the way you were before 5:2, you end up going back to the weight you were before as well. I’ve lost thousands of pounds over the years on every new diet that came along, and quickly regained them when the diet was “over”. You know the old saying, “If you keep doing what you always did, you keep getting what you always got.” Fat.

I find 5:2 to be a way of life I can stick with. I rarely count calories on NFD but never skip my 2 – 500 calorie FD per week. I reached my goal of 59 kg, 130 lbs. (and skinny jeans) at the end of last year. I’m just continuing with 2 FDs but eating a little more than I used to when I was losing, on the NFD. It works. The FDs have become a way of life. Monday and Thursday seem to work well for me. I occasionally do different days if it’s a holiday or if I have something going on that involves food one of those days, but I never ever skip them. It works. I don’t feel deprived, eat normally 5 days per week and fast 2. That’s just the way it is.

Some of the threads do get off on a lot of other topics and more personal things going on in everyday life. I think that’s because many of us have been here a long time, many for years, and we’ve said most of the things there are to say to each other about 5:2 so it’s just comments about recipes or occasional challenging days that have to do with food. But we’re glad to help and offer advice to anyone new to this way of eating.

Hi all, so glad to be back on 5:2! Monday fast went very well. 1 banana mid morning, a few cups of detox tea, which I really like, and a small amount of chicken and big salad for tea. Autumn is coming here (I’m in East Gippsland, Vic, Oz)so weather is getting cooler. I just love salad though, so I’ll keep eating that for lunch, and veg soup for evening meal. I have a big pot brewing now! Lots of celery cabbage tomatoes onion carrot etc …
I was re reading my Liver Cleansing Diet book, as someone (somewhere on here!) mentioned having a healthy liver is so important to losing weight. Fix the liver, then the weight should be easier to move . Sandra Cabot also mentioned in the book that vitamin B3 was good for high cholesterol, (which I now have 🙁 ) Does anyone else take supplements like these?
Cheers all 🙂

Hi, Jilly! Haven’t heard your voice in months. You know what they say about a healthy diet? Cut out “white foods” such as processed grains, white rice, sugar, white potatoes. In your case it means white wine and white chocolate!! 😉 You sound so defeated? What happened? Yes, it is hard after the holidays. We do a big New Year’s do, then 2 weeks later its my birthday, then 4 weeks later its my husband’s birthday. You should see the up-ticks on my weight graph — looks like the stock market! But I know that I don’t want to be at that weight, I want to be where I was before. So: how much do you want this? You KNOW you can do it, so I know you can do it again!
What are you eating on Fast Days? Maybe you need some new, different recipes… BTW, now that I’m a Maintainer, we have a glass of wine every night, even Fast Days, and it still works.
Good luck, Jilly.

How did Fasting yesterday go for Lindanaf, and the rest of you? I lost a pound yesterday! Back below my Target. Whew.

Hi Jilly34, I’m so sorry you are discouraged. Do you think it might be a possibility to ease into that second fasting day? For instance for a couple of week, on that second day you just skip breakfast and go on to eating light the rest of the day. And then the 3rd week, you push it past lunch and get to mid afternoon or even dinner time. This way you set more manageable goals and you log more victories under your belt before you fully land on fasting 2 days per week.

Another thing that was recommended to me was to time my exercise and my supplementation to maximize the fasting period. For exercise (I leisurely walk daily just 30 to 60 min/day) it was recommended that I do that at the start of my fasting period to lower the cortisol in my body and if I do resistance training (which I should do 3 times a week but keep skipping :o), I’m supposed to do it at the end of my fasting window to take advantage of the increase in the human growth hormone at the end of the fasting period. For supplementation (I just add healthy fats, like omega 3s or coconut oil, to keep me less hungry while fasting and Vitamin D), I try to do that just before I start my fast and just after I finish the fast. Everyone is so different and you have to see if that would work for you, but it may help.

Fasting went well for me yesterday, but the extreme cold at night took a bit of a toll on my mood so my poor family had to run for cover towards the end of the day. I may have to have those 500 cal in the evening after all if I’d like to be a nicer person to be around :p After a weekend with a trip to the desert table at a Memorial service for a friend, I needed that fasting day big time!!! Back on track and planning on having a great week.

Dear fastimgme, ccco andcemme1202,
Thanks for responding – I already feel a bit more encouraged just reading your replies.
To fasting-me, yes I’m feeling really down at the moment, well since the beginning of the year really, so I just can’t find the motivation to do ANYTHING. Not just dieting. I’ve tried fasting today and I’ve eaten 2large apples a small bowl of crevettes, and 3 yes 3 chicken breasts fried in olive oil (spray the pan type oil, so not very much oil at all) plus drinks – tea with a little milk x 3, 1 black coffee with a half sugar cube and very fizzy Badoit. That’s about it. I can’t be bothered to actually cook a meal – it’s not worth cooking for 1, so I just throw the chopped chicken breasts in the pan with some salt, garlic and soy sauce and that’s it. Even too lazy to boil a bit of broccoli, which I love.
I like your suggestion Emma1202 about easing back into that 2nd day by skipping breakfast, and then gradually skipping more meals until my body (and mind) adjust. Good idea and I certainly will be putting that into action.
And ccco……well I’ve got a big downer on the way I look. I’ve just come through fighting breast cancer, and as well as leaving me with one breast noticeably smaller than the other, I really feel that it has aged me. I have to take one small hormone tablet per day now, which plays havoc with my joints, which have become stiff and painful. I don’t do any exercise other than my line dance teaching, but at the end of a lesson, when I bend down to take off my dance shoes, it feels so stiff and painful. I do wonder why I bother at all. I was doing ok before the cancer, always doing my make-up and trying to look my best, but now…….. why do I bother? And of course with chemo comes steroids which put on the weight. No, moral is not high. I know that when I can get into a pair of jeans and feel comfortable wearing them all evening, it’s so much better than undoing the button and the fly in the car on my way home because I JUST CAN’T STAND IT ANY LONGER.
Well ladies. Tomorrow is NFD but I'”m gonna go easy, and then attack that 2nd FD on Thursday. Wish me luck………….