Hi Lindyw and Speedy,
Well I am fat and over forty but I was originally brunette so let’s hope that will save me from gall stones. I will certainly take your advice about the hard water consumption. I usually make tea and prefer sparkling water so hopefully that will be ok. I really don’t want any medical problems so I think it is wise to take care. I don’t think my weight loss will be rapid although I guess to some one pound per week may be rapid.
I think this forum is a very useful conduit for highlighting common problems and benefits. It’s worth reading the tips and advice from those fasters who are at different stages in their weight loss journey. I imagine there are quite a few dogs out there whose lives are a lot more active now, my poor pooches are beginning to wonder why they have doubled their walk time each day. They are not complaining mind you, just surprised.

Hi, I have just jointed this forum regarding the 5.2 diet and already I am feeling better about my self. I felt so alone slowly putting on weight regardless of how much I exercised or how little I ate. I really think fasting for two days is the way to go. Having said that, I am going to begin with one day a week as I am still grieving for my mother and there are other issues going on which I can’t deal with all at once. So one day a week seems good and eventually progressing to two. Has anyone else had this experience.?

Thanks

Hi everyone!

welcome to all the new posters if I haven’t already said hello 🙂

marigolds- we are all right there with you!

Janne- I did heat up a bit but seems temporary or maybe sporadic. Anyway, it’s mostly done.

Jane from Australia- your plan sounds good. A lot of people experiment with how they do their fasts. Do what works for you. (I started mine on a Thursday and got carried away…after the first day, which was hard, the next day was sooo easy, but had dinner out on Sunday. I thought I was going to explode! Moral of the story, I should have been on your plan 😉 ).

To Susansdilemma,

Hi & welcome from Sydney Australia 🙂

Are you looking at the BMR figure or the TDEE figure? I ask because, to have a TDEE of 1147 (64 F, 5ft), you would weigh only 107 pounds (or 48.5kg)!! You wouldn’t be “chubby” as your BMI would be 20.7 which is perfect!

I’m nearly 54 and 5ft 1″ and have lost 53 pounds (24kg) with about 16 pounds (7kg) to go so I know it can be done but you need to also get active.

Could you put your details into the TDEE calculator again – http://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/ – and post with your TDEE figure (I’m guessing it’s about 1377 if you tick “Sedentary : Little or no Exercise/ desk job”).

To PBB – Thanks again for my extra STAR 🙂

Cheers

To Jane from Australia,

Welcome – I’m from Cronulla Beach, Sydney.

I gained all my weight with family tragedies including my mum developing a sudden massive brain tumour that saw her die (peacefully, thank goodness) in a total of 6 months from onset so I know where you’re coming from. It took me about 18 mths (and many more kilos) before I decided to do something – never had a problem with weight until I was perimenopausal in my 40s. I’m impressed you are going to press ahead while you are still grieving but, please, recognise that any slips are completely understandable esp. while you are experiencing grief.

Mark Twain said ‘Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time.’ Whether that habit is recent or has been building for some time his quote stands true. So one day a week is better than walking back up the stairs, so to speak 🙂

Good Luck,
Kim

Hey JoJo,

I like that quote – I will have to remember it 🙂 . Good on you for recycling & tree planting – my kind of woman!! 😀

Precious Boo Boo thank you for this breaking news! Or as my local news would say “Your couch may be making you fat. Film at 11.”

Well spoke Jojo58.

Perspective. You’ve got it!

Hi there everybody, after a rather emotional weekend, the sun is shining and I am smiling again. Its my fast day. I need it after the weekend which included birthday cake, fish & chips, more cake yesterday!
As some of you will know, I was looking at the Ketogenic Diet (KD) as a possible means of controlling or slowing down the recurrence of my liposarcoma. However, after much research, it seems that the liposarcoma does not take up sugar and there is in fact some research that indicates a high fat diet might encourage the growth of liposarcomas. So for safety sake, I have decided to forego the KD and stick to the fasting. I was really down in the dumps yesterday but felt better after a good cry!
There are so many new friends that have joined, that its hard to keep up but to everybody who has joined recently, this is a GREAT forum! You are onto a good thing!
To everybody who is not having a good day today, hang in there! At some point in time, the clouds do clear up and the sun comes out bright and beautiful!

Hi Kim
Hmmm I’ve just seen the extreme weather warning for Sydney! I have not managed to start exercising again. Must really do something about that.
I use to be quite fit but after the last surgery just have not managed to get back to it. I have battled with energy levels – that is gradually improving.
Its now 2.30pm – a bad time for me on a fast day. This is when I really crave something to eat, but from past experience, I know that I must not give in because then the ‘seal’ is broken and I get ravenous! I think its time for a cuppa.
Enjoy the rest of your rainy day!
Liz

Hi Everyone, what a great thread! I was begining to think I was the only LOACA who had stopped being able to control my weight and then I found this!!! I have always just lurked in forums, but everyone seems so supportive that I thought I might finally come out of the shadows. You have all inspired me to try the 5:2 I started last Wednesday. I weighed myself the next morning (I’m afraid I am a weigh-every- morning person) and found myself 4.5lbs lighter!!! Couldn’t believe it! I did wonder whether it was just an effect of weighing the day after a fast but and then I found I had lost another 1 lb by Friday. Is it normal to lose so much weight in the first 3 days? Great motivator for the rest of the week, I am delighted. I haven’t lost any weight since, but today I measured myself and found I had lost 3.5inches off my waist and 3inches off my bust and my hips. How great is that! Finding it easier to fast completely on FDs and not as difficult as I thought it would be. Given that everyone else seems to fast on Mondays and Thursdays I thought I would do that too, so today will be my third FD. Anyway just wanted to say a big THANKYOU for motivating me to start taking control of my body again.

Like so many others here, love the title of this thread, lurking and reading is what I have been doing, but I fit right in here. 50 yo mother of 2 boys, 14 and 8. I weigh a bit over 15 stone, 216 lbs.
Despite cautious low carb dieting, weight loss came to a screeching halt.
I saw the documentary over a year ago, but it seems to have taken me this long to try it, that and the easy day I had with a Dr. prescribed liquid diet day prior to a routine medical exam.
The hard part is my job as Mum includes me making dinner for kids, Husband develops a deer in the headlights look when confronted with that task…lol.
Warm broth and sugar free jello get me through that so far, good information has taken me farther.
Locked my scale in the attic.
It can stay there.
Nice to meet you.

Just wanted to jump in the pool today! our lovely LOACA pool that is, no swimsuit required. i’d wear my white jeans over that 😀 had typed up a lovely long post yesterday, addressing all sorts of topics and fun, fun posts I’ve read, and POOF! it went away and I was too bummed to remember it (menobrain on top of menopot 😀 and figured i’d wait…. so here i am in the middle of my fast day – and thinking longingly of tomorrow, i know that is bad. It’s always the same, by the time i’ve had my fast day dinner, and it’s stretching into the evening, my food fantasies grow bigger and more ferocious and all i want to do is get to sleep so I can get up and eat. and you know what? EVERY time the next morning, my ferocious hunger and cravings are gone and i can leisurely get till 10 or so before even nibbling on anything. Having been 5:2-ing now about 6 months, I think when you finally eat and break your fast that the tastebuds get ramped up and that is when it’s hardest to keep the calories to the daily max of 500+. I find the longer I go without eating the easier it is to forget about it if I stay busy. Is anyone else finding that? seems i’ve read that a bit, curious and valuable knowledge. I also read that if you have any creamer (half&half for me, 3T) in your coffee, you are in fact breaking the fast. But I made the deal that was one thing i would not give up, and if I can still be successful, that is a ‘real life’ trade-off. Black coffee is horrid to me and would put me in the most depressed state. I relish those two cups on fast days! so yes, everyone else is asleep, except maybe LUV2cook & SharATL – how are you US gals? who else is north america? want to know who to bug!! 🙂 Just typing here is keeping me on track for today and that is so wonderful, what a tremendous group of sharing, caring gals!! Best to All for a skinny-feeling & energetic week~

ThintoartinCal…. South coast Massachusetts here…
arla it is demoralizing… I am beginning to wonder if I sleep eat…but in a year I will be happy I stuck to it. You will too.

We are neighbors, Metasue!
As much as we know and say that we are in it for health, not just weight loss, it is still very distressing when the pounds don’t come off. Keep fighting!

to thintoartinCal: signing on for eastcoast northamerica (back home from work, dinner cooked and polished off. Hi to Metasue and and ply24mp. Watching NBC Evening news while eating dinner….looks like a nasty nor’easter headed your way tonight and tomorrow. God bless you….. I am so sick of it all. Its skimming DC this time around by all accounts. Getting whiplash from the crazyiness.

As for our other stateside gal, there is applecrisp in Iowa. She seems to have taken a bit of a break after checking in breifly with great news from her MD visit.

Now we have so many gals from Australia! How wonderful! PreciousBooBoo: just look what you have created. I do feel like I am talking to friends….a pick me up at the end of the day. Are there any gals from New Zealand? And we are missing representation from Canada. That is unacceptable. We have to work on that. Getting close to having friends from the better part of the English speaking world. So amazing.

As for my week: as many have recently been talking about, today I really felt a difference in the way my slacks fit. Which was much much appreciated as when I weighed yesterday (Sunday, crack of dawn) I was up another pound, and this morning (weighed “just in case” to see if the bad news had changed) was up ANOTHER pound.

Back to where I started. Sort of.

But I was not too surprised. I have a “free gym” in my apt condo ….its call stairs. I am on the 4th floor and last year started doing laps snaking my way down each hall, down one flight of stairs, next hall, one more flight, to the gound floor, and then back up same deal. Our halls are long, so that makes a full mile of halls for me and 4 down sets of tall stairs down and back up (great excercise concept all chucked in the bin this summer for “good reasons”, then no energy to resume until now. You all guilted me into resuming. Thank you.). Was a bit sore yesterday form stairs on Saturday, and today, sorer still. I have found multiple times that if I am sore from excercie I tend to also weigh a lb or so more…must be sore swollen muscles is my best guess. All the good advise form our LOACAs kept wispering to me not to let it rattle me. Just stay the coarse. And frankly if I can get down another size the scale can do whatever it %$#@ing wants. I wish I had the willpower to put the stupid thing away, stick to THE PLAN without the reinforcement from it that I crave. But its too easy to lie to myself with no scale to warn me of pending disaster. And I need it to tell me “good job” when I have been good.

But those looser pants sure felt nice. Warm thoughts going out to all of you.

metasue, I understand you’re trying to be helpful but nothing I’ve ever said on these forums has ever indicated that I think this is a bikini diet. This has always been an experiment to see if it works for me. I have PCOS (which is being treated) and a genetic endocrine disorder (which has no treatment).

I have NEVER lost even when I was younger & tried meal replacement shakes for 4 weeks. NOTHING!!! The only time is when I was first diagnosed with PCOS & started treating it. I lost weight doing nothing but take the pills (that I’m still taking) and eating my normal diet of no soft drinks/sugar/white bread, rarely drink alcohol & only have take away once a month at most. I didn’t have burgers, chips or pies to give up, cos I don’t eat them in the first place!

I don’t think 4:3 is a punishment, but what is punishing is coming to the forums and reading about how easily others are losing weight. That is more soul destroying than just plodding away at 4:3 on my own.

I do thank you for your support, but I’m stepping away for my own sake.

Hi again Arla
Just a thought, have you tried using those fancy scales that also calculate your body fat percentage? I found (at the gym), once I had recovered from the shock of that awful number, that they were more subject to variation with females than males and suspect it’s related to hydration levels. That is, if you are dehydrated then the percentage of body fat is higher than if you weigh say a few kgs more from good hydration.
Having said that, if you gain during and after your period then it’s possibly more likely to be water than fat, so readings on that scale type may give you a little more encouragement than the standard ones. I don’t see how you could fail to lose fat on your 4:3 regime but, as everyone’s hormones affect them in different ways, especially women of a certain age like me, then who knows?
PS Oprah Winfrey (I think) said she hated her scales because if she had lost weight then she celebrated and if she had gained she consoled herself, both times with food.

hi L2C – happy evening to you, tho it is late there. I so wish we could share some weather – as in I send you some, and you send me some. we’ve had the warmest & driest winter on record, and already wildfires and sanctioned water rationing and it’s not even April…. i’d love to unpack my fleece and head east 🙂 to answer your question on muscle work/wgt gain – YES! when you’ve done strength training, as in your awesome home gym routine (get a fitbit if you can, they are the most motivating thing! esp for stair climbing) your muscles fill up w/ lactic acid from the exertion which retains water. that’s why body builders always work out hard before measuring as their muscles are bigger (read bulkier & heavier) can take up to 48 hrs to subside, so give yourself an out on that. i’m still doing the daily weighing and see a 1-2 lb swing every day. that does get crazy making (because i KNOW i didn’t consume commensurate calories), but after the second fast day i usually see the slow downward trend, tho i’ve stalled several times and just kept going. that is really hard and I feel so for Arla – the endocrine system is mysterious to me but drives our metabolism and there should be MORE research and traction in that dept, it’s abysmal. but as usual, women’s health seems to get back-burner-ed every time. Now, for men there a million pills for ‘that special moment’ 😀 no problem getting funding there, eh?
only 4 more hours till bed fast nites are l-o-n-g… best to you and everyone on tonight 🙂 p.s. applecrisp makes me want pie, so i’d omitted her out of self-preservation. 😉

I can understand the frustration that Arla feels only too well. I have been on diets where I have actually picked up weight. When calorie counting, I have to drop my cals to 800 before seeing any results and even then its pretty slow. On the Atkins diet I had good results but couldn’t keep it up. Also tried the HCG diet – it cannot be a lifestyle thing so in the long run, it did not work for me. I did lose alot of weight and it took a long time before I put it back on. On Monday morning I weighed myself and found to my utter disgust that I had picked up everything I had lost over the previous two weeks. I know that I overate but really? 3kgs? Overnight? The only thing that I did different, was that I ate a fair bit of carbs which normally I don’t. So on my feast days this week, I will definitely be more careful and not so gung ho!!
I am now settling down into a rhythm: Monday a total fast with only a cup of broth at night, Tuesday a very low calorie meal at night (mainly steamed veg), Thursday again just a small meal at night. I hope my blood work up at the end of April gives me better results than the ruddy scale. Had to get a new one a while back – I kicked the old one clear across the room!

Hi to all non weight losers,
I want to sympathise with you because I have been where you are at, my daughter too. We are healthy eaters and both energetic gym enthusiasts. Most people get tired just hearing about the exercise I do each day. Nevertheless I cannot lose weight on 1200 cals per day, I have had tests done to no avail. It is so frustrating. I am losing with 4: 3 but I am on 1000 average on other days. I do enjoy special occasions but maximise 2000 even on those days and always pay for it on the scales. I am convinced there is a genetic problem but who knows what it is? My daughter has been on 5:2 since January, she has only lost 2 lbs, she wants to lose 14 pounds and then use it to maintain. I average between 1/2 to 1 lb per week due to my low calorie intake. Just letting you know you are not alone. It took me one year to lose a stone before fasting diet, I am still 15 stone 6 lbs, nobody believes that you don’t cheat, it’s really annoying.

I wish the medical profession had more suggestions on how to lose weight. There is a group where the standard advice doesn’t work as well. Different advice is needed and a kinder approach.

Applecrisp, your message reminded me of a recent conversation I had with someone I know slightly. She needed to be restented in her legs – one of her stents had failed after 2 years. She was saying so firmly to me that she couldn’t understand why she had this, that she exercised and wasn’t fat (as I am!) and though she didn’t mean it in a nasty way, it was all about deserving. That some people don’t deserve to be well. But illness doesn’t respect who or what you are. Certainly some things will make you more likely to have certain illnesses but it’s just a statistical thing and by no means the whole story.

Fatness is so often seen as a vice (gluttony) but that is over simplistic. Genes, sophisticated selling techniques, upbringing, life all play a part. And it makes me sorry that using blame is so often used by politicians who should know better. They go on about ‘Hard working families’ for example. But many would like to work but cant get jobs or are not well. Most fat people want to be thinner and try hard to become so.
It makes groups and societies feel better if they can look down on another
group, be it fat people, smokers or – well name any group really.

Yes! A rant helps let off steam. Happily most people are much more sophisticated and can see past labels and appearences. I hope it was a good cat video! Hugs to you. xx