Aussienow– was thinking someone with more experience would have a better answer.. but here goes… I don’t weigh any non-starchy top grown veggie. Just in terms of fullness, I know I’ll stop before significant calorie damage. For root veg, I am more careful, but have been including some on non-fasting days, because I want to keep my metabolism up. (This has been an issue for me, it’s way too easy to turn “every” day into a fasting day, and for a few days was tasting metal mouth). I think nobody can tell you how much, that it’s up to you and what your own body is telling you.

I am 58 and as you know have lost nearly 6 stones so it is possible!! However, that’s been on a calorie counted eating pattern not 5:2, so far!
Sandra

Hi PreciousBooBoo 🙂

My friend got the Melatonin from a Health food shop; I see you can purchase online too, but I wouldn’t know how you work out what is the best one. I would think your GP could advise, providing they are ok with supplements. Judging by the info available online, it seems to be a reasonably safe product short term – no studies yet done on those who take it long term. A senior academic colleague of mine always uses it when she travels overseas, and I would trust her judgement on this. So I hope you can source some, and that it works! 🙂 As others have mentioned, I have heard that good sleep is needed to assist in weight loss – well, good sleep is neded for so much healthy body and mind functioning! Have you been to a sleep clinic at all?

This certainly is a popular thread. As others have said, there are bound to be many of us LOACA who have tried many things over the years to lose weight. I guess that on average we may be able to make more time to spend on these forums than younger women. And these forums give us access to support that may be easier for us to seek than from other sources. We don’t have to worry how people will react when we tell them about this WOE!

Here’s to a good week ahead for everyone 😀
Sassy

PS PreciousBooBoo – I only realized that you had started a topic for me when I read your post in this topic – for various reasons I hadn’t checked new topics for a few days, nor been able to contribute much to the forum. Thanks for noticing that I hadn’t posted in a while 🙂 🙂 I am very happy to continue with the thread you started – thanks! Will do that now 😀

BlueOcean- that sounds beautiful.

Thank you Piper and PreciousBooBoo…..

Dr. Jung’s idea is intermittent fasting, 5:2, is the the way to change, break, cure, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. I learned a lot listening to his 6 part series on YouTube…..I guess he puts his patients on IF/5:2…..well, it’s working for me!

Yes WiltldnrUSA, that is correct, I was referring to Dr. Jason Fung….was a bit of a typo there for me….

ooops 4got 2 say

u may call me usa

blueOcean

go 2 our reversing site (i always repeat 4 posters/newbies)

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/reversing-type-2-diabetes-the-fastday-lifestyle/

we don’t mind ur views

say allot
post ur thoughts

the only thing if u c our post/topics started

is when people bully people 4 their views & opinions or get nasty 2 each other

we do rally then we do not tolerate & we get the moderator 2 stop but never on views u will i’m so ashamed of my country concerning the white coat mafia 😀 but it seems that canada australia r just as bad

this is a nice forum where they let people think think think

i luv science however only have a right brain

we welcome ur post drop by

take care & goodnight 4 now

usa

BooBoo- you already know what I said- Gorilla in the room.

Hello msDale. Congratulations, it is very encouraging to hear your story.
I suspect weightloss will stop when you have lost the amount of bady fat your bady wants to lose.
Maybe it will slow before then – but if you stick to the same regime, your metabolism won’t slow and you will be just burning fat so I don’t see why it should slow.
I wonder if our preconception of weight slowing comes from calorie counting diets and the consequental convergence of fewer calories / slower metabolism?
I’m losing about 1 kilo a week, but I have a lot to lose 🙂

BlueOcean, I’m very impressed by your dedication – although I guess you have all the incentive in the world!

I just wanted to say that my interpretation of Dr Fung’s standpoint is that the key thing is to eliminate sugar and processed carbohydrates (especially flour), and kick the snacking habit. Fasting is an additional technique to help reset the metabolism, but I don’t think he imagines that one can carry on eating junk food five days a week.

Not that I am suggesting that you do! But watch out for the milk – very insulinogenic!

Personally find that cutting out carb rich foods completely makes the world of difference to how I feel, and my weight loss

Half and half – is that cream? Its not a term we use in the UK.

And no, I didn’t think you were eating junk – just wanted to say that my interpretation of Dr Fung’s stance was that fasting was a relatively small part of the picture.

I think that video of Dr Mosley eating the burger etc is very unfortunate. It rather suggests that its OK to eat the junk, whereas I suspect that once at target weight its OK for the occasional treat, but that is about it. Some folk seem to lose weight just fasting 5:2 but there’s never anything quite that easy, is there?

I don’t eat out that much, but when I do its steak and salad.

I’m in my 60s too – and somehow, despite a raving sugar addiction I seem to have escaped the worst of its effects so far. It may be helped by the fact that I don’t like cola, or milk (but I do like cheese)

So are you following the good doc’s programme completely? I think I could probably do anything for a while – and have succeeded in low cal dieting before, but I am not entirely sure how long I can sustain it – even 5:2.

Hi Ruthi, I’m not sure who you are referring to when you say ‘the good doc’s programme’, meaning Dr. Mosley or Dr. Fung? Right now I’m doing 5:2 and trying to do one meal a day on fast days, other than my coffee w/ cream, and keep that meal to 400 calories. But I’m new to this way of living so I don’t have much history so far.

Yesterday, an eat day, I fasted until the evening meal, which I shared with a friend. I keep my meals pretty simple. Yesterday morning I measured my blood glucose and it was under 100 (US measurement, may be different in UK)for the first time in years. I think the fasting is doing a lot to help get my blood glucose down whereas eating low carb, moderate protein did nothing to help reduce blood glucose. I’m not measuring insulin, just hoping if my blood glucose is in the correct range my insulin will be ok? (Maybe I need to look into that…)

Thank you for being online and involved in this forum, it helps me so much.

Hi Ruthi,

I’m not diabetic yet, just on my way. I’m insulin resistant and have metabolic syndrome. So far 5:2 is working for me but I won’t know for a number of months, really until I have my next blood work-up.

Yes, let’s keep it going!

How are you doing?

BlueOcean, I have also been concerned with metabolic syndrome. Had previously lost 17 lbs and kept off for a few years, but waist started growing out of bounds in the last year. I could only button a few pants. Blood sugar was supposed to be okay, but only get tested about once a year. Already had high BP. I just want to stop it before it gets out of hand.

BooBoo- facebook comment referred to the gorilla, not vegging 🙂

Dra57- wow, on the previous weight loss, hope 5-2 is easier!

Sweet dreams, BlueOcean. You’re doing a grand job!

Hello all
Now, I don’t belong to your elite group, but I have gone through many periods of not sleeping. 5-htp helped, but most successful was black cherry concentrate. It wasn’t a quick fix but it got me back into a good sleeping pattern. What a relief it was too!
5htp might be better for the situations of not sleeping on fast days, and (in my unmedically informed opinion) black cherry is worth a try for anyone who has trouble getting to or staying asleep aaaall the time.

Thank you! I did get back to sleep for two more hours, so that was great. I think I remember Dr. Jason Fung saying that when we fast our body becomes flooded with adrenaline….

Hello there, I’m 65 and I’ve been using my version of the 5:2 plan since Sept. 2013. I’ve lost 20 pounds. I eat nothing on Monday and Thursday. I find this to be a consistent way of losing. I also only eat between 10AM and 6PM.

Hi Precious and everyone…

I am reviewing Dr. Fung’s 6 part series on YouTube again, titled, ‘The Aetiology of Obesity’.

He states on his blog: ‘Obesity is a hormonal dysregulation resulting in fat accumulation. Our job is to find the hormonal imbalance and devise treatments strategies to correct it. Since obesity is predominantly (not the only)an insulin excess, treatments to reduce insulin will be successful in reducing the imbalance and restoring weight. Low carb high fat diets is one strategy to reduce insulin. Intermittent fasting is another. Ketotic diets is yet another. All are similar in reducing insulin and all can be successful.’ Dr. Jason Fung

Every time I get frustrated with taking off the kilos, or if they are not coming off fast enough for me, I have to remember /re-read the above–so thought I would send it along. (Ya know, I’ve only been doing this for 2 weeks! ‘Are we there yet?’) I find doing IF (intermittent fasting) and pretty much keeping it low carb, just about the easiest for me. I can’t do low carb, high fat consistently enough for it to make much difference for me because even when I eat protein it turns to sugar quickly in my system because I’m insulin resistant, which means just about everything I put in my mouth turns to sugar. IF is one way of breaking that cycle…and I really like the way I feel doing it, so that’s huge for me. I don’t feel deprived.(I remember in Fung’s lecture he said a few sentences about the importance of NOT eating between meals for some of us with insulin resistance– so I think fasting helps me the most because I refrain from nibbling…but we are all different..)

I just finished my first two weeks of IF and yesterday was harder but I’m continuing on with this way of eating/life because of the long term & short term health benefits….

that said….

Precious, does doing a bit more exercise help with your insomnia? I’ve tried taking coconut oil before I go to bed and I think it helped but maybe I was just tired? Since I’m watching how many calories I’m eating on ‘eat’ days I’ve stopped doing that.

When I come across Dr. Fung’s comments on adrenaline I’ll take note and let you know where in his lecture he mentions it…but he doesn’t say anything more about it, just that it happens when we fast…. but Mimi,co-author of The Fast Diet, said in her blog that she can easily sleep through the night…so maybe with time our bodies will adjust…?…hopefully.

Since hormones control all the chemical processes in our bodies, you could consider obesity and all that goes with it as hormonal. But I think that is rather missing the point – the big question is not which hormones we can tweak, so much as how can we allow/enable our systems to operate in balance.

Our mothers and grandmothers weren’t overweight, so there has to be something that has made things change.

Dr Fung reckons its primarily sugar – and eating habits! I think that in the long run we probably should stay away from refined carbs, and definitely from sugar on all but very special occasions. But I am hoping that I won’t have to stay quite so strict forever!

Gosh! it wasn’t like that in UK! I think it took us a long time to catch up with the USA after the war!

My feeling is that the younger, and less compromised who are doing 5:2 get brilliant results with just fasting. But I suspect its not that easy for those of us who have been abusing our bodies for so much longer.

And in particular I think fasting is a good way of resetting things, but it will only work long term for me if I kick the damaging habits.

I am originally from the north of England and spent 23 years there before moving to NZ.
I remember when I was young that such things as pop (fizzy drinks), chocolates, biscuits, take aways etc were treats – not the norm. It was a time when milk was milk and bread was bread and these were heaps cheaper than the treats.
Not so anymore. We now have processed milk and bread and fizzy drinks are cheaper than milk and water, white yucky bread is cheaper than the good whole meal breads I was brought up with.
But some people buy the cheaper stuff because of just that it’s cheaper and most don’t know or care that it’s bad, because all the bad things that might happen aren’t going to happen to them.
We should turn back the clock and make the bad things like fizzy drinks, chocolates etc. be put back in the higher price bracket, so that they are treats once again.
I would like to know why now, things that are good for you are so expensive and visa versa for the rubbish????

Hi everyone 🙂

Wow, what a lot to catch up on in this topic, after not having read it for a couple if days!

I am about to go out, so no time for one of my usual essays (!) but just thought I would throw a couple of things into the mix.

Re cost of foods – even tho fruit, veg, meat can seem expensive, if you only buy raw ingredients I expect your food bill will be a lot less than when you buy the usual array of processed goods. One of my many theories for why obesity is more of an issue now is that there is a lot less home cooking nowadays. I wrote in another topic (Sabotaged, maybe?) about this. When young, we ate cakes, puddings, etc, but all was home made. We only occasionally had chocolate, potato crisps, and never any other type of snack food. And the only take away was the occasional fish and chips… And we were all average weight. (Well, I was until I binged for 6 weeks during early puberty……!!!!!!)

Re different rates etc of weight loss. As some of you know, I have done pretty well on this WOE – see Sassy’s story that PreciousBooBoo started for me for details. A theory I have begun to form relates to the hormonal issues that have been discussed. I never suffered PMT and sailed thru menopause with the very occasional hot flush – has less hormones running riot thru my system helped with ability to lose weight?

Anyhow, gotta go!
Enjoy the weekend 😀
Sassy