hi there J-Bird

Already good advice from JFitzy, without knowing enough its difficult to know what to advise, but I would say keep at it, it might simply be you’ve hit a plateau, and things will start to move again… look around the forum for topics about plateaus, hope this helps!!

good luck! 🙂

I have lost 8kg in 12 weeks and nothing in the last 3 weeks, but I have not gained anything either! I take it easy and do not worry. At the end of the day, slow loss might be better than a rapid one.
If you stick to the “rules” you should lose.
Stef.

J-bird 4422

In August 2013 I weighed in at an horrendous 21st – 3lb. At age 57 years and 5ft 10in tall that was serious bad news. I have followed the 5:2 ever since and am now 4-1/2st lighter. Although week-by-week weight loss has varied, I have lost weight every week without exception. So I must be doing something right. I don’t know whether this will help, but let me say more specifically what I do.

Fast days:

Always eat the same thing. Banana and unsweetened yoghurt at breakfast (9.30am). No lunch. Evening meal (6.00pm) is a large portion of mixed frozen vegetables and either a pan fried chicken breast or a pan fried salmon fillet. Tea and coffee (with a little milk) when desired. This is a quite a low carbohydrate menu. My pet theory is that weight loss is aided by reducing the stimulus for insulin production. There is a long fast from breakfast until 6.00pm, a low GI meal in the evening and another long fast until the next morning. Absolutely no sugar, potatoes, rice, bread or pasta on these days.

Non-fast days:

Something of everything. I find my sweet tooth has abated naturally over the past six months, but I still eat a few digestive biscuits and will have a cake now and again. Similarly I find myself taking smaller meals generally, but I never go hungry on these days – there is no secondary diet. No low calorie products – use full fat milk and cheese and real butter. I always take the same breakfast – three spoons of oats, a handful of mixed nuts, a handful of mixed seeds, a few tinned prunes with juice and served with cold milk – a zero wheat meal. I also have a pet theory that too much wheat causes problems when trying to lose weight. Generally I eat wheat at most on one meal a day. It’s never at breakfast, so if I take a sandwich lunch, for example, I will perhaps have potatoes or rice for carbohydrate in the evening. Oatcakes and cheese are very good at any time – filling, low GI and no wheat. An apple a day. Added-sugar foods taken only in moderation. No strenuous exercise but I make a point of walking wherever possible.

I hope this helps and you get your weight loss moving again.

Hopeful@40,

I buy Nairn’s rough oatcakes. I know you can get them in Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Waitrose – and I imagine in the other supermarkets too. The rough oaktcakes have more chewy fibre in them – you can also buy ones in which the oatmeal is more refined if you prefer.

Best wishes,

Peter

J-bird, another thing you can do is fast 3 days one week (e.g. Mon, Wed, Fri) and then go back to 5:2 afterwards. A little boost like that can shift your body back into weight loss. I did 4:3 for several months about a year ago (took a long break and now I’m back to 5:2) and found it to be incredibly successful, despite already being a healthy weight and having a low metabolism.

Actually, I find that now that I’m on 5:2, my body craves that third fast day, but I just can’t fit it in without damaging my (limited) social life. So maybe try that third day and see if your body responds happily!

If/when you limit your carbs, try to only eliminate the unhealthy (aka white & simple) carbs. I found that restricting ALL carbs just made me crave them to an unhealthy degree, eventually causing binging.

J-bird, in my experience, the craving for a 3rd fast day only sets in either A) when you’re already used to 3:4 or B) when your 2 fast days only had one “feast” day in between. On the “feast” day after your second fast day,your body simple expects that this is a pattern. It’s hard to explain the feeling; you just feel like you’re in the “zone”. The fasting zone.

I actually found it easier to eat no food (just some sugar & milk in coffee) on fast days, because it kept me from thinking about food all day (no planning/anticipating meals). But apparently the research would suggest that that causes muscle loss as well, so I’m up to 400-500 calories as suggested. Haven’t read up on it too much yet though.

Enjoy your fasts 🙂
CuriousCosmo

J-bird4422,

I certainly understand the disappointment. The truth is, the amount of calories our bodies need is very low! 1800 Cals does feel like deprivation a lot of the time, when in reality it’s just a maintenance number – many wouldn’t lose weight at all eating 1800 Cals a day. In fact I think in the UK the recommended daily intake for women is 1500 Cals. And that’s just to maintain. That’s why the 2 days of fasting is on top of that.

Not overeating is incredibly difficult when businesses have competed for decades to win a portion of your palate. These years of chemical engineering have made food tastier and more addictive, but not “satisfying” because if you were satisfied, you wouldn’t keep eating, and they would make less money. It’s really frustrating, but that’s the world we live in now, so we have to either embrace it or explore tactics for fighting back. Keep fighting!

Also, if you’re at all interested in learning more about how the food industry has increased food addiction and decreased satiety, read “The End of Overeating”. It’s very interesting and references dozens of research experiments on mice that helped me understand how food interacts with my brain. It’s easier to fight when you know the enemy and understand its tactics.