Hi Janey,

The average weight loss for women on 5:2 is around 1lb perweek. If you are sure you aren’t over eating on the other 5 days I suggest you give it another couple of weeks. I have a friend who never sees a result on the scales until she’s been dieting for at least 3 weeks.
I read your profile and see that you’ve been ill recently and if your body is trying to heal you are probably retaining fluid. As you might know, early losses on a diet are usually water which might be contributing to your weight not moving yet.

Try to be patient and eat wisely as 5:2 does work. It is slow and weight loss isn’t regular ie the same amount every week, sometimes a couple of pounds disppear and sometimes none.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

What you eat is probably more important than how much you eat. So along with 5:2 look closely at what you are eating. Choose healthy foods. I have foods that I will not eat. I used to espouse what these foods were but Im loath to do it anymore as it wasn’t appreciated. Do your research read widely ask lots of questions and find out what is healthy and what is not. Then adopt that diet along with 5:2. My simple rule. When you shop for food in the supermarket stick to the outer perimeter of the supermarket. If you find yourself down the middle isles question the healthiness of the foods.

They key point to pick out and focus on is the one Cinque made – this is lifelong commitment – it’s a fact – it works – do you want all those general health and weight loss benefits? Only looking at your weight loss after a very short time is unhelpful (I think) – just focus on “doing 5:2” and have complete confidence that it will work and that the results will come – if you do it right – keep digging around the forums and you, like me, will pick up great practical advice about what to eat and about how to think about what you are doing with 5:2 – it’s a challenge for everyone – for some it is a bigger challenge than other and I now appreciate that people at one ends of that spectrum can find it hard to understand why people at the other end find it – hard (or easy) – but I don’t think it’s a massive challenge TBH – the most important thing is to be patient about the process and not to focus or obsess too much about weight and time – if you work hard on the fast days to either eat the right things (i.e. keep to the calorie limit or 500 or 600 or even to get as far under the limit as you can) – the results will appear. Obviously you have to apply yourself on your non-fasting days too but honestly, what I read here and what I found out myself – is that your eating habits change – your sense of taste actually changes, your taste in what you want to eat changes, the way you deal with hunger changes, your relationship to food and eating changes – a lot of that comes very naturally as a consequence of just doing 5:2. Good luck – tough it out – it’s probably the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done healthwise.