I’ve been on the 5:2 for nine weeks, but have not seen significant weight loss so far (currently averaging 0.25 kg/week, with negative loss in the most recent week). I’m wondering how long I can keep this up, as I find the fast days quite challenging. I have been meticulous with the calorie load on fast days, and have not over-compensated outside them. According to WHO guidelines, I am in the region of 30 kg overweight, so it’s not that I’ve got no weight to lose.

Thanks to both of you for your words of support – it has given me the motivation to persist. I do realize that this is a long-term thing; I’d just be a bit more motivated if initial results had been more encouraging.

To Eluminadia: I don’t keep track of what I eat on non-fast days, but (in keeping with Dr Moseley’s book) ‘eat normally’. I certainly don’t over-indulge. I think if I had to count calories all the time I would lose heart quite quickly.

To Jetsman21: No, no exercise regime in place as yet, but it’s in the pipeline. I don’t have a smartphone, but I appreciate the green tea tip: will give it a try.

Just wanted to add – thanks to Eluminadia for the recommendation for the MyFitnessPal website. Its calorie/diet tracker seems first-rate.

Amazon was right. Tracking everything (oh so tedious!) on MyFitnessPal showed that I was going over my required levels by a couple of hundred calories/day – not portion control problems, but a susceptibility to ‘nibbles’ 😉

Now back on track: overall weight loss is now 10.3 lbs after eleven weeks, 3″ off waist, and I am much more optimistic, so thanks to all of you.

Good to know. I did try green tea as an appetite suppressant, but could not stomach it, even when sweetened with a bit of Stevia. I do find the fast days challenging: last night I realized that I was too hungry to get to sleep, and had to resort to a plain yoghurt – although I waited till a minute past midnight. What seems to work best for me is to get through the day with fluids (juice of a lemon topped up with sparking water, 12 calories), then eat at least 500 calories at about 8 pm. But everyone’s reaction to hunger will be different.

The loss so far has been achieved without increasing exercise. I will be on holiday in a couple of weeks, and plan to suspend the diet while I am away (it is a holiday, after all). *But* I will be walking at least five miles every day unless it’s pouring. It will be interesting to see what effect that has on weight, BMI and BFI (a more useful measure than BMI).

In case anyone’s interested, I’m using Omron BF511 scales, which weight, BMR, BMI, BFI, muscle percentage and visceral fat, as well as their change from the previous measurements and an indication of desirable values. They are good value for money and seem to be accurate.

Yup, for sure. I do weigh myself weekly, but really only because I’m a bit of an Excel freak who likes graphs. On current trend I should hit my target weight next summer assuming I keep it up. I probably won’t go that far – my GP thinks it’s too much to lose – but any significant loss is a benefit.

What I didn’t post is the side effects, all good. I feel as if I have more energy, and I sleep better. However, this may also have a lot to do with a less punishing lifestyle: I operated a part-time bakery business from home for the six years up to last October, which robbed me of enough sleep. These days I only bake once or twice a week.

One issue with the fast diet, and what probably caused me to post in the first place, is that weight loss is gradual, and so from week to week the loss (or otherwise) can be of the same order as the inevitable errors in weighing: as an engineer would put it, the significant data can get lost in the noise. Maybe you have a better approach: once a month might be a better plan.

Yes, the trend is satisfyingly downwards now, with 10 kg loss in sight for September. This means that 5:2 is both the first diet I’ve stuck with, and the first diet that’s worked for me. (I have awful memories of the Cambridge Diet, and as for the Cabbage Soup Diet – well, who needs friends?)

My personal feeling is that daily weighing might lead to over-obsession with weight, at least for me, and depression if one seems to have put it on, even if it’s only because of what I read rather tactfully described elsewhere as ‘food in transit’ 😉

The great thing about 5:2 is that it equips people with the tools and experience to put things right painlessly if a bit of weight is gained. But I’m not going to read any of the maintenance stuff until much later – I don’t want to tempt Providence.

Reporting back again: diet went very well in 2015 and I peaked at 17 kg loss in early March. However, since then I seem to have hit a plateau at 92-93 kg despite following 5:2 pretty closely. I track kcals in and kcals out (Fitbit One/MyFitnessPal.com), so I know that my adherence to the diet is close to that when I was losing weight more rapidly. I really want to get below 90 kg.

Any advice welcome.

Better news is that I’ve hit my first major target, of waist <= half height (9 inch/22 cms loss), and visceral fat down from 21% to 14%, although now bounced back to 15%.

That’s a useful thread: many thanks.

Frustrated, it sounds as though the diet is working for your partner, which is great. However, he might also be interested in researching the Newcastle Diet, which is aimed specifically at those with Type II Diabetes. This is discussed in the thread ‘Medical conditions and fasting’. See also http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/news/2015/10/type2diabetes/.

Otherwise I agree with simcoeluv; that was my problem at the start. You can only find out what’s going on through detailed calorie tracking. It’s really, really tedious, but it worked for me. MyFitnessPal, which is free, helps a lot with this, and works on smartphones too. Better still, the latest generation of Fitbits integrate with MyFitnessPal, so you have all your calorie inputs and outputs in one place. The Fitbit support software is excellent.

Sadly, we all consume more calories than we realize, or so studies have suggested. Ignoring alcoholic drinks, for example, is a common issue: alcohol contains a *lot* of calories. Life is tough 😉