hi Ohlala

What a great start!!!! Brilliant.

Where can I send your hair shirt – when a mini magnum becomes something to worry about, its time for me to give up!!! Ive been doing this for five months, into sixth week of the Fast Beach Diet and Ive given up all treats for those six weeks, but there is a raspberry magnum waiting for me in the freezer for Monday when I am finished.

5:2 isn’t a diet, so nothing is forbidden, which makes it poosible to do for life.

So have yuour treats, but make sure they are counted within your TDEE, and try not to have them on fast days. You can have a mars bar on a fast day, but not much else, and the day will become long and you will be hungry.

So don’t be hard on yourself,even if you slip badly, it is only for one day. Sometimes its good to have a day or two without even thinking of 5:2.

We need treats, we need nice food. Ive managed without for weeks, and its been a good push, but Im looking forward to my wine.

Alternate days aren’t that bad once you get into the swing of it. But even just adding a 3rd day helps. Plus watching what you eat on most days.

Something that really helped me understand this whole thing was reading all the blogs at http://www.intensivedietarymanagement.com. He explains the calories, hormonal, obesity, fasting in a way that is SO easy to understand (and he is funny, too!) In a nutshell, he proves that obesity is not caused by eating too much and moving too little; it is a hormonal, insulin resistance problem. And the only way to control it is by fasting, and by what you eat and when you eat.

A few examples of how to reduce your insulin:
1) No snacking between meals. The longer between meals the better.
2) No eating after dinner. Again, the longer between dinner and “breakfast” the better. On fast days, I started eating my first meal around lunch time, like others were doing, and it jump-started my loss.
3) Easy on the bad carbs: bread (yes, even whole grain), sugar, fruit, etc. I have almost completely given up breads, except for my 1 feast day a week. Lots of veggies. And trust me, I am NOT a veggie person!

That’s just a few things I learned, and that Mosley touched on in his book, and Mimi continued in Fast Beach Diet.

As for exercise, I do a bit LESS than you!

Re-examine what you are doing, and we can work through it together!

Ho Ohlala

Frankly Im a couch potato. Do walk now, about 2.5 miles a day, t the post office in the village, have been doing some push ups, just bought a huka hoop, coveted in bruises from it, but keeping trying.

Im a planner, so June is the month to tone. I can fo anything fir a few weeks, and every month I extended my target weightloss, Im heading now for a five stone loss, or even a bit more. Madness, but by planning short periods Im halfway there in 5 months. Though I suspect the other half will be harder.

Keep the faith though, there is no failure, just the odd trip up!

I have my last meal around 4:30 pm. The next day, I eat a hard boiled egg and a small salad. Around 4 pm, I have either soup or another small salad with a few pickles. The next day, I do the same, or have 1 egg for breakfast.

It sounds like you are doing good. The alcohol doesn’t help, but one or two wouldn’t be too bad. 19 hours is long time! I can barely make it 16 hours!

Your job shouldn’t be that much of a factor. When you read those blogs I mentioned, you will understand. Exercise is only 5% of your daily energy expenditure. 95% is what and when you eat.

The blogs are interesting, aren’t they?! You are doing great then! And yes, sleeping counts! That is what is so cool about it! Burning fat while sleeping? Absolutely!

Keep on going, girl! You got this licked!

Yes, I weigh once a week only, on Saturday morning.

Me, too. Last meal (snack, really…just an apple with some peanut butter) around 7 pm. 8 am now and hungry but drinking water and coffee like crazy! I think I will heat my lunch soup/broth up early.
I’m gonna try to push it to 9 am.

Oooh, that sounds good! Especially right now! I got busy at work, plus 2 structure fires nearby and all kinds of excitement so I am still not eating! Whew!

You get cold because of the low insulin. That is normal.

I have to eat more salmon. Got salad today with tuna. No time to make hard boiled eggs last night but will get by!

Enjoy your day, and nice going!

good job! keeping it …

Hey Ohlala,

Don’t loose heart. I sometimes think the scales are out to get me!

It’s always galling after a particularly hard fasting day to see that weight loss hasn’t been as much as we’d hoped for, but then on other days when the fasting hasn’t seemed to be so hard the opposite happens and the weight has fallen off!

I am learning to balance out the peaks and troughs of joy and dissapointment of what the scales tell me… the inner workings of the body are a mystery and hopefully the hard work you put in this past week are having a deeper health benefit rather than purely shedding the kilos.

Keep on keeping on and fingers crossed for the next weigh-in. You’re doing great!

Do you figure your tdee with your current weight or your goal weight? Also, it tends (in my opinion) to run high. How often do you weigh yourself? Only weigh once a week. And if you don’t like what you see, I immediately do another super good fast day, and weigh the next morning. It takes the body a day or sometimes 2 to reveal the results of the previous day. It isn’t immediate.

Read the labels on EVERYTHING you eat.! Carbs hide everywhere! Increase protein and good fats.

Excellent job on doing 19:5, or 16:8 or whatever you can manage.

That is why I weigh myself on Saturday morning! I want to get in every last fasting minute I can…then , let the eating begin!

Try eating more protein. The plan I am just starting (see my post on high protein no carb plan) is 75% protein, 15% fats, 10% carbs. When you eat protein, it fills you up better (not more, like eating 5 cups of lettuce!). Plus you (supposedly) can eat more actual calories but it won’t be stored as fat. So I combining a lot of things! I figure throw as much as I can at it, and something is bound to stick…well, hopefully not the fat, lol!

Enjoy your cuppa (I think that is a coffee? ) I just made myself one also, though I am stuck at work!

Talk to you soon!

Hi Ohlala:

Here are some tips and explanations of what is going on with your 5:2: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

I generally sit back and watch people explore various ways to lose weight as they try to find what works for them, but every once in awhile I see ‘advice’ that could be dangerous or is simply wrong. Such is the high protein diet fitnfast has recommended to you.

It may work for fitnfast (apparently not started yet, so doesn’t know but is still recommending it) but it is long established that eating too much protein can cause illness and other damage to the body. The ‘recommended’ amounts of protein to eat in a diet are generally around 25%, not to exceed 35%. I highly recommend you adhere to those guidelines.

Good Luck!

Hi fitnfast:

Of course, I have never said exercise is dangerous – perhaps you should read a bit more closely. If you had, you would have read that I said exercise is the best thing you can do for better health (except if you smoke, stop smoking).

That is what I observe you doing – going around, reading, maybe not accurately understanding what you read, taking bits and pieces of things you read, and immediately throwing them out there as ‘suggestions’. You said ‘try eating more protein’ and then said you were going to eat 75% protein, as an example of what you meant. Science is clear that that level of protein is not healthy for humans – sorry, even if you read some book or internet site that said otherwise.

A recent example of what I mean – there was a recent news story of a man that got into a car accident and while being treated at the hospital discovered his kidneys were failing. He had no idea. Let’s say that man did not have an accident, read your post, wanted to lose weight, and started eating high levels of protein. His kidneys would have failed much faster than they were, and he might have been in much worse shape much more quickly than he would have been had he not eaten all that protein to lose weight. You have to understand you have no idea who will read your posts, what their physical conditions will be and therefor will have no idea what might happen to them if they follow your advice.

I would suggest that you continue your reading, read more broadly, throw in some reading on biology and biochemistry, and do all of the experimenting you want on yourself to find what works for you.

But please don’t suggest dangerous paths of experimentation to others, even if you are suggesting them in good faith without knowing they are dangerous. Unfortunately, you get the same results either way.