Hi snedger,

To provide some balance to the documentary, would you consider having a look at Dr Aseem Malhotra-cardiologist or Dr Davis Unwin-GP with interest in obesity on You Tube?

They both seem quite balanced to me and have nothing to sell, which I find encouraging. Might give you some ideas to contemplate too.

By having 2 days with less food, I am consuming and wasting less, which is both ethical and sustainable.I want to eat good unprocessed food with less sugar in my life. I rarely drink alcohol, but if I did, I would look to reduce consumption for better health and less sugar.

Having looked at the work of Robert Lustig and Jason Fung, I am eating cheese/fish/meat/full fat milk and yoghurt, nuts, fruit and vegetables. I am reducing the amount and frequency of pasta/rice/potatoes and bread. I don’t eat chocolate, cake, ice cream or biscuits since early July and I feel better.

I have lost inches/fat % and weight so I know that it is working. My goal is to lose the inches and to get to a healthy waist measurement, which I can then maintain forever.

It sounds like we are all doing well.I am finding the support of you all very helpful.

MM sounds like a good idea to fast while you are busy tomorrow. I have never noticed smaller knees, but I am stunned that my neck is an inch smaller!I like the analogy from Fung that we store fat in our bodies in a fridge and a freezer. The fridge is easily accessible and from food that we have eaten. When the fridge is empty from fasting, our bodies have to go to the freezer(visceral fat). Makes sense as the bellies start to shrink.

I was a bit fed up after a 24 hour fast yesterday, that the tape measure hadn’t moved anywhere. Now, rationally I know that is bonkers but I felt that I ‘deserved’ to see a difference. I tried on that skirt, still no difference and then I tried on a favourite dress that I couldn’t get on and I now can! I can only assume that my shape is changing in ways that I can’t see, so I shall just have to keep the faith and keep going.

My plan is to fast again on Thursday, in part, because the plan is to visit a friend in their garden in the morning which should keep me busy. If thunderstorms de-rail that plan, its going to a long day!

Amongst my friends, my slim friend is the only one who knows what I am doing. She is baffled but supportive. I was explaining to her that I believe that I will need to lose at least 14 lb(It was 4kg/8.8lb at the weekend) before anyone may comment, but I suspect that it will be more than that. I am hoping to get close to 14lb at the end of the month and be able to breathe in that skirt.

Another hour and a bit to go before another 24 hours in the bag. Its fine, but the last hour is always a challenge for me.

Today I learned that the food pyramid in the US, where complex carbs are given high status and are deemed essential for good health, was actually a construction to deal with food surplus as a result of farm production efficiency.

How is everyone getting on?

Thank you!
If my son moves out, his fancy scales will go with him and I will have to buy my own! I will keep up weighing once a week, just to keep a handle on the situation. I met up with friends in a garden this morning and it is as if the scales have fallen away from my eyes. All but one is in proportion and that is me!

Well 3 out of 4 dresses are too long so are going back. The other one is cute and although tight now, should be fine when it is cooler. I will make a final decision over the weekend.

Its certainly cheaper have 2 long fast days. I am having to be organised so that food doesn’t spoil, but it does feel great to plan to eat nutritionally well.

MM-just keep the faith and keep going. I am researching family tree online which is brilliant for distraction!

Morning Everyone,I am pleased that along with the inch off the waist this week, that my weight has continued to reduce at an average of 2lb a week. I am hoping to reach 14lb/1 stone at the end of the month.

I am now 6 weeks clean from chocolate/biscuits/cakes/ice cream/crisps. It has been easy not to buy and decline if offered. I simply explain that I have gone sugar free because my trousers are too tight. I can see that my body is changing shape.

I am not counting calories or logging activity, just avoiding sugar and not allowing myself more than 2 slices of bread a day. I am eating more salad, less sweet fruit and meal planning.

How is everyone doing?

Which is why I don’t have cheesecake and biscuits at home, Iona.

Another 24 hours fasting tomorrow. Anyone joining me?

Hello MM,

Just an over an hour to go and I can honestly say that I haven’t been hungry.Meals punctuate the day and give me something to do. Filling the time at home is proving more of a challenge each week that passes and I am looking forward to going back to work.

Work is going to be interesting on many levels. Lunch is a hot meal and provided free, but for the first couple of weeks I will be offered a packed lunch. That will be bread and some sort of filling and I imagine things that I a trying to avoid.

So I am going to have to think about what I can take in that doesn’t include bread, can be stored without a fridge and will be delicious. Time for research.

Thanks for the recipe ideas and excellent news on the pelvic bones reappearing and the tape measure moving. Marginal gains.

There has been a programme on here which is in 3 parts. Its by Micheal Mosley with his wife who is a GP and has an interest in weight loss for patients. Its called ‘how to lose a stone in 21 days’and I wondered if you can access it from across the pond. Its really interesting and looks at several adults and then gives them recipes and food to eat and exercise to try. The results are next Wednesday.

Off to put the oven on and prep dinner.

How is everyone getting on?

Poor you, how rubbish to have a banging headache. Did you keep drinking? Brilliant that you can see you shape changing too and hopefully the Pilates ball will make a big difference at work. I wonder if the headache was linked to your visit to the osteopath. For me, sometimes its only clothes that ‘show me’ where my shape is changing.

I did the usual mad thing of getting the tape measure out this morning and of course, no change. I know that its bonkers and that my shape is changing and probably not where I am measuring.

Marginal gains.

Tape measure has moved again in the right direction which is thrilling. Very heavy rain this morning so trapped inside with not a lot to do.

Glad to hear that you have found things that have helped you feel better, snedger.

It’s not going out for coffee outside that is worrying me, but going back to work inside a senior school. So many changes to the day and how it will work. I think that it’s going to also be very lonely.

But I have had more information today and raised queries specific to me, so I am hoping that the start of term will be less scary than it felt yesterday.

Jeans on and are looking and feeling much better. Very pleased with any change whether it’s a number on the tape measure or how clothes look.

If you didn’t enjoy much of it, that should help you to make different decisions in the future.I am trying to focus on how I feel when I have eaten the high carb foods. Generally pasta, rice and puddings make me feel very tired afterwards. I wonder if its my blood sugar crashing? Its something that I notice more and more.

Its going to be interesting to see how eating patterns pan out during your 3 weeks holiday. You are quite right about not worrying about work, and I do feel much better now that I know a lot of what the day will look like. I have a very supportive line manager, who will try and sort out my queries, so that’s all positive.

I am fasting for 24 hours again tomorrow. I seem to have slipped easily into a Monday/Thursday regime.

Morning All,

I was initially disappointed by the numbers this morning, but that it is quite irrational as pointed out by my son as who is managing my expectations. This is the first week that the loss has been one lb rather than 2 lb, so I think that the 14lb/stone first goal isn’t going to be the end of this month. However, my metabolic age is now 61(3 years down) and fat % has reduced again( and I have lost another inch.

This is my last week at home. When I go back to work next week, I walk 45 minutes each way and will also be taking in my packed lunch which isn’t going to include bread. I am going to do some research to find food that I like/will keep/can eat at a desk.

Onwards and downwards fast friends. Marginal gains.

Hi MM,
I was wondering how you were getting on.What do you teach? It is fantastic that you have have started clearing out clothes. Its a fabulous sign.

I have been thinking about my disappointment all day and it really doesn’t make any sense, to set a figure of loss that I can’t control with a number that I have picked. As my son says ‘as long as its going in the right direction, be pleased’. I was up a ladder yesterday and when I was reaching up, had to hitch up my trousers. That hasn’t happened in a very long time.

When I started this thread all those years ago, it took me 8 months to lose 23 lbs. This time it has taken 7 weeks to lose 10.7 lb and the difference this time is that I gave up sugar in my tea, ditched all of the rubbish and don’t have rice/pasta/potatoes regularly and have limited toast to once a day.

I have found being at home much easier with regards to food and meal planning. I have been thinking about a menu plan for when I am back to school, what i can prep and batch cook to have in the evening that is going to be low carb and what I can take into work and eat at my desk.

I had a real desire for chocolate on Thursday and decided that toast would be a better option. I didn’t have any, so a quick trip to the shops to buy the bread and yet at no point did I go down the chocolate aisle. I avoid all of those aisles and avert my gaze.

Onwards and downwards Fast Friends. We can do this!

Hello Everyone,

I have missed my goal of losing a stone by this weekend, by just over a lb. The running total of inches lost is now at 13 inches/33.5cms. I was reading that each 4 lb loss of weight should equate to an inch off the waist, so if that is accurate, I should have a healthy waist measurement by the end of the year.

Back to work next week after so long at home. My plan is to continue with the 2 FDs and to watch the carbs. My sons birthday today, so fish and chips take out and then his favourite chocolate cake, but only 3 of us to eat it so….

How is everyone?

Thanks Iona. I have learned that the large portion of fish 🐟 and chips was too much and that the small bottle of fizzy drink( I rarely have one) not only had a horrible after taste but made me feel rubbish (sugar I suspect). We had cake the next day, lovely but didn’t make me want to have another slice. Maybe I am cured? A real test would be an Almond Croissant!

Fast day today and then back to work with my own packed lunch. Currently salmon, tomatoes and cucumber, with some fruit.