Is it possible that this just doesn't work for some?

This topic contains 25 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by Humphrey 10 years, 7 months ago.

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Hypat1a

7:21 am
5 Sep 13
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My husband and I have done 5:2 for 3 weeks. Husband needs to loose about 6 stone, I need to loose 4. We have both put struggled with our weight for a long time and had a bit of a surge in weight gain I think through lack of exercise, in the past 3 months.
So…the 5:2 diet sounded a good plan for us. We are not particularly unhealthy eaters anyway, yes the occasional meal out or dessert but on the whole lots of veges and fruit and within normal calorie limits. We have stuck to the diet for 3 weeks, introduced an exercise plan for all non fasting days and trying to walk more.
It feels like a big change. We are both very hungry on fasting days and it has been tough. The fact that we have a lot to loose also means that I expected the weight loss in the first couple of weeks would be quite significant.
The result-nothing, no weight loss whatsoever!!! In fact I have put on a pound!!
This is typical for me when I diet, but I had hoped this one would be different. I’m starting to wonder whether some people just adapt when they diet, slow down their metabolism so they don’t loose weight. I read on this forum about people loosing stones on this plan and others not loosing at all. Are those of us not loosing doing something wrong, missing some key information? I doubt it, I just think maybe we are different?

DrLL

8:10 am
5 Sep 13
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Dear Hypat1a, it is de-motivating when the weight does not change despite all the hungry hours. However, my best advice is to stick to your plan. 3 weeks is not enough time to tell if this is working or not working for you. 4 to 6 stones took a long time to build up it will not go away again in weeks.

On 5:2 you eat a little less every week and you will loose weight if you are otherwise healthy.

I can only share my experience and hope it gives you hope. 6 month ago I would have said that I could not go to work without having eaten my breakfast. Skipping lunch would make me hungry, grumpy, and unwell in every respect. And indeed the first 3 weeks were hard for me as well. But now I can do 24hours without any food and I can honestly say: I do not feel ANY discomfort. Once it is not uncomfortable to go without food for a day, you know that you will eventually get to your target weight.

I cannot run a half-marathon but if I put my effort in I could probably train my running ability. It would take time but it would be possible.

In the same way I think you and your husband can train the fasting ability.

My advice is to NOT focus on weight in the beginning only on feeling good about fasting. Try experimenting with number of meals. In the beginning you may feel better with 3 small meals and a couple of snacks. Later when you better at using your stored fat as fuel for the body you may feel better with just a single meal. I started on 3 small meals and used 10 gram of 80% dark chocolate or 20 gram of salted almonds as a rescue snack.

Also I had a look at the calorie tables and what I would normally eat. Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta was really adding to my daily diet and I now eat less of these also on non-fasting days.

Like the walks and exercise you do is part of a healthy living so should fasting be. Once it is part of you every day life you will loose weight.

Best of luck to you both

Finn

8:26 am
5 Sep 13
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Hi there Hypat1a!

Don’t despair yet. Everyone is different, for some the weight comes off easy and for others slower. Furthermore, for some the things you eat during non-fast days may be making a difference. So, it’s not necessarily only down to the calories – mostly yes, but I feel not always.

Have you experimented with different foods? That is, like not eating that many/much potatoes, pasta or rice? For me, f.ex, eating potatoes is not good for some reason. Also shop-bought pasta makes me stuffed (home-made is ok though…). And rice I find ok, but I also found out that eating a lot of it is not good either… Also home-made bread is fine, but shop-bought is not (makes me really blow-up and stuffed).
How’s your protein balance? And do you make your own food from scratch or buy it ready made? Ready made meals may have some additional food stuffs that may make a difference. Or even shop bought stuff like bread and pasta, as I found out… 😉 They seem to include a lot of other ingredients besides flour, yeast, water and salt… these may make a difference for your body.

For me, if I eat lots of sugary things during the non-fast days, my weight does not drop. That is, even if I would keep to the ‘normal’ calorie intake, but eat sugary things, my weight does not go down. I don’t know if the same holds for fructose? I eat berries with my breakfast, but I don’t eat that many fruits in general.
So, you might beware of sugar. Try and leave most of it out for a week or two and see if it makes a difference for you? If that didn’t make a difference, try and think what food stuffs would make a difference.

It really is a detective work sometimes to figure out your own body… I have been at it for over a decade! 😀 Happily I think I have now figured out most of how my own body works. For me the 5:2 works a treat (when nothing else did). Although after the initial fast drop in weight the rest has been a slow slog. Now I’m again in a plateau. But I also think that the body needs time to adjust, clean up and repair itself. And I’m patient! 😀

Then something quite different. Have you heard of the hormone-disrupting chemicals? These may also be related to weight gain… I’m not saying that they are, but just that if you use these chemicals in a daily basis for a long time, they may have an influence. These are just everywhere nowadays, but I suppose the worst may be your toiletries; creams, suncreams, toothpaste, make-up, shampoo etc.. I was using a cream for 20+ years every day, and it had all the possible parabens plus some extra ones from the ‘really bad for you’ -list… 🙁 I found this out pretty much the same time as I started the 5:2 way of life, so I can’t say if there would be any difference though. Again, I don’t think there is absolute proof of these particular chemicals (there is an EU memo with about 800 chemicals on the list… Luckily I found a French list of only something like 10 of the most common ones, so I could check my toiletries) and their relation to weight gain, but they do act in disrupting hormone metabolisms… so, not so good for you in any case.

But please stick with it, do some detective work to figure out what makes a difference and you’ll get there one day.
Think positive, since your attitude towards anything you’ll do will mean a lot.
Cheers!

TracyJ

9:37 am
5 Sep 13
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Stick with it for a bit longer and make sure you have all your starting measurements (something I never did). If you started an exercise regime at the same time as 5:2 it may just be that your body is metabolising its resources differently all of a sudden (because of 5:2) and you are building muscle while reducing fat (muscle weighs more than fat, so even a comparatively tiny muscle build alongside fat loss will look like a plateau).

Also, I spotted someone yesterday who was counting their expanded calories through exercise as a licence to eat that much more calories on fast days. I’m sure you’re not doing that but just in case – don’t.

Humphrey

11:46 am
5 Sep 13
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No, honestly, you are not different. Stick with it; 3 weeks is nothing when you think of the years and years of putting on the weight. The comments above are all really helpful and I hope they give you some courage to continue.

anniew7

11:59 am
5 Sep 13
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Welcome to the forum, there is a very helpful BMI calculator on here if you click on the HELP? at the top. If you put your details in it will calculate how many calories you need on days when you’re not fasting, plus more helpful info. Mine worked out at at 1732, a little less than the recommended 2000 a day for a woman. This has made me realize I need to cut out some of the carbohydrates on non-fasting days. Hope this helps.

anniew7

12:09 pm
5 Sep 13
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Sorry, I meant click on HOW? at top of page to get BMI calculation!

Hypat1a

7:32 pm
5 Sep 13
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Thanks so much everyone. You’ve persuaded me to keep going. I am going to start counting calories on non fasting days just to make sure I’m not over, and switching from mostly veges and complex carbs to more protein to see what that does. We don’t do ready meals and sugary stuff. Thanks for all the advice.
Is it possible that stress can interfere with weight loss-what does it do to your metabolism? We are going through some difficult stuff right now-job loss, medical insurance loss, medical condition diagnosed for me and upcoming surgery! Not the best summer!

bencarl4321

10:12 pm
5 Sep 13
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Hello Hipat1a.

I had a problem when I first started, my weight was going up and down like a whatis whatthems. I discovered that I wasn’t checking my weight correctly, I was checking my weight at different time.

When I started just weighing myself once a week and ONLY when I first got out of bed I could chart the weight loss. I fast on Mondays and Thursdays and I weigh myself first thing Friday morning, first thing I do when I get out of bed, of course after going to the bathroom and naked. I also purchased a new scale that also shows BMI, Body Fat Percentage, Hydration, Bone Mass as well as Weight. I have introduced quite a few people to 5-2 and the ones that are doing it consistently are losing lots of weight.

Mrsscrooge

2:17 am
6 Sep 13
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My metabolism is so messed up from 20 years of yo-yo dieting. I’m bigger than I’ve ever been & desperate to find something that works for the long term, this seems to be the answer, I’m into my second week, no weight loss yet, but I’m starting to feel better & really think I can do this. I need to lose 50 pounds, I’ve not lost more than 20 with any other plan I’ve tried, which is ALL of them. I feel very inspired by the encouragement from this forum.

TracyJ

9:52 am
6 Sep 13
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Mrsscrooge – Keep it up. I’m a bit younger than you and haven’t had any kids but I had way more extra weight last year and I’ve been carrying my extra ‘padding’ for just as long. A year on I’m 42lb down and over half way towards my apparent ‘ideal weight’. This could be you! And let’s face it which of us would not walk over hot coals to have something that would get us close to our ideal weight in a year (or in my case probably 2), with no real sacrifices and no pain.

rockyromero

3:04 pm
6 Sep 13
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Is it possible that how one does the 5:2 fast lifestyle is how everything else is done in their life?

coffeegal

11:33 am
9 Sep 13
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In order to lose weight you still need to eat sensibly on non-fast days. You can’t expect to lose weight if the total amount of calories consumed in a week is more than that needed by your body to maintain weight – even if you fast on two days.

You are eating more than you think you do. In the UK there was a television show called ‘Secret Eaters’ which monitored people throughout the day using hidden cameras and private investigators. In every single case, those who claimed to eat a healthy amount yet couldn’t lose weight were actually eating far more than even their ‘food diaries’ revealed. In some cases they were eating more than double the calories they believed they were.

Have a look at the Total Daily Energy Expenditure calculator at http://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/ to give you an idea how much energy you need to maintain your weight. If you stick to that amount on non-fast days and have two fast days you will see some results.

You absolutely must keep track of what you eat on non-fast days and not eat too much. The diet isn’t magic but if used correctly it will work.

Good luck!

Sarah

TracyJ

11:53 am
9 Sep 13
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Haha – I love Secret Eaters – it’s hilarious!!! Where do they find these people that can eat a pork pie & a mars bar for breakfast and ‘NOT NOTICE’??? They give people who genuinely find it impossible to shift weight through diet alone a bad name.

coffeegal

12:26 pm
9 Sep 13
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LOL! I was amazed when one woman was discovered to have eaten over seven thousand calories in a single day even though her food diary claimed she never ate more than two thousand 🙂

ALL of the participants lost weight when they followed the advice of a dietician. That says something.

UK viewers can watch episodes of Secret Eaters online at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/secret-eaters/4od

I have a genuine metabolic disorder which affects my weight (hypothyroidism) and I have still lost weight following the 5:2 diet and eating no more food on average than I need on non-fast days. If I have a week where I go out with friends and eat too much one day it becomes a 4:3 week to compensate.

The basic medical science is that if overall someone consumes less energy than they need to maintain weight, they will lose weight.

There is no medical condition in existence which changes this, only medical conditions which increase or decrease the number of calories a person needs to maintain weight.

Sarah

coffeegal

12:36 pm
9 Sep 13
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Hypat1a, what I found really useful when I first started trying to lose the weight I gained when my thyroid failed was planning.

I planned all a day’s meals in advance and used a spreadsheet to add up the calories. I used a set of scales to weigh all the ingredients so I knew exactly how many calories I was consuming. If I slipped from this regime I put weight on because estimating the amount I ate was always underestimating.

Once I had a plan of what I was going to eat in a particluar day, I stuck to it and never had anything extra without deducting that from a subsequent day’s allowance.

With 5:2 I do a bit more estimating but I do still make a reasonable count of calories on non-fast days and I often eat fewer calories on non-fast days than I need to maintain weight.

Once again, good luck to both you and your husband. You CAN lose weight.

Sarah

TracyJ

12:38 pm
9 Sep 13
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They’re always drinking too much too have you noticed? My favourite one was: “But I eat salad all week!” Well yes, our surveilance shows that you do indeed eat salad all week and stay nicely at your recommended calorie level….And then you have 3 bottles of wine, several vodka & cokes a chinese takeaway, an indian takeaway and a fry up breakfast over the weekend!

Classic! I had to pause the show while I recovered my composure.

coffeegal

1:03 pm
9 Sep 13
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😀

Mrsscrooge

1:15 pm
9 Sep 13
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TracyJ
Thank you for the encouragement! I don’t feel like this is a “magic bullet” diet like some of the fads out there, where u drop tons of weight basically overnight, I know that this is a lifestyle change that over a bit more time will result in a healthier & thinner me, that’s why I love this forum, lots of motivation when you’re used to getting on the bandwagon with the latest diet craze, dropping weight quick, but then gaining it all PLUS more back when u fall off….. Tired of that scenario! Thanks again! Love your posts.

TracyJ

1:44 pm
9 Sep 13
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Good on ya girl – you’ll get there, we all will. It’s not a magic bullet but it IS a flamin’ revelation innit!

Thank you for reading my posts – I do apologise for all the brackets – I loves a bracket I do! 😉 (that’s ‘paretheses’ for all you Americans out there)

tdanner1

4:40 pm
11 Sep 13
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I too thought I would have a larger weight loss at three weeks in (1 pound only). I am only about 11 pounds overweight so I knew I would lose slower than if I had a lot to lose. I have also been testing different fast braking times for my 500 calories. My TDEE is about 1800 calories so I may need to adjust my 500 calories down from 500. My TDEE is normally higher (i am a triathlete and tennis player but am currently injured

mamadj

10:38 pm
14 Sep 13
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I, too, am not losing weight in spite of faithful adherence to the fast for about 6 weeks. Not an ounce. It is annoying and discouraging and the book makes it sound foolproof so I had high hopes. The whole idea was not to have to worry about what I shouldn’t eat the rest of the time (and no, I don’t gorge on my non-fast days and yes, I exercise and I’m not obese). I think beyond a certain she one’s body just won’t do it. At least mine won’t.

rockyromero

11:14 pm
14 Sep 13
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@mamadj
“I, too, am not losing weight in spite of faithful adherence to the fast for about 6 weeks. Not an ounce”

Not an ounce?

There’s something not computing here.

Show us your stats.

I’ll show you mine.

http://trendweight.com/u/2530328a1bd347/

➰

coffeegal

5:23 am
15 Sep 13
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mamadj – the diet is foolproof provided that on your non-fasting days you eat no more food on average than you need to maintain your weight on those days.

The problem with people who end up overweight (myself included) is that they eat more, on average, than they need to maintain weight. If you don’t change your eating pattern on non-fast days too, you’re not going to get the best restults (or any results at all).

The diet is not a miracle. You still have to watch what you eat on non-fast days. You don’t, however, have to stick to particular foods on non-fast days and you don’t have to eat fewer calories than your body needs on non-fast days.

Revisit what you eat on non-fast days and I am sure you will get the results many of us have reported.

Good luck,

Sarah

aniann

7:05 am
15 Sep 13
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I so agree with coffeegal. I’ve been following the 5:2 for 4 weeks. During the first week, I lost a couple of pounds but almost regained everything the following week because I ate as I used to eat on non-fast days. Since then I’ve been very careful and although I occasionally have an over indulgent day, I have over the course of a month lost 11 lbs. I don’t restrict myself to the point of never having cake, chocolate, fat etc but I do keep an eye on my overall intake of calories. Keep at it. 🙂

Humphrey

11:49 am
15 Sep 13
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Do you only have a little to lose mamadj?
Have to agree with aniann and coffeegal – as much as many people absolutely hate counting cals on non-fast days, doing it for a week or two with your TDEE clearly in mind should get you on track. I have slowdowns of staying the same for 10-14 days but overall I must not complain – have lost 5″ from my waist and 19lbs in 12 weeks (just over 8.5 kilos). I’m eating less overall, and so far have not bought anything whilst shopping or driving to snack on – which kept my mouth happy but not much else!). But I still eat very well, have pudding a couple of times a week etc. I eat butter, meat, bread, pasta and rice on non-fast days but don’t go crazy on them. I try and avoid biscuits entirely – such a waste of proper food cals in such a tiny bite! When there’s been chocolate I’ve had a bit, but it’s rarer than it was. I’d suggest you keep track of what you eat for the next few weeks and see how you go. Best of luck.