2nd post
Thank you @shinything for your lovely comment – much appreciated! 💖

Day 4 – Iceland – NFD

Had an acceptable FD on Saturday at 560kcal, stayed well under TDEE yesterday and aim to do the same today. Still same weight as Friday morning, despite EFS Friday evening…🙂
@at and @diana123 – very best belated birthday wishes to you!
@sarahbob and @flourbaby – thanks for reminding me of the videos by J. Michaels – I did follow them once before and think I might join you in the 30-day shred for some very much needed toning!
@ktcaroline – I did use protein shakes for lunch when I started this WOL and had not so many ideas what to cook/eat and couldn’t easily skip both breakfast and lunch. It worked very well for me, used raw, organic, vegan, dairy free and soy free protein from Garden of Life, mixed with almond milk and a few frozen berries, comes at 100-150kcal, depending on how much protein you use.

Good luck to all Monday fasters!

FD today. The family is here. Staying focus on what I eat while they are here.

Adding my name to the pocket list.
@cornish-jane
@daffodil2010 1st of B2B
@arelkade
@justabiteofyours
@ccco
@dykask
@anna6 1st of B2B2B
@snowflake56
@sarahbob 1st of B2B
@cjfrench
@debster
@molij
@ktcaroline
@missybear
@diana123
kaywesterman

Day 4 – USA – NFD

@diana123, glad you and @at had a nice birthday! Welcome newbies!

USA NFD Day 4

Just checking in. I am coming up to the end of my 16:8 day and am ready to eat again! 🙂

Day 4 – SW WA USA – FD

A beautiful sunny day – the sun is such good “medicine”! Will go for about a 45-46 hour fast beginning 6:30 pm Sunday through 5 pm Tuesday. Hopefully I did the math right. This hopefully will help take care of the recent feasting. I’ll be breaking the fast with a free meal for teachers at Red Robin 6/5 with another colleague.

@snowflake56 – 10 more days till retirement & the last day is a 1/2 day! But who’s counting 🙂

@meltham_owl – welcome!

Day 4 pocket list – add your name if you’re fasting
@cornish-jane
@daffodil2010 1st of B2B
@arelkade
@justabiteofyours
@ccco
@dykask
@anna6 1st of B2B2B
@snowflake56
@sarahbob 1st of B2B
@cjfrench
@debster
@molij
@ktcaroline
@missybear
@diana123
@kaywesterman
@linda329
@shinything
@bert1802
@michelinme
@basyjames B2B2B2B2B
@annemarilyn

I’m glad we’re together!

Day 4 – NC, USA – FD

I definitely started the month on a festive note with a board retreat that involved more temptations than I could handle. I did good on the alcohol side, but treated myself to carbs. Today is my reset day. And as hard as today feels psychologically, I loved wearing skinny jeans this weekend and feeling good so I need to focus on how happy fitting in my old clothes makes me, and how many more clothes will be an option if I stick to this WOL.

I believe it @bert1802! That’s precisely what happened to me this weekend. Or more truthfully, what I chose to do and the results that ensued. Normally at home, I sit and eat a meal with no snacks in between. But since we were all at a lake house for a retreat with an imaginable amount of snacks and unhealthy foods in front of us for 48 hours, I allowed myself to snack on some popcorn, carrots and hummus while socializing. It seemed reasonable. But the problem for me is that once I start snacking, I loose track of the portions and invariably overeat. Clearly I’m incapable of snacking in a healthy way. Sitting down it is from now on!

Happy belated 60th birthday @at and happy belated 61st @diane123! Wishing you both lots of joy and fun adventures in the upcoming year.

@ccco congratulations on your 24 hr water fast. Good for you for hanging in there! It’s always reassuring to hear others admit some days water fasting is a struggle. Normally I do okay, but today is definitely a hard FD. I delayed my weigh in fearing the results of all the fun I had this week, but that meant i also delayed drinking fluids and somehow that always makes it harder for me. Plus it’s so silly: it’s not like delaying stepping on the scale was going to have an effect on the scale lol. Lesson learned.

@kerryn73, I so agree with you about weighing yourself after a FD. Definitely fake news. I still track that weight but I love that my Happy Scale app tracks my moving average. It’s much more reflective of where I truly am. I even track my Sunday morning weigh (my highest weigh each week) on My Fitness Pal app so I can see the downward trend of the highs.

@mogaman Enjoy your second vacation week!

Hang in there @@daffodil2010. It will come off. You have done so well until now. It’s the homestretch now.

@cjfrench so lovely to think of a French village today! Are you French yourself? Although I live in the States and grew up in Paris, I’m from Bordeaux originally. The weather must have turned beautiful by now. Enjoy!

Thank you @shinything for your encouraging words today. They help!
And welcome @meltham_owl!

Day 4 pocket list – adding my name to the list
@cornish-jane
@daffodil2010 1st of B2B
@arelkade
@justabiteofyours
@ccco
@dykask
@anna6 1st of B2B2B
@snowflake56
@sarahbob 1st of B2B
@cjfrench
@debster
@molij
@ktcaroline
@missybear
@diana123
@kaywesterman
@linda329
@shinything
@bert1802
@michelinme
@basyjames B2B2B2B2B
@annemarilyn
@coda
@emma1202

Have a great day everyone!

Day 3 NFD
Day 4 NFD

Dublin, Ireland

Just got back from our mini-break in Poland visiting my parents and I worked up the courage to step on the scales – 73.4kg! Uff, that is a 2kg weight gain since last Wednesday!

Thankfully tomorrow is a fasting day, so hoping to shed some of it. I have to admit, while I was expecting that there would be an increase because we over-indulged this weekend, I had hoped it would be less than 1kg. Right now this just seems like such a set back, like I’ve undone all of the hard work of the last 6 weeks. The fiance was hit even worse – a 4kg increase. How is that even possible in just 4 days? Surely it must just be water retention?

Best of luck to everyone fasting today, just a few hours left! Hope I won’t be alone tomorrow.

Can someone also please explain the concept of the pocket list? Is it simply to track who is fasting on a given day? Thanks!

Day 4, Surrey (UK), FD

It’s a bit late in the day to be adding myself to the pocket list, but rest assured I’ve been with you all in spirit today. This is my first post in June, so I’ll tell you a bit about myself.

I’m a 57yo female, currently 159lbs, 5’7.5” tall, BMI only just under 25, yet my waist-height ratio (WHR) is 0.46. Many posters have mentioned they are the opposite way round with a BMI of below 25 but WHR of over 0.5, so I think I am somewhat unusual. I should explain that I have a really heavy, muscular frame, I think due to my mixed Viking/ Scandi/ Eastern European genes. My feet, hands and head are so large that I struggle to get ladies’ accessories to fit me.

I started this WOE about 6 months ago, when I weighed nearly 200lb, so that’s a loss of 40lb in that time, which averages out at 1-2lb a week. And it shows now – but in unexpected ways! My current target is 150lb, my wedding weight, which I’m getting close to now. Although I’ve lost the weight gradually and (I believe) I have maintained muscle mass through regular exercise, I still have a lot of subcutaneous fat in the strangest of places – fingers, feet and knees in particular. In fact, each of my knees measures 16.5”, whereas my neck only measures 14”! It seems gravity is pulling all the fat downwards! The places that have slimmed down, such as my arms, are now a little bit ‘crepey’ in appearance. My moniker, Fatfingers, has come about because one of my ambitions was to be able to wear my wedding and eternity rings again. I can just about squeeze them on now, but I have to negotiate a large pad of fat below the knuckle!

I’m not especially bothered about any of this – but I am curious because I now realise I’ve gone through most of my adult life without knowing what my weight and measurements ‘should be’. The main thing is, I feel sure that I’ve already taken myself out of the danger zone where the risks of diabetes, heart disease and strokes lurk hidden away, and that is what really matters. From now on, it’s about incremental improvements to my health through continued IF, exercise and good nutrition on NFDs.

I’m also curious about WHY this WOE works so well. I enjoy reading the discussions that crop up on this forum about this. It seems to me that there are three basic theories to explain the success of 5:2. One: it is a convenient way of restricting calories. Two: fasting brings about benefits besides weight loss, that we respond positively to. Three: psychologically, it is easier to stick to a regime where deprivation is time-limited and no type of food is off limits on NFDs. I can only speak for myself, but I certainly agree with the 1st and 3rd theories. I’m essentially a very lazy person, who cannot be bothered with the faff of counting calories every day. It is much easier for me to eat just very little on the 2 FDs, thereby achieving a practically guaranteed 20% reduction in caloric intake during the week, with minimal effort. After all this time, I find fasting is quite easy nowadays. I also find that I’m keen not to undo the work of a FD, so tend to choose healthier food in smaller portion sizes on NFDs. I also respond well to the idea that if I really fancy something, I can have a small amount of it on a NFD, so I never feel deprived.

The 2nd theory I’m not convinced by – as yet. Although the 5:2 diet came about based upon the studies done on fasting by some well-respected physicians, I imagine a different kind of study would be needed to compare the effects of following the 5:2 diet with a conventional, calorie-restricted diet. To my knowledge, this hasn’t been done yet. However, that’s not to say that IF (as advocated by 5:2 method) doesn’t have some benefits besides pure weight loss. However it works, I fully intend to ‘keep on keeping on’ – at least as long as I’ve got fat on my fingers to lose!

2nd post –

This morning after working out my fasting blood glucose was a pre-diabetic level of 118 mg/dl. I tend to have high fasting blood glucose levels but that was high for even me and 110 to 140 is considered pre-diabetic. I hope it is just due to lack of sleep.

After breakfast my blood glucose dropped to a normal 91 mg/dl.

My breakfast:
– 100+ grams of oatmeal, just rolled oats. (Dry weight)
– 3 tablespoons of peanut butter (I like it 🙁 )
– 100g of blueberries
– 2 small pieces of very dark chocolate
– 2 bananas (medium+ only slightly green)
– 4 prunes and 2 figs plus about 20 grams of raisins (My sweeteners)
– 1 small apple because I was still a bit from full.

(Not really a light breakfast)

Most people would probably claim that all that fruit would drive blood glucose up. I’m sure the oatmeal helps but I’m just lucky when it comes to fruit as I don’t seem to have a strong glucose response to it. The ice cream bars I haven’t eaten for months though are a completely different story! Lots of milk chocolate over rich vanilla ice cream … 300 calories … so good and so fattening!

Fasting gives me an appetite. However I’ll eat a lot more modestly the rest of the day.

3rd post …

I’ve been thinking about the belly fat I can’t get rid of. Well it is going but very slowly. Now I have an upside down “V” going up to my belly button and a pillow of fat on either side joined above my belly button. Any I don’t think the problem is actual storage of fat I think it is just the number of cells. When we are building that big belly of fat we are generating new fat cells. It used to be thought that the fat cells were then with us forever but now it is more like they live roughly 10 years. So the trick is to either kill the cells or outlive the cells without stimulating new cells to be developed. There is now cold sculpting where the fat cells are frozen which tends to promote cell death. It seems the fat cells will freeze at around 4 degrees C, which avoids freezing the water in the cells we don’t want to kill. Some people are even putting ice packs on their problem areas for 40 minutes a day for months. Seems painful.

I also wonder if these cell deaths don’t often happen in waves. It could account for the whoosh effect we often see when a weight plateau breaks. I have nothing to back that up though, just a thought.

So my problem is likely too many fat cells around my midsection. Going be work to get rid of them.

@rahul1905 – surprised to hear that OMAD didn’t work for you. The one meal a day, day after day seems very hard to me.

@rahul1905 there is a lot of water in our bodies. Yesterday morning I was 83.6kg which was really high after a festive weekend, but this morning I was back down to 79.3kg. That is mostly water. I lose more like 50g to 100g per fast day. I could lose faster but I like eating too.

Day 5 – Ireland 🇮🇪 – FD 2nd B2B

Great FD yesterday. Almost totally liquid, but as the sunny evening drew on and I was sitting in my garden enjoying the birdie antics on the feeder I could hear the wine dragon calling ……it’s sunny, this is so rare, it’s bank holiday Monday, chillax……so I made an oatbran porridge and went to bed!!!!!! Dragon slayed 👍

Absolutely delighted to advise that easy come, easy go, has happened with the weekend weight. It’s not all gone but a goodly chunk has disappeared. Yesterday I dared not admit what the weight gain was from just one weekend…but I admit now that it was almost 7lbs 😱 3kilos 😱

Happy to report a loss of 4.5lbs, or circa 2kilos overnight.

So @moukinator, do not fret at the 2kg increase from a trip home. These things do happen, but if it’s easy to come on, then normally with a good FD, it’s relatively easy to go. There is a great thread on this from @simcoeluv…only I am late for work I would find it for you. Don’t despair ☺️

Pocket list Day 5
@daffodil2010 2nd B2B

Day 5…NSW Australia…NFD
(5.40pm Tuesday)

Hi everyone. Just checking in!
Had a very good FD yesterday – managed to have fluids only till 5.30pm, then protein and veges. Scale down 1kg this morning, from yesterday morning. A little ‘whoosh’ and I’ll take it! Hopefully, finally back in the swing of things. Feels good 😉

I hope you all have a very good week! Enjoy whatever you are getting up to and bye for now!

Day 5, London, 2nd day B2B

First ever post, sorry for jumpimg on the bandwagon late!

2nd day of my first B2B today so thought I would need some extra motivation! I’m 26 years old, and been trying 5:2 for about a month. I had done it sporadically in the past, but more as a few days to get me in a healthy eating mind set before going on a traditional low carb diet!
I’m 5 foot 2 and like to weigh around 8stone/50kg, but 4 months after moving in with my boyfriend had gained to 8.10/55kg – too many Ben and Jerrys and netflix nights and drunken chicken shop 🙁 I know that’s not a lot to loose but I could feel myself on the slippery slope! I’m really liking 5.2, as it still allows me to cook and eat with the bf most days, have meals out without panicing and go out with friends at the weekend without being a kill joy! I’m also trying to eat more healthly on my NFD which we are both really enjoying and feeling much better for. Both realising that our ‘sensative tummies’ are completely self inflicted from eating crap!
Yesterday had a lovely FD – two hard boiled eggs for lunch at work and then fish fingers with some salad leaves before my Monday night art class – so much easier to fast when your busy! Me and the bf are off to Berlin on hols from Thurs-Sun so needed to move my normal fast day from Thursday to Tuesday – hence the first B2B. Working a 12 hour shift so hopefully will keep me distracted! Trying a 200cal salad with boiled chicken for lunch and then two poached eggs for dinner 🙂 This mornings weight was 8.6 (53.5kg) so getting there slowly but surely!

Day 5, London, UK, FD.

I’m looking forward to todays’ FD, because for once it’s not reset FD after a bread, cheese & wine weekend!!! I know it’s the start of what WILL be an efficient & effective B2B2B!!!! The 4NFD weekend didn’t derail me and I managed to eradicate some fat, now I’m back at work, the next 3 days should see this downward slide gain momentum!!!

@dykask I loved your note – “3 tablespoons of peanut butter (I like it 🙁 )” ……………………. I was thinking, are there people out there that DON’T like it!!!!!!!! Who are these freaks!!!!! Also ……………………………. I’m off to buy an ice pack or 20!!!!!!

@daffodil2010, I could hear you “Phew!!!” from here!!! I do that head in the sand thing with added lbs too ………………………….
Me: ”It didn’t happen, it just DID NOT happen, it could NOT possibly have happened”,
Me (3 days later): “Oh, I’ve eradicated those extra 5lbs!!!……………… ok, I admit it; it did happen!!!”

@kerryn73 ………………….. size 20 to size 16 might take less time than you think, even at 1lb per week for 2 years (call it 100 weeks) is 100lbs…………………….. that’s got to take you to at least a size 8 or 10!!!!!! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself ……………………..’Club Tor-Twah’ wins every time………………. Eventually!!!!!!!

@sarahbob & @borealis ……………… if you think you’re gonna die, just stick with Anita!!!! Go 30 Day shredders!!!

Stay strong everyone, keep the faith and believe @at’s mantra ……………………………. “If I quit now, I will soon be back to where I started. And when I started, I was desperately wishing to be where I am now”

Day 5 – MFD; Dublin, Ireland

Hello everyone!

First fasting day of the month, woohoo! Weighed myself this morning and @daffodil2010 you were right – the extra weight is coming off quickly, already down to 72.5kg, which is almost 1kg overnight. Let’s see how much further I can push that by tomorrow.

I see that most people here do the fasting days properly, i.e. they either do WFD or stick to the 500kcal restriction. I don’t think I could last a whole day without eating, so haven’t even tried a WFD and since I’m happy for the weight to come off slowly (and stay off!), I have been aiming for <800kcal on my fasting days. On NFD I also keep track of my calorie intake, aiming for <1600kcal. So far this has created on average a 1500kcal deficit each week.

I’m curious to see how long I can keep this up – I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since we started this diet, it’s just flown by and neither my fiance nor I feel that we have really been limiting ourselves in terms of what we eat. We still enjoy the occasional ice-cream or bottle of wine, guilt free!

@rahul1905 – it sounds like you and I have the same goals. Best of luck!

@kerryn73 – what you said about the dress sizes really struck me, because I had the exact same reaction when I hit the EU size 40 for the first time. I was devastated and still am whenever a size Medium doesn’t fit me and I have to try on Large. How did I let it get to this point? But, as @flourbaby said, dropping 2 dress sizes in 2 years should be very achievable! Best of luck.

@louise12 – All of the weight that I am trying to shift now, I gained since I started living with my boyfriend, the majority in the last year. We used to refer to it as ‘the love pounds’ while it was only 1 or 2kg, but when it got up to 10kg weight gain (for me), we had to face reality 😛

@sarahbob – what is this 30 day shred you mentioned? Is it like a 30 day workout program?

Adding myself to the pocketlist:

@daffodil2010 2nd of B2B
@anna6 2nd of B2B2B
@sarahbob 2nd of B2B
@basyjames B2B2B2B2B
@kerryn73
@rainbowsmile MFD 800 Cals
@moukinator MFD 800kcal

Day 5….Florida….NFD

@louise and @ moukinator…. welcome!

@fatfingers……if I could, I would like to add my theory to yours as why this works. Many diets out their focus mainly on food and exercise, where as 5:2 makes you focus on your body as a whole. During the fasting period, we are no longer consumed by what we are putting in our mouths, so our brains are able to focus on what are bodies are doing. To start we hear our belly growl, we are cold, legs may hurt, a slight headache, as we move forward, we begin experiencing that empty feeling, clear minds, more energy, bowel movements start to change and other symptoms change…..I could go on!
And lastly, 5:2 changes our bodies, it goes from storing fats and fluids to using fats and fluids during our times of fasting. This is why so many of find we lose more inches than weight sometimes.
Those are just my theories on 5:2 capabilities.

Well, I’m off…. both the hubby and I have off today, so we are having a date day! Yippee!

Japanese legend says…….if you are not sleeping at night it is because you are awake!

Day 5 – USA – NFD

Today is a non fast day for me, I have a question to those who are more seasoned at this. Do you find you do better by fasting all day on your fast day and just eat all your food at dinner? Or maybe just have some broth during the day. I am going to go as long as possible on my next fast day before I eat anything, just drink water and tea, and see if it makes it any easier. I do admit that it starts to get a little easier with each fast day.
Happy Birthday to those that I missed out on!

@fatfingers, were wondering why this WOL works. I can give you some reasons:

> Community gives support, ideas, etc
> Fasting has benefits like increased metabolism, improving hormone levels and forcing our body to use more fat for fuel.
> Fasting helps us reset our tastes and many people end up eating much healthier diets. A lot of healthy foods I used to avoid actually taste great now.
> Fasting works well with exercise and I find allows for more effect exercise.
> There are mental changes too, like I doing so much effort here … do I really want to blow it. Over time these really add up. For example I used to drink a lot of diet cola, then I started just drinking less on NFDs and mostly using it on FDs. Then I just kind of lost the taste for it and stopped drinking it. Those small changes add up.

There are likely dozens of more reasons! Good luck.

FD Syracuse, NY

Hello all! Grabbing a bit of inspiration from everyone for my FD today. I had to buy a new scale since my old scale (Cruella) died. I replaced her battery and she still didn’t work. Trying to feel sad for her…but I don’t. So I have a new scale but I haven’t named it yet. I think it’s a girl. Thinking of naming it after a frenemy I had. You know, that friend who isn’t really your friend? Queen of the back-handed compliment? Maybe I’m overthinking it. Have to think about something I guess, other than food. What do you guys do when you’re caught thinking about food on a fast day? I clean or pray but I’m curious about what others do!

Hi all day 5 NI fast day

@daffodil2010 2nd of B2B
@anna6 2nd of B2B2B
@sarahbob 2nd of B2B
@basyjames B2B2B2B2B
@kerryn73
@rainbowsmile MFD 800 Cals
@moukinator MFD 800kcal
@songbirdme
@coda

Not caught up on posts – but sad to say toast and peanut butter last night derailed a good fast day up to that point. I had a lovely chicken salad but does anyone else get a really empty feeling after having just a salad – as though you need a nice chunk of bread? Hence the toast and peanut butter – but hey ho on we go! So far so good with some kefir and one coffee. Busy tonight with yoga and playing squash afterwards with my son so hopefully should not feel like eating.

Dykask, I read some articles about what you were talking about. Since there are two kinds of stomach fat, I was interested in this the visceral fat is active and easy to burn away. Unfortunately, subcutaneous fat which can form all over your body is difficult to get rid of! 🙁 In any case, I also read about the whoosh effect you spoke about. I was fascinated, so I suggested you google the whoosh effect in weight loss. It is a very real thing!