Hi, Mary!! I’m a writer as well, although you would never guess from my ramblings here. I looked at your blog and your book! You look amazing!!!! Congratulations and keep it up, although I can’t believe you’re not in the healthy weight bmi now.

I have a book too. Is it okay to post here? http://www.elizabethjennings.com I do the marketing for husband’s technology company and chase my daughter around most of the time, though…

Hoping to follow in your footsteps!

I have another 1.3 kgs (2lbs 13ozs) to donate this week. I have been extra careful with the diet and it has paid off. The only problem (which I don’t mind) is that it is playing havoc with my wardrobe. I am just buying enough to get me through until I plateau.

I missed the 1st of Nov start date but I am rearing to go. Just found this forum today. So I have 5 weeks to go. My target is to lose 10 lbs by Christmas. I have 2 fast days completed since last Monday 9th Nov

Hi everybody

I completed 3 fasts this week but haven’t managed to get below 11st. I feel like I’ve been over-indulging a bit on my non-fast days recently. I’ll concentrate on being more careful when I’m not fasting this week and hopefully that whoosh will come soon. So zero to give to Santa this week meaning my total for the challenge remains at 1 lb.

Have a great weekend.

Hi everyone,

It’s so lovely to read your posts – I get them per email, so forget to write myself. They’re so very inspiring!
Haven’t been able to weigh myself, but have been measuring and have dropped 1,5 cm from my waist and 2 cm from across my belly button, so I’m pleased!
Have done 5 fasts since beginning, and doing another tomorrow. Over indulged last night, but at least didn’t eat between 7 am and 6 PM, so I reckon that must count for something at least. Ha. (I have Bowie singing “All the young dudes” in the background, and he just sang ‘too many snags’ which I heard as ‘too many snacks’… Which is true, I suppose…. 😉 )
Struggling with insomnia at the moment which is seriously messing up my eating, but I’m sticking to my fast days at least, even though I ate around 650 on Thursday instead of my 500. Oh well. Sunday is another day, and there is always next week.

On another note, I sincerely hope you are all well, and have suffered no losses in Paris. What a tragedy.

Alex x

Hi, CarolinaKatz,

There are a few of us (writers) on here. Checked out your website, too: you sound like my kind of writer. Writing is like losing weight: you just have to keep doing it and the small advances finally add up to something.

Hi everyone, sorry I didn’t weigh in last week there was nothing to report but I did complete my fast days. I did manage a pound this week. Yippee! They seem to be harder then in the beginning so I will take it. I think I will try Mary’s 3 fast days next week. See if that budges the scale more. Congrats Mary on your close to breaking your bmi. That is so fantastic. Everyone keep up the great work. I have to get my butt in gear to reach my goal. FYI. We have had now since Halloween, which was late for us. Burning more calories walking the dog and hauling firewood now. Have a good weekend

Checking in from last week. Down 1 pound. Total loss since beginning the challenge is 8 pounds. 3 fast days this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Dear Lifesabeach…..

Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring!

I have been where you are.

I got stuck at 10 stone ish for EVAH!

I fasted, I ran, I raged, I cursed.. but I kept on fasting.

You are changing your metabolism and it seems to take some time, esp when you are running as well. This last month ..the weight is falling off me… I weighed myself today and I appear to have lost another 2kg. I am now 58 kg…which appears to mean that I have lost almost 5 kg since the beginning of Nov!!!! Can that be true???

Now I’ll admit my old measurements may have been haphazard, didn’t have scales so only measured myself on my parents 50 yr old ones and sneakily in peoples houses… I have become like the Spanish Inquisition for bathroom scales…. they never expect me but I always track them down….. but still, I couldn’t shift the weight at all…AND my waist measurements weren’t shrinking particularly either.

This month.. it is if my body has made some kind of fundamental shift. My appetite on non fast days has levelled out and my fast days ( usually 2 per week but last week..my first 3.. which was easy!!) are truly fast days.. I don’t eat until the evening.. whereas before I was parceling up the day into gaps between micro snacks. Also I have given up bread and pasta and, recently, have stopped craving them..i was the absolute Queen of toast before and thought I would always miss it but no more!

Additionally…. I feel physically very healthy. I stopped running for a while due to injury (perhaps that may have something to do with things) but I feel lighter and more springy… Whether that translates into a good running time will have to be seen.

I have been thinking about this rapid weight loss as a whoosh…after so many months stuck at the same place. It seems from others’ posts that this is a familiar phenomenon.

So..keep doing the fast days and don’t go crazy on the non fast days and I promise.. the whoosh will come.

Good Luck

PS… Action hero…. 58kg is not my new weight BTW… I still can’t believe it and It was very early in the A.M even before my habitual cup of tea. I will not officially rejoice until Friday!!!!

Hi

I read this – loose 10lb of fat but gain 10lb of muscle – look and feel great but scales reflect no progress. Do not let the scales define you. Should we want to weigh less or take up less room. We get so hung up on the number on the scale and it can lead to feeling deflated and despair. However if we just keep to the plan – Also read this – We are what we repeatedly do, excellence therefore is not an act but a habit! Believe this was Aristotle. Just keep putting a foot in front of the other and if you look back you can see how far you have come.

I didn’t have a particularly good weekend, it started on Friday with an indulgence of sweets and chocolate, not as bad Saturday and not as good a Sunday as I have been having. But fasting today and have just finished my run so feeling back in control.

I’m fasting today, out of town in Orlando all weekend, then had a bunch of pizza last night so not weighing until tomorrow for sure! I have two fast days this week, three next week with Thanksgiving and I will eat whatever the heck I want on the holiday. I’m seeing some progress, at least. Hopefully I’ll break back into the upper 140s this week.

Hi:

Seems to be an interest in plateaus. If you are sticking to the program, just wait and your plateau will disappear. If you are not (eating too much?), then you know why you are no longer losing. This will explain: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/on-plateaus/

Good Luck!

Think I might be having a ‘P’ moment just now. Back at 9st 51/2 again. It is frustrating, especially when I’m doing things ‘right’. I check in my calories on MFP religiously, only drink wine on special occasions , do three different exercises every weekday. Have to admit now there will be less meringues, and my birthday passed (although I did remain within my calorie allowance) I would hope that the scales will be kinder, but I do know my clothes are almost hanging on me now. Am hoping for Christmas gifts of clothes to replenish my wardrobe.
I do seem to be having problems getting bad cramp in my calf muscles, especially at night. I have been taking Magnesium supplements plus food containing magnesium , but it seems to be worse. Do hope I’m not losing muscle now I’m almost at target. I do Pilates and will speak to my instructor about it at next class.
Well done everyone on your reductions. And if you are on the dreaded ‘P’ don’t give up, just stick at the regime, and know that good things are happening inside that we can’t see! TTL

After an indulgent weekend – two dinners out and a wine festival, yes the scales were up 2 on Monday, but checked again today post fast and it’s all gone and a tich more 🙂
No wardrobe malfunctions either – put those jeans to back of closet.
And AH, how the cat connection affects weight: — it’s kinda like that butterfly flapping a wing across the world creates a ripple effect elsewhere! In this case, the previous week my old tabby developed an abscessed tooth, creating puffy goopy eye and marble cheek, and he’s too old with heart murmur to handle anaesthetic to remove tooth. Vet’s temporary plan didn’t work — my attempts to give liquid antibiotics was a disaster — him [cat not vet] flying off my lap after he figured out the plan, then running away when he saw me to avoid further indignity and abuse. I stopped tormenting him so we can have a final nice week together before I have go away next week. I have realized sadly it’s just his time and so we go in Friday. He’s now back on my lap enjoying a few treats…. That all led to some comfort food eating on my part, but making the decision to do the hard [but right] thing for him has helped, and am back on track.

Hi sorry nothing to add to Santa this week!

TTL if you find a reason for legs cramps please share as I too have bother at night. Mainly in my right leg, foot and toes. I haven’t been drinking a lot of water lately and thought that may be a cause but a few times I have had to get out of bed to stand and stretch as it won’t go away.

Phoebe my thoughts are with you at a difficult and sad time as you say farewell to a friend. It is not an easy decision though one that must be made.

TTL and Coda:
I have been told that it is a lack of magnesium.
The remedy is to soak in a bath with about 1 cup of epsom salts once/ week. I put some essential oil into the bath just to make it feel exotic!

AH: You have asked for feedback so I am complying. The first 2 weeks have not been good for me diet-wise as I have had 3 heavy “celebrations” – our 50th Wedding Anniversary and our first granddaughter’s first adult birthday ( we used to call it ” 21st birthday”, now it is the 19th) (Though it doesn’t seem, to me, to be so momentous, it is, and has been, to at least 2 generations of younger people). So, in the first to weeks of this challenge, I have gone up 5 pounds and down 5 pounds, leaving me where I started.
I will post on Friday and give you the actual weight loss so far.

Hi SDS and welcome:

Losing 15 pounds in four weeks is highly unlikely. I hope you do not declare 5:2 a failure if you don’t make it.

Here is some information on 5:2. You might check out the ‘TDEE’ link to explain why it is unlikely you can lose 15 pounds in four weeks doing 5:2: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Great comment about the moon and the stars, and reaching the moon can’t be anything other than success, the view from the moon must be amazing.

Interesting that you mention 80% achievement, Pareto’s law is that we achieve 80% – of anything, but it certainly applies to 5:2 – from 20% of the effort.

Interesting thought, and I know it works.

So it’s worth trying REALLY gritting your teeth, tucking in you chin and busting a gut 20% of the time, and let the other 80% take care of itself, a bit of effort ok, but do 20% full on, take no prisoners, treats are not in my vocabulary, food is for wimps, go through the pain barrier type of effort, and you’ll be 80% there.

Which us great news for those for whom life often gets in the way of good intentions.

Weird, but it really does work. In life as well as in 5:2.

Hahaha Chipmunk…love creepy uncle.

ITZU is great, fresh clean food, tasty but low cal … I love the Noodle soup.
I hope you are having a lovely time in London… (you can buy Vogel in supermarkets if you get desperate) I know the weather’s miserable but it’s a great city.

Here’s a place I always recommend It’s a fantastic, unusual free museum….

http://www.soane.org/

There’s an ITSU just around the corner on High Holborn..and there’s a great pub called the Ship Tavern behind the station on Gate Street, and a lovely restaurant in Lincoln’s Inn fields.. and the free Hunterian museum of Surgery across the park and the Inner Temple to wander around and… and.. and…

I am on a fast today but have to meet a friend for coffee…. and NO CAKE… Argh!

Love to all Mx

Having a bad week. I’m definitely eating too much on my non fast days, and not out of hunger. Today will be a fast day. Tomorrow I have to travel to Orlando again for Friday through Sunday. I’ll try to fast on Sunday again, travel seems to lend itself well to that.

I am not in my 20% this week at all – a bit stressed out and finding I am reaching for the comfort of eating – number 4 son had a bit of a bump – no one hurt so ok. Number 5 son drove through a flood – first time and did not give enough revs – one damaged engine, number 4 son’s gear box now very sick and in to get fixed. Visitor to office always sets everyone on edge! We are all having to schedule time to take those without cars now to place of work – expensive time of the year without this extra. Weather awful and have not got for my second run of the week yet – think I will just have to adjust my mindset and go running whether it is raining or not. If I was out running and it started doesn’t seem to bad but when it is pelting down the incentive to leave a warm and dry place is somehow not the same – self preservation perhaps lol!
Sorry moan over and feel a little better – had to shift my fast day from Thursday to Friday and ‘that person’ will have left the office so tomorrow will be better! 🙂