Hi and welcome:

Here are some tips for those just starting 5:2: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/warnings-to-newbies/

Good Luck!

Ditto everything Couscous says, and I also find it helps, when you get hunger pangs, to visualise those as a little bit more fat dissolving away…

Lizzie , I found that regular headache medicine always worked when fasting gave a head ache. Less food for me means less water, because I usual do most of my drinking when eating.
However I come to point where I enjoy drinking teas in the evening just an hour or so after my last meal. Packed with vitamins and antioxidants I keep experimenting with non calorie teas, Green tee is my my staple.
Also going to bed early helped with not snacking.
When I first started I found that nibbling at food even just a little. Let the hunger genie out of the bottle , a fellow poster once said. By week 8 you should see some results , if not. You may need to look at the carb totals on non fasting days.
Best wishes.

Hi there Lizzie & Schnauzerlady – I’ve just endured fast day number one and am tired and a bit low. Looking forward to breakfast, but know how careful I still need to be on non-fasting days. How are you getting on?

Many thanks Catrina. Really good to see your encouraging comments. I expected to eat much too much today, but wasn’t all that desperate for food, or not until the old snacking-while-cooking habit kicked in again ;). I’ll try and tackle that in due course, but to start with I want to ensure I feel confident with the fast days. Take care.

Hi Lizzie,

The way I get through my fasting days is to have a hot drink in hand at all times. I will have a coffee with a dash of skinny milk and a sugar, and throughout the day I have alternate green tea with a teaspoon of honey with a simple herbal tea (no honey / sugar). I also make sure I have a bottle of water on hand when I am getting from A to B. I tell myself if I am hungry to take a sip, so I am always putting something in my body. I too save my meal for night time, that way I have a healthy protein and heaps of veggie AND I always have calories left over for a trim instant hot choc and apple.

A few other things. Hunger comes in waves. Michael said this in his documentary and I really do believe this, it does not build and build, so let it come and go, you aren’t hungry the whole day, just at the top of the wave sometimes and it will pass!

And most importantly this “lifestyle” does work! I have been on every type of diet you can think of, weight watchers, lemon detox, calorie counting and no other diet works quite like this because it is only 2 days out of seven that you have to think about what you are eating, or not eating as it may be. I do my fasts on Mondays and Thursdays because on Monday I have indulged over the weekend and Thursday I am gearing up for the weekend, so I think mentally that helps.

I was 65.5kg when I started 10 weeks ago and now I am 59.5kg. So 5 kgs over 10 weeks isn’t bad considering I am only 164cm so didn’t have heaps to lose. I had weeks when I didn’t lose but then two weeks later a kilo would come off in one week. And no major exercise I do yoga 2 times a week and run once a week.

So don’t give in. It does get easier. I look forward to my fasting days now so I can “reset”. This is a lifestyle that is so simple, my life is soooo much better for it. No more saying no to dinner invites, stressing about nibbles at parties. I’m converted!

Good luck!

Hi all,

This is my second day of fasting on a low 500 calories. It was hard on Tuesday but I survived. I do follow Ayurveda ˌthe traditional Hindu system of medicine, which is based on the idea of balance in bodily systems and uses diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing. It incorporates different levels of fasting depending on what you are trying to achieve.

On Tuesday i think I had withdrawal from carbs! Today I decided to have lunch and dinner only. So far so good. Will keep you updated. Good luck all.

Valarielouise,

So good to see your reply and it is so encouraging. you have the same starting size as me so it is good to hear that 5kg off in 10 weeks is also possible for ladies our size!! How do you go now one month later?? 🙂

Hi GerryStar,

So sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I have been tied down with university work. I am happy to update that my current weight is 56.6kgs. So in 19 weeks (4 months 3 weeks) I have lost 8.9kgs. This averages out to 470g a week. I did plateau at for about a 3 weeks at 58.85kg, so I took others advice and added another day, so I was doing Mon/Tue Thur or Mon Wed/Thu, and that seemed to move things along. I am still doing three days, as I have a two week holiday coming up and want to bank some extra credits, but once I get back and am back to 56.6kg I will drop back to two days. Please check in with me 🙂 I have only been this small once before, and that was when I cut out coffee, sugar, and carbs. This is so much more doable!

Hi Lady Lavender, I love swimming & wondered if that would be ok for you. This is my first fast day and at the moment I feel fine. I have 2 st to lose and whilst it’s not that much I do think it’s just as hard trying to lose a little. I’m 5ft 3 and most of my clothes are more than comfortable. Keep positive, I’m trying to keep busy today then tomorrow’s another day.

Hi Lady Lavendar,
Hydrotherapy pools with warm water for injured people to exercise in are pretty good. They are shallow so you can walk up and down in them and it doesn’t stress your joints. After you have done a few weeks of walking up and down,more tiring than you may expect, get a hydrotherapy book and look for the exercises that suit you to exercise the bits you want to focus on and/or see a physiotherapist who teaches hydrotherapy (teaching hospitals usually have them).

I can’t handle classes because they usually have music and people jumping around…I really like having the pool to myself and doing my own thing. I got tennis elbow in a teacher led class in a heated pool and wont return to them…not much consideration of people who have injuries or are unfit I found and the teachers in my area were all early twenties and very fit and aiming the level way above where I was at.

I’ve had a few injuries that I need to work with/around and I give myself a lot of time to do what feels right for me and I don’t compare myself to other people’s level of fitness, I just compare myself to how I was last week and keep at it. It is a very good feeling to have spent a half hour in a hydro pool because when you get out, you realize what the feeling of weightlessness and no stress on your joints was like, when gravity hits again. Good luck.:)