Hi BCC,

I’d have to agree with Pattience that fasting doesn’t increase moodiness. In fact I’ve found fasting to be mentally very positive (and no, I don’t/didn’t suffer from depression!).

And of course people participating in rows won’t necessarily be fasting at the time they post anyway… So to blame fasting for ‘rows’ would be like blaming a row at any time of the month on pmt?!

BCC,

Great news that you’re seeing results and will look like Kate Moss at goal weight!!

BTW, I’m fine with your name because chocolate cake is not my Achilles heel…!

Re: moodiness on fast days. I don’t know how long you’ve been fasting, but fingers crossed it’s just a phase that passes.

The morning after day one, currently feeling serene and benevolent. Confident i can get through another one in good spirits.

I am sure i could even feel euphoric if i would have a bowel movement! I’m drinking hot water first in the hopes this might achieve something. If not, i’ll have 10g of fruity laxative. I can admit that constipation – at a certain point – does make one feel miserable and unwell. But i ‘m not there yet – hoping to avoid

Yes i know coffee but i think its mainly the hot water effect of the coffee that is the key factor. I will have coffee later anyway. I just wanted to see if the hot water would do it for me now.

Yes i started doing two days because i didn’t realise the standard approach was separate days. I didn’t find it difficult so i thought i might as well continue since i think the effect of weightloss and anything else would be greater.

Then last week because of my schedule i decided to try to two separate days. I found it harder. I think the thing is that the longer one fasts the lower your appetite. I am fine this morning, just feeling like i did yesterday morning.

I think its worth doing on less active days to start with though to be more cautious, just in case of any difficulties. That said, yesterday i went to a pottery class in the afternoon, and found it tough throwing the pots but then the clay was quite dry. Still being occupied meant i didn’t have to contend with my appetite at all. I mean i would like to go to work on a fasting schedule though most people here seem to feel fine doing it. So maybe a Friday saturday could be a good option if you didn’t want to lose your whole weekend to it.

Anyway give it a shot.

I also like it because my non-fasting week is longer. I find after a fast, i have to get over it. There seems to be some sort of mental adjustment required. Though this may settle down in time. And if doing that twice a week, then i’m always in the throws of getting over a fast.

Pattience, coffee works for me also. And funnily enough so does the thought of exercise! I don’t often get out for a run or bike ride without a toilet stop first. I think it’s a fight or flight thing (evacuate first before running away!).

Interesting that you like to get both your days out of the way. I never tried back to back fasts. Not sure I’d be disciplined enough.

Yes you will look like Kate Moss. I wish i had someone to aim for. I’d like to look like a white halle berry but it just aint going to happen, or Gwyneth Paltrow in Sense and Sensiblity or Angelina Jolie in all the gossip mags. But i think i’ll need a face lift. For all the youthening of my figure, my face is just drooping and i am looking more and more like one of those dogs with the droop jowls. Sigh you can’t win!

My scales must be getting mad with my progress. They have started to refuse to budge downwards. After two days of fasting they haven’t gone down at all. Yes i, ahem, saw some action in the bathroom yesterday, and again just now but guess what? After only a cup of coffee weighing about 250g i put on 400 grams! How can this be? Is it time to throw out my scales that have been with me through thick and thin, or fat and thin rather, for about 8 years.

If you are this moody after a one day fast, hubby will have to go on holiday to Spain or somewhere for a two day fast.

I’m just thinking that maybe the explanation for my stodgy scales is too much fasting. Ie the 16:8 days could be slowing me down. I should stick with it for a few more weeks guess and see how it goes and then maybe go back to normal for a while and see if anything changes.

Hi BCC (or should I say Kate…?),

I can’t really think of any ‘celebrity’ I’d like to look like. So I’ll settle for being the best (or perhaps just a better..) version of me.

Re fasting and digestion. As long as I steer clear of processed carbs, and eat reasonable portion sizes, I don’t seem to have too many problems.

Hi BlueIris,

Kylie Minogue is vertically challenged…?

Blue Iris, Kylie Minogue also came to my mind straight away. After watching her all season as a Voice coach, she’s definitely got more than thinness and cuteness going on.

All right i shall continue to aim for Halle Berry and when i get a pile of money, i’ll go to work on the bosoms and jowls. 🙂 Do you know i actually have a friend who is a plastic surgeon so i could probably get a discount too. (But no i wouldn’t really do the bosoms. I don’t mind being flat chested.)

LOL you are right. I don’t usually weigh more than once a day. This was a special exception. I wanted to see if the scales had budged after my deposit in the water closet.

Today the scales are back to 63. So i’m hopeful there will be a breakthrough into the 62s. I’m now inclined to think its the psyllium fibre that i owe all this trauma to. I think its holding extra water for me. If so, then things should go fine from now on.

Goal is 60g so only 3kg to go now.

Saggy skin – ugh its enough to make anyone moody! Mine is lower abdomen and inside thighs. I am told, with time it does get better so its a good job Summer is almost over and I can cover everything up with thick tights or trousers. Hopefully I will emerge, like a butterfly, with skin that fits 😀

Happy, no that right. Age has seen to that!

Hi BCC,

Glad to hear your mood is marginally better!

Re: saggy skin. Never having been a thin 40 something woman before, I don’t know if this is what my stomach would have looked like at this age if I’d never been ‘chubby’. But if you watch track athletics, you know how female runners stomachs move? That’s what I like to imagine mine looks like now!

Miscellaneous Notes

I’ve lost 32.1 pounds since the beginning of the year. I’m an expert! lol. Just wanted to share.

I wish i’d measured my girth when i was at my fattest.

I had a chocolate digestive biscuit yesterday on my quit sugar diet. It’s within my Rules. I love my Diet Rules.

Your turn…

I should make this a new post for all to do.

Please clarify what is 4:3. Is it 4 days of non-fasting and 3 days of fasting. How do you get from 36 hours fasting to 4:3? I can’t compute. I had thought that 36 hours is still 5:2. And i had thought that 4:3 was alternate days fasting.

What is your goal weight BCC and what is your height? Mine is 60kg and 5’5″ or about 132 pounds and 165cm to mix measurements. I can’t even think in stones anymore and i only learnt pounds this year so i could communicate with the americans.

I think i impressed my skinny sister this morning when i told her i had done it without exercise. She’s an exercise maniac and is very skinny to boot. But now she can’t exercise quite so much as she has done for the last 10 years because of a drastic change in her lifestyle. She tells me she’s losing muscle mass. We had a skype conversation and i could get up and prance around showing my new skinniness. I can’t actually make her jealous (alas) because she’s still about a stone lighter than me whatever that comes to – its a lot anyway. I’m certainly not telling her about my tummy hideousness. She’s never been fat.

Has anyone noticed if we can share our progress charts?

You’ve done really well in a short time BCC. Must admit I didn’t do any days with no calories….

For info, I’m 5ft6ish and was 159lbs (72.4kg). My goal was 140lbs (63kg), but I went below that before I stabilized and am now hovering in the 59-60kg range. I never expected to get this low. I never was a skinny minny! At 45 now I think any thinner would not look good (chest is already a bit of a toastrack in the wrong light!

Hi BCC

I posted my stats on the maintenance chatbox thread on 31st July. I’m on my phone at the mo, but will try to remember to copy them here when I’m at a computer next.

Re: slim and sexy. With my clothes on, no one can see old skin or stretch marks! What they see is someone who is happy and confident in their skin.

Just as with being rich, being thin won’t necessarily make you happy, But I think that actually liking and respecting yourself does make a difference.

Ha ha yes i love the toast rack thing too though i can’t quite picture what it looks like. You know i don’t mind being flat chested. The other year when i got down to what think might have been about 55kg, i had no fat left in my boobs and i didn’t mind because all the sageness went with it.

I am also lucky in that although i’ve been up to at least 179pounds, around 80kg, i’ve don’t have any stretch marks. Good genes there thanks mum!

Its interesting how so many people attracted to this diet are not severely overweight. I was on another forum 3 fat chicks and the majority of them had started at well over 200 pounds.

I must say i find it quite sad to read about people who struggle with the weightloss, who don’t know how to do it and seem always oriented towards unhealthy and dodgy practices. And there was a lot of that on that forum, although i certainly did a learn a lot more about good weightloss techniques from being there.

People who come here seem to start off with a somewhat different mentality, dare i say it more mature (re dieting at least). On the other hand, i think 5:2 is only just becoming known about over there where as in britain and oz, we’ve been introduced to it some time ago.

So we saw some serious action in the privy chamber today but i shall have to wait until i get on the scale tomorrow to see what’s what. Who’d have thunk it that 62 would become such a significant number for me.

Ah oh yes, so BCC you are fasting every third day! and you are doing a total water fast! That’s brave of you. I did a water fast at the beginning of my year and it was hard. I broke it at midnight as i was totally famished knowing that i had fasted for at least 24 hours. I like it on this 5:2 strategy that i can avoid that intense suffering lol. But fasting every third seems like a reasonable idea.

So you can picture me down on my knees like buddhist, or a muslim kowtowing! You are a Goddess of power and strength!

“…lying face down in a fresh cream slice… “! I Love that!

You should weigh in the morning before all the water weight is counted. Water weight is the reason for all the daily fluctuations. Your most objective measurement will be the one in the morning. It is after all mainly fat we want to know about, not water. Overnight we can lose a lot of the water we’ve taken on in the course of a day.

I weigh every day in the morning after a pee when i am at my lightest for the day.

If i was doing it once a week, it shouldn’t matter too much so long as you use the same day every week and at the same time, preferably in the morning, after a pee.

Hi Biccie,

You can’t throw in the towel. Don’t leave me!

And maybe you need to get your moodiness looked at. Its not normal. Go see doctor. I think you might benefit from antidepressants. Seriously!. And they won’t hurt you. I’ve been on them most of the time since 1997. The only ongoing problem i have with my med is some constipation. Tell doctor you are trying to lose weight and that you don’t want one that increases appetite! Some do, some don’t.

On the other hand if you have a particular stressor that you know about, it might only take some focus on solving that problem and not meds. To help with that situation, i’d suggest a councillor first off. If there seems to be no environmental issue, then its got to be low seratonin and/or other hormonal issues.

REad this article on seratonin: http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/06/understanding-bodies-serotonin-connection-between-food-and-mood/

Maybe 3 days fasting is too hard for you. Why are you doing so many days anyway? Make it easier for yourself.

For weightloss, i think its imperative to keep your mood up and in peak condition. All this year i’ve made it top priority to take care of my mood. Yes i’ve had some challenges and i’ve addressed them asap and so been able to hang in there.

By the way, i got below 63kg today! Yay! I finally got into 62s. I don’t know if you can be happy for me today. But at least you can see where persistence gets you. So you can’t give up. I even had cake yesterday. So you can have it all. You just gotta address the hiccups that come along.

I think you’d like the book The End of Overeating by Kessler, who used to be the head of the american food and drug administration. I can vouch for his approach since its also what i worked out for myself by myself. I mean in for the second half of the book; the first half is more about some of the science of getting fat i.e. the food industry and i have to go back and read more of it next. I have used all his strategies and know they work. I think you’d benefit from them too.