Hi,
I am Hemanth from India and this is my journey. I was chubby kid and did not pay much attention to my weight till after I settled in a secure job. Two years into my job I developed a love for the Himalayas and wanted to go for trekking, for which I need to lose some fat. I was 94 kilos at that time (22.5 years old and 180 cm ). I took up weight training and somehow came down to 88 kilos in about 3 months. Then I got transferred to a new place and then had Spinal TB. I needed to undergo 3 surgeries to get back to working condition and needless to say regained my weight and steadily climbed to 92 kilos. Fast forward 6 years and I was still 92 Kg this January when I decided to go trekking again, but I did not want to weight train again, I have been doing yoga and Suryanamaskaras for my flexibility and agility since after my surgeries. So I started researching other ways of staying lean an found the documentary on youtube. I remembered that this was something my Granddad used to do when I was samll and he is still fit and doing great at 92 years. So I started 5:2 in January and now I am at 86 kilos down form 92 kilos and still going strong. Here are a few of my learnings:
1. I have a rotation of two morning shifts, two afternoon shifts and two night shifts followed by two days rest, so I tweaked to program to 6:2 . I fast on both my morning shifts, and they are the most productive days of my week. Not having to eat and shit and think about eating frees up so much of my time!!!
2. I have not felt any kind of weakness in all these months, The initial hunger pangs were for the first two weeks, now my body switches effortlessly to fat burning without me noticing!
3. The detox effects of the fast are amazing, I was having a chronic pimple problem after two years of continuous antibiotic use to fight TB, now it is gone. Digestive power does seem to improve.
4. The way food tastes after the fast is simply GODLY.
5. Overall quantum of food that I generally eat has reduced, overall variety of food that I eat has increased.
6. Initially there was a lot of counting of calories during the fast days to stay below the limit, but now it has become intuitive. Now I simply eat a ton of veggies on fast days knowing that I will feel full way before I hit the calorie limit.
7. After 6 months yesterday I did my first complete water fast for the two days, simply because I did not feel hungry and so did not eat.
8. I continue to eat my favorite chocolates, cakes, chips all through the week but have noticed that the portion sizes have naturally gone down. Kitkat is still a daily dessert in my house

I am grateful to all the members of this forum for inspiring me and filling me with positivity and hope. It is true what they say….this does become a way of eating from just a diet.