Hi Frenske,

While not an expert I hope this helps. First how tall is your wife and what is her weight? Men seem to lose weight quicker than women especially at first. However, 1kg in 3 months does seem quite a small loss. I don’t think(but don’t absolutely know) that her low resting heart rate and high cholesterol would be causing this. My husband has both of those as well, and has lost weight with 5:2. His high cholesterol is from familial hypercholesterolemia, which is a genetic condition of 1/250 people, to have bodies that cause their bad cholesterol to be high regardless of diet and excercise If your wife is very athletic, it could account for the high good cholesterol.

Re 5:2 I suggest you go back to 5:2 basics. Read opening of the forum thread by simcoeluv called Info for newbies, or Basic info for newbies. I’ll get back to you with the link. It’s excellent and comprehensive overview to keep you on track.

It is important to stick to the guidelines, and I suggest there is 1 of 2 things happening:

1. you’re guess-timating calories, or eating over TDEE. It’s important to accurately know how many calories you’re taking in. People underestimate calories if they’re not measuring. Have you and your wife calculated your TDEE? If not you need to do this. If you go to the Fast Diet Tracker on the upper right of the page, you can work this out. Then weigh and work out calories for everything eaten and drunk on a FD and nonFDs for about a week. A FD should be 1/4 of TDEE or 500 cals, whichever is lower for your wife. On nonFDs you need to make sure calories are at or under her TDEE. Once you’ve stopped the weighing and measuring make sure portion sizes don’t creep up.

2. There are a group of people on 5:2 who have discovered that if they include starchy carbohydrates and sugars, regardless of whether the calories are accurate for the 5:2 guidelines, they do not lose weight. I am one of these. I initially lost weight for 2-3months then plateaud. Plateaus are not uncommon in weight loss, but they come to an end. Mine did not end despite sticking to the calorie guidelines. Someone experienced in 5:2 long term suggested I may be 1 of this group of people, and suggested I try omitting all grain based foods, bread, buiscuits, cookies, pasta, rice, cous cous etc and all simple sugars i.e. sugar, jam, honey, glucose, foods with added sugars in processed foods. I did that and my weight immediately started dropping again. I have now been on 5:2 fir 19 months and have tested this out 3 times. Each time my weightloss stops even though the calories are right, and resumes when I omit the culprits again. I don’t know why this happens. It doesn’t happen to my husband though.

So, to summarise, my thoughts are either your wife is taking in too many calories, or the wrong sorts of foods.

Good luck.
Merry

Hi again Frenske.

I strongly suggest you read the forum thread by simcoeluv. Rather than the link(i’m not very tecchie), if you out his name – simcoeluv – in the search box at the top of the page, then go down the list to: ” Basics for newbies – Your questis answered”. -and read his excellent information. He has another thread called something like “why aren’t I losing weight” which is also excellent.

Good luck
Merry

Hi Frenske,

Really depends on what you are eating and when you are eating. Different people respond differently. At 71kg and 1.80 tall Id say you really wouldn’t want to lose too much more as your build is very similar to mine. OK onto the wife. Eating foods that do not spike your insulin is a good start and that works for most people. Lower the insulin and weight starts to drop. For your wife though she needs to significantly lower her insulin levels. Insulin creates the body’s set weight point. There is no easy way to do this and your wife is going to have to bite the bullet. Her fast days will have to be real fast days and not reduced calories. It will have to be water only fast days. Try doing one as a water fast and the other as a 500 cal day. Two water only fast days would be best, but may be difficult so try starting with one water only fast day. This will hopefully kick start the weight loss as a true fast has the effect of reducing insulin. Good diet only helps prevent spiking of insulin levels.

I have monitored mine for several months using a blood glucose/ketone meter. My blood glucose levels have dropped from high 5s mmol/L (5.6-5.9) to low 4s. 4.1-4.7. This will take several months. The first month will be difficult but it will get easier after than. Get a glucose meter and start monitoring you blood glucose levels. I take mine every morning.

Read a book by Dr Jason Fung, the Obesity Code. It explains true fasting. Good luck.

Hi Frenske,

Oh I know how that babyweight can hang around🙂
1. It sounds like you are eating healthily, but too many calories from too much of the good food can stop the weight from coming off too. It’s tedious I know, but at this point your wife now needs to check her calories on both FDs and non FDs.

2. I suggest your wife try 1 week with no grain foods or starchy carbs. It doesn’t matter if the grain is whole, cracked or flour, and it includes barley and oats. I’m not familiar with freekah, so can’t comment on that, but but I suggest she leaves out lentils, chickpeas, and other pulses.

These are just trials to work out what’s happening to stop your wifevlosing weight. I also suggest next time your wife is at the Drs, to ask the Dr if Familial Hypercholesterolemia is a possibility.

Hope you get this sorted,
Merry