Today is the magic day! After 23 weeks, losing an average of 0.7kg (1.5 lbs) per week, I have got my waist size to be less than half my height. On 3rd Feb 2013 I was 94.3kg (14st 12lbs with a waist of 107cm – today I am 78.6kg (12st 5lbs) with a waist of 93cm. I haven’t felt this healthy and energetic since my 20s, I haven’t seen the GP since I started it (and for the last decade I seem to have caught every virus going, taken ages to recover from them, and had to have loads of blood tests), my acid reflux (or GORD) hasn’t played up once, and I’ve been taking lanzoprazole to try to control it since 2000 (13 years). It’s no exaggeration to say that this eating strategy has changed my life. I’m going to give it another 3 weeks to consolidate, then move to 6:1 to see what happens with that maintenance approach. I’m doing this for the rest of my life.

The busier and more active I am on fasting days the easier I find them, although the first 4 weeks did take a lot of mental effort, and occasionally a fast day will still drag a bit, but 90% of them are a breeze. Also, when on holiday (usually walking ones) I don’t do the fasting at all. With 2 such holidays during these 23 weeks they actually made little difference to the overall results because my portion control has also dramatically improved and I naturally no longer want to eat so much anyway.

Of course none of my trousers fit any more – but having hit my final target getting 15 pairs taken in is simply a way of celebrating the result.

I used 2 earlier targets to help keep up my initial enthusiasm – first to get my BMI to a max of 25 which meant a weight of 87.4kg (13st 11 lbs) which was achieved after 10.5 weeks. Second I thought can I get back to 13st (82.5kg) which I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager? I did that after another 8.5 weeks, although I then plateaued for 2 weeks before continuing the downward trend and getting where I am today in another 3 weeks.

I now know loads of other people who have also started the 5:2 and everyone is doing well on it.

One year later – am I still doing well? Well, basically YES.

Carried on with 5:2 for 3 more weeks then switched to 6:1. Had a slightly interesting time with a stress fracture of my left tibia after trying to take up running in August, and then a serious chest infection over Christmas for 6 weeks. The weight dropped a little lower and stayed off OK until Christmas but I wasn’t feeling as good as I had done on 5:2. My weight went as low as 11st 13lbs (75.6kg) but that felt like it was a bit too low. I decided to go back on to 5:2 again after a 3 week throat infection in March, but allow myself more treats on the 5 to stop too much weight loss. Since last year, the highest my weight went up to was 80.2kg (12st 9lbs) – but it’s averaged around 78.3kg (12st 5lbs) and so my BMI has generally been 22.4. My waist has consistently stayed at less than half my height.

During the last year I’ve also halved the dosage for my asthma inhaler and the dosage for my reflux drug – maybe coincidence, but probably not. Having a lot less fat round my gut area has to be healthier – and I certainly look a lot better.

As of today it’s now been 14 weeks since I was ill, my weight is 77.1kg (12st 2lbs) and my BMI is 22.05. 3 weeks ago I had a fantastic walking holiday in Dorset covering more miles at a higher average speed than I’ve managed in years (I’m 50).

The 5:2 continues to deliver for me 75 weeks since I first took it up. Best of luck to everyone else.

Thanks for the responses – glad you liked the post. For those just starting and finding the fast days tricky I’d say just stick with it. The first 4 weeks I did it the mental effort on fasting days was pretty high to stick to the regime. After that it became a lot easier. These days – though this may seem very odd to some – I actually miss it if I don’t fast for 2 days per week. I grew to actively like the feeling of the fast, it makes me more energised and I don’t feel like I’m dragging around dead weight in my stomach.

My portion control has remained good – I just don’t like or want a big meal any more. I’m not really a foody – more somebody who eats to live, than lives to eat – but there are certain foods I do really enjoy the taste of and those do still test my resolve – roast pork and crackling for instance. However, if I do ever eat more than I really should on a 5 day and get a bit bloated, then I know I have 2 fast days to get over it and any weight I put on will come off.

Personally I never expected the 5:2 to be a quick fix. I know some people have extremely ambitious hopes of it, presumably because so many other diet fads over-promise and may give significant initial weight loss which proves unsustainable. In the first 6 months I was on the 5:2 I lost an average of 1.5 lbs per week, including some plateau weeks where nothing seemed to change. That always struck me as a nice healthy, steady rate of weight loss and the lack of any rebound weight gain convinces me this is the way to go. It took me 15-20 years to put on all the extra unwanted weight – to lose all that and keep it off in just 6 months seems perfectly fast enough to me.

Like so many worthwhile things, the 5:2 is a marathon, not a sprint. Stick with it and I’m sure you’ll reap the rewards just like I have. My intention continues to be to 5:2 for the rest of my life.

3 years in today and still doing OK. A couple of kg higher then I’d really like to be but heading back in the right direction to a BMI of 22.5 (22.82 today). Still 5:2 every week except when on holiday. Had some stress last year with a job loss which hasn’t helped, but now got a new job which should see me into retirement so feeling much happier.

Recent blood tests show my cholesterol is fine and no risk of diabetes. 4 years ago those test results weren’t so good. Cholesterol was raised and I was risking becoming pre-diabetic.

My “QRisk” for cardiovascular disease is also extremely low, so it’s all looking good.

If you are just starting – good luck, and yes, it really does work. If you are successfully maintaining, well done and keep it up.

Thanks SwissFasters, Merryme and QuietOne.

You are all doing very well yourselves. A few people who started about the same time as me have subsequently stopped and actually regained most of the weight they lost – but if you don’t change the fundamental habits that caused you to gain weight in the first place then you won’t keep it off if you give up the 5:2 approach. My only way to keep where I am now is just to keep doing 5:2 – and by now that really isn’t a problem. I definitely never want to go back to where I was in Feb 2013.

Good luck to everyone. Stay determined.

7 years in – not sure what happened to my update last year but I had back surgery in late January 19 so I was probably more than a little bit distracted. Bulging disc and a cyst on my sciatic nerve – not nice!

Anyway the latest stats are:

Date: 3/2/13, 3/2/14, 3/2/15, 3/2/16, 3/2/17, 3/2/18, 3/2/19, 2/2/20
Kg: # # 94.3, # 77.6, # 78.1, # 79.8, # 81.9, # 81.0, # 82.4, # 80.7
BMI: # 27.0, # 22.2, # 22.3, # 22.8, # 23.4, # 23.2, # 23.6, # 23.1

being a healthy weight to begin with probably helped with the recovery from surgery. Certainly didn’t hurt anyway.