I admire the fact that you have actually stayed on the programme for 3 months with no weight loss.
You sound fairly active and athletic and muscle weighs more than fat. Did you take any measurements before you started – especially neck and waist as these are good indicators of changes within your body.
Did your GP offer any explanation?

Hi John, I’ve been fasting for nearly a year and although I had good results in the first month, my weight loss stopped even though I was still somewhat overweight. I kept fasting anyway for the potential other health benefits and was later diagnosed with underactive thyroid. Probably about 6 weeks after starting medication my weight started to drop slowly but surely – the thyroid problem was definitely stopping me from losing weight. If you’ve not had a thyroid check may be worth a try?

I had no idea I had a serious medical issue and went to the doctors for help with skin problems that I thought were caused by stress. My doctor said “let’s do some tests just in case” and my thyroid levels came back as only slightly under. I suspect that other doctors might not have medicated me as it was close to borderline but I’m very glad they did – the combination of the medication and continued fasting have done wonders – I wish you luck with finding out why your weight isn’t shifting. Have you checked your calories here? http://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/ I only looked at this today and discovered I should be sticking to 370 calories on fast days… fortunately after finding 500 very easy at the beginning I decided to stick with 400 and now actually rarely go over 350, sometimes as little as 200. If I’d gone for the full 500 allowed for women from the start I don’t think I’d have had the success I’ve had and I certainly wouldn’t be feeling as many benefits.

Hi Johnw, not sure if you’ve read through the FAQ but it does cover not losing weight, i’ve copied and pasted it here for you to save time, something here may help kick start things for you xx

Try adding another fast day to make it a 4:3 Fasting pattern as this still allows you some flexibility as to which days to fast.

If you want to lose weight faster, or have hit a plateau with the 4:3 Fast, then you might consider doing Alternate Day Fasting. As the name implies, with ADF you cut your calories to ¼ of their normal level (ie 500 for women, 600 for men), every other day. On your non-fast days you eat normally, though in some trials of ADF the volunteers were allowed to eat what they wanted and still lost weight. Studies on people doing ADF have shown that, on average, they tend to lose around 2lbs a week, most of it fat.

You don’t want to obsess about weight. What you really want to do is lose fat, preferably around the gut. I encourage you, before you start, to measure your girth (around the belly button), and monitor the change over a period of time.

Look at the calories you are getting from drinks on your non fast days. Juices, lattes, alcohol, fizzy drinks, smoothies all contain a lot of calories. If you can move to drinking more water and sugar free tea/coffee that will help. Calories you drink do not satiate. If you eat three apples they will fill you up. Drink 3 apples in form of a small fruit juice and it will not fill you up.

Simply moving more will help. I always take the stairs, even up 7 flights. Get a pedometer. Aim to do 10,000 steps a day. Most people do less than 5000. A long term study on people who lost weight and kept it off found that those who were successful all increased the amounts they walked.

Keep a diary of everything you eat or drink for a week. Then look at the calorie content. Some foods may leap out. I was horrified to discover a muffin can be anywhere between 300-600 calories. Lots of evidence that people who keep an honest diary lose more weight

If you cut your calories 2 days a week, don’t overcompensate on the other days and keep reasonably active then you will lose fat. Unfortunately fat is incredibly energy dense, which is why for some people the process can be frustratingly slow.

John,
Hello and I really sympathise. I lost nothing for the first 3 months, and like you, I was doing everything right. I have only managed to lost at all by counting calories every day, which is a bore. It is coming off, but very slowly, and I am worried about decreasing my calorie allowance too much in case my body gets used to functioning on a low calorie base.
I have had thyroid tests and put my weight problems down to taking anti-depressants for many years.
It is galling to read other people’s success stories when it’s not working for you!
I’m just carrying on, because, to be honest, what’s the alternative?

Oh bummer John!
Have you done any measurements?

You are so active and apparently one does not lose muscle with intermittend fasting as with a lot of other types of diets.
Could it be that you are actually building muscle?
Apart from muscle weighing quite a lot, your muscles might be holding water in their repair mode.

About cholesterol, my husband comes from a family with high cholesterol.
He even has high readings while we eat vegetarian.
My bad cholesterol is almost non existing and the good cholesterol is a schoolbook example…so hey!
People are all different.

I’d be very interested what you’ll find when monitoring your measurements.
I genuinly wish you good news.

John,

You mentioned that, on non-fast days, you quite often eat less than 2500 calories. Have you ever considered that, on non-fast days, you are actually eating too little?

The fundamental principle of 5:2, as I understand it, is to eat normally 5 days a week, and only calorie restrict on two days. That way the body understands that it is a short term thing and won’t go into famine/starvation mode. If, however, in an attempt to accelerate things, you are restricting on the non-fast days, too, then your body might think that it is in a long-term famine. When the calorie restriction is short term (less than 96 hours, if I recall correctly), then metabolism increases, and your body switches to burning fat rather than muscle. This makes sense, physiologically, because your body wants to preserve all of your muscle and take advantage of your built in energy supply to allow you to go out and find food. If, however, the calorie restriction is long term, your body switches and goes into starvation mode. At that point, all fat has to be preserved because it doesn’t know if/when normal food intake will resume.

So, in effect, you might not be losing weight because you are actually eating too little on the non-fast days. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but if you’re not losing any weight and you have been strict with the 600 cal on the fast days, you might try eating a bit more on the non-fast days so that your body knows the calorie restriction is over. Now, I wouldn’t go overboard, but it is important to actually eat ALL of the required calories for you age and activity level on the non-fast days. That way your body knows that the fast days are only temporary, and that it is okay to burn fat. Your body needs to know that normal food quantities will return. If it thinks that EVERY day is calorie restricted, but on two days a week it just gets worse, then it will hold on to as much fat as it can possibly get.

From reading these and other posts I’ve come to the conclusion that for some people (including me) losing weight just takes a long, long time.

I am 57 and have been accumulating excess weight over decades, although at an increased rate in the last four years or so following menopause. I started 5:2 in February – about 6 and a half months ago. I lost around 4kg in the first three months and then hit a plateau in May. What kept me going through the plateau was some very encouraging results from my annual health check. I’ve had high blood glucose for some years now, bordering on type 2 diabetes, but by the end of May my blood glucose reading was within the normal range – towards the top end, admittedly, but normal. My bad cholesterol reading had reduced – it was still too high but was moving in the right direction. I take my BP reading most days and this is slowly coming down too. Having suffered from severe gum disease most of my adult life the dentist and dental surgeon have both confirmed recently that my gum health is much improved. And I just feel better. Some days I feel more energetic than I have for years.

All of the above is enough to keep me going on 5:2 even if I never lost another gram. However, a couple of months ago, still on a plateau, I decided to look more carefully at what I was eating on the non-fast days. I read up on metabolic syndrome, the bad effects of sugar and starch (read Robert Lustig on the subject – the book is ‘Fat Chance’ – or watch him on YouTube) and in July I decided to move to a low-carb diet on 5 days, while still fasting on 2. I find this approach suits me very well indeed and I have started losing small amounts of weight again. I eat protein, fat and plenty of veg. I don’t miss fruit – I never liked it much anyway and generally only ate it because it was supposed to be good for me – and it’s been surprisingly easy to cut out the bad carbs. I’ve also given up drinking alcohol, which has also been straightforward.

In response to John W’s comments – I understand how disheartening it is when you’re not getting results. He’s already doing a lot of sensible things like not eating sugar. I’ve gone a bit further than this and am not eating starchy foods either – might this be worth a try?

I suspect that the solution varies from one individual to another. Some of us have compromised our systems by too much dieting in the past, or by overindulgence in bad stuff like sugar. We’re all experimenting on ourselves with this diet. For some people, adopting 5:2 as described in the book just works, and they lose loads of weight quite quickly. For others (e.g. some of us post-menopausal women) it’s a long hard slog. We may have to tailor the diet to suit ourselves, and it may involve trial and error. Personally, I think it’s worth the effort and for me this has become a permanent lifestyle change.

Thanks for the warning, NicoleS! Having “been there, done that” with every other diet, I know full well that there is no such thing as a ‘miracle cure’. My own progress is painfully slow but I’m taking the view that whilst I’m following the plan I’m at least not gaining any more weight and that, for 5 days of the week, I don’t have to ‘diet’. Like Pudding said, what’s the alternative? For a serial dieter like me, there isn’t one!