I feel you should try to eat 5-6 small meals per day, about 2-3 hours apart to keep your metabolism and energy up, cravings down and muscles fed constantly encouraging growth.
http://consciouslifenews.com/surprising-reasons-youre-losing-weight/1174991/

How old are you if you don’t mind me asking pre or post menopause?

You really need to track your weekend calories.I would recommend tracking your sugar as well. Try not having carbs at every meal. It could be that you’re underestimating your food calories and over estimating your exercise calories.

So as I see this diet is quite good and I hope I will lose few pounds as well. But I had the same experience in the past when I’ve lost few pounds during the first 2 weeks and then the process has stopped. I guess this is how our body system works. So we just need to be patient…

I’ve read through a lot of these posts and thought I would add my tuppence. Eat what you like, when you like on non-fast days refers, in my opinion, to the fact that no food is forbidden. Brilliant! However, the caveat is that some foods just are more calorie dense, and you cannot eat them with impunity without putting on weight, if you exceed your TDEE. So as I see it, you need to make some hard decisions about how much of certain foods you eat. Personally, I look a slice of cheesecake now and think… that’s my whole evening meal on a fast day. It kind of helps me moderate my intake and re-order how I think about my diet and portion size! Knowledge of calories and portion size is really helpful, but it’s not vital to weigh every mouthful. I did spend a lot of time in the beginning educating myself about this, so now I have a pretty good idea what will cause me a problem, and how much of certain types of food equals another, calorie-wise. I still enjoy my bottle of wine at the weekend, but accept my weight loss will slow down as a result. Keeps me happy though. You have to be realistic about this. If you eat too much, you won’t lose weight. But doesn’t mean you can’t eat the stuff you like… sometimes. I have lost 18 pounds in 12 weeks. Feel really great about this and would encourage people to work out the way it works for them and stick with it.

Hi marie:

When you stopped smoking your TDEE decreased, or your appetite increased, maybe both. Sad to say the only ‘cure’ is to eat less. The exercise will not help with your weight that much – http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/ #5.

Good Luck!

Hi Marielaem
You have made a good decision. My OH and I quickly realised our TDEEs had to drop right down and continued to as we lost weight.
You should lose if you are doing two fasts properly and keep to 1200 or 1300 other days. Look carefully at what you eat normally too and train yourself not to snack. Most of us cut out potatoes bread rice and pasta completely initially. It is staggering how many fabulous meals can be made without them. Look on the LOACA recipe thread here.
All the best PVE

It looks as if there are a lot more posts on this thread of people feeling disappointed with the lack of results than on other threads where people are incorporating methods from other diets, and in fact restricting calories every day of the week.

Hi to all those who are disappointed not to be losing weight.

First, are you weighing yourself properly? You need a good pair of scales reading to 0.1 or 0.2 lb. You need to weigh yourself everyday. Weigh yourself ’empty’ first thing in the morning after going to the toilet & before anything to eat. Plot the results as a graph. It will go down after fasting and then back up the next couple of days. Ideally calculate a 7 day average to smooth out the 5:2 ups and downs.

Second, are you fasting and bingeing correctly? With a normal calorie reduced diet you lose weight initially but then your body reduces the metabolic rate and you stop losing weight. The 5:2 diet fools your body. The 5 bingeing days fool your body into thinking there is no need to reduce the metabolic rate as there is loads of food. If you are restricting what you eat on the 5 bingeing days your body will reduce your metabolic rate. It seems odd to say eat more to lose weight, but 5 days per week you must eat 4 times the calories of the 2 fasting days. (Read the book – on the 2 fasting days you should eat 500 calories – a quarter of your normal 2,000 calories on the other 5 days)

Third, have you already reached what your body considers is your minimum weight? (Probably what you weighed in your teens/twenties). We both lost about a pound per week for the first 6 months but then ‘bottomed out’ at the weight we were in our twenties and we have stayed there for the last two years. We continue with the 5:2 diet to live longer (and it stops our weight creeping up). Watch the Horizon programme or read the book – 5:2 is about LIVING LONGER (losing weight is a nice side effect)

I joke about the ‘Marks & Spencer Health/Age Test’. According to the M&S test I am 50 years younger than my actual age! I have an M&S certificate sewn in my trousers that says ’15-16 year old Schoolboy’ (There is even a 20% government incentive for staying young – no VAT)

Paul

Hi Missmotivated,

I hope you are not putting all your hope on what the scale says. For now, you just have to ditch the scale and be persistent. You can also try different workouts. You can not be doing the same thing all the time and still expect a new result. Don’t give up, be determined and work more on your mindset, it helps.
I look forward to hearing your success story very soon.

a rapid weight loss in the first week is due to losing a lot of water. After that your body starts to ‘eat’ the fat, and that takes more time.

if you follow the diet stricktly (36 hours) you will lose weight. You will also have to watch what you eat and drink on other days.

exercise is not working for 5:2. Just light exercise will suffice. Don’t lose more than 1 lb a week!!!

Hello all. I have been 5 weeks on 3:4, I am 160cm and 68.5 kg…I have an underactive thyroid and have elevated cholesterol. I thought that by doing 3:4, and making sure I stay under my TDEE I would shift weight. Gained 2.2lbs this week. Feeling angry…if I have been diligent in my 3:4, and watching my non-fasting behaviour, I expect better results than this.