In 2012 following years of yo-yo dieting I finally managed to get to my desired goal of 9st 4lb using the 5:2 method. In total I lost 2 stone but my weight did not drop off, it was an average of 1 pound per week, with the occasional 2 pounds and sometimes I stayed the same.
Many people on here report little or no losses and very often get very disheartened and give up.
There is much talk of eating what you like on non fast days but from my experience if I was to do that or even if I was to eat the so called average for woman of 2000, I would definitely put weight on.
I can only tell you what worked for me and how I believe this worked.
Like any diet, 5:2 is basically a reduction in calories over a period of a week resulting in a loss. If you take your total daily expenditure (TDEE) this is what you need to maintain your currant weight, so to lose any weight you need to reduce this over a period of a week. My TDEE is 1468 which over a week is 10276. By reducing my calories to 500 on my fast days I would be reducing my weekly total by 1936 (2 x 968). To lose 1 pound you need to reduce your calorie intake by 3500 calories so if I was to stick to my TDEE with two fast days of 500 calories, I am unlikely to lose 1 pound per week. What worked for me was aiming for a non fast day target of 1200 and 500 on my fast days which is a total of 7000, a weekly reduction of 3276, closer to my 1 pound a week target.
I know that for some people 1200 calories a day seems like a low calorie diet but that is the only way that this worked for me. More calories would have resulted in no losses.
The purpose of this post is to try and explain to some who are struggling, why I think that may be and what worked for me.
I am a 57 year old female and I exercise 3 times per week.
I am not sure how old or how large I would need to be to have a TDEE of 2000 calories.
This is the only time in my life that I have managed to maintain my desired weight. I currently use the 6:1 method, fasting only on one day.
Food for thought for some I hope 🙂