Not losing weight?

This topic contains 117 replies, has 87 voices, and was last updated by  AmyF 7 years, 7 months ago.

Viewing 18 posts - 101 through 118 (of 118 total)

  • Hi there, some people do find it harder to lose weight than others, though i do think the important thing is inches round the stomach, not weight per se. If you get stuck then i recommend keeping a food and drink diary for a week. Lots of things (muffins, lattes) have surprising amounts of calories. If you don’t fancy that then you could try going to 3 days of reduced calories or Alternate Day Fasting for a while to kick start your system

    I have just weighed in on my first week and only lost one pound, I feel really disappointed as I stuck to my 500 cal on my fast days and did not eat until about 4pm on both fast days. I drank black coffee and water all day. I have about 4 stone to lose so I was very surprised not to have lost more. It is supposed to be my fast day today, but as I am feeling despondent I will postpone it until tomorrow.

    Hello, Trish T – I feel for you, especially as many people so enthusiastically post about their wonderful early results. I would suggest that you read around the site and look at the various comments about how to deal with lack of weight-loss – there are so many individual factors that effect one’s results. Really, the 5:2 system is best seen as a long-term approach to better health (including reaching/maintaining a healthy body weight) rather than a quick-fix. Give yourself time to settle into the way of 5:2 and look for its benefits over several weeks rather than just one. I wish you good heart and positive results ahead.

    Hi trish.t – don’t give up! Your body does need to adapt and it’s a good idea to measure weekly as well (waist & hips) Sometimes you lose centimetres and no weight. Remember if you are doing some exercise that the fat will convert to muscle and muscle weighs more.It will work, but don’t give up after 1 week. I have also kept a daily diary for the 15 weeks I have been doing it and it does clarify exactly how much you eat. Keep at it!

    Hi Everyone, this is my first comment. Living in Hong Kong, I am a bit isolated and behind the times regarding diet issues and only came across The Fast Diet a few days ago after seeing an article about 5:2 recipes on The Guardian website. That led me to the documentary (downloaded from a pirate site on the internet, sorry) then the book. I also spent several hours reading posts on this page and other forum. This was enlightening but also frustrating. I noticed there are so many questions, and repeated questions, about information that is covered well both in the film and the book and I would appeal to people really to take the time to look at both. I think there must be a number of people who come to the diet and these web pages having just read a newspaper article about the plan, which do not give a complete, or correct, picture of the science and the diet itself. For example, there are many posts along the lines of “I haven’t lost weight, I thought I could eat anything I wanted on non-fast days”. These views are propagated by articles such as the one I read on The Sun, which said “gorge yourself” for 5 days on pizza, chocolate and chips then have scrambled eggs and chicken for 2 days.
    Nowhere in the book or film does Michael say you can gorge yourself, and when he does say you can eat whatever you like, he means eat what you normally eat to be the weight you are, without giving up the slice of cake, burger or having to count calories, then have the 2 fast days, and you will reduce your overall calorie intake to lead to weight loss. It doesn’t mean you can gorge on high calorie food — ie eat more burgers and cake than normal; weight loss still is based on the physiological equation of calories taken in vs energy expended. Michael also clearly states that this diet seems to work and seems to give wider health benefits and is based on mainly animal and a few human studies although there is a lot more science that has to be done, yet people are still asking questions about a lot of stuff there is no science on yet. This would be clear if you read the book and updates Michael posts on the website. I don’t want to join this community and start off with a complaint (and I hadn’t intended to write at all until I had something to report) but I think the forums are such a valuable opportunity for all of us to become part of the science. Instead of all the questions, many repeats about “should I eat my 500 calories at one meal or three, should I have split fast days etc”, I would appeal to people to read the book first then just to try different things, what appeals or seems do-able to you, record what happens and use these forums to report back on what happens and exchange ideas on what works and doesn’t (and put in your statistics to the 5:2 fast diet forum). Hopefully we can add to the science so it becomes clear what is really going on with this exciting concept — and help Michael and Mimi with their follow up book! (BTW, sorry for the long post)

    Thanks Jeanius and Vicki for the moral support. I have not given up, I had a great fast day yesterday and will do my second one tomorrow. I wrote all my food down today and consumed 1979 kcals of food! Most of that is in the form of bread, cereal, olives and houmous, all my favourite foods! I didn’t think I ate that much in between fast days but am surprised how the calories have added up with not much food!

    Hi, trish.t – I’m really glad your fast day went well yesterday. It looks like you’re finding your way OK, getting a better idea of the calorific values of different foods, etc. Your list of favourites probably do pack quite a punch when all added together: as you say, relatively small portions of each soon add-up to big numbers. Good information to know, though. All best wishes for many more good days ahead.

    After a lovely but indulgent holiday in Italy I purchased this book at the airport.
    I have read it and plan to do my first fast day tomo.
    On a previous diet I learned that based on my age and height i need 1400 cals a day.
    SO should I eat 1400:350 or 2000:500 like the average lady?

    I’m another one of those who is not loosing weight. After 4 weeks of 5:2 I have lost absolutely nothing.

    What’s the problem? I’m sticking to the 500 kalories and find it actually quite easy. If I’m busy I can go all day without food. So I only have a coffee (with a little milk) in the morning and then nothing till an approx 450 kalorie dinner. Initially I felt sometimes a little dizzy but that has passed and now the fasting days are no trouble anymore. I was thinking of introducing a third one but can’t help wondering what the hell the problem is – everyone else seems to lose weight πŸ™

    Hi, momo – Quite a number of people find they do experience health benefits or feelings of wellness but also either lose no weight or hit a plateau and get stuck for a few weeks. Perhaps read my comments today in the ‘More on what to do if you’re not losing weight – five things to consider’ section and also read around the site for other contributors’ comments/advice. Hopefully, you will achieve your goals.

    I wanted to share my experience for those of you – particularly smaller women – who aren’t losing weight consistently on the 5-2 diet. I’m 5’4″ and not officially overweight, but was a good 15 lbs over my comfortable weight (134 lbs on a small frame when 115 is better for me). I know from previous experience that I just don’t need that many calories to maintain my weight. Before trying this fasting diet, I was on a 1200 calorie regimen and was really pretty good about sticking to it, but wasn’t losing weight. I was so frustrated and chalked it up to middle age and the metabolic rate of a turtle!

    When I heard about the fasting diet, I decided to give it a try, but given my previous experience, I doubted that fasting just 2 days a week was going to do it. I decided to fast 3 days a week (which translates to alternate day fasting with an occasional 2-day break), and that’s been working great for me. I’ve been losing about 1 lb a week until just recently. After losing the first 10 lbs, I hit my previous long-term weight (the weight I was at for over 5 years before gaining those awful extra 10 lbs), and now I’ve slowed to losing half a pound a week. I think this is the best I can hope for at this point since I’m at the point where my body is really resisting (I joke that I’ve hit the “marbled” fat now!).

    Anyway, I think my experience points to the fact that if you’re a smaller woman, you just aren’t going to achieve the large calorie deficits you need to lose 2 lbs a week on a 5-2 regimen like the big guys do. You might try a 4-3 and also be sure to increase your exercise and avoid pigging out on your non-fast days. And since you don’t have a huge amount to lose, you can still be happy with losing 1/2 to one pound a week. Losing at that rate might also help you keep it off. (At least, that’s my hope!)

    Good luck!

    Hi everyone
    I am really very downhearted. I started the diet a month ago. Pretty much I have done ADF and kept to 1200 cals on other days. I write everything down in my fitness pal, don’t cheat. I am training for a 10k race and run 3x weekly and have started swimming 3x weekly. I started at 10st 13.5 and am now 10st2.5. I lost 6.5lb of this in the first week. I have been stuck at 10 2.5 for the last 2 weeks I am really fed up an thinking of going back to ww! Any ideas? Thanks Rachel

    hi rachelp240 – 9 lbs in a month and you’re downhearted? That’s really good progress. I suspect it’s because it all happened at the start and not throughout the month. This is common and doesn’t mean you’re ‘stuck’. I see it as the body regrouping and settling itself at a new default weight before pushing on again.

    For me (been living this way since the start of this year), I can be the same (lower) weight for 6 weeks at a time and then register a new low 3 times in the same week.

    Keep doing what you’re doing, relax, enjoy it even and know that it’s working long term.

    Good luck and keep us posted,

    Annie x

    Hi. I have been on the warrior diet for almost three weeks now. I started at 109.5 kg and now am at 103.6 kg. During the week I follow a strength training program for 3 days (roughly 25 min) and walk/run combination for 3 days (25 min). So far I’ve felt very good with the diet and it has really helped me a lot. I’ve eliminated all types of artificial sugars from my diet and also any bread or pasta. During the day i usually take fruits and a salad and sometimes a little protein. I take brown rice on the days I’m supposed to. My main meal is at night usually consisting of chicken/fish with vegetables.

    Now my weight seems to be stuck now at 103.6. Any idea how to lose fat again?

    Also. Can someone explain to me how to keep/train my muscles and lose fat? (In terms of exercise)

    Thankyou

    Not overly familiar with the warrior diet but I thought that you had to basically fast during the day and limit yourself to one meal about 2 hours before bed. From what you have said it doesn’t appear that this is what you are doing? Is it a modified version that you are doing? I would limit the fruit intake as this will cause large glucose spikes which is not good for weight loss. Maybe swap this for veggies and salads. The rice intake is not doing you any favours with respect to glucose spikes either. Glucose spikes cause an insulin response which leads to excess glucose being stored as fat. You need the equivalent of two teaspoons of glucose circulating around in your blood. Any more than this elicits an insulin spike which leads to fat storage.

    You may be increasing your lean mass (muscles) with all the training and lean mass weighs more than fat. If you are training 3 x 25 minutes per week then you are slowly increasing your lean mass. Once you reach your desired level then two sessions of the same duration per week is enough to maintain that lean mass. Less you will start to lose lean mass, more and you will increase the lean mass. Increasing lean mass and losing weight involve different exercise regimes. Lean mass involves weight/resistance training. If you want to lose weight then you need to elevate your heat rate to about 50-60% of your maximum effort and keep it there for as long as you are capable of doing. If that’s 30 minutes great. If you can do it for 60 minutes even better.

    Hope that helps.

    Thankyou. Yes that does make sense. And in the WD there’s actually a period of undereating followed by over eating at night time. Overeating is the one meal per day that I take as my dinner. During the undereating phase we are allowed 1 fruit in the morning and salad as lunch. We can swap salads with a small fruit too occasionally. Even tea/coffee with no sugar is allowed but I usually take green tea on some days.

    Personally I think 5:2 will produce a better response if your primary goal is weight loss, but good luck with the WD. There is also some benefit in doing cardio training early in the day and resistance late in the day.

    Good luck.

    I’ll research about 5:2 as well.
    And yes I do my cardio in the morning and strength in the evening.

    Thanks πŸ™‚

Viewing 18 posts - 101 through 118 (of 118 total)

You must be logged in to reply.