… i feel compelled to share my experience, offer a little advice and provide a little insight to the fasting life 15 months in. During this process I kept a diary of my progress/meal plans to help keep track of my intake on fast days and also my key stats. Most importantly the night before my first fast day I noted down my stats and also wrote down a clear goal for this journey.

My stats on 3 June 2014 were:
Weight: 95KG, Waist: 100CM, Height: 185 CM, BMI: 27.8. My stated goal was: “reduce BMI to less than 25, the upper end of the normal range, around 85KG.”

As of this morning, 29 September 2015 my stats are:
Weight: 83KG, Waist: 96CM, Height: 185CM, BMI: 24.3. I’ve maintained this weight (+/- one or two KG) for the last four weeks.

I’m now happy to say that I’ve hit my goal and officially I’m now onto a 6:1 maintenance diet. Even if I wanted to I don’t think I could keep doing 5:2 week after week, however I don’t think I’ll ever give up the fasting lifestyle. It has become a huge part of who I am, how I approach food and how I manage my weight. In fact I had two weeks off over Christmas and a week off in August for a family holiday and I felt bloated, full and physically uncomfortable after skipping my fast days. During my 5:2 phase Mondays and Wednesdays were fast days, now I only fast Mondays and if I need to skip that due to a long weekend or a social commitment I’ll make it up on Wednesday. This has worked well for me by and large, but there are a few changes that I didn’t expect.

-I used to get really hungry on a Wednesday afternoon, come 4PM and I’d be ready to kill in exchange for any kind of food. Now though that hunger hits on a Tuesday afternoon, no matter how much I eat at lunch. This is where I need to employ a little will power and not load up on snacks before dinner.

-My tolerance for alcohol has dropped significantly. I used to be able to drink as much as I liked and not feel the consequences (probably a consequence of eating as much as I liked)! Now though I really need to monitor my alcohol intake and I think this has been key to weight loss – a huge amount of my calories were coming from beer.

-Hydration is something I think about everyday now. Until I started fasting it wasn’t on my radar, but now I realise that the first pangs of hunger can be dealt with by having sip of water – not a snack!

-Guess what? If I take a couple of weeks off and put on a little extra weight it doesn’t matter! I can easily step back up to 5:2 for a few weeks and come back to my happy resting point.

Overall my fast journey has been positive, not only have I lost weight but I’ve also reduced my intake on non fast days. The idea of mindfulness can really enhance not just the fast days but also the feed days, overall I eat less everyday of the week – even when I’m not actively monitoring. Finally, for the first time in my adult life my weight falls into the ‘normal’ range. But the most important thing I’ve discovered is that while I’ve reached my weight loss goals fasting has become a way of life, I’m 99% sure I’ll stay on 6:1 for the foreseeable future as it’s a manageable, long term lifestyle option.

When I started the fast diet I said “I’ll give it 10 weeks”, well now it’s been about 60 and there no chance I’ll be stoping anytime soon!