hi everyone. a little bit of background information before anything else. i did 5:2 in june and july of this year. when i started it i had kind of fallen in love so it was really easy to do. when things came to an end i ended up putting it on hold because i was sad and didn’t really feel like trying anymore and i never quite started it again. i guess i’ve been putting off going back to it because i’m worried that i don’t have the self-control to suffer through a 500 calorie day. i think it reminds me of when i was a young teenager and thought 900 calories per day was a sufficient amount to eat and thought that anything over 1000 calories in a day was a failure. anyway, i’m going to set myself rewards for getting through my fast days for that reason. i need to bear in mind that with 5:2 i only need to eat under 500 calories twice a week – only 8 days of out 30 or 31 in a month.

my plan is to fast on mondays and wednesdays since i am unlikely to be going out drinking on those days. i am a student, so drinking is kind of unavoidable. i usually go out on a friday and sometimes a sunday so if that happens and my alcohol consumption spills over into monday then i will have to rearrange that week’s days. i think i will do my best to not drink if i go out on a sunday, though. i will weigh in on thursday mornings or fridays if i forget.

the last time i weighed myself i was 11st 5.25lbs (bmi: 27.5) and my goal weight is 8st 5lbs (bmi: 20.2). my lowest weight was around 8st 12lbs but that was years ago. 8st 5lbs is the lowest i’ll go. it’ll be a healthy bmi which is the most important thing for me. when i weighed 8st 12lbs, i didn’t think i was as thin as i actually was. i still had a bit of tummy fat, hence me making my goal weight 8st 5lbs. i want a weight that will be relatively straightforward to maintain, and if i go any lower then my tdee and bmr would be lower, and it would just be stupid. when i was younger i was obsessed with extreme skinniness but that is no longer my priority. i would like to get to a point where i weigh a medically healthy amount, eating is relatively stress-free because the way i eat is just habit and i’m happy with my body. this thread will be updated every day because i am terrible at focusing on my weight loss goals and otherwise i’ll probably forget i’m doing 5:2 at all.

i’ll end up rambling a lot on this thread but it’ll be 5:2 focused for the most part. my first task is to get through my fast on monday (any tips? it’s been a while.). my first goal weight is to get under 11 stone. i haven’t seen 10 stone something on the scales for two years now. i used to weigh around 9st 5lbs but a couple of years ago i comfort ate my way up to 12 stone 2lbs at my heaviest, and i would really like to finally shift the rest of the weight. when i first did 5:2 i got from 12st 2lbs to 11st 6lbs and i’ve kept that off which is pretty cool. i miss the way i felt whilst doing 5:2 as well as the weight loss, honestly. i felt really clear-headed.

my rewards for this week:
successfully fast on monday = a costa festive drink
successfully fast on wednesday = soap and glory compact powder

i know people say you shouldn’t use food as a reward but coffee is the love of my life and a drink is a great reward for a poor student.

okay, that’s enough waffling for now.

thank you so much!

my first fast is tomorrow. today’s intake was 1886 which is fine. my tdee is around 1800. i didn’t weigh myself a couple of days ago when i started doing 5:2 again so i can’t calculate my tdee exactly. i’m due to weigh in on friday so i can calculate it then. i’ll see though, if 2000 on NFDs and 500 on FDs works then i’ll just keep it simple and use those numbers for as long as i continue to lose weight that way. at the end of the day, it’ll mean that my daily average is 1571 calories which is still a deficit.

was going to have my fast day today but i got the munchies at like 2am so kinda blew my allotted calories within 2 hours of the day starting. oops. intake today: 1922. first fast day will be tomorrow. am going to avoid food entirely and stick to liquids for my 500 calories on my fast days. i think consuming any food might set me off and i read someone on the forum saying that just not eating at all on NFDs worked for him. i’m aware that the 2000 on NFDs and 500 FDs i’m currently testing out isn’t exactly the way 5:2 works but i’m seeing if this will work for me. obviously when my tdee has lowered a significant amount after i’ve hit my first big goal weight of 10st or so, i’ll tweak my calorie goal for NFDs but i’ll see how it goes with keeping the numbers simple for now. the first few weeks are a bit experimental for me. i’ll figure out what makes 5:2 easiest for me (whilst keeping an eye on the scale too!) in terms of numbers, days and what consumed and go from there. i feel really good about my fast tomorrow. i’m going to be busy most of the day then i’m going to the cinema so plenty to keep my mind off of food. if i fast tomorrow (wednesday), i’m going to roughly plan that my next fast will be friday or sunday.

weekly update

i’m just going to start doing updates once a week, on whatever day i end up weighing in.

weight today: 11st 0lbs
bmi: 26.6

i weighed in this morning and today was the second fast day of the week. really happy with how things are going. this feels like something i can keep up for a lifetime. i compared progress photos today (from 11st 11lbs and today at 11st 0lbs) and wow. the difference is astounding. i had lost 1st 3lbs/17lbs since early june and not even really noticed. i kept blaming it on dehydration from increased alcohol consumption but nope, my body is definitely smaller! 5:2 is the way i want to live now though to keep my weight going down. only 10 more pounds until i’m in the “healthy weight” bmi category again.

first week of 5:2 done!

I don’t know what it is exactly but I’ve been feeling so much better the past week or so compared to September and October. My mood is back up to where it was during the summer. I have a theory that 5:2 is at least partly responsible. I have a million reasons to be stressed out, but I feel content and like I know I can handle the work I need to complete over the next few days. It might be the case that successfully getting through so many fasts is making me feel like a stronger, more capable person. I don’t know. Either way, I’m super happy and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s fast – my 5th! I was supposed to fast today but got the munchies at like 1am. The plan is to weigh in tomorrow morning as planned, fast on Thursday then enjoy the weekend.

This is an accountability thread so I have to post the lows as well as the highs. Yesterday and today, I have seriously, seriously overeaten. The factors were probably partly biological (I’ve been trying to get on a more sensible sleeping schedule and I skipped out on sleeping on Tuesday night then fell asleep during the day and my body got confused), mood-related and also the fact that 11st 0lbs that I saw on the scales a few weeks ago wasn’t my “true” weight. I was disappointed and felt like I hadn’t made much progress with 5:2 (I’ve been averaging my TDEE because I get caught up with My Fitness Pal’s weekly averages and when I see a deficit after I’ve done my fasts, I overeat and use up the calories I freed by fasting). I was going to give up on 5:2. I thought the past 2 days were a sign that dieting is stupid and unsustainable. However, I don’t want to give up fasting. I really enjoy fast days and the control I feel over food on those days and the long term health benefits are motivating. So, I have a solution. Firstly, I will continue with 5:2 as normal and pretend those days didn’t happen. I have a fast day tomorrow anyway because I didn’t do it on Wednesday. Secondly, I will stop logging my NFDs on my fitness pal. I will log on my FDs because I want a precise calorie count for the day, but on normal days I’m just going to do what I did when I maintained my weight for a couple of years up until this summer, even though it was definitely not a weight I wanted to maintain. I’ll just keep a rough log of calories (and some days I might not count at all, because life is for living and this has to be something I can keep up long term and only eating things I know the calories in is pretty sad). I’ll keep a rough weekly review in my journal but I will resist the urge to calculate my average intake for the week. I’m taking a leaf out of Rob in Recovery’s book and will avoid strictly counting calories on NFDs just because it kinda sucks. Lastly, I’m going to also avoid the scales for a couple of weeks until I’ve had a few better weeks and I’m more settled into 5:2. No point weighing in over the next few days certainly because I’ll just be upset about the increase.

Thanks for your reply Yvonne! I agree.

Yesterday I completed my fifth fast of the month! I consumed a total of 382 calories which consisted of a few cups of coffee with milk and two slices of bread. I would’ve preferred to keep my intake just liquids but I got hungry at nighttime and felt like eating. Vegetable stock cubes are a life-saver for when I want something salty and food-like but don’t want to make a small meal. I’m feeling proud and back on track. As planned, I’ll have today and tomorrow as a NFD where I don’t count using the MFP app and try to be more relaxed and less restrictive. I’ll be at home on Monday until Tuesday evening. I will attempt a fast on Tuesday as on Monday I’ll be taking advantage of the free food. I think I’ll be going out on Thursday night so I’ll either fast on Friday or Saturday. Really need to weigh in on Thursday since I missed this week’s Thursday because I got off track.

I’m back. I kind of had a six week hiatus from the 5:2 life due to some minor issues with it which I’ve outlined in my journal so I can sort them out. I weigh 11st 4.25lbs (as of 3 days ago). 5:2 is really the way I want to live and doing 5:2 is the only way I’ve gone from 12st 2lbs to my current weight and kept some of it off despite not doing fasts so I’m keen to return to it.

I’m signed up to email updates for Rob in Recovery’s “Fat man going on an adventure…” thread and I have to say it’s a good part of the reason why I’m returning to 5:2. So motivational and it’s good to have a constant reminder of the 5:2 way in my inbox.

OK, I think that’s me done for the day. I plan to fast on Sunday and tomorrow (Wed). I’ll be pretty busy tomorrow so staying under 450 cals should be easy enough.

i’m having a low cal hot chocolate since my resolve is wavering slightly. this makes my total for today 479 cals. it’s 29 over what i’m supposed to have according to my TDEE divided by 4 but it’s good enough considering this is my first FD in 7 weeks. i’m not gonna weigh myself until the 28th at the earliest and by then i should have 3 more fast days until my belt. i’m feeling very proud.

Week 1 review

2 maintenance days, 1 successful FD and 2 overeating days. Pretty good considering I started on Tuesday. I’ve decided that I’ll be doing weekly reviews each Sunday night and only weighing in once every two weeks as I seem to have a habit of having a good weigh in then immediately reversing my progress. So, my next weigh in will be 31st January, exactly two weeks since I restarted 5:2. Plan for this week coming is to complete 2 successful fasts (one on Monday and one on Thurs) and manage to stay under <2000 most of the rest of the time. If I seriously overeat then I’ll change it to 4:3 to compensate, but I’d really rather not do another FD or overeat for that matter so I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. Also, I’m aware that 2000 cals isn’t my calculated TDEE but anything less than that feels too diet-y for my NFDs so that’s what I’m aiming for right now. Plus, it still works out at 1550 cals a day average which is good enough. My other goal for this week is to reduce my night eating. I have a habit of eating a lot between midnight and 1am so I’m going to work on stopping that or at least reducing it.