I just want to report that, so far, I’ve lost 37 pounds in 37 weeks doing 5:2 🙂

I began August 17, 2013. Some weeks I’ve lost no weight, or even appeared to gain a little; other weeks I’ve lost more than a pound.

There were a couple of weeks when I only did one fasting day due to illness or severe psychosocial stress. For the first few months, I ate 200-calorie breakfasts and 300-calorie dinners. Then I got tired of my 300-calorie dinners and decided to allow myself up to 400 calories at dinner, which allowed for a lot more flexibility since I do eat a family dinner every night, and wish to accommodate my (underweight) son’s needs as well. This change did not seem to slow my weight loss. For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing an extra day of fasting for 16 hours and then eating a 200-calorie snack and a 500-600 calorie dinner, I’ve been calling it a “half-fasting day”. So far, this seems to have eliminated those annoying weeks when I don’t seem to lose any weight. That worked well enough that I switched my two fasting days to dinner only, 500-600 calories. I don’t count calories on non-fasting days, but do measure out portions of higher-calorie foods, because I know that I experience “portion creep” otherwise.

It works! So much better than daily calorie restriction 🙂 The key, I think, is to set up rules that you yourself can actually live with in your own life and then stick to them, making thoughful, judicious changes when the need arises. My own biggest problem is probably that I tend to get bored and restless after doing the same thing for a while, so then I need a change that won’t sabotage my progress. I’m always on the lookout for new recipes that work for my household. Yes, I get hungry, and it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not forever, it’s one day at a time, and I’m not hungry *most of the time*, like I was with daily calorie restriction.

I am so happy that I found 5:2! 🙂

Thank you, kilda! I still have a way to go yet to reach my goal. My baseline adult weight was only 105 pounds, and that’s really where I felt best (I’m one of those people with a tiny little rib cage and narrow little pelvis). I might stop at 110 pounds, though, because 105 is technically underweight and might not look as great in my late 50s as it did in my 20s. I’m going to have to see how I feel when I get there, I think.

Thank you, Dummerchen. Onward and downward!