Putting weight on – None fast days

This topic contains 7 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by LJoyce 7 years, 3 months ago.

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KTHx03

9:22 am
8 Jul 17
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I’ve always struggled loosing weight as I’ve got the metabolism of a snail.. Generally eat healthy day to day, drink 3-4 cups of green tea and plenty of water daily and since being on my diet: I have exercised daily and take the stairs (up & down) at work.

I’ve started a new office job in the last 8 months from a retail job so gone from being on my feet doing over 10,000 steps a day to sat on my arse all day and so this is where the fast diet came into place, having put 10 pound on since last July.

I’m finding the diet soo easy and generally like it – (something that has never been said about a diet before!!)

HOWEVER! I’m finding that I’m putting weight on after my non fast days and it’s making me feel guilty eating over 500 calories cause I feel like my fast days are going to waste!

Because I find the 500 days so easy, I’ve been doing 4:3 – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and getting my week over and done with.

On my first week I started 11st7 and by Thursday I was 11st1 and was over the moon!
I then weighed myself on the Monday after, and I’d put 3lb on!!

My second week, I went from 11st4 and by Thursday I was 10st13 – again, over the moon!

But after a girls night of a few vodkas & flavoured sparking water, slimming world curry and the odd nibbles; I woke up this morning (already feeling guilty because I’ve got a BBQ today), so out of curiosity I weighed myself and I’d put on 4lb!!! (In a day!!!)

So I’m just hoping somebody could advise me of where I could be going wrong or what I could be doing so I don’t give up hope or even start doing a 7:7 week of fasting!!

bigbooty

10:09 am
8 Jul 17
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Overall youre heading downwards so what exactly is the problem? Alcohol has 7 cals per gram. Alcohol MUST be processed by the liver and MUST be stored as fat. Flavoured mineral water? What was the sugar content? You have a BBQ, so is there anything stopping you from eating lots of salads and drinking water?

lmrenfrey

10:52 am
8 Jul 17
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You’re not doing anything wrong per se. The scales can be very variable. Weigh yourself several times throughout a single day and you can get massive variation depending on food in transit, water retention, the clothes you are wearing etc. etc. Depending on the scales they can also vary quite a bit in accuracy. Use the weight on your scales as a guide only.

I weigh myself daily, always first thing, but I don’t worry too much about the fluctuations. I track the trend – so a 10 day average (because I like having the numbers and seeing it in a spreadsheet helps me focus), and against the weight first thing in the morning the day after a fast day. Try using the tracker on this site, but only update it on your weigh in after a fast day, ideally the same day each week.

Some people have reported long periods with no weight loss, but a big change in their waist / hip / chest measurements.
I also found I could ignore the value on the scales more once I was noticeably losing inches (even if it was only me noticing that particular clothes were a little looser),

YorkshireMike

11:11 pm
7 Aug 17
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I have been doing 5:2 since 1st March, I am male 49 in active job. I have lost 30kg and started running now and feel great. I weigh my self every Friday night instead of every day because my weight fluctuates so much as you say. Try just weighing on a certain day at similar time good luc!

Powdered Harp

4:51 pm
8 Aug 17
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Wow, 30kg! That is amazing, well done mate.
Today is my first day on the diet, so far so good. Only had an apple this morning for breakfast so I can have a fairly decent tea this evening (quorn sausages and a bowl of salad!).
Can I just ask, seeing as you’ve been doing it since March and lost so much, have you been calorie counting on the non fast days too? I’m a newbie and there seems to be a discrepancy in what people do – from reading comments on the forum, it appears that some fast on two regular days (for me it will be Tuesday’s and Friday’s) and don’t seem to do anything special for the other days and eat normally (whatever normally means) but seem to lose weight however I have read others that are sticking to 1200 calories on their non fast days. What has worked for you? I have struggle with weight since childhood and at 16.5 stone and only 5 ft 6, I’m desperate to get into the normal weight range for my height! Anyway, apologies for waffling…

CalifDreamer

7:42 pm
8 Aug 17
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Welcome to the forum, Powdered! I’m one of those who sticks to the original 5:2 plan of 500 calories on each of 2 fast days where I keep track of the calories. I don’t usually count calories on non-fast days, but I eat mindfully and eat only when I’m hungry. I probably eat higher than my TDEE, but not sure without counting. The only time I keep track of calories on non-fast days is when I’ve been on a plateau and can’t figure out why. Or days like today where I didn’t lose after yesterday’s FD. Part of it is probably just water weight, but the weekend included “the great potato chip massacre” which raged on for 2 days and started with two bags of chips that didn’t get left at a neighbor’s house for a BBQ. I probably need to do a little extra making up for that.

When I started the 5:2,in Mid May, I figured I’d do the basic plan for at least a month and then maybe try some of the variations. But I was losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week and eating according to the 5:2 was pretty easy for me. It fits well into my lifestyle. So why argue with success? This way of eating is sustainable for me. I can stick with it as a way of life instead of going off of it and gaining back everything I’ve lost again. I’ve done that too many times over the years. If I go back to doing what I’ve always done, I’ll get back to the weight I always was. I like thin better.

Big_Bill

7:56 am
9 Aug 17
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If you are doing 5:2 primarily for weight loss, then it tends to be a bumpy ride based on my experience so far.

I have had fluctuations of nearly 4% of my total weight over the course of a few days.

Salt and simple carbs can cause big fluctuations.

It’s the downward trend that matters. And you are heading in the right direction.

I still weigh myself several times every day. I don’t panic if I gain 2 kg or more in a day, I know that my body can’t store fat that quickly so it’s just water.

LJoyce

3:06 pm
9 Aug 17
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My experience concurs with the other advice. Scales fluctuate a lot and are affected by more than just what you eat. Fluid retention, inflammation, medications, hormones and even constipation can have a noticeable impact on what we weigh. Often the number of the scales doesn’t reflect how careful we’ve been with our diets.

The daily or weekly fluctuations aren’t important, it’s the long term trend in your weight that actually matters.