Hi Barbara58, well done on the weight loss! I lost 3lbs first week, doing Dry January too. Fast day today, quite hungry during the day but no headache this week and starting to have more energy
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Hi, great start and well done on the Dry January too. My husband’s doing this, I’m not drinking during the week and due to not being a big drinker only have my normal at the weekend which is probably two glasses of wine. I don’t drink that much any way during the week so quite easy to do. Keep busy today to distract you. Have a good one.
Hi everyone, what a lovely thread! I am glad to have found this as I was looking to get some motivation and support 🙂 well done on everyone for starting your journey, I really hope you all reach your goals. I am back on the 5:2 after yet another unnecessary bout of time off! Now I am at my heaviest, wine is my weakness so I have decided I HAVE to drastically cut back for health reasons also. So I have about stone and half to lose. I am currently doing the 4:3 to kick start the plan, I would like to be down at least 12 pounds before my birthday end of Feb. Exercise wise I am doing HITT and spin classes- it has been very hard going back! I can feel my sins coming back to haunt me-wine, cheese, too many carbs :/ so it is great to find this thread and I love hearing about what other are eating 🙂
For breakfast today I had:
1 boiled egg,
30g of oats made with water, 25g blueberries and a dash of cinnamon = 211 cals
Dinner: Turkey breast and steamed veg
Happy fasting everyone 🙂
Hi everyone! I’m 52 and stone overweight BMI 29. I need to lose 2 stone/10kg. I started on 7th Jan on both the FAST diet AND the NHS choices weight loss programme ie 1200 kcal per day and two Fast days at 500. It is actually quite easy as I was only on 1500 to 2000 a day anyway. The problem is that I am in bed on an oxygenator 24/7 except for trips to hospital and my little exercises (on NHS website)
I have set up an excel spreadsheet to monitor the calories which I have never done before and which I find really helps to take charge. Also I have not been over-rigorous on the totals – it is logical to ease into it surely?
Mind you I have put on 1kg so far…I feel better in myself though.
Such inspiring stories! 🙂
Just starting 5:2 for the first time this year (new year, new me!)
I’m a younger lady (25) starting this after putting on the pounds after University.
I’m fasting Tues and Thurs – and doing 500 cals on each day. Posting on the forum to help other 5:2’s and get support.
Best of luck everybody!
Hello
I thought I would join this thread as I am a 5:2 first timer and will certainly need some support along the way!
I have been reading your posts and you are all doing so well.
I began last week with a fast day – since I wasn’t feeling especially hungry.
Tuesday was my second fast day, and I had under 300cal, yet I didn’t seem to feel hungry at all.
I am really hoping that wont turn into what previous diets have done – where I just end up eating less and less and losing nothing.
I wont say what my weight is as I am too ashamed, but I have several stone to lose.
However more important than that is that I really desperately need to build a healthier relationship with food.
Well that is enough info for now I think.
Nice to meet you all, and I am in the UK by the way.
Caroline64 well done for adopting a healthier lifestyle, I am sorry for to hear that you struggle with mobility- you can track calories via free apps also such as myfitness pal and fat secret (I use the latter).
@fitandfast I gained after university also, lots of sitting and studying – I’m sure my poor food choices didn’t help though 😉 good luck!
@keeptrying it made me sad to read you say you are ashamed- you have nothing to feel ashamed of! we are all here for the same reason whether we have 10lbs to lose or 10 stone and you should be congratulating yourself on making the decision to become healthier. I too do not have a healthy relationship with food and it is something I want to address this year – we can support each other! Do enjoy your food on non fast days and don’t deprive yourself, that could be another reason you start eating less and less but also your appetite most likely will decrease when your stomach shrinks – be kind to yourself!x
bless you Harpreet
I do so hope my stomach shrinks – as at the moment it looks like I am pregnant!
it is such a shame, isn’t it, that food can be such a wonderful thing and yet so many of us struggle to just ‘enjoy’ it in a healthy way.
I have just decided to fast tomorrow instead of Saturday, as I am at home all weekend and don’t think I can avoid food when it is so close at hand.
@keeptrying It’s soo true – some people can stop at one bite of a something indulgent..others (me!) have to consume the whole packet! I read something once ‘If cookies made us happy, we would stop at one bite’ and i thought that is soo true! I think above everything we just need to remain consistent, if we have a bad day/weekend or even week we need to just get back on the plan again. Just keep checking in to feel accountable – my problem area is my stomach too – i was mortified that my cousin thought I was pregnant last week! now that’s embarrassing! I had to hold back the tears! But must move myself and my big belly (!) forward…So let’s make this the year we attain a fitter, leaner body and a healthier mindset to food 🙂 Good luck!
This is like us – we only have alcohol Fri and Sun. Alas we can’t afford any Single Malt because of debt problems. Harpreet my tummy is all swollen and saggy – really bad stretch marks exacerbate the problem but I really loved being pregnant and would have had more than two if we had been able to afford it! If someone assumed I was pregnant now it would make me laugh because when I was enormous with my first – I am only 5’1″ and was 8 1/2st carrying an 8lb plus baby – a delightful rather shy young man was taking photos of a business for a publication I was preparing for MAFF and had not made any reference to my being so large/expecting. At the end of the shoot I made a mentioned that my maternity leave was the deadline and he said ‘Oh so you are having a baby!’. I was puzzled as it was so obvious and he then explained that once he had assumed wrongly and caused offence and the memory of it still appalled him…
Hi everyone. I’m new to the forum. I was using the 5:2 diet in 2013 from Jan-September and lost nearly 1 stone. I was delighted! I’m lucky in that I wasn’t carrying too much excess weight but it just kept creeping up and I found it so hard to lose anything, even with regular exercise and a healthy approach to eating. I found the 5:2 was perfect for me as I could never commit to a 7 day diet. The weight slowly crept back on after I finished the diet but I didn’t stick to the 6:3 approach. I’m now back to what I was in January 2013 and I’ve started back on the diet this week. My top tips. – find what works for you! For me, I can’t give up my morning milky coffee and a few cups of milky tea. Some people find drinking the calories a waste but for me those cuppas keep me going! (I’m irish and we love tea!).
Keep trying – next weeks diet will be easier. I went through so many good and bad diet days. Just like some non fast days I’m more hungry than other days. Swings and roundabouts! I find I can’t do any heavy exercise (gym classes) on fast days but I can manage light exercise. I try my best to keep myself occupied in the evenings on fast days. Sitting on the couch thinking about all the food I can’t eat drives me nuts!
I’m glad to see this forum – hopefully it will keep us all on track!
Hi All,
I’m so happy to have stumbled on this new WOE. I’m a kiwi, however now live in the US and I really surprised this isn’t a big trend over here. I had never heard of it until I in total desperation was searching the web on different ways to lose weight. Anyway, I’m 5.3 with about 25 pounds to lose. I have tried many diets and over the last 20 years as I have pretty much never been happy with my weight, even through now I would give anything to be back to my pre baby weight now. After two kids (youngest is now 3), I was never able to bounce back. So I’m here just like you all on a journey.
At Caroline64 and Harpreet – I totally look like I’m still a good 6 months pregnant and a few people have made the mistake of asking me. I don’t get offended any more cause it’s an unfortunate reality – I do look it. 🙂
This is my second fast day. Day 1 went well, and Day 2 .. so far so good.
Nice to meet you all.
Jay
Great to see so many comments on here. I’ve had tough day at work and a glass of wine is a must tonight. Had a good week with food and exercise and hopefully won’t spoil things over the weekend. My fast days are Monday & Thursday but look at my weekly lost on a Monday when I weigh myself. Have a good weekend folks!
so
I have done 3 fast days and they have been ok
my head keeps wanting me to eat other things but so far I have resisted
I do seem to get overwhelmingly sleepy on fast days at around 3.30/4pm
but I haven’t actually felt hungry, and no tummy rumbles!!
However – I just feel so low tonight
I have at least 5 stone to lose to get to a ‘healthy’ weight
and it really feels like such a vast mountain
have been to my ’emotional eating’ group today, they don’t know I am doing this diet
I am meant to be sticking to a firm timetable of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day at designated times since not meant to go longer than 3 hours without food during the day
well
I honestly don’t know
they talk about not wanting us to go into starvation mode, then on here I read that there is no such thing
oh dear, which way to turn
Hi keeptrying and welcome:
If you have read the FAQ and my posts, you know there is no such thing as ‘starvation mode’ – unless you are really starving, in which case you have the real possibility of dying from lack of food within a short time, which is a problem overweight people don’t have.
However, that is not the issue. In my opinion, you can’t try to follow two very different dietary approaches at the same time.
IF teaches that you can skip meals, and even eat nothing at all, without harm of any kind. Your other group obviously believes you need to eat at least five times a day.
You have to decide. Has the other approach been working for you? Why did you decide to try 5:2? Can you ‘get over’ the teaching of the other group, or will that teaching constantly make you doubt 5:2? Most people quit 5:2 fairly quickly, because it takes the body at least a month of doing 5:2 correctly to adapt to the radical eating pattern it requires and they don’t wait around long enough to find out it really works. You probably won’t make it a month if you constantly doubt that 5:2 is safe or effective.
So you need to make a decision – one that you are comfortable with. While I am a strong supporter of 5:2, I realize it is not for everyone.
Good Luck!
Hi keeptrying:
“I honestly don’t know. they talk about not wanting us to go into starvation mode, then on here I read that there is no such thing
oh dear, which way to turn”
Sorry, I did not read your post as a ringing endorsement by you of 5:2 or a strong conviction on your part to follow it – I thought it said you did not know which way to turn.
Good Luck!
Hello all! I felt compelled to write my commitment on this forum, to make it more “real!” I truly believe this 5:2 “Lifestyle” (not thinking of it in terms of a short term “diet”) will work for me. I lost 30 pounds 3 years ago on a rather radical diet which required severe calorie restriction for 35 days. While the first few days were tough, what I LOVED about it was the TIME I had for doing important projects in my life. . writing, reading, walking, communicating with the important people in my life. It was an extremely freeing experience. I am now looking forward to having two days of each week free from the concern of menu planning. I am an American but am currently living in Brazil where the women are quite thin. This inspires me on my journey. Good luck to everyone!! I look forward to reading positive posts! Sallie
Hi keeptrying,
“they talk about not wanting us to go into starvation mode, then on here I read that there is no such thing”
You are not going to go into starvation mode by restricting your food intake for one day. Just plain nonsense. There is a hierarchy your body follows from easiest to hardest when using stored energy. Glucose is most readily available in the blood stream, then stored glycogen, then stored fats and when you have run out of all of those three the body goes into starvation mode where the metabolic rate slows and you start consuming whatever is left, which is usually muscle protein. I seriously doubt that you have run out of body fat after 3 hours!! Perhaps after a sustained 6 months of a very restrictive calorie deficit, but not after 3 hours!!
Start slowly, see if you can get to 6pm on your fast day before having your small 1/4 of your normal intake. I personally do two consecutive fast days on Mon, Tue and they are zero calorie days apart from a few coffees and I am NOT entering starvation mode!!
its ok
I never thought I had gone into starvation mode
indeed I wish I had never mentioned it
I feel, am, quite vulnerable I guess
and to be honest I just need very gentle, kindly support or I will run
bigbooty – so far I have found I can quite easily get to lunch time by just having several drinks, but at the moment I feel better having some ‘light’ soup for lunch and then a ‘salad’ for tea
that leaves me lots of calories and I can have warm skimmed milk, now, which helps me sleep
I will see how it goes like that for the time being I think
I really don’t want to see this as a diet, but more as a way to perhaps move forward
Hi big:
I agree with your conclusion, but there is one more level of energy the body uses before going completely to fat – protein or muscle. Muscle is easier for the body to ‘eat and digest’ than fat. So the short term progression (measured in days, not hours) is glucose, glycogen, muscle and then fat. Of course, the body finally settles on burning the most fat possible because if it continued to burn the easier to digest muscle it would eat its heart and die. But it takes several days for the body to get fully into the ‘fat burning mode’, so glycogen and muscle have to step in and bridge the gap.
The body is an amazing thing!
Hi KT,
Don’t run (from here). But by all means run 🙂 Seriously though, are you able to do a moderate exercise like walking for say an hour? Try doing this when you are feeling low. Moderate exercise releases dopamine which makes you feel happy. Im at my happiest when riding my bike. In fact Im about to jump on the bike right now and go for my ride. Set yourself little goals and tick them off rather than thinking the 5 stones you said you wanted to lose.
keeptrying I for one wish they had never called 5:2 a diet. But they did so I’ll just have to get over it.
Feeling down can be an issue with anyone faced with what appears to be something insurmountable. I know a guy that walked across the North Pole from Russia to Canada, well was group but I only know 1 person and he was from my town, “it’s an impossibility and we are all going to perish” then they started skiing and walking and it wasn’t.
Like any long journey losing weight needs to be broken into short term realistic goals. Not I’m going to lose 50 lbs in two months.
If you drive across North America you know it isn’t going to happen today. You break it into steps and stop overs and breaks and enjoy it while you go. 5:2 is very much like that you will get in touch with your body and learn about yourself and you will enjoy yourself and life more. 5:2 can show you some pretty amazing things about yourself.
Initial fasting can include irritability, and feeling down or depressed for some. How long that period is varies or it may not happen at all When we stop emotional eating we have a loss and it’s almost the grief sensation that drops in. I talked to a shrink about this when I was in a “diet” suffering from depression after a series of heart attacks when I was 49. He said it all came back to the “feel good” that I derived from emotional eating was from a serotonin release that comes from and with the emotional eating. That’s what he said or as I recall it now.
Thing was I don’t recall being an emotional eater. I just ate too much and to often. I’m trying to unlearn that pattern of eating and replace it with a new healthy pattern.
Previous failures at “diets” truly impinge on our mental ability to think positively about changing our eating habits/pattern. 5:2 is all about a pattern that works. If you adhere to it you will see results. Set short term realistic goals. ie. 5 pounds this month Recalculate your TDEE frequently. Stay within your TDEE on feed days / Non Fast Days (NFD) or as I say. Be me day.
5:2 may not be fancy or fast but it definitely works. Health benefits are massive, weight loss is just the bonus you get for free.
keepontrying your user name says it all stick with, persevere, and you’ll be amazed at the new you in a year. keep on keeping on.
hello quietone
just a brief response – I have just weighed after one week and have lost 2 1/2 pounds, so that is good.
Sadly I know all too well about the emotional difficulties tied up with food and dieting – but I do feel better for the moment because I know even if I end up bingeing, I can still do fast days (even if I don’t lose weight)
I have binge eating disorder, which is like an intense version of ’emotional eater’
lots of the time I can be fine and eat quite healthily, but ‘outside’ events can trigger me into out of control eating, when it just seems impossible to become satiated
so at the moment, now, today, all is well, but who knows what the next hours/days will bring, SO, while I am able, I will do the very best I can
How’s everyone doing? I’m on week 3 now and have to say I feel so much better. I still get hungry on the fast days, but if I have my coffee in the morning, I can get through the day on water and peppermint tea. By the time the evening comes, I’m ready for my meal but really enjoy it, despite it only being 500 calls. I’m sleeping better and have more energy and have lost my sweet tooth, probably helped by giving up the alcohol too. Hope you’re all sticking too it, it will be worth it!
Hi everyone, hope all fasts are going well today!
Plum – I’m the same, finding it easier and easier as the weeks go by, Don’t get me wrong, I’m hungry, but it seems easier to deal with as we get used to it. I can’t wait for the evening though to have just one meal; I try to split them up into a lunch, dinner and a few snacks to get me through. Usually works quite well, although every evening I wish I’d saved the full 500 for dinner! And well done for giving up the alcohol!
Eileen – hope your first fast day is going ok today, good luck!
Hi everybody. I am Kristina, 39, 5’5′, and 173. I started in January, but weighed myself after 2 weeks of 5:2. I am doing this for my general health reasons and I am not going to weigh myself every week. I just want to feel my body and feel how this affects my body. My fasting days are Monday and Thursday and I am on zero calories as it is easier for me.
Hi everyone- I hope you are doing well. I was away for my friends bday in London and i knew it would throw me off course and I regained what a lost- now im trying not to feel sorry for myself but trying to just start fasting again.
@keeptrying i think you are amazing for sharing your experiences. I appreciate it must feel like a mountain to climb but you’re already doing so well. It must be tricky to listen to two different plans – i wonder if you could have a word with the course leader to say you have found an approach that works for you but you value other aspects of the course such as social support, learning about your food triggers. You’re doing great, keep it up and do keep checking in, you can do this!
I am on my first fast day back but unfortunately i ate breakfast at 10.30am i shouldve had it early to have a longer break until dinner. I hope everyone is good!
Hi I’m Sofia and I’ve been using the 5:2 since March last year and I have been at my goal weight since August last year. Like everyone else I put on a few pounds over the Xmas season and started back at the beginning of January and last week I really got back into it. When I do my fasting days it gives me so much energy, when I tell my friends about it they don’t understand I try to explain I always fast on days when I know I will be constantly busy then the day just flys by without thinking about it. How are you doing?
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