Hello all.
Up until the age of 30 I was skinny all over. At 44 I still have the limbs of a stick figure but with an ever expanding torso. Frankly, I look ridiculous. If nothing else, the 5:2 will give me 2 days off the booze!

I decided to give myself a head start with ADF. My reasoning being that visible results would give me the impetus to continue and I must say that it’s working. Since October 1st I’ve been consuming zero calories on my fast days (or having a banana if I’m REALLY hungry) and eating and drinking as much as I like on my feast days.
I am neither weighing nor measuring myself, instead judging weight loss by trouser tightness and mirror misery. I can happily say that both are decreasing.
I do feel hungry on fast days but I simply drink some more water and try to find something constructive to do instead off thinking about how hungry I am. I never realised how habitual much of my eating and drinking was.

I’ve halved my booze intake, halved my sugar intake, almost halved my food intake (maybe 55-60% depending on how feasty I feel), increased my water intake (I never drank water before, preferring OJ) and as a bonus, I’m saving money!

Once I achieve a more pleasing shape I aim to switch to 5:2 as a means to maintain my weight and reap the attendant health benefits.

5 weeks into ADF and I’ve gone down one notch on my belt. A real notch, not a breathe in and pull notch. One whole inch.

WOOP!

Welcome, Holly.
Do it properly and the weight will disappear in no time.

This is my first ever diet (I’ve never really needed to before) and I’m glad I chose intermittent fasting as it seems to work pretty well so far!

You might be surprised, ontheroad. I certainly wouldn’t steer anyone away from 5:2, especially as I’ve never tried it, but ADF isn’t nearly as hard as you might imagine. If you eat up to your 500kcals on fast days I imagine it would be positively easy.

8 weeks in and the pot belly is close to vanishing. Another 4 weeks should do it and then on to 5:2 to stop it reappearing.

I had my first ‘old man’ check up at the GP’s this week (I’m only 44!) and my blood sugar was good at 5.1, my weight was good at 85kg for a 6 foot man fully clothed and I presume my blood pressure was good as she didn’t mention it. I have to wait a few weeks for my cholesterol results.

I’m amazed and pleased in equal measure that I’ve been able to stick to ADF this long! It must have something to do with the promise of booze the next day. I mentioned that I was on ADF to the nurse and she said that a day’s “liver fast” was a good thing if alcohol had been consumed the previous day.

I FINALLY got my health check results back from my inept surgery.
This was after 6 or 7 weeks of ADF but I have no comparison to any previous levels as I’ve never been tested before.

Weight: 82.8kg
Height: 186cm
BMI: 23.9
Total cholesterol: 5.4
HDL: 1.2
TC/HDL ratio: 4.5
Blood glucose: 5.1
Alcohol units per week: standard lie of 15
Smoker: not for 10 years
10 year risk of developing cardio-vascular disease: 2.4%