hI i BOUGHT THE BOOK TOO — – I also heard about the diet via BBC and started it on the 26th March 2013. I lost 8lbs in the first month and 4ins off my waist BUT in the last 2 months I have lost NOTHING at all. I am a bit disheartened and for the sake of my health the Dr says I have to stay on and cannot go back to my original weight. PLEASE CAN YOU HELP ME KICK START THE WEIGHT LOSS AGAIN – THANK YOU.

Hi The Boissiterian,
THANK YOU for the inspirational message. I thought I was eating ‘normally’ on the non fast days. I am under 5ft tall and thought maybe I was misreading my TDEE/BMR score. I don’t actually calculate the calories on my non fast days so don’t really know what I am doing wrong….. 🙁

Here is another way of looking at weight loss. In addition to marking the actual weight fluctuations record the average weight. Now the average weight will always lag behind your actual weight (that’s just how the math works), but you will get a better picture of whether or not you are on a downward trend, plateauing, or actually gaining weight. I have set this up in my spread sheet, and here is an actual excerpt over a two week period where I plateaued a bit (measured in lbs):
Actual weight: 160.0, 158.8, 160.8, 158.2
Average weight: 164.0, 163.7, 163.5, 163.3

There are many ways of keeping track of average weight. I find using excel the easiest. First, set up two columns, one for actual weight, one for the average (and you may want a column for the date as well). When you have entered a new actual weight measurement highlight the column by clicking on its letter up top. On the bottom bar the average of the entire column will appear. Record this number.

I had a slow start but have now lost just over a stone as of last Friday, weigh in tomorrow. Started last week in June.
Really think it depends on what you eat on feast days, I know the diet says you can at what you want but I think some people take that a bit too literally and therefore dont lose any weight. I use my fitness pal app and it’s a real help.
I’m also doing 4:3, so I’m going above and beyond but it’s certainly working.
Vox, try myfitnesspal and maybe 4:3 for a couple of weeks.

Hi Nick3011

Wowser, that’s fabulous weight loss in 5 weeks – MASSIVE congratulations!!!!

I am considering the 4:3 appriach but think I’ll do my first week on 5:2. I did my first day yesterday and looking back, I quite enjoyed it.

I am sat here now feeling a little hungry, but even though it’s not a fast day I’m not going to satisfy those early hunger pangs just yet like I normally would, I’m going to have a black coffee and see if I can hold out until lunchtime.

Good luck with your 4:3, and I’ll keep my eye out for your posts 🙂

Thanks for the replies folks, 7 flights of stairs!!! I lucky if I manage the usual 13 steps twice a day to get up and down to the loo. I’m 61 years old and am not hoping to go chasing the ladies, I have a great wife. I would however like to get in to my various suits, trousers and jeans again. My belly button waist still measures 89 cm (35″), so where has the lost weight come from. Visceral fat I guess.
I will have to try an extra fast day I think. If I eat any more than two cups of low cal soups on a fast day, I find it very hard to stop there and crave food all day, that’s no fun. If I could find more to do during the fast days, that might help, but apart from one finger typing on this computer, there’s not a lot else I can do except catch up on sleep I don’t get during the night. I will just have to try harder. I must admit, I do feel much better and more alive on fast days, it’s worth it just for that.

My husband and I have been doing the 5:2 since March and have lost 10kg each however in the last 3 weeks my weight loss has been zero while his has continued to drop. Having read through the various forums I think I know what I’ve been doing wrong. I’ve been cutting calories on my non-fast days to less than 1000 and then on fasting days keeping to to around 300. Weigh in tomorrow, if weight is still static will up the calories (never thought I’d say that on a “diet”)and see what happens.

Vox – Yes, I think it probably is visceral fat that goes first in some people. I didn’t think anything was happening on this regime (weight wise) for the first 6 weeks or so (I was trying it out for the health benefits anyway and had resigned myself to being unlikely to lose significant weight, as I’ve been big all my life, with no significant loss on any other diets I’ve tried).

Eventually I noticed that my trousers were hanging better and I thought I might have lost a bit off my hips and/or waist so I finally weighed myself and had lost at least a stone in that first 2 months (no idea exactly how much as I’d been so confident that I wouldn’t lose anything that I never took a ‘start’ reading).

If half that stone was visceral fat that didn’t show up in the mirror but made me a healthier body then that was absolutely fine by me. Just hang in there and keep doing what you’re doing. It may be slow going but at least you are losing the weight gradually and it’s something you can do forever.

I’m now down to losing, on average, probably no more than half a lb a week but I figure that over a year that’s going to be a pretty hefty amount (I lost 3 stone in the last year on this diet so another 2 stone over the next year should get me where I want to be) – slow and steady wins the race and establishes a lifelong eating pattern. Fine by me.

Good luck.

Tilsworth, weighed in this morning and another 3.5lbs gone, enjoying it while I can, surely going to plateau soon.

Saffie thanks, you need to keep going, it’ll work, at least if the weight loss is slow you will certainly have health benefits. Keep going.