Sustainability….

This topic contains 8 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by Big_Bill 6 years, 9 months ago.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

DanV

7:38 am
19 Jul 17
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Hello – today’s my first day as a registered Fast Dieter, having spent years on and off pretty much all the fad diets ever produced, without much in the way of success. At the ripe old age of 38 though, I think I may be stumbling towards understanding why I’ve never stuck to a diet in the past – and it all comes down to an idea. The idea that doing a diet is a ‘temporary correction’ that you can do in a limited time to lose weight, and then ‘get back to normal life.’ What really appeals to me about the 5:2 is that it helps me to get around this idea, by being much less challenging to my normal eating patterns – and genuinely making me feel like I’m not ‘sacrificing’ anything. So hopefully this time I’ll stick with it…..ok, having said that, I am only on Day 2 – let’s see how long this optimism will last….

CalifDreamer

8:05 am
19 Jul 17
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Welcome to the 5:2 forum, Dan! A good many of us have been on all different diets over the years that were temporary. Unfortunately, so was the weight loss. I’m new here too. Tomorrow will be 10 weeks on this plan and I’ve lost about 14 pounds. The nice thing is that I haven’t felt deprived because on fast days I know that I can eat whatever I want the next day. Often, I don’t even feel hungry the next day until after noon. I find this way of eating sustainable and not really very difficult to do. The sense of urgency about eating, or my next meal is gone. A 500 calorie FD is much easier than I thought it would be. There aren’t a lot of rules and no special foods. Eat what you want within the 5:2 schedule. Just eating mindfully on non fast days (NFD) seems to work

And we have a wonderful community here with lots of good ideas and support. Glad you joined us!

penguin

8:21 am
19 Jul 17
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Dan. Welcome. Most of us here have tried lots of different diets over the years. Some were pretty weird but they nearly all worked in the short term. Then they didn’t. This one gets described as a diet, but it is really a life style choice. I’ve been doing it for a few years now and it is just the way I live – and it works. I weigh a lot less. There are lots of different areas of interest with chat groups on these sites, so if you have any questions someone will be able to answer them.

Stay with us.

Big_Bill

9:16 am
19 Jul 17
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Hi Dan,

I’ve been at this a couple of month. At 52 years of age it’s “better late than never” I guess.

I’m very much in weight-loss mode at the moment but I can really see this fitting in with my lifestyle over the longer term.

DanV

8:45 pm
19 Jul 17
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Hi all – thanks for the warm welcome, and it’s great to hear that there are people who’ve managed to keep this up for years at a time. Ultimately, that’s what I’m hoping to do, so it’s good to hear it’s possible ! I’ve just had my second fast day today, and it hasn’t been too bad – it definitely makes all the difference knowing that tomorrow I can eat more or less what I want, and hopefully even guilt free !

As for the weird diets, I think the weirdest one I ever tried was the cabbage soup diet… – anyone else try that one ? I seem to remember it being mostly a case of eating nothing but this revolting powdered cabbage soup, and then occasionally having a large amount of bananas and steak…to be honest though, all those diets kind of blur in my memory.

penguin

8:54 pm
19 Jul 17
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I think I remember eating a lot of cabbage, but not the steak. Another time it was grapefruit. The worst for me was called, I think, “The Cambridge Diet”. A set of meal replacement bars or drinks which left me permanently hungry, constipated and with breath so foul it would stop a pig in it’s tracks at 20 yards.

bigbooty

6:05 am
20 Jul 17
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ALL diets work…..for a limited amount of time. Are all eating patterns sustainable? NO. You have to find an eating pattern that is doable for the rest of your life and one that maintains your weight where you want it.

Good luck.

Big_Bill

5:43 am
21 Jul 17
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I have done the cabbage soup diet several times and it works really well.

I quite like vegetables so I found the cabbage soup quite palatable.

As you went through the 7 days you could have a different type of food along with the cabbage soup. Some people struggle with it. I found it a breeze. One time I did the 7 days then started again without a break, got through another 5 days and then my girlfriend wanted to go to a restaurant.

I did the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet for 5 months back in 2001, lost about 16 kg. Now that I’m doing intermittent fasting I realize that that was very similar. One hour a day to eat whatever you want and a couple of low-carb snacks for your other meals.

The weirdest and worst diet that I’ve done is the low-fat diet that was supposed to be healthy back in the 80s and 90s. I would say in hindsight that a low-fat whole foods diet probably wouldn’t be as bad, but not a diet eating low-fat ice cream, or bread and jam with no butter.

Big_Bill

5:44 am
21 Jul 17
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^ Just to clarify, I meant that the cabbage soup diet works really well if you just want to lose 3 or 4 or 5 kilos in a week. It obviously isn’t sustainable.