Hi kay and welcome:

The way 5:2 works is you eat 500 or fewer calories on your two diet days each week, and to your TDEE or less on the other five days.

Here are some tips: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

As a 69 year old woman who goes to the gym 2x/week and walks 5 miles/day, my TDEE – 1450.
Kay, as your height reduces due to age your TDEE will decrease. TDEE is not based on your weight, but on your body type, activity level, and weight goal.

Helen, I find that my TDEE gives me lots of food to eat on a Slow Day, including dessert on some days. The longer you Fast, the smaller your appetite gets.

Hi Helen,

I’m one of those from the maintenance section!

I’ve maintained a 14kg loss for four years now. I’m firmly in the ‘better things to be doing than counting calories’ camp, but then I’ve never been on a calorie-controlled diet so have no dieting ‘baggage’.

I’m with bigbooty on this. I didn’t want to lose weight just so I could carry on eating the cr@p that was making me fat in the first place, I wanted a different relationship with food.

I’ve never drunk fizzy drinks anyway, but I cut out other added sugar, so no biscuits/ cakes/ sweets/ chocolate until I reached my goal weight. And then I reintroduced some, higher quality, sweet stuff on a treat (i.e. occasional) basis. I also massively reduced the amount of processed/ refined carbohydrate in my diet. No more daily bread/ pasta/ rice. As a result I’m not controlled by blood sugar highs and lows, and I don’t really have a sweet tooth anymore.

I did get a rough idea of what 500 calories looked like for fast days, but then ate real food in sensible portion sizes on non-fast days.

I do weigh myself every day and use that as a guide as to whether I need to fast/ be stricter with eating. But I have no idea how many calories I consume and pay no attention to the ‘average’ TDEE. I’m not on a diet, it’s just a way of life now.

In any case, even if you’re someone that does need to count calories to stay on track, there’s no reason to be depressed by a low(er) TDEE (than you’d hoped for). You’ll find that fewer calories go a long way if you make good food choices.

The BMR and TDEE provides a rough estimate so folks know where to begin. The 500-600 calories a day is also a rough estimate. It gives you a place to start, but it isn’t carved in stone. For those of us who have been severely eating disordered for many years, who had no idea how many calories was appropriate for our age/height/weight/activity level it is incredibly helpful.

Counting Calories/Protein/Fat/Carbs is also a tool that you can use in the beginning because it gives you an idea of how many calories you’re actually eating, and the nature of those calories. It’s remarkably easy to fool ourselves about what and how much we’re actually eating. Not just in a perfect day, but over say, a month or two or three, including all of the wine and inevitable birthday cakes and holiday eating etc. The first week, I measured everything because I didn’t have a clue what a “serving” of cottage cheese or chicken looked like. Now I measure much less, both because I have a better idea of appropriate portions, and also because I’m eating LCHF and am simply less hungry. If you feel like you know what a serving is, then there’s no need to count or measure, just go forward and try eating at your TDEE level and see how you do.

I think women have it slightly harder than men. All my husband has to do to lose five pounds is skip lunch for a week. However, he’s also over a foot taller and has an appropriate weight that is 100 pounds heavier than my goal weight. I can’t do that so there’s no point in my complaining about reality. 🙂

It’s possible that menopause slows metabolism, but there may also be other factors at play. It seems that insulin resistance may also grow as we age, and that will cause weight gain around the middle where we least want it. I log everything I eat, but I have not found that being mindful has been a detriment. I’m not sure there’s any way around it if we want to lose weight. And of course keep in mind that we can raise our TDEE somewhat by being more active.