Hi Jairlie,

Cpngraulations on your loss, and for maintaining it.

I’m not sure there is a ‘best method’ for maintenance, just what works for you and you can keep doing.

I don’t count calories, but I have reduced the amount of processed carbohydrate and added sugar in my diet (Monday to Friday I mostly don’t eat bread, pasta, rice, cakes, biscuits, etc; at the weekend I do). I fast only occasionally now, when my weight is at the top end of my maintenance range.

You don’t say how often you are doing the alternate day fasting, but if it is every month you could consider doing one day per week (6:1) instead? You’d get the same number of fast days, just spread out so it might seem less onerous.

My Dad has been fasting for over a year now. He’s a bit older than you, but clueless about calories, and his version of 5:2 is not ‘by the book’ but works for him to maintain his weight. Twice a week he skips breakfast and lunch, just eating his ‘normal’ evening meal.

So you could try meal skipping on some of your non-fast days? Some days go without breakfast or lunch. That way you don’t have to worry about nutrition or calories, but overall you’ll he consuming less. A few of us do what you could call semi or half fasts.

If your fasting week is coming around too quickly it may be that you are generally overeating, and you could just try to eat a bit less… One slice of toast, not two… One biscuit, not two… That type of thing?

I’m not sure if you have worked out your TDEE (total number of calories you need). There’s a link at the top of the page. You could try calorie counting for a bit? Carol mentioned my fitness pal, but there’s also a lot of websites now where you can find the calorie content of pretty much everything, either by product (e.g. supermarket item) or by weight (e.g. 100g of pork/ cheddar, etc).

So, not sure my ramblings help!

There’s all sorts of different ways to maintain. If you don’t like what you’re currently doing, and there’s a risk you won’t stick with it, you will have to play around and experiment. You don’t need to calorie count or know about nutrition though, you can just eat a bit less. Keep eating fats, protein, vegetables, healthy carbs though and reduce your intake of processed carbohydrate and sugar.

Lichtle,

How did your strict fast go today? I must own up that I planned to fast today, but it turned into a semi-fast… I shall see what tomorrow’s weigh in shows and probably at least semi-fast again. Two weeks holiday and I’m now ill-disciplined and lazy 🙂

Hi Happy, The fast didn’t go as well as I wished. I wanted to do a liquid only fast but I had an apple and some strawberries in the afternoon and so I woke the hunger sensation and had supper of an egg with Sauerkraut as well as some nuts – all in all it was about 500 cals but I was a bit disappointed. No carbs, however I will do another fast on Wednesday or Thursday and I am hoping that I will be motivated enough to prove to myself that I can still/again do a very low cal fast. After all I COULD when I was losing weight.

Yes, indeed, when I am at or below goal weight I find fasting difficult to justify. The frustrating thing for me recently has been that a little sabotaging voice in my head is telling me that I pitched my goal weight too low and that I am not really 1-2 lbs over but just OK.

It is important for me to stop this self deception immediately because I think this is why and how 90% of people put on weight.

Yes that little saboteur voice is alive and well In all of us Lichtle! I had planned to fast today but don’t really want to. Have got on the scales and I am 400 below trigger point (our new terminology I think 🙂 ) so don’t really have to. I am laying in bed arguing with myself about what I will do and I think it’s going to be a half fast!

Hi gang 🙂

I had a WF yesterday. It is sooo hot here – midsummer – that it was easy to do. As usual I got very tired early and went to bed at 10 p.m. Just got up with no hunger at all and think about adding a 500 kcal-FD today.

I agree on your external facts of influence! Winter or summer, good mood or not and so on. No FD ever feels the same.

To me fast day(s) is/are still the health beneficial pause, too. It gave and gives me so much energy in my perception. I have never felt as fit as I have done since I fast. (Before I was an energetic person yet not to that extent.) So I am deeply convinced of their great impact beyond weight – loss or maintenance. Yet I am still a fast newbie (November 2014) so we will see what happens over time.

I am planning to do that 28-days-3-liter-water-cure (of the English lady I wrote about the other day). Right now it is more than 3 liters I am consuming because of the heat and my sport. I am still a bit hesitant today because it means 28 days without coffee… just and only water is allowed for beverage (a hard one for me, rrrrrreally). On the other hand I am so curious what the effects would be on my body/me. My skin and stuff.

I seem to need a real, stout goal even when maintaining. That is just how I am wired, I guess. Still thinking about the 28 days. Maybe I wait until September, maybe I keep on going. Leave that open until tomorrow morning’s feast day start. If I manage to do without coffee then I will stay on the water wagon from August 10th til September 6th…

Wishing you all a wonder-ful day

M

Hi Mahalo, well done for a successful water fast and extending it to a 500cal fast today.

I think we all need a set or trigger point otherwise our sabotage voices take over.

I might join you on the 3 litre water per day challenge. I am wondering however if I really have to give up my coffee in he morning, provided I still drink 3 litres of water a day? When I get to work I make a pot cafetiere coffee for my department first thing and then switch to green or herbal tea, which amounts to about two teapots or 1.5 litres. If I don’t joint in the afternoon coffee but keep drinking herbal tea, I should be all right.

For me it is better to experiment with it whilst at the office as the need to go to the bathroom is a bit of a nuisance when out and about,

It will be interesting to see, if it has any impact on sugar cravings at all. I must admit, that recently (past two weeks) the cravings have not been too bad. Well now that I said it, I am sure I will suffer later on. 😉

Happy maintenance experimenting.

Wow. I appreciate all the welcomes.

As to the how often I hit my trigger, it is about every three weeks.

I don’t count calories. I don’t know how. I read about calorie counting and found the discussions about big, small and medium bananas a bit too much.

I would like to know how to eat nutritiously. Thinking about the reduced carbohydrates approach. Not big on bread so that part would be easy. But I do love pasta. But if you have to figure what percent of your food is carb vs protein vs fat, that probably won’t work.

I’ve played a bit with different fasting protocols; 16:8 18:6. They are OK for short periods. When I do a full day fast I don’t eat the entire day. I know we are supposed to get 600 calories, but I didn’t know that when I originally started intermittent fasting and by the time I found that out I figured it was easier just to keep doing what I was doing. So I guess I really do a 36-40 hour fast.

Now what is this 28 day fast? Is this for quick weight loss? And I don’t understand the 3 liter challenge. Oh, and I live on coffee.

Hi Jairlie, Nutritious food basically consists of lots of unprocessed food like fruit, vegetables, nuts, pulses and meat or/and fish, eggs as well as wholemeal grains and rice etc. If you eat that in moderation ie until you are satisfied and no more, you should be OK. Unless you are convinced that carbs are a problem for you, It might not be necessary to reduce them.

As Mahalo explained, we do not promote a 28 day water fast – that would be DANGEROUS. We just try to increase our water intake for a while that is all. This doesn’t seem to be as easy as I thought. I started drinking more a few years ago and thought 3 litres of water wasn’t going to be a problem. It turns out to be a little more challenging than I thought.
I have had my usual two cups of coffee today and about two litres of herbal tea. It is now 8pm and I will probably manage another mug of tea but no more. However, I had plenty of water in food ie a punnet of strawberries a bowl of soup, vegetables, as well as 2 cups of yoghurt etc. Hmm lets see how this goes.

That’s a really interesting article Mahalo and I’m glad I read it because up until I did I thought you were giving up food and only drinking for 28 days lol!

I have increased my water intake since being in 5:2 but still don’t like drinking a lot. I don’t think you need to give up other fluids just drink more after. I think the intake of other fluids will decrease naturally as a result of increased water intake. I like to make a hot drink with some fresh mint leaves – I think that would be considered ok don’t you think!

I’m up for the challenge too Mahalo and Lichtle!

Purple how do you know if you need more salt?

Thanks Purple, I will keep an eye out for it.

Heya all 🙂

Carolannfud,
happy to read that you liked the article. And, gosh, no, 28 days of non-eating is something that I can not even imagine. Four days were tough enough. And I love eating far too much.

The salt craving is something I have not experienced yet. Interesting thought, PVE, thanks! I do not use extra salt anywhere. Hm, I will rethink that part of my nutrition.

I do the 3 liters of water (++ when biking in that heat) and allow myself coffee/herbal teas as a plus. Guess it is like everything else: our body has the wisdom to guide us… (okay, mine maybe not in the salt department…)

I am having a feast day today and – yummmmm – morning coffee 😀 My inner happiness receptors have gained lots of volume over the recent water fasting. Things like a cup of coffee after two days of sacrifice make me completely happy for the moment enjoying it. That is wonderful… and a very welcome and precious side effect, isn’t it.

Cheers and happy feasting/fasting
M

Purple, thanks for the warning about possible salt depletion. Makes sense. I am secretly hoping that by drinking even more, my body will crave salt rather than sugar.

Even though, it is summer here, I do prefer a warm herbal tea consisting of boiling water over a few mint leaves (like Carol). Somehow I can drink it more easily. I measured my teapot, too and it holds just under 1 litre. Nothing nerdy about that because if left to my own devises, I would drink barely anything all day although, now that I am used to drinking more I have acquired a sense of thirst for the first time. Before drinking more regularly I used to get an almost unquenchable thirst only once in a couple of months. Our perception of how much we drink can be equally distorted as our food intake. Luckily, since doing 5:2, fluids automatically become important both physically and psychologically.

Now I am going to drink and wait for that miraculous rejuvination. ;-))

Hi all,

I have a question and will be very happy to learn from you.

The other day it was mentioned that women need to have more body fat when aging. Can you explain that to me?

Why is BMI proportional to age? I have not gotten this one.

Thanks in advance and nice day to all of you

M

Oh, Carolann, sorry to hear about the cold. Best wishes for getting well soon. (When I have a cold I drink a lot of tea/water with lemonjuice to moisten my mucosae and help the removal of – ugh – slime.)

Thanks for answering my question.

I am drinking coffee (on feast days only) plus the 3++ liters of water daily. Would it be winter here it’d be a lot harder for me, though. Thus the heat makes me want to drink a lot.

Jep, I know the wee-hours in the early morning 😎 Twice a night at least and I wake up really early, too. Today it was 4 a.m. Good that I could go back to sleep until 6 a.m. Sometimes I can not and get up at around 5.

So far my skin does not show any responses – neither good nor bad ones. I have (“inofficially”) started on 2nd of August, only last Saturday I drank 2 liters of water and the rest beer (hey, I am German 😉 ) Now I am planning to go without alcohol during those “official” 4 weeks.

Like you I think tea counts as water. And the “awareness of drinking” is something worth experiencing, too, isn’t it. Be it 2 or 3 liters a day. The 3 just came from Sarah, before that I have not even measured my drinking input.

Cheers
M

Jayney,

This is probably me being thick, with the attention span of a goldfish, but what are you recording?

Re: the effect of water on your skin. Mine is a million times better than it used to be (particularly the under eye area). Hard to say for definite that it’s the water consumption though! I used to drink wine most nights, not anymore. I used to suffer regular allergic reactions (pollen, cat saliva, household chemicals, exhaust fumes, etc) which were very dehydrating, not any more. So maybe a combination of reasons for me?

And to be honest, re: your W/P/S fasts, I don’t have an opinion. It’s all a bit alien to me I’m afraid!

Re: me. I had a nice easy fast on Thursday, having struggled and failed earlier in the week. So should be back comfortably below my trigger point.

Hi Carol,

It’s hard to say for sure. Maybe I’ve just grown our of them (age 46!), but the timing seems suspicious!

I used to take a low level antihistamine dose most days, but still had regular full-blown debilitating attacks. I still suffer a bit with hay fever, but not badly enough to medicate, and I can’t remember the last time I took an antihistamine, or had a bad attack.

Who knows? I’ll take it whatever!

Certainly sounds like there could be a link between 5:2 and the reduction I allergy reactions. Just another added benefit of IF! 🙂

I’ve been ill for the past few days with a virus and was 1.1kg below trigger weight this morning so haven’t bothered with fasting. Been doing that inadvertently the past few days anyway with feeling so unwell otherwise I’d be joining you Purple!

Don’t know why this has just popped into my head – but do any of you watch Last Tango in Halifax? New series started last night. Love that show!

Hi All,

HappyNow re: “This is probably me being thick, with the attention span of a goldfish, but what are you recording?” I record live music. Please pardon me if I didn’t mention it before, but I thought I had.

Also, if I wasn’t in a situation where there could be unexpected food around at any moment, I probably would just have a 500-calorie fast day each week, but I’m generally at too good of a weight these days (despite really going overboard yesterday) to risk it. Maybe things will settle down in future, but for now, I think it’s best to be on the safe side. This weight feels too good when I fly (do aerial work) to risk messing with it now.

Also, re: “Last Tango in Halifax,” I’ve been avidly watching that show since the first season–yes, very well-written and acted, with great life experience sewn in.

More next week.

Jayney

Thanks for the well wishes everyone and so nice to hear we can see Last Tango in different countries. How do you get on with the Elnglish accents Jayney?

Purple, I loved Politicians Wife too!

Very funny Mahalo.
His “Australian ” accent is much more like a New Zealand accent, with clipped vowels. We tend to lengthen our vowels. Eg For 6, in NZ they will say “sux” (quickly) whereas we say closer to “si-ix” (New Zealanders hear ours as “seeks”.
What did you think of the German English? 😉 P

Hi everyone, sorry for my absence but I too was not feeling well over the last week with a gastric bug that is going around here. So I had quite a few enforced fasts and some cautious eating days. I lost 1.3kg and I am now below goal weight again. I know that is cheating. 😉
It did make me understand why as we get older our BMI should not be too low. Mahalo touched on that the other day. As we get older our bodies often take longer to recover especially if there “is not much there”
Today was my first normal eating day since last Friday and I still feel funny.

Whilst I recognised most of the accents in the youtube clip, especially the British ones, I still have difficulties spotting the difference between the Australian and New Zealand accents, simply because I don’t here them too often.

But I am sorry to say that I really didn’t like the amount of swearing. To me it always signifies a lack of vocabulary and I find repetitive filler words not attractive especially if the are swear words. I know I am showing my age here, 😉 Mahalo, the guy says “cheat” (Betrueger).

I hope you are all happily maintaining – it is lovely to dip into this thread and take up conversations as and when. Take Care

.

Hi all
Im still on holiday in Cambodia. I weighed myself this morning and all is good- although I don’t know if they are the same as my scales at home. I am surprised as I’m eating a lot more carbs but I guess we are doing a lot more walking- something I hope to keep up even after we get home
Hope you are all maintaining well too x x

Lichtle,

sorry to read about the bug and that you’re not fully fit again. I am wishing you that you get well very soon. Interesting what you write about less weight and recovery…

The swearing in that clip, yep, I see your point. He even said that himself in the beginning and kind of apologized in advance. I think the guy had no idea that twenty-somthing million people would see his little fun show. That really went viral because he just did it for his friends (I believe him – not like all the youngster youtube “celebrity wannabes” these days).

Good luck and FLOW 😀 for your hopping back on the water wagon. As for my maintenance – I am doing okay. And yes, the sports, at home or on holiday is a bit different now. Now it is more for the maintaing and not for the melting anymore. I may cut down on my kilometers. Yet on the other hand I feel my knees have become better from biking more. (They used to hurt much more than they do now. Someone said biking is good for the joints.)

Happy Holiday, Judy, great you’re doing fine and enjoying your time.

All others,
happy day, happy fast or happy feast/maintaining 🙂
M