Hi Dragonfly,

If you use the resources tab at the top of the page you’ll see BMI calculator.
I’ve just calculated your TDEE which is the maximum calories you should consume on non fast days. I entered your weight and sedentary as activity level, assumed you are 5’6″ and it calculated your maximum intake as just over 1600 calories.
Bearing in mind what simco said and the fact that we always lose a lot in the first few weeks then it settles down and considering that you might be consuming more than you need on non fast days you should be able to make some adjustment to ensure you continue to lose weight.

I hope this helps 🙂

@dragonfly1972 , I agree with simcoeluv. 9 lbs in 4 weeks is a good progress. Most of my students who have followed the 5:2 diet, lost about 3-5 pounds in a month. For walking and aerobics, one (age 18-64) should do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic or brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity. But I am unaware of what kind of heart condition you have, please take this advice at your own risk. But for most part, brisk walking for 150 minutes is ok (and even healthy) for most type of heart patients.

Plateauing for 2 weeks is fairly normal.

We are all different in terms of which approach works best for us. I am male and I stick to 600 calories on fasting-days. I find that the discipline involved in finding satisfying food that has high volume and low calories, and measuring and limiting portions on fasting-days, flows over into my approach to eating on my non-fasting-days.