Hi everyone,

I’ve been following some of the other personal stories on here and I’ve found it really interesting hearing about the successes people have had and also the difficulties they’ve faced. With that in mind I’d like to start my own progress thread!

So it was after Christmas, feeling really bloated and unfit I made the mistake of stepping on the scales. My weight? 12 stone, 12 pounds. Given that 2 years ago I weighed 10 stone 12 pounds I was a bit shocked. 2 stone weight gain in 2 years. With my height at 5’8″ that gave me a BMI of 27.3, firmly in the overweight category.

My weight has yo-yoed a lot in the past, about 5 years ago I weighed just over 13 stone, 5 or 6 months exercise and dieting after that I got that down to about 11 and a half. Then I put it back on going up to about 12 and a half, then I did lots of exercise and dieting and got down to about 11 stone. As I say, the last couple of years I’ve been gradually gaining that weight again.

This time I’ve decided is going to be different. I’m going to follow the Mosley Method (as I like to call it) of fasting 2 days a week and HIIT 3 times a week, with some extra exercise thrown in. And then when I get to my target weight I’m going to continue exercising a few times a week and fasting once a week. I’ve got to get there first though…

I read somewhere that you should set yourself goals when you do these things. I’ve set myself the ambitious goal of getting down to a BMI of 22, which at my height is a weight of 10 stone 5. That is, I’m going to try to lose 2 and a half stone. Is that too ambitious? I don’t know. I drew myself a graph which I’ve put on my shelf to remind me daily – I’ve put weight on the side of the graph and the date across the bottom in weeks, and I’ve also drawn a little dotted line showing my target weight. I’m going to plot my course on this graph on a weekly basis on Mondays.

I actually started this on the 30th December, terrible time to start a diet I know but there you go! So my vital statistics to start with were:

30th December 2013
Weight: 12 stone 12 pounds
Total weight lost: 0 pounds
Target weight still to lose: 35 pounds

When I weighed myself at the end of the first week my stats were:

6th January 2014
Weight: 12 stone 8 pounds
Total weight lost: 4 pounds
Target weight still to lose: 31 pounds

Obviously at this point I was overjoyed and worked out at this rate I’d reach my target by the start of March. Of course it didn’t work out that way:

13th January 2014
Weight: 12 stone 8 pounds
Total weight lost: 4 pounds (still)
Target weight still to lose: 31 pounds (still)

20th January 2014
Weight: 12 stone 8 pounds
Total weight lost: 4 pounds (still!)
Target weight still to lose: 31 pounds (still!)

I was getting a little bit annoyed at this point. I was doing the fasting and the exercising, making the sacrifices, and not seeing any progress. I’d somehow found myself on the dreaded plateau after only one week! I figured this has something to do with the exercise I’m doing, I’ve been doing some weight training as well as the HIIT. I decided the plateau would end eventually and the exercise is good for me anyway.

On the Fri 24th and Sat 25th Jan I went on a 2 day stag do, and I made the decision I wasn’t going to weigh myself the Monday after. Why? Well, the Friday was a 2pm to 2am drink-a-thon (I know I know) and on the Saturday I remember eating til I was stuffed at lunchtime, then again at dinnertime, and then again at about 2 in the morning (I had a pizza takeaway) which, combined with all the drinks, must have been a staggering calorie count. And then I had a takeaway on the Sunday. It was an amazing weekend but I didn’t want the scales’ opinion.

After that setback I jumped back on the diet, fasting on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of that week, and then on Sunday as well. Which seems a bit extreme, but then so was the stag do… My stats:

3rd February 2014
Weight: 12 stone 6 pounds
Total weight lost: 6 pounds
Target weight still to lose: 29 pounds

And so, after a 2 week weight loss plateau and a stag do setback I’ve lost 2 more pounds and am back on the weight loss. Hooray! My graph is looking better, some nice steady weight loss. I’m feeling a lot better, and my ability at the gym is improving also. I’m most loving the fact I can still have takeaway once a week and eat out when I want. And the gym doesn’t seem so much of a chore when you’re not going in for as long.

I’ll put in a bit more detail about my fasting and exercise plans and experiences on a weekly basis I think. For now, if you’ve read this far thanks for reading and happy fasting everyone!

PS. I weighed myself this morning: 12 stone 4, so I’ve lost 8 pounds I think. Which is great, but I’ll weigh myself officially on Monday morning.

Hi everyone and thanks for your encouragement. I’ve been in and out a lot the last few weeks so no time for a proper update but today I have a little more time! Here are my latest stats:

10th February 2014
Weight: 12 stone 5 pounds
Total weight lost: 7 pounds
Target weight still to lose: 2 8pounds

24th February 2014
Weight: 12 stone 2 pounds
Total weight lost: 10 pounds
Target weight still to lose: 25 pounds

The weekend of the 14th February I went to my friend’s wedding and spent the weekend in York. This was great but I did eat quite a lot… hence why I didn’t weigh myself on the 17th February. Still, I got back on the fast days the Thursday after and when I weighed myself on Monday I was pleasantly surprised to see I’d somehow managed to lose another 3 pounds 🙂

I’m really happy actually with how things are going, 10 pounds in 8 weeks might not seem much, but I’ve still been able to live my life, going out for food or drinks and having takeaway about once a week. Some of the fast days have been a struggle but it’s much better than the constant daily struggle of normal dieting.

The exercise has been great too. I’ve been going to the gym on average 3 times a week. This is a typical workout, though I do mix it up quite a bit:

– 12 minutes running – I do 90 seconds slow at about 6 miles/hour then 30 seconds fast at about 8.5 miles/hour. Then I repeat that another 5 times.
– Then some resistance training – eg dumbbell press, plank, squats, etc, I try to target the major muscle groups and I change the exercises each time.
– Then 12 minutes either rowing or on the cross-trainer, again using the 90 second slow, 30 second fast split.

All in all my gym time is down to less than 45 minutes – I do feel myself getting fitter, and it doesn’t feel like so much of a chore going to the gym because I know it will be over reasonably quickly.

Despite my plateau after the first couple of weeks, since then I’ve seen fairly steady weight loss. And that’s despite going on a stag do and to a wedding. I weighed myself this morning and I was weighing in at 12 stone 0 pounds, meaning that in a couple of months I’m over a third of the way to my target. At this rate I’ll reach my target by the end of June…

Thanks for reading!