When it seems to be working for everyone but you…

This topic contains 29 replies, has 23 voices, and was last updated by EllieOllie 9 years, 5 months ago.

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MsSaskia

3:29 am
22 Aug 13
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My partner and I have been fasting 5:2 for close to four months. During this time he has gone from 79 to 72 kilos and lost 10 cm off his waist (hooray). I, on the other hand, have seen absolutely no change whatsoever – either in my weight or my body measurements.

Fast days are, frankly, miserable. Eating anything at all early on triggers ravenous hunger within 30-60 minutes, so the only strategy that gets me through the day is to put off eating anything until the evening, which really makes the hours drag. Despite drinking plenty of fluids to stave off hunger and stay hydrated, I often develop vicious headaches and muscle cramping in the evenings on fast days, which sometimes last well into the next day. To say that I’m feeling disheartened at this stage would be something of an understatement!

I only have a modest weight loss target of 6 extra kilos that crept up on me in the last year, and I eat pretty conscientiously in general (whereas my partner is a total sugar junkie with no concept of portion control) but, not having experienced a single positive return from 3 months of intermittent fasting, I have to admit that I’m only a whisker’s breadth from chucking in the towel. Today is a fast day, and I’m afraid I got up this morning, contemplated the day ahead, decided that it just wasn’t worth the misery, and scarfed a dirty toasted sandwich – which may or may not have contained bacon (I can neither confirm nor deny that rumour).

It’s obvious that intermittent fasting is working for a lot of people, including my partner, but witnessing other people’s success just leaves me feeling as though I must be metabolically defective. It is all immensely frustrating, and – whilst I keep telling myself that having a couple of days of dietary restraint per week is by its nature a good thing regardless of any weight loss – I sometimes wonder whether the real reason I’m persevering is because I suffer from a pathological compulsion to flog dead horses…

I realise that some people will find what I’ve said very negative, but it’s an honest account of my experience of intermittent fasting. If anyone can give me a good reason why I should consider continuing with it despite the absence of evidence that it’s having any beneficial effect on my physical or mental health, I’d be very interested to hear what you have to say!

ljc1011

4:24 am
22 Aug 13
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Hi. Sorry you are having a tough time. I don’t know why some people don’t shift weight. Although i think its useful to measure lots of areas as i didn’t seem to lose anything one week but my shape had changed arms especially. I started this cos of blood pressure so if that’s down ive achieved my goal.

Manders74

6:14 am
22 Aug 13
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Well done you for sticking to it for four months even though you haven’t seen the benefits and clearly don’t enjoy it. I couldn’t go all day without food as you do. I started out spreading my calories out through the day and gradually worked my way down to skipping either breakfast or lunch, enjoying the hunger knowing it wasn’t long til my next meal.
I know it’s controversial on this forum to mention calorie counting on feed days, but I’m just curious as you don’t mention it, are you eating within your TDEE on non fast days? If you’re not sure you can use a calorie counting website to get an idea. I do. Some things I like such as milkshakes or wine take me over with no effort at all so I know I couldn’t have them every feed day.
I was also wondering what exercise you take, whether it be just be having an active day to day life or classes or swimming. You don’t mention it.
I wish you all the best for your weight loss. You must have a much more positive attitude than you give yourself credit for. Stick with it as the support on this forum is worth doing the diet for alone.
Your comment about the bacon sandwich made me laugh out load!

DrLL

7:59 am
22 Aug 13
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Hi MsSaskia, I just read a book by Bert Herring on the Fast to 5 life-style. This is not a diet but is about how to change your meal frequency and gain the health improvements of fasting.

Now I mention this because I believe he describes your situation; one meal in the morning (however tiny) will kick off the limbic hunger, i.e. when eating makes us more hungry. This is why he had found that only eating in a 5 hour window will make many people eat less and loose weight. Also dr. Herring mention that intermittent fasting is harder for some people to follow than simply fasting to 5 (p.m.) every day.

His book (free download) gives good advice on training your fasting ability.

No matter if you want to stay on the 5:2 diet or you want to try the fast to five lifestyle, you may find a lot of inspiration from his book http://www.fast-5.org

Before reading the book and watching the TeD talk by dr Herring on youtube, I had also discovered that – for me – not eating breakfast and lunch is easier than eating low calorie meals. But it did take some getting used to. I only do this twice a week so I am still on the 5:2 diet, I guess.

Best of luck.

TracyJ

10:01 am
22 Aug 13
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Hi MsSaskia, I’m so sorry you’re having such a hard time with it and not feeling the benefits. I would never usually say this to anyone on here but it doesn’t sound like you’re getting any benefits at all (if you were doing it for lower blood pressure or better skin or something and were getting that benefit then I would never even suggest it); Maybe this lifestyle just isn’t for you.

I’m now (since discovering my own with the 5:2) convinced that there is a way for everybody. For my dad & brother they can eat what they like and if they put on a few lbs they just have to start running regularly again and it just goes. Some people I know are “little & ofteners” and just COULD NOT do the 5:2 diet because they would murder someone if they had to go more than a couple of hours before getting fed. For those people I’m afraid it’s probably going to have to be weight watchers and constant calorie counting if they need to lose a few lbs.

None of that (extreme exercise, calorie counting or random faddy diets) has ever worked for me at all and I was always able to go for long periods without food, so this lifestyle is perfect for me and seems to work for a lot of others too – but if it really really doesn’t do anything for you and is making you miserable I see no shame in putting your hand up and excusing yourself to find something else that will.

anssies

1:38 pm
22 Aug 13
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Hi MsSaskia, Its a pitty you don’t have any of the benefits of fasting and please be proud for doing it for so long!! I laughed my heart out for you Bacon (or not) sandwich. But thats not why I’m writing this. Headaches can occure when you don’t have enough salt in your body, sometimes it helps when you take some cucumber with some Aromat (I don’t know if you have it, but its a mix of salt and herbs). You can eat this almost the whole day and it will cost you hardly some calories (cucumber has 8 calories and Aromat has 140calories when you eat 100 grams of it) You will never eat a 100 grams of Aromat ofcourse, maybe you can try this, it will make your hunger go away and hopefully it will make the headache go away also. If it does that, I believe that you body will relax and then the weight is hopefully coming of easier. I wish you all the best, and I fully understand if you want to quit!!

hermajtomomi

3:20 pm
22 Aug 13
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I do sympathise, MsSaskia. It’s so frustrating when you do all the right things and nothing, but nothing, seems to work. Not to mention muscle cramps which I know from recent experience are excruciating.

No one could blame you if you decided to pack the whole thing in and embark on a week-long bacon sarnie binge. BTW, have you ever tried the old East End trick of sprinkling vinegar over the bacon?

I’m only slightly better off, having taken nearly 7 months to lose 5 kilos and I could do with losing at least another 10 – another 15 would be even better – , but at least I’ve lost the odd inch here and there and my BP and cholesterol count have dropped very considerably.

It might be that for people like you and me who are already eating healthily the Fast Diet has a far less dramatic effect than it has on sugar junkies or consumers of other unhealthy stuff. Also you don’t have a lot of weight to lose. Could it be you are already at a healthy weight for your height and build?

MsSaskia

2:06 am
25 Aug 13
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Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for your responses, every one of which has given me pause (or food!) for thought about why I’m not seeing any results.

@ljc1011, you made me realise that although my waist measurement remains pretty much the same, I have noticed that my trousers are fitting a little less snugly around the thighs than before I started. Of course, it’s possible that my partner could have been washing them on the hot cycle so that the elastane has degraded, but I’d like to think that it might be a sign not to give up on the fasting just yet!

@manders74, your comments about lifestyle made me re-examine the impact this might be having. I’m nowhere near as active as I’d ideally like to be, due to a combination of injury, being time-poor and also sleep-deprived, so at the moment all the exercise I really get is the 30 mins brisk walking that forms part of my 3-hour daily commute to my desk job. I’ll also put my hand up and confess that I will frequently over-indulge when there’s an evening tipple on my non-fast days. When I put it that starkly, it seems possible that, rather than fasting not working, it may actually have been preventing any further weight gain, resulting in maintenance instead of loss. I don’t calorie count on my off-days, but I think you’re right in suggesting that I might have been tipping over the edge with the wine, so I’ll start being more mindful of that and see what difference it makes.

@drll, thanks for the tip – I will follow this up.

@tracyj, I think you hit the nail on the head. I have never had any success losing weight by restricting calorie intake in the past, but when I used to see a personal trainer for 30 mins a week I could eat or drink anything I liked and was at pretty much my ideal shape and weight. I think the key to weight loss, for me, has to be raising my metabolism through activity, and if I don’t have enough time or energy for running or seeing a PT at the moment, perhaps I should be giving HIT a try.

@anssies, your comment made me realise that I don’t consume enough salt on fast days – thanks for this suggestion! I will definitely give the cucumber a go.

@hermajtomomi, last time I had muscle cramps (in my foot) I ended up lying in bed with the crutch of my jeans looped between my toes, pulling back on them with all my might as though they were the reins of a runaway stagecoach! I am still within the healthy weight range for my height (165cm and 62kg), but unfortunately carry excess weight in an extremely unflattering way. Getting back down to 57kg would probably do more for my self-esteem than my physical health, but you’re right – it’s always the final few pounds that are hardest to lose. (I’m going to go and google this old East End bacon trick you mention, too…)

The upshot of what everyone has said is that I’ve realised that it’s not that the fasting doesn’t work for me per se, but the way that I’m going about it may need tweaking. The day I made my original post I ended up having a defiant day of excess, and thinking ‘That’s ok, because I can just go back and start again on Monday.’ It was not folly, it was SIMPLY GLORIOUS.

Thank you so much for your support – I won’t be giving up just yet!

Manders74

3:15 pm
25 Aug 13
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How thoughtful that you have responded to our comments individually. It’s much appreciated.
Of course I’m not suggesting that any off us drink too much wine, it could of course be a hot chocolate or sneaky slice cheese. Evening amnesia eating is my downfall if calorie counting, at least on fast days I say a firm NO to myself!
With all this new attitude in place please keep us up to date on how your new regime works. But I imagine the only way we’ll find you is under this heading thread as this forum is massive.
Good luck.

TracyJ

12:50 pm
28 Aug 13
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Hi MsSaskia, yes, thank you for replying back to let us know how you got on. I’m so glad that it wasn’t really as hopeless as you apparently felt that day. A lot of people report that they do lose inches without noticing any actual weight loss, especially to start with, so you’re not alone and I’m glad that you discovered you were at least getting that benefit.

As far as the exercise thing is concerned: If you are now well used to the fasting lifestyle, I’d recommend throwing in some exercise towards the end of your biggest stretch of fasting time. I started doing this recently and I’ve found it really positive. Not really on the weight loss side (as I am slowing down in that regard) but in energy levels and distribution of fat/toning. If you are usually able to lose weight with exercise (something I was never able to do) then yes, you may find that doing HIT (especially on a fast day) will kick start your weight loss.

Please let us know if it works for you 😉

Rose Jones

2:13 pm
28 Aug 13
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Hi MsSaskia, I loved your entertaining post, so thank you. I also felt a high degree of empathy for you as i’m struggling too! How lovely that so many people sent such supportive replies, I learned a lot from them too. I have started the 5:2 again this week as I have had several attempts& failed for whatever reason. I think that as I am in the ok weight for my health & ‘tall’ height may be why I can’t lose. I want to lose 10lb or so mainly for vanity but also that this is the first time in my life that I have gained weight beyond a couple of pounds ( 54yrs). If ever I wanted to lose a couple of pounds I just upped my activity & cut back a bit on biccies- my downfall & cakes of course (not a drinker) it would drop off, but no more!!!!I’m blaming certain medications but really it’s biccies,toast, oh & cake again. My children are grown & although I work full time I’m not on the run 18hrs a day. I think that as I don’t actually eat a huge amount the cut back isn’t as much? I wish you well & hope that you have success now you think it’s more moving around that’s needed & that’s me too I think even though I walk a lot & cycle if I can. How maddening to live with someone who is losing, I do think it’s easier for men? Kind Regards!

Vet272

3:41 pm
28 Aug 13
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DrLL thank you so much for the link. Down loading now 🙂

lassy

2:36 pm
1 Sep 13
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So so disappointed with the 5 2 diet. Sounds marvellous in theory and I was so enthusiastic about it but I have been doing it now for 6wks and have only lost 1 pound in weight overall. I have stuck to 500 cals or less rigidly on my fast days and don’t overeat on normal days, in fact am quite a healthy eater. It is hard for me to exercise due to muscular problems and I have just turned 50 ( and in menopause sadly! ) so is it possible that given these factors, this diet will not work for me and I should just call it a day? I need to lose at least 1 stone in weight to get back to a healthy BMI and just to feel good in myself again but thinking may have to resort to weightwatchers now.

lolli

2:43 pm
1 Sep 13
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A QUESTION TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ANSWER

Is Chinese take out ok to have on a none fast day…….I am thinking of having Lemon chicken and plain noodles tonight because to be honest I can’t be assed to cook

Humphrey

3:00 pm
1 Sep 13
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why not? You should be able to eat anything you like on non-fast days as long as you don’t go over your TDEE no. of cals. I’m coming over to join you!

Humphrey

3:03 pm
1 Sep 13
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Can I suggest you give it longer lassy? Weight Watchers can’t possibly keep your weight off long term, unless you are one of the amazingly lucky tiny %. Are you sure you’re not eating more than your TDEE allowance on non-fast days? So easy to eat more than you should by mistake. And what about your measurements – mine are going down even though my weight has plateaued for 2-3 weeks. I’m sure it’ll turn tide soon. Good luck.

fast for life

3:33 pm
1 Sep 13
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lassy, can i ask is the plan really really hard for you to do, because if your finding it easy enough you could add another fast day, as you only have a stone to lose it will be slower, did that stone go on in six weeks? or over maybe six months or so, my point is give it time,id rather have a slower weight loss and still enjoy life and my food than to go back to restricting cals every single day, this is a new way of eating that will become part of your everyday lifestyle if you give it a chance, all the very best to you whatever you decide on xx

TracyJ

9:28 am
3 Sep 13
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Well put fast for life, as another long-termer I totally agree and as far as I’m concerned it can take as long as it likes at 1lb a month for all I care, as long as it’s heading in the right direction.

Lots of people starting out on 5:2, with lots to lose, find that they do have sizeable weight loss to begin with. However, that doesn’t necessarily last and those who start out closer to their ‘ideal’ weight do sometimes struggle more to lose. If you’re close to your goal but are really after the weight loss, then I think strict adherance to the TDEE is vital and I’d recommend putting in your target weight, rather than your current weight, to get those figures. Stick to the 500 cals on fast days because less than 500 calories doesn’t bear thinking about but the TDEE for your non fast days should reflect what you are aiming for, not where you’re at. Good luck & let us know how you get on won’t you.

Jannine

1:38 pm
11 Sep 13
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MsSaskia, It seems like I’m telling everybody on this forum to take Magnesium supplements.
But really,your headaches and muscle cramps sound like a severe case of “tell her to take Magnesium!” to me 😉

Truly people, I do not sell the stuff!

wiltldnrUSA

4:08 pm
11 Sep 13
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jannine i take

magnesium 400mg a day

but 4 other reason it is 2 lower

cholesterol

& since medication depletes magnesium

4 that 2

however, never knew about it this way

mayb that is why everything is good

thanks

iceonfire

9:33 pm
29 Sep 13
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I think it would be very useful to be able to enter some key statistics about oneself and see a comparison/guide to reasonable expectations for weight loss. I have been on the 5:2 fast for 6 weeks and have not had any benefits whatsoever. I am 53, 162cm, a size 10 all my adult life but with a thick waist. In 18 months -with menopause AND being recently diagnosed with borderline hypothyroidism – I have gained 6 kilos – just about all of it on my waist so am now 63kg. I am now a disgusting 37-38-37… Yes, a tube with a bulge in the middle :o( my GP says I look 7 months pregnant. After 6 weeks of no change, I think this is not going to work for me. I used to exercise (body pump, combat. Zumba, circuits, running) for 4 hours per week and unbelievably I just kept getting bigger and bigger. My GP says sadly it would appear that’s my misfortune and I am destined to be this shape .

Couscous

10:00 pm
29 Sep 13
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Hi iceonfire, sorry about your situation but please do not give up. Keep an eye on your non fast day calorie consumption. In fact keep a daily diary for two weeks detailing your food consumption each day, medication drinks, exercise, sleep patterns and how you feel etc etc. It may bring up some interesting information that means you could make some dietary adjustments.
Medical advice and research states that if you take in less calories than your daily requirements over a period of time you should lose weight. It may be that if you take medication then that may have an impact on weight gain. Talk to your doctor to see if this is so. Whatever happens, please stick with it for the immediate future, things may start to happen.
Good Luck.

rockyromero

10:16 pm
29 Sep 13
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@iceonfire
“My GP says sadly it would appear that’s my misfortune and I am destined to be this shape .”

Get another, different GP.

➰

Lulutiger

12:38 am
30 Sep 13
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@iceonfire- find another doctor that specialises in thyroid. Have a look on the “Stop the Thyroid Madness ” website. Borderline means you DO have a medical problem. You won’t lose weight without medication. I am hypothyroid and I know how difficult it is even with medication. People think you are secretly stuffing your face. It is so disheartening not to be able to lose weight. I had initial weight loss with this diet, then I’ve gained…?
I put it down to my thyroid unfortunately. I hope it will turn around but what else can you do..?

iceonfire

5:52 pm
30 Sep 13
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Thank you Couscous, Rockyromero and Lulutiger! I went to bed feeling low in spirits but read your posts this morning and got a welcome kick up the backside. Absolutely right…. Get a different GP and get a referral. I put doctors on a pedestal and forget that as in all professions there are good and not-so-good individuals. I put the 6 kilos on very suddenly and all in my abdomen. I thought I might have cysts so went to docs. the GP was v worried at my strange distended abdomen and I got an urgent referral to hospital to check for ovarian cancer. When that proved negative and when all the scans showed nothing sinister, the GP lost interest.. But told me that the only thing picked up is the borderline hypothyroidism….

I’m grateful for the info Lulutiger as I now know there’s a reason for my sleepy, weepy, have-I-been-drugged state and I need to get this sorted – THEN I’ll come back to 5:2 Fasting knowing I should get results! At least I feel hopeful again so thank you!!

laurenone

9:25 am
2 Nov 13
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I have been fasting for two weeks, I find the fast days ok but I have not lost weight or cms when should I start seeing results? Does it normally take a few weeks?

laurenone

9:35 am
2 Nov 13
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Forgot to mention that I stop eating 8pm the night before and probably eat an evening meal about 8pm and then don’t eat again to the following morning so the fast lasts about 36 hours and on my none fast does I don’t drink alcohol

Please let me know if I am doing this correctly.

Many thanks

Sparrowlegs

12:10 pm
6 Oct 14
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Don’t think I should have read this as I need results. Starting my second week – i know, I know its early yet . However, I have lots to lose( more than 3 stone) stuck rigidly to 500 cals for 2 days and calorie counted accurately with scales and calorie app 1650 for the other days (400 under my TDEE )and I have gained 2 lbs – not a happy bunny!

simcoeluv

3:30 pm
6 Oct 14
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Sparrowlegs:

Read #s 1 & 2 in this post for some help: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

EllieOllie

12:03 pm
24 Jun 15
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Hi Peeps

I’ve just registered on this forum after I Googled 5:2 making you miserable and I’m sooo pleased I did.

What a fantastic forum and such lovely people, thank you!!

As you can tell I was sitting here starving, feeling sorry for myself!

So I’ve realised I’m sabotaging myself on non fast days. Kick up the bum taken and hope every one continues in a positive vein, well done and good luck!!