Hi lemonstar,

Well done on your loss to your 1st chosen goalweight. Only you can decide what your longterm healthy weight should be. Yes, lots of people wonder what their final weight should be and generally adjust a little up or down over time.

For me, middle of my BMI works well, and has me looking normal. Occasionally I contemplate going down up to another 2-4 kgs to where I was in my mid-20s but I’m late 60’s now, female, and it may make me look too gaunt.

BMI – for a man 5’10” 68.9kgs seems quite low to be middle of BMI healthy weight range, especially if you are fairly muscular in shoulders, chest, arms etc.

For me, 5’6” female, my goal weight was 62kgs, which comes at BMI 21.9. Exercise – I have ME/CFS -a chronic health syndrome that means my body does not make enough energy, following a sudden severe viral episode. I went from very fit, diagnosed hyperactive, to overnight becoming mostly confined to bed for first 2 yrs. I put on a weight after becoming ill. I’m now 20yrs from onset, operate at 50% of normal, and lost 21kgs on 5:2 with no exercise extra to usual movements of daily life.

I’ve now been on 5:2 for 3 1/2 yrs, reaching my goal weight 18mths ago. In the early days I set 62kgs as my goal weight as being achievable , with a longer view to a bit more if I thought it necessary.

There are some people who shift to 6:1 after reaching goal weight, but many of us long term 5:2ers stay on 5:2 and adjust our nonFDs calories up a little. This keeps us in the 5:2 pattern which many of us prefer, but stops the weight from decreasing. It also allows us to eat out occasionaly, handle special occasions easily, and still keep our weight stable.

What we see on the forum over time is people sometimes going off 5:2 after reaching goal weight, and then the weight goes on again, sometimes all of it, sometimes less than they lost, but then they come back realising they need to stay on 5:2.

If you join one of the threads on the forum where there are many thousands of posts, there should be people there who are maintaing as well as people who are new or losing.

As you’ve only been on 5:2 a few months I suggest you stay on 5:2, not go to 6:1, stay on the forum so you learn more about managing your weight long term, and over time you’ll become comfortable with what you think is right for you. I don’t know what country you are in? I’m in Australia and you can find me on the Southern Hemisphere thread, where there are several maintainers.

There are oftennmore women than men on a thread, but there is also a men’s thread for those who want that scenario.

Merry

Lemonstar, well done on the weight loss. I agree with the other comments that only you can decide what’s healthy.

For me a healthy weight is about health markers rather than what I look like or what a chart says I should weigh. For my body, a BMI under 30 means I have normal BP, cholesterol, sugar, etc. So I decided to set that as my upper limit. As others have mentioned doing, I also continued to use 5:2 for maintenance and went onto that once I got my weight down enough to meet all the health tests my GP set. That was May 2017 and although I haven’t been trying to lose weight since then my weight has dropped at times and my BMI is now around 27. I think by being happy with a weight that gives me good health and not stressing about trying to lose more has allowed my body to just find it’s own level. I have also concentrated more on developing a healthy diet on NFDs so that I’m concentrating more on long term healthy life choices rather than what I weigh on any given day.

It wouldn’t hurt to chat to your GP. Mine was very happy for me to maintain a weight above a BMI of 25 as I no longer had any of the risk factors associated with being overweight. – I’d had high blood pressure but getting to a BMI of 30 had brought it back to normal.

This post is so interesting! I’m very new to all this but I am very conscious of not setting super low goals because every body is different. I’m so encouraged by your results and I’ll read the other replies with interest

Każdy ma inne ciało, każdy reaguje inaczej. Gratuluję sukcesu i jeśli czujesz się silna i chcesz kontynuować post – zrób to – nie tylko idź o 6: 1
Myślę, że będziesz wiedział, kiedy nadejdzie odpowiedni moment, aby przestać…

My goal 5 years ago was to get to 110 [49.8 kg]. Thought I would not be able to diet below that without looking gaunt. Then the weight went down to 108 [48.8 kg] and I liked how I looked. Then it went down to around 107 and I really liked the way I looked and felt in my skin. I have a very small frame and my BMI is around 18.5, body fat = 16% My MD is happy with my current status, despite the fact that my BMI is technically ‘underweight.’ Comparing with what others have written, you can see that target weights are all over the place. it is all up to you. I do know that if I wen’t below 106, it could be dangerously low, so I avoid that.
Nice job with the weight loss, lemon star.

5’11”, turning 60 soon. Initial goal was 170lbs but decided to keep going & settled on 160 in April 2017. Any lower & I look too thin on my face.
No real issues keeping the weight off as am very active, especially in the summer.

Hi Anderson:

The current high protein fad may lead to many people dying a bit early. Research shows that people that eat high protein diets have a three to four fold increase in cancer and a 75% increase in overall mortality (death) rates. (High protein diets lead to big increases in IGF-1, among other problems).

Protein is important to health, but you don’t need very much of it. Current research shows that even body builders only need 10% or less of their dietary intake from protein. The current ‘best’ diet has about 60% of your calories from healthy carbs, 30% from healthy fats and 10% from protein. It does not matter whether the protein is from meat/fish or plants, although getting it all from plants is very hard because of the difficulty in getting enough essential amino acids vitamin B-12.

So the research does not support your claim that ‘It is quite beneficial to eat lots of proteins’. In fact, over time, it is deadly.

you have to decide yourself what is your best weight. What weight makes you feel good in your body? Your correct BMI indicates a weight below 80 kg – would it be your goal? But will this 84 kg be such an absolute max?

Congrats on the weight loss, lemonstar! Like others have mentioned, you are the best judge of your goal weight. I’m 69, started 5:2 about a year and a half ago. I’m 165cm tall and my goal weight was 59kg. I reached that after about 7 months and have been doing 5:2 maintenance since the beginning of the year. For me, the goal was being able to fit into size 4 jeans (US sizes). It took me about 7 months to lose the weight on two 500 calorie FD per week. In maintenance I’ve continued the two FD, but eat a little more on NFD. I’ve always counted calories on FD and never counted on NFD.

Regarding your wife thinking 5:2 is obsessive, it’s only obsessive 2 days per week. The rest of the time you can eat and drink whatever you want. (Within reason.) That’s what I love about it. If there’s a holiday or get-together on one of my FDs, I just move the FD to a different day. But most of the time I can plan around my Monday and Thursday FDs. So simple!

I agree with simcoeluv on the protein. I think most people eat way more than they need and study after study has shown that lower levels are healthier. A good whole food diet with variety can provide plenty of protein. A B12 tablet daily can insure enough of that vitamin. My husband’s doctor recommended 1,000 mcg per day. He also said that a plant based diet is healthier for heart and cardiovascular health, and acid reflux and gave him 2 pages of recommendations for books and websites on plant based and vegan diets. I was shocked. This is a mainstream doctor that my husband has been going to for some time. I’ve never had a doctor recommend anything other than statin drugs for cholesterol or acid reflux.