The FastDay Forum

I am intrigued as to how many people actually like this WOE a few months in. Been reading the posts in the maintenance thread and I am amazed at how many people don't like fasting and don't really want to continue it once at goal weight. I know that in the beginning when one is losing weight we are all lovin' this eat what you want business AND losing weight! But a few months down the track and the weight loss slows - how do people feel about it then? I know some of my family who are fasting feel so good on fast days, mentally alert, full of energy. I have a friend who hasn't lost that much but feels so much better on fast days, than feed days that he continues. Personally I love it - I don't mean I love feeling hungry (as I always do on fast days) or eating too much the day after....but I love being able to drink wine, eat what I like (pretty healthy apart from my 'sweet teeth') and keep my weight down. To me it is so amazing to have lost 6 years weight gain in a few months. I just couldn't do it any other way. I used to go 'low carb' (low GI carb - south beach diet) but I just couldn't hack it for long. Really I felt like I might as well have been in the supermax jail for all the pleasure in eating like that 24/7 gave me. Don't get me wrong I love healthy food and my salads are famous, but I want to be able to go out and eat (not JUST the salad) or have a glass of wine or 3, or have a cake if I fancy one.

So for me, today as it was 4.5 months ago, this WOE is brilliant and at this point I have no intention of changing it.

Four months, ditto.

Yes, ditto to all of that! I am feeling curious too about how I will feel about 5.2 once I've hit the jackpot..at the moment I enjoy the fast days and the freedom it brings to the rest of the week's eating, but most weeks I get my reward in a nice steady weight loss. When moving to maintenance and there is no tangible "reward" I hope I still feel as enthusiastic. One thing I have noticed is that I am mentally looking forward to only doing one day for maintenance and hoping that my sleep patterns will improve with that reduction. As the maintainers group gets larger it will be interesting to see how people feel about this as a wol to remain the same, but without the obvious psychological reward and benefits of fat loss.

Yes, same approx start time as you GMH and still have lots to lose but very happy with this WOE.
I am still very enthusiastic about the fast diet, and it is certainly the easiest way to lose weight I have tried.
My only problem with it is that when I do have a celebration type of meal, even without going over the top, I mostly feel sick afterwards and even the next day.
This may lead me to just fasting one day a week when I reach maintenance, but if that doesn't keep the weight down I'll go back to two!

Sometimes but not always. I don't feel as strong about it as some here, but there are days when I look forward to it and its easy. I still have fairly frequent bad days, though. Maybe since I 4:3.

I was also surprised by how many maintainers hate fasting. I wonder if its harder at a healthy BMI?

I'm heading into my 3rd month on 5:2 and I never look forward to a fast day. When I first joined this forum I thought I would reach a point where I would start to enjoy the fast days because of reading so many positive posts but I just find them really difficult, I am seriously grumpy and really lack energy. My children (1yo and 3yo) really get a hard time from me and I feel horribly guilty all day.

However I have had a couple of 'pleasant' fast days where I feel all zen and in control and a little bit how many on here describe, but that is usually when I have farmed the kids off to the childminder and I have a full day of work (sitting at my desk) to keep me busy.

I love the fact that I can have a 'normal' life for 5 days of the week and that I seem to be losing slowly but steadily which is why I keep at it. If I plateau for a month or so I will give up or try the 16:8 or some other thing. But I certainly wouldn't keep at it because it's enjoyable in any way.

I am approaching 5 months at 5:2 and you hit the nail on the head dhana for me its more enjoying the results and I feel that is one of my hooks to staying at fasting. I still have the challenge of my goal to reach too so that is a motivator. It is never boring I find fasts unpredictable some are good fasts where you hum through the day and that is interesting. What keeps me fasting are clothes that fall off and watching my body transform before my eyes going back to what my best shape was albeit now in older body. Drat but only a mini drat so I like results of fasting

dhana most of the maintainers have found 6:1 doesn't work for them so have switched to other methods like 16:8, it seems. MaryAnn I think as a mostly 4:3er that is why it is harder - I have been now doing a few 5:2 weeks as I was bingeing on 4:3 - let's face it, it's practically ADF and I was doing 1 feast, 1 fast! I have found doing 5:2 easier but went back to 4:3 in an effort to lose the last 1.5kg. I think the reason for people not liking fasting in maintenance will be varied. Some people will have lost a lot of weight, some not so much...as in length of time fasting, some may never have liked it, but liked the result. But as dhana says will the shine go off when there isn't any weight loss? I have been fasting whilst on a plateau for 7/8 weeks, some weeks 4:3 but I was just as happy to do the fasts. It feels like a lifestyle...at this point...I never say never

My experience is that fast days are a breeze if I keep busy and a real drag if I don't - I'm constantly aware of being hungry and obsessing about my next meal and generally being thoroughly miserable.

Keeping busy is the key, I guess. I'll worry about maintenance if I ever get there. WHEN! When I get there!

I must admit, I feel more positive about IF this time round, I know I have only just started again but I think it's the fact that I wanted to do it and went into it with a PMA (positive mental attitude).

I have sort of enjoyed fast days, thinking that my body is repairing itself and that I am helping it by giving it a break from food.

My whole attitude to eating as changed within the last two months though, I no longer want to eat junk so much, and I no longer binge. As Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

Think I am finally listening to and being in tune with my body instead of ignoring it.

I don't enjoy or hate fasting-it is just a useful tool.dont know how I will feel when hopefully I reach my goal, like others I will worry about that when it happens

I have been maintaining for a few weeks and yes,I enjoy fasting. I still fast twice a week and on feast days tend to keep around my TDEE. No, I don't count calories,but over the weeks I have learnt portion sizes and calorie counts so no need to look at MFP unless I eat something new. I always have two meals on a fast day and haven't tried any of the other methods eg 16:8 or liquid fasting. Also I keep my fast days flexible - just make sure I do two fasts in any seven days (never consecutive days).

I love this way of life. When I first start 5:2 nearly 9 months ago I found the fasts hard going but as soon as I modified them so that I did not eat until at LEAST lunchtime then, for me, they became manageable. For maintenance I moved onto 16/8 as I could not bear to count calories, even just one day a week, for the rest of my life but I still wanted to get the health benefits, if any, of fasting so 16/8 suits me perfectly. I get a fast every day of anywhere between 16 and 24 hours (average fast is probably about 20 hours) and I understand this SHOULD push me into fat burning mode but even if it doesn't I still enjoy this way of life and that is THE most important thing. I never feel deprived and when I was doing 5:2 the thought was always, "I can have that tomorrow" which was wonderful but with 16/8 the thought is "I can have that in a couple of hours" which, for me, is even better.

Being happy with what you are doing is paramount and will be permanent, being happy with what you are doing sometimes is do-able but doing what makes you miserable (for me, this is counting calories!) will only result in failure and personal misery.

Find your own personal way and you will have cracked this, good luck everyone,

Ballerina x

A very positive post from Ballerina - I wish it could be published in the newspapers.

I certainly agree that if you are happy with what you are doing you are more likely to make it permanent.

I don't especially like fasting but I don't dislike it either, I can't imagine that I'll stop fasting though as it feels normal to me now.