The FastDay Forum

I used to make up diets, like the 1 treat a week diet. Usually I lost weight when stressed out without even trying. As I got older that got harder. I lost a lot on a low carb diet about 10 years ago.

Have only done low carb. It worked quite well and the weight came of somewhat quickly. My biggest struggles were having to forever deny myself of eating hummus, tabbouleh, couscous, sushi, and bread (I could list MANY other things here), along with having to weigh, measure and count carbs for everything I made and ate.
It was exhausting as well as entirely too limiting.

Too many but the thing is I will never be on another diet, ever, ever again and that is so liberating

Ballerina x

[wildmissus]

The first diet I tried was Slimming Magazine when I was 29 and lost 3st getting to my target, but just as I went on the diet I came off it and the weight went back on. Since then I've tried -

Scottish Slimmers
WW
SW
Slimfast
diet pills
low fat
calorie counting
'being good today'
Hormone Diet
hypnosis
and I'm sure there's more

It was when I was getting the hypnosis that I heard about 5:2. The hypnosis gave me the strength ans self belief to try 5:2 and it is the longest I have ever been on any WOE.

@julianna we probably passed each other at weight watchers!!
So it's WW, Jenny Craig, calorie counting, Atkins, CSIRO, meal replacement shakes,
a diet that consisted of mainly tomato and veggie soup ( that latest 1/2 a day). Probably others.
Wow what a waste of time they all were.

This is my little list,

Grapefruit and Hard-boiled Egg Diet,
calorie counting,
Cabbage Soup Diet,
Weight Watchers,
Rosemary Conley,
Atkins Diet,
Dukan Diet,
The South Beach Diet,
low-fat dieting,
Slim Fast,
F-Plan Diet,
The Hay Diet,
The Cambridge Diet,
vegetarian dieting,

there are more I am sure, but can't remember them all! None of the above worked in the long term and the longest I lasted on any of them was four months eating a vegetarian diet, but I am a carnivore and couldn't do it any longer than that!!

And now I have been on 4:3 since September and it's working in a way no other has. The litmus test is just how long term this is going to be, I feel I shall be OK this time round and for a long time to come, in fact forever!

I've been on what feels like a constant Rosemary Conley (low fat) and calorie counting diets since the mid 80s. Ironically, even during times when I wasn't "dieting", I had the feeling I was so I craved food and spent a whole lot of time thinking about it and then when I "fell of the bandwagon", I just kept eating and indulging like there was no tomorrow because after all I was going to go back to being good tomorrow - which never happened - I gained and lost weight until the net gain was around 40 pounds

Its shocking to think about it like that, and there is still a part of me that cant snap out of it when I get into that frame of mind of a craving. I've been to workshops, learned different techniques to try and distract away from the craving but I like Oscar Wilds saying "the best way to deal with temptation is to yield to it"

I lost those 40 pounds slowly with calorie counting - 1000 calories a day and I'm now on 5:2 for maintenance and so far, it seems to be working for me, it allows me indulge on occasion without it affecting my overall weight because of the fast days ... I'm still having to calorie count; my TDEE being close to 1300 doesn't allow a lot of room for error and overeating on feast days

Anyway, I find it interesting to recollect what I've put my body through and hope that I'm eating better now, more nutrient rich foods that will restore some of the damage I've imposed on it

Im really hoping for no more yo-yo weight gain and loss - I'm determined to stick at it

Good luck everyone (love this forum, the support, the introspection, journaling and sharing stories it encourages).

Yes. it is a good question.

My Mm introduced me to "Hayes" or food combining 10 or so years ago.

It is not (for me) adequate on it's own but I still do it(so do they), if only unconciousely, even now.

The other diet I tried is .......exercise!!! I worked on a nursery for 6 months pushing a trolley of plants up a slope all day. I was a bit tubby at the start; I wsan't at the end. The weight fell off me.

I added some more to my original post this morning after looking at my bookshelf. The one I can't believe I forgot about was the lemon and maple syrup cleanse.

Its a bit scary the way we keep remembering more!
Today i suddenly remembered the fab idea i had as a teen..i was slim anyway..but this seemed such a good idea when a school friend told me her sister in law did it..
Just eat three oranges a day! Brekky,lunch and dinner...
did this endless endless times At that age,it was my idea of a " diet"

I just remembered the dates and apples diet - eat as many apples and dates as you wanted all day for at least three days

That was probably over 30 years ago and, to this day, I cannot look a date in the eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My goodness, some of these dieting ideas are really bizarre, how hood winked were we or just plain stoopid! Any more we've forgotten?

I can go back a bit to 2004 when I made a goal to lose 15kg

Reduced fats especially butter & walk more
Weight watchers heart foundation 3 day plan (cabbage soup)
Eat right for your blood type ( I could not look at tofu for years post this one)
Kerogenic Diet became so fatigued I stopped but it worked well at the time (of course)
Kick Start Diet a soup and veggie plan
Walk more
Gym more
5:2 "......................ta da .................only 2kg to goal ..........15kgs ........& in healthy BMI range

Just good old fashioned calorie counting, and two bouts of Rosemary Conley for me. that all worked, but I could only manage a couple of months before the cravings took over my willpower. Then it all went back on gradually.

Yay for 5:2 and rediscovering my waistline

Slimming World (3 times), Weight Watchers (twice), Scottish Slimmers (twice), Rosemary Conley, Slimline club ....they all worked while I was on them but as soon as I stopped attending, the weight went back. I used Paul McKenna's Hypnotic Gastric Band successfully at the start of 2013 then I started using calorie counting with My Fitness Pal to continue and was losing steadily (35lbs in total) up to the end of August when i hit a plateau and stuck there for 2 months. I didn't gain during that time but didn't lose either.
I started 5:2 5 weeks ago and have lost another 8lbs in that time. I know I can continue this indefinitely changing to 6:1 when I reach my target if I want to.

Only official diet I've been on is Rosemary Conely. It did work but I found it too restricted. If I remember right I was always thinking about food and hungry all the time. Although after coming of it I still stuck to the low fat principal. It's only now that I'm 5:2ing that I've relaxed that.
I was probably at my heaviest in about 2008-2009, after moving in with my partner. I realised that my portion sizes had grown to match his so I just cut back. I lost a bit more weight at the beginning of this year before starting 5:2 just by doing the same.
Now I'm into my 9th month on this WOE and it's definitely the longest I've stuck any kind of weight loss plan either made up or organized. And I have no plans to stop it either.