The FastDay Forum

I've been bouncing around 240lb for 10 weeks now, so I think a plateau can be declared here. I have started exercising and PUT ON 7lb in 12 hours since exercising. I did lose 5 of those pounds overnight, so it wasn't all bad. I started this morning with the avowed plan to go as low carb as I can and wheat free whilst still fasting for 11 days, which will take me to my appointment with my specialist. By this evening I had eaten batter fried chicken and 3 slices of pizza. So low carb went out the window, so did the wheat free and I am already bloating with the wheat.

I have decided that doing anything other than the basic 5:2 for what is going to be a stabilizing time period will just cause me stress, which will cause me to comfort eat. As long as I don't put any weight on between now and Christmas I will be happy with that, (repeat continually to self, I may come to believe it).

I do have some consolation in the fact that a lot of my trouble is due to the medications I'm on, two of which cause weight gain, the fact that I've managed to lose weight shows great promise for when I've had my surgery and am off these horrid tablets.

Amanda Salis says that when you plateau you are experiencing the 'famine reaction' .Further she says that when you have lost 10% of your weight, you are very likely to plateau. Your body has to establish a new 'set point' . I am definitely there. I seem to sit at a new weight for ages, easily 8 weeks. I just have to keep at it, until my body allows me to reach a new 'set point' at a lower level. But what's the rush?

I think people will continue to lose weight as long as they eat less than their TDEE.

Take the extreme - no caloric intake at all.

A person will lose weight until they die, with few 'plateaus' along the way.

I think if a person is eating less than their TDEE but not losing weight, it is a water weight issue. But I also think many people experiencing plateaus are eating more than they think they are.

Somewhere on here (?) I think it was Caroline (@carorees) who said that in her experience eating more on non-fast days sometimes can get you off a plateau rather than calorie restriction to your TDEE all the time.
I think it's something to do with the way that 5:2 'shocks' your body when you fast and you shock it more if you've eaten more the day before a fast, rather than lulling it into thinking that it's 'starving' (sticking to calorie restriction) and hence causing a weight loss stall.
Why did I find that hard to write?? 'Cos I did and I am not sure I explained it very well.

[carorees]

Prof Amanda Sallis who has studied the "famine reaction" has generally thought in terms of long periods of under eating triggering the famine reaction which then needs several weeks of over eating to break it. However, I think that with 5:2 this process is squeezed into a shorter timeframe so that the days of normal eating counteract the fast days in terms of triggering a famine reaction, but if we also under eat on non fast days, it can happen anyway. A couple of days of excess can often correct things. Certainly in the nearly 15 months I've been doing this, I've always had a speed up in weight loss after a holiday period when I had over eaten.

My view is who really knows ... the main point IMHO is just weather a stall.

If you are not a reasonable goal e.g. your healthy BMI range for your age, body-frame etc and still can pinch a goodly fold of flab, as frustrating as it seems at the time, you just have to hang in there. I am not looking to daily diet obsessive which is why I like 5:2 where you have a framework where you can set a reasonable fast and then get to eat 'normally' for the majority of the time to suit your lifestyle.

I lean towards famine effect as my reality rather than eating too much over my overall TDEE.
Whatever ... I am the one who is responsible for what I put into my mouth, the exercise I do and the nutrition I need for health and to fuel my body. If intermittent fasting is now my way of life the reality of plateaus need to be accepted as part of the journey or surely I would tire of 5:2 due to frustration and maybe unrealistic expectations.

Interesting snippet by Norman Swann ABC Radio Medico last night whereby there is new research showing surprising results relating to gut bacteria and that people who were twins carry more weight have less gut bacteria than their skinnier twin. The gut bacteria of the thinner people researched had more gut bacteria which burned more energy. So it may not be about what we eat but what our gut bacterial count is and energy consumed. Probiotics were not considered the answer