The FastDay Forum

From a "nearly there thread" discussion, I thought opening up a discussion on this would be helpful to some forum members. Im still heading for my target (just over 1kg to go) but might be helpful to me later as I never never never want to be at a weight I was this time last year.. roughly when i started a fasting regime.

Has anyone here got to there ultimate weight goal but then put on another 1, 2 or even 5 kg within a few months? Would love you to share your experiences.

Were you able to shed the "extra quickly" if so what was your strategy?

Did it climb back up quickly or quicker than you expected.

Did you adjust your eating/activity behaviour to get back to target goal.

Have you been unable to get back to target weight and do you need advice?

For my two-pennoth : I reached target just over 6 months ago & have been through holidays, business trips, significant birthdays, christmas & new year & I'm STILL on target

Daily weighing with 2 days reserved for repair if necessary (my old fast days, Monday & Thursday). If weight has increased then I fast, if it hasn't then I don't. I do in any case have the low cal meal on Monday & Thursday evening - but it's a case of whether I fast or not ..... Simples!

Oh, and the other thing is not to panic - even if the weight does go on I KNOW it will come off again with a few fasts, it's a well proven theory !!!!

Similar for me (maybe it's something in the name ) I've been maintaining since end July 2013 and have stayed within my target weight. Generally, daily weighing and measuring my waist keeps me on track but I can not do it without feeling panicked so it's just something I do, not an obsession. I do fast on Mondays as I find I'm ready for it after the weekend and 16:8 most of the rest of the time with very little, if any, snacking as I want any health benefits there may be.

To paraphrase AnnieD, if the weight creeps back, don't panic go back to basics and start gain, it does work. For me I think actually knowing (and embracing) this is my way of life - as opposed to just saying it which I have done on various diets in the past - has made the difference.

I'm glad to see so many people in the maintenance subforum don't struggle with this, but I've not been so lucky. I wonder if it has something to do with how much weight I lost (~28% of my starting weight!).

I haven't been helped by hitting goal right before Xmas, and having two trips since then. I haven't really settled into a maintenance routine, and it would have been nice to have that sorted before the temptations came into play.

As for weight coming off quickly, after Xmas the first of a few kg came off quickly then I sort of stalled. The weight after the two back-to-back trips--time will tell, but doing ADF and now something like 16:8 on non-fast days has led to 1.5kg coming off quickly. I am now 2.7 kg above goal weight.

I've been going on in a lot of threads about "starvation mode"/"famine reaction"/adaptive thermogenesis in relation to weight plateaus and the difficulty of maintenance, but I want to make clear, I have no idea to what extent that has been a problem for me. Since Xmas I've been very weak around sweets and really overdoing it on non-fast days for some reason. I don't think my appetite has increased greatly--I'm not doing this because I feel crazy hungry or something. I.e., there's a very obvious explanation for my weight gain: I presumably haven't been in calorie deficit. Maybe my TDEE is lower than it should be based on weight loss alone, but I don't have any quantitative evidence for that (I'm trying to track calories on MFP, but too much of what I eat, particularly on non-fast days isn't easy to enter--I'm just making guesses and trying not to underestimate).

Anyway… I'm hoping the 16:8 on non-fast days keeps me from eating a calorific but low nutrition breakfast (muffin plus latte, usually) and from snacking in the evening. I'm hoping this, with fasting (ADF or 4:3), is enough to get back to target, or 1-2 kg below for good measure, so that I can finally start a proper maintenance plan.

Sorry for the long-winded response. I hope it's helpful to someone!

edit to add something more positive: In the grand scheme of things, the little gain I've had is nothing (as long as I get it in check, which I feel confident I can) and I'm still ecstatically happy about my progress last year, if a bit frustrated by my problems this year. The clothes I bought at Xmas all still fit. I'm keeping up the exercise, and am not tempted (don't have time) to overdo it. I WILL figure this maintenance thing out eventually…

edit to add a bit of humor: I'm spotting a trend here. Maybe I should change my name to AnnieP

Great idea for a thread as I think it must be a concern for many (I know it is for me). It will be really interesting to see how people are maintaining and it will give us some early indications as to whether this really is a sustainable weight loss/maintaining plan.

I was just talking about this to hub this morning.
My very words were, 'I now have the tools to maintain.'

So, what are they?

1. Daily weighing and recording of said weight on a spread sheet. Might seem like overkill, but if it helps me track my weight, I don't mind.
2. Daily tracking of food on MFP - not only the calories, but carbs, fibre, protein etc.
3. The ability to fast when I need to
4. The knowledge of what works for me - and what my 'danger foods' are; the other day, it was a Kurdish olive oil and sesame flat bread. Oh, it was good and I piled on a couple of pounds, but I'm back down again to 10 7, my target weight.

So, a combination of all of the above should keep me in maintenance as well as allowing me to have the occasional 'sinful' treat!!

I reached my target weight of 10 stone, 7 pounds (I'm five feet seven inches tall, sixty five years old and don't want/need to be any lighter than that) last July after 5:2-ing since the end of January, 2013. I maintained until October when visitors for a month, then visits abroad, then not weighing and not visiting this forum, then 'being too close to Christmas to bother' led to me reaching eleven stone six and a half pounds on January 5th this year. I had regained thirteen and a half pounds!

I started 5:2-ing again, immediately, and last week, nine weeks later, I had lost my thirteen and a half pounds to regain my target of ten stone, seven pounds (147 pounds)!

I had always known that maintenance was going to be my biggest challenge, as it has been every year for the last forty years! I have always been an efficient dieter but also been a very poor maintainer! Hence, forty years of yo-yo dieting and regaining the same stone and a half!

This time I am going to be less complacent. I will weigh myself every week and be prepared to fast, every week if necessary, in order to stay within a two pound margin around my target weight. 5:2 has given me all the tools necessary to maintain and I will do it this time!

I am a work in progress on the maintaining front!

Your stats are almost identical to mine @stowgateresident. Would you like to join our little maintaining buddy group with @callyanna and @wendy darling?

Oh yes please do!

I would love to join your maintaining group, @PennyForthem and @callyanna, if you're sure that @Wendy Darling won't mind?

I met Wendy Darling at the East Anglia meet up and she is tiny and very self-disciplined. Unlike me!

I think that I am going to need all the support I can get to help with with this maintaining thing! I live in hope!

Great stuff StowgateResident! PennyForthem and I have also met up twice now! Love that we can support each other from opposite sides of the country!

Hiya

I was a very happy 'just under 9 stone' just before Christmas, which was where I wanted to be and felt fabulous. Then Christmas happened (even though we didn't eat loads and I still manage one or two fast days) and then January. I was fasting most weeks but probably going too much over the 500 cals as I wasn't counting. Then I joined a local gym on a really good deal and found that I was maybe overdoing it (cue energy crashes and pigging out on chocolate) and now, early March, post holiday, I am half a stone heavier than I was before Christmas. Ho hum. I had hoped that the couple of fasts I was doing would help me maintain (I always knew 6:1 would never give me enough leeway) but it appears that I will need to be more vigilant to keep it off - weight seems to creep on when I'm not looking! I guess that's the point really - we none of us planned to be in a position where we wanted to lose weight but here we are. My husband (as I may have mentioned before!) is very slim and has a sky high metabolism so can eat huge portions and not have a scrap of fat on him whereas I always feel like I'm fighting a rising tide of flab (hope if we have kids they inherit his genes not mine!)

Having said that, if I do stick to 5:2 and don't go overboard on non-fast days I know it will work. I think one of the many great things about it is that you can just slip in a day here and there and you are still sticking to it, not having to have a full month or so of perfect 'on-plan' eating for anything to happen. Just one fast day can help you feel less bloated and whale-like (how I am feeling at the moment).

Now spring is here with a vengeance, I am back into 'spring cleaning' mode, especially as we are now back from a fantastic (but very snowy!) holiday in Iceland, so I can go at it all guns blazing again, and use the gym to help me, now I know how hungry it can make me I can be vigilant.

Whilst 5:2 has helped me to feel like I'm not always on a diet, I do always feel as though maintenance is this elusive thing I'm always chasing but never reach. I have a couple of weeks of feeling great then it all starts to unravel and then I need to lose again. Maintaining on 5:2 is no different to maintaining on any other diet - if you stop fasting you will probably gain weight. It's just that 5:2 (or whatever plan you use) is easier as it's not every day and you can tweak it to suit you.

Welcome on board @stowgateresident and thank you for the great press

Let's hope we can all keep each other on track. I am currently 2lb over my target, but then, I have a good excuse. We had a fabulous full day treat out yesterday and ate and drank heartily for the entire time. Not a bit of it was low calorie. I did 16:8 all last week and maintained target (until this morning) so I will definitely be fasting tomorrow and Thursday. Anyone with me? @pennyforthem ? @stowgateresident ? @callyanna I think you said that you are under target at the moment so you can cheer from the sidelines if you aren't joining in. I love the idea of us all joining forces

Count me in! I've been trying and failing miserably to lose my post-Christmas layer and the scales have given me increasingly bad news. I'm ten pounds over my target now and fully ashamed of myself. What I wouldn't give to have that determination and motivation that I had for the latter part of last year..... It's another Monday and another "fresh start" today but I'm just wondering how long it will be before I sabotage myself and undo any good work

I'm doing ADF at the moment (@Domane, I feel your pain!) and i fasted on Sunday, so I'm in for Tuesday and Thursday this week...