The FastDay Forum

Im on the last 2.5kg kilos to lose for my ultimate target.

its taken me a good 8 months to lose the first 4.5kg.. ive got 2.5kg to go to get to my ulttmate goal weight of a TREND weight of 68kg. meaning sometimes i will need to see 67 point something to give me room for festive occasions like Christmas, New Years, easter, birthday celebrations, holidays away and general fluctuations.

Wondering in people's experience that have actually achieved their ultimate targets, is there anything i should consider.. e.g.

- should i just naturally expect the last 3kg (or the last 20% of my total weight loss) to take a while cause the initial weight lost is just quicker.

- do i change nothing in my eating behaviour and just let time roll one.

- pray more

- exercise more or at all

thoughts?

I also remember a thread in the forum, something about the body reaching it's natural optimium minimum weight level. i dont know what it was called or where the thread is. can anyone help. It does make sense that the body at some point will stop and say that for you makeup, you cant go below x whatever x is.

im hoping to get there by April/May so im giving myself a solid 4 or 5 months to achieve the goal thus giving myself a full year for the whole "project"

I think it's normal for the last bit to take longer than the rest (though obviously this would depend on what your goal is). Also, exercise is always a good thing and should be encouraged. Good luck!!

It's called a "set point", @Juliana.Rivers.
a term referring to any one of a number of quantities (e.g. body weight, body temperature) which the body tries to keep at a particular value (see also homeostasis)
I'm sure it's not an actual specific number, and may vary over the years quite a bit for the same person. I think I'm trying to push my body below my set point, actually. But if you are only going below it by a few pounds/kilos, it really can't be unhealthy to do so. Assuming you maintain a healthy BMI, of course.

And I agree with @MaryAnn. Exercise! (Wendy, are you listening?).

Hi Juliana,
It's difficult to give advice, as there is a huge difference between people. Some observations:
There are at least two reasons why weight loss might slow down over time using the diet: losing weight will also decrease TDEE and thus reduce the difference that fast days make if you stick to your old habits on non-fast days(see the publication of carorees and me). However, in your case the drop in TDEE from losing 4.5 kg will not be particularly high (you can see the difference by entering your old weight in the tracker). The second reason might be that your body will adapt to the 4:3 regime and become more efficient in using the food that you eat. However, looking at your tracker I see no clear indications of slowing down (apart for the occasional hickup). You will be the best expert to know what might be the reasons for these hickups and how they could be avoided (or just enjoyed).
Burning more calories by exercise or more activity is always positive. Just don't overdo things. Stress is a known factor that will decrease weight loss. So remaining (or getting) relaxed about things in general and weight loss in particular might be the best advice you could get. For me this would also include not to become too much involved in constantly measuring all things that might influence weight loss. But in case you really need this in order to motivate you to be disciplined on food and exercise, it's a different story. Again, you will be the best expert on this.

Maybe, like a lot of us, we've just got a bit 'stuck' over Christmas. I'd had similar thoughts today Juliana and was questioning my approach.
Maybe as we get smaller we need to eat even less, hence sticking to our TDEE really well...is this WOE purely a calories in , calories out scenario?
Is my body fighting back! i.e. my fat cells????
Am I eating the right things?
So many questions went through my head this morning you wouldn't believe it! But we're not alone any more and that counts a lot.

I can recommend a bout of Norovirus to help shed the last few pounds, this happened to me last year just as I had reached what I thought was going to be my new weight...

I can even recommend the hotel we were staying in, if you are interested!

As your weight loss to date is 4.5kg then there's no reason why losing a further 2.5kg should be any slower than the first 4.5kg. Except that the majority of people, including myself, tend to relax on portion sizes, carb quantities, exercise levels as time goes on. I found that every few weeks I had to sit down and give myself a quiet talking to about re-affirming my determination to be carefully sensible and slightly more disciplined in the 5:2 calories in/out stuff.

I suggest you set a trend weight target range rather than just one target weight e.g. after a few revisions, my target trend range finally ended up as 160lbs to 163lbs. When I got to 160lbs then I stopped 5:2 and despite 7 weeks of travelling, Christmas etc etc I've stayed within that range without needing to go on 16:8 or whatever. I'm now at the top of the range at 163lbs but expect I'll drop back to around 162/161lbs once this time of the year is finally out of the way.

thanks kencc.. that you are right about getting a little more lax about measuring. we have cut our portions on non-fast days here and now discontinued wine/beer again. that should help


trend weight target is a good idea.. love that.. so maybe for me. 67.1k to 69.0k that gives me 3kg range.

but then you have me thinking.. what should our goal be whether its a number or a range. how do you know what goal to set. i might create a thread on that

exercise.. thats the bit i have to fix though everyone else generally on forum says its not relevant to weight loss.

re tdee . i just used an average one around here of say 2000 for women mainly sedentary. not much exercise other than some walking and gardening. im planning High intensity training once i can get to it this year.

I can recommend a bout of Norovirus to help shed the last few pounds, this happened to me last year just as I had reached what I thought was going to be my new weight...

I can even recommend the hotel we were staying in, if you are interested!

whats norovirus?

First of all,give yourself a pat on the back then do the happy dance!
Take all the advice offered here..i' ll be looking for similar advice later this year!
Well Done Juliana! X big hug x!

So which of the TDEE's are you using? Many of the online calculators are based on a 100 year old formula which over-estimates TDEE under modern conditions. Even worse is that factors are applied to this formula based on exercise levels mainly applicable to Italian men in the 1930's and 1940's. Even worse than that is that some of the online TDEE calculators have basic errors in converting the formula into an online format. And all these inaccuracies and errors err on the side of over-estimating TDEE rather than under-estimating TDEE. If you're strictly complying with whatever TDEE you've found but are not losing weight then it's very highly probable that the TDEE you've found is incorrect.

Is there an accurate TDEE calculator you can recommend please @kencc

...
whats norovirus?

Another name for it is stomach flu.

Maybe, like a lot of us, we've just got a bit 'stuck' over Christmas. I'd had similar thoughts today Juliana and was questioning my approach.
Maybe as we get smaller we need to eat even less, hence sticking to our TDEE really well...is this WOE purely a calories in , calories out scenario?
Is my body fighting back! i.e. my fat cells????
Am I eating the right things?
So many questions went through my head this morning you wouldn't believe it! But we're not alone any more and that counts a lot.

You have echoed my thoughts exactly! Having eased into 6:1 on maintenance, I stopped using MFP and then the festive season started (with birthdays in the end of November and thro December, then Christmas and New Year!) during when I didn't fast at all, just the occasional 16:8. Result was inevitable, so I'm going to restart using MFP and being more mindful. Is my weight increase really all fat?! It has been gradual over a couple of months, not a sudden spike over one week.
Sigh, I'm feeling despondent today.

[carorees]

I can recommend a bout of Norovirus to help shed the last few pounds, this happened to me last year just as I had reached what I thought was going to be my new weight...

I can even recommend the hotel we were staying in, if you are interested!

whats norovirus?

Also known as winter vomiting virus...projectile vomiting that comes on suddenly followed by action at the other end! Grim. Closes down hospital wards and schools every winter. I have a bit of a phobia about it...would rather have flu or pneumonia than norovirus!

Or just the last 1/2 pound! I just looked back at the tracker, and for the first 33 weeks, I was steadily losing .6 pound per week. For the last 10 weeks, I've been averaging .2 pound per week. That's not really accurate, because I haven't weighed for the last two of those last 10 weeks. But I'm doubting my rate of loss went up over the holidays

Juliana, at the start of these last 10 weeks of plateau living, I announced that I would be at goal by Thanksgiving. !0 weeks later, pretty much sticking to the same routine I've had all along and........not yet

This is how I'm amusing myself for the last bit of my first fast day of the new year. Time now to get a cup of tea and do something useful!!

At my original rate of loss I would have made goal in mid-November, too. Finally got there on Dec. 17. I'm sure I was doing ok on my fast days, so I imagine it was a combination of (1) overeating on fast days (not frequently, but went through a bad patch of feeling sorry for myself), (2) lower TDEE because of lower body weight, (3) even lower TDEE because of lowered metabolism (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magaz ... wanted=all), and (4) muscle repair water weight.