The FastDay Forum

[wildmissus]

My best friend is 5'10" , size 8/10 with a BMI of 19....and has always has and may be that's the point.

I'm 5'8" and in my late 20's I went down to 10st 2lb (from 13st 3lb) some folk said I looked amazing others thought I was too skinny. All I know was I felt fabulous and sexy but for me I know below 10st would have been too much. Now in my mid 40's and having had 2 caesarean sections I'm never going to have a flat belly but would love to see if I could get down to 10st 7lb.

I know there are a few people who wouldn't like that because it would mean they would be fatter then me!!!

PS. My husband doesn't like tattoos...oh dear, I've got three.

Aw what a lovely bunch you are Feeling so much better reading through all your replies.

I'm pretty much thinking I won't lose too much more now (and will switch to 6:1 at that point) - there's just a few podgy bulgy bits of me I'd still like to whittle down (muffin top and still-chunkyish thighs!), and then focus more on toning, which I'm sure the running will help with immensely.

Husband has said tonight that he definitely does not think I'm too skinny, and his opinion matters more than some random guy at work. Plus, like you've all said, prior to all this I was actually thinking I look better now than I have in years, and that's what's really important.

Thanks everyone, you've been a great help

[carorees]

Judging from OH's experience, your body will tell you when you get too thin. You will suddenly find yourself really hungry on feed days and fast days will be harder. Whether that point will come before you consider yourself too thin I don't know but it does happen at some point.

Could be jealousy, could be that like lots of men, he just prefers a bit of curve. It is really none of his business whether or not your body suits him, it's YOURS! Weight and body size bring out powerful emotions in people, but provinding you are healthy, it is for you to decide what is right for you.

Enjoy your journey.

I'm 5-10 and just hit my 10 stone target

No wonder your 5k parkrun personal best is around 24 minutes. At 5-7 and 12 stone I'm that much heavier and can only manage 27:11 minutes. I think I ought to go for at least another half stone and see if it improves.

My best is 22:03, done two years ago while I still weighed about 11-2. There is little chance of seeing that again even with a stone less!

Glad you are feeling more positive. I think people don't always realise what they are saying. Sometimes I tell people I think they are nice and slim as they are and don't need to lose weight - as compared to me they are ultra slim. Because I am over-weight I have a distorted view of what slim looks like.

When I was 18 at 5ft7 I was 9 and 3/4 stone and my ribs stuck out... I've gone from one extreme to the other!

Sod the comments, you sound good to me !

Do what feels right for you, I know if my wife was a size 12 I'd be well chuffed, and possibly more out of breath more often......

Thanks again everyone, am feeling much better about it all today. I'm actually thinking that rather than look at actual weight loss I might ditch the scales and just go by appearance from now on.
I'm going to be doing increasingly more running and cycling which will invariably affect my reading on the scales (it seems to have done so already as I'm a pound heavier this morning after fasting yesterday, than I was the week before) and I don't want to get disheartened or too focussed on numbers.

Hi, I'm same height and same weight as you and aiming for 9 stone 10 although will adjust it if I think I'm too skinny. My husband says I'm getting very thin but he has a "thing" about skinny women as he once had a girlfriend who was anorexic and he found that really distressing, so I think the is more his issue than mine. I am aiming to lower my body fat percentage and that was my thinking behind doing 5:2 so I will stop once that gets to below 30%.
Do hats right for you.

How are you measuring your body fat Sarahmania? We've got a set of Omron scales which reads visceral fat and body fat, which admittedly isn't going to be super accurate but it does at least give you an idea of where you are with it.
It's interesting that while you and I are the same height and weight, your BMI is slightly lower than mine and by the sounds of it our body fat percentages are different too. According to our scales mine is currently 26.2%.
Just goes to show how different we all are!

Hi Shrinkingrose, I use the body fat scales at my gym so hopefully they are pretty accurate. When I as 11stone 3lbs I was around 34% although visceral fat was only 5%. I was quite shocked at how high my body fat was considering that I was still within the ideal weight range for my height. I measured it again when I was around 10 stone 5 and it had decreased to 32% and that was after 2 weeks of doing 5:2. I will measure again soon. I really don't want to get much under 10 stone because I, worried about looking haggard! Hoping that by doing 5:2 I will loose fat rather than muscle or lean tissue. I've also changed my gym programme to one where I'm lifting heavy as that should assist with fat loss. Will report back as and hen changes happen....

I don't want to look haggard either! That's my worry if I get too much lower. I've already got quite a lean face I think and have never carried weight around my waist and ribs, so there's really not much more to lose from there. It's round my thighs I've still got a bit of excess, but you can't spot reduce fat can you. It comes off where it wants to!

According to our scales I've been 4% visceral fat since the start, so if that's true, I'm pretty chuffed with that.

A friend of mine who's about the same height as me, recently went through a relationship break up and you could tell she lost a load of weight during that, and she looked super skinny. Really unhealthy. We were speaking about it recently and she said she's always been really happy at 9.5 stone but needed to put on about 3/4 stone to get back to that again. Never knew her normal weight before now, but she's always seemed really lean (in a good way) and although we're different body shapes (I'm pretty curvy whereas she's very much straight up and down!) it's interesting to know that's how she looked at 9.5 stone.

Do come back and keep us posted with your changes though - I've struggled to know what my ideal final target weight should be, because I've never not been a bit overweight as an adult!

I'm replying to this post as I can't for the life of me find out how to start a new one!

This is the 11th week for me on thid diet and no-one has told me I look as if I've lost weight, as really I only needed to lose around half a stone to feel happier! I've only lost around 4lb and I haven't weighed myself for around 4 weeks. My clothes feel a lot looser and the biggest difference for me is that my skin is so much better, looking a lot brighter and not getting the odd spot like before.

I'm 5'3 and weigh around 9st 4lb. I started the diet more for the general health benefits than weight loss, although that is a bonus! so I'm now wondering whether I should just go onto the maintenance plan of 6:1. I suppose I'm wondering that as today is my second fast day this week and I am feeling rather lethargic and not really in the mood for it. However, if I don't do 2 days I just end up feeling guilty. So far I've not eaten anything, just had a couple of coffees and I'm starting to feel a bit peckish! I don't overreat on fast days as I'm extremely disciplined. When I eat and never snack on crisps or chocolates, and main meals are always heathly, so I'm thinking that maybe once a month I could do a week where I only fast 1 day and the other weeks fast 2 days. Would it hurt to mix it up a bit?

[carorees]

Hi Fillbs and welcome to the forums!

To start a new topic go to the board you want to start your thread in and click on the "new topic" button at the top left just under the board title and next to the search box.

We have discussed maintenance approaches a fair bit on the forum. Mixing it up is good and enables you to respond to changes such as a lot of social engagements, holidays etc. My OH does not need to lose weight and what he does is to do a 22-24 hour complete fast (no cal liquids only) and then just eat normally afterwards. He does this once or twice a week depending how he feels. Some weeks he feels very hungry on non-fast days and takes this as a sign that he should only fast once. He has never had any weight problem but suspects that it does not mean that he was not overeating in the past!

Other ideas that people have discussed are to skip breakfast or lunch regularly, to do the limited calorie fast once a week or to use the "8-hour eating window" approach.

Do let us know how you get on!