The FastDay Forum

So everyone talks about that time when they see a picture, have a comment made towards them and suddenly they have the motivation to do it, to loose weight and get healthier, what was yours?





I've always hoped for the elusive moment, or atleast it has been elusive to me....my weight going up and down more then a yo yo....i've been around 13 stone at my lowest and nearing 19stone at my heaviest...quite a journey huh? and that is in the last 10 years and im 26 [27 in 5/6 weeks]

Well last weekend [16th March] i was going out for my parents 30th wedding anniversary meal, i had bought myself a lovely pink jumper with silver studs on the shoulder, really pretty....but when i tried it on instead of feeling pretty, i felt frumpy, then i saw myself in the mirror, i wanted to hide and not go out at all, i couldnt let anyone see me like this.

The whole evening i was pulling at my top [i wore a different baggier one], looking at other people thinking they were looking at me and only seeing my size, it was awful. I had seen 5:2 accidentally on the friday evening, a video on youtube, it seemed interesting....so sunday i looked into it, found the forum and that was that.

Yeah, my bp measuring 160/105. I'm 41 and was heading for diabetes and a stroke. Had seen the programme and done some research but that was the decider, started on Dec 31st.

Now, I'm killing it in Crossfit twice a week, worked out I'm the only one larger than 10 stone but WTF, I'm there not on my couch!

Well, I've dieted off and on all of my life. Some success, but mostly not. I saw a segment about 5:2 on Good Morning America. I thought.....'That's a diet I could handle!' I like the no deprivation part. This doesn't seem like all the other diets I've tried for that reason. I've been doing this for 3 weeks, and really like it and have lost 7 lbs. so far.

I love Harry potter. I was at the studio tour trying on t shirts and only a few fitted me I didn't have the choice a slimmer person would have. I was gutted as I've not always been so big.

About 3 weeks later I came across 5.2 on another forum. I also have never looked back. Lost 17lb so far and it's been very pain free. I'm back in a normal size and been online shopping for Britain!

I love Harry potter. I was at the studio tour trying on t shirts and only a few fitted me I didn't have the choice a slimmer person would have. I was gutted as I've not always been so big.

About 3 weeks later I came across 5.2 on another forum. I also have never looked back. Lost 17lb so far and it's been very pain free. I'm back in a normal size and been online shopping for Britain!

Go back and get a tshirt now

Ah Pink Lady it brought a lump to my throat reading your post. How sad to be so young and feeling awful on a night out. You have made the first start and with support here I'm sure you can do it. Uniquely, this is not a diet where they secretly want you to fail because they make moeny out of your continued dieting (cough: weight watchers!)

I was telling a friend about my 5:2 success just before Christmas. I saw her again last week and she looked great. It turns out that she had been feeling awful and could not bear to look at herself in the mirror. When she heard about 5:2 from me she decided to try it. she started in the new year and has already lost 2 stone.

This is a way of eating for life. If you have a bad week you just start again. It is very do-able. Just a little discomfort 2 days a week. Good luck.

There's some heart wrenching feelings/thoughts here - thank goodness that we've all found 5:2 and this forum. For me it was reaching nearly 15.5st and asking myself what on earth I was doing to my body and having to think that I'd have to go up to the next clothes size of 20. I was facing a hip replacement and not being helped by the fact that it was very painful to walk/exercise and thinking "you have GOT to do something". I calorie counted pre and post op just to keep my weight level - then discovered 5:2. I'm now nearly at 12st, dropped one size and wearing t-shirts tucked in my jeans, which I've not done for aeons !!! Also walking anywhere and everywhere. Think I may have to have the other hip done later this year, as I can feel the signs coming on - but I'm not daunted by it - I know what I've got to face and this time being so much lighter it shouldn't be too bad. This WOL is fantastic and this forum is a great help. Wishing you all well on your way

I never really lost the baby weight gained after my 3rd pregnancy. I was a busy working mum who put everyone else first. My weight just seemed to stick around the 12 stone mark and I was wearing size 16 clothes. My now ex husband used to make narky comments which made me feel worse which lead to more comfort eating and several brushes with WW and yo yo dieting.

When we seperated I lost a lot of weight very quickly which made me look great but I felt like sh!t. And of course it all went back on. My aha moment was a combination of realising that my family genetics pre dispose me to a lots of things, the realisation that I had to change my eating habits somehow and discovering that my superfit friend who is a personal trainer uses the 5:2 method. I thought if she can do it then so can I.

While the weight loss is my short term goal my real interest is in staying fit, healthy and active until well into my old age!! WW and other methods don't seem to have this side effect
An afternoon on the computer lead me to find out more and here I am

I had been looking for some way to loose weight for a while now. I couldn't stick to anything I started. When we saw this on the news it just clicked! Like it was made for me! I checked the medical information and only found positive stuff. No reason we couldn't do it, so we started the next day. I have lost 9 1/2 lbs. in the last 3 weeks!! At my age it was taking me 3 MONTHS to loose this much...and that was dieting everyday.

I was already on the usual low calorie/low fat/no life type of diet and I went on to Amazon to order Nadia Sawallah's 'Greedy Girl Diet' book and up popped Dr M's book, so I ordered it too.
The daft thing is, I watched the original Horizon programme back in the summer and was amazed by it, but for some reason I didn't act on it. When I read the book, it was like the light bulb finally went on!

I'd been worrying about being overweight for a while. I'd done stuff like stop drinking sweet drinks and snacking between meals, which had served to hold me around the same weight at the top end of the "overweight" BMI range for my height but didn't cause any movement in the downward direction. I really didn't want to start something that I couldn't see myself doing indefinitely, so I was kind of stuck in a rut.

Then in September I watched Michael Mosley's Horizon documentary that had been sitting around on our PVR for a few weeks. At the end of it, I wasn't convinced by the "live longer" science (I'm still not convinced) but I turned to my wife and said "I think I could do that. I'd be able to keep living the same life most of the time and still lose weight." The next day I did my first fast.

Almost 6 months later I've lost 16kg and am fast approaching the "normal" BMI range. I find this way of eating easy and see no reason to stop other than adjustments for maintenance once I reach my target weight.

Like Evie I watched and recorded (thank God) the original Horizon programme in August and was completely fascinated by the science. I spent the following few months gaining weight up until I reached 18st5lbs and then started thinking about Bariatric surgery. I had phoned about a consultation and had made up my mind that this was obviously the only way to go. I made myself watch a Gastric sleeve op on Youtube and ended up crying because I couldn't believe that I was serious about doing that to myself along with all the attendant side effects.
While searching for something else on Amazon the Fast diet book came up, I rewatched the documentary, went out and bought the book and here I am. Loving it, and can't quite believe that I've finally found something that is so flexible that I can do for the rest of my life.

I'm lucky in that I only needed to lose a stone or so. My initial wake up call to lose 4 stone was several years ago after a work 'fun' samba class day where when I saw myself on video/camera afterwards. I realised that I wasn't just a little chubby; I was fat. And when I actually weighed myself, I was horrified to find my BMI was actually obese. I lost weight initially (and kept the majority of it off) through diet and exercise.

But, I couldn't shift that last stone unless I was ridiculously strict and failed miserably - and I'd put a few pounds on over Christmas. Mum had been doing 5:2 and seeing great results so I figured I'd try too and see if I could break that plateau.

I am only in my early 40s but had a hysterectomy, was put on HRT and then given another medication on top - net result was I went from 14.5 stone to 18st13! This was very distressing since at 21 I was only 10 stone so I was never a fat child... all of my weight came on after 2 bouts of post natal depression and then a subsequent family trajedy. I would lose the weight for a bit and then it would come back worse.

I had lost about 7lbs between new year and the end of Feb after changing one of my medications but was worried that with so many factors medically against me I would struggle to shift the weight. A friend had recommend 5:2 to me in the summer after watching the programme. I decided to look into it and joined. I am now 12lbs lighter in 3 weeks! My friend is now doing this with me too!

A routine health check at the GP just after Christmas showed that I have dangerously high cholesterol. I've changed my diet and am hoping that 5:2 will help with weight loss. I'm also hoping that the health benefits of fasting will have some extra effect on cholesterol that weight loss alone would not provide. My GP is putting a lot of pressure on me to take statins, but I want to see what lifestyle changes can do for me first.