The FastDay Forum

I am just wondering if there is a time scale that people are noticing with weight slowing/stopping/plateauing/weight gain? I have seen a few posts where people have had these things happen, however as on a traditional diet, there comes a time a few weeks in, that the weight loss slows. But as I thought that the reason for that was possibly that the body was getting used to the lower cals, this doesn't work like that, with the cals rising several times weekly. I have noticed myself that the weight loss has slowed in the last 2 weeks...5 weeks of pretty close to 500gms, then , 300 gms, then 100 gms (u can see where my fear is going here LOL). Of course I have not kept a diary of food changes in that time, so I am just assuming I haven't done that much differently.

Any observations?

Maybe a rethink of cals on feast today and more exercise to kick start the body again - have u read the thread about average weight loss on 5:2 is 1pound a week?

Yes - sorry I am probably not making myself clear. I am asking if people have noticed a slowing of their weight loss over a period and if so - when (as in how many weeks into Fast diet) do they notice this. I am personally following Dr Ms way of kickstarting weight loss - I will put in below. But I was just more interested to see if there is a pattern emerging with slowing weight loss or are people losing their '1lb' per week ad infinitum?

by Michael Mosley
More on what to do if you’re not losing weight – four things to consider
While many people have found that they easily adapt to the 5:2 Fast Diet, others find it more challenging. If you persist it will work. If you are sticking to your normal diet on the other 5 days, then what you are doing is reducing your total calorie intake for the week by around 3000 calories. This translates to the loss of around 1lb of fat a week.
If you want to lose weight faster, or have hit a plateau, then you might want to consider doing Alternate Day Fasting, which I have written about in the book. As the name implies, with ADF you cut your calories to ¼ of their normal level (ie 500 for women, 600 for men), every other day. On your non-fast days you should eat normally, though in some of the trials that have been done on ADF the volunteers were actually allowed to eat pretty much what they wanted and still lose weight. Studies on people doing ADF have shown that, on average, they tend to lose around 2lbs a week, most of it fat. Some more, some less. You don’t want to obsess about weight. What you really want to do is lose fat, preferably around the gut. I always encourage people, before they start, to measure their girth (around the belly button), and monitor the change over a period of time.
Look at the calories you are getting from drinks on your non fast days. Juices, lattes, alcohol, fizzy drinks, smoothies all contain a lot of calories. If you can move to drinking more water and sugar free tea/coffee that will help. Calories you drink do not satiate. If you eat three apples they will fill you up. Drink 3 apples in form of a small fruit juice and it will not fill you up.
Simply moving more will help. I always take the stairs, even up 7 flights. Get a pedometer. Aim to do 10,000 steps a day. Most people do less than 5000. A long term study on people who lost weight and kept it off found that those who were successful all increased the amounts they walked.
Keep a diary of everything you eat or drink for a week. Then look at the calorie content. Some foods may leap out. I was horrified to discover a muffin can be anywhere between 300-600 calories. Lots of evidence that people who keep an honest diary lose more weight
If you cut your calories 2 days a week, don’t overcompensate on the other days and keep reasonably active then you will lose fat. Unfortunately fat is incredibly energy dense, which is why for some people the process can be frustratingly slow.
I wish you all the best and let us know how you get on.

You may need to change some of your eating habits on feed days. I'm already thin, so losing addition weight has been a challenge for me. What I have found to work is eating large salads for dinner in the evenings on feed days. What I do is put a ridiculous amount of green lettuce into a wooden salad bowl. From there, I toss in all kinds of raw vegetables, including carrots, celery, red pepper, red onion, avocado, cucumber and mushrooms. I also add some roasted sliced beets and top with feta and a few nuts. Add dressing and enjoy with 1 liter of selzter water. It should take you a long time to eat it. Eat every bite and go to bed feeling full.

[carorees]

If you look at the forum stats in the progress tracker you can see that there is a slow down after the first couple of weeks but after that the weightloss just gradually slows. That's the overall data, but within that individuals will experience the occasional plateau and many people here have reported this. I read a scientific review of weight loss observations (not to do with fasting though) that suggested plateaus occur at around 10% of body weight lost. They also say that there is often a plateau at around 6 months. Interestingly, my data shows a short plateau at around 10% of body weight lost and last week I didn't lose and I'm just coming up to 6 months! Most likely a coincidence!

Often plateaus are down to a combination of relaxing a bit and so eating more and your body not needing so much energy because you're smaller.

I stopped losing after week 4 and now I'm on week 7 and I'm gaining and losing the same one kilo for the last 3 weeks.

Thanks Carorees - exactly what I was after many thanks I will check my slowdown tho I haven't lost 10% of my body weight as I only intend to lose that much overall. Cheers