The FastDay Forum

3 years ago I made a first attempt at losing weight (fat) through "healthy diet and exercise". I started from 69kg and after 3 months it went down to 63kg. I did feel very well after exercising at the gym but I found the gym very boring and stopped it altogether, the exercise and the diet. The thought of having to go to the gym 2-3 times a week for the rest of my life to keep the weight at bay was making me feel depressed. As you can guess the kilograms crept back on, luckily without the revenge.

This year in January I made a resolution to lose weight. I started on 4th January with weight 68kg. For the first couple of weeks, before I found out about 5:2, I was just reducing my meal portions. Since starting 5:2 I haven't done any exercise and lost much more than 3 years ago. It only proves to me that I don't have to exercise to lose weight. However, I now see that I need to focus on my body's proportions and health and that's what exercising is for. When I'm ready I'll hit the gym but for different and more appropriate reasons now.

There are loads of alternatives to the trad gym now. Kettlebells, outdoor classes, weekend camps, outdoor swimming, all sorts of more interesting things. The move to less duration, higher intensity is good too, well for me, as nothing hurts like it did if I tried to run or whatever.

I do understand the point you're trying to make, and if all a person is interested in is a number on the scale then you are probably correct. Restricting calorie intake is an efficient way to go.

However, our bodies are not designed to be relatively sedentary and thrive. Our bodies are very, very efficient at getting rid of unnecessary 'stuff' - tissue that is metabolically 'expensive' to keep around is slowly whittled away to make way for 'cheaper' stuff whenever the body perceives it is not being used.

Tissue. Like lean, strong muscles and bones and important joint cushioning material.

A person who has been ill and on bedrest will lose approximately 10% of their existing muscle strength for each 24 hours those muscles aren't used. A person who never does full weight bearing exercise (walking, running, resistance training with weights) will slowly begin to loose bone mass. A woman begins to lose bone mass faster than she makes it EVERY DAY that she is not exercising very early in her life - shortly after the completion of puberty and full adult maturity.

Our bodies truly are 'use it or lose it' machines. I choose to use 5:2 as a way to get healthier all over, inside and out. I saw an image somewhere recently that said "Skinny girls look good with clothes on. Fit girls look good naked."

A fit, strong, toned body will weigh more than the same size 'skinny' but unfit body. But that body will also have a higher metabolism (translate = you can eat more to maintain that weight), more energy, less aches and pains and greater over-all health and well-being than a body that is 'only' skinny.

Weight loss is important - I get frustrated at a slow scale, too. I'm inherently lazy. If left to my own devices, I would read, cook, sew, sit on the beach while the kids swim, etc. It is HARD WORK to motivate myself to exercise and I have to fight the normal human desire to rest/relax/procrastinate exercise every. single. day. Our bodies obey the laws of physics, too - an object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Once I forced myself, metaphorically kicking and screaming, to start a sensible, sustainable, healthy exercise habit, it has gotten a little easier every day. I used to stress-eat. Now I stress-walk. I love audio books and usually have one running all the time when I'm cleaning the house, cooking, driving, etc. I can get them free for short periods of time from our local library right online.

But now I save one audiobook that is 'exercise only'. It has to be something new and different I've never heard before; mysteries are best. I can only listen to it while exercising. That has been a huge 'crutch' and tool for me - but it worked! I would never give up exercise to make the scale move more quickly.

I also don't "reward" myself with heavy sweets or other 'treats' when I do a good workout. I have taught my brain to congratulate myself for all my hard work - You've worked so hard to finish that workout. Don't "spoil" all that effort by cancelling it out with junk.

Exercise is a crucial component to a long, healthy, active life.

Best wishes to all!

"Skinny girls look good with clothes on. Fit girls look good naked."
That is a brilliant quote, I'm printing that up and sticking on my wall above my PC and posting it on my facebook.

I've nicked it too and posted it to my FB page.

I agree with Towler. We need to be flexible.

The reason why I have been exercising regulary for the last 2 1/2 years is to help with my high blood pressure, helped me strengthen my core muscels after having a bad back for quite a few weeks, and having painful ankle joints. Have to say it didn't help me lose any weight. I am in my fifties feel fitter than ever before, and now with the 5-2 losing weight. I know before exercising regulary I would attempt to have a go at it for a few weeks but then give up. I really think any kind of exercise, from a work out in the gym , gardening, a walk, to chair exercises helps maintain your body and heart.

The thing that appealed to me about the 5:2 WOE was the fact that it doesn't cause the lean tissue loss often seen in a traditional diet. Since I want to keep my muscle mass, I'm exercising. If all I wanted to do was be a skinny, flaccid thing without muscle tone, I could just sit on my bum and subsist on diet shakes. If I didn't care about what was fat and what was temporary water weight and just wanted to see the number on the scale go down, I could get myself good and dehydrated before weigh in, just like wrestlers in school did.

But that's not what I want.

My goal isn't to be skinny. It's not to see the number on the scale drop, completely divorced from all other factors. My goal is to be healthy. Part of that involves losing fat, which is helped along by 5:2 and helped further by my HIIT cycling, weights, Shredding, etc. I've pretty much stopped paying attention to the scale or other measurements at this point beyond the one I really find important: how much further can I go today?

I have to agree with Zarthicus.

I have been exercising solidly for the last 14 months for the same reason. Exercise will change your body composition. The problem is a lot of people do extreme amounts of excise and use or to justify poor diet choices. That is why you don't see any change in their overall body.

Me, I did 2 rounds of P90x, 2 rounds of Insanity and 4 rounds of Insanity Asylum in the last 14 months and lost 45 lbs. so don't tell me exercise doesn't work. I personally know it does.

Would I have lost weight just dieting? Probably, but what would I look like underneath all that fat? The exercise has given me a very athletic build and at 40 I have a six pack for the first time in my life. Without exercise I could have lost weight through dieting but I wouldn't have the same body composition. Nor would I be healthier and fitter than I was.

I recently came across the 5:2 diet and I thought it could help become healthier. Weight loss is not the ultimate goal but the other results like reduced insulin levels and IGF1 levels. Having lost a brother to cancer recently this is more important to me than losing weight.

I guess it comes down to what you really want. Skinny with no definition but you hit your goal weight, or athletic and lean at your goal. All exercise really does is help you build that calorie deficit but comes with the bonus of getting you ripped under that fat. It's not a licence to eat what you like.

Just my 2 cents.

This is the opposite to my experience of combining 5:2 and exercise. I have lost 2st in 6 months and my BMI was 24 at the start. I exercise 3x week on average with a calorie burn of about 1200 in total. I lost 22lbs in the first 3 months and reduced the frequency of fasting after that. Exercise does not make me hungry and I often run 10k on a fast day. I am not at all convinced that a lack of exercise would have accelerated my weight loss and I'm sure I would be less toned than I am now.

Once, when I was young, foolish and just overweight, I was talked into doing a 24 hour team running race. I think it was about 120 miles.

That must have been the Hood to Coast!!?

Once, when I was young, foolish and just overweight, I was talked into doing a 24 hour team running race. I think it was about 120 miles.

That must have been the Hood to Coast!!?

Yup. Got a medal and everything.

This is one of the reasons I started strenght training.
- It makes you stronger (which is nice and even good for your self confidence)
- It gives you more 'afterburn' than cardio training (calories burnt the hours after the training)
- It gives you extra muscle mass (which means more muscle needing fuel, also in rest)
- It makes your bones stronger (more bone mass)
- It helps preventing loose skin when losing weight
- It tones your body

For the rest I agree that one shouldn't expect miracles from hours on the tredmill in the gym...

Hi all and Happy Holidays:

Here is a study that talks about exercising off your holiday weight gain: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20131127 ... RSS_PUBLIC

Have a great holiday season, but please remember my signature.

Good Luck!

A very timely reminder Simcoeluv, thank you.

I'm planning to exercise and fast, even if in a modified fashion, over the holiday period.

It's a bit easier in the UK as we don't start with Thanksgiving.

Good luck everyone and here's to an enjoyable, stress-free (but not entirely exercise and fast-free) few weeks.