The FastDay Forum

I've been a student of the dieting process for quite a while now, and one thing that has become crystal clear to me is that most diets, no matter how well they work to cause weight loss, are extremely tough to maintain. I haven't been fasting long enough to understand what makes fasting hard to sustain for more than a year or two, so I am posing this question to those of you who have been at it longer than I have.

I see people coming back to the forum and mentioning regain. I am certain there are many more lurkers who have gone through the same thing--gratifying weight loss followed by regains that they blame on personality flaws like weak will or gluttony.

My take on regain is what the science shows--that significant weight gain via any method changes our food-related hormones in a way that impel us to make up for the lost fat and put on some extra to prepare for the next famine--since the body, trained by millions of years of evolution--interprets the diet period as a famine and is not tricked by alternate day fasting or any of the other hacks we try.

So if you have regained, could you explore here what changed that made it so much harder not to eat.

Were you thinking about food more? (a brain chemistry thing linked to leptin levels, among other factors.)

Were you more physiologically hungry? (Also hormonal)

Did you think "I lost weight so easily that it will be easy to get rid of any that I put back on?" while forgetting that the last few pounds you lost were far harder to lose than the first ten or fifty?

Did your energy level drop after a long period of weight loss? This happened to me and it seems to be due to a little known change in thyroid hormone that doesn't show up in tests but really can make you feel half dead all the time.

Did you get pressure from your family or spouse to put weight back on? This happens far more often than you might realize, especially if said family and friends are heavy and not inclined to do anything about it.

Did it just seem like too much trouble?

Were you derailed by life problems that sent you back to comfort eating?

Did you find that the rewards of losing weight didn't live up to your expectations? This is quite common. People think they will have a brand new, much better life if their bodies look better. Then, when they end up being the same old person, just skinnier, they can become depressed. Dealing with wrinkles, ropy necks, batwings and fat aprons that come with significant weight loss or weight loss post-menopause can further demotivate previously successful dieters.

These are just some issues. There are more that many of you are probably dealing with or will deal with in the future. Let's bring them out into the sunshine and see what we are dealing with!

There is too much focus on the glory of losing weight easily in all online forums, to the point where people who aren't living the dream tend to shut up and feel like failures. But it is these "failures" who actually have the most to teach us about successful dieting, because those who don't blame themselves for failure, but explore what actually causes it, in ways that can help them find workarounds that make them more successful, can really help the rest of us who will be dealing with the same issues as time goes on.

Hi

I dropped out for personal reasons last autumn and regained all the weight I had lost. For me it was stress eating and nothing else. I knew that I had to get myself back under control but was going through so much that I couldn't face my weight problems as well.

Things have improved recently and as my personal life sorted itself out I began to think about my health and weight again. I only started fasting again this week and already feel so much more happy with myself. It does help of course that you do tend to loose a lot of weight in the first few weeks, its' a psychological boost for me.

Having tried a lot of traditional diets before, I never could face trying them again after dropping out. Fasting is different as I don't really see it as a diet more as a choice to eat less and get myself back in control.

I haven't put any weight back on from this WOE-but the reason I needed 5:2 was joining in with my OH comfort eating after a major back op and difficult recovery period-not helped by the fact that it was around Christmas so plenty to be tempted by.
I'm now maintaining and so far so good despite OH having more problems.

I am now more than 2 years into this way of life and almost 18 months maintaining my weight loss. I could cry when I read that folk lost their way, put all the weight back on and are now back and finding it harder second time round. I am constantly aware that it only takes something unforeseen to throw you off track and wham! back at the bottom of the fat mountain before you knew what happened. I dread ever finding myself in that position because I've been there many times in the past and I'm pinning my hopes on IF keeping me on the straight and narrow for the rest of my life. Only time will tell so I keep my fingers well crossed for myself and for everyone else who is still battling their way up the mountain. Sorry, Peebles, this did not answer any of your questions and even though I've lost my way after other weight loss regimes I suppose I found them all too restricting to live with on a permanent basis but not IF, I find this easy to live with

Ballerina x

@Alexandra,

Thanks for sharing your experience! I am so glad to hear that you are seeing the weight come back off again. With other diets when I went back, the weight did not come off fast the second time for me even though I ended up at my original starting weight, so I am treating my current success with 5:2 as a "one time only" thing.

It's funny how some people gain weight when life falls apart and others do the opposite. I gain weight when I'm happy, and lose, without trying, when stressed. I've been happy a lot more than unhappy since my late 40s, which is fortunate for my life, but not so much for my waistline. I wish I had known when I was younger how much happier I would be when I became--to the eyes of youth--old, wrinkly and fat! My twenties, when I had a figure to die for, were pure hell, not the least because of the kinds of men having a figures like that attracts.

@Ballerina,

If you've been through this cycle with other diets you know why I am so concerned about it. And I do appreciate your response. I'm only 5 months into this diet, but I have done the whole regain thing myself in the past with other diets I had stuck to for a long time, and when I did crash off--after 3 years of being TOO perfect resulting in mega-burnout--getting it back off was far, far tougher than losing it the first time.

I think one reason I am so concerned with this question is that this diet seems almost TOO easy to me, so I keep wondering if there is some kind of catch that is going to bite me in the future.

My situation is a bit different. My OH works away for 12 weeks then 12 home. Usually when he is home there is something happening, this time our daughters wonderful wedding and a holiday to Cuba which was fab!! So whilst he is away I do 5:2 carefully, but still enjoy the joys of life including red wine!
When he is home I do my uttermost hardest best to maintain...16:8 and one fast day...usually I gain a few pounds but over time each time he returns I am down again not massive but defiantly down!..the reason being I use 5:2 to my advantage, it works and I can be in control...long post sorry..it's been ages since I posted and I am not sure if this helps either!!

@Joey bear,

Your post does help, as you have a unique challenge with that kind of schedule!

I've found that problems with my husband not supporting my diets can really screw things up. Eating out together is one of the things we love to do, and when I have been on restrictive diets in the past, it made it really tough for him because I couldn't find anything I wanted to eat at most of the places he enjoyed eating, or I would bum out watching people eat stuff I wasn't supposed to eat. Plus I was always lecturing him about what was and was not healthy to eat. Terribly boring--especially since he is fit and trim and healthy!

So two days a week of not eating with me works out okay for him. Three might be pushing it. I am fasting today, so he just made himself a batch of chili. Tomorrow we'll go out somewhere for a treat.

It's great you have been able to work the fasts and window in to your lifestyle in a way that makes it possible to enjoy it. That is one of the huge benefits of this diet and what makes it seem more sustainable.

I'm just curious what leads to burn out on it. However, one challenge with that is that no one has been on this diet long enough to reach the burnout stage for the diet itself. For low carb diets, which I have more experience with, that seems to take as long as three years, but when it hits after that, it can hit really hard.

Has anyone here hit the wall with intermittant fasting after a year or two, as in "I just can't go through another day fasting?"

I'm approaching 2 years ( in November) and ( fingers crossed) see no sign of burn out or a wall. When I come back from holiday ( when I don't fast for some of the reasons you give re keeping other half company) as I recently have I always wonder if it is going to be extra hard to get back into it but it seems quite natural now - long may that continue

After a few months I tend to reach a point of not wanting to bother and give myself a month off. Except after a couple of weeks I miss it, the clearness, the clarity of thought, the light feeling, the energy rise, so I get back to 5:2 straight away :9)

I have got to goal weight 3 times with weight watchers, and I am just a pound or two off goal now using 5:2. I am very interested in the replies here as I losing weight is not my difficulty, but maintaining it will be. In the past I felt good about myself when at goal and felt I deserved and could have treats. I stopped counting points or logging/tracking food. Who could sustain that for life! So of course the weight crept back on. Each time I have got to goal I have learned a little bit more about dieting and good nutrition.

I have had a good long hard look at myself and my habbits even before starting this WOE. In Nov 2013 I began eating meat again after 24 yesrs of being veggie. I looked into paleo and radically reduced the processed crap in my diet that I thought was healthy, but actually making me fatter. Things like tinned beans, cereals or yogurts with loads of sugar/sugar substitute, processed cheese, breads, pasta, etc.. I also started to realise that TV made me fat, as I had a habbit of treating myself in the evening when the kids went to bed. I finally I realised that I am losing muscle, slowing metabolism and starting to age.

I hope I have enough info and tools to be able to maintain for life this time as 5:2 is a way of life for me now. I would hope to keep using the tools I have learned. I will fast as my weight increases by 2lbs. If I have a special meal or feastday/event I will fast before and perhaps afterwards. For weeks away or holidays I will use eating windows, and fasting on return. I am also a lot more active now and have continued running after the c25k programme ended. I really need to get cracking on some strength training soon, as I have lots of empty baggy skin now! Perhaps I should post here in a year to report how I got on. Plans are not the same as reality!

@Lil,

That is such an encouraging report! Thanks!

@azureblue

It's really good to know that the feeling of rediscovering the benefit of a fast day keeps persisting!

@scubachick,

The one plus I can see is that I am pretty much eating what I want most of the time, so that tendency you nailed to reward myself at goal by eating all the food I did NOT eat during the diet shouldn't be so big a challenge.

If anything, having eaten my share of pizza, fried chicken (which I hadn't eaten for a decade!), baked beans, granola, and other previously off-limit foods, while losing weight, I have less motivation to eat them. For starters, most of them aren't all that exciting after the first few times.

Nice thread @peebles. I have regained 14lbs since Christmas yet I still fast a minimum of two days a week. My reasons for the gain are simple. I overeat beyond my TDEE on non fast days.

Moving to the US, it has taken me a while to adjust to portion sizes, weird additives in food here, travelling, longer working hours and generally not being in control of my own environment. I have also had alot of personal stress in my life on top of taking on a new job and a new country and have become lax in watching what I eat. There has only been a couple of weeks when I have not fasted because of stuff going on so I have not reached burn out or hit a wall.

The punchline is that whilst my TDEE is only 1400 cals per day, I regularly eat around 1800-1900 cals a day. For many people, that aint much anyway, but for me, I'm not creating enough of a calorie deficit on fast days to mitigate that amount of overeating.

To address this, I stopped drinking alcohol 3 months ago completely, fast three days a week and gone back to a largely paleo lifestyle. I'm still not losing, but I'm not gaining either. This week I started training hard at the gym with a personal trainer, so I'm hoping that might assist. I know I will need to up my protein intake for this next stage, which to be frank I'm not very happy about, but I need to build muscle and shed fat.

Great thread,thanks
I am a serial dieter.started with ww at age of 17! And if I tell you what I weighed you would weep
I can't believe my parents let me diet.then I went through years of what I now see was 16/8
I only had dinner most days and weighed nothing. Then I had children and struggled for years to lose 10 pounds.i have tried every single diet out there.i lose the weight and regain.
I fasted last year then gave it up when I went on holiday and just couldn't find the discipline to fast agin
So in answer to you question about re gaining ,I don't know
I tend to lose weight on holiday....probably cos we walk a lot and I don't snack
I would love to know why I regain and then struggle so much to lose
I have said before that I am a very healthy eater...seldom eat junk ,don't binge,exercise every day
I have had thyroid problems but blood tests are normal now

I would love to know why I struggle so to lose a few kilos
Maybe it's cos of years of dieting ,maybe it's cos I eat too much healthy food,but I doubt that or snack too much
Maybe I am one of those who gains when they are happy
Ballerina ,you are my role model.i love reading your posts ,keeps me on track
Here's a thought ,though
My yoga teacher said when you are too attached to the outcome that's when you don't get what you want
Maybe I want this too much..should just let it go like when I am on holiday
Sorry for going on so ...

@rawkaren,

A move of that kind must be incredibly stressful. I'm an American, but visiting the West Coast leaves me shaken, too. All that overwhelming traffic and population density! And FWIW, they seem to eat pretty weirdly there to me, just coming from rural New England. A visit to the West Coast is great for reminding me of why I live where I live even though we have such wretched winters.

That low TDEE is difficult. Mine isn't much higher, but with the two fasts I am losing, rather miraculously, which suggests that my actual TDEE is probably higher, because I am eating alot closer to 1650-1700 than 1400 on my non-fast days.

But it is possible that the stress hormones from the move have intervened. If injected cortisone can cause dramatic weight loss, it would be no surprise if the homemade kind that get secreted in response to severe life stress does too.

Hope your training helps. When I did that some years ago I didn't lose any weight, but I looked a whole lot better at the same weight.

@Sarahg,

I have heard from so many people with thyroid issues that the tests can say they are fine when they really aren't. There is a lot of controversy about the levels doctors define as normal and how they test for them. So it is possible that you may be fighting unbalanced hormones, and if that is the case, it would explain some of your difficulty with regaining.

The other issue might be higher than normal blood sugar that isn't rising to the level that doctors flag. This is a known problem, if your blood sugar is rising after every meal quite steeply and then plummetting it can make you very hungry. People with thyroid conditions are often insulin resistant and hence suffer those kinds of blood sugar swings.

If that is the case, you might find life easier if you cut back on the starches and sugars that cause those blood sugar swings. Fasting is a LOT harder if you are having blood sugar swings on your non-fasting days as they will make you prone to low blood sugar and that makes people ravenous.

Doctors are pretty useless for helping with weight-related metabolic problems. Unless your dysfunction is severe, it may not show up on the tests, but it will show up in the inability to lose weight.

I lost almost 25kg in 9 months on IF (usually 4:3), and was ecstatic to reach my goal weight last December shortly before my Xmas holiday. Since then, I've gained on every holiday (on these holidays, I've always taken a break from fasting), and have never managed to get back to goal weight, even though I fast 3-4 times a week (ADF or 4:3). Having said that, I haven't regain anywhere near all the weight I lost, and I'm usually at most 3.5kg above goal. So.. not great, but not the end of the world.

Fasting feels easy for me--it's something I can always fall back on when things get out of control. It's not something I want to be doing as frequently as I'm doing it now, though.

The thing I am struggling with is non-fast days. For most of my time losing weight, I didn't struggle on non-fast days. My appetite in general was reduced and I was eating healthier, with the occasional treat. I didn't feel deprived.

Lately, though, I've been falling into the comfort eating/self-sabotage trap. It's really silly. I don't feel well afterwards, physically or psychologically. I'm pretty sure once I get my life a bit more sorted, it will be easier to return to good, healthy non-fast days. In the meantime, I'll fast as often as I need to in order to keep my weight more or less in check.

I got a bit obsessed for awhile about things like adaptive thermogenesis and the famine effect, but honestly speaking, I don't think that's the problem. My weight loss slowed toward the end, probably because of easily explained loss of TDEE do to weight loss (i.e., without invoking adaptive thermogenesis or anything else). I'm not eating because I'm ravenously hungry (I have those moments, but I go for healthy stuff at those times).