The FastDay Forum

I've been on all sorts of diets and they all work as long as you stick to them. I'd gained the weight and then some from the last diet I'd been on. I'd had enough of dieting. So I just gave up dieting and ate what the hell I wanted when I wanted.

Despite being so overweight I've never had any health complications. If I had I might probably have done something sooner. This year I turned 40 and I decided I needed to try a diet of some kind. Some of my family have been doing 5:2 with various levels of success. So I thought I'd buy the book and see what it was all about.

It sounded simple enough to follow. There were no fees or clubs involved which also appeals a lot. Dieting has always been such a costly affair in the past. This diet is actually saving money on the weekly budget rather than making it more expensive.

So hubby and I started at the end of August and I'm 8.5kg lighter so far and he's lost 7kg. He managed to get back into a healthy BMI after one week but I've got a long way to go. I expect it will be a long journey but this really seems to fit in with real life.

That's what I think is great about this WOE - so many people on these forums are here because we have struggled to lose weight all our adult lives (certainly me) and yet this seems completely sustainable for so many people on here - contrary to some of the criticism I've seen levelled at this WOE in the media. For the first time EVER I feel like I'm in control of my eating and my appetite and not the other way round - and reading the stories of people on here who are succeeding and getting healthier along the way is really motivating. I hate organisations like WW - they make big money out of people's misery and I don;t want to buy into it. Er...this has turned into a rant!

Two weeks previously I had been sitting in my Spinal surgeons office being told I would be paralysed from the shoulders down within 5 years if I didn't have surgery. But I couldn't have surgery because of my weight. So pretty please lose enough weight so surgery could be done.

I spent 2 weeks following a calorie controlled diet and just ended up sobbing because I knew I couldn't do it, AGAIN. So many failures, at least 2 attempts a year, every year for 25 years, to lose weight and I only ever ended failing yet again. But this time it was extremely important and I was terrified of the consequences.

A friend on Facebook mentioned the 5:2 diet and pointed me towards Dr. Mosleys video. I was hooked and 'knew' I could do this. I had always bemoaned that you couldn't go 'cold turkey' ie. fast, to lose weight, it would be so much easier than counting and weighing and THINKING about food all day every day, especially all that lovely food that you would probably never have again. That plus the fact that on any diet it was going to take me between 2 and 3 years to lose all I wanted to, although I only needed 'just' 40 to 50lb for the anesthetist to be happy.

7 months down the line, I am back on the lists for surgery, though I haven't had the date yet. I will keep on losing weight as I have a long way to go to get to a health BMI. But this WOE has given me so much control and taken away the ever present guilt and feelings of inadequacy that repeated failures at dieting had given me.

I had lost about 20lb through WW, had a break and regained 7lb quickly but really did not want to return to WW, as they just pushed their products which I had never really eaten before, diet versions full of additives...a few people at work started 5:2 so I watched the programme and thought yes I can do this...I cannot remember being this weight and will continue with this way of eating..love being in control for the first time!

When my dad told me that his brother had mentioned my weight gain to him. My uncle wanted to know 'why I had done it to myself' and commented that I used to be so beautiful. When my dad told me, I initially thought it was a pretty horrid thing to say but now, at 3 stone ,1 lbs lighter than when I was at my heaviest I am so so glad! I don't see my uncle very often either as he lives a good 200 miles away so I can't WAIT to see him again!

You know it takes a huge dose of courage to acknowledge that negative opinions may have some basis in fact. Congratulations for accepting the feedback and doing something about it. I'm sure you're going to have a great visit with your uncle one of these days and he is going to be thrilled about your success.

I have always struggled with being a bit 'podgy' - never obese, just always a bit bigger than I wanted. I lost 1 1/2 stone with weight watchers about 7 or 8 years ago, and then about 3 years ago went back and lost the stone I'd regained and another half. Then I dwindled further in the run up to my wedding in sept 2011 and hit the scales at an all time low of 8st 9lb - from a high of 11 1/2 stone (I'm 5' 5"). I felt amazing on my wedding day and vowed to keep slim... of course the honeymoon happened, 5lb straight on and then the weight just crept back on again over time. I would lose some through diet & exercise (running up to 10k at a time) then it would creep back up when I took my eye off the ball or had a single meal out. I felt exhausted with the obsession of it all and realised I was moaning all the time about food and boring my lovely new husband to tears!

In May I met someone at a crochet class who was doing 5:2 - immediately had the reaction of 'oooh I could NEVER do that' although I was intrigued. I then saw the book in a 'help yourself' box at work the very next week and duly helped myself. I read it cover to cover that day and did my first fast the very next day, even though we were going away for a week the following week. In 2 fasts I lost 5lb and although I regained most of that on holiday, it soon came back off again and I'm now hovering just over the 9st mark (where I have been for a while and was becoming a bit frustrated but have totally chilled out about it now, since I had a break from it). I don't know if I'll lose any more but at the moment I feel great, I love having the freedom to enjoy meals out and hearty food with my 'skinny and needs to eat huge meals' husband but also keep control of my weight.

I wish I'd figured out years ago that it is possible to miss breakfast, and even lunch on the same day and not die! I've had times when 5:2 has felt like a slog but really overall its been amazing and I've stuck to it so much more easily than anything else, mainly because I know nothing is forbidden, I don't count points or calories (even on fast days now, I'm more relaxed) and if I really want it, I can have it (or have it tomorrow!)

Sorry for long post, not been on here for a while so getting a splurge out to make up for lost time!!!

I agree with so many points made on here. I weighed nearly 23 stone and I was fat and not very happy but I'd tried so many times to lose weight that I'd given up trying to make a difference. Someone on a chicken forum mentioned this diet and forum so I came over to be nosy and the rest they say is history!

I cannot believe that I have lost so much weight in such a short amount of time and I know this is sustainable for me I love this WOE I have had lots of compliments and it's encouraged me to get fitter (have just jogged for 30 mins!) I can't wait to lose more weight and just be overweight and not obese any more and I feel this is really achievable and not just vague hope!

Due to menopause, some illnesses and meds, the kg have crept up on me. But every time I reached my point of no returned, I have fought a few of them of. But the urning point was when I saw pics of myself in Florida (last January) and my thought was "Irealy look fat". Not fat fat, but too much and I went of strong liquor, beer and most snacks and dropped a few kg. But when I read about 5:2 early this summer I thought that this is something I can do without having to give it all up and started out "softly" (= not keeping the 500kcal rigorously), but since like 5-6 weeks I do try to keep them to the best of my ability. Friday is weight and measure time, then we'll know.

I saw a photo of myself, I looked fat, heck I was fat.
I went on holiday, I felt fat, I was fat.

Now I'm not so fat

I knew I was overweight, I have been so several times in my life (as have most of us I guess). We got me a new youngster (horse) & I had to be at a certain weight to be able to back him (used to be called 'breaking in').

So, I was going to do it. Except that 4 months later I knew nothing was changing. I slept badly, I was generally unhappy (read depressed) until early one morning (see at what time I joined) I found this forum. There was no turning back.

Thanks to this forum I backed my babe & have had the most fabulous summer & am now happy & healthy.

THANK YOU 5:2 FORUM FRIENDS

My tipping point...
I had an endoscopy in 2004 because I was suffering from prolonged bouts of indigestion and my dad had been diagnosed with oesophagial cancer the year before - so the doctor sent me for an endoscopy as a precaution. The results came back as "nothing to worry about"...
A couple of weeks back I visited the doctor to get some forms signed and saw that my medical records stated that I had suffered from mild oesophagitus at the time of the endoscopy. When I mentioned it, the doctor said it was nothing to be concerned about but I feel differently...
Dad only lived another five years after his diagnosis and operation - I still suffer from indigestion.
I do not want to pass from this planet in the same way as my dad did, and seeing that medical report was a bit of kick up the jacksy. It probably is nothing to worry about, but if I don't do something now, history may repeat itself and shuffle me off this mortal coil before I'm good and ready to be shuffled...
...I have control issues

When I see myself in a mirror I'm completely unable to resist putting on my "Blue Steel" Derek Zoolander face, and usually succeed in lying to myself I'm very handsome.

But I guess I always knew all these pictures of my fatty face told the truth, and I got a little fatter every year, losing weight now and then through some arbitrary burst of will power and getting it back when I ran out of steam.

And of course, the last few years so many people around me have developed serious health problems, it's getting obvious we're not so young anymore. I've been lucky in having perfect health so far, but the reality of getting older is catching up.

Tipping point? My girlfriend and I happened to watch the MM documentary, and just thought it seemed like a decent way of life. We started 5:2 the next day.

It was putting on some clothes that should have been loose, combined with seeing the show and thinking that my weight gain over the years had been similar to Michael Mosley's (half a kilo a year since I'd got married). Plus there was some weight from the babies I didn't shift. I didn't/don't have any of the 'other' health issues, so this woe has been completely for weight loss. It's worked for me because it's sustainable - I just can't calorie restrict for a long time.

I've lost a total of 8 kilos (6 on this woe) and on someone who is only 5'2" that's quite a bit. I'm still not skinny, but am small and for the first time ever I feel comfortable in swimmers. I've been maintaining now for a couple of months, have holidayed - gained and lost - it's all good!

What a lot of wonderful posts. It's amazing how many of us have done WW or similar and then put the weight back on. I've been dieting forever but the weight still crept up and up. Spent last summer with one pair of summer pants that fitted and refusing to buy bigger ones as I was so fed up with my weight. Heard a local radio announcer mention he had just started 5:2 so I researched, kindled the book, watched the documentary and started with hubby straight away.
Not lost heaps but I now fit in my clothes again and I'm much happier.