The FastDay Forum

All through last winter I trained for my first half marathon and found that once I'd run it I had all this extra weight still. I had been eating extra and think my body didn't actually need all that winter food. Think I saw the book on an Amazon email so downloaded it onto my kindle, found this site, quite by accident and the rest is history. I am amazed that I can still lose weight even when I don't exercise. I have had to give up running for the last couple of months while I sort out an injury and had been running about 15 Miles a week. I now skip breakfast and don't eat extra if I do manage to add some exercise into the day. When I did my first and only other diet (weight watchers) I would exercise for the extra food as my points allowance never filled me up and I always felt deprived of treats. I love that I am able to eat what I want most days and the fast days aren't so bad as I tell myself I can have what I fancy the following day. Go 5:2!!!!!

I read about 5:2 on a baby forum and googled it, then watched the documentary and thought well that seems doable. I'd put on a stone after having my baby and was heavy before I had him and I felt really stretched. I've been obese since about 25 when I piled on weight after a big crash diet where I got to around 10 stone which was far too low for someone of my build and height, that coincided with the end of a long relationship and I just went a bit bonkers with partying, eating and drinking. I was 17 stone ish since then and had reconciled to the fact I was never going to be able to lose the weight and keep it off although I always said I wanted to get to a size 16/18 so I could shop anywhere. After the first month I realised this was all it said it would be and I am amazed when I catch sight of myself in the mirror as I no longer look obese, I look overweight, but I can cope with that and my body is definitely thanking me I feel so much healthier.
Not sure yet what weight I'll end up as but I know this journey will end well and continue on as a maintenance plan probably for life I would imagine. Can't see any need to stop and I'm hoping there are health benefits I can gain along the way apart from the weight loss.

I've been at my current weight of 10st twice in the last 15 years. The first time was after a period on Atkins and the second 3 years ago after 6 months of low carb, alcohol only at weekends and Paul McKenna's I Can Think you thin.
By Last summer the weight had crept back on and I bought size 16 trousers. I went through the autumn in a state of denial, but really not liking my body very much, and decided that the New Year would bring another diet.

I started on Jan 7th at 12st 7lbs with a BMI in the obese range. Things went well and I lost weight then found a reference to 5:2 in a pull-out in the Radio Times (of all things). So I read up, ordered the book, signed on here and started.

The things I like about IF is that it is flexible and sustainable. I have maintained a restricted alcohol intake, and I find I don't want much in the way of carbs, but other than that it has been eating what I like, when I am hungry (that's a Paul Mckenna thing btw). Also at 54 I know that I can't keep yo-yo ing.

Along the way through this group, I have started running and joined parkrun (thanks to Creaky Pete and the folks in that thread); I have also bought a FitBit, got a posh scales for my birthday, spent £45 on Go Walk shoes, discovered Zero Noodles, Tom Yam paste and Sugar Free Werthers Orinals.

Sorry to be a bit long-winded but you did ask

I work for a public TV station and a viewer called up about it after we aired it. I found it online and decided to watch - then started the plan 5 days later!

I was not overweight, though headed there, clothes not fitting and I did not want to go up another size. Plus, in my family there is a history of breast cancer and dementia. I probably am stuck with the (smaller now) buddha belly, but if I can avoid the above plus type 2 diabetes and hypertension (which my mom has and dad had - passed away of a heart attack), I will be a happy camper.

To me this WOL makes a whole lot of sense and if I can stick it out (and it has been 3+ months), I am convinced it'll work.

Reminder - most public TV stations in the U.S. will be airing the MM programs again in August!

Historically I've always turned to Weight Watchers when I've needed to diet....the first time being in 2002 when I got to my ideal goal weight, but then gradually put it all back on. I went back, did the same again and continued to repeat the pattern over the years.

Most recently I lost 3 stone 9lbs and got back to goal in Spring last year - and for the first time managed to maintain for over a year. Lately however I've crept up to 10lbs over my goal and was messing about trying to shift it, losing and gaining the same couple of pounds every other week.

I felt like I'd been counting points for sooooo long that I was just sick of it, and I needed something different. I'd heard about 5:2 and read up about it online before deciding to give it a go. It's early days yet but so far so good, and it's taken the guilt out of eating for me already. It's flexible and fits in with real life which makes it liveable and sustainable long term. I think I'm converted!!

I'm here because I was really rocking a sensible diet with loads of exercise, and it didn't work for me. I was working out 5x a week, eating really healthfully and not losing weight! It felt really hopeless. Sure I was fit, but also still fat.

As soon as I saw "Eat, Fast and Live Longer," I fasted the very next day! I didn't tell anyone, not even my DH, I just had to try it first. It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, and now 16 weeks in, it really is... I'm not sure what the scales say, as I don't own any, but I feel like my efforts are slowly paying off!

I guess I was looking for that pay off in the way I look. I want the way I look to reflect the good things I do for my body... and it was really feeling hopeless! So I was also looking for something to give me some hope.

I feel a little more hopeful now... and though it's early on, and I am not dropping weight like some here (I can tell that, I haven't shrunk out of my clothing yet), I do feel like, ever so slowly, things are starting to change in my body. And I'm still tinkering. Now fasting without food until dinner, this week I took on another fast day to see if it would shift the speed of weight lost... so I'm still working on finding what works for me, but I like it. Oh, how I love not being so desperate for food! Knowing I can eat later, that's been the real weight lost!

My BP was up and it was looking like pills were needed.

I was also half-fat!

I didn't have a last straw, I've been really unhappy with my weight for years but struggled to do anything about it. I frequently tried calorie restriction but could not stick to it long term, certainly never long enough to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off. I read about 5:2 in all the newspapers in January as it was this year's big New Year diet craze. It appealed to me because one day is about the longest I can stick to any eating plan LOL Anyway, it works for me (despite a recent slow down) and I'm a complete convert, I see no reason to not keep eating this way

My last straw came when I was sitting in the surgeons office listening to him tell me that if he could he would operate on my neck prolapse (which had squished inward crushing my spinal cord) but he couldn't. I had two options, lose weight so the anesthetist would be happy, or within 5 years become progressively paralyzed whilst suffering increased amounts of pain and decreasing levels of movement.
I immediately started calorie counting and had failed, miserably, within 2 weeks, actually putting on 3lb in that 2 weeks. Then a friend on Facebook pointed me towards Dr.Mosleys horizon program and I was hooked. I have always believed that its easier to go 'cold turkey' ie. fast for dieting, than the relentless grind of calorie counting and its variants.
So far I am completely happy with this WOE, and plan to continue past my operation to an ultimate target weight, and beyond for maintenance.

Reading your stories is much more fun than working!

I had already fasted for one day. It was after a long weekend of eating and partying and I had decided to eat only two bowls of porridge all day. I was after my dinner and under 500 calories when my friend told me that her hubby did 5:2 and lost a stone in a month. I thought "why not?" and that was it.

Reading your stories is much more fun than working!

Work? Work? No, it's time for me to go home now... Darn!

Catch up with y'all later!

I've lost and regained up to 3 stones two or three times in the last 30 years, ending up last spring at my heaviest ever 15.5 stone (I'm 5' 3"). I had pretty much lost my courage, thinking it was all hopeless. However, I am fortunate to be within the area covered by an NHS dietetics team that offers 1-2-1 sessions and weigh-ins for those with a BMI over 30 (mine was 37 last year). I suceeded in getting down to 12 stone by last Christmas just through calorie counting, and more exercise to feel better. But then the weight loss slowed to a crawl even though I really need to lose another 2 stone. So I switched to 5:2 in April, after a couple of false starts. Now I'm about another half stone down and feel much more in control. The long time period also means that I'm slowly gaining confidence I can manage this WOL for the rest of my life. Feeling a lot happier these days.

Busting out of my size 16 trousers, with my XL tops popping open I was under no illusion I was on a slippery slope. I knew I was carrying surplus 15 kilograms which had not shifted over a period of 20 years. Tried a few weight loss fads since my twenties and the most effective a version of Atkins but by 4 months I was thinner, exhausted and my gp scolded me back onto carbs. The weight came back. Have always tried to grow herbs and veggies, cook from scratch, slow food style and eat well but my extra weight remained stuck to me

Already in the habit of seasonal weekend juice detox fasts from chemicals, dairy and wheat, vague media filtering of a 2 day fasting diet reached me In Feb this year and I knew I could do this thing. The rest is history, brought MM & Mimi book and I was straight into 5:2. Not a smooth run but loving this WOE and learning about whys and wherefores of sustaining 5:2 for life and enjoying the good company also on the journey

I've dieted for so long I just got fed up. We eat a heathy diet but obviously too much. I also exercise but I was slowly getting bigger. I spent most of summer squeezing into the one pair of pants that fitted. Then at the beginning of February I heard someone on ABC radio talking about a newspaper article that then led him to start 5:2. I looked the article up then found the documentary and finally the book and started straight away. Told DH about it thinking he would think oh no not another diet but no he came along for the ride.
Now my clothes fit again. I'm enjoying cooking all the things that I had banned from my diet. If I lose more then good if I just keep maintaining then so be it. It was so good to turn fifty this year without feeling fat and frumpy.