The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

Hi scrappee and welcome!

What is causing your uncertainty, please? I am also on blood pressure meds and have lost 10% of my body weight following the 5:2 lifestyle. I am increasingly feeling lightheaded especially after exercising on both fast and feed days and I suspect my blood pressure has dropped so I've booked an appointment with my GP to check and hopefully lower the dose of meds.

I am also on low dose BP med. I haven't noticed light headedness but as am only on week three of this WOE perhaps I should be prepared for this possibility now you have pointed it out Caroline. I will have my annual mot soon and really hoping to see a reduction in my BP as a result of this WOE. It would be great to come off the meds but GPs tend to be reluctant to let you come off BP meds apparently as they usually state it is the meds that are helping to achieve the reduced blood pressure of course!

[carorees]

Anne, I've only noticed these symptoms since adding in a HIT exercise session 3x per week. I've been following the diet since the end of October and did see a small decrease in BP before Xmas. Of course, the doc may find it's something else causing the dizziness!

Hi Caroline, I think just reading through the posts on a number of pages I get the feeling that 'some' people feel that weight loss is the reason why people's health improves and not the fasting aspect for example suchards post on page one of this thread.

In the past my bp has always come down when increasing exercise too.

I think after all my failures in the past I just wanted to focus on the healthy aspects of this way of eating but feel now that there is a lot of focus on weight reduction as this does appear to work and the health benefits are a plus.

In my head I am now thinking oh no another diet, whereas I began thinking this was a positive step that I could take to a healthy way of living and the weight loss would be secondary. Hope you understand what I mean.

[carorees]

The problem is that being overweight has so many detrimental influences on our bodies that separating the fasting benefits from the weight loss benefits is very difficult.

However, having said that, many of the studies in animals have been in normal weight individuals who have shown increased lifespan. The benefits of fasting in promoting repair will, we hope, reduce the risk of cancer and of dementia. Also there are many normal weight people who develop cardiovascular problems and fasting should help that too.

I do think that by fasting we are improving our health and yes the weight loss benefits are a great extra, but as we can't measure most of the benefits ourselves, we are left with measuring weight or waist circumference as an indicator of success.

If I find my blood pressure has indeed decreased then the fasting will have been worth it whether or not I lose any more weight.

My bp is definitely down. I am not a serial dieter & wasn't really wanting to diet. I yo yo dieted in my 20's and then decided to not anymore so I've been a fairly stable 14st for the last 10 years. Weight crept up to 15st over the last year & bp has gone up. Started this to avoid medication.

Even if you are happy larger you can't get away from the fact extra weight causes problems. My sister is an OT & her argument is that once mobility decreases, weight shoots up. So I would say give this a go & if you don't like it, stop but there's nothing to lose. It's very empowering in some ways.