The FastDay Forum

@Lori, @peeblesmade a good point--if you look at your TDEE for your goal weight, and you don't feel you can restrict yourself to that (or about, assuming you'll continue one or two fasts a week for maintenance) forever, perhaps your goal is unrealistic. I think your comment that "my body likes being this weight" is right on; sometimes we need to allow our bodies to readjust. After a couple months with good loss (but I hadn't just lost a bunch of weight like you!), my weight loss has slowed to a crawl. See my blog post https://forum.fastday.com/blog/ferretgal/this_is_truly_a_way_of_life..._b-2911.html for more about that. Today was my once monthly weigh in (first Friday of each month), and I'd lost another 2.8lbs. But even if I hadn't, I wouldn't have abandoned 5:2, for the reasons detailed in the blog post. I bet a lot of us would love those muscles of yours! (I'm 58 with birthday 59 coming week after next.)

Unfortunately, between societal expectations and years of dieting, a lot of us have warped ideas about what is a desirable weight (=healthy & attractive, not necessarily waiflike or anorexic!). Sounds like you've got the equation pretty balanced to me! For me, I'll continue with 5:2, not because I think it'll make me skinny (though one can always hope! ), but because it's the only method I've found I can sustain long-term, plus that is very flexible (sometimes to a fault; some find it not prescriptive enough... ).

@Lori, take a look at this graph http://www.weightymatters.ca/2015/01/this-is-what-7-years-of-real-life.html?m=1 , has been posted in this forum before, but it really drives home the point that significant long-term weight loss isn't necessarily fast or consistent.

@Lori, take a look at this graph http://www.weightymatters.ca/2015/01/this-is-what-7-years-of-real-life.html?m=1 ...really drives home the point that significant long-term weight loss isn't necessarily fast or consistent.

That post from Yoni Freedhoff is one of my all-time favourite posts. It just reads like a slice of *real life* and I keep wanting to quote the following:

The fact that her loss is anything but a straight line is pretty damn normal because truly nothing in life is a straight line.

What's not normal, or at least what isn't common, is that year and a half segment from the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2010 where her weight pretty much stayed the same. Not that people's weights can't or don't stabilize, but rather that most folks who are trying to manage their weights tend to give up if the scale doesn't keep going down.

Of course had she given up back then she probably wouldn't have gone on to lose 50 more pounds and may well have regained the 35 or so she had lost before her weight first stabilized.

Weight loss is about embracing your own personal best....

All this to say, and I've said it before, success is about consistency, embracing imperfection, and being proud of your best, where your best is the healthiest life that you can enjoy living, not the healthiest life that you can tolerate.

Her best, and yours, are great, and scales can't help you to determine what your best is. [Emphasis added.]

Thank you all for your thoughtful and helpful posts. It helped my attitude to post my thoughts in this forum. Would you believe that I lost 3.4 lbs this week?! Maybe just relaxing about the whole thing was just the ticket!

My average weekly loss is about a half pound. Slow, yes, but I really feel that it is pure fat loss and that my precious muscle is being preserved and even increasing. I am a 5:2 enthusiast and am anxious to see what the coming year will bring.

Thanks again!