The FastDay Forum

Hi Izzy,
I too have not lost very much and since I was away on vacation last week I didn't do the 5:2 I feel I have gained everything back. It is especially tough because my husband is doing this wol with me and he has lost close to 30lbs. ( I know he is a man and is expected to lose more than me) I have been doing this since Feb 19th and I thought I would have lost at least a pant size by now but alas I haven't.

One thing that is going against me is my thyroid(I am underactive at one point, then over active but didn't lose weight with it, and now I think I am underactive because of the weight gain. I also take medication that would also make it hard to lose weight with. Do you take any kind of medication? Even though the book says you won't gain weight with the meds, don't believe it as all meds make you gain weight.

Another thing that is going against me is I am premenopausal. Are you at that age too?

I am very dishearten at my progress too but we aren't alone. I am committed to this way and hope the health benefits are outweighing the weight benefits

Hi izzi,
Try not to stress because I'm sure the weight loss will continue eventually. Just read on the forum last night that many 5:2ers have a period of no loss or actual weight gain even though they are being very good with their eating and then out of the blue the weight starts to go again for no apparent reason! So be patient and stick to it and you will be rewarded.
Also one of the side effects of steroids is fluid retention, so an increase in steroid use ( for your RA) may be the cause of the extra weight.

The worst thing you can do right now is anything dramatic. Just think this through and find out why this happened. Subtle changes are what make all the differences.

Just a Big hug being sent your way Izzy as I'm afraid I can't suggest anything other than what has already been said,hope things improve soon x

aw hope that helps

hi Izzy- I too haven't lost as much weight as I want but I found I lost more when I stopped worrying about what I eat on my non-fasting days. It seems counter intuitive to us but I thought one of the big ideas in this whole thing was that we are to eat 'whatever we want' on our non-fasting days. I had fallen into the idea of reducing my calories on the non fast days (thinking it would help) but I understand now that part of how this works is the DIFFERENCE in our intake between fast and non fast days. Sort of the 'shock' to our system. Otherwise we go into starvation mode and that is not sustainable or desirable. Maybe I have this wrong but I lost more weight when I stopped thinking about all this fasting business 5 days per week!

Hi Izzy,

Huge sympathy for your plight... Not sure if any of this helps but:

1. seed bread - aaaaaarrrghh! Many years ago I 'went raw' for health (rather than weight) reasons but did allow a lovely M&S seed bread as a treat at weekends... couldn't understand why the xxx I was tanking on the weight until I finally read the label properly - a single slice was about 300cals plus!!! They were *tiny* slices so I used to eat two (or more) in a sitting - ooops...

2. I hope windsinger will forgive me, but she has a splendid example of a 'plateau defeated' and I sincerely hope that I'll be so tenacious !! tracker.php?p=progress&userid=1398 and I've a vague recollection that CaroRees has been through worse.

Please hang in there and stick with it: at worst you'll at least not be putting *ON* any real weight (#kencc) - onwards and downwards xxxx FatDog

[carorees]

Luckily I haven't had a long plateau as yet so it must be someone else! Tracieknits maybe?

Also be sure to get all your micros in! Your fat too(fat is what the body uses to produce hormones). You can check out choppysreviews(dot)com for different diet plans also!

Izzy I weighed myself this morning and I gained again because of the week off I told you of earlier. So since Feb 19 I have lost a total of 1.2 lbs lol I will try to be more relaxed too about my non fast days and I will see what that will do. Plus I will keep a diary too and get my thyroid tested again. Maybe I am underactive again. Lets keep in touch and see how things work out.

Izzy,
First of all I am very sorry that you are going through this, it is rather stressful and can make you rather depressed, I know... I've been there.
Here's a couple of thoughts...
Any auto-immune is to blame for slowing the metabolism. They are also blamed for water retention. Has your doctor ever talked to you about that? Most of the times I have to take a diuretic once a week in order to get rid off the water I retain (sometimes it is over 2 kilos).
Also, RA and underactive thyroid are two friends that many times show up together (and unannounced, of course), it is wise to check your thyroid once a year when you suffer from an autoimmune such as RA.
Do you eat too much salt? Or salty foods? When I was on steroids, my doctor told me to make sure I don't eat too much salt or sugar, no need for a young, healthy otherwise, person to cut on carbs.
Stress is indeed the worse factor. It increases cortisol which messes with your body in no time. Add cortisol to cortisone and you get a very bad combo going around in your blood vessels.

IME, the only periods that I was losing weight n 5:2 is when I wasn't counting calories or watching what I was eating (although I am always a sensible eater with no more than one exception per week) and when I combined 5:2 with the attack but still wasn't counting calories on any of the 5 days. That proves that stressing over food can be disastrous.

Would you risk stirring things up a bit and don't pay much attention to your food, with the exception of what you must/mustn't eat because you're on steroids? And please check your thyroid. I'm sure that everything will be well in the end!

You could be stuck at your body's 'Set Point'. The theory as I understand it, is that the body gets comfortable at a certain range of weight. You can bounce up and down withing a 10% range of this weight and it doesn't upset anything. But when you try to go outside this range the body tries to get back into that area its comfortable at.

When you think about it, your body, all its glands, all of its automatic functions are set to function with so much body mass, you change that body mass dramatically and you may end up with too much of a hormone floating around, or many unbalanced functions. Even your blood pressure needs will change. So your body tries to stay where it was. Eventually your body will come around to accepting the new weight as its new 'set point' and you can easily lose another 10% of your weight before your body hits 'I don't like this mode' again.
This could explain the plateaus we all get. Persevering as close to the lowered weight as you can, until the body resets its parameters is whats needed, however many weeks this takes.

Izzy. I definitely think its the meds you are on for your arthritis. I bet you are retaining fluid. They are buggers to regulate. Mybe Doc can cut you back a tad if your no in too much pain. Just a thought.

[carorees]

You could be stuck at your body's 'Set Point'. The theory as I understand it, is that the body gets comfortable at a certain range of weight. You can bounce up and down withing a 10% range of this weight and it doesn't upset anything. But when you try to go outside this range the body tries to get back into that area its comfortable at.

When you think about it, your body, all its glands, all of its automatic functions are set to function with so much body mass, you change that body mass dramatically and you may end up with too much of a hormone floating around, or many unbalanced functions. Even your blood pressure needs will change. So your body tries to stay where it was. Eventually your body will come around to accepting the new weight as its new 'set point' and you can easily lose another 10% of your weight before your body hits 'I don't like this mode' again.
This could explain the plateaus we all get. Persevering as close to the lowered weight as you can, until the body resets its parameters is whats needed, however many weeks this takes.

I discovered some interesting papers about the #setpoint concept. It appears to be a matter of some detbate. (click on the hashtag to find the posts I wrote about this research)

CRP DOWN TO FOUR??? FOUR???

Baby, that is WONDERFUL!!!

I understand that nurses and doctors and everybody are convinced that it's the steroids (and other meds) fault but in my experience it is not just that! I am one of those people who LOST weight while on steroids. Rare? Yes. But it proves that they aren't the devil always and sometimes another devil is creeping in behind them and we don't see it because we blame the medication.

It was very hard for me to convince my doctor that something was wrong because I gained only 2 kilos at first and then another 4 (she thought that it wasn't that much and that it was due to medication) but when I did and it was my thyroid she was surprised and I was relieved.

What I'm saying is that it is worth to check other factors, because meds are the easy target but sometimes they are innocent.