The FastDay Forum

Morning,

feeling rather down in the dumps today - 4th week of 5:2. Doing it with my husband and to date he has lost 9lb (possibly more) and I have lost a grand total of 2lb!

Every week on the morning after the 2nd fast day he hops on the scales and yet again the weight has dropped off. Me - I wait in trepidation to see if the scales will reveal anything at all.

And what is even more annoying is that I am the one going to the gym - he keeps saying he will and never does and yet looses weight!!

Ok rant over - any advice, we eat the same on fast days, all nicely weighted out and measured. Is it just has being larger he loses it more easily or am i doing someting wrong??

Confused and sad, on a wet friday moring, any suggestions welcome.

If you eat the same on fast days, he probably has a much larger calorie deficit than you do.

Add to that, when you work out at the gym, you're building muscles. Muscles weigh a lot, and also swell with water after exercise, which adds plenty of weight.

Instead of comparing yourself to your husband who is in a different situation, take pride in losing weight. Well done on losing two pounds and also getting in shape at the gym!

I recommend measuring your waist every week, because that will clearly show you how you are losing fat, regardless of muscles and water weight.

maybe you could give us something to go on like your weight, bmi and height? oh, and hubby's!

Hi Erappers,

There can be many reasons why you may not be losing weight from hugely exceeding your TDEE to consistently under eating so you end up in starvation mode.

Some medical conditions may affect your weight loss e.g. thyroid, PCOS, ovarian cysts etc

How are your clothes fitting? Are they fitting any better? Did you take your measurements prior to starting 5:2 e.g. waist, hips etc?

You haven't included your stats in your profile but if you have very little weight to lose and you normally eat well then you will lose weight slower (generally speaking).

You mention you have lost 2lbs in four weeks. There have been times where I have only lost 1kg (approx. 2 lbs) in a month and I was not worried as a loss is a loss and although some people do lose weight quickly there are a lot of us out here that are on the slow and steady wins the race program. The most weight I have lost in one month has been 1.5kg which is approx. 3 lbs. So not everyone can lose weight quickly. (me included).

If you think about it if you lose 2 lbs a month for six months then you will 12 lbs lighter in six months time.

hths

I have to admit the same thing happened to me and my husband - and I too went to the gym and he didn't....I put it down to the fact that I am always on a diet of some shape or form and he never diets so his body is more reactive! I am trying to stick with it and need some motivation too as I really wanted to have shifted a good stone before the summer and sadly it hasnt happened as quickly as I would have liked. Good luck and stick with it...

Erappers.
Get yourself across to 5:2Lab section.
Loads of ideas across there, will surely help you.

Thanks for all the info.

140lbs - will def check out the 5:2 lab section.

dhana - I am 5ft 3in and current weight 12st 7lb, hubby is 6ft 1in and now weight 16st 12lb (was 17st 9lb)

My OH and I are the same height, and at the moment the same BMI. He doesn't fast regularly but when he does fast (once a month maybe), and not even very strictly, he can lose up to 2lb at a time. Then he puts it back on eating crisps whenever he fancies and drinking fizzy drinks, but still, it's 2lbs per fast! Whereas I fast regularly and either lose 0.5 or less or hit a plateau. This is so unfair but that's how different men and women are. I'm sometimes wondering whether it's the hormonal changes that happen throughout the month in women that make the difference. Not only we have to suffer the pain for a couple of days each month, have a bloody PMS, which makes me crave cakes and crisps at the same time, but also have to work twice as hard to lose some fat of our bodies.

Rant over

[Moogie]

Hi erappers - from the sounds of it this is probably the water/fat rebalancing stage that many ladies seem to experience early on. I'm not sure it happens in the same way for blokes as women tend to retain more water anyway.

You lose some water weight early on, then regain water and lose fat. Some folks see this in the form of the scales yo-yoing for the first few weeks, others see a small loss followed by no loss and then it starts up again.

Add to that the fact that you're working out so gaining muscle mass (and holding more water as the muscles repair) and I'd say you've not got anything to worry about. Just keep at it and I'm sure in the next couple of weeks you'll see some loss again

He's much bigger than you so the same % loss will be bigger, if that makes sense. Men lose faster anyway, it's to do with muscle mass and body composition.

My OH has lost a stone since I've been doing this and he's now very thin, which I hate!

Hi can understand your disappointment but 2 off is better than on your body is still adjusting and the gym that's brilliant just carry on a few weeks more to see what happens, this is such an amazing woe and you know that, dismiss what's happening to hubby, one method that worked for me last week, I fasted 1 extra 24hr and ate what I wanted for evening meal ( Indian meals out x2 ) brill for me but am doing 4:3coz loads to lose Sue

dhana - I am 5ft 3in and current weight 12st 7lb, hubby is 6ft 1in and now weight 16st 12lb (was 17st 9lb)

I don't know your age or activity level, but using 50 and a low activity level as an example, your TDEE would be 1861.

If you eat only 500 calories twice a week and your TDEE the other days, you save 2722 calories, slightly more than half a pound a week.

Moogie is right about the fat to water thing. My weight comes off me in funny little plateau - sudden drop - plateau - sudden drop intervals. I can tell that I've lost fat and filled the cells with water when my fatty stomach and thighs get very supple and malleable.

In my first 4 months of doing 5:2 my BMI fell from 28.6 to 26.0. My husband, who does less exercise than me and eats vast amounts of all the wrong sorts of food, dropped his BMI from 21.5 to 20.5.

But he wasn't even doing 5:2 ! He wasn't doing anything. Just the fact that twice a week he might have felt a tinsy bit inhibited scoffing in front of me (and I can't say I noticed any change in his behaviour at all) was enough to make his weight drop.

Some men are just built that way. You just have to ignore your OH's stats (while enjoying a slimmer, healthier husband).

IMHO just stick with it and the results will show. Enter your stats on the tracker and you get the guidance from that as well. Don't compare your self to your OH as males and females shed differently. Also use the other measures like fit of clothes and tape measure to give you encouragement.

Enjoy the journey there is so much support on the forum and inspiration. Best of luck erappers

thanks so much for all the nice comments and practical advice.

will be pressing forward with a positive week this week - will let you know.