The FastDay Forum

I am a newbie and started the 5:2 diet 3 weeks ago and here are my stats. I am 50yr old female, 5'6" and I exercise 3 days a week with 2 days a week of stretching exercises. I love the diet so far because my carb/sugar cravings have gone away and on my normal eating days, I am not very hungry which is awesome except my scale is showing that I am gaining.
My 1st week I lost only -.04lbs.
my 2nd week I GAINED 1 pound
my 3rd week I GAINED 1 pound

Can anyone one tell me what I am doing wrong. I usually eat 1200 calories a day along with my exercise calories of 300-400 calories so a total of 1600-1700 calories on the non fast days. I fast on Tuesdays and Saturdays with my weigh in on Friday. Any help from the successful veterans would be very helpful to me. Thank you for the help as I will keep at it and pray for a loss next week.

Hi Youda and welcome!

I can't offer you much advice on your problem, but just wanted to say hello.

[carorees]

Um, have you worked out your TDEE (total daily energy requirement)? If it comes out at around 1800, I expect it is just too soon to be sure what is happening as there is a lot of water retention going on at first. If you are eating well under TDEE on feed days it's possible you have slowed your metabolism and you should try to roughly eat around TDEE on your feed days. What works best for me is to eat rather over TDEE at weekends and be careful during the week.

I fast on Tuesdays and Saturdays with my weigh in on Friday. Any help from the successful veterans would be very helpful to me. Thank you for the help as I will keep at it and pray for a loss next week.

It's too soon to tell for sure, but I would suggest that you change your weigh in day to after one of your fasting days, so either Weds. or Sun. Just for your peace of mind, until you gain more trust in the process.

I'm also 5'6", and am going to be 54 this month. I tried switching to 4:3 this week, after re-gaining 6 pounds (of the 8 I had lost since starting 5:2 on Feb. 1) over Easter weekend, and totally fell off the fasting wagon...until today.

Ann

I wonder if you should be eating a bit more on your feed days. I am 50, only 5ft 3. Mfp puts my daily cal allowance at about 1600 without exercise for maintenance. I had success early on but have stalled at the moment. I feel better though and pmt has improved markedly, keep the faith!

Have a look at the links below, it may be too soon to tell.
Is this the problem? On a fast day you eat 500 cals regardless of whether you do exercise or not.
If you run a marathon or warch telly - only 500 cals?

[Moogie]

Youda, what is your current weight/bmi and how much do you need/want to lose?
Also how do you do your fasts? 1 sleep or 2 sleeps? How do you split your calories? What sorts of things do you eat and drink on your fasts? Do you drink plenty of water?

Thanks

Two things come to mind, one was already asked by Peter:
1. Are you eating 500 max on your fast days?
2. Have you checked your thyroid recently?

I find I weigh more the day after a fast so I suppose its about experimenting. I do drink loads on a fast day and include several cups of bouillon so I guess its a fluid thing.

I seem to have stuck again which is disappointing. According to MFP my daily calorie average is only 920 so I've tried to grit my teeth and eat a bit more on feast days and to vary my intake the way Caroline favours. I decided that it was worth risking a bit of a gain if it boosted my metabolism in the long run. I do find that my TDEE varies a lot from site to site though. Anything from 1300 to 1800 on the same info!

Yes, my TDEE varies from 1239 to 1959!!!!!!! It is frustrating and confusing but I picked the smaller number, just to be on the safe side. I am calorie-counting my days every night so in the end of the week I might have something to base what I'm doing.
I will probably have a proper feast day on Sunday (going out for a late lunch, will probably eat and drink loads) so I'll see how this will affect (or not) my results.
It basically takes lots of experimenting but it's worth it!!!

I weigh 150 pounds and want to lose 20 pounds to my original weight. My thyroid is fine and my TDEE is around 1770 so I am guessing that I'm must not be eating enough on my non fasting days. I have weighed in the day after my fast and I either stay the same or like this week it showed I gained 1 1/2 pounds but Friday is my weigh in day so I lost that half a pound but still showed a gain of 1 pound for the week. I do drink alot of water and maybe that could be the problem too. I will stick to it because I do like how I feel after the fast. Thanks for all the help everyone!

I honestly believe that calorie counting is not accurate. I watched a BBC program last night (Michael Mosley was in it) and they discussed how people often under report on their food diaries. This one woman wrote down she had only consumed 2,000 calories in a day when in fact she had consumed 3,000. She was neglecting to write everything down and her portion sizes were way to big, thus, she was not losing weight.

If you are gaining weight, it is because you are eating too much. I know for a fact I am eating too much lately! it is very easy to do!

But I think you need to take a close look at the types of foods you are eating and portion size. A lot of people have no idea what a "normal" size meal looks like. We as a society have been brainwashed since childhood on what foods we should eat and how much of it.

Annoying isn't it TML13? I was planning an extra fast tomorrow but might leave it as I've had a bad day today. It was' nt a fast day but I've been dizzy and tired and really cold. At one point my blood glucose had dropped to 3.8mmol although I had been a bit nauseous and not at all hungry. Wish I could get my weight dropping again. It went well at the start and I don't think it could have been water as I'd been low carbing for about 2yrs.

Youda, would you check your TDEE on here?
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Yes, Miffy, it is annoying but don't lose your faith!!!

Hi Youda, have you just started exercising, or is that a routine that you have followed before? Did you come straight off another diet? Also, consider measuring waist, hips, thighs and bust to see if nothing is happening there either.