The FastDay Forum

Ok. I've been doing 5:2 religiously since Jan 1st 2013. The 1st month I lost 7lbs. Since then (we're talking 14 weeks ish) ..... nada. Zero. Absolutely zilch. I have tried experimenting with eating more on feast days and very little on feast days, but it makes no difference - I stay the same weight. I've lost no inches either.

My partner has been doing it too and he's had a steady weight loss and is now down a stone.

Does it just not work for some people? I am heading towards menopause and have read that "women of my age" (eurgh!!!) can find it INCREDIBLY difficult to lose weight, whatever diet/WOE they try. Does anyone else "of a similar age" (eurgh again!!) find themselves in a similar position?

I try to console myself with the fact that without 5:2 I might well be even bigger than I am, but tbqh, it's small consolation. I've never managed to stick to a woe for so long before - it's great that I'm managing to (relatively easily in fact), but just so disappointing that the lbs aren't shifting and really quite annoying that I'm watching them fall off my OH!

I'm not giving up - I keep telling myself there's health benefits too.

[Betsysgr8]

I know it can be a bit tedious but log everything you eat in a calorie counter like My Fitness Pal or similar for 1 or 2 weeks. Include every nibble or sip of something. Compare the calories for those weeks with what your TDEE is at sedentry (see your progress chart for Moogie's TDEE calculator). The solution is in there somewhere.

[carorees]

Hi there soozalosin and welcome!

Sorry to hear you are not losing any weight. Although it is harder to lose weight post menopause, it is not impossible. Do you count calories on your non-fast days? If so, can you work out how many calories you consume in a week? If you take that figure and divide by 7, that represents how many calories you need to maintain your weight and so gives you the number of calories you should be eating on a non-fast day. If you look at the difference between the number of calories on a non-fast day and the number on a fast day and multiply by 2 you see the number of calories less than you need to maintain your weight. For every 3500 cals less than maintenance you should lose 1lb. I would try a month eating around this calculated figure and see how you go.

Hi soozalosin. I feel like I could have written your post! I am pre-menopausal but my weight loss has become very sluggish. For the first couple of months on 5:2 I was losing around 1lb a week (sometimes a little more) but in the last couple of months it has dropped considerably. In the last month I have lost 1.5lb (I realise this is better than nothing - and certainly better than gaining btw!). My husband started 5:2 a month later than me and has lost more weight which is especially irritating as he is very close to his target and should by rights be finding it a bit tougher!

My plan is to stick with it for another month and if I'm still struggling I'm going to follow carorees' advice and see if I'm unwittingly overeating on feast days (I'm avoiding this strategy for now as it takes me back to the bad old days of calorie counting which is not something I wish to revisit).

Best of luck that things pick up for you. I have - in the last couple of weeks - started to make an effort to do a bit more exercise. Hoping that helps! I'll let you know.

Try using chaoji tea it should help you loose weight

[carorees]

Try using chaoji tea it should help you loose weight

The conclusions of a systematic review of studies of herbal teas and weight loss:

Green tea preparations appear to induce a small, statistically non-significant weight loss in overweight or obese adults. Because the amount of weight loss is small, it is not likely to be clinically important. Green tea had no significant effect on the maintenance of weight loss. Of those studies recording information on adverse events, only two identified an adverse event requiring hospitalisation. The remaining adverse events were judged to be mild to moderate.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23235664

So no evidence that these tread can help weightloss!

Hi soozalosin - just to give you a bit of encouragement - I'm post-menopausal (age 55) and although my weight gain has been quite slow and certainly not as fast as my OH's loss (who's also doing 5:2) my weight has slowly and steadily gone down. It's speeding up a bit now since I've started 36 liquid fasts twice weekly. So don't be too disheartened - try looking at your TDEE and Carorees advice is, as ever, very noteworthy and worth taking heed of. Hope you can sort it out - which I'm sure you can. Just needs some juggling/jiggling to make it work for you. Good luck

Ok. I've been doing 5:2 religiously since Jan 1st 2013. The 1st month I lost 7lbs. Since then (we're talking 14 weeks ish) ..... nada. Zero. Absolutely zilch. I have tried experimenting with eating more on feast days and very little on feast days, but it makes no difference - I stay the same weight. I've lost no inches either.

Try taking 200-300 calories a day off your feed days. If you are "in balance" at the moment that should give you a couple of pounds loss over a month.