The FastDay Forum

I have been on the diet nearly 8 weeks now; in that time I have lost about 5 lbs. In the past three weeks or so I have not lost anything -- but, one change I do notice is that I gain hardly any weight on the feast days, but lose hardly anything on the fast days.

My feast days vary from overeating, to normal eating (ha! whatever that is!).

I read that weight loss should be 1 lb per week, so it seems I am below average.

Measurements are slightly improved over starting measurements.

Shall I eat less on feast days? less on fast days?

I am quite small anyway and near my target weight.

Any advice most gratefully received!!

Hi Kris

I would try and have a high calorie day to kick start your metabolism again. Especially if you're not gaining weight? Worth a shot!

Congrats on the weight loss by the way!

Princess

I have been on the diet nearly 8 weeks now; in that time I have lost about 5 lbs. In the past three weeks or so I have not lost anything -- but, one change I do notice is that I gain hardly any weight on the feast days, but lose hardly anything on the fast days.
My feast days vary from overeating, to normal eating (ha! whatever that is!).
I read that weight loss should be 1 lb per week, so it seems I am below average.
Measurements are slightly improved over starting measurements.
Shall I eat less on feast days? less on fast days?
I am quite small anyway and near my target weight.
Any advice most gratefully received!!

If you've reached "calorie equilibrium" the saving you make on your fast days matches the excess on your feed days.

If this is the case, then taking 200-300 calories off the feed days will restore a deficit equivalent to about 0.5 lb per week.

Well, that makes sense, Phil. Thank you. It shouldn't be too hard to cut back by that much on my feed days; I will give it a try. I have definitely already tried Princess's advice and had the occasional binge day, and it hasn't kick-started anything, so i will take the opposite approach! Thanks to you both.

When this happens to me, I try to focus on eating more veggies and salads on feed days. Cut back on carbs and focus on foods with high nutritional/fiber. For example, today I will have a huge plate of roasted veggies (summer squash, green pepper, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms) for lunch with soy sauce. For dinner, I'll have a large salad and seltzer water. You'll notice a difference right away.

I have heard Dr. Mosley say that he stays away from allot of carbs and alcohol on his feed days because they seemed to make the body bulk up faster then other same calorie foods.

Snorsalot - and he is right! By keeping the carbs right down, you don't need to count the calories on non-fast days - at all.

Congrats on the weight loss by the way!

I started on the 5-2 in September last year and was delighted that I went from 310 Lbs down to 260 lbs. That was until February when weight loss seemed to have stalled - going down 3 lbs on a fast day but regaining the 3 lbs by the next fast day. I don't understand it as I have not changed anything. Since I have not found the fasting difficult, I have now increased my fasting days to 4 to try to break this cycle.

[Betsysgr8]

I started on the 5-2 in September last year and was delighted that I went from 310 Lbs down to 260 lbs. That was until February when weight loss seemed to have stalled - going down 3 lbs on a fast day but regaining the 3 lbs by the next fast day. I don't understand it as I have not changed anything. Since I have not found the fasting difficult, I have now increased my fasting days to 4 to try to break this cycle.

Perhaps with your fantastic loss of weight you do need to make a bit of a change. Your TDEE or normal eating days calorie requirements MUST be lower than they were previous, drop one item from your normal day menu (a beer or slice of bread) and you should be on the losing path again.

Perhaps with your fantastic loss of weight you do need to make a bit of a change. Your TDEE or normal eating days calorie requirements MUST be lower than they were previous, drop one item from your normal day menu (a beer or slice of bread) and you should be on the losing path again.

My thoughts exactly. With that much weight loss your daily TDEE could easily be 350 calories lower than where you started.

And if you use 1/4 of your target weight TDEE for fast days, you likely lose even more.

Hi:

The most dreaded question with only one answer - eat less: 5-2-diet-chat-f6/on-plateaus-t7102.html

Plateau is where I am. Read the posts good advice know what I have to do. Lost nearly 2 stone just 4 pounds to go. In size 12 jeans, haven't seen those for 20 yrs!!!

Hi:

Plateaus are common, but their causes are unclear. Here are some things to consider: 5-2-diet-chat-f6/on-plateaus-t7102.html

Here are some thoughts on the idea that weight loss under 5:2 should be consistent: post71147.html#p71147

I only weigh myself once a month so my weigh in day is Friday next week. I found that the loss/gain/loss/plateau thing was making me mad, and instead of throwing the scale out the window, I took another approach - avoidance. That seems to work for me - and my longest plateau had to do with not enough fiber - if you know what I mean. Once I got "moving" things just seemed to work themselves out, so to speak.