The FastDay Forum

Hey Pieman, welcome! Don't get discouraged--give it some more time. You have lost a pound, real weight, not temporary water weight. You are trending in the right direction. If you've been dieting previously (slimfast), you probably already lost "fluff" weight.

Let yourself get comfortable with tinkering around to find what works for you on the 5:2. For me, I think I will be doing a version of this for the rest of my life.

Well, ate loads today, and only 2,370 cals. Kindof proves that I've been normally eating a lot less. Which makes me wonder why I haven't been losing weight normally.... Anyway, I'll contiune to stick to about that no. of cals except fasting days and see what happnes.

Interesting.

You state your TDEE is 2600. Maybe you should try to eat to that level for the next two weeks or so (2 600 cal. days and 5 3400 cal. days). You should not gain any weight if you do - if 2600 is your TDEE.

Perhaps you have not been eating enough?

I think you're just going to have to accept that you're probably not going to lose weight at more than 1 lb every 3 to 4 weeks or so. I started off at a similar BMI to you and I have lost around 10 lbs since mid Jan so am losing at a similar rate. Sure I would have liked to be 2 stone lighter by now but have accepted that it's probably going to be another year or so before I reach that.

Like you, I didn't significantly overeat before 5:2, had a pretty healthy diet, did about 5km walking Mon-Fri and the odd gym session - yet found myself in the overweight category.

Consider this though - if you overeat your TDEE (which is a very guesstimate figures anyway) by a mere 100 cals per day on average, you would put on around 10 lbs over a year. That's how easy it is. It's the weight that has crept on very gradually that is going to take a similar time to shift in my opinion. Of course, there are more drastic means to shifting it more quickly ie. by more severe calorie restriction, but then it become miserable and unsustainable, so it goes back on again....

Hi Pieman - betcha start losing now!! Maybe not much, but then there are a lot of us who don't lose a lot, so you wouldn't be the only one
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Good luck and let us know how things go

Pieman, I have noticed that your fast days are not regular, and sometimes you have more than 2 or 3 days in between fasts. When you do this you see a large gain in your table. I have found that if I do that I do not lose as much. Maybe you can try to fix the days: most of us do Mon/Thu and get a regular pattern. Just a thought.

I was originally going to do Tue/Thurs, had a couple of weeks with short notice clients at lunchtime so that blew it! I'll switch to Mon/Thurs to see if it makes any difference.

Well, I've made an effort to eat more on non-fast days. I actually found it a challenge to eat about 2500 cals! Parents were down for a few days as well, so have eaten plenty. Anyway, the weight hasn't risen by as much as if I was eating less, so will keep this up for a week or two to see what happens - one week isn't going to be that accurate!

Well, my progress chart is now much flatter. Haven't actually lost anything, but it's interesting that eating less has caused weight gain and my weight is more constant. See what happens next...!

[carorees]

When I charted my weightloss against weekly calories intake (when I was counting calories daily) I found that there seemed to be a window of calorie intake in which weightloss was best and that eating over or under this range slowed or, in the case of great over-eating, reversed the loss. I never saw an increase due to under-eating, just a slower rate of loss. So, I would suggest reducing calorie intake a little but not to as low as you were before.

I don't know how you arrange your meals on fast/feast days, but it seems from the results of the questionnaire that I sent out earlier in the year that those who lost weight fasted tended to have just the one meal on a fast day, to have stopped snacking on feed days and to have reduced carbs and increased vegetables on feed days compared with before they started the diet. May be something to think about.

Good luck and I await your next instalment with interest!

Right, still no real weightloss, although my face is changing, I think for the thinner!

More interesting, my Mrs went to see a dietician (she has various issues), and was put on the FODMAP diet (worth googling) - she mentioned that I had a distended stomach (I've long thought it was wrong and not just fat - as did the esteemed Jonathan Webb 13yrs ago when he was my consultant for a serious arm infection) - the dieticain laughed and said the a lot of men have this (bloating, not fat) and it can be cured by FODMAP. So it could well be I don't have much weight to lose (I'm a skinny bugger except for my stomach). So, watch this space for updates. Here's hoping

There is someone else on this forum that mentioned the FODMAP diet. Unfortunately I can't remember who it was, you could try putting it into the search on this forum and see if anything comes up.

Hi Pieman, sorry it's taking a while for you to lose weight, but if your face is looking leaner something must be happening! if it's any consolation after 3 months I had lost a grand total of 3lbs, so I know all about being a slow loser.

I do agree with Madge, it's taken years to accumulate the fat so it's no wonder it doesn't fall off that easily. Slow weight loss is fine, as far as I'm concerned, as it's probably more permanent.

Take care and good luck

Right - I'm back!!

After discussions with a personal trainer who also does metabolism testing, it took all of 30 secs to tell me I'm not eating enough, and to eat a lot more for a month. This was also stated when my Mrs asked her nutritionalist. So, having gone up to 16st (xmas etc!), I've been eating more - it turns out I was normally eating 15-1800 cals a day which ain't enough for a 6 footer! The first few days were tough - I felt quite uncomfortable eating a huge 2200 a day!!! Interestingly I didn't put ANY weight on whilst doing this which is a very good sign.

I'm now aiming for 2000 cals - lost a couple of pounds already in a few days which could be coincidence, but the weight has been rock steady for a month. I may try fasting next week, or I may try a couple of weeks at 2000 cals to see what happens, but fingers crossed....

Welcome back @Pieman and lets hope you get the weight loss you want now. Good luck & fingers crossed.