The FastDay Forum

Hello fellow fasters,

I began the new WOE on Sunday last week. Have read all of the books and esse arch before. I can not say how fed up I am this am but know it works and want to be a success. I have 20 lbs to lose. Was aiming for half a pound a week so being sensible. Today I got on scales and have put on 1.5 lbs.
I have hrt, no new drugs, no thyroid problem, not constipated and weighed after a fast day. Please tell me it will work if I stick to it. Thanks in advance .

So

Sunday and Thursday were strict 500 cals. No food before 12 midday either day and 2 mini meals and counted all cals
Mon, tues, wed....all were normal eating days with food on 16:8 basis. Did 11 am to 7 pm.
I have really had to use will power too as have definite felt hungry at bedtimes and on fast days but worked through it spurred on by at least a static weoght.
Today is start of 2 days of just having two days as I like.

So please tell me it will work if I keep going and inside my body is doing amazing things.
Btw I am not someone who doesn't normally lose work and I don't carry water or get obs or bloating or anything else.
Sorry to moan. I have been so pleased with myself until today.


Lx

I began the new WOE on Sunday last week...I have 20 lbs to lose. Was aiming for half a pound a week so being sensible. Today I got on scales and have put on 1.5 lbs.
...
Mon, tues, wed....all were normal eating days with food on 16:8 basis. Did 11 am to 7 pm.
...
Today is start of 2 days of just having two days as I like.

So please tell me it will work if I keep going and inside my body is doing amazing things.
Btw I am not someone who doesn't normally lose work and I don't carry water or get obs or bloating or anything else.
Sorry to moan. I have been so pleased with myself until today.

A warm welcome to Fastday

It reads as if you're more than a little frustrated - and understandably so - tho' I feel you already know what I'm going to say. You seem to be blending both 5:2 and 16:8?

Scales are just a snapshot and should never dictate your mood as they just report a context-free number. You only weigh once a week and I allow myself a 5 lbs range from 105-110lbs to allow for normal water fluctuations, the use of NSAIDs, some muscle swelling after a rough workout, slow transit times in the gut, TOM (if relevant) etc. etc. It's difficult to know if 1.5lbs is within an acceptable error margin for your weight on your scales.

Did you measure yourself in various places: waist, chest, thighs, arms, calves etc.? It's not unusual for people to notice inch loss, looser clothes etc. before they see shifts on the weighing scales.

What did you calculate your TDEE to be? Are you eating to your TDEE on your non-fast days? I'm a little uncertain as to what you ate on your 'usual' non-fast days v. what you intend by "2 days of just having two days as I like".

The top two articles in this section might have some relevant information for you: https://www.fastday.com/fasting/trouble ... h-busting/

You can see lots of veterans here for whom 5:2 has worked dramatically well. I wonder if you might continue with 5:2, resolve to monitor yourself (in several ways), and see what happens with some calm - and then use that information to tweak, if necessary. FWIW, I've shed 60lbs with IF and for most of that, I had lengthy plateaus and very slow losses but I got there in the end.

Good Luck with introducing fasting into your WOL.

Please don't be downhearted, @Liz0800! It sounds as if you really have a handle on this WOE and appear to be doing everything you can to make it work. There are a a number of things which can make weight loss a little slow at the start and I remember there have been several threads on that very topic. I also remember someone, I can't remember who, who waited four weeks before the scales showed any sign of moving but then they dropped several pounds, all at once.

It is possible that you are cutting down too much on your non-fast days by using an 'eating window' and that might be affecting your weight loss. You should be aiming to eat to your TDEE on non-fast days. Have you measured all over? Sometimes people lose centimetres without weighing less, so it's always worth doing.

You have only being doing this for very short while, so don't be disheartened. It does work - just in different ways , for different people! Enjoy your guilt-free weekend and, on your Monday fast day, try to save a few calories for a drinking chocolate, or a piece of fruit, before bedtime - you don't want to be going to bed hungry!

Carry on with basic 5:2 for at least six weeks before trying any of the various 'tweaks' which you will also read about on this forum. It could drive you mad if you keep dipping in and out of them and your poor body (and mind) would be reeling from information overload! Keep it simple and keep us informed on how you are getting on! Use the forum for advice and support. There are a lot of us here who have been around for quite a while and there's nothing we like better than to give a hand to others who are sharing this WOL.

Ola @Liz0800 and welcome to the forum!

I feel your pain, as I'm sure most of us here do! There've been times when I've felt like chucking the %$!£** scales out the window and/or going back to bed and NOT GETTING UP all day

I agree with @StowgateResident and @SSure - give it time, try to be patient/kind with yourself and try not to get bogged down with the minutiae of eating windows at this early stage. Everything has a reason/explanation but it's rarely logical! I was one of those who didn't lose anything NOTHING for about 5 weeks. BUT I could feel my clothes getting a little looser, so that kept me going. The measuring thing is really worth it - the first half inch you lose off your waist is a blissful feeling. And it will happen, if you stick to the 2 days x 500 cals. You might be a slow loser - like me - you know the story of the tortoise and the hare!

FWIW I'm actually just coming out of a long plateau - I'm only a pound lighter than I was in April - and I was starting to think that was it, I wasn't going to lose any more. Imagine not losing any weight as payback for 6 months of 5:2! But there are so many other positive effects. Clothes are still gradually feeling baggier. I ran my first 5k race in fifteen years, never thought I'd manage it and it was HARD, but there's no way I could have even attempted it 18 months ago. So I suppose what I'm saying is relax, keep going, then keep going for a bit longer and you're bound to start seeing benefits. Good luck!

One word: Salt!

I can gain 2 to 3 lbs from eating one modest Thai or Chinese lunch. It takes 2 days to come off. It has nothing to do with body fat. I would not obsess about any weight fluctuations in the 1-2 lb range.

That said, I would also NOT start out restricting food on non fast days. This works against the whole dynamic that makes 5:2 fasting work, which is to keep your metabolism from adjusting to what it perceives as famine. I made the same mistake you are making now some months ago, and my weight loss slowed. After reading helpful messages here, I went back to just eating on non-fast days, and my weight loss picked up.

So why not just do classic 5:2 for a few weeks. Eat those 500 calories on your two fast days, and then just eat without counting and limiting. This is a real change from most other diets where you have to obsess about every mouthful. That is why it is such a delightful diet.

And yes, you will overeat on your feed days, but probably not to the tune of an extra 2000-3000 calories a week, which is what you are cutting out on those fast days.

Hang in there!

Welcome. Good advice here. Give it at least 6 weeks and count your calories on your non fast days so know for sure you are staying within your TDEE. Some are lucky - it comes off quickly in the early days. For me it was 6 weeks and then a pound every week or so. Take your time and relax.

Dear Lizzieh,

Thank you so much for all of this advice. It's so kind of you and has helped enormously.

Liz xxx

Dear each and everyone of you. A massive big thanks for taking the time to reply. You have all given me so much support and lots to chew over, think about, plod on with, stop doing ie worrying, and kept me motivated. I am going To keep going and relax a little, focus on my TDEE too without the 16:8 but the 5:2

Love Lxxxx

And I agree with Peebles: don't worry about what you eat on non-fast days. It isn't a diet. Just be strict on your fast days. Keep the faith. One day at a time.

One other issue came to mind as I read this, which rarely gets discussed.

Eating to TDEE is quite easy if you are young and/or very heavy and your TDEE is well over 2200 calories a day. It's something else again if you are old, near goal, or small and your TDEE is 1350 calories a day.

My TDEE is somewhere in the 1400s, so to eat at that level I would have to be on what most people would consider a low calorie diet all the time, with no room for any kind of enjoyable meal full of good food. The beauty of 5:2 for me is that I can eat another couple hundred calories a day on my eating days, which brings me up to the level where I can eat like a normal human being, while still creating a caloric deficit by fasting two days a week. The weight loss is slow, but it happens, and the payoff is that I can enjoy eating more normally again without paying for it.

I will have to keep fasting indefinitely to be able to keep enjoying my food, but since I have grown used to fasting and don't find it that difficult, this isn't a problem.

But this is really important for us older ladies whose TDEE can drop alarmingly as we get into our 60s due to normal metabolic slowdown.