The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone!

I have declared myself officially in maintenance, which in practical terms means that I will keep eating 5:2 until my Fastiversary on Feb 23, 2015, but I don't expect to lose any more weight since I have been oscillating around 140 lbs for the past two months and won't cut any more calories.

I'm really loving NOT having to do a diet this January. It's been a very long time since I could do that. I have decided to cut way down on candy and cookies for this next month, to break the bad habits that came on during the Holiday Season--the Festive Season for you Brits--but I can otherwise eat what I want and just do my two fasts a week.

I'm thinking that after the Fastiversary I will either raise my fast day intake to 800 calories (from 435) or cut out one fast day every two weeks. I may try one and then switch to the other. If I start gaining, which is possible since I have basically just been maintaining eating 5:2, I will go back to 5:2.

I have stopped logging weight in Libra, as it made me too obsessive, but I do step on the scale every few days to keep on track. I have always found weighing helpful, and as long as I can forget the weight as soon as I see it, and not log it, I seem to avoid obsessing.

My first official (Tuesday morning) weighing of the new year I was right at target. I can't give you any tips, @Lizbean, as I'm pretty sure the whole maintenance thing is magic. Hopefully white magic, not black magic...
I fast every Monday, eating only a small dinner, weigh every Tuesday, and after a year, still can't always believe that it isn't "bad" to have a slice of cake (no cake on Monday, of course)....

Congrats, @Lizbean, on reaching maintenance! I got there in Dec. 2013, but spent the next year trying to lose holiday weight! I'm currently 2kg above goal weight, but close enough I feel I can call it maintenance (even though I am still trying to lose).

There's good information about weight maintenance at the National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws , as well as the useful links, etc. people have already mentioned. I think my struggles last year were because of two things: (1) I had some personal problems that led to overeating on non-fast days and (2) I hadn't appreciated to what extent I would have to continue dieting, essentially. I guess especially since my non-fast days were out of control, I still fast a lot (4:3 or ADF) and that sort of surprised me. Even if not for that, I suspect I'll have to do a couple of fasts a week to maintain. My TDEE is quite low.

106.4lbs today which is within my 105-110lbs range so, I'm pleased to have gone through the festive season without undue difficulty or picking up unwanted baggage.

Hi @Lizbean and everyone,

Finally feeling in a normal schedule (sort of) after the holidays, so I'm happy to report that my high this week was 137 lbs. and my low was right on goal--135.

My method has been to weigh daily and record the weight on a calendar--when it starts to go up more than I'm happy with, I schedule a fast day. Over the year+ that I've been maintaining, I've had one period of a couple of months when I didn't have to fast at all. Most of the time, though, I'm fasting once or twice every week or two--quite varying and flexible, as you can see.
It seems that we have to experiment to find a method that works for us in maintenance, just as we did in the loss mode.

Good luck to all

Well, I did slip outside my maintenance range after Christmas but I am happy to report that as of today I am back in my range again. However I want to get back to my mid December stats when I moved around the bottom of my range. another week's fasting and I should be there again.

139 lbs here after yesterday's fast. The fast was really tough, because we had a stomach virus all last week so I hadn't been eating all that much. My system healed up by yesterday, though. As a result I was really hungry while fasting, especially at night. I ended up eating a lot more than usual this morning and afternoon. I was so happy to have an appetite after a week of nausea and stomach cramps that I'll give myself a pass, but I would prefer not to respond to fasting this way in the future.

Hi @peebles welcome and many congratulations on achieving your goal and moving to maintenance I hope you are feeling better and calm now presides for you.
Thanks @Marybethand@MaryAnn and everyone it's so good to hear everyone's approach, what works for them. I'll look up the registry.
It's been a busy week and I have been pushed out of sync by events - missed fasting yesterday, though it was low cal. I have weighed everyday and I am within my range . I'll fast Saturday and then get back to Mon/Thurs fast next week and report Friday - which is my normal reporting day.
I am relaxed and no white knuckles in sight. Hope all is good with you. Liz

Congratulations, @Lizbeanon your first, full, post-New Year maintenance week!
At my weekly weigh-in this morning, I was half a pound under my target weight, having lost nearly seven pounds in nine days with three full fasts and one higher-calorie fast yesterday. I have decided to try to get down to 142 pounds, as I am still carrying quite a lot of fat around my middle and my waist measurement is still more than 50% of my height. I am heading into the realms of the unknown here, as I haven't been that weight for a couple of decades and then only stayed there briefly! I'll just have to give it a go and, if it doesn't work, then I will still be very content at 147 pounds!
Well done, fellow maintainers, for still being in the Maintenance Tent, some of you for a loooong time! Onwards and onwards!

Yes, well done to everyone for still being within tent. Hi Stowie, my maintaining buddy and well done. I too have offloaded the Christmas baggage. Did 4:3 for the first time and 16:8 too all week. Dry too. Managed it all very easily for which fact I am grateful. Lost 3lb this week. The most ever and am now 2lb under maintaining weight. I also carry fat round my middle, making me look dumpy so am with you on trying to lose a bit more.
Keep going everyone.

The things that entertain you in maintenance logging, not that I'm searching for a way of making the recording of numbers more interesting. Today I recorded my lowest weigh-in after a weekend (aka Monday). (I noticed because DH has been upgrading stuff and managed to lose our weekly weigh-in data, which he hadn't backed up, and I was extracting data from my daily weigh-in data.)

I took to daily weighing just before Christmas. I thought it would be more alarming than a weekly weigh, but it is less so. Last Monday I was 123 lbs, this Monday I was 124. So superficially I might lament having gained a pound. But actually last week saw 2 days at 123 lbs, 4 at 122, and 1 at 124. I will keep recording Monday's weight on my Tracker, but will report an average week's weight here. I know that my weight will dip again, but it would be nice to get to the bottom of these fluctuations and have a sure-fire method of dropping a pound or two.

my waist measurement is still more than 50% of my height.

@StowgateResident, the waist-height ratio always throws me because UK and US tend to measure it differently (US uses the waist measurement that is at the top of your hip bones rather than the natural waist or narrowest point). That said, altho' 50% is the cut-off for people under 50, some places say up to 60% is acceptable for the over-50s tho' I'm not over-convinced of the evidence base for that.

http://www.myhealthywaist.org/evaluatin ... index.html

I took to daily weighing just before Christmas. I thought it would be more alarming than a weekly weigh, but it is less so. ... it would be nice to get to the bottom of these fluctuations and have a sure-fire method of dropping a pound or two.

@barbarita, Guardian just discussed a PLoS paper about weighing frequency and maintenance (amongst others): http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... igh-myself

I am maintaining at the top of my range at the moment- but for various reasons I can live with that at for the time being.

Thanks for the information, @SSure. I didn't realise that the US and the UK measure differently. My waist is hard to find because of the several rolls of loose skin (with a little fat attached) which I still have hanging around me! I have to measure by nestling the tape measure between them - not a pretty sight!