The FastDay Forum

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!

I know just what you mean!

@SSureHmmm. I'm not so sure that we in the US measure differently. When I've been measured at a gym (back a long time ago, admittedly) they measured about an inch above the belly button where where you find the very slight indentation I think of as my waist. If researchers are redefining this, they haven't passed the news on to the rest of us. The top of my hip bone is where my tummy fat is at its worst. I'd hardly want to call it my waist!

Re weighing daily: In the past I have found it essential to weigh daily while maintaining, and since I maintained a significant weight loss for a decade, I think I may have some basis from hich to make recommendations. But though I weighed, I did NOT log, Logging makes me too obsessive and I would get depressed about tiny gains. So I just stepped on the scale every morning to keep an eye on things. If I went over a preset level, a few pounds higher than goal I went back on my diet again.

I fasted again yesterday instead of today because I have to take another bilirubin test, since my last one was abnormal. I read that fasting can cause that abnormality, so I want to eat for a few days before the test. I was hungry much of the day during my fast, which is the second time this happened in a row. Since I have been fasting all along, I'm not sure why suddenly the stomach was growling. Perhaps it is because my body is used to Monday fasts? But I put a lot of salt in my dinner soup and was up a half a pound this morning from where I was after Thursday's fast. This is completely expected and I have to say that I can manage to register a weight under 140 lbs even if after fasting is still something of a miracle. I have not been able to maintain under 142 lbs for more than a few weeks before this, and I have been in that range since November.

But I am feeling some diet fatigue and am hoping I can raise the calories on fast days a bit or cut out a fast day, come the end of February. OH is nagging me not to lose anymore weight, so I am thinking he is being too polite to mention that my face is looking somewhat haggard, and my neck: Arrrrggggghhhhh!

I read the article about 5:2 on the Daily Mail UK online site and agreed with several commenters that the one older lady they gave as an example of diet success had looked better fat than thin due to the effect on the face. I'm loving the health effects, but if I end up back to 142 lbs rather than 140 it won't be the end of the world. A lot better than 152!

Hmm. Nobody comments about men who lose weight and say they had prettier faces when they were chubbier. The lady may feel much better at her new weight.

@SSureHmmm. I'm not so sure that we in the US measure differently. When I've been measured at a gym (back a long time ago, admittedly) they measured about an inch above the belly button where where you find the very slight indentation I think of as my waist. If researchers are redefining this, they haven't passed the news on to the rest of us. The top of my hip bone is where my tummy fat is at its worst. I'd hardly want to call it my waist!

It is more like the typical waist measurement for men but it's outlined in this CDC document (3-19: 3.4.8) about the anthropometric data collection for NHANES (in keeping with the animation I linked above and http://dev.musc.edu/cme/resources/obesi ... rement.pdf ): http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nha ... Manual.pdf

It's also the method used for the proposed ABSI (A Body Shape Index) based on NHANES' data.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0039504

It's a complete pest because NHS data collection is typically for the natural waist (in women).

[carorees]

This paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20820174 shows how measuring the waist at different places can give a better indication of visceral fat (above belly button) or subcutaneous fat (below/on belly button). As we're most interested in losing visceral fat, I always recommend measuring above the belly button.

Above, I'm just addressing my difficulty with interpreting waist-height ratios because of the differences in measurement. E.g., natural waist, I've a 0.36 waist to height ratio: for the supra-iliac waist (as per NHANES), it's 0.44.

Just checking in to say that I've had a fabulous (for me) week with my weight at half a pound below my goal of 135 lbs for four out of the seven days and only half a pound over the goal on the other 3 days, without any fasting at all Of course, OH and I have been lingeringly been getting over relatively mild colds--often feeling tired and a bit yucky, not as interested in food as usual. Also getting a bit stir-crazy from staying home from exercise classes.

Also, is it possible that fighting off infection uses energy, thus calories? What about our bodies trying to keep warm in this frigid weather we're having here? I've always thought these 2 things use energy, but I don't really have any documentation except some vague memories of "reading it somewhere".

Congratulations, @marybeth. What a good feeling it is to be able to maintain without fasting. I hope that you and your husband will soon be completely recovered from your colds. As for using more calories when the weather is cold, I think that I may have read that somewhere, too!

Hi @Marybeth congrats to you on your successful week and that fabulous feeling - enjoy. I too hope you and OH are feeling better soon.
@peebles how's the fatigue?

125lbs yesterday my weekly recording day - ranged this week from 124 to 125.4 so I am on target this week. I'll continue to 52 to keep within maintenance range as it seems to be working for me so far - hurray!. So while I had a good week maintaining it was a busy, busy week work wise - and lots of stress management was employed, so I'm feeling out of touch with the forum keeping on top of all the discussions and what's happening really motivates and grounds me.
I plan to ring fence my forum time next week.
Good luck everyone for the coming week

[carorees]

Saw my lowest weight for a couple of months today which brought my trend weight back to where I like to be. Max weight this week 63.9, min 62.8, trend 63.5. Put in a couple of low carb days this week which had results!

105.0lbs - so it's within my range of 105-110lbs

Good to see so many people content with their maintenance range

I'm near the bottom of my range again. I've skipped a couple of lunches but no fasting as such.

It was my weigh-in day yesterday (Sunday) and I have gone down from 146.6 pounds last week to 146.2 pounds this week. I'm happy with that, especially as I rather overdid the salted pistachios on Saturday evening!
Congratulations to all of those who are maintaining sooooooo well this month!

My oh my, so many of you are on track! Very inspiring for a new maintainer like moi, thanks very much.

I am seriously thinking about changing my maintenance window to 63-65kg. I've been working so hard to get back to 63kg since Xmas 2013. It seems a bit ridiculous. The main reason for aiming lower is a few extra kg can make a difference for running, but since I'm injured and not running anyway, perhaps I should go a bit easier on myself. I'll still try to get back to 63, but perhaps having 65 as the upper limit it will take some of the pressure off...