The FastDay Forum

I'm a bit too embarrassed to say what my weight is but lets just say that the local weighbridge would be my set of scales!!!
I am now on week 4 of following the 5:2 book and I Fast Mondays and Thursdays.
I have tried other diets before but these involved classes and as I stay out in the sticks, travelling back and forth to classes was a total bind.
I know what my starting weight is and I will get myself weighed at the Diabetic Clinic once every 6 months. I do not intend to weigh myself at any other time.
For me it is sufficient to know that my clothes are fitting better or that I can comfortably walk the dogs further. These are my goals.

Welcome to the forum @tramcaur. Hope you soon need a new wardrobe and your dogs start complaining of exhaustion!

Hi @tramcaur! Welcome to the forum from another newbie. I am finding this board very supportive and motivating. If you are at all like me, this isn't your first try at something like this. I think FastDay IS going to make a difference nurturing my long term success. I just had a big personal setback, but somehow I really feel I want to be accountable here and to myself and that makes a difference. I hope you will find it so also.

Hi Tramcaur,
I too have been on 5:2 since Jan 1st. In my case I have lost no weight at all but 3" has gone from my waist....Just thinking about you being in the sticks, so unable to join a slimming class easily, the daughter of one of my friends was very overweight and joined Slimming World. She chose her own goal, hardly believing that she would be able to reach it, but in fact she did, and over the next few weeks her weight naturally settled about 5lb below, though still in the healthy BMI range. The upshot was that she then had to pay to attend as she had lost too much! I just checked their website to see if this could really be true, and it is - if you reach the target you set yourself you can then attend classes for free, but if you are more than 3lb above or below this target you are penalised by having to pay every week again. This seems so draconian to me, and runs right against what I believe to be true, that people of different builds and who have different amounts of muscle will have varying healthy weights within the healthy BMI, and maybe slightly outside the range for some people. So perhaps it's lucky for you that you live too far from the nearest group! I have had great inspiration from reading other people's stories, I really wish you all the very best on your journey towards great health

Thanks all for the welcomes.
A wee update of things I should have said at the beginning;
I am male, 69 years of age and in the past I have tried both Slimming World and Weight-watchers. I had initial success with both but just found them a bit overwhelming. Too much pressure aimed at areas that I did not wish to partake in. Plus the travelling to get to classes etc etc. Just not for me.
The 5:2 I can build and adapt to suit my own lifestyle and because I am not changing any food, merely not eating on certain days, it should not interfere with my wife's lifestyle.
I am looking forward to using the 5:2 to improve certain medical problems that I have and I can already feel benefits in my general wellbeing.

Hello, @tramcaur, here's a summary I put together for a friend of mine; others have found it helpful.

5-2 et al.pdf

5.2 Basics

(590.6 KiB) Downloaded 50 times

I weigh weekly; I had gone to weighing monthly, then I went UP a bit and wanted to make sure to nip THAT trend in the bud! Prior to 5.2, I didn't weigh myself much if at all (only under protest); I'd pretty much "given up" that I could lose and keep weight off. While I could certainly stand to lose another 20-25 lbs (yeah, American), I'm happy I've lost and kept off 30+ lbs, nearly 2 years in. I find that 5.2 is a kinder, gentler weight loss program, well suited to those of us no longer in the blush of youth (I turn 60 in <2 weeks) and thus not in a big hurry, or looking to impress anyone with our skinniness--just to be healthy and feel good!

Thanks Ferretgal and for the PDF which I have copied and saved.
May I ask where did you get the "Good Advice"?
I cannot find that in the 5:2 Fast Diet Book and it does appear to fly in the face of the advice given there.

I do not drink Tea, Coffee or any Alcohol and have not done so in almost 30 years.
I do drink Pepsi Max by the litre (20cals) and I have taken to splitting it with carbonated water on Fast Days.

Hi Tramcaur, and welcome!
I joined on Jan 11, so I am still new. This is a very supportive program, and we find what works for us. Mistakes are acceptable. I too am 'out in the sticks', and can't find the 5:2 support in US. Thank goodness for this one. I am also 69, and health is an issue.

Good luck - there is lots to read whenever you can on this site.

Hi Grannieannie, Great to hear from another Silver-Dieter!!!
I am now 6 hours into my Thursday Fast Day as I like to start my fast days at 6pm the previous evening.
That means that I will break my fast for a 300cal meal when my wife has her evening meal. This works best for both of us.
I will then not eat again until Friday breakfast.

After a shaky start because we had not prepared the fridge and the pantry for me starting this food regime, we are now getting into the swing of it and I now have my own meals ready for fast days.
Having said that, I am already feeling the benefits and I am hoping to have some medicines cut down when I attend my diabetic clinic review later this month.

Good luck on your own journey!

Well that is 23 hours in and just one hour to go before my evening meal of 303 calories.
Of any fast day, this last hour is the worst. And, also the easiest to counteract with a couple of mouthfuls of water.
I am amazed at how much water can quench hunger pangs.
My usual drink of Pepsi Max, 20 cals to the litre, but I am trying to have no calories at all on the 24 hour part of my fast days.
This morning I busied myself digging old roots out of the garden as I am preparing the bed for Roses. It was hard and tiring work, but I did not feel that it being a fast day made any difference to what I achieved. So overall I think I will be looking back on today as rather successful.

Just had the best Fast Day so far.
I did feel rather peckish at dinner time while the wife was preparing her evening meal of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties and I was preparing the dogs dinner.
However once I had had my own WW Bolognaise, I felt really good and supper was a couple of bits of Turkey, so well under my 600 cals.
Off to bed now till breakfast tomorrow.
If every fast day is as easy as this, I'm hooked.

Congratulations! What are Neeps?

Hi Grannieannie, Neeps are what we in Scotland call Turnips.
A kind of Swede, but smaller.

I am increasingly amazed by the effects that the 5:2 is having on my eating habits.
Those odd treats that I have on non-fast days taste jut so much more delicious than I can remember them tasting.
Also, my food portions on non-fast days have dropped considerably. It is so much nicer to feel satisfied after a meal than full.
Such a simple diet to follow, yet so many advantages and feelings of well being that it brings.
Why oh why has it taken so long to bring to folks attention, something that has been around for over a 1000 years and practised in so many countries?
Perhaps it is because all the other so called diets that are around make money for the organisations that run them.
I would hate to count the amount of money I have spent on Slimming World and Weight Watchers and in the end neither of them worked for me. Oh sure I did lose weight, but I quickly put it all, and more, back on.
For the price of a paperback book, I now have a healthy lifestyle that I can follow.

I'm pleased that this WOL is working so well for you, @tramcaur. You sound as if it was just made for you! Hold that thought in case of tricky times ahead!