The FastDay Forum

Well a bit about me perhaps to start. I have had issues with my weight since I was about 19. I went to live in London and got involved with someone who was not good for me and as a result I lost a lot of confidence in myself and piled on the pounds. After several affairs he left me for someone else. At this time I moved into a hostel and met my best friend. We both had a bit of an issue with weight and lost a huge amount each so that I soon dropped from a size 18 to size 10 in about 6 months and actually felt good about myself.

I then moved abroad and met my first husband. We had a wonderful life abroad but as you can imagine a fairly sedatory lifestyle and a lot of socialising led me to pile on the pounds again. Needless to say when we came back to the UK I was a size 16/18 and joined a slimming club. I then dropped to a size 10 again. Fast forward a few years and my first son was born, cue a couple of stone gained and I was up to a size 14. I tried various diets however with looking after a young child, being isolated from my family and a marriage which was not working I found that I was comfort eating and not losing any weight whilst spending a fortune going to slimming clubs. The good thing though was I guess I wasn't putting on any more weight.

Eventually my marriage ended and I moved to be closer to my family. I thought it would be easy to lose the extra weight now I just had me and my son to look after but in reality I used it as an excuse not to cook and my weight gained slightly. I met someone else and within a couple of years we got married and had my second son. Needless to say I am now a size 18 and 14 stone 5lb's. Last year I lost two stone doing weight watchers which I was quite pleased with, however I started a new job in August and since doing that I really haven't had the time or the energy to get back into counting points.

A few friends at work have been on the 5:2 diet and recommended it to me when I was complaining about not being able to get my head into weight watchers and said given that I don't have a lot of time this may be the way for me to go.

I have done a lot of reading about 5:2 over the past week and took the plunge on Wednesday to join this site and had my first fast on Thursday. I planned my 500 calories in advance so I knew exactly what I would be having on my fast day and I have to say I was surprised how easy I found it.

My plan is to fast on Monday's and Thursday's and to plan these in advance so I know exactly what I will be having. However at this stage I am not planning to calorie count on the feast days as I want to re-educate my brain and my body into realising when I need something and what I need, e.g. food or fluids. I am very lucky to have a supportive husband and two lovely boys who I really want to be fit and healthy for - they are my motivation as well as my health.

Sorry this has been a bit of a diatribe for my first post but thought this would be a good thing for me to do. Thanks for reading, and if you didn't fall asleep or zone out, I am glad.

Starting stats

First fast 23/01/14
Weight on 23/1/14 - 14 stone 5lb
Size 18 (UK)

Welcome again @bettyboo099 So glad to hear your first fast went well for you and all your planning helps to make life easier that's what this WOL is all about doing it your way to make it "fit" you and your lifestyle.
I've struggled all my life with a weigh problem just same as you but this WOL/WOE is truly something else so different.
Keeping occupied on fastdays is a must also the longer fasts are more beneficial health wise so for me and many others it's evening meal only I make this 2 courses by way of a reward for going the 24hrs but my TDEE is still high enough to do this at the moment as you can see its working very well for me and will do for you also if you put in the work needed.

Hi bettyboo!
Welcome - you've just joined the fabest forum around!
Firstly, have you filled in your Progress tracker? It'll give you a Total Daily energy expenditure (TDEE) calorie goal for your non fast days and you can track both measurements (wish I'd taken more measurements, but I just hated that tape measure!) and weight.
Good luck xx

Welcome from me too. This is a way of eating for life and once you get into the swing of it, you will always be in the fasting habit. Many of us here have similar dieting histories but you won't look back once you get into a routine and enjoying your food without guilt. You can eat what you want on normal days but not as much as you want, so I would suggest tracking your TDEE to start with so you are not tempted to go overboard. It also gives you a better idea of the rate of loss you can expect.

Most of us here are slow losers so stick with it if nothing happens for a few weeks. It will come off.
Good luck

As you can see from my progress tracker, 5:2 has worked for me as it has for so many others. I've lost over 30 lbs since May 2013 but only 8 since august.

The reason is probably partially that I have little left to lose, but the big reason is that I stopped watching what I ate on the "feed" days. I would encourage you not to think of them as "feast" days. Also, I started using fasting to justify extra helpings of sweets.

Now, I'm not saying to weigh your food or write it all down; just use the resources here to calculate your TDEE and stay close to it.

Otherwise, all your efforts on the fast days will not show results.

And mint tea. Lots of mint tea during fasts. I used to hate the stuff and now I drink at least three cups on fast days.

Oh, and my fast days are always the same...oatmeal with peanut butter, raisins and milk around 5pm. If I'm traveling then it's a cliff bar with a larabar.

That's all the advice I can think of.

Welcome to this WOL!

[carieoates]

Hello and welcome from me. Just keep it simple, use tracker as Penny says and if you do it right it'll work. Good luck and keep us in the loop as we love to celebrate as well as give out advice, help, hugs.

Second fast almost under my belt (although I am surprised anything else can fit under there lol).

Today I fasted from 5pm last night when I finished my dinner until 1pm this afternoon when I had lunch. Have to say it wasn't too bad and I was only really starting to feel hungry about 1/2 an hour before I had lunch. I had some peppermint tea last night, this morning for breakfast and at break time to stave off any hunger pans and water the rest of the time. Lunch was carrot and lentil soup, weight watchers crackers and a weight watchers yoghurt.

Tea was at 5pm and I had chicken and mixed salad with water. I feel full now but I am also feeling quite tired so will have an early night I think.

Well following advice on here I decided to calculate my calories yesterday on my non fast day and found I was 120 cals over the recommended amount by MFP but 320 cals under on the TDE on here.

Not quite sure what to do now as I am not sure whether I should eat more to keep in line with the TDE on here or drop the extra 100 cal to keep in line with MFP

I was comfortably full yesterday to be honest and did not want any more to eat but I also don't want to send myself into starvation mode. Will keep an eye on the cals over the week on all days and it may be the case that on some days I do naturally just consume a few cals than on others. In which case as long as I am 9370 cals or under for the week 5 x TDE, excluding my two fast days) then I should be ok.

I guess it's just a case of experimenting and see what helps me lose the weight.

First weigh in today and lost 3lb's - well pleased with that. Now only going to weigh myself at the start of every month.

The one on MFP I assume is what you should eat in order to lose weight? If so, then it is not taking into account the fast days and you should eat at the higher amount. I don't know that you necessarily have to eat 100 calories more. If you are that close, you are probably fine!

And since you lost 3lbs, sounds like you are doing everything right!

Well done BettyBoo - keep it up

Well I have completed three weeks of 5:2 and feel it is going well. My clothes are starting to feel looser and I am finding the fasting days easier. In fact Monday's fast was quite amazing as I had planned on having my lunch at work at usual (soup) but I was so busy I just kept working through and I didn't even think about it. I need to drink a bit more on fasting days especially when I am busy so need to get stricter with myself on that.

Will weigh in on Friday as that's the weigh in day for the Easter Challenge which I have joined to keep me on track.

Weigh in today and another 2lb lost. That's 6lbs in three weeks which is a great start. I know the weight loss will slow down as my body gets used to this WOL.

I am now on the brink of being 13 stone something which I hope to achieve next week. I can't recall when I was last that weight, think it was about 6 years ago