The FastDay Forum

Hello I am new here and need to try something new to re kick start my weight loss. I have been eating LC for 2 years now, initially lost 50 lbs in the first 6 months and have kept it off, but have not been able to lose the last 25 lbs that I want to. I seem to just be gaining and losing the same 5-6 lbs over and over again? So I am hoping with some advise and guidance I can get where I really want to be. I am 5' 7" tall, 49 year old female, 185 lbs, my job is not very active, either sit at a computer or in a vehicle a lot! Adding in walking on the treadmill as many days a week as my schedule will allow. I have been eating around 1000-1200 calories a day and keeping carbs under 30 total, not net, drinking 70-120 oz of water a day can't believe the scale has went up 5 lbs this last week!?? I would really appreciate any advise to start this the right way you have to offer! Thank you

Hello and welcome to the fasting gang. Maybe 5.2 will help you. Something different can often help get things moving again. You've done extremely well so far so high fat low carb could be your new friend.

Welcome @BarbC67!

Well done for not regaining your initial loss - keeping that off for 18 months is marvelous. Frustrating for you to be on a plateau since though.

This website and forum has a lot of information about intermittent fasting, so do read the "Learn" pages and forum discussion topics of interest - and do take part in the discussions too.

I HAVE ADDED SOME THOUGHTS ON A POST BELOW. I HAVEN'T DELETED WHAT I ORIGINALLY WROTE IN THIS POST.

Which fasting regime do you plan to follow? I guess I would recommend starting with the standard 5:2 and seeing how you go. Do not expect the weight loss to be quick but if you stick with it, the weight may well come off with time. As carieoates says, doing something different may help kick start a loss.

I don't have an explanation for your weight gain but assume your body is just retaining a lot of fluid for some reason. Most annoying for you though.

Good luck and best wishes.

Dear @BarbC67

I wasn't going to write this but I have been thinking of your situation and have done some research, and feel that I should say something after all.

If you really are only eating 1000-1200 calories a day, then you may be eating too little, given your age, height and weight. There does seem to be enough evidence around that you may not lose weight if you are eating too little. It could also be indicative of a thyroid problem, so it may be worth checking your health biomarkers with a doctor.

So restricting calories further may not be a good idea.

There is so much conflicting information around however. The BSD diet, which Is one of the latest diet strategies, has people eating only 800 cals a day (I do think the intention of this plan was that such calorie restriction should be for only a limited time, though I know many have continued for months).

It is hard to know what to believe. I assume you have also done a lot of reading related to weight loss. Have you considered consulting a dietician?

My main point is that I think you should consider matters a lot more before restricting your calories further.

Best wishes.

Welcome!

I love Sassy's post.

I also want to suggest perhaps you try varying your caloric intake more.

Maybe try something like 500 calories Monday, 1500 Tuesday, 1500 Wednesday, 500 Thursday, 1500 Friday, 2000 Saturday and 1500 Sunday? Or 500 on MWF, and 1500 TuTh and 2000 SaSu?

I really think that a huge part of my success has been keeping my metabolism confused as to how much food it will be getting on any given day.

HI @BarbC67

I love the advice you've bean given here. You've done amazingly well to keep the weight that you lost off - well done!

I wonder if you would benefit from trying BSD. Our special friend Candy @Candicemarie who hasn't bean on here for a while, has done incredibly well with this way of eating. So much so, that she has lost over 4 and a half stone and STILL doesn't fancy naughty foods that she used to crave. I do think that keeping carbs low helps reduce the carb craving that can so often scupper our results.

I'm in a similar situation. I got to my lowest weight for many, many years in August last year - but Christmas and everything sent me off track and the weight is slowly but surely creeping up. I think if I resort to low carb again (no more than 50g per day) I may just lose some more weight - who knows!!

Anyway, this week I'm throwing in a couple of fasts (500 cal) and then will try doing 800 cals, 50g carbs until I get back to my low weight again. I think it does work this way and as our lovely @Tracieknits says, mixing things up could really help give you a boost!

Good luck!

Bean