The FastDay Forum

If you think you have, then you have. Nobody knows your body better than you.
I can tell my weight by gripping my tummy and usually my scales confirm my estimation.

Ha! I love the title of this post, I bet lots of 5:2 devotees will have clicked through in a fit of pique! I've been measuring myself, but only really because I'm doing an evil hardcore (but very very effective) workout in the evenings, and wanted to see progress. Oddly it's never really occurred to me to measure for diet alone - mainly because I tend to go by how my clothes fit.

@deMuralist @SingingPilgrim: great that you have some good stats before you started, maybe at some point we will need some sort of super 'Son of Progress Tracker' to show how people with these wider health numbers ('before' and 'after') have performed. In the meantime if anyone has some results that they would like to tell us about, please do. One or two already have, such as PaulM.

@Golarne: thanks, I hope that if people find the post helpful that some of them will keep on posting and bumping it up. It is weird here how posts can drop out of consciousness once they no longer feature in the active topics, then sometimes come back months later like zombies - only in a good way...

In Japan, alot of tests are done in the workplace every year. It wouldn't include things like IGF-1, but they do fasting glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. I had my health check just a few weeks before I started 5:2. How soon would you recommend getting them done again? Is 3 months to soon? Should I wait until 6 months? I'll probably still be trying to lose weight well beyond the 3 month mark, so maybe it's best to wait... Also, I need to check that they will actually do the tests again given the circumstances. I haven't quite gotten my head around the Japanese health care system, other than that it is good!

i think the important one missing off your list is the before *pictures*. i really meant to and was going to have a friend shoot them for me, but didn't get around to it and i wish i had. should i put the 8 lbs back on, take pics, and start over...? or at least eat a lot of salt so i can bloat up a bit for my pic...

as far as labs go, i wouldn't let myself start until i could get in and have those done, and considered that my start day for my progress tracker although i didn't have my first fast for a couple more days. i couldn't talk the doc into the IGF-1, but have results for the list below. lipid panel is my big problem, and i'm really hoping to see those numbers up (or down) as appropriate when i check back in a couple of months.

GLUCOSE, FASTING
FASTING LIPID PANEL
CALCIUM, SERUM
TSH (THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE)
CBC (COMPLETE BLOOD COUNT) WITHOUT DIFFERENTIAL
VITAMIN D, 25-HYDROXY

will share my before and afters when i have them...

@MaryAnn: if the tests are available after 3 months then I think it would be interesting to see the (hoped-for) improvements, something should have shown through by then. I would expect that after 6 months of 5:2 the improvements would be greater, but that too is uncertain and it would be interesting to see (for you, and, if you choose to post them here, for the rest of us).

@marsupial_panther: thanks for the photos suggestion, I have added it in to the OP. Great that you had so many stats before starting. As for your starting photos, it's either put the 8lbs back on or borrow a fat suit...

I'll find out of they're willing to cover them at either (or both) 3 or 6 months. They might be since the ladies in the health clinic have been watching me monitor my weight.