Hi! I've been on maintenance for a month or so. I wouldn't mind going down a few lbs. for the long-term, but I decided that a maintaining plateau was a good thing. One of the reasons I decided to do this was that I didn't want to screw up the forum's statistics. The other reason is that in my weight loss history, this has worked for me and kind of protected me against losing too fast and boomeranging.
So, I've been 5:2ing, but with a bit more relaxed fastday--up to 700 calories, I would guess. Non-fast days have been kind of normal for me, perhaps a few more carbs than is normal for me. My weight was up a lb or so, but that's about it. Then on Wednesday, I took it easy o food during the day, and we met family at a local casino coffee shop for dinner. They have a $9.95 8oz prime rib dinner. Hmmmmm! Well, I jumped on it because it really sounded good, and at home, we restrict red meat for health reasons (especially my husband's RA--it increases inflammation). I had salad with dressing on the side, prime rib, a baked potato. The prime rib was beautiful! Rare and only a tiny bit of fat on the tail--wow! I ate the whole dang thing (except the fat) and most of the baked potato. I felt slightly overfull, but not stuffed. To say I was a happy camper was an understatement.
The next day I did a strict 500 cal fast with a 1.5 mile walk and two 1 hour sessions of zumba without any difficulty. Today, I'm down a pound over where I've been for the last few weeks. Interesting and reassuring!
I think that if there's a way to track the stats of maintainers over time, it would be a very valuable thing and the best argument for the long-term viability of the 5:2 WOL.