Half a year on 5:2, and I hit a minor milestone.
Posted: 30 Mar 2013, 17:26It's now 6 months since I watched Michael Mosley's Horizon documentary and thought "I'll try that!" so I thought it an opportune time to give a little report on my progress. At the time I was on the edge of the overweight and obese BMI ranges for my height, and had been looking for a sustainable lifestyle change that I could make in order to lose weight. Despite the fact that I was (and remain) sceptical of the "long life" science, I thought that this looked like a very doable means of achieving my goals. If the science pans out, as they say, it will be gravy.
As you can see from my progress tracker, I've lost weight steadily over the 6 months, and I have to say that I've not found it difficult at all. I think this may be because I decided to stop "grazing" between meals years ago. This had served to stop me putting much weight on (but didn't help me to lose any!) which meant that for me, I didn't have to stop myself from snacking on fast days as I hadn't been doing it anyway.
I've experimented with various ways of splitting my calories and settled on a very light protein-rich breakfast of tuna with lime juice, before saving the rest of my calories for the evening. I find this very easy and I'm mitigating the worries that I've seen expressed in some circles about not having a steady supply of protein and hence possibly losing muscle on fast days.
I'd been hoping that I might reach the "normal" BMI range by this point, but sadly I'm a kilo or so short. I fully expect to reach that milestone in a few weeks, though. I started measuring my waist a few weeks back, and today it came in at 94.5cm which is the magic "half your height" figure. As a slender-framed tall man, I feel that in reality I've probably got a bit further to go on that count, though, and I'm certainly aiming to lose another ten kilos or so before I switch to "maintenance mode."
As a whole I've found 5:2 to be really easy to do, and I've still be able to eat out, drink booze in moderation etc. without any guilt or worry. Thanks to everyone here, especially Moogie and the mod team, for providing a friendly environment with interesting conversations. I hope to keep posting here for many months to come!
As you can see from my progress tracker, I've lost weight steadily over the 6 months, and I have to say that I've not found it difficult at all. I think this may be because I decided to stop "grazing" between meals years ago. This had served to stop me putting much weight on (but didn't help me to lose any!) which meant that for me, I didn't have to stop myself from snacking on fast days as I hadn't been doing it anyway.
I've experimented with various ways of splitting my calories and settled on a very light protein-rich breakfast of tuna with lime juice, before saving the rest of my calories for the evening. I find this very easy and I'm mitigating the worries that I've seen expressed in some circles about not having a steady supply of protein and hence possibly losing muscle on fast days.
I'd been hoping that I might reach the "normal" BMI range by this point, but sadly I'm a kilo or so short. I fully expect to reach that milestone in a few weeks, though. I started measuring my waist a few weeks back, and today it came in at 94.5cm which is the magic "half your height" figure. As a slender-framed tall man, I feel that in reality I've probably got a bit further to go on that count, though, and I'm certainly aiming to lose another ten kilos or so before I switch to "maintenance mode."
As a whole I've found 5:2 to be really easy to do, and I've still be able to eat out, drink booze in moderation etc. without any guilt or worry. Thanks to everyone here, especially Moogie and the mod team, for providing a friendly environment with interesting conversations. I hope to keep posting here for many months to come!
