The FastDay Forum

Just interested to see how all those who have reached target are doing. Are you still fasting, or have you switched to another way of eating? How is the weight maintenance going? I'm doing fine, have religiously done one fast day a week but last week I was in such a bad mood by the evening I'm wondering if it is worth continuing - and also whether the other health benefits due to fasting really apply if you only do it once a week.
This forum of maintenance is so quiet it is difficult to be motivated to continue fasting sometimes! I often skip lunch and find it easier to do this instead of a full fast, but then there aren't the supposed other health benefits.

Hi Susan,

I'm still skipping breakfast and not eating late in the evening every day and, so far so good, weight is still under target and I feel great. I have been maintaining now for 4 months and can see this way of life as permanent now. Not sure if the long term health benefits of fasting exist but I hope they do and if not, well, I still feel better, more energised, happier and a LOT slimmer so there is nothing negative for me except the cost of new clothes, hooray!!!!

Good luck,

Ballerina x

I'm not there yet. 4.5 kg still to go but just wanted to say that I find the maintenance part of the forum very interesting. You guys are a huge source of inspiration to me and I would love to see more maintenance posts.

Loosing is for sure difficult, but I think most of us has managed to do it sometimes before. The maintenance part is what I found to be the real challange and the true proof for that this is a way of living that actually is doable. I'll do my best to join you within short but I expect it to be another 3-4 month at least..

I have been maintaining since for the past few weeks and yes, I continue to do the two fast days a week, but I always have a lunch and evening meal on the fast days. I now eat much more healthily and my body is certainly showing the benefits of 5:2. Overall I have reduced my total weekly calorie count and it does help that it is summer!

I suspect there are a lot of us eying you from a distance (sometimes a long one) with envy! I'm a ways away from a healthy BMI, much less my first goal. Are some people leaving the forum after they reach their goal? It's a shame because (1) you maintainers are an inspiration and (2) while we suspect (hope?) this WOE will be better for maintaining weight losses than other diets, we don't have proof yet. It's not a well controlled experiment, but the fact that some of you are maintaining gives me hope that this will work in the long run.

Hi Susan, nice to hear from you again! In a word, no - not fasting as we knew it, anyway.

I overshot my original target, and the reset target, whilst still doing 2 fasts so I started 16:8 - style fasting two days a week where I did not eat until after 12:00 and preferably after exercise. This worked fine but I was still losing weight slowly and did not want to go any lower.

At the start of June I was eating normally and getting long bike rides in addition to interval training (6x 400m) on Wednesdays and parkruns on Saturdays. Suddenly my performances started to improve consistently and I put it down to being better fuelled - I am now running 5k faster than I have for two years and have hopes for more improvements yet! Biking speeds are improving as well and a new bike has made things more enjoyable - I have met up with an old running/climbing partner who was always faster than me but is now carrying about 4 stones of fat around his middle so the tables have been turned somewhat - except he goes downhill very fast! He cannot imagine fasting...

So, currently I am around my latest target of 135 lbs and only doing 'delayed breakfast' a couple of times a week - but no unhealthy snacking like crisps - sensible eating of proper food, and even carbo-loading a bit on Fridays to be ready to race on Saturdays. Hips are bearing up OK, Ibuprofen works to get rid of most of the stiffness after running/riding and there does not seem to be a significant worsening in their condition - it was probably too much to hope they would repair themselves on 5:2!

PS - darling wife continues with 6:1 despite getting down to about 120 lbs last week - but I think she now realizes that a bit more food will give her a lot more performance in her runs, and having missed her PB by a couple of seconds at the weekend she is definitely going to try upping her intake for a while (skinny cow!)

Well I am also not at my final goal, I changed it once I hit my goal...1.5kg to go. However I have been stuck around this weight for 7 weeks now and I'm not fussed if I don't lose the 1.5kg, so long as I maintain. I have clothes that are too big and some jeans from 7 years ago that are still a bit tight, so if I lose the 1.5kg they should fit better. But I look good - positively skinny when I see some of the people on my train! I did 4:3 initially but switched to 5:2 a few weeks ago, which I find easy. This week I am doing 4:3 in an effort to get that last bit of weight off. Overall at this point I enjoy the fasting as I know I will maintain my weight doing it whilst being able to drink wine and eat cakes etc on feed days. If I stopped fasting, I feel I would have put weight on or I would have to diet in some form, which I just don't want to do. Fasting 2 days a week I find simple & easy and sustainable...at this point, but I may get sick of it. Going back to something like low GI carbing..did it for so long that a lot of it is ingrained...I never eat pasta, rice, spuds etc, but I just can't hack it any more as a long term WOE.

So really I have been feeling like I am on maintenance even tho I have 1.5 kg to go.

I've got between % & 10 kgs to lose but been getting more interested in this aspect as I've been losing a bit fast with all the exercise I do now.

So been fiddling with intake, timing, missing meals and I'm getting much better at judging intake better, as shown on the tracking app.

Given it will always be a homeostatic process, the more tools in the box, the better.

Good to hear from you all! Good luck to all who are nearly at goal and thinking about maintenance. I've managed to keep my weight below target (despite OH telling me to put on a couple of kgs) with a fairly flexible take on 6:1 but wondered how everyone else was doing. @Ballerina - I'm really pleased 16:8 is working so well for you. I would do it but still can't face going without breakfast on a daily basis! @Pete, I wish I was as disciplined as you and unfortunately I still snack occasionally but miss lunch if I do to compensate. Do you miss the fasting or do you find it easier to maintain without doing it?
@GMH and Navwoman chapeau, I couln't do 2 full fasts a week now, even if it does mean I can be more relaxed about eating and drinking on non fast days. Good for you if it is sustainable.
I'm still eating very few carbs in the evenings which also seems to help with the maintenance. My fitbit has made maintenance more interesting. Yesterday I had a very lazy day and did nothing but went to the beach and my calories used was 1700 compared to a normal active day of 2300 - 2400 calories.
Given it will always be a homeostatic process, the more tools in the box, the better.
So true BBT053!
It's nice to know that there are still a few maintainers around on the forum, keep posting, we maintainers need support too!

Susan it's interesting you say you couldn't do 2 full fasts. I am not naive enough to think that won't/may not happen to me...I often wonder about it. However at this point I find it easy, perhaps because I did 4:3 for so much of my fasting, so it seems like it's easier. I tend to eat too much on feed days which is more of a challenge for me - especially the night before a fast - in case I'm hungry the next day! I think that my perfect solution would be 1 full f.ast and 1 fast where I eat more at night...say up to 800 cals, then try not to go overboard on the other days. My latest trial is fast Sun/Tues/Thurs, Mon & Wed no wine & not too many cals, Fri/Sat go for it LOL I'll report back with results...and if I stick to that

Hi Susan
Yes, I'm still fasting and still exploring possibilities for maintanance and managing to maintain for about 3 1/2 months. 6:1 clearly didn't work or me. So I have to do at least 1.5 fasts, which means 1 day of 500 and one day of 700-1000 cals. I need 3 meals a day, so tiny breakfast, and lunch and a bigger dinner. I continue to excercise nearly every day and I try to eat around 1800 cals in week days and 2000 in the weekends. The last two weeks were vacation, but I managed 4 fast days 1 day of 600, 2 days of 650 and one day of 360 cals. I tried to eat sensibly and I increased my physical activity but we ate out a lot and I ate more than usual. I think I didn't gain weight or gained less than 1 pound but will know better by the end of this week in my regular weigh in day which is Sat.

Einatbl, it sounds like you ar edoing a similar maintenance régime to me. 6:1 wasn't enough for me either. I hope your weigh in on Saturday gives good results! @GMH - maybe the novelty of fasting has worn off for me. I have fasted religiously every Monday but failed yesterday, so I'll try again soon. I could never have managed 4:3 and I don't think my childre could have coped with my evening irritability 3 days a week either! One fast on a Monday is bearable and a good discpline for the start of the week. Maybe it is because I'm not working at the moment and at home more that I'm finding the fasting more of a chore!

I've been maintaining for a while with 6:1 and finding the weight control easy, but having difficulty breaking portion size habits on the other 6 days. So I end up feeling uncomfortably full. I'm eating a lot more protein and fewer (if any) carbs on my fast day--now if I could get myself to do that all that the time, maybe my tum would feel better!

Susan, I don't think I could survive on 4:3 either. I did that just prior to our vacation and it was not full. It was 500 cals on Monday, 700 on Wed and 600 on Fri. My sleep on Friday night was terrible...Anyway, based on my weight today I think I may have lost rather than gained weight on my vacation but will see on Sat. I think that fasting at home is very difficult. Yesterday was the first day of work after my vacation and it was so busy and went fast so the fast was like a breeze. If I was at home I would find myself some activity for the fasting days, perhaps even volunteering or something.. Anything that will keep me away from home and from food...I wish by good luck with your next fasts.
Marybeth. I love carbs too much and I eat plenty but I found that I can control my eating better when I eat complex carbs and that I have uncontrollable cravings when I start eating refined carbs, especially white bread and pastries like croissants etc...so I try to avoid these foods.

@Marybeth - I never eat carbs on a fast day and very rarely in the evenings. I'm sure this helps in weight maintenance too.@Einatbl I don't thin I'll be doing a full fast again until Monday, but will skip lunch today and maybe fast Friday in the day but will eat as normal Friday evening. If I was a couple of kgs heavier I think my motivation would be greater!