The FastDay Forum

Welcome sarajay.
Goodness, those relatives sounds like hard work kencc.

Second week maintaining. I weighed in at 3 lbs under goal weight so it ended up being a 6:1 week again. Having done 5:2 for 12 months and it being embedded in my routine, I find it odd only doing one fast a week.

Hello maintainers

Well done all for reaching maintenance and good luck with finding your strategy

I started maintenance 3 months ago and I finally feel like I really am maintaining and not just reacting to an oscillating weight, up 3 pounds, lose 3 pounds, up 2 pounds, lose 2 pounds

What with the holidays, a stressful business trip and recent surgery, I'm delighted that I'm hovering around the 128/129 pounds (58-58.5kg)

I'm a daily weigher and calorie counter using MFP. I do 5:2 so it's 500 calories twice a week, I have 1-2 days when I go above my TDEE (which is 1360) where I eat around 1600-1800 and the rest as close to my TDEE. I figured it would be good to mix it up and not have 1360 every day in case my body goes into starvation mode. I can't workout at the moment but am trying to reach 10,000 steps a day

All in all, I feel like I've found a formula that works for me. I now know that if my weight creeps up because of another business trip or an indulgent weekend then all I need to do is a couple of good fasts and I'll be back on track

What I do know and now accept is that I can't be complacent - may be one day I will be able to get away from calorie counting and daily weighing but I'd rather not risk it because I've been here before, became complacent and before I knew it the pounds had piled on

These are exciting times - for me, I'm the same weight as I was when I was at university which at 50 is a wonderful feeling

I am a daily weigher too and notice my weight sitting around the 68.5-68.9 range, unless I do a fast day and then get it back to 68 the day after. However I have been doing 5:2, not 6:1 as planned, just to maintain.

I don't want to calorie count on other days but keep an eye on what I eat all days. Having said that, I had a wagyu beef burger with spiced chat potatoes for lunch and spaghetti bolognaise, with couple of glasses of red and nectarines with almonds mascarpone for dinner. No wonder I'm back to 68.5kg this morning...

Hi, all! Poking my head in very tentatively, after two weeks as a mainteneer (love the job description, there). So far maintenance is indistinguishable from 5:2ing. Since I was hovering at 1/2 to 1 pound above my target weight for two months before finally reaching it, I have concluded that somehow, what was causing me to lose .6 pound/week from March to October is now what I must do just to maintain. Oh well.

I'm planning, though, that my second fast of the week will be not so rigorous. Yesterday had a handful of nuts in the afternoon, slice of whole grain bread with dinner, one Oreo cookie. This morning's weight - day after second fast - showed one pound over target, which is within the 2 over/ 2 under range that I'm allowing myself.

I'm a happy mainteneer, so far.

Hi fellow mainteneers!
It is very useful to read about your various strategies - thanks.

I think I have already mentioned earlier in the strand what I am doing, so forgive me for repeating.
I have recently started daily weighing and also keeping a rough written calorie count - neither of which I did during the journey to my goal weight, but I am trying to understand the reasons for weight fluctuations. Probably expecting a bit much!!

I measure weight, %bf, %water, via scales, enter into a spreadsheet and calculate actual kgs for bf, water and the "rest" (I am assuming that bf and water are mutually exclusive measures). It is reassuring that the "rest" only fluctuates a small amount, which gives me some confidence in the other measures - sort of!

There is still so much variation from day to day and during the day that I find hard to find reasons for. (I do try to weigh at same time in same situation each day, but not always possible. Out of interest, I sometimes weigh twice, early and later in the morning when the only difference in my intake has been liquid - and although total weight doesn't change much, the bf can change by 1kg!!)

I think I read a post from @carorees somewhere that said bf is likely to measure more early in the day?? I hope you don't mind me tagging you, Caro, but I hoped you could direct me to the info on this - if I have remembered correctly. I tried Googling, but no luck. I don't have the instructions for my scales either, which may cover this?

My weight has fluctuated in a 3kg range since starting maintenance (I will update my progress tracker after this, but probably will only put in a weekly weight). I have been calculating a 7-day average for all the measures too, and plotting that - a much smoother trend of course and probably a better indicator??

Like a number of you, I am still doing 5:2 while I try to sort out how my body is behaving!!

It's been a good week in terms of calories (not!) consumed, and when I stood on the scales this morning I had the lowest weight yet...

Best wishes to all

Hello@Sassy1 Basically there are 2 reasons for variations in measurements: true variations (your weight and other variables do change somewhat) and measurement error (the scales are never perfect in measuring all the things they are supposed to measure). The problem with measuring is that both are always included, and you are not able to see what is true variation and what is error. Error can be reduced by more reliable measuring instruments, but they might be difficult to get or too expensive for your purpose (see below). If you can't get better instruments, you just have to accept the error and deal with it in the way you already indicated: get a number of measurements (7 is indeed a good number) and calculate the average. Be sure that in your mind you never see a measurement on one day as a 'real measurement', it is only a means towards getting the average. So use the average as your actual weight 3 days ago (when using 7 measures).
In this way you will of course lose any information on true (daily) variation in your weight. That's a pity, but it's perhaps actually better than getting hyped or frustrated by the combined changes in true variation and errors. Be aware that scales might be pretty accurate in measuring weight, but for the others variables there will be considerable error!

In my mind it really helps to take a different perspective. Ask the question which variation has a real meaning in terms of your being a mainteneer? Surely this is not your daily variation! Maybe not even your weekly variation. It's just staying within your weight range for the next months, years, ... rest of your life. The main idea of maintenance is to get relaxed about it. Surely you need to keep focused and know 'what is going on', so daily weighting is fine, as long as you use them in order to get more reliable data on what is actually going on (the averages). Getting outside of your range is just a small wakeup call to pay some more attention on fasting/eating, which will soon get you back on track. And with 'soon' I mean 'in perhaps a couple of weeks' as your real time perspective on maintenance is: the rest of your life. I use a very simple scale that can only indicate a 0.5 kg difference (so my 'weight' will jump up and down with 0.5 kg increments). That's not very precise, but the only thing I need to know is if I am still in, or close to, the 2 kg range that I set as my maintenance goal.

[carorees]

@sassy1 I can't really add to what P-JK has said, but as far as bf in the morning...if you are dehydrated in the morning the percentage of water will be lower and therefore the percentage of fat will be higher. If you convert the percentages to kg you should find the bf is the same (or a bit less if your scales are v precise) and water is lower than before you went to bed.

Fat and water in your body are in a constant state of flux and the mechanisms that control them don't work to a tight tolerance so variation is large and not necessarily attributable to any particular action on your part.

Thanks very much @P-JK, @carorees and @kencc, your explanations and advice are appreciated.
It helps keeping in mind the many sources of measurement error!
I will try to stop obsessing over it all... I guess my underlying issue is that the weight I lost will somehow end up going back on again, since in many ways my weight loss seems too good to be true, almost miraculous I now weigh less than I have ever done as an adult...
Despite occasional (and v minor compared to most) glitches and concerns on the way down (no pun intended!), losing weight thru this WOL has been pretty easy for me (again, compared to many, judging by their reports).
I do have some more thoughts to add on this issue, but the rain (well, shower, but we are grateful for any of that wet stuff after weeks of none) has stopped and the dogs are sitting next to me with those big eyes saying that surely it is time for their walk now - so I had better go.
Again, thanks!

I guess my underlying issue is that the weight I lost will somehow end up going back on again, since in many ways my weight loss seems too good to be true, almost miraculous I now weigh less than I have ever done as an adult...
Despite occasional (and v minor compared to most) glitches and concerns on the way down (no pun intended!), losing weight thru this WOL has been pretty easy for me (again, compared to many, judging by their reports).

Hi, @Sassy1. I just want to weigh in (ha, ha?) here, because I also feel like this WOL is really very easy. I've lost 10kg/22lb, am at a weight that I think I'll be comfortable at forever, and have to keep pinching myself to make sure it's real. Today I went jeans shopping at stores where the prices are ridiculous (at least from my perspective - people regularly spend even more). So I wasn't planning on buying, and didn't, but it's such a thrill to try on size 2 (US) jeans and discover that they fit.

But I agree totally with the advice not to obsess. Before 5:2 I almost never weighed myself, because that was a depressing thing to do, and I'm quite good at sticking my head in the sand. Now I'm sworn to weekly or twice weekly weighing (day after fasts), but that's it. I think it will be sufficient. No averaging, no calorie counting, just more serious fasts planned if I go over my 4 lb acceptable range. Time will tell, but I totally believe this will work. Forever.

Thanks for your thoughts @wendyjane, sounds a very sensible approach and one that I have been thinking about while reflecting on my experience of this WOL and the information provided by others.

When it is not so late at night, I do want to pen some of these thoughts and add to this strand as these are relevant to how I will be able to maintain this weight.

Not sure why I haven't seen this thread before, but its very timely. I've been maintaining since August give or take a couple of blips. I think this might count as another one as I'm up three pounds from last week and the highest I've been in a while.

Not sure if its because of the time of the month or maybe I've put on some muscle with my hiit routine,or maybe just eating a bit too much over the weekend but ether way thought I could use a little shelter in here to keep me motivated:)

Hoping I will be back to normal this time next week.

Not sure why I haven't seen this thread before, but its very timely. I've been maintaining since August give or take a couple of blips. I think this might count as another one as I'm up three pounds from last week and the highest I've been in a while.

Not sure if its because of the time of the month or maybe I've put on some muscle with my wiit routine,or maybe just eating a bit too much over the weekend but ether way thought I could use a little shelter in here to keep me motivated:)

Hoping I will be back to normal this time next week.

Time of month over here as well and my scale is up too. This always happens though, and in a couple days it will be gone

I did a fast day this past week and that corrected the weight creep that I had So now I'm back to maintaining and I'm going to try a 5:2 maintenance method that AnnieD suggested-Monday and Thursdays are always potential repair days, but only if my weight has crept up over the high end of my maintenance range. Doing it this way will prevent further weight loss (which I really don't want to happen!), and it will also keep my weight in check. I love the simplicity of this plan and I think it will work out perfectly for me, for maintenance

I always add on a pound or two for the time d the month but not usually three! I try to do. ADF maintenance with 1000 calorie days, usually low carb and the rest as usual. If I feel it creeping up like now I will eat less than a 1000 on my fast days.

And like you I try to keep to a 16:8 day too

I haven't been able to stop the daily weighing but I no longer calorie count on any day. I know I am careful most days but that's mainly regarding quantity (no second serves except wine) and avoiding refined carbs. I still bake on the weekend but again smaller portions. It is going well and another low record showed up this morning. Definitely maintaining now so no more fasts till next Monday.

Good news. Enjoy your fast holiday