The FastDay Forum

I have been very lazy over the school holidays and during this last week or two I have been an emotional eater. So although I had been maintaining easily for a few months this last month has seen me put on about 3.5lbs. Really feeling it now too. So fasting tomorrow which I haven't done for quite a while, circuit training on Monday evening, yoga on Tuesday and x3 runs a week will hopefully sort me out and make me feel better again. It is great to know that you can keep on top of any weight increases and sort them out easily.

I think I'm maintaining but as I have moved countries about seven weeks ago, and won't have access to my own scales until January 2015, I'm not 100% sure.

I did get on a set of scales about six weeks ago and then again on the same scales last week and had lost 2kg in that time. We'd been on holidays through Scandinavia and did an enormous amount of walking (and little drinking and snacking).

I'm now back in the country where I was born (the Netherlands) and am eating quite a few things, in large quantities, that I probably shouldn't (sweet liquorice, caramel biscuits, chips with mayonnaise accompanied by beer). However, on most days I am eating more like I used to do - main meals are focussed around vegetables, with only a small amount of meat, wholesome breads for lunch, raw fish and lots of dairy and other proteins. I've kept up my exercise too.

I've been tempted to go and buy scales but I wonder whether I can do this without and eat sensibly. My partner still fasts twice a week but as my mother has told me not to lose anymore (she hadn't seen me for a while) for the time being I have decided to skip breakfast on a couple of days and only have a light lunch those days but normal dinners. I'll see how this goes.

I am maintaining again this month.

I weigh daily, and my weight stays within 1lb of where I want to be without too much effort on my part. However, I am noticing my waist size increasing and definitely feel more flabby around the middle, which is my problem area anyway. I still swim 4 mornings a week before work and walk quite a lot. I'm starting not to feel as confident and I'm not sure what to do to rectify things.

I log everything on MFP daily and always stay within my limits, apart from on very odd occasions. Should I start fasting one day a week again, although I don't really want to lose much more weight? I'm vegetarian and eat pretty healthily. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am noticing my waist size increasing and definitely feel more flabby around the middle...

Should I start fasting one day a week again, although I don't really want to lose much more weight? I'm vegetarian and eat pretty healthily. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Di you feel that you might have a postural issue which is contributing to flabbiness around the middle and decreasing tone in your core muscles? If so, is there a form of Callanetics/Pilates/Yoga or similar that you might enjoy and might address that?

As for 6:1 - it depends. You might wish to fast for some of the theoretical health benefits and bump those kcals onto your other days to give you a slightly higher TDEE allowance? Or perhaps you're not in a fasting frame of mind.

I've long since given up understanding what the phrase, "eating healthily" means for anyone as everyone has such different lifestyles, digestive systems, health needs, assessment of ecological impacts etc. that it's sometimes difficult to identify common strands. Except that, if you can tolerate them, dark green leafy vegetables seem to be regarded as A Good Thing.

[carorees]

I am maintaining again this month.

I weigh daily, and my weight stays within 1lb of where I want to be without too much effort on my part. However, I am noticing my waist size increasing and definitely feel more flabby around the middle, which is my problem area anyway. I still swim 4 mornings a week before work and walk quite a lot. I'm starting not to feel as confident and I'm not sure what to do to rectify things.

I log everything on MFP daily and always stay within my limits, apart from on very odd occasions. Should I start fasting one day a week again, although I don't really want to lose much more weight? I'm vegetarian and eat pretty healthily. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi @radleykitten
Bearing in mind that your weight on the scales is composed of, not only the fat content, but your body's water, skin, muscle and bone weight, if your waist is increasing but your weight is staying the same it's possible that you are gaining something in the waist area and losing something else. If you think you are gaining some fat around the middle, rather than a change in core strength, then fasting one day a week could be a good idea.

Insulin resistance can worsen with age and this promotes the accumulation of fat around the middle. The gain in waist size suggests that this may be happening. Fasting helps to reduce insulin resistance as does reducing carbohydrate intake. So you could try fasting once a week and/or reducing your carbohydrate intake a little and see what happens. This will hopefully reduce the waist size once more.

The second part of the puzzle is the fact that your weight has not increased. I would have thought that the swimming and walking you do should be protecting you from loss of muscle or bone, but perhaps @SSure or @peebles who know a lot about these things might have some insights? Another possibility is that you have just moved where you are storing fat...have you measured your hips and thighs?

In summary, I would worry less about the number on the scale and more about the waist size.

I've just measured everywhere again today, I've lost 1.5 inches from my thighs and 0.5 inches from my hips and it appears just my waist is spreading a bit. My family trait on the female side is to carry any weight around the belly during and after the menopause, so I'm sticking to the trend unfortunately.

I don't think there is a postural issue, well nothing has changed since the start of the year when I began the 5:2 anyway. If anything I've increased the amount of swimming I do, and since being poorly a couple of months ago I do feel very well generally.

I will go back to one fast day a week I think and see what happens. Thank you both for your replies

I'm now back in the country where I was born (the Netherlands)

Hi @Wmr309, so where in the Netherlands are you currently (not so many Dutch people seem to be active on the forum)?

I've just measured everywhere again today, I've lost 1.5 inches from my thighs and 0.5 inches from my hips and it appears just my waist is spreading a bit. My family trait on the female side is to carry any weight around the belly during and after the menopause, so I'm sticking to the trend unfortunately.

I don't think there is a postural issue, well nothing has changed since the start of the year when I began the 5:2 anyway. ...

I will go back to one fast day a week I think and see what happens. Thank you both for your replies

I mentioned posture because a while ago, I had to travel to have some physical rehab treatment. I travelled out in Winter weight trousers that I planned to return home wearing (in between, it was going to be warm enough that I wouldn't need these). Well, a whole 5 days later, I couldn't keep these trousers up even with a belt. After the alignment of my right hip improved, I stopped having a lower abdominal pooch, and hadn't realised that it was this that was keeping up the trousers.

@radleykitten, In the light of what you've said about your female line and the peri-menopause/menopause belly, @carorees' guidance is spot on.

The second part of the puzzle is the fact that your weight has not increased. I would have thought that the swimming and walking you do should be protecting you from loss of muscle or bone...

In summary, I would worry less about the number on the scale and more about the waist size.

One of the red flags for age-related muscle loss in women is that the weight remains the same but the waist size increases - and that's generally interpreted as a reliable indicator for an increase in body fat levels and/or visceral fat levels. It's particularly common in post-menopausal women to the point where in a particularly interesting report, the majority of post-menopausal women who were normal weight by BMI were overweight/obese by body fat levels (as assessed by Dexa scan).

Good overview of the study:

BMI is possibly more misleading for women than for men, Braverman and Shah say, since women lose muscle and bone, and replace it with fat, faster than men. BMI measurements don’t take into account precisely how weight is distributed in the body, and, as Braverman explained to HealthDay, “it’s the percent of body fat, not BMI, that makes you obese.”

Based on BMI, about one-third of Americans are considered obese, but when other methods of measuring obesity are used, that number may be closer to 60%, according to Braverman...

It’s not extra weight itself, but excess fat, that leads to health problems ranging from hypertension and heart disease to diabetes and stroke.

“People aren’t being diagnosed [as obese], so they’re not being told about their risk of disease or being given instruction on how to improve their health,” Braverman told Health.com. http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/03/a ... tudy-says/

Technical summary

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0033308 (see, in particular, Table 4)

A total of 48% of women were misclassified as non-obese by BMI, but were found to be obese by percent body fat...

48% of women ages 50–59 misclassified, and 59% were misclassified by age 70+. This association with advancing age was not observed in men...

BMI significantly underestimates prevalence of obesity when compared to DXA direct measurement of percent body fat...

This misclassification was seen more commonly in women than in men and occurred more frequently with advancing age in women. A more appropriate cut-point for obesity with BMI is 24 for females and 28 for males...

Greater loss of muscle mass (sarcopenic obesity) in women, with age, exacerbates the misclassifications of BMI [17], [18]. Women with increased adiposity with osteoporosis are at greater risk for impaired gait, disability, falls, and fractures

All of the above sounds a bit dire. However, assessing whether you are losing muscle & bone is useful information. If you are gaining fat around your middle, then fasting may well correct this for you without tweaking your diet further. It will interesting to see you report back with your 6:1 progress.

Trying to attach a photo, but it doesn't work.

Hi @Wmr309, so where in the Netherlands are you currently (not so many Dutch people seem to be active on the forum)?[/quote]

Hi @P-JK based in Utrecht for the remainder of this year. A new city to explore!

Well, Utrecht seems a perfect location, nicely located and a nice city as well. Enjoy your stay.

Well, I have decided that I need to leave the maintenance tent for (hopefully) only a short while

Yesterday I plotted my (daily) weight and fat measurements (both in kgs) since I started maintenance - done in Excel not the tracker, cos it does take rather a long time to enter multiple values in the tracker (my fault for not doing it every day, I decided to just put data in weekly, with values that have been averaged over 7 days) - and the gradual increase in both is very evident.

As my weight yesterday was 2kg over my goal, and that was after a liquid fast, I have decided I need to go back to weight loss mode, and do my very best to not give in to hunger pangs/ famine reaction.

Btw, I did have almost 2 weeks off fasting to try to get on top of the famine reaction. Did well on the suggested eating plan for a few days, then went totally out of control with my eating, for assorted reasons...

So am trying liquid fasts for 2 days a week, which is roughly equivalent to a lb's worth of calories not eaten each week. And sticking to TDEE religiously on other days - fingers crossed. If I have a day when I go over, then I plan to compensate the next day with reduced intake.

In theory this means that the 2 kg should be gone in 5 weeks. Not sure whether it will actually work that way, but will see.

I also noted that my best period for maintenance occurred early this year which coincided with when I wrote down everything I ate and roughly calculated the calories. So I will now be doing that again.

I have a friend's wedding in just under 2 months, and I would like to be just under goal by then so that I can fit into the clothes I bought when I was at my lowest weight... (Why do I always buy clothes when I am at a modal low for weight??)

Anyway, hope other mainteneers with a little to lose are finding a way to do so.

PS I do feel rather self-indulgent going on about my slight gain when so many are still trying to lose a considerable amount.

Well, I have decided that I need to leave the maintenance tent for (hopefully) only a short while
...
PS I do feel rather self-indulgent going on about my slight gain when so many are still trying to lose a considerable amount.

@Sassy1, it looks like you have a solid plan and I hope that you find your way back to the maintenance tent as soon as practical.

And, as for the relative self-indulgence, this is the reality of maintenance - watching that weight range and keeping it within bounds is our self-appointed task. It doesn't have the drama of weight loss mode but it is vital to making us successful maintainers and not regretful regainers.

Hello, I'm just peeping into your tent, as I think I shall be joining you in a month or so.
I've just hit my interim target (which is lower than my original final target if that makes sense!) but think it's unlikely I'll get to lower without difficulty.
@carorees has written very usefully about target setting, and if going on weight alone, I'd be prepared to stop now with a BMI of 22.3. However, my waist percentage is still quite high at 48.9, and at 49 years old, I'm approaching the menopause, and most women in my family are apples....
I've recently started running, so thought I'd give it a month more on 5:2, and see where I end up, and then declare a state of Maintenance, which to be honest will just be continuing as I am, as my weight has been stable-ish for 6 months while doing 5:2.
I did have fond hopes of maintenace being 6:1, which is what I thought you all did, so it is interesting to see that most of you are working hard at maintaining - it doesn't just happen!
All your posts have been really helpful, thank you!

Hi @Annurca, sounds like you have a good plan for starting on maintenance and good luck with the running to help with the waist measurement.

Very best wishes for your next stage!