The FastDay Forum

So guys you have got down to your ideal weight how do you go about maintaining this? Do you just do 16:8 or are you still doing 5:2 (surely you would lose too much this way). Just wondering how those of you who have reached your goal weight are continuing to maintain it, i.e. not putting on but again not losing any more?

Look forward to your replies.

A very happy Nicole who has still got a few lbs to lose but steadily getting there

[carorees]

just moved this topic to the maintenance section of the forum.

Well done Nicole for teaching this point

People are using several different techniques for maintenance: cutting down to 1 fast day; keeping 2 fast days but ending the fast after 24 hours; changing to daily 16:8 fasting; or weighing daily/regularly and scheduling a fast day whenever an increase is seen. Or a combination of all/any of the above! Like everything else in this WOE, you need to experiment to see what works for you.

Good luck with the next part of your journey!

I use Libra for a trend, I don't do strict 5:2 calorie restriction but I go without breakfast on my traditional fast days (Sun/Tues) and get some exercise (walk/bike) before eating lunch after 12:00 - which makes this a 16:8 style of eating, but only 2 days a week. I minimize sugar & grains, eat 90% chocolate for a treat, and stacks of veg to pad out evening meals. No longer drinking wine every night...
Hope this helps - it's still a work in progress, got back from holiday under target weight again so still some adjustments to be made!

Hi I am maintaining now and I do 6.1 and weighing once a week to keep an eye with intentions of doing 5.2 if needed ,so far so good I did lose a bit while doing 6.1 but that' was because I was unwell and well done

I'm still doing 5:2 but only because my husband still needs to lose a few more pounds and he wouldn't/couldn't fast if I wasn't! On the other days I am eating slightly more than I was when losing weight but have to be careful not to over-indulge on sugary carbs (my downfall when trying to maintain after all my previous weight-loss successes).

Once he has reached his target, I am intending to do 6:1. At present I am really pleased to have been maintaining for six weeks - that's already a record for me!

I am just starting maintenance and will be going for the 24 hour fast twice a week. I don't want to lose more, but I do want the hoped-for health benefits.

I am on maintenance and do the two 500 calorie fast days each week, but eat more on my feast days as I don't want to lose any more weight, but still want to reap the benefits of fasting. I have been been following a 16:8 pattern on other days, but if I know I am going to use a lot of energy during the morning have breakfast.

Hi Guys, nice to be here with you (finally!!) - I was going to start a thread entitled "now for the hard bit" as I think losing weight was maybe the easy bit (there was a goal, focus & determination) but now I'm a mainteneer (pinched from another thread ) it's made me think that most (if not all) of us have lost weight before, we're past-masters at it, the problem always is not putting it back on !!

I'm going to try various of the above tactics until I find what works for me, or it may be all of them but at different times! I think the crucial bit (for me) is to weigh daily & react accordingly

My initial target weight was 64kg which I changed up to 65kg as I felt good there, but after a fast yesterday (for maintenance reasons) I'm now at 63.6kg (not recorded here as it's not my weigh-day). I need some bounce-back room so I guess that's OK, but I mustn't keep losing.
I guess my aim now is to stay at 64-point-something.

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it, this is much trickier than just trying to lose weight

It is tricky, and I wish you luck, especially if your ideal weight turns out to be a bit less than your target! After 3 months of mainteneering I am on the underside of my (third) target, only by a fraction but consistently, and ask myself "where would I like to put some fat back"? And I wouldn't want to add fat, really I could do with building more muscle. Once the arm is out of its cast I will join my son in the gym for a few weeks perhaps...

I have now been maintaining for approximately five months. I agree with AnnieD That we have all had a taste of maintenance before, and my usual pattern is to slowly gain 10 pounds over six months and then spend six months taking it off, repeat, repeat, repeat. I actually have weight charts going back 10 years showing this seesaw pattern. I'm happy to say that for the last five months my weight has not varied by more than a couple of pounds, and has always been underneath 140, which is the first time that I have maintained this over that long period. Unfortunately, I have only been able to do this by having two fast days per week. I would love it if I only needed one, but I am not willing to give up eating whatever I want and to have this luxury, it's two fast days a week for me.

I've been wondering about this too. I was within one pound of my goal, still doing 5:2 and put a pound back on which was disappointing. I often get very hungry on the day after the fast day which didn't happen when I was initially losing weight. I'm also doing less exercise at the moment because we were cycling a lot and the weather is getting cooler.