The FastDay Forum

I have an arbitrary goal and am 1lb away from it but am not the least bothered to reach it. My very long plateau bumping up and down amounts to maintenance, but there is a little downward trend still. This is totally unstressful and interesting, and I weigh and record every day purely out of interest. Am not put out if weight goes up as I now truly believe that it will go down again!
My OH and I are doing. 5:2 as a matter if course and enjoy it, so can't be bothered to fiddle about with trying other ways although have at times used 16:8. May have to adjust a bit if losing more.

How long it took from starting 5:2 to reaching your maintenance goal?
Started 5:2 in January, yes coming up to one year and feeling great. Lost just over 2 stones.

How long have you been maintaining?
It amounts to about 4 months

Maintenance techniques
Continuing 5:2 until weight goes too low.

Have you gone over your maintenance goal since you reached it and if so have you lost the weight since?
Oh yes! Had celebrations and binges, lovely!! Only ever had one truly guilty trip....But have faith in getting back, and clothes and health remain a constant pleasure,trim and well, and a reminder of what I have achieved when I get so many compliments.

How do you feel compared to before you started 5:2?
I feel a different person. Age 73, working full time teaching , focus on family and hobbies full life and exercising at the gym and rushing about a lot at work. Get tired, so what!? Recent medical checks all totally positive, doctor pronounced me"very healthy ", ie blood checks, weighed measured, and recent precautionary scan. I bet it's largely due to 5:2 health benefits i.e. to be older and feel so much better.
WOW!

I haven't been on the forum for a while, either, but I do want to pay some attention to the maintenance posts. I was doing 5:2 March through June and lost 22 lbs in those 4 months (even with cheating a bit over 500 C/fast day and spreading it through 3 "meals"). I thought fasting/restricting was relatively easy then, but I find now that I would not want to go back to it. I have successfully maintained my weight loss, presumably by eating less overall, having managed to shrink my appetite and improve my habits. At first I tried 6:1 or 5:2 with more calories, but I kept losing weight, so I stopped worrying about restricting at all. I bounce around between 126 and 129 lbs, but since my original goal was 134 lbs, I am very happy. If I see 129+ on the scale (I have always weighed daily), I just behave myself more (give up snacks and sweets) for a couple of days. I don't think I feel particularly better since losing 20+ lbs, but I didn't have health issues to begin with. I have broken down and bought smaller clothes, which certainly feels better, and I do like my body better.

I started 5:2 in January and reached my maintenance weight in July, I had intended to lose another half stone but changed my mind - a couple of times! My weight has been fluctuating by a lb or two but it's easy to get back to 9st 7lb. I usually do 6:1 but I do a half fast now and then, sometimes I abandon my fast if it feels hard to do on that day but I when I weigh the next morning my weight is still OK. This WOE/WOL is so easy to do and I can't see myself stopping, ever!

How do I feel? More energetic, confident, in control - in fact I'm a different person to that overweight lump who watched a Michael Mosley documentary last January....

When I started 5:2 in April, I was already at a healthy BMI and had never been overweight, but I didn't like how close I was to the O category, nor did I like the way I looked and the fact that it had been 5 years since I could wear my size 12 (US) clothes--I now needed size 14. I didn't like my pot belly and double chin, either.

Within 7-8 weeks I lost those ugly 10 pounds and reached my goal. Using 6:1 and sometimes 13:1, I maintained for another 2 months until I decided I wanted to lose another 4 pounds to make the total a nice round number (135 pounds) This goal was much harder to reach and it's been harder maintaining, too. This week I re-evaluated my activity level and began aiming for 400 cals on a fast day instead of 500. I think it's working and hope to be back on 6:1 or 13:1 soon.

I feel great!