IF, 4:3, 5:2 - Maintaining a healthy weight - Chapter 2

[Breadandwine]

This thread is for those who have been practicing IF (Intermittent Fasting) for quite a while and are now at or nearing their target healthy weight. It's also for anyone who is doing it for the health benefits alone.

How do we experience fasts and balance a stable food intake while having little or no weight to lose?

How do we ensure that this WOL keeps us at the healthy weight long term rather than revert to yoyo games?

Several of us have been stable at our goal weight for a few months, now, and others are joining all the time. Obviously, the more the merrier!

Here is the current main thread for posters practicing IF to lose weight.

There are two other associated threads:
This one, which is an absolute goldmine of Tips and Links on how to practice IF, and the research behind it.

And here is a treasure trove of 5:2 recipes, mostly low calorie for fasting days, but there are also recipes for when you want to treat yourself. And, now we're maintaining, we'll need more of these!

er...size 4 too BIG

Can I join? I did this waaaaay back in September and lost 5 lbs in 2 weeks and then had some nastiness IRL and fell off the wagon. Am now heavier than I want to be and eating too much and snacking all over the shop. I'm going back on the 5:2 wagon from tomorrow.

GoodtoBetter
welcome back : the main thread is more lively : and there are lots of really good supportive ideas on there.
This thread is a deeply mellow corner wher we keep each other on track :

ATB size 4 is amusing : shopping in NYC this Christmas was more fun on that level as I could look at deigner shops on purely financial grounds!

Hello...will be joining you over here soon as I only have 200g to lose (and I have a suspicion that will have gone when I weigh myself tomorrow morning).

My normal routine is fast Monday (no cals) and Weds (500 cals), otherwise eat at TDEE (now only 1600) and exercise 3-4 times a week burning 400-600 calories, which I don't usually eat back.

So, now what? I've had a weekly deficit of about 4500 calories and lost 18lbs in just over ten weeks. I know I need to scale it back but I don't know where to start! I'm a daily weigher and find that after a 500 cal fast day I often lose little or no weight so I cannot convince myself that one 500 cal day a week is enough to prevent weight gain.

PPC welcome to the maintainer's thread!

I know you're a fan of 36 hour fasting - why not try one a week and see how you get on. That's what I try and do - I managed a 87 cal fast last week, and hope to beat that this week.

I hover between 9.1 and 9.4 depending on where I am in the week, and I'm sure our ancestors' weight also went up and down - so I don't think we can ever have a settled weight on this WOL.

Mind you, I do eat a load of crap sometimes! And, when I do, I often throw in an extra mini-fast and don't eat until dinner the day after, generally.

Anyway, congratulations on achieving your goal!

Cheers, B&W

Hi Postman. I've not yet really worked out my maintaining regime. I've relaxed one of my fasts a bit so I'm having about 700 cals but keeping the other at 500 for now. TBH if my TDEE were as low as yours I would keep up fasting and eat more on normal days.

Thanks for your advice, I was right...met my target this morning

I might try a zero 36 fast once a week and only weigh after that.

Well done postmanpat! I've managed to maintain for 4 ~5 weeks on one fast and one mini fast, although last week I did 4x 16:8 instead and that worked too. 3x Jillian DVD's as well, which I sometimes eat back (but not on a fast day) hth.

ATB - just being nosey, but how tall are you? I can't ever imagine being that small a clothes size even though I'm at the low end of the BMI scale

I'm 5' 9".... But sizes are vain American ones. I'm a 8 in UK, old navy is owned by Gap who vanity size even more so I guess equivalent I might be pushing size 6 in M&S but right size 8 in Topshop. I'm quite small framed though, can overlap my finger and thumb around my wrist

*tight size 8 (Topshop)

Just done my BMI and am 19.3 - my weight is no longer going down even though I'm smaller than I was, I think because the exercise has built up muscle?

Well done postmanpat. I'm still doing two fasts a week (one 36er and another 500 cal one) because it's a hard habit to break and am still losing a bit but I want to give myself some wiggle room, a 5lb margin of error so to speak so am happy to continue losing below my goal weight for a bit. I don't think you want anymore wiggle room (do you?) so I'd try a single 36er a week and see how that fares for a couple of weeks. It's all trial and error for hereoin.

My BMI is 19.1 and I'm a size 10 fairly universally. My thighs will never let me be an 8!!

How tall are you ellen?

I'm 5' 4.5" and I hover around 8 and a quarter stone, give or take a pound or two.

morning all, well the weight is suddenly piling on, and that despite a good full fast and a 750 fast last week, but I've gained a further 4 pounds since last week, so obviously, the overeating on other days has got worse.

piebald welcome back, and I totally empathise, i had a 3 weeek break at christmas and another break at Easter and both times it's much harder to get back and motivated, i alwasy feel like doing it on a Monday morning (Tuesday this week becasue of bank holiday) but I find I am definitely overeating at all other times, or not so much over eating, but taking the eat what I like thing too far.

So despite giving myself lots of excuses about what a tough time I've had etc etc house move stresses blah blah I';ve decided enough, no more excuses, only I can control this (and like you pie the desire to have a glass of wine or a few G&T's has been overriding my desire to lose weight because I felt I had got to a comfortable place).

So I need to get back on track, potentially 3/4 weeks til the actual move, so in that time, I need to lose 7 pounds, which not only means stricter fasting, but also a much stricter control of my eating on non fast days.

I'm not going to promise to shred loads too, as I need to spend my evenings packing boxes, but I could aim to do that on every day off, that or go for a run.

filly thanks for asking, we are hoping to exchange this week, and then complete on 31st May, I'm pushing everyone as hard as I can to make those dates as i've just managed to juggle work, my mum to help and transport kids up to hers for 2nd half of half term and bf to come and help finish packing me up and transport me on move day. if Dates all change by much it's going to all fall apart slightly.

and as an off topic general moan, my bloody lodger just absconded without paying her rent yesterday! gggrrr I've alwasy been so relaxed about not making people pay a deposit, but just totally got stunga nd now kids and I going to be living on a very tiny amount for next few weeks...I'll have to get some tips off laska's blog! talking of which, I hope you had a great weekend laska to make up for the 5 days of frugal carb loading?

have a great day all x

Hello everyone, I passed my goal weight a few weeks ago and have still been losing. After a 24 hour fast yesterday, I'm down to 53.3 kilos, which at 1.63cm gives me a BMI of 17.4. A bit too slim for a 58 year old, but I want to maintain fasting for the health benefits, as my mother has Alzheimers .
I have just returned from a week away, doing a 16 hour fast each day, with a small lunch, but a 3 course restaurant meal each night, with wine, and chocolate ice cream, and didn't gain a gram!
This is all well and good, and I realise that I need to eat just a little more to maintain a weight of about 54 kilos, BMI of 18, however, as a coeliac,
pasta and bread are not options, and I don't eat a lot of carbs anyway.
Not the biggest problem in the world, I realise, but is anyone else dealing with this? Tip or BreadandWine?

Nettnett can you eat (unsalted) nuts - a small bowl full tends to be as high as 250 calories (when I weigh them) so I find they're an excellent way of bumping my calories (and nutrition) up. I also do not scimp on good quality pure butter and I never eat anything less than full-fat dairy (apart from milk as I find full-fat milk too cloying).

Sorry, sorry, mumofcrazynamedkids, our posts obviously crossed, I'm mortified to be posting my idiotic dramas, please ignore.

BsshBossh yes I eat nuts, and also enjoy full fat dairy, I have a few squares of chocolate every day, and wine on weekends (and holidays!) and I make a cake on weekends too. I think I've just been in 'diet mode' for so long (I was a normal BMI before I started 5:2) that the fasting is just tipping me into scrawny territory!

Oh MOCNK that's awful about your lodger, hope at least the exchange and move goes well and you get through the next few weeks ok

No advice I'm afraid Nett but I agree B&W is likely to be your man to help

Failed fast yesterday after a great week last week. My toddler is a terrible sleeper and last night tool two hours and much sobbing from both of us before she finally collapsed. Got myself completely worked up because I'm horribly sleep deprived and have been for nearly 18months. Stupidly got into a weird mental space where I decided to "punish" myself for being a rubbish mum by drinking a beer and eating food I didn't even want or felt comforted by. Stupid.

Today is another day though. Out for dinner with friends who share my birthday so I'm going to hold off food til then and fast again tomorrow. DH goes to China on Saturday for 2 weeks leaving me on my own with the children for my birthday and to move house. Joy. Times like this I really feel the lack of my massive support network back in the UK.

Will just try to focus on positives - DD is lovely when not fighting me and sleep as is DS, I'm down to my ideal dress size so officially maintaining, I'm actually excited about the house and planning what we're going to do with it, and the 545mile charity bike ride starts on June 2nd!! Eeeeek.....

Now just to find more ways of getting sleep

hello. like in just rushing in and out here at the moment . (well I am , so sorry about not being here chatting and giving support right now,,) I'm trying to consolidate a lot of information off my completed and horribly expensive on-line UEA creative writing course before they take the site down (I knew I should have done it before the end of the course .. but ho hum..) .

Its nice to be back to normal eating after the £1 menus , but sadly I despite on Friday being a lb down I seem to have suddenly ballooned (5 lbs but that's plenty enough).. this is quite strange as i've had a very healthy weekend but perhaps its a backlash of all the carbs and lard I ate when I dont usually.. But also i seem to have also picked up a kidney infection/cystitis (first i've had for about 30years) .. and everything in lower nether regions feels really swollen , so maybe its water retention?

if its no better by tomorrow I think ill have to go to the doc , but am eating lightly (about 700cal today as couldn't get out of a lunch date , but had salad) and have tried the Bicarb in water trick so hopefully that will help.

MONCK that is so awful about your lodger ..
and
ATB grim about the sleep deprivation, it was all a long time ago for me , but I remember that too,
Hi everyone else! and new maintainers . once again apologies for not really being supportive right now, , will be back on board very soon ..

Laska, try LOTS of cranberry juice as well as the Bi Carb. Both help.

ate exactly what I wanted this weekend ... half fast today ... but Mother came to visit with a bottle of wine

Laska
definitely delayed reaction to the excess of fat over what you have been used to. mostly laid down in your liver and digestive tract for now : hence the bloat feeling.
Fast / eat carefully for two weeks and it will pass.

Funnily I find coming BACK to fasting after a break really easy : but then I'm enjoying being lighter. Looking forward to getting toned again when my work eases off in july!

Hi there, been longing to join one of these threads for ages, not got round to it!

I lost a lot of weight around 3 months ago when I had a whole load of teeth out and couldn't eat properly for a few weeks.

Having lost the weight I didn't want to put it back on so I read The Fast Diet and all the threads on here and started on 5:2. Every diet I've tried before has been a complete failure, low carb, calorie counting etc. Not because it didn't work, but because after 2 or 3 weeks, I couldn't hack the lack of pizza any more and gave up. I love junk food and cannot manage long term without it! But a day I can cope with. I can honestly see me doing this WOE forever. :)

I have to admit, the weight started to creep back on on 5:2 unless I calorie counted on my food days and I really didn't want to do that. So I went to 4:3 which seems to be working, though because I'm on 4:3 I don't worry too much if I'm a tiny bit over the 500 cals. I think because I'm now quite slim and I'm not that tall (or that active!) my TDEE is quite low and maybe that's why 5:2 wasn't quite enough.

I don't want to lose any more weight. I went from a size 12/14 to a size 8 in a matter of only a few weeks. I'm too old to be less than an 8, I'll look like a wizened hag! I'm back in clothes I haven't worn for a good few years and I am borrowing things off my 17 year old DD .

However, I don't want to put it back on, either. I have energy again, I can run and climb stairs and my weight was creeping up and up before. I'm amazed now that I can go all day and not feel faint - something I never used to be able to do. My memory - which I was starting to get a bit worried about - has improved enormously. I feel miles better on this WOE so joining in here would be good to keep me doing it for good!