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!

thanks Laska, I appreciate that...I"m actualy looking forward to getting back on an even keel and at least my birthday falls on American Mothers Day so I can just hide behind that. DH is away for 2 weeks from Saturday so doesn't help with feeling self indulgent and miserable

But B&W's post has just seriously made me grin and be inspired, so that's nice....

"upcoming 30th birthday"
I'm fitter and leaner now at 48 than I EVER was at 30!
You have masses of time. Savour some of the moments

STOP PRESS
off topic warning

well that was a big old earthquake, I normally sleep through them....bit of excitement on a Thursday afternoon

Thanks for the hellos!
BsshBossh I organise my week a bit like yours, with 3 fasts in the week, though one of those tends to be 600 or 700 cals. Weekends I dont care what I eat! I never weigh myself on a Monday or I would give up.

I'm off to the Natural History Museum this weekend too, probably Sunday. DD2 has a Biology GCSE paper on Tuesday and my eldest found the human biology section there really helpful, so I've promised to take DD2. We're about 60 miles south of London right out in the country so it's a big adventure! I expect we'll take in some shopping and a meal too.
Really look forward to my food at the weekends now. I appreciate it way more than I used to. All food used to get stuffed in mindlessly. I've stopped doing that now.

Loving reading this thread. So many brilliant tips. :)

CHIPS Well I've bought a deep fryer (just a very basic Sunbeam one) and am halfway through Felicity Cloakes perfect chips recipe (cooked 3 times!) and they're looking good. Just in time because my BMI is 17.3 this morning...I'm planning a big weekend (pork belly roast, pumpkin scones, ice cream, WINE) so Monday should be interesting...

ATB your thirties are your golden years! Enjoy!

ATB, my 30's were the best! (40's not turning out too badly either?). b&w, just make a couple of those recipes with g/f flour and you're my perfect man!!
I've had a shambolic week and have not managed one fast . It's DH's b'day this weekend, so no chance of bring careful either. I normally weigh on Sat morning, I suspect I may be a little upset!

Have a good friday everyone.

Wow B+W what a week.

ATB my 30s were pretty good but my 40s are looking better especially now I've lost the weight.

WI this morning and after 3 days of eating and drinking including pastry (my downfall -I love pastry) and chips and I am still beliw my target weight .

Joann Lumley was on the radio earlier in the week. She said that she had "looked at the new fasting diet" but isn't going to try it because it is pretty much what she always does anyway! She is long term vegetarian and seems to eat one meal a day with one of those tiny yoghourt drink things for breakfast.
As far as I know her figure has always looked pretty good. She doesn't exercise but does walk very fast everywhere and runs up the stairs: again, pretty much what Dr MM recommends as a means of incorporating exercise into lifestyle. Not that I will be doing it, STILL using crutches and no exercise at all for months.
When I hear about people like this, I feel such an idiot for eating the way I did for half a century!

ATB an earthquake, oh my goodness! Hope you are all well.

musicposy enjoy your day in London.

Border Joanna Lumley sounds like a sensible woman.

Well I made it through my 4th 36 hour fast and have lost 2lbs this week (inspite of TOM), so am 3lbs under target goal. Happy with this cause I want to drop a few more lbs to give me wiggle room to bounce up and down a bit without guilt.

It's the weekend chez Bssh so lots of lovely eating is planned. Still have to work today but it feels like the weekend .

I'm also starting a proper freeweights training programme today at the gym which I'm looking forward to. I usually use weights machines but have decided that free weights will give me a better workout. Just in case any of you is interested here is my plan (I'll rotate through them across the week for max 45 mins a session):

Legs:
Plie squat (hold at bottom for 30 secs)
Romanian deadlift (slide dumbbells down legs)
Lunge (all reps on one leg first)

Chest/Back:
Floor press
Floor flye (hold 5 secs at top)
Bent-over row (both arms together)

Shoulders:
Overhead press (one set do arm at a time)
Upright row
Bent-over lateral raise

Arms:
Biceps curl (one arm at a time if tired)
Triceps kickback (one arm at a time if tired)

Core:
Plank
Dumbbell twist

Ugh like I needed any more reasons to utterly adore Joanna Lumley....

Hi all,
struggled through my normal gym morning today : sitting at a desk for the rest of the week wrecks muscle tone
but weighed in at 9st 1 which is fine considering the curry last night!
thank goodness for carrots for lunch!

Joanna Lumley is like Diana Rigg and many of those other older ex model stars : they never made a visible thing of skipping meals, just did it.

So sorry for your losses literary. What a hard time you're going through .

Hugs to you literarygeek. I know that when we have been through similar bad times that is when the weight tends to pile on. I wish I had thought of fasting then as I think it might have been quite cathartic.

I hope you have support around you. You can always sound off here if you need a shoulder to cry on.

((((litereraygeek))))

literarygeek very for you - hugs.

I don't belong in here (although still 5:2 ing) but can I ask a quick q on behalf of dh? We have been doing 5:2 since 1st September. He has lost 2 stone, but only 2lb in the last two months. He still has another 2 stone to lose so is very disheartened. Do you think his body is getting used to the reduced calories and adjusting (as happens with all the conventional calorie controlled diets)? Can anyone point me to any links, or do you have any thoughts yourselves? Tia.

mintyy what does your DH do now re food on non-fast days, exercise etc?

mintyy what's his TDEE, how many calories (broadly if you don't count) is he having on his fast and non-fast days, is he really being strict (and not secretly eating), what's his exercise levels?

He isn't counting calories at all on non fast days (I thought that was the point?) but I should imagine he has a huge TDEE because he is 6ft4" tall and weighs 17 stone. He goes to the gym for an hour 2 or 3 times a week but otherwise has a pretty sedentary life, have to admit. He doesn't drink much and eats what you might expect a big man to eat, just an average amount of food I would honestly think.

You shouldn't have to count calories but I'm wondering whether, at this juncture as he's not really losing, he should as an experiment. I wonder if the non-fast day calories are creeping up somehow, perhaps as compensatory eating after fast days. Or are the fast day meals creeping up in portion size? He's obviously not in a sufficient calorie deficit each week.

Yes, he might have to start counting on non-fast days I guess. What a drag! But I don't think he is eating more than when we first started this, which is why I asked my question about the body getting used to the lower calorie intake and adjusting accordingly. Thanks for replying!

literary look after yourself and feel free to come and rant on this thread : we appear to have very few lurkers and most of us have been on the 5:2 threads for ages so this a very supportive backwater of Mumsnet.

mintyy silly thing - has your DH recalculated his TDEE to account for the weight loss and reduced what he eats accordingly?
To keep losing he needs to have four less squares of chocolate or two cans of beer a day
and well done on you to hang on in there ... did the Quacks ever finish their tests to work out why you are not losing?
Even if you are not losing, you are reducing your risk of T2 diabetes with every fast you do and that HAS to be worth it.