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!

MONCK hi there, please can i have the recipe for courgette and lime cake .. sounds lovely .. Does it have lime frosting? Sounds like it should ...
(oops, what was that about holiday bodies.. ?)

ok ..out to plant lettuce seeds ...

MONCK have you seen how much it costs?!

perhaps when the fad has gone , and they are on ebay ..

Hi laska I just found out how much it cost , but someone at work has a copy that's doing the rounds, but tbh I haven't even done the shred yet, so why I would want to get the dvd for a harder one, I just don't understand.....well i do, it's more procrastination!

cake recipe is from nigella's domestic goddess book, but the recipe is also here courgette and lime

home made lime curd filling and yes lime juice in the cream cheese frosting. it's super easy and has never gone wrong.

I dont "do" exercise at home - I just swam my mile in the sunshine instead.
but I have to admit those ab things are pretty easy after ten years of yoga!

Failed fast day today - my first ever since starting this WOE. Now I actually feel normal . Not that it matters really as I'd done half a fast on Monday (no eating until normal dinner at night) and a 500 cal fast on Tuesday. Was going to try for a 36 hour one today but the sun was is shining, I went for a very long walk then lunch beckoned. A lovely day so far.

Forgot to add that as of today I'm giving up weekly weigh-ins and going back to monthlies. Suits me much better and takes the focus off weightloss.

Afternoon Sis, those double takes in the mirror are one of the great things about this WOE. It's striking what a huge positive impact this way of eating seems to have on all our self images...more than just for the weightloss...if you know what I mean. It really does seem to make many people feel younger AND healthier, something calorie restriction or food type restriction doesn't seem to do as effectively.

Fantastic NSV, Laska!

MOCNK my son who is 29 has the insanity and has lost a lot of weight and toned up doing it. The last time I visited him he did a session to show me how hard it was (he had been doing it for quite a while) and boy was it gruelling. When he'd finished he was soaked from head to toe and could wring out his socks!
All credit to him but it really is a crazy workout and it would be suicide to contemplate it at my age (59) so I'm sticking to my more sedate 6 hours of dancing and 4 hours of treadmill and weight lifting and situps, twists etc. Seems to be working for me as I can now feel hard muscles under my slightly floppy tummy

great NSV Laska

Bssh I quite like the idea of monthly weigh ins actually...

I have a friend who's doing Insanity, but she worked up doing half marathons then P60X then Insanity....she literally is insane. I'm aiming t Shred 4-5 times a week. Doing 20mins at home really helps at the oment while I'm flying solo with the children and packing.

Good fast day yesterday, started today off with a chocolate chip cookie the size of my face

Is anyone else here shit scared about piling it all back on? Losing is easy compared to maintaining in the sense that I lost by having some very clear rules. But the "rules" for mantaining (for ensuring I don't let the weight creep back on) are so much more flexible. I feel like I'm constantly experimenting to see what will work... 5:2, 6:1, mini fasts.... It's not actually a problem, I can frame this in my head as a new adventure but the fear about gaining again is still here - I mean, this time last year (give or take) I was over 4.5 stones heavier. I never want to be over 200lbs ever again.

bssh I know exactly how you feel re: maintaining. I just can't seem to get my head round it. Maintaining for me has been a bit like, put on a pound one week, get it off the next, and repeat..........
One day I'll sort myself out - I suppose (sigh)

Having started the first iteration of this thread, and been effectively maintaining since December 17th last year (end of term)
my weight has NOT stayed the same.

In New York over Christmas it rose 8 pounds : and settled back four weeks later
In Crete over Easter it rose 4 pounds : and settled back two weeks later.
I'm currently 3 pounds over target and will be until the work season ends at the end of june
then I'll take about two weeks to get back on track.

but the point is I know where I want to be and what is needed to get back there PDQ - and that it can be done in a couple of weeks that still involve fun weekends

NONE of my slim friends have a "stable" weight - they all fluctuate plus or minus 2 pounds from a central point.
That is normal maintaining. Enjoy it.

I definately have that fear and last night found it very difficult to give away all the clothes in wardrobe that are too big for me.

BUT I second TiP, I don't think even when maintaining I'll stay on the nose at an exact weight forever, I'll give myself a little leeway in each direction and importantly know I can go on holiday and have a lovely time, enjoy a birthday week or Christmas season and have a safe dependable way of getting back on track again

Yeah I found 4:3 a great way to lose weight and feel healthy. But when I reached what was a decent.weight things got a bit more complicated. Like you I kind of lost my focus and there's been a 'bluring' of the rules and uncertainty about how to move forward.
Still I suppose the easiest path to take is seldom the best route long term, so the fact that this is not a breeze is not overly concerning. Tbh though I'm not overly worried about piling the pounds back on as all the tools I've learnt with this woe are pretty good at nipping too much backward scales movement in the bud.

Bssh that's why I couldn't go to monthly weigh ins...although my new skinny jeans would tell me I'm putting too much back on, I need the reassurance of more regular weigh ins (after all, I got 20lbs heavier than I am now by weighing myself infrequently). I've switched from daily during my 11 weeks of 5:2 for weight loss to only after a fast day now that I'm trying 6:1 for maintenance. Zero fasts were too effective so I'm trying a 500 cal fast instead this week.

I'm not actually bothered about a few lbs up/down. I think I fluctuate that in a day . No, it's a) the slow upwards creep across months and b) the lack of clear rules (it's a personality thing). But Laska you're right (actually you're all right) in that now I have the tools to maintain.

My focus actually now needs to shift from weight to health. Dementia, stroke, diabetes, cancer (I've already had that one!) all run in my family. My gut says (just as I'm writing this actually) that if I focus on maintaining my health, my weight will maintain itself.

Getting the siblings mixed . I meant TheCyclistist re the tools. Sorry.

postman I hear you re weekly vs monthly weighing. I weighed so infrequently prior to starting dieting early last year (and it was dieting - calorie counting albeit at a healthy 10-15% cut of TDEE). I think I weighed once a year or less. I simply wasn't that bothered. Life was (overall) pretty good. But that's how the weight slowly crept up, without me realising it. I think monthly weighing is a happy medium for me but I will play it by ear.

For now, for me, it's health not weight.

BsshBossh .sorry its a bit of an 'in' joke we should perhaps stop using now that there are more people joining us on maintenance , Cyclistist and I are not actually bro and sis... (sorry , one of those things due to being here so long and not meant to be cliquey ) We've never actually met but we might as well be related , it seems, being so alike ( apart from his truly incomprehensible insistence on liking football..)

but e yes maintaining .To be frank I was shit scared as in other diets i've always piled it back on and more .. but its been OK , but apart from when i did my £1 for food a day charity challenge, when I was forced to mainline potatoes and lard to survive, I have stayed 0-4lbs to target ( sadly always up and never below) . The one thing i've found though is that after a week away it can be easy to think 'Oh ill just carry on with al the and ' , but then I remember why I'm doing this, yes it is to not have to buy any more bigger clothes (as i've ebayed all mine ), but also really importantly to be healthy.

so yes only let yourself get a few pounds up then get back to regular fasting I think is the answer. I've done 4;3 this week and am now back to my lowest maintenance level weight (10st) from 10.2 earlier in the week and hope to lose a few more now .. BTW I weigh most days , not weekends though I want to enjoy them !!

I know I tend to over-emphasise the vanity aspect (but that s because I'm so thrilled to be finally well into 'normal' BMI, but I do believe that this WOE is also making me healthier .. For example I had not one cold over the winter when all around me were succumbing dreadfully .

BTW I 'revisted' the old weight watchers chat room I used to frequent , last night , just lurking) and was sad to see that a lot of my old 'pals' were still in the same place , and several had significantly gained and were despairing of ever succeeding .. I really wanted to barge in and tell them, but i remember when I 'left' several were dead against even considering fasting compared to good old WW they had always known ( and largely failed at ) .. it seems such a shame ..

My three days fasting together were fine, I might do that again.. just had a really yummy feta and tomato omelette and have a training day today which will be awash with biscuits and cake no doubt, but I probably wont bother now until dinner this evening when its Chinese
and .

B&W you OK ? we haven't heard from you much this week

Oh yes, I've been doing this since last August when i saw the TV programme and maintaining since the first couple of weeks in December.

Thanks Laska. And I will always see the two of you as internet siblings (have lurked on these threads for months before I joined you) .

Just caught the tail end of Woman's Hour with Jenni Murray, who we all know is a breast cancer survivor and is on the 5:2. She was talking to another survivor about the role of diet whilst having chemo and during recovery. Apparently when they asked their consultants and nurses what they could do to help themselves vis a vis diet, they were told to just eat normally and make sure thay were getting enough.
Jenni's guest said that she was appauled, whilst having the chemo, to see a trolly coming around full of chocolate bars, crisps, biscuits, fanta etc as we all know that sugar is evil at the best of times.
At the very end Jenni said "do you think that the 2 day diet is the way to go considering the research etc done in Manchester re breast cancer" and her guest said yes, we really must do something to improve the advice given.
Just a small mention but a significant one me thinks

That's pretty cool virginposter, the more kudos given to it the better and I'm finding it easier to talk to other people about now - some of you may remember I've struggled with this. My 30th birthday photos of me in a bikini at the notorious Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood went up on FB and I didn't think I'd lost much weight since Christmas when I was last home and saw all my friends, but I suppose then I was very much fully clothed under a lot of layers! Anyway, a few friends have sent me messages saying I look great and how did I do it I said I've worked at it, doing Shred etc but that the 5:2 diet has been life changing and three of them this week did their first fasts!

Thinking about it I think the idea of weighing after fast days/before the end of the week is good, so you get a good boost, rather than weighing in after a gluttonous weekend but still weighing each week so you keep track of maintenance.

Well after another week of maintenance, despite putting on lbs last weekend, I've lost a bit more. I'm lbs under goal weight, I'm not losing very quickly now but I am still losing. I did 5:2 this week, one fast at 500 cals and the other at a more generous 800 cals. That is probably how I will continue.

Managed to Shred 3 times this week, but haven't had chance to run for a while. I finished couch 2 5k but I don't know if I will need to regress a bit or whether I will still be able to do 30 mins. I'm lighter now of course so that should help. I really must get out this weekend.