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!

good thing is I am feeling all enthused again, and not finding it difficult, wondering where cyclistist has got to, i know he has struggled at sustaining it as much as me, how you doing? back on track?

also hope laska is having lovely holiday and not worying, I know she'll be right back on track too when she's back if not before!

Feeling the same mocnk, although had a bit of a binge yesterday after getting TOTM, a light day today, fastin tomorrow and Sunday

Had a slice of bread and butter with my soup tonight because one of the trainers at the gym commented on my weight loss. I did not think I'd lost any in the last two weeks since I saw her ...

TOTM : ah the joys of being nearly menopausal - not a problem any more!

Hi everybody(smile)

Two days before I hop on the plane to Argentina...everything done but the last farewells. What a long journey to this point, and now the real adventure begins!

Yesterday I came online on with my new iPad, wrote a great long message, then somehow managed to delete it before posting. Bugger!

I was mostly raving on about how pleased I am to have turned several friends onto 5:2 (just by the way I look!) and they are doing really well. It is such a joy to have discovered the 'secret' after a lifetime of yo-yoing.

I am no longer trying to lose weight (my last few kilos will take care of themselves) but intend to continue 5:2 indefinitely. I am also considering dropping breakfast altogether - the idea that breakfast is 'the most important meal of the day' is just rubbish as far as I'm concerned - even though in my previous form I never went without it.

I can see the benefits of mixing things up a bit though. For instance, skipping either breakfast or lunch on eating days, and changing the days I fast - just to keep the body guessing.

Well, this most likely really will be my last post for a bit. I am hoping to get to grips with blogging quickly so I can share my experience.

Keep on keeping on, and thanks to you all for being there(flowers)

Hi all, not been around in ages and thought I would pop in to see you guys and keep myself back on track :-) Good to see you guys are still out there supporting each other. My own story has, like so many others been up and down (mostly up if I'm honest)!! I got to target and maintained fairly easily for about 6 weeks or so. I also ran a 10k and was feeling fantastic. Then I went on an Amsterdam city break where I put on 5lbs I wasn't too fussed because I knew I could get back on track. Managed a fast the week I came back and thought I was back in control but unfortunately not! I then went to Spain for a week and returned over 11 stone I was disgusted and again I tried to get back on track failed with my next 3 fasts. Managed 2 fasts last week and got back down to 10/10 and have managed 2 this week again and started running again (ran on a fast day today and felt sluggish!)

Sorry for rambling on but I'm really disappointed that if left unchecked I immediately return to old habits - beer, wine and snacking. I really though fasting for 9 months would have changed my attitudes permanently I now know that it hasn't and it won't. There are consequences to taking time off. I took a month off over Christmas and it took 2 months to take off what I put on. I've taken 4 weeks off in the summer and not sure how long it will take to get back to target. The really sad thing is I been looking forward to this summer because I though I was looking good...now I'm a stone heavier and and

Skinnyeye- take a look at the positives.

You maintained successfully for 6 weeks - great, so you know you can do it!

You ran a 10k - congratulations, that's wonderful.

But the big one is that you now know the secret - that this WOL actually works!

It's just a question of getting back in the zone - and you can do it!

If I were you I'd get back over to the main thread for a while, read up on the links in the OP - and watch the Horizon programme. Every time I watch it, I'm reinvigorated.

ATB, B&W

Meant to say, WW, hope everything goes OK with your move.

I'll be keeping an eye out for your reappearance - as I know will others on here.

Cheers, B&W

Yes - you can do it skinny !

I'm hoping that I haven't put on a ton of weight this week - been away for work and staying in hotels - on the plus side I've not had breakfasts and have tried to make sensible choices - but have also been eating and drinking with everyone else. I really do notice now what my skinny colleagues do and don't eat - one in particular does like her carbs but I've noticed that she never has starters or desert and doesn't snack on the biscuits at coffee time. I have indulged in the odd shortcake but generally rely on the scales to warn me I'm going off the rails ... Am feeling a bit twitchy without them!

I've just posted up a daft profile picture : so you can put half a face to the comments :-)

I could have written your post skinny and am in the same place as you - but mega congrats on the 10K, I hate just running for a bus, never mind anything else.

mumofcrazynamedkids and I are back on weightloss too. I'm trying to keep up with the main board but it's so quick! So I'll still be on maintainers despite having a new target of 1stone by September 11th....we can do it (we've done it before!)

Looking good TiP

skinny welcome back (I'm a newbie). You've done brilliantly! It's only human to fall off the wagon several times. The key thing is you're back on it :) I was maintaining for a while but, like America and mocnk, I am back in weightloss mode as I want to downshift my BMI from 24 to 22 (perhaps even 21). It's going to take longer this time and I fully expect I'll have weeks when I'll just want to maintain for a while again but always, always I'll be doing some variety of intermittent fasting.

catsrus
I have to admit I took the pics today knowing I look good
because I'm sick to death of people saying that

• 5:2 does not work
• this board is only for fat people
• being fit does not make a difference

the point is that a GOOD support network : like we have on 5:2
includes those who have made it work, not just those striving to get healthy.
I will be really happy in three years time when there as many people maintaining as there are losing

AND
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
maintaing does not, ever, mean holding a stable weight.
it means fluctuating plus or minus three pounds around target

Agree with TiP. My "maintenance" fluctuation is generally 5 lbs. I don't stress about fluctuation.

Official weekly weigh in this morning. 2.2 lbs down. Still a long way to go (my revised goal weight is much lower than I originally planned for!) but slow and steady... and all that :)

How many more to go Bssh?

Americas I'd say another stone. I have a lot of muscle (years of competitive swimming laid a good physical foundation for me, and more recently heavy lifting at the gym) means that even at BMI 24 I'm really happy with the way I look naked, but I could get leaner. I'm in no hurry this time round though (hell, February last year I was BMI 36!).

Its funny, I look at me and I still see the bits where I can pinch an inch (under the arms is my bugbear)
DH has made clear that if I lose my boobs he'll change the locks
but I have a bit more leeway on lowering body fat percentage
may play with that in the autumn

Bssh
36 to 24 is bloody amazing BTW

I can cetainly still pinch an inch - I'm happy with my current weight and BMI (19.5) because it feels sustainable, I feel healthier and I can look good in a wider range of clothes. Before starting this I was very liminited in what I would wear - which reminds me - time for another charity shop clear out of the wardrobe

Did you see Dr M's programme on mindfulness is on this week ? Weds I think

Bssh that is incredible weightloss, well done!

Thanks ladies

tip looking really good, not too skinny, just fit healthy and very slim, and young you're really nearly menopausal? definitely don't look it.

skinny like americas has said, she and I back on weight loss mode having let fasting slide a bit, i really do think that maintaining successfully is the real skill we have to master, many of us have been successful in the past with various weightloss diets, the reason this is good is that there is no banned foods, or exclusion, other than strict low cal eating a couple of days a week, I guess it's finding how to continue doing that even when we've lots the weight (and therefore the motivation) not losing too much weight, but not stopping the fasting.

i guess the slightly invisible and unperceivable health benefits are what we should focus on, as well as maybe learning ( I have done exactly the same as you- had a month off over christmas and a couple of weeks at easter, and took an age to lose the extra i gained again) that having time off from fasting makes it that much harder to get back on it.

This is week 2 for me back on it, I'm also aiming for a stone loss, partly to lose the extra, partly to give myself more leeway, and partly to get a lower bmi, we can all do it

bshh that really is amazing bmi reduction/loss, huge congratulations, how much did you lose before you started fasting ?

americas I also had TOTM over weekend, but remarkably didn't binge too much, although did have some ciders and wine over the weekend, glad to be fasting again today, weighed in this morning, which may have been foolhardy, 4 days since a fast, but only 11 2, which is what i weighed after my first fast last week, so we shall see what tomorrow brings, I hope 11 0, which will make it 2 pounds in a week.

have a good day all and hope you all get to enjoy the sunshine a bit?

Hi guys!

I've been successfully maintaining for about 8 months now - mainly on 6:1, but with mini-fasts later in the week if I've gone a bit mad at any time.

I do it because I feel so bloody good - absolutely full of energy.

But it's also the health benefits that attract me. For motivation, check out some of the links I recently posted at the end of the Tips and Links thread.

Reading all this stuff keeps me on track!

I ate very well last night, and I'm going for a 36-hour liquid fast today - saves a lot of mucking about. I'm planning to do one every two weeks - and keep the calories down to

mocnk I went from 36 --> 28 BMI doing basic calorie counting (no exercise at all) but eating much more than MyFitnessPal's suggested 1200 calories. I worked out my TDEE and simply ate at 10-15% below it, so around 1900 calories on average.

28 --> 24 BMI was fasting & exercise (TDEE still nice and high due to exercise - around 2000).

Forgot to say, I've lost more weight more quickly doing 5:2.