IF / ADF / 4:3 / 5:2 / 6:1 / 16:8 ~ Maintaining at a healthy weight ~ Chapter 4

[TalkinPeace]

This thread is for those of us 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?
How do we ensure that we keep ourselves looking great rather than just thin?

Many of us have been maintaining at our original goal weight for many months, and others are joining all the time.
Obviously, the more the merrier!
It is also worth considering whether a second, leaner target might be achievable.

You'll find the first three maintenance threads and all the main 5:2 threads for posters practicing IF to lose weight here Fasting / 5:2 on the diet forum. We're currently on thread no. 35, but there is a new main thread every 2-3 weeks.

There are three 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!

Since I started the last Maintainers thread the importance of exercise has come to the fore, as part of our general health and to help weight loss. BigChocFrenzys thread is here

as to your thought for the day filly I think that regardless of whether you're a foodie or not, there is the capability across the spectrum of tastes to use food inapropriately or to extremes, I know plenty of non-foodies (the ex b-f as an example) but he has an incredibly sweet tooth, so although not eating huge amounts of food, or devouring slabs of cheese/nuts, he will eat ice cream, sweets, drink coke, eat chocolate etc,

Interesting thought filly, and one of the nice things I've found about this group is continued enthusiasm for good food and cooking, it's through 5:2 that I've also discovered vegetarian cooking can be filling and delicious.

I really need to get back into Shred - this time last year I was doing it regularly AND swimming AND yoga once a week on top of the cycling and I'm shitting it as I'm now only really getting out on the bike every other week, managing yoga once a week, but it's not enough and I'm worried about my physical capabilities for ALC (68 days to go!) BUT I'm getting out today on the bike and the next three Sundays I'll be riding. I've joined a cycling thread and seeing others getting out in massive headwinds and rain makes me feel such a wuss! SO every Wednesday, regardless of what else I have planned, I'm going to get out for 20miles regardless, that's short and doable. I can leave the house around 8 as DH takes the DC in, then go and get the car as he can no longer park it all day.

Not fasting again now til Friday but DS is cooking for everyone (!!) so I'll drag one of my soups out of the freezer to make it easier.

Great pics FF, and again, was so lovely to meet you and your family!

well done on resisting yesterday MOCNK, back to back fasts!

Yes I always think of Top Of The MOrning too....

I mentioned upthread that ive gone a bit sushi and Japanese food mad, and have been thinking how I can make my own ( yes Filly Ithink we are mostly all cooks here!.. thats how we got fat I suppose! )

Anyway , have happened on a couple of sites and Just Bento has lots of great ideas for all of us ,(and you can also search by vegan recipes) .ATB and B&W especially . look at this !! Low cal and yum looking, dont you think? you can get Konnyaku here on Amazon, but I reckon its also a good use for those zero cal noodles I still have lurking also

There is a 'sister' site for sushi etc here

Lots of ideas..! Have bought a sushi book now and waitrose order has some nori, sushi rice and rice vinegar as well as wine am off to That London to see the Vikings exhibition on Saturday and may tryand pop into the Japan food centre also if I have time..

Also ive also just found Miso,tahini and nut paste recipe and realised that ive used this recipe before for putting protein on cooked vegetables when 5:2ing , from a previous website of hers.. Its great! and vegan of course

ooooh looks good - I'm going to peruse your links later! I ordered HERE today - her blog is amazing as she very rarely uses meat substitutes, which I can't stand think go against the whole healthy point of going vegan as you're just eating processed shit mainly made out of evil soy! Can't wait for it to arrive

battled headwinds of 30mph and steep climbs to do 35miles on my bike today - first ride in 2.5weeks and made me feel only moderately terrified of the 104miles I have to do in 10 days time....oh, and the 545miles I have to do in 67 days!

Fasting today. So much easier when I'm busy. Hopefully the holiday gain will have diminished when I wi tomorrow.

fasting here too, final (3rd!) fast of the week, feeling pretty good about it, and planning 3 a week for the next 3 weeks to see if that kickstarts weight loss. Have a saturday child free and then Sunday mothers day though, so not expecting any miracles.

Not fasting today, back to 57kgs on the scales which is my ideal weight, and doing so much running that I hopefully won't need to fast again until after the training for my race is over in mid April.
Good luck on losing the 2kgs FF with the season about to kick off you will be much too busy to eat.
No mother's day here this Sunday, it falls in June 2 weeks before father's day in France for some reason.

^^ Hallo, there
m
On the main thread 41, we have been discussing:

• Metabolic damage while overweight, TDEE after maintenance, weight regain, is it harder to restart after regaining....

May I ask for some info from you happy maintainers ?

1. Is your current weekly calorie total for maintenance lower than the theoretical TDEE x 7 for your age, weight, height ?

2. Have you had to increase your exercise duration / intensity to maintain ?

Thanks

I've posted over there
but will say that after a year of maintaining I can be pretty relaxed now
I'm fasting today but supper tonight will be around 800 calories

Tip With your FDs, do you still have a deficit compared to 7x theoretical TDEE ?

I am trying to work out why people regain, to better advise how to avoid doing so.
(Obviously, some go mad or haven't learnt to judge portion size without cal counting)

Do some folk need a 1-2 weekly FDs as reset buttons or for the 1500 cal deficit ?

Most losers have a TDEE lower than the theoretical one, so they could be eating to the wrong TDEE.

do you still have a deficit compared to 7x theoretical TDEE
if I set my TDEE to active on my gym days then probably only just
because I eat and drink at the weekend

but with my ten work weeks coming up I need to be careful as its easy to snack while sitting and working

BigChoc I never worked out my TDEE so can't answer scientifically. But for the benefit of all those over on the main thread who, like me, haven't quite got around to sorting that out, I can report back that maintaining is fine if:

1. You overall start to eat a bit more consciously. So I still have days where I overeat/eat 'wrong' but I'm so much more aware of it than I used to be (see my last few posts on this thead!) and tend to auto-adjust afterwards, either by skipping a meal or two (but not actually fasting) or just eating far less.
2. I only fast once a week to maintain; always a full 24 hr fast, and I don't cal count at the end - but I can just as easily finish with a 250cal meal as an 800cal one, it just depends on my mood.
3. I haven't started excercising regularly increased my exercise as part of 5:2 or maintaining, but have started sporadically shredding in an attempt to tone up a bit.

HTH :)

I wear a Fitbit and know that on an average day I burn about 2100 calories. When I train it increases to 2800. Apart from that I know nothing, I fast on Mondays, often do a half fast another day, but like TIP I'm quite relaxed unless I the scales increase by over 1.5kgs (like they did in January). Then I go back to 5:2.
I didn't increase exercise because I wanted to burn more calories, the problem with exercise is that you get hungrier. I run because I enjoy it, but it is nice being able to eat a little more because of being more active.

The reason I haven't put on weight is because fasting makes it easy to skip meals if I over eat one day. Plus I weigh in every day if possible to keep a check on things. I think you do need to be aware of your activity and TDEE so as not to put the weight back on. It is surprising how little you can eat if you are a couch potato!

It is surprising how little you can eat if you are a couch potato! Yup and sadly my natural state is pretty much couch potato ..

Hi All been a long time
Been good, been bad, gained and lost since I last saw you as I suppose most of you have as well. Back on track and fasting today but not eaten yet and hungry now waiting for my vegi chilli to defrost (big fan of cooking loads and freezing fast day meals)

Good to see you're still out there and MOCNK the Top of the Morning comment made me literally LOL

I hate how much hungrier I am after exercising too!

ATB
try a pint of water and a pint of milk straight after exercise
kills the hunger
because its actually dehydration

then eat about an hour later and you are no longer ravenous

Laska If you don't want to abstain then I can recommend drinking from small glasses.

filly If I wasn't such a foodie, I suspect it would be harder to maintain in my case as I’d be wanting more crap to 'help' with comfort eating which has got much better since I started 5:2 but I'm not out of the woods yet. Now I'm keen on spending my money on healthy and nourishing food that's well-sourced.

FF Thanks for sharing those lovely pics.

BigChoc I don't know my current TDEE but feeling inspired to do this at the weekend after reading your post. I do what Filly says in her first point and also go to the gym regularly (4x a week) and do a ton of walking so pretty active and what I did when losing the weight. To maintain I've recently acknowledged that I have to keep this level of exercise up as well as do a mini-fast in addition to a normal fast - I guess I do eat a fair bit five days a week. I hoped that 6:1 would be enough to maintain but it turns out 6:1.5 is what I need.

Southeast
I'll second small glasses.
I've stopped buying new wine glasses and get 1970's paris goblets from the shop bit at the dump

if you fill them to 2/3 you get 8 glasses to the bottle
unlike modern glasses that are 1/4 bottle each

Thanks for the feedback, everyone

ATB Moderate intensity exercise makes you hungry.
However, really intense exercsie, like HIIT or heavy lifting, reduces appetite for up to 15 hrs.
I train evenings and if I can hold out until training, I know the training kills my appetite until I go to bed. Then I can continue without food until lunch.

Btw: I maintain on Fast 5 (1500 - 2000 cal lunch) but I am trying the final cut around my abs. So I do 1.5 FDs, like SED

if you can cope with 'alternative' rock stuff. my son Adam is brodcsting on the radio right now! (proud mum emoticon)

here

...ghastly music though.. (heavy rock ...bit like throwing up in a buckt music to my ears .. but he is only early 20s with beard and pony tail )... I think im more bbc six music!

:( I missed it Laska ...and I actually like metal, rock and so on :) More advance notice next time please!

well done DSLaska!

Thanks for tips guys, will give it a go - I find that I'm not hungry immediately and can happily wait a while but once I have something to eat I'm then extra ravenous

FD today - just got a mahoosive spicey spinach soup out of the freezer and aside from coffee that will be my food today after overindulging on sushi and prosecco last night for DH's birthday