5:2 thread 103: life is short. Fasting makes it feel longer 🤣

[harriethoyle]

Welcome to the continuing thread for those following 5:2 or other forms of IF (Intermittent Fasting) such as 4:3, ADF, etc.

Basically it is 2 very low cal days ("fasts") per week - which need not be consecutive - and eat "normally" to maintain on the other 5 days.
For those who have dieted or maybe overeaten for years, eating "normally"
means roughly the number of calories your body needs to maintain - NOT reduce - its weight (see TDEE calculator below).

IMPORTANT
If you have had past diagnosed Eating Disorders or serious MH problems you should NOT do 5:2 or any other kind of fasting.

JARGON alert
16:8 is a different type of fasting, which can be combined with 5:2.

Daily zero-cal fast for 16 hours and eat within an 8 hour window. To lose weight, this needs a weekly calorie deficit as well

b2b (optional) back-to-back / consecutive fast days, each with an increased allowance of 650 calories instead of 500

BMI (Body Mass Index) healthy range is 18.5 - 24.9 for Caucasians. Upper limit may be 22 for some of Asian origin.

FD = single Fast Day: aim for 500 calories (600 for men or 25% TDEE whichever is higher) or 1000 cals for BF

No alcohol or junk on FDs

Even if you exercise strenuously, do NOT increase FD cals to allow for exercise

MFP = My Fitness Pal, a useful App or website to track food & drink calories

miniFD = MiniFD, tel:850-1000 850-1000 calories, no alcohol or junk

NFD = Non-Fast Day, averages around TDEE

NSV / LSV = Non Scale Victory / LifeStyle (change) Victory, e.g. compliment, smaller waist, clothes size

SV = Scale Victory

TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure, the average number of calories you burn in a day, is calculated from your current weight, height, age, activity level.

Aim to average about this for NFDs.

WOE / WOL = Way Of Eating / Way Of Life. We say this instead of "diet", to emphasise that we must make a permanent change in how we eat, to maintain our new healthy weight long term.

Jump in and say hello!!

Happy birthday @CheshireSplat!

I find my weight varies according to menstrual cycle so the scales aren't always a steady trajectory.

Back to it this week after a week away last week, and closing today on 465.

@CheshireSplat are you quite short? I think there was someone on this thread that wasn’t far off my height. I tried 5:2 many years ago and failed and I remember thinking at the time that I was probably eating too much on my FDs. I am not average in any way so following guidance for average people doesn’t ever work for me!

You are meant to eat a 1/4 of your recommended daily calorie intake 2 days a week. For me, that’s 440 calories on a FD and around 1500 on a NFD. I don’t know if that’s controversial to reveal. Here is a 5:2 calculator: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/

I have lost around 1lb a week so that tells
me that what I am doing for me is right. I completed 11 weeks of 5:2 yesterday.

I hope you had a nice birthday. Give yourself a break. Have a nice weekend. Maybe try again next week. Plan your FDs with the bestest, tastiest food; track your NFD intake. :-)

Thank you all. Yes, @SmellyMe , I'm just under 5'3".

I am going to forget about it this weekend but not binge, just chill but not make silly decisions.

Part of me is tempted to do 4:3 but this is exactly where I got to a few years ago when I stopped because I was maintaining with 5:2, 4:3 not losing so the NFDs are definitely the problem and I think the FDs were leading me to overeat on the NFDs. A bit of a binge mentality, so I stopped.

The real problems are two fold, one I have an eating addiction (self defined!) and two I don't want to feel like I'm dieting. But I'm going to have to face into my choice. Stay overweight, putting on 2 or 3 lbs every year, or eat less.

I feel this is the right WOL for me I just have to accept I can't eat what I want on the NFDs.

I don't want to count calories because DH cooks nearly everything from scratch. He's a wonderful cook but uses for example so much oil. But there are other things I can do, like cook for myself on some NFDs when we don't have a defined meal time as we're taxi-ing the kids around.

I'll sit down at the weekend, with a new notepad 😆 read through your comments and make a plan, which might be something like 2 x FD, 3 x careful, weekend relaxing but not deliberately diving into bad stuff because tomorrow is a FD.

I'm determined to do this.

I only need to lose about 4 lb and I'll be below my post partum weight for DD2 who is 10 1/2.

Still wasn’t feeling well yesterday (DH and have both had some sort of bug with dizzyness and nausea) so it was a “dirty mini”, i.e. didn’t each much, but what I did eat consisted of toast, tea and chocolate biscuits .

Anyway, another 1/4 off this morning, so now 10.1 1/4. I’ll take that. @CheshireSplat , like Harriet and Smelly, I also weigh every day (which makes it a routine, not an event), and I generally record everything I eat, so it is just second nature to me. I use Carb Manager and I often enter items before I’ve actually eaten them, as a way of planning meals.

DH is going away for a few days next week, so I think I will really go for it and have a few high protein low carb days to try to get into the elusive 9 stone range!

Morning all. Hope you all had a good weekend.

I haven't quite decided what to do about my weight loss journey. Had 4 days off. Don't feel I went mad but I had my birthday (curry) on Thursday), a friend's 50th (lots of pizza from a van) on Friday but don't feel I was stupid Saturday/Sunday. Anyway weighed myself this morning and I have put on 3 lbs since Thursday and am 1 lb above my starting weight.

Tried to go for a run this morning (I can do parkrun quite comfortably) but struggled to breath, seem to have a food baby tucked under my ribs.

So, not 5:2ing today while I work out what to do. I may be exactly where I was when I last gave up (in the days of BigChocFrenzy) which is that this won't work for me until I get my general over eating under control.....

Sorry to hear you are feeling despondent, @CheshireSplat . Perhaps you could enlist your husband’s help? My DH is also a great cook, but I have trained him not to go mad on the oil etc 😊.

Right, today is a “protein mini” and I’ve just planned it out in Carb Manager:
B = protein shake
L = Greek yogurt and berries
D = salmon and asparagus

I’m also going to lift some weights.

Morning all!

this is week 12 for me, which feels like a big milestone. I stepped on the scales this morning, thinking “today means 1/2 lb of weight loss.” On average, that’s what a FD translates to for me.

@CheshireSplat it takes time to be in the right frame of mind for a diet. I have really struggled to get any motivation to diet/ change my WOE since getting covid in 2022. The big change that I made this year was stopping drinking completely in January. I’ve been a heavy drinker for most of my adult life and I was drowning in managing work, 3 DCs and life in general. I was getting dependent on it to relax me and switch off.

Food and eating is what gives me the greatest pleasure in life but tiredness meant that I ate lots of the wrong stuff all the time and just ate way too much. Couple that with too much booze with its calories and getting even hungrier when drunk = fatso.

anyway, I’m quite extreme but I’m just trying to say that the commitment to do it really is a challenge. It is quite a hard thing to do when you’ve got so much else going on in your life.

I eat so much that stopping drinking didnt result in any weight loss. After 3 months, I started 5:2. I’m nearly 3 months done on 5:2 and hopefully, by the end of this week I will be 6.1kg lighter (that’s just shy of a stone) and into the 9s like @TeaRose29 :)

youll get there when you are ready :)

Stuck to plan yesterday so about 800 calories. Another half pound off this morning: weighed in at 10.1. Every little helps!

Going for another mini today:
B = collagen coffee
L = kefir
D = low-cal corned beef hash

Been dipping in and out of the thread and following everyone's successes. I seem to be struggling a bit with snacking and generally not making the best food choices - I agree with @SmellyMe that drinking doesn't help. I'm trying to cut down to only three or even two days a week with alcohol - it messes with my sleep as well which is another reason to cut back.

Anyway, I did a FD yesterday which worked out pretty well - couple of cups of tea for breakfast and lunch, got back from work about 3.30 and went straight out to watch DD1 in a cricket match and then took her and DD2 on to athletics, so didn't get back till nearly 7 and no opportunity to snack. Not an especially healthy meal of two fried eggs and a handful of chips, small banana and a protein pudding, but came in at 697 which will do me.

Ha, that’s so spooky @SydneyCarton! I am on a thread for cutting out booze and I just wrote yesterday that these days, I’m feeling a lot less like Alexander Manet, peering through the darkness, muttering “recall to life” 😂😂😂

good luck on your fast days! I would say that when I don’t plan my FDs, I tend to fail. If I get to the point of being absolutely starving, I will stuff my face and exceed my calorie allowance. This applies to FDs as well as NFDs. The reason this WOE is working for me is that the only real planning is required 2 days a week as opposed to 7 days on a regular calorie controlled diet. I don’t have the band with to come up with interesting diet food on a full time basis.

Thursday is my next FD and I shall complete 12 weeks Woop Woop!

@SmellyMe I think the real Sydney would have definitely sorted Dr Manette out with some booze after 18 years in the Bastille! I almost always give up alcohol and crisps for Lent and hope to see some weight loss, but I end up overcompensating with cakes and biscuits instead.

Definitely agree re the planning, although I find that I have to stick to my TDEE on NFDs as well as restricting on FDs in order to see any loss. I don't mind eating the same breakfast every day so that helps, and I skip lunch if I'm doing a NFD in the office (which is rare as I usually do FDs on office days as there's no food around to tempt me!). Dinner can be harder as we all try and eat together and I don't want to cook separate meals, but I try to ease off on the carbs and have extra protein and veg/salad.

How’s it going all?

I ate a ton of pizza on Tuesday night and then had a mega lunch yesterday = no loss from FD1 this week. On FD2 today.

Despite knowing I’ve lost a stone, I don’t see much change in my appearance. The last time I lost a lot of weight was maybe 20 years ago and I remember that no one actually noticed until I was around the 1.5 stone mark.

im fitting into a range of clothes I’ve had forever in my wardrobe.

I stupidly made the mistake of asking the DH what he thought. I’m not sure what I was expecting him to say but i was pretty disappointed. He just gloomily said he doesn’t think much of the WOE and that it must be a long game. I - yes he meant me - needs to be careful about NFDs as they must have an impact. He keeps calling me a hypocrite for going on about FDs and then eating pizza on a NFD. He doesn’t seem to listen that I calorie count on NFDs and it’s all factored in (with the exception of Tuesday when I kept munching). FFS, I’ve lost a stone in 12 weeks and I think he has, too. 🤷🏼‍♀️ urgh!!

And of course, I’ve had 2 of 3 babies since I was last this weight, I’m 10 years older and my body composition will be quite different.

Did I kill this thread??!

I have been off the regime … I was derailed by my birthday (which was a milestone one) and lots of treats. I’d have been fine but my partner has been ill for the last month and I’ve just been unable to think about fasting, particularly as he needs to be encouraged to eat. The hot weather also makes it hard not to have the odd ice cream…. On the plus side the garden has been a cornucopia of soft fruit so at least a lot of my food has been fresh and nutritious. But I am popping in to keep my mind focused on getting back into it when things settle down, and not letting things get too out of hand.

Ah well, Monday weigh-in could have been a lot worse, given some of the comfort eating that’s been going on. Motivating me to reintroduce some good habits.

Morning all! I am back from a (fairly disastrous) holiday and 3kg up on the scales 😱Which really F*CKS me off when I didn't even that nice a time! Haha... So I a doing a loose FD today and tomorrow, and restarting at the gym although it is sooooo hot today that I might just walk the dog this evening and skip weights. Have a PT session tomorrow though and I will go before work on Thursday and Friday. I think I will just feel better by moving more and cutting back on the food tbh. I agree re drinking @SydneyCarton - we drank every day last week (as opposed to my usual two days) and I feel so bloated and sluggish this morning.

@SmellyMe sorry you were feeling despondent last week - new week, new start! You've got this.

welcome back! Nice to have some chums again. I’m moving house this week so I have decided not to fast. I hope not to be naughty though and saving myself for holidays later in the month for that. Good luck.

@Darker i hope things improve for you and your partner!

Oh good luck @SmellyMe i have never had a house move which wasn’t tortuous 🤣

Good luck with the house move @SmellyMeand I hope your husband is feeling better @Darker.
I've been struggling to fast, partly as this close to summer holidays there’s no routine and routine is what usually props me up. Feeling a bit down about it which is also a vicious circle.
@harriethoyleI feel your pain. Nothing more disappointing than a sub par holiday.

At least it gives me a cast iron excuse for going properly away next year @eekwhatnow 🤣

On another mini today (937 yesterday) and PT after work. Aiming for half of the holiday weight off by the end of the week 🤞🏼

Ha yes that’s true @harriethoyle I always know it’s a bad trip if I’m googling holidays for next time whilst I’m still there! Good luck today, holiday weight can sometimes fall off super quickly if you’re good.
Checking in for a FD today. Yesterday I tried on my festival clothes for one a month away. I actually felt OK in them and it made me think how good I’d feel if I managed to lose even just a pound or two more between now and then. So I’m not putting any pressure on myself, and I expect it’ll be autumn before I get back in my groove properly, but I’m still going to try and do a FD here and there and record what I eat as much as possible so I at least don’t put it all back on. Wish me luck!

That all sounds very sensible @eekwhatnow - I’ve opted for minis this week and gym sessions and already 0.8kg down. Going for lunch today but we’ve gone for sushi so the progress should continue!

Closed on 900. Not perfect but better than would’ve been if I hadn’t been trying! Going to record calories today on my NFD.

That's what I came in on Monday and Tuesday @eekwhatnow and I felt better for it. I am going for something similar today, rather than a full fast. Feel very stressed at the moment and I think a bit of balance and routine will help with that!