I F - 5:2 - 4:3 - Maintaining the healthy weight

[TalkinPeace2]

This thread is for those who have been doing IF for quite a while and are now at or nearing their target healthy weight.

How do we experience fasts and balance a stable food intake while having little or no weight to lose?

How to we ensure that this WOE does keep us at the healthy weight long term rather than revert to yoyo games?

I have now been at the same weight for a month. I'm happy with that. I'm also still enjoying the 24 hour fasts because of the clear mindedness I get during them.

How about you?

Marking place, need to get on it this week :(

americas yes I'm a bit envious of laska and tips lunch, but suspect they are meeting on the island, which is too far for me anyway.....any londoners fancy meeting up sometime?

I had a lovely adult weekend away starting Friday am, and then I caught the 10.30 train home yesterday so I could spend the afternoon with the DC's they met me at the Train station with home made cards (lots of volcanoes and lava from DS and a garden with smaller volcano from DD) and an orchid. Then we made it out to a local pub to meet friends for a roast dinner and slightly too many bottles of white wine, but I obviously didn't drink too much as I managed to bake chocolate cherry cupcakes last night for the work comic relief bake off today.

am contemplating whether this is a fast day, it should be, i want it to be, but there are 6 other bakers bringing in their goods and i will be off tomorrow when the other 6 bakers do theirs.....maybe I will purchase and take home for DC's and for me to eat tomorrow? makes sense for me to stick to my Monday fast and have tomorrow as an eating day as i am helping friends decorate their new place.

laska sorry to hear your adult DS is having a tough time, my Mum looks after my Adult brother, he has Aspergers, and I know what a strain it can be sometimes to get the balance right between offering enough or too much support, and how it impacts on everyone else. At the end of the day, you are his Mother, and you are programmed to nurture and protect him, there is nothing wrong with that, do what your instincts tell you and I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong. hugs

I came second in the bake off, woop woop!

Laska can totally empathise with you as I have a similar thing going on with my DS (29 years) who also dropped out of Uni then College due to bad depression. He was ill for a couple of years but has now recovered and is fit and healthy both physically and mentally (thank God). Due to the above and the present climate etc he is also unemployed but luckily he's living with his dad who is financially able to support him. It still has been, and is, a very worrying time as they are still our children no matter what age they are!

On a lighter note, I have lost 2lbs this week, after putting on 1lb for the first time on this woe last week. I've been panicking a little about maintaining (was on a small plateau for a couple of weeks) as I've been concerned that I might start to put on some of that which I've lost over the past 6 months especially since the 'pressure' to lose lbs has almost gone (would ideally like to lose another 3lbs).
So I've been following a link to fast-5 which I think Swallowedafly posted on the other thread and on that forum they fast every day (some only week days) until their 'window' of 5 hours to eat whatever they like. For 2 days I fasted until 5pm then ate a good healthy meal and dessert and whatever else I fancied until 10pm. Overall I didn't really eat that much as there is not so much room in my stomach now. For the rest of the days I missed breakfast every morning and only had lunch and dinner. Seems to have worked as I've had a loss and I guess I'm going to keep experimenting like this until those 3lbs are gone and I can feel safe. I think that doing a hybrid of 5:2 and fast-5 may enable me to maintain without the worry of thinking I may lose control if I continue with 5:2 only. I think I need the discipline of fasting (nearly) everyday to keep me on the straight and narrow. I am determined that this time I will not regain my lost weight.
I think that B&W and some others are doing similar things?

I looked on the Fast 5. Com website then the link to the transcript of a TED talk. It's well worth reading if you haven't already seen it, thanks VP.

I might have a look at that if I plateau again, the trick seems to be changing the routine if that happens. But I really want to make sure I adopt a healthy way to maintain once I lose the last few lbs

I have a stinking cold, feeling very sorry for myself and would have normally joined the children in tea and crumpets for breakfast but can't really stomach the thought of anything so may continue with a juice or fast day today - probably juicing as I feel like I need as many vitamins as poss at the moment and drinking is more palatable than eating at the moment

Who's a stupid boy, then? [mad]

Had a fasting blood test booked for tomorrow morn at 9am - and had some supper and a glass of wine at 11 tonight.

I completely forgot!

I was looking forward to getting some figures back, as well!

Oh well, I'll have to ring up at 8.30 and cancel!

Breadandwine that's a pain did you get an appointment, let us know when it is and we can all remind you not to eat!

Annoyed with myself have hada failed fast, I made a large expensive batch of short bread requested for a sale but the Carmel is too hard. Been researching what went wrong and tested a but then ate the large piece nearly breaking my teeth. Feel sick so had a chicken sandwich to cancel the sugar. The shortbread and topping are delicious but can't feed it to anyone else, someone tell me to chuck it! Need to make another batch now too.

Thanks, Giraffe. I've got a new appointment for next Tuesday - the 19th - at 8.30 [yikes] Serves me right!

On the subject of fasting blood tests: we are told to only consume water in the 12 hours prior to the test - but is there any benefit in extending that, say, to 16 hours or more?

Or wouldn't it make any difference?

Just checking in. Things aren't great, but I'm trying to stick at 5:2....although I'm feeling very pouty this morning as I weighted 9st 10 yesterday morning, fasted well all day (had about 800 cal in the end, but not too bad) and weighed 9 11.8 this morning!!!! Grrrrr :(

DH suggested I might be losing faith when I got grumpy this morning...

Been eating crap all day so far -need to get control.

Thanks for all the good wishes. My mum starts chemo today - she's going to be in hospital all week, so will see how it goes. Apparently she's managed to get some massively rare form of brain cancer (less than 3,000 cases a year in the US, almost none in the UK) so its going to be even harder to treat than they initially thought....I'm trying not to think about it too much.

Off to eat more chocolate and wasabi peas....

Filly the desire to eat crap is perfectly understandable - just remember that you can start again tomorrow, slate wiped clean, and get some health benefits. Being in a situation where you feel out of control is awful - but if it were me it would help to at least keep control of my eating. Interestingly the last time I was this weight was when my dad was dying as eating was the one thing I could control - but you might need something different?

I had a very piggy few days last week / weekend and have ended up at 9.8 - this week I'm going to ADF as much as I can in the hope that next week will start with me back at 9.4

Not fasting today but I am working at home so have made a huge lentil, split pea and veg curry in the slow cooker for tonight - will freeze some portions for the rest of the week I think as they will do well on a fast day with cabbage (lightly sauted in a non stick pan) instead of rice.

Oh Filly I agree with catrus just do what you need to do to get through this week emotionally. Although healthier options (with or without fasting) will most likely make you feel less awful. But I can totally see the need for carbs.

Do you mind me asking how tall you are catasrus? I am now at my maintains weight also of 9stone 4lbs but only because of two days of illness, so I'll probably put more on before bona fide losing it and properly maintaining. But damn it looked good to see 130lb on the scales!

Hi Americas - I'm 5'8" currently straddling a UK 10-12 bottom and 12-14 top (depending on the cut). Down from 11.4 (on a good day ) and a 16 bottom and 18 top.

Thanks, LG, I figured as much.

I just thought, "12 hours? Phhh!"

Filly I think Tip said just eat norishing food right now look after yourself etc which makes sense - I think its hard to do actually but even maintaining/ keeping gain to under 4lbs or so at the mo would be a massive achievement I think?

B&W funny how our perceptions have changed I would once have been most agrieved to miss breakfast!

((((Filly)))))
Have you been in touch with Brainstrust ? They have excellent support groups
and yes, your stress levels are such that you need to stay healthy.
You know you can lose the weight when you want - make that when your Mum is back out of hospital.

Well hello 9.4 again love this WOE!

Back down to where I was before the mega social week last week - it took 4 days, 2 fasts and 2 TDEE days - clearly it was more fluid than fat but still good to be back at 'base camp'. Not a fast day today - but a pretty immobile one as I'll be writing a report so will stick to TDEE, fast day again tomorrow - though maybe not a 500 cal one - then social weekend.

How's everyone doing?

Thanks all (again)...I'm sorry to load personal stuff on here - I'm not quite ready to engage on the 'real' support threads (probably still in denial) but will try to hold back with the doom and gloom...ok, with the non-weight-related doom and gloom!

TiP - thanks, yes, I checked out their website when you linked to it last week = its great, and have shared with my family. My mother's treatment had to be stopped after the first batch as the biopsy results have thrown up some anomalies that suggest that what she has is an even rarer than expected form of brain cancer which might require different treatment. So she's back home for a few days whilst they figure it out. she's taking it all in her stride, so i'm trying to do the same...

Fasting again today, but feeling quite cross at the total lack of weight loss (and some gain) over the past few weeks. I'm not eating stupendous amounts - Tuesday's chocolate and chickpea fest was balanced by a super small evening meal - but am stuck back up at 9.11 ish.

Catsrus - yes, i also feel like this is one of the few things in my control at the moment, but also extremely shattered, due to new full time very full on job, 3 small children, household to run and other family issues (apart from my mother's illness), which is causing my resolve to wobble. But I am soooo at your success...I am 5.7.5 (so slightly shorter), sz 10 bottom, 12-14 top but haven't been 9.4 since before dc1, when I only managed it on starvation rations...but looked great...! wow! I'll be happy if when I get to 9.7

Literarygeek sorry to hear you're having your own issues at the moment. Can I just ask if you started a 'school gates' thread many moons ago? Your name rings a bell from one of the few that I posted on...

(((Filly)))
You are more likely to get a calm and reasoned response on here than on some of the more neurotic boards.
And anonymous internet friends do not mind if you scream and rant and let of steam. That is the beauty of it.

Having a fasting and errands day today - a bit untoned because I've been working rather than at the gym - but HEY! gotta pay the bills.
And the sun is shining.

Thing is that these cold grey days make ALL weight management harder - once the weather warms up and we can go out for evening walks (or in my case dig veg beds) on fast days - it all gets easier again.

Hi all

Thinking of you Filly, don't worry about splurging, I like how this thread allows us all to go off on RL tangents occasionally.

Hows everyone else? Fasting? Teenage/toddler/grown children still causing havoc?

Agree TiP, I'm pretty sure fasting is much easier for me being in a warmer climate

But on that note, how is it being home Ezza?

I think I'm finally starting to feel well again. Probably unintentionally got a few fasts in this week with this sickness, yesterday ate when and what I wanted to as was still feeling really queasy. Going to fast today to ease myself into normal eating then a normal weekend, including, hopefully, my first training ride in weeks - 60miles eek

Weighed in again today : 8st 11 again - which has basically been my weight since before Christmas. Pretty chuffed.

Chatted to a friend in Yoga who is a medic : they are getting REALLY interested in getting overweight cancer patients onto fasting during treatment and lots of other stuff. I'll try to get her to start posting on here.

Well done TiP what a wonderful weight to be at.

ATB doing fine here what with my loss last week and hopefully on track this week too. I'm 10st 3lbs and want to get to 10 and then maintain, maybe for good or maybe for a while, who knows. That's why this is so great - it's flexibility etc is unheard of in any other 'diet'.
My grown up son has informed me that very soon he will enrol on a personal trainer course but need to shed just a few more lbs so's he's not intimidated by the others. He has been doing 5:2 for a few weeks now with great results so hopefully things are looking up.

Be interested in your response to this article about Gwyneth Paltrow's ban on refined carbs for her kids.

Makes sense to me!

B&WThe initial headlines said that she had banned carbs, but then they clarified that she had banned refined carbs.
I still wonder how that would work if they travelled to other than rich parts of the world - where rice, pasta, polenta and bread make up the bulk of the meals.

And I'd respect her health messages a lot more if she did less botox.
She wants her kids to live naturally and then freezes her face ...