5.2

Welcome Grannyparkrun! The more of us the merrier to share and care!
Honestly, I believe that although exercise is good - lowering cholesterol and blood pressure for example and increasing the happy vibes - it isn’t as important as calorie consumption for weight loss. Apparently you have to jog for 3 weeks to work off a Mars bar (joke).
As for cooking per se on diet days? I don’t bother.
Easy is best 2 days a week. Something on toast.Soup. Porridge. Who cares? It’s a day to get through and my mindset is ‘you can always have it tomorrow ‘!
If you’re doing dinner for your husband and not you maybe plan ahead and defrost him something out of the freezer or whatever and disappear! Take yourself off for a shower or walk th dog while he eats!
And remember, it’s only for today!
Good luck.
Let us know if you decide to join us and update us on how you’re doing. We all need encouragement!

Hello everyone, can I join you? Despite my name & claim to run, I am getting slower and slower and feeling it in my knees more each week. I've put on a lot of weight over the last few years and missed my new years resolution to lose some pounds on 1st Jan then again on 1st Feb..whoops!
Your posts are all so informative and supportive, could 5:2 be my solution? I'd love to know how you cook a meal for DH (or whoever), on fast days, without cracking?

Yes shysal a week tonight and I promise to come on here on the Saturday and share what I learn.
Katyj I would expect you to have lost better than 1lb after all you have cut down. Exercise is good of course but not essential for weight loss.
Are you perhaps eating more than 2,000 calories on your eating days?
How you feel better soon too.
Diet + feeling grotty = misery. I expect.

Sorry, just noticed it is next week you are going to the talk, I was thinking it was today.

Hope you will feel better soon, Katyj.
I have managed to lose the 4lb I gained last weekend, so unless I have lost again today I am back to last week's weight, eating 500-800 cals on 3 fast days. Onwards and downwards!
I look forward to hearing how MM's talk went Urmstongran

I've stayed the same this week, that means I've still only lost 1lb over 3 weeks. I don't feel as if I'm overeating, but think I must be, I should have lost more than that.I've not been very active this week as I've had a sore back, and now today I have a sore throat and blocked ear, absolutely fed up! Just have to keep trying.

It was my fast day yesterday. I weighed myself this morning and I’d lost a 1lb. Which is good because I’d gained 2lbs after my eating days.
It’s like sitting on a see saw!
Never mind, overall I’ve still lost 7lbs since 3 January so I’m going in the right direction which is the main thing.

How are others doing?

Michael Mosely is being rather slow responding to the questions on the special thread. Perhaps he is too busy giving his talks! Hope you find him informative or even inspirational Urmstongran. I look forward to hearing how it goes.

Thanks ladies.
I wanted to share because it was what a doctor said today.
I thought it would help us all to focus.
x

Well done urmstongran, your being very inspirational ! I'm laid up at the moment with a painful back, trying not to eat; but finding it difficult. Good luck with your results

Hope everything goes well Urmstongran 9.5 lb is fab.

Thanks for the info and yes it is motivational. 2 fast days but unfortunately down to mega lurgy and 1 1/2 days in bed, made it up an hour ago for a bit. Must be bad as Dh stayed in to keep an eye on me

Your post will spur me on, I must do it this time ! Thanks

Thank you shysal for your concern.
That’s kind.
Actually I’m just back from seeing the GP and I’m hugely reassured albeit still waiting for results.

Anyway, not meaning to bore anyone (but hey as this is a forum dedicated to us 5/2 ers I don’t think it will) I will just share what my lovely female GP said about the 5:2. I though it was really motivational which is why I’d like to share.

When I was getting dressed I told her about the 5:2 I was on. Said I’d lost 9lbs since 3 January. She said it’s getting a lot of good press. She said the first month or so is water retention but stick with it. Apparently it doesn’t suit everyone as some of her patients had tried it and either had headaches (not drinking enough water on fast days she told them), felt the cold or felt light headed.
She was really interested to hear I was going to listen to Dr Mosley at the Bridgewater Hall give a talk a week on Friday. Said it would give me the motivation to continue 6 weeks in. She also said it was cheaper buying a ticket than joining SW or WW which made me laugh. And she also said very often what you do the week before shows as weight loss the following week!

So be encouraged ladies, like I was.

Also (whilst I’m being very lengthy here) I hope, like most of us, to post how we are doing until say the autumn. By then I hope to be on the 6:1 and not need to be as active on this thread!

Best wishes everyone. Keep on keeping on!

Great result Urmstongran, though not for the best reason. Mild anxiety makes me eat but real worry stops me. Hope the test results are not as bad as you feared.

Morning everyone. I’ve just weighed myself after a very strict fast day yesterday and I’ve lost 4lbs since Sunday morning! Wowzer!
That’s either a sudden catch up after plateauing for a week or more (lose 2lbs then gain 1.5lbs) or my high anxiety yesterday over a health issue whilst awaiting a test result.
When stressed, some people comfort eat. I think I shut down with little interest in food.

To encourage you all. I lost 3 lbs between Monday - Friday and put 2lbs back on between Friday and this morning. No idea why.

Shysal there is absolutely no direct correlation between what you eat and weight loss, at least not in the short term, only in the long term. Nor is there any explanation, just watch the week by week trend.

Personally I prefer to weigh fairly regularly. If you weigh weekly and the weekly day is the day of the sudden 4lb gain, you just see that week on week your weight has gone up. If you weigh every couple of days, you see just how much your weight varies from day to day, but also note the (hopefully) downward trend over weeks.

Urmstongran, I have done your trick of putting on 4lb in one day! Yesterday I had lost another lb then today shock horror! I did buy a cheese and marmite loaf from the bakery yesterday and ate two doorsteps but I can't have eaten 4lb of food all day. I don't plan to weigh myself again until after 2 or 3 more fast days, Hope it was retained water or something. Fortunately I can be quite bloody-minded so will stick with the plan, perhaps going down to 500 cals.

Yay MOnica! Our guru for 5:2. ??
I think what you’re saying is inspirational. It’s not always about how we did this week, it’s the bigger picture, over time - macro rather than micro managing.
It’s because of what you’ve said MOnica that I got to thinking about a MONTHLY weigh in to supplement what we newbies do on a daily/weekly basis.
Hence 5:2 GWI.

I think many articles in magazines and books are so unrealistic, showing how 'easy' it is to lose weight and suggesting that weight loss is a steady downward line.

It isn't, not on any diet, some people really struggle and even when you are successful in losing weight, the pattern will be of constant sudden drops and rises for which there is no explanation, plus times when it doesn't fall at all.

Being a bit of a nerd, I have a spreadsheet and I tracked my weight loss. I weigh myself every two days and actually seeing the way my weight fluctuated in the short term, but in the long term was creeping down, kept me on the straight and narrow. I was so delighted with my success I kept the spread sheet, so still have it. Ideally I still need to lose about 10 lbs more so I am running this campaign on the same spread sheet because it remind me it can be done.

MOnica your words
‘My 5:2 diet 4 years ago shows my weight going up and down through out the period, but after 4 months on the diet I was 2 stone down. I once put on 4lbs in two days for no comprehensible reason.‘
are SO inspirational for us newbies. Thank you!

You’ve done fantastically well Lumarei ... you must be very determined and focused as what you are doing sounds too hard core for me! But you will probably shift your weight a lot faster because of it.
For me, the 5:2 is perfect.
2 days fasting.
5 days of not even thinking ‘I’m on a diet’.
My weight loss will obviously be slower but I’m hoping because it’s doable I can stick with it long term.

Had a fast day yesterday. Lost another 1lb. Eating over the weekend will probably put half of it back on - that’s how it seems to work with me. But looking at the bigger picture if I ‘only’ lose 1lb each week by about Easter that’s ... well I’m not good at maths but it’s over a stone since I started. Then perhaps another stone by the summer? It all adds up doesn’t it from that 1lb a week!

I have concentrated on 4 things this month:

intermittent fasting
no sugar
very little fruit (as I would otherwise overcompensate for lack of sugar.)
low carb

I have not calorie counted this month.
I had big plates of green salad for breakfast (between 12 and 1pm) with either two or three scrambled eggs or a few slices of bacon and avocado so that it would last me for 5 hrs and then had another low carb meal around 6pm. However I have done this daily so I think I ate around +/-1000 per day over two meals.
In February I want to keep the daily eating window of 8hrs or less and consume only 500cals Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 1500càls (daily maintenance) on the other days.

*thinking ha! I must slow down and proof read before posting.

I try to stay around 600 cals on my fast days Katyj. Ypthis morning I had 2 mugs of tea with milk, a bowl of porridge (150 cals) with a spoon of blueberries. At about 2pm I’ll have a cup of coffee. An hour later a satsuma or an apple. Then at 6pm some beans on 2 small pieces of whole meal toast (have to have a scrape of butter though!). I don’t like over thing food on my fasting days. I repeat my mantra ‘never mind you can have some * tomorrow ‘!

Maybe that's what's happening to me 800 calories maybe too much.I'll try and cut down next week. Just been out for a long walk, that should help.