5:2 Diet - The Plateau

Ok so I have been on this diet since 7 August 2012.

That was the day after the Horizon programme, Eat, Fast and Live Longer. It has changed the way I eat and probably the way I think about weight, food, health and life in general.

I am over 20 libs lighter - having reached my goal in January - I revised my goal down a few lbs as I fluctuate up and down. So I'd rather my target weight is at the top of the fluctuation, rather than the bottom as it was.

I didn't appear to lose weight for weeks. But I felt thinner and I kept going with the 2 fasting days religiously. People started to comment on my weight loss "have you been losing weight?' Well, d'uh, only about a stone and a half - have you only just noticed?

There must have been a point where my weight shifted from some place to another on my body - which made it more noticeable that I'd lost it. But the scales still stubbornly stayed put. At 9st 9lbs.

Until yesterday - woo hooo now I am 9st 7lbs....or at least I was - yesterday.

Today I was 9st 9lb again. Grrrrrrr.

So this week I am going to weigh myself every day, do the fast - maybe a 4:3 if I can fit it in - and just see what's going on. Really more as a scientific experiment on myself.

And because next week we go on a wee holiday for 5 days. No fasting and lots of drinking so have to have a few lbs in the bank spare so I can put on with impunity.

I'm not getting obsessed do you think?

Goal!

Well - thank you scales! You say I am at my target weight! Woo hoo!

The 5:2 diet has produced results. I have at long last reached my target weight after 5 months.

Now I didn't have much to lose, by many standards. I was just over 11 stone (about 156 lbs - that was the kick up the backside I needed) and am now 9 stone 10 (136 lbs). So I have lost around 16 lbs.

It was a very gradual loss over that length of time.

I did 7 weeks on the trot - and lost 10 lbs. Then I went on holiday and needless to say - didn't fast for 2 weeks. The main problem with trying to do this on holiday is alcohol which is so calorific that it just needs a couple of beers on an evening and you've allocated your entire 500 cals without food - which is not good.

I restarted on my return and managed a stretch of 10 weeks before the Christmas holiday season hit.  I had put on 3 lbs so back to 143 and that was the sticking point! Frustratingly close to 10 stone, but not quite getting there, no matter what.

I didn't really do any formal exercise during the 5:2 but did increase my walking, aiming for 10,000 a day. Some days I did it, some days not quite, but I was much more aware of at least trying to get up and walk about more. The job I do is so sedentary that it's al to easy to just sit in front of the PC for 8 hours and move very little.

As the target weight got closer, the loss slowed down - frustratingly.

I seemed to average half a pound a week - or at least a pound was only coming off in a 2 week period. Looking at what I was doing at that time the main difference was activity level - which gradually lessened as the weather got worse, and my calorific average for the day increased a little too. 

At the beginning, my average calorie intake (including fast days) was around 1300, then gradually went up to 1500. I was consuming anything from 1200 to 2300 calories on non-fast days - not curbing but counting just to see what the average was working out at. I had some extreme feast days in November and of course in December so I guess it wasn't surprising that the weight loss slowed down. 

I last weighed myself at the beginning of December - 137lbs - and then didn't check - I knew it was creeping up as fasting was indeed very intermittent! I had the work Christmas do and of course Christmas itself and only a couple of real fasts during that time.

So I did the 4:3 last week as a boost - and boy did it work! The weigh in yesterday was 9st 10lb or 136lbs!

People have asked what now for maintenance. And I will maintain. I will need to keep going as I think levelling off will occur even with continuing on 5:2. So I'll see how it goes and I'll report back.

But so far so good and thank you Dr Michael Mosley! This regime works.

The 5:2 diet revisited

Well that's Christmas and New Year out of the way. 

The excesses of the festivities have taken their toll. I'm not going to weigh myself - but I do think a pound or three has re-positioned itself around my body, lots of indulgent foods have been consumed, including a whole box of Thornton's Classics in probably a week (with no help from anyone else) and of course there's been a fair amount of just sitting around, not expending this extra calorific intake.

 Presently I am sitting with a large number of Milka choccie papers on the table in front of me, I'm slouched in front of the tv and I am replete from a large Sunday lunch.

 But tomorrow it will be different.

 I will be returning to my old friend the 'starving day' and repeating that experience again on Wednesday. I might even go for a three day target and fast again on Friday - just to get a New Year kick start and try to lose these extra pounds.

 My main enemy is Pret a Manger, rather too close for comfort in the shopping centre down the road from work. I love their slightly too calorie laden pastries and soups and try to save these as a treat on eating days. Marks and Spencer's deli pies are another evil temptation - their Yorkish Pastries are to die for.

But tomorrow - tomorrow I will probably eat:

Breakfast - a small portion of porridge (made with oatmeal rather than oats) with a very light sprinkling of half spoon suger.
Lunch - slim-a-soup and Boots shapers ginger beer
Dinner - baked potato and tuna followed by Asda frozen berries and fromage fraiche. I might have another slim-a-soup to start with if I have enough calories to play with.
 And in the evening I'll be keeping my brain busy with the usual soaps on tv, maybe some housework and sudoku - anything to keep my mind off food. I'll have a chamomile tea before bed.

 And on Tuesday? Actually I rather enjoy fantasising about what I will eat on an 'eating day' and the fantasy never lives up to expectation - so surprisingly I won't eat that much.

 But I will have a good breakfast!

Saturday Night

When did things change? Long gone are the days when I would be desperate to get out on a Saturday night and be really very upset if nothing social was on the go. A slight gloom would descend.

Not now.

Now the norm is a cosy night in in front of the tv. But I still get that nagging feeling that I am missing out on some sort of social whirl. Was this change gradual or actually quite sudden? I can't pinpoint it but I guess children happened and that was that. Life changed and so did I. Priorities changed and going out on a Saturday night was not so important. Sleep was.

But now I don't have that excuse. I feel like I would like to go back to that era of my twenties and enjoy what that had to offer again. If for no other reason than pure nostalgia. What was it like being young and out and about on a Saturday night.

It was more experimental in my teens. Everything was new and different and Saturday nights were something to be planned and enjoyed. It started with shopping in town in the afternoon. Then we would go to the Union for a game or two of table football before we went up to the baths. In those days there was a whole floor of baths and you could borrow a towel and soak and steam in a magnolia cubicle for half an hour or more. Then we would go downstairs to the tv rooms and watch Dr Who before the evening proper began. Then we'd spend around a pound on getting drunk and getting into the dungeon disco. Or if it was a special night, there might be something on in the ballroom. Or the new dining room.

That's when Saturday night was really Saturday night.