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5:2 diet sort of, continuation

Fitness tips, Relaxation, Mind and Body
Arborbridge
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5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#369425

Postby Arborbridge » December 24th, 2020, 9:20 am

We are continuing to control weight by the use of 5:2. However, it is not as strict as regime as it used to be - not "fast days" andy more, but "diet days". You can see from the chart below that my wife and I are more or less keeping our weight within limits, and as regards BMI, 23 or less for me.

This year has seen a slight increase in my weight on average: up 0.8% on 2018 (My wife down 0.4%). Multiple causes - lockdown, perhaps war weariness, or sloppy thinking.
The idea of 5:2 is still working well, and I definitely need it for without that constant appraisal, my weight would certainly bounce up. Looking along my wife's line, I see she has been rather more successful this year (born out by the average mentioned), particularly so this autumn/winter. I shall have to pay more attention in future or my laurels will slip :)

Here's my latest chart:-
Image

redsturgeon
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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#369458

Postby redsturgeon » December 24th, 2020, 10:28 am

I wishI had the organisation to keep such complete records. I start the 5:2 a few years ago when it just came out with the Dr Moseley TV programme. Well done both for the record keeping and sticking with the weight loss.

It worked well for me for a few years and I found it useful in that by keeping the two fast days I was able to eat pretty much what I liked for the rest of the time. My weight during this period hovered around 91 Kg which may sound a lot but at my height is pretty much bang on 25 BMI, which I was happy with.

Then I went on a biking trip to Italy with some mates that turned into a bit of a wine and food trip with the occasional cycle trip to another bar/restaurant. When I weighed myself on return I was over 95 kg!

Fortunately this coincided with me agreeing with my daughter to go vegan for a month. In that first month I lost nearly 10kg! I have now been vegan for just over a year and my weight now has stabilised at 88kg.

I no longer do the 5:2 since I feel you can have too much of a good thing.

John

Arborbridge
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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#481850

Postby Arborbridge » February 21st, 2022, 12:01 pm

Here's my latest offering showing my weight saga. This past year or so has been disappointing in that I do not seem to be able to lose weight so easily as previously. Frankly, I think that is because we simply haven't been as rigorous as we should have been on diet days (you see, even the language has morphed, not "fast" days any more). We use excuses like "it's much harder to lose weight in the winter", but the truth is we are just eating too much. The times my weight has been "above the line" for me (145lbs) have grown, so now I am rarely "below the line". A shock point came recently when I reached almost 5lbs over, so I realise that something drastic must be done to take this in hand. Well, here's the chart, but I hope that shaming myself might produce a better chart line for 2022:-

Image

Arb.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#482010

Postby Gerry557 » February 22nd, 2022, 6:30 am

You could of course introduce more active things to your lifestyle. Regular cycling trips or walks in the countryside. It does not have to be just about fitness.

Lifting weights is also highly recommended. Muscle burns more calories than fat.

I find that the active part also re-enforce the healthy eating side and vice versa. Still it allows me to have 6 meals per day. Little n often.

Unfortunately as we age we do aquire more fat but at least you can slow this process down, feel fitter and probably enjoy life in general. I've never been depressed by a great view from the top of a hill.

Arborbridge
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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#482019

Postby Arborbridge » February 22nd, 2022, 7:47 am

Gerry557 wrote:You could of course introduce more active things to your lifestyle. Regular cycling trips or walks in the countryside. It does not have to be just about fitness.

Lifting weights is also highly recommended. Muscle burns more calories than fat.

I find that the active part also re-enforce the healthy eating side and vice versa. Still it allows me to have 6 meals per day. Little n often.

Unfortunately as we age we do aquire more fat but at least you can slow this process down, feel fitter and probably enjoy life in general. I've never been depressed by a great view from the top of a hill.


More exercise would help, but we walk every day, at least a couple of miles on most days. We shop at Waitrose which is a walk of 1.8 miles with rucksacks, and walk on Sundays with a walking group which is usually 8 miles.

We have a local gym, but I've never been - I used to go to another gym before I movedbut they are incredibly boring. Living in the South Downs, we get plenty of uphill walking!

Cycling? Wouldn't touch it - too many maniacs around and as you push on towards 80 one gets more risk averse. Shank's pony is OK for me.

Arb.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#482032

Postby DrFfybes » February 22nd, 2022, 9:02 am

I msut congratulate you on this. Firstly for the dedication on sticking to it for so long, but also on the level of the record keeping. Presumably you have some App or excel spreadsheet for the data, rather than sporadic scrawled weights written on the calendar that tend to get omitted when they go in the wrong direction :)

There are many variations of the 5:2, so out of interest what is the calorific intake on Fast, Normal, and Diet days?

I ask this as MrsF occasionally attempts something similar, but as I don't it is invariably short lived as I feel guilty eating properly in front of her, and she feels guilty that I feel guilty, unless I decide cooking for 1 is too much trouble and get a takeaway, in which case I am "just being mean". We have recently started a new campaign, which is why I'm interested in the calories, but after 2 weeks it is early days to see progress.

Thanks

Paul

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#482068

Postby redsturgeon » February 22nd, 2022, 10:37 am

Well done, again I am impressed by the meticulous record keeping.

My diet has changed from totally vegan more to non meat. I now eat fish and cheese a couple of times a week since I feel that these two foods help incorporate any nutrients/vitamins that would be easy to miss in a completely vegan diet. The longer I do not eat meat the more I do not miss it...even bacon!

I eat my main meal in the evening at 6pm and do not breakfast until 8am so I have a daily fast of 14 hours which I am led to believe is beneficial.

I stopped drinking alcohol for a year but I now will drink it if the occasion demands and I feel in the mood, perhaps once or twice a month.

My weight remains stable at 90kg which is a healthy BMI for me at 24.6. I remain fit and healthy at aged 65.

I have been reading Tim Spector's ,"Spoon Fed" which I would recommend, where he looks at several food myths and discusses them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spoon-Fed-almo ... C71&sr=8-1

He is very interested in the health of the gut biome and recommend eating 30 different foods each week to keep the gut healthy. Sounds a lot but I am going to give it a go, I have long believed that a wide variety in diet is a good thing.

Overall I am sticking to Michael Pollan's mantra, "Eat food*, mostly plants, not too much".

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Rules-Eat ... C79&sr=8-1

John

* He doesn't classify "ultra-processed products as real food

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#483505

Postby TahiPanasDua » March 1st, 2022, 10:09 am

Over my 77 years I have successfully lost weight using a variety of diets. But I inevitably put it all on again. Sound familiar? I seem to be proof of the notion that diets don't work. The feeling that I was denying myself something I deserved was probably the single biggest reason for eventual failure.

However, my problems were all "solved" about 13 years ago when I found out I had type 2 diabetes. Like all diabetics, I eat a high fibre, low sugar diet and the weight has just fallen away. I have had near-normal blood sugar levels without drugs ever since. My BMI is a very healthy 23 and my weight 161 lbs (11 stone 7).

You don't have to follow the whole hog regime if you are not diabetic. My wife has an even lower BMI than me and she eats occasional ice creams and drinks a glass of wine every day. We both enjoy our diet very much.

My easy recommendation for a simpler version would be to eat only whole grain pasta, bread and brown rice at home and avoid sugary drinks. Such a high fibre diet keeps you feeling fuller for longer so you eat less without the feeling of self denial. Beware, weight will drop very slowly but continuously. This is a very easy discipline to follow and you quickly get used to it and actually enjoy everything you eat. When you eat out, you can't eat wholegrain but just enjoy yourself without using it as an excuse to go bananas.

Ideally, also learn to always read standard packaging details especially the "of which sugars" figure. I try to limit our purchases to "of which sugars" around 5% but you can set your own standard. You will often be shocked at the sugar content of seemingly healthy products. Beware of supermarket whole wheat bread. It usually isn't and is mostly refined flour. You can buy Kranks real wholegrain bread in Waitrose.

Best of luck!

TP2.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#483507

Postby TahiPanasDua » March 1st, 2022, 10:16 am

Maybe I should have mentioned that you can load up on fruit. While it is usually high in sugar, the sugars are not refined so they take ages to break down in your gut. We end almost all meals with fruit which satisfies the urge for desserts.

TP2.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#483521

Postby DrFfybes » March 1st, 2022, 11:34 am

TahiPanasDua wrote:Maybe I should have mentioned that you can load up on fruit. While it is usually high in sugar, the sugars are not refined so they take ages to break down in your gut. We end almost all meals with fruit which satisfies the urge for desserts.

TP2.


Sadly I doubt this approach would work with MrsF. Now Johnny Depp is out of favour she only has wine and chocolate to fall back on for comfort.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#484295

Postby Arborbridge » March 4th, 2022, 12:26 pm

DrFfybes wrote:I msut congratulate you on this. Firstly for the dedication on sticking to it for so long, but also on the level of the record keeping. Presumably you have some App or excel spreadsheet for the data, rather than sporadic scrawled weights written on the calendar that tend to get omitted when they go in the wrong direction :)

There are many variations of the 5:2, so out of interest what is the calorific intake on Fast, Normal, and Diet days?

I ask this as MrsF occasionally attempts something similar, but as I don't it is invariably short lived as I feel guilty eating properly in front of her, and she feels guilty that I feel guilty, unless I decide cooking for 1 is too much trouble and get a takeaway, in which case I am "just being mean". We have recently started a new campaign, which is why I'm interested in the calories, but after 2 weeks it is early days to see progress.

Thanks

Paul


I'm sorrry that what with or small matters taking our attention, I didn't get around to answering this.
The fast days were something around 500 calories for her and 600 for him, as I remember it. You can't keep that up for long, though I seem to remember we did it for about a year. If you aren't starving by evening, then you are lucky, or not doing it right! At that stage, I would have an apple near bedtime if the hunger is so bad that you cannot sleep.

Later we kept to diet day type food - prawn casserole, fish, small amounts of chicken - and although we didn't actually keep a log of the calories thereafter, they were probably of the order of 1000-1500. That keeps the weight control so that even the odd blow out or celebration such as the Christmas period does not disturb the weight chart for more than a week or month, depending how long the celebrations were!
One can see many such spikes in my chart relating to family visits or Christmases.

We always have diet days together. I think it would be very difficult to do it separately, and really not so encouraging - even a little competitive spirit keeps you both towing the line. I doubt it would work for us if we tried to have different regimes.

Exercise is important too, and I have great sympathy now for those people who are immobile and overweight. If I weren't able to go on long walks, I can quite see my weight would zoom up, compounded by the fact that if you were stuck in a chair all day, eating becomes a matter of comfort or assuaging boredom for some people. What else is there to do when reading or day time TV become monotonous except raiding the biscuit barrel or similar?

Yes, our diet days are always more effective if we fit in a 2 or 3 mile walk round the village.

Arb.

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#484354

Postby DrFfybes » March 4th, 2022, 4:50 pm

Thanks for the update.

We were running 2500-3000 (me) /day or more, I'm a not entirely unhealthy 11.5st but sadly MrsF has settled about a stone higher.

We're now circa 800 kcal/day lower by just cutting out the carp, which starts by not buying it in the first place, and being more strict cutting out booze nights to 3, and weight is creeping down about 1lb/week.

As you said, the 'fast' days are hard, certainly we wouldn't last like that. I can do 500 calories in Jaffa cakes with morning coffee :)

Paul

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#484371

Postby redsturgeon » March 4th, 2022, 5:45 pm

DrFfybes wrote:Thanks for the update.

We were running 2500-3000 (me) /day or more, I'm a not entirely unhealthy 11.5st but sadly MrsF has settled about a stone higher.

We're now circa 800 kcal/day lower by just cutting out the carp, which starts by not buying it in the first place, and being more strict cutting out booze nights to 3, and weight is creeping down about 1lb/week.

As you said, the 'fast' days are hard, certainly we wouldn't last like that. I can do 500 calories in Jaffa cakes with morning coffee :)

Paul


I make that 11 Jaffa cakes...impressive!

John

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Re: 5:2 diet sort of, continuation

#484381

Postby Arborbridge » March 4th, 2022, 6:29 pm

DrFfybes wrote:Thanks for the update.

We were running 2500-3000 (me) /day or more, I'm a not entirely unhealthy 11.5st but sadly MrsF has settled about a stone higher.

We're now circa 800 kcal/day lower by just cutting out the carp, which starts by not buying it in the first place, and being more strict cutting out booze nights to 3, and weight is creeping down about 1lb/week.

As you said, the 'fast' days are hard, certainly we wouldn't last like that. I can do 500 calories in Jaffa cakes with morning coffee :)

Paul


Think of it this way: one two-finger Kit-Kat and you need amile walk to burn it off :(

Cutting out carp and you lose weight? you must have been eating a lot of fish :lol:

Arb.


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