The FastDay Forum

Hello! I have been trying this diet since September, and other than the odd week of no weight loss all i think is going fine. Thought I had better join up this forum as i have lurked about reading bits and pieces for a while!

On a too much info side of things, i need to shift a serious amount of weight. I really want to have a child and though in the last two years i have lost 20kg (about 10kg of that since September)i was told at an appointment i will get no help and have been told to not even continue trying till i shift at least another 35g, 50kg is better.

This goal seems huge and i just dont see how i will ever reach it, but i am hopefully this diet will help with it at least a little. I have even got my husband on it which is really helpful when we are both not eating on fast days.

A couple of questions though, we have been doing the days back to back (mondays and tuesdays) is this ok or would it be better to spread them out?
I drink a lot of diet lemonade...is that as bad as having diet coke? or is it a bit better but water would be even more so?
what would be a realistic time frame to get the 35kg off by? i dont want to upset myself by either hoping i will reach it quicker than really possible and failing to do so, or by having a date soooo far away in the future it seems hopeless.
Is anyone else trying to shift the weight to help with fertility?

Anyway thats about it, any help, ideas, anything is appreciated!

I can't answer your questions, but just wanted to welcome you to the forum and to say well done to you for starting 5:2.
I think it's just baby steps, and we all lose weight at different rates. I think though that people who have a lot to lose seem to have quite dramatic weight losses.
I find this way of eating quite easy, and hopefully sustainable. I hope you will too, and I know you will get all the support and encouragement you need right here on this forum.
Good luck.

Hi Noo and welcome. re your question on the diet drinks.There is quite a lot of evidence that ANY sweetener can cause an insulinic response. If I remember correctly the brain anticipates sugar from the sweet taste and acts accordingly. An insulin spike.
The jury is still out on the long term effects of artificial sweeteners from a health perspective and I always wonder why the manufacturers always use two or three different sweetenrs in the drink.The cynical side of me says its because if a health problem arose ,it would be difficult from a legal point of view to prove which sweetener caused it. I never underestimate big business.
How about,instead using sparkling water and some lemon juice ? It might get a bit of getting used to being less sweet but so much better for you.
Good luck in your weight loss Noo.It must be daunting but you can do it !
Barbara

well, well, I just found this posted by Shell .thanks Shell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... yeImvWtnr4

now I know why I'm cynical !
Barbara

[carorees]

There is a long debate about diet coke on the forum here

yeah i saw the one on coke, but i have that rarely, its the lemonade thats my weakness which obviously wont be the same as cola as the lack of caffeine etc.

I know sweeteners also get a bad deal of it, some of them are some of the most tested substances we consume and though there is a lot of negatives towards them there is tons of research to say they are safe...then again there are plenty of things we think of as unsafe that in the past were considered safe!

guess i should give sparkling water and lemon juice a try...but maybe once i have used up my current lemonade stash!

Hi

I'm trying to lose weight as well so I can get pregnant, probably similar amount to you. Anything you're doing will be better than nothing , after you've lost 20kg's it's probably going to slow down anyway. You've done better than me though, I've lost 12kg's since last year and reckon I've got another 20 or so to go. My period's started again though after 5kg's which was good and all my hormone levels came back to normal. I had the same chat from the consultant , probably same one ,I'm in Bolton ! I've been pregnant though , just not the time for me , but will be again. You'll get there , understand it's really hard though when you want a baby, hard to think of anything else. I'm going to stop trying for 3 months and give this a go because it's so hard to not be obsessed about it. Think that if I have 3 months at this and don't have the complication and distraction of every month wondering if I am , testing etc. Three months I reckon another 10kg off and it'll be fine. And I've got Glastonbury coming up as well !

Whatever happened to child bearing hips, 2000 years we'd have been danced around in the middle of the village as the most fertile women

Hi, I'm also doing this to try to improve fertility. To get fertility treatment where I live (Coventry) you need a bmi of under 30. At my last appointment mine was 30 exactly but that wadn't an issue as the medication I was put on was classed as PCOS medication so it didn't matter. Then Christmas came and I piled on 9lb. I've been doing this diet for 7 weeks and have just got to bmi 29.9 and next appointment is next week so being very careful as this time hopefully I will get fertility treatment. This diet has worked much better for me than SW or WW so I have confidence that you will be successful. Good luck

[Moogie]

In terms of timescales for losing 35kg, if you lose around the average of about half a kilo a week, that's about 70 weeks, give or take. I know that sounds like a lot but the weeks do fly by and its less than 18 months. There may be a way to boost your loss a bit, if you let us know how you split your calories and what sort of things you eat on a fast. I would also suggest trying water or maybe green tea (said to boost metabolism) if you can get a taste for it, instead of the lemonade. The sweeteners may be safe, but they may be causing an insulin spike which I understand can reduce the body's ability to burn fat when fasting. No doubt someone will set me straight if I got that wrong

Best wishes for you on your 5:2 journey!

I've only been 5:2 fasting for 3 weeks, but I read a lot of advice here, too. I think the number one point is to do what works for you - what is sustainable and helps you reach your goals that you can stick with.

Having said that, I think it would be much harder for me to keep on it if I did my fast days in a row. I like splitting mine by several days. Monday/Thursday works well for me, or Tuesday/Friday. I am a nurse and the scientific stuff I've read, it seems to make more sense to me that the 'health benefits' of decreasing insulin resistance and such would be better achieved by staggering the fasting so you have those fasting hormones twice a week instead of once a week. But I have no evidence to prove that.

I do best if I can fast all day and not eat at all until my supper meal. I do not like black coffee or black tea, so I stick to water, water, water. However, I *have* had a diet soda when I felt like I just had to have caffeine to get me through. I know it's not the best choice, and I do like water so it's not that much of a problem, but I have long hours at work at the hospital and sometimes I just *need* caffeine.

So, it's like any other diet plan/way of eating - you know what is 'ideal', but you also have to do what you have to do to get you through.

I feel for you! I had to lose 50 pounds before I was able to get pregnant with my first child - and then we were able to get pregnant on our own/no fertility treatments necessary! So it really does make a huge difference for us (women), hormonally, to carry extra fast. Estrogen is strongly affected by how much extra fat we store - very overweight women have a harder time in menopause, too, and a harder time losing the weight which really, really sucks. :/ The great news is, once the weight is *off*, the hormones will balance themselves again.

Of course, I fell back into old habits after our last child was born - and that was ten years ago now, so I can't claim "baby fat" any more. So, here I am, back on the weight-loss quest.

I also encourage you to walk, walk, walk, walk, even if it is a very slow pace. That helped me when I lost my weight - I eventually worked my way up to 4 miles/day in just a little over an hour - and I'm back at that again now, and already back up to 4 miles/day, though it takes me about 75 minutes to finish. Now that I'm doing 5:2, I was worried about my ability to tolerate exercise, but I can do it just fine. Once, I felt the need to slow my pace just a little, but the other times I've been able to do my full usual routine. If you really hate walking, find something else you can do, and do it every.single.day no matter what. You'll be that much closer to baby-fit and your pregnancy will be easier on you and healthier for you and the baby.

Best of luck to you!!

[janeg]

What a lovely encouraging post Shanti. Good luck to you all