Final Weightloss Journey — 5:2 Fasting

Jié Xī

Full Member
Back again. Probably about the same weight as I was when I last went AWOL as I've been stuck between 165 and 173 for over a year and a half now. Most of that was low carb, low cal with protein shakes and little to know bread, rolls, etc. About 1x a month, I have a "treat weekend" that turns into a binge. Repeat this for 28 years. *sigh*

In my 20's through mid 30's, I maintained roughly 150-155 pounds, but gained 15 after quitting smoking. Then, in 2012, HERE AT MINIMINIS (gotta give a shoutout!) I actually achieved goal of 129 from 170 (doing low cal/Keto). I maintained 135 for over a year, but only because I was always low carb. Took a break for the summer and put the 15 back on. Then got pregnant (back-to-back) in 2015 and was about 190 for 4 years. Finally lost it doing one of those wager things, but then had a horrible emotional year in 2019 and put almost all of it back on (back to 183). Then 2020. Need I say more?

So anyway, I am down a bit from 183 — 166 as of this morning. But the lowest I have seen in 1.5 years is 162. I've been seesawing from 165-173.

In June (started at 168), I decided to try 16:8 fasting. I didn't lose any faster than normal (averaging about .5 a week) and so lose about 2-3 pounds which includes about a 5 day binge.

In July (started at 165), I decided to try Autophagy Eating (<20 carbs gr., <25 gr. protein, everything else fat) and same thing — lost about .5 a week and I just came off the biggest binge I've had in a long time.

In August (started at 163 BEFORE the binge), I've decided to try 5:2. Because in theory, I will never binge again, since I'm allowed to eat the foods that I deprive myself of for 20+ years 5 days a week. (There is a part of me that is really sad that if this works so much of my life was spent not "allowed" to enjoy food. But anyway . . . )

So, at 163, I went on an unplanned 8 day binge culminating on Sunday at which I ate slices of cheesecake after church and then later went to the store for a slice of tuxedo cake. Really? Even on a typical binge, I only have one dessert on a day. Even if I have several helpings, but never several helpings and then, oh, let's go get something else too.

This made me realize something has to radically change. I read the JUDDD book Sunday night (while eating the tuxedo cake) and spent Monday as my first Down Day (500 calories). I was STARVING. But kept reminding myself that I was actually allowed to eat bread the very next day (today). All day, dreaming of not seeing food as my enemy ever again after nearly three decades, I knew I could do 500 calories only one more day -- I could not do it a third time (esp considering that would be a Friday or Saturday). So I thought, I'll just tweak my Friday to be an in-between day. But that meant that I was only fasting 2x a week. That's not JUDDD.

So, in 5:2, you only have to fast 2 days but you have to track calories the other 5 days (you don't have to track on JUDDD). I have NEVER considered anything more than 1200 a diet. Allowing myself to eat 1400-1900 (weight loss-maintenance) and eat whatever bread I want (I can actually have my burger on a real bun and not a low carb wrap???) does not feel restrictive at all. If I can eat a burger on a bun with French fries from my air fryer I have just eliminated one of my biggest reasons for bingeing. The other would be pizza and the other General Tso's, both of which I can fit into a maintenance day (usually, eating them would mean the diet is off so I may as well eat dessert and ice cream and other things I can never have because Monday/diet is coming).

I am slightly skeptical and optimistic at the same time.

I can't imagine losing .5 a week eating a burger bun or allowed to have Chinese.

I am so used to deprivation I know that I can do this diet for life IF it actually works. Meaning, I have lived my entire life "on a diet" at least on Mondays and usually Mondays through Friday afternoons (then treat/binge from Friday night through Sunday night). While I will admit that 500 was hard, I think it was because of what my choices for "food" was. Once I hit goal, I will give myself 700 on my 2 Fasting days and test that for maintenance. On 5:2, you can eat maintenance calories (1900) the rest of the week. But I would rather give myself 700 and eat 1800 the other days because that will give me a heartier meal.
 
Last week was a binge. (started at 163.8, ended at 170.4).

Monday: 500

Breakfast (Coffee w/ cream): 100
Omega-3: 60
Lunch (Coffee w/ cream): 100
Supper (Red Pepper and Tomato Soup): 130
Dessert: 90% Chocolate: 64
Dessert: 1/2 Coffee w/ cream: 50

TOTAL: 504

Yes, I am addicted to coffee. It is my main "comfort food" which is why I can't go without it on a Fast day. But it probably contributes to my being hungry. Maybe, I can skip the second one next time, but not sure. This is why I plan to have 700 on Fast days during maintenance, so that I can eat a microwave meal (for instance, Stouffer's lasagna) instead of a mere 1 cup of soup.

Tuesday: 1400 Goal

I woke up trying to be in the mentality that I no food was off limit and I could eat whatever I wanted. I had a serving of bakery bread left from my binge so toasted that with some sweet butter. The I let myself have a small lunch meat sandwich on a slider bun and half a serving of potato salad (all forbidden foods).

Then realized that I was full and didn't need all that. And only then did I count it up and realize that if I had what was planned for supper I would go over 1400 (but still under 1900). I forgot that it is JUDDD that allows you not to count calories on Up days not 5:2.

So . . . I can either:

1) not eat dinner (which would not allow brain to believe that food really is okay to eat now
2) just consider it a maintenance day and meal plan better for the other 5 days.
3) cycle off the extra calories

I chose both 2 and 3. I will cycle off the extra calories which will make this a weight loss day and I meal planned better. I also realized something amazing. After eating the sandwich and potato salad (which I picked up last night since I knew today was an all-foods allowed day), I realized I didn't even want it. I wasn't like, oh my gosh I looooooove this. It took me quite a while to figure out what I actually wanted to eat for lunch, but you know what it is? Fruit. Delicious, sweet fruit that I'm almost never allowed to eat because I'm always on a low-carb diet. Grapes and cheese. Or strawberries and maybe a sponge cake (60 cal) with whip cream or a drizzle of hot fudge (60). Or black berries and a scoop of sugar free cheesecake pudding.

It almost feels silly. But this is the world I've lived in for nearly a decade. Fruit is a treat you can eat when you are being "bad" and off your diet. It's almost as though finding Atkins and doing Keto and actually reaching goal in 2012 was bad for me. Mentally.

But anyway . . . I've meal planned out the rest of my week. Minus my Chocolate (190 for 3 blocks) and Coffee (200), I can have a 350 cal lunch (if I even need all that for fruit) and a 600 cal supper, which amazingly includes some of my favorite forbidden foods:

Sweet Barbecue Sauce (forbidden) on chicken on a bun (forbidden).
Sloppy Joe on a bun.
Lightly Breaded Chicken (mostly forbidden) on a bun (forbidden) with air fried French fries (forbidden) and honey mustard (forbidden)
Cheese Burger with Bourbon glaze (forbidden) on a bun (forbidden) with sweet potato fries (forbidden).

You get the idea. Technically those last 2 are about 650-670, rather than 600, but I'll either cut my lunch back 50-70 calories those days, cycle them off, or just happily choose to eat 50-70 extra calories on occasion without (gasp!) feeling like food is an enemy.

Oh my gosh, I hope this diet works. Even typing all this, I'm thinking, there is no way you can eat all that and lose weight.

But if I can . . . I've been on the low carb train for far too long!
 
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Oh my gosh, brioche is delicious. It's tastes like a croissant just less flaky and much less calories. On holidays, I make sandwiches with croissants (such as everything on Thanksgiving dinner thrown onto a croissant). Not only is the brioche less calories, but it would be much easier to make a sandwich with.

I did not cycle off my calories. I ended going grocery shopping for 3 hours. (Does walking around Walmart for 3 hours burn 300 calories?) And my legs are so sore now (probably because today was lower body day). But I bought fruit -- grapes, and strawberries, and black berries! And Greek yogurt. Thin Crust pizza for Friday night. Carrots for homemade Sloppy Joe. 100 calorie packs of Oreos.

I can't believe I can eat again tomorrow. I will eat less for sure (no pork rinds and dip or potato salad and sandwich or honey butter bread), so it will be a def weight loss day. The goal I think is sloppy joe on brioche for supper, fruit and Greek vanilla yogurt for lunch and maybe a few pecan crackers with pecan cream cheese, plus my two coffees and my blocks of 90% chocolate. That will be right around 1400 calories. I'm dumbfounded that I can eat so many "forbidden" foods and still be 500 calories under maintenance. I'm actually looking forward to Thursday (Fast Day) just because I'm a bit freaked out by all the carbs (I haven't even looked, though, in theory, I know it's below 150 grams so still considered healthy). But when you've lived at 20-50 grams for so long . . . Anyway, I am looking forward to Thursday simply so that I know I'm "making up for it."

I have no idea what my weight will be Friday morning. I suspect 168 tomorrow and the next day and then maybe 165 Friday morning (1 pound less than this morning). Obviously, I am hoping for 1 pound a week after that, but as I said in a different post, if I even make .5, it's the same as deprivation/binge so at least I know I'll get to the 150's and beyond eventually.
 
Welcome back, FC. Good luck.
 
Fasting Day 2: 500 calories.

So excited to report that this morning's weight was 165.0, which is what I was hoping to see tomorrow if I was really lucky and realistically was just hoping for 166.6, which is the low average I see most often when I've jumped on the scale for the past two years (my high average is 172).

My weight the Friday (7/29) before my 8-day binge was 163.6. I'm trying not to get my hopes up that I could actually see 163-something tomorrow, but it doesn't seem unrealistic after a day of fasting either.

Anyway, just super excited that I'm learning not to be afraid of food. Super excited to eat bread again tomorrow. Super excited that I can eat bread tomorrow with no desire to binge on it. Super excited that I can eat bread again the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and only then skip a day, and then again the next day, and the next. Eat read food and lose weight??? Eat bread and lose weight??? This concept should not be so foreign to me.

As soon as I can "prove" this diet works (by not only hitting 159 which I 've not seen since 5/2019 but also not binging) I'm going to tell my mom. She's struggled her whole life with weight and is a chronic yo-yo dieter herself. She binges even worse than me when she's "off" her diet. Anyway, I'll be thrilled if I've found something that can bring her peace around food as well!
 
I hope this works for you and gives you the peace.
 
I think I did pretty amazing today. I had 2 cookies at breakfast (only because I literally did not have any breakfast food in the house for myself). I don't usually eat breakfast but apparently after a fast day I am starving. But the amazing part is I had only 2 cookies. I've never only had 2 cookies before. Then at lunch I had another 2. Then, after supper, I made sugar free cheesecake pudding and put it on angel food cake with a drizzle of hot fudge. It was pretty good. To ensure no cookie breakfast for tomorrow, I stopped by the store and bought sourdough English muffins to toast and have with melted honey butter.

I was 164.2 this morning. That is incredible considering it means 5:2 helped me lose everything I gained over my 8-day binge (and/or allowed me to maintain over my 8-day binge, however you want to look at it). Now I just need to see if it also helps me lose. I'm trying to convince myself to be patient and just stick with this till the end of the month (at least!) rather than add a 3rd fasting day or cut my calories so that it "feels" like a diet. It's as though I can't just let myself live, eat healthy, and enjoy life. I MUST diet. I MUST deprive.

With that being said, if I can't lose on it, I think I will increase my fast days but also up the calories on fast days to 800. I may even do that just because it would make weight loss faster -- see, see what I mean, I can't even talk about just finishing out this month and seeing if I lose. It's so temping to "go on a diet." Ugh!
 
So it's only been a week and half on 5:2 and tonight's supper was my first meal without bread. In fact, I ate 2 rolls for breakfast and 2 more lunch. At one point, I was afraid that all 1400 of todays calories would be consumed by my bread addiction. But then, after saying no to free ice cream (but both boys enjoyed some), I came home and ate chicken, fruit and veggies for supper (along with some chips). In addition, I bought tons of Asian stir fry veggies because I bought some teriyaki chicken, orange chicken, and General Tso's chicken -- all things that would only have been for "off diet" days and would have been take away size portions. I'm hoping this 1) means less money spent on take away, 2) healthier portion sizes, 3) lots of veggies as the main dish with chicken as the side.

My weight Friday morning was 164.2. Not bad, considering how much I hate eaten over the 10-day period. This was going to be the week that would determine if the diet worked for me to lose weight but now it's TOM so that might skew the results. *sigh* I am not a patient person, lol.
 
Friday's weight wasn't bad. Especially since I pretty much ate maintenance calories (1900) instead of weight loss calories (1400). And I forgot to workout. So, I am going to make this week my test week. I ate maintenance calories again this weekend, but I always eat more calories on the weekend so it had occurred to me that I may as well just assume that I will usually do so. I'm really trying to look at 5:2 as a lifestyle In other words, I'm just going to factor in mainetnance calories for the weekend. I know that will probably mean a slower loss, but as long as I never binge again (since I'm not depriving myself) it should still end up being less calories/faster weight loss than a stricter diet that includes binges.

I don't actually count calories on the weekend, but I know I ate at least 1900 probably around 2100-2200. But I am aiming for 1900 as my goal. I will try to start actually tracking on the weekends. (LBW = Lower Body Workout. UBW = Upper Body Workout). Of course, I would love to lose 2 pounds a week, but even 1 a week will be more than I was losing on Keto with sporadic binges/lapses.

Fri -- 1900 & LBW
Sat -- 1900
Sun -- 1900 & UBW
Mon -- 500
Tues -- 1400 & LBW
Wed -- 1400 & UBW
Thur -- 500
Weigh In: ______________
 
So today was my 5th fast day (start of my 3rd week). And as usual I was starving. It was so bad, that I had to be very conscious of not yelling at the kids for typical whining behavior. It also made me realize that there was no way I could sustain that level of hunger for life (1 day week to maintain, except for 2 days a week to maintain from Halloween through News Years). Fortunately, I spent quite a bit of time browsing through the 5:2 Facebook group and 2 people mentioned they did not count vegetables toward their 500 calories but they still lost. This meant that I had the calories to make a spinach chicken wrap (tons of spinach, 1 oz chicken and 1 TB light ranch dressing). I feel SOOOOOOO much better. I am def hungry, but I am not hangry at all. I am back to happily feeling like, "oh, can't wait to enjoy food tomorrow" rather than "don't talk to me, don't eat in front of me . . . really, you are going to eat that in front of me?!?!?!" and "so starving, so hungry, can't do anything except fixate on how hungry I am, there is no way I can do this for life, grumble, grumble, grumble, bleep, bleep, bleep." LOL. Yes, much better now. And it's been several hours now since the wrap.

So I've already meal planned for Thursday (my next fast day), incorporating a wrap for lunch and twice the veggies for supper as previously. If it doesn't help having the wrap for lunch (since tonight I ate if almost immediately after my supper), I may just end up making a larger, veggie-heavy supper rather than trying to include a lunch. Point is, I'm back to feeling much more optimistic about this diet.
 
That's great. I've been looking at Maria Emmerich and the Protein Sparing Modifed Fast - lots of protein no fat. It automatically means low calores and satiation. I'm not a great counter - so will have to weigh and measure if I do that some days.
 
So, I've upped the number of my fasting days (and upped the calories on fasting days) and I am liking this much better. I see a steady loss every day which helps and I'm not nearly as hungry. I know I won't be out of the 160's this weekend, but I might--just might--be out next weekend. That will be the first time in 2.5 years (May 2019). Fingers crossed.
 
I am crossing my fingers for you also. I have tried at times to avoid bread and after one week I almost want to jump someone and take a burger out of their hands if it looks like they are enjoying it too much. I find with poor planning my daily calorie intake can drop below 1,000 but I don’t try to do that, and when I do the evenings are harder for me when it comes to avoiding snacking before bed.
 
159.8 today!!! And of course, I am going on holiday Monday for a week to a remote cabin in the woods (with an outdoor hot tub). I treated myself to a cute little swim dress. It comes in Sunday. Hopefully, it fits. The reviews were very flattering. I'm no where near goal, but as I spent this 2020 and 2021 bouncing between the 160's and the 170's, 150 anything is lovely to see.
 
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