A general comment on weight.

[aero280]

I'm feeling s.ightly smug this morning. After 18 days of lavish holiday food, I have returned home only 1kg heavier.

Almost every night of the holiday, I went to bed feeling that I had overeaten and overdrunk. Sometimes by a lot! Also the breakfasts were a lot more lavish than they usually are at home.

I can only put the stable weight down to the lack of "between meals snacking". Being catered for does stop the cheese nibble every time I pass the fridge! but we also did not do lunch on the holiday, just the occasional coffee, bun or ice cream.

So I will have to consciously cut out the extras. Going to be hard though.

[Suelle]

We usually deal with holiday eating in a similar way - avoid lunch as much as possible. This is especially true when we have hotel breakfasts!

[earthmaiden]

Excellent news! I have often found that I come home from holiday lighter - or the same, even though I feel I have been indulgent. I agree that strict mealtimes, plenty of other things to occupy the mind and exercise are probably the key.

It's all too easy to have a bit extra or 'having a look in the fridge' at home .. and to buy things one shouldn't when shopping!

[ianinfrance]

Taking the "general" part of your subject and running with it. I've noticed that people who seem to have the greatest difficulty over their weight often do seem to snack between meals. I'm aware this is a HUGE generalisation, but I stand by it all the same. The sort of food one tends to snack on (or that we are tempted to do so by ads etc) are just the sort of foods we ought to avoid. Biscuits, chips, "bars" and so on. They generally (another huge generalisation) have high calorie counts, fort their size, and these calories are often "empty" calories - fat, sugar and starch.

It's bloody hard sometimes, when you've just made a new cake, or some wonderful cheesy biscuits, not to grab one or two on your way past, but you're right, it's a bad idea.

[ianinfrance]

I thought the time had come to make "an announcement". Since the 19th January, when I saw I weighed 93.6 kg (14 st 10lb) we have been following the 5:2 diet, more or less carefully. This morning I weighed myself as usual on Sunday, after my morning coffee but before dressing and my weighing machine told me that I was down to 82.4 kilos.That's 181.6 lbs or 12st 13lbs. My first target had always been to get below 13 stone. However, since I set that target about three years ago, I've been doing some reading and unfortunately, for my age and height, to hit the dividing line between "normal" and "overweight" I should get just below 80kg or 12 stone 6 lbs. Not too far really probably achievable before the end of August. So that's my second target.

However, to be well within the "normal" range and to get down to what I was at around 40, I need to lose just under a further 4 kilos or so to get to 12 stone. So that's my final target (assuming that my doctor doesn't start being difficult). I'm hoping to achieve that well before Christmas.

In the same period, Jacquie, who also felt she was a tad overweight has gone down from 62.5 kg to 54.1 (well below her target weight of 55kg). And best of all, throughout this period, we've not felt we've had to make great sacrifices.

[Suelle]

Well done, Ian and Jacquie!

My greatest achievement over the last 18 months has been to keep off the weight I initially lost on the 5:2 diet. I lost focus a little and was happy maintaining my weight, after a loss of around 15kg. This is the first time in all my adult life that I haven't put weight back on after a period of weight loss, so I feel pleased with that.

I'm now going for the next weight loss - another 15kg off wouldn't hurt!

[StokeySue]

Well done Ian and Jacquie!


I have lost 11 kg on 5:2 and seem to have plateaued, though I'd like to lose another 5 or 6 at least

I'm not really sticking to the pastern now though - I find it very difficult with a full time job, a social life and an exercise program too - I'm probably really doing 6:1 at the moment

I hope to stick to it better when I am officially working from home, and can get into a routine

[ianinfrance]

This is the first time in all my adult life that I haven't put weight back on after a period of weight loss, so I feel pleased with that.

Thanks Suelle, and congratulations to you too. I think the general feeling among 5:2 dieters is exactly the same. Somehow the method doesn't seem to trigger the body's ability to modify its daily calorie needs so when you come off the method, you don't find (as in the parable) that your final state is worse than your first. (Just seen StokeySue's comment too, thanks very much. I sympathise over the plateau-ing. We had a period a bit like that around Easter, though that might well have had something to do with Easter Eggs)

What I particularly like about it (I am uneasy about calling it a diet) is the flexibility. If you are someone who normally goes out for a meal on a Wednesday evening, then you can elect to cut back on another day. If you prefer to take time to cook something low calorie at a weekend, then you can do that too. Because we offer meal to clients Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, that tends to lead us towards fasting on either Monday or Tuesday, and Thursday. Suits us fine, except when some of our generous guests want to take us out for meals. But if they do, so be it. We fast another day.

IMO, it's a perfect method for people to whom decent food is important, because you don't have to eat bizarre combinations, or tasteless "diet food" day after day. You eat normally (though without excess) most of the time, so you really don't need to be a pain to anyone over "your diet", then two days a week, varying - if need be - from one day to another to suit that week, you eat very little, at any meal that suits. My brother really needs his breakfast, so he can have an egg or two or some oats. I don't. I need my supper, so that's when our main calorie intake takes place, he doesn't, so he would take lunch and just eat a bowl of soup for supper.

It's probably too early to say, but we do get the impression that we are noticing some of the other benefits people write about. Certainly I've more energy that I used to have, but that could simply be the weight loss.

[ianinfrance]

As a (slightly depressing) follow up to my post on "achievement", we remembered yesterday that our "Quigg" scales from Aldi are impediometric, and can assess all sorts of things other than weight.

After entering our data, I stood on the scales. Oh dear. According to the scales, I have a body fat level of around 36%. For a man of my age I should have between 13 and 24%. So that means at least another 12% loss in weight. At 82.6kg as of this morning, that means I ought to set a target of another 10kg to lose. Still - if I've lost 11 kg in 6 months it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to get to around 73 kg in another 5 months. That would be 11 st 7 lbs, a not unreasonable weight. For many years when I was young and fit, my weight was an unchanging 10st 10lb. Dum-di-dum.

[Suelle]

Oh dear, Ian - onwards and downwards!

My follow up - after posting yesterday I used the NHS BMI calculator and I only have another 12kg to go before I'm considered to be in the normal weight range for my height. That's a bit less than I expected.

[ianinfrance]

"Lucky you" - he said sourly (supper isn't due quite yet and I'm hungry!) All the same, I'm most encouraged really. The NHS BMI calculator tells me I should be between 58.9kg - 80kg I will probably get down to the top end within a month.

[Zosherooney]

Well done one and all for loosing what you have lost.

I lost the key to the garage door.......took me a week to find it underneath the deep freeze It bounced out of the lock on slamming the door as the rain had made the wood swell...... It is now firmly tied onto the handle of the door with an elastic band....