Suelle wrote: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.