Hiya,

Just about to embark on 5:2. I am 5'3", and 142.5 lbs. Would love to get down to 126 lbs. Have been reading about people's amazing success with 5:2. Question: How many calories do you eat on non-fast days?

HI, I am 5'5" and 164 pounds. I would love to lose 20 pounds. I love the way I feel after a fast. On fast days I try to drink just water but it is nice to know I have the option for crackers or a small meal if needed. Please count me in for the challenge but have patience I am still figuring out this site and don't know my way around perfectly. I would like to set my fast days to Mondays and Thursdays and weigh in on Fridays. Best of luck to you all...

Hello

I'm so glad I found this group. It's just the motivation I need. I'm a 35 year old mom to 3 girls 17, 3 & 21 months. I've been using mfp since November. I started around 162 and I'm currently at 139.i was doing great until summer started and I really need to finish what I started. I will lose 9 pounds by my birthday in November.

I have tried numerous times to start the 5:2 and I find I really lack the motivation and since I work from home is very hard to stay busy and out of the kitchen.

I'm hoping this challenge will get me where I wanted to be.

Today is fast day 1.

Start weight - 222
Current weight - 218
Goal weigth - 200 (or maybe 190)

i fast on tuesdays and thursdays becuase my husband isn't home for dinner those days, so i don't have to cook! on my non fast days, i'm eating 80% TDEE. i weigh in on monday mornings. i'm just finishing my third week on 5:2, and had my hardest day (yesterday, a non-fast day) and my easiest day (today, a fast day) so far this week. but i can tell it working, because even though i wanted to eat everything in sight yesterday (and kind of did!) i still only exceeded my calorie alottment for the day by 150 calories (and finished the day totally stuffed). not so long ago, there could have been an extra 0 on that number! i am definitly getting full faster on less food. yea!

has anyone done this diet long term? like more than a year or when you switch to maintenance mode?

Hello all! Autumn, thanks for starting this group!

My name is ALSO Autumn (small world - I don't know many other Autumn's) but I also go by Fixie.
I started 5:2 two weeks ago on August 1st.
My starting weight : 190
My current weight: 187
Total weight lost: 3 pounds
I weigh myself every day just to keep on track - it sets my mindsets each morning.

Let's see. I have two amazing daughters who are now 12 1/2 and almost 10. They are the most amazing people I have been blessed to know. They are with their biodad this week (we have a pretty amazing shared custody co-parenting relationship - good parents, bad couple). I have been married to my best friend, Joe, for 3 1/2 years. He is an amazing husband and great dad (despite not being biodad).

I have always been very active - mountain bike racing, triathlons, running, year round bike commuting, camping, snowshoeing, and also did roller derby for two seasons with the Minnesota RollerGirls (hence the fixie chic - that was my derby name) - and still am. I have legs like tree trunks, but all that muscle doesn't seem to fuel my metabolism. As I have gotten older it just isn't enough to ride my bike every day. I have to push my body and also be very careful about what I eat.

I love to try new things! I love food and beer and wine and trying new flavors...so that's another issue. It also means I try diets and food philosophies all the time, from Paleo to Nutrisystem to raw food to veganism to macrobiotics. Name it, I probably tried it and also learned a lot from the experience. I love gardening and cooking and fermentation. I am a total nerd for fitness trackers and have tried (and broken) a fitbit, two Nike Fuelbands, and two Jawbone UPs. Am now trying the BodyMedia Link and love all the data I get.

Finished my Masters in Human Resources Management in May (have been in HR for about 6 years - but an atypical HR practitioner, or so I've been told)! I already miss being in school, but I packed on 30 lbs during my studies, so it is nice to just be able to focus on getting my body and habits back in a more healthful order. I'm secretly thinking of pursuing a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, but I need to pay off my Masters first.

That's me! Excited for this challenge!

Hi Autumn thanks for accepting me in the group. Hi all I'm Chris. I'm 60 and started 5:2 with my husband on February 20. We've done 24 weeks and I've lost 24 lbs. After 3 months my blood test showed my cholesterol had gone from 5.9 to 4 and my liver function increased by 100% so the doctor said after 20 years on statins I think you could try without them.I'd like to lose 30 lbs total so 6 more.
I hit a plateau which meant I stayed on the same kilo losing .1 or .2 (and then staying steady)a week for 2 months. I broke it this week with a kilo loss. What did I do? Well I read Michael Mosley's post on HIIT but couldn't find much information so on fast days I do 3 20 second bursts as fast as I can on the gym bike with a 1 minute warm up before I swim my laps. The first day I tried it the gym bike jumped and everyone laughed . It has never in 10 years done that before I was told.
I'm moderately fit, swim 60 laps 4 times a week, do 2 gym sessions with moderate weights, Bushwalk once or twice a week and do a Pilates class.
5:2 has been good for us as its made us more aware of what we eat even on nonfast days particularly portion size.i find we get satisfied with less food. Do others find this?

Hi everybody! I'm happy I have found this group. I'm very new to 5:2. My first fast day was yesterday.

Some years ago, I would have a fasting day once in a week but somehow I stopped this wonderful habit and never achieved to get back.
Usually, the days I used to fast were full moon, half moon and new moon. I'm trying to do this again plus one day somewhere between the "moon" days.
So, I won't follow the Mon/Thur plan.

A few things about me:
almost 40 yrs
living in Germany
5'3''
current weight 132 lbs (already lost some weight without 5:2; but now it's going to be easier)
goal weight around 123 lbs

Hello - I started 5-2 last week and have lost 3 pounds already. I'm also doing the T25 challenge (25 minutes/5 days a week) plus two RPM classes (cycling) a week and Zumba once a week. Normally I am VERY slow to lose weight so I am very happy with the 3 pound loss already.

I'm a busy, working mom with 3 children (14, 13 and 10) and I lack the discipline to stick to something so I will need lots of encouragement!

I've never been a big fan of exercising. I mean, I do prefer walking to driving or taking the bus. But I've never gone to a gym or something. So this is also a food only challenge for me.

I had my first fast day the day before yesterday. I don't know how it happened but yesterday, I wasn't very hungry and so I had another day with very few calories. It's a good start, I'd say. I will still count these days as "one day" and do my next fast days on Mon and Wed next week.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Hi, I am Debbie, and this is my first week on 5:2.

I started here on my 49th birthday with the intent on reaching goal of 155 by my 50th birthday. 10 days to go and I still have 30 left to lose. But hey, I feel so much better than I did a year ago, and I am ok with it taking a bit longer.
I did 1200 for 9 months and lost pretty steadily on that for the first 6 months, then it slowed for the next 3 months, then life got busy and I got lax on logging and sticking to my cals strictly. I ended up maintaining for over 2 months, because, basically I was eating at maintenance level.
I took that time for my body to take a break from dieting, and let my skin hopefully firm up a bit and get used to the weight loss.
I thought that taking that break should make it where I would start losing again when I went back to calorie restriction.

SO I got back on track with 1200 on the first of Aug. I quickly lost the 3-4 lbs of water weight I had been fluctuating on for the last 2 months, and was back at my lowest weight. Then 2 weeks go by with NOTHING.
I even dropped my cals down to 1000, thinking for sure that would get the scale moving, but nope.

Let me interject here that my TDEE is only around 1600, so 1200 was not a big deficit for me. I also have cut out most processed sugars and most grains and starches, and eat higher healthy fats and proteins and lower carb. This WoE is very good for my body and has helped tremendously with my arthritis and autoimmune/inflammation issues.

So anyway, after 2 weeks of frustration, I knew I didn't need to drop my cals even further, so I looked into calorie cycling/IF and thought the 5:2 plan looked good to me.
I started wed with a 1300 cal day, and thurs was my first Fast day of 500. Wasn't that hard to stick to 500, and in the morning I was down half a pound. YAY!! finally.
Yesterday was my maintenance day since hubby and I were going out for my early birthday dinner. (son was at a sleep over)
I pigged out at Red Lobster, and ate every one of those 1600 cals for the day.
I was expecting to have a gain this morning, but was completely surprised when the scale still said 184.5!

I don't know exactly how this works, but it seems to be working for many people, and so far for me as well.

Since my TDEE is so low, I don't get a full weeks deficit from the 2 days at 500, so I decided to have one day at maintenance and the other 4 days between 1200-1400. This should put me at 3/4-1 lb deficit a week, which would be perfect for me.

Hopefully this will continue to go well and will become a way of life for me to lose the rest of the weight and keep it off.
I really love the flexibility of the calories, and sticking to the 500 on fast days is easier, knowing I can eat more the next day.

I'm glad I found this group to have some others who are doing this plan. I have a few on my friend list that are doing it as well and having good results.

I am still sticking to my lower carb eating, especially cutting out gluten, because my body does so much better on it, but I am having more carbs on my maintenance day.

So do any of you eat at a lower cal level on some of the non-fast days as well?

Hi how's everyone doing? my 1st weigh in since starting 5:2 today and my 2nd fast day today and I've put on 1lb going to stick it out another week and see how I do any advice would be great. Do you think I should try 4:3
Start weight - 170
Current weight - 167
Goal - 140/145