I’ve been doing the 5:2 diet for 6 months now so thought it was time to give you an update.
Here are my starting vitals:
Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”
and my current vitals:
Weight: 10st 1.4lbBody fat: 15.9 %
BMI: 22. (something or other)
Chest: 35”; Waist: 36”; Hips: 40”; and Thigh: 22”
(I should point out that the body fat index is done on my home scales & is unreliable – these figure show I do not have enough body fat to be healthy which is an utter lie! Healthy range is 21-33%. I can take a photo of my wobbly bits if you want me to prove I have body fat – but please don’t make me do that, it’s not pretty!)
So, to sum up, that’s a total of 4 inches of my body and just short of 11lb lost. In fairness, I expected the inches to be more as I am really happy with how I feel but I guess it’s because of the wobbly belly that comes after having a couple of babies!
I would have liked to have got to my target by now which was 9st 12lb and I have been hovering around this 10st 1-2lb weight for a while but if I look at the overall achievement then I can’t be disappointed and, like I said, I feel good and I am mostly happy at how I look in the mirror. Sure, I can see all the lumps in the wrong places and the bits that wobble that shouldn’t but if I stop being so critical and try to see myself as others would see me (i.e. if I was looking at someone else with my body) then I am pleased with where I am.
My loss has been slow going but I put this down to not having much to lose (& being a healthy BMI to start with) and to really not restricting what I eat or drink on the non-fast days. Others have followed this diet and lost weight quicker and more lbs than I but the whole point of this for me (aside from the health benefits being just as much a priority as the weightloss) was that I wasn’t going to be restricting myself for 5 out of 7 days so it was something that I could stick to. And 6 months down the line I think I’ve proved that. I normally give up on diets around the 6 week mark!
Exercise has been a bit up and down. I will exercise regularly for a few weeks and then it will dwindle off to nothing for a few weeks before I kick my but and get back on it again.
I have a couple of theories relating to patterns to weightloss:
Effect of the menstrual cycle
Week One: Just after my period my weight drops
Week Two: I stay the same or go up a lb or 2
Week Three: I either go up a lb or if weight went up week before will stay the same then about a day before my period I will drop back to what I was at week one
Week Four: I stay the same as the end of week 1 and 3.
I weigh myself once a week but if I was to weigh myself once a month at the end of my period (which usually finished on weigh day – Friday), I would notice a loss without all the stay the same and weight gain disappointment in between. Usually my weightloss is between half a pound to a pound but more frequently, especially recently, it has been half a pound.
Effect of Exercise
As I mentioned above, my exercise routine has been a bit all over the place so I’ve noticed that on the first week that I start exercising again my weight will stay the same. I wont lose until the second week of exercise (unless it coincides with week 3 of my menstrual cycle). If I stop exercising, I will lose more weight than normal but will put it straight back on the week after.
These observations are just theories rather than scientific fact at the moment as I haven’t been documenting the changes and because the exercise is so erratic it is hard to know what effects are down to my menstrual cycle as said above, down to what I’ve eaten & drunk that week or from the changes to exercise routine. If I could stick to the same exercise routine for a couple of months I’d probably get a better idea with regards to the menstrual cycle theory.
Well that’s not going to happen this month as I’m going on holiday and plan on stuffing my face for a full 7 out of 7 days with little exercise for the next 2 weeks.
Health wise, I am useless and never did go to get the all over mot check I said I would. I did google but couldn’t find somewhere to get the blood tests for free (the place I’d heard about was for people over 50) and didn’t think the Drs would do it without good reason so it never happened. I have had a BP check this week which was worryingly high (I’ve always suffered from borderline high BP and checks 10 years ago concluded White-Coat Hypertension). I did tell the Dr that I’d been doing the 5:2 diet in case she thought it relevant but she didn’t see why that should raise my bp. So, I’ll be back for tests after my holiday when hopefully the holiday will have worked its magic and I’ll be well rested and my BP will be back to healthy again.
As a side effect, Stuart and I have both noticed our sleep is affected on Fast Days. Stuart suffers more than I do, finding it hard to get to sleep then often waking early the next day, I suffer just occasionally.
Otherwise, all feels good! I plan to pick up again when back from my hols!
Au revoir!
