Globetrotter

Fiddle, I think that might be the point of 5:2, you don't go "off" the plan, it's just your life now. In my empty hunger addled state as I lay tossing and turning last night, I had a revelation: there is nothing at all wrong with diets (reasonable non-dangerous ones), nothing wrong with them at all. Instead, it is our approach to diets, treating them as though they are something to endure before we get to have fun/be bad/be indulgent again. We treat it like having to clean your room before being allowed to go play as a kid, or having to eat your broccoli before you were allowed to have dessert. We treat diets like they are a punishment and that the reward is to be glutttonous. I'm overstating of course, but I think you will probably get my point. So, successful dieters know exactly how to lose the weight, and when they get bored, and because they haven't accepted in their hearts that this is a lifestyle change, they just go back to "having fun". Another box? Wheeee!! I'm curious though, what did you think you had to remove from the boxes? We use APO AE mailing here which is the US Mail. Unless you were sending me Playboys I can't think of anything you couldn't have sent

Time for update pics!!

Where did you have lipo done on your body? Can we see update pics?

Yes please, updated pics! Also, what are your stats? How much weight had you lost prior to getting the TT? How much skin/tissue was removed? What kind of TT? Are you planning on getting anything else done and if so, how long mustyou wait? I am hoping to get a total body contour, including brachioploasty, butt lift, breast lift and reshaping using recycled fat instead of implants, and inner thigh lift.

Two months now of dedicated diet and exercise and I am the same weight as when I started. I have tried TDEE eating, 5:2 IF eating. I have tried high impact heavy weight training, I have tried HIIT cardio, I have tried the opposite of these. I have tried it all and the weight isn't moving. I am near despair. I am still obese, still 65 lbs overweight. Don't know what to do.

I've been doing the 4:3 for almost 2 weeks now, 1300 on Norms, 500 on fasts. I haven't lost any weight yet. Today is a fast day, I've had some lamb curry with brown rice and for dinner I will have some Syntrax Cookies n creme Protein Shake WHICH WAS SENT TO ME BY THE AWESOME FIDDLEMAN!!!! THANK YOU!!!! Does anyone else notice their mood and temperament change on fast days? I become irritable to the point of belligerence, my head hurts, my body hurts - it's basically like I'm in withdrawal. It worries me.

today is a fast day, 512 cals. scale holding steady at 193.5 for 3 days now. 2 months of diet and exercise and I haven't lost a pound.

Yes to this and your follow on post for Susan, I too need more info please.

yesterday was my fasting day ... or it was until I ate a chocolate muffin and some sausage and cheese slices. *hangs head* I have a problem. If I can't eat at night I can't stop thinking about it.

Do what I heard another sleever suggest here in VST: get a few disposable cameras and take a weekly photo of yourself for the first year, on your 1 year surgiversary get the camera developed and you will see right there the progression of your success! Wish I had though to do that!

Exercise feels good and smoothes out your sillhouette, but as far as contributions to weight loss, in my experience it made no positive difference, I'm a slow-nonexistent loser whether I exercise like a fiend or lay like a slug on the couch. Wait, I take that back, exercising like crazy keeps me from gaining faster. that is all.

before VSG I wanted it all the time, always had sex on the brain. Right after surgery for a few months, as I lost weight rapidly which flooded my system with tons of estrogen, I thought about sex more often than a teenage boy and always felt in heat. Now at nearly 3 yrs out, I only really feel arousal the day right before my period, otherwise I couldn't care less. Also, physically I may now be able to do a lot of things, and I do orgasm, but I find no real pleasure in any of it now. Maybe it is because I have yet to have a lover who really knows what he's doing/actually cares about arousing me.

Yeah, I've been to websites like this before, I've played around with it, putting in my real numbers, putting in my dream numbers. The depressing part is when I put in really thin numbers and see the photos, and they just look average/normal. It makes me feel like my road just got extended by a thousand miles

No ... I went from 196 to 192, back up to 195, down to 192, up to 193 and when I weight tomorrow I fully expect the scale to say 196 again. This doesn't feel like anything remotely resembling a victory. The only reason the starting number was so high was because it was TOM, when I got here and started exercising and monitoring my food again, I was at 194. So, 2 months of dedication have yielded me a f*ckwad of nothing.

Hmm ... I was a swimmer growing up, specifically a sprinter. I was never thin though and I blame that on the fact that, at that time, we were all about the carbo loading and I just lived off spaghetti . The one time I significantly lost weight to go from chubbyfit to slim, was when I radically reduced calories. Sigh, what can I say, a thousand years ago I was what ever Lord coveted in his fields - a serf who could toil all day and live off crumbs.

@ Susan, I gave up on TDEE after 5 weeks, I was just gaining and gaining and I just couldn't take it. Are you saying that you have now lost the TDEE regain, AND other weight you were trying to shift?

Yeah Feed, ^ that!

I couldn't eat after I think 5pm, had to drink Milk of Magnesia (shudder), and then couldn't have anything, not even water, after 7pm, in prep for my surgery the following morning at 8am

I had no idea the recovery from a thigh lift took so long, yikes. This talk about hover-pooping and groin incisions and cuts down your thighs has me rethinking ...

http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/83317-the-52-diet/

I thought I might try to move the hot topic of the new 5:2 diet a few of us long timers are trying here, rather than in the "Gonna Get to Goal, Wanna Join Me?" Thread, so that that thread could go back to its original topic. I do not have access to the book or video or anything that some of the other 5:2ers have, but I've been to the website and read up and today is my fourth day; so far I've done Fast Normal Fast and now today is a Normal. I aim for 500 on the fasting days but don't seem to make it under 600, and I aim for 1600 on Normals, but don't seem to make it past 1200, so I guess I'm not the poster child for this. Also, the morning after my first fast day, I was down 4 lbs, but the morning after my first Normal day I was up 3 lbs and this morning I was down 3 lbs so - no progress. Since today is a Normal day I will do my cardio. I will report back what the scale says tomorrow morning!

I had a personal trainer friend once who suspected that I might be what they call a, "non-responder", meaning that regardless of my efforts, I never really have any effect from exercise. This is good and bad, I can be ready to topple over wheezing shaking and exhausted to the bone soaked in sweat, but give me a drink of Water and 5 minutes and I can start all over again. That's the good I guess. The bad is that no matter how heavy my weights, how calibrated my efforts, I receive no benefits of change in bodyshape, strengthening of muscles, loss of fat, etc. Exercising may feel good, I may be interested in running for fun, but it never had any effect on my weight loss.

yesterday was a fast day, I did about 550 cals, this morning woke up 2 pounds down. Today is a norm day - the morning after my last norm day I woke up 3 pounds up, so, I will approach the scale tomorrow morning with trepidation/resignation.

How much are these DVDs?

I see no joy in life, no point, no hope. It just seems like an endless marking of time, even though I know quite well how finite our time is. Even though I love exercising and get high off of it like it is an actual drug, I haven't been to the gym in over a week. No matter what I do I don't lose weight and am still obese. Even though I am pretty and funny and considerate men just look right through me or just want one thing from me and thats it. There's just no point to any of it. I'm sick of being nothing, I'm sick of being so f*cking fat.