[Monique]

I'm Monique and I'm one of the IF newbies. After giving it a try just before my vacation in March, I fell in love with it because there's not much thinking or effort needed to be successful doing IF . I lost 3.6 pounds in my first week and normally, I would have trouble losing that in a MONTH. In April, I lost the 5 pounds I gained during my vacation with ease because of IF. As of now, I'm ready to continue on in my IF journey until I get to a healthy weight and feel beautiful. I'd love for ANYONE else doing IF or even wanting to try it for the first time to join in!

We can support each other, ask questions, give status updates, create some fun challenges, anything goes! I'm starting back STRICT on my IF tomarrow and if anyone would like to join in, please do and spread the word.

Monique

[geoblewis]

I agree, Monique! I'm a relative IF newbie as well. I've lost 13.5 lbs in the last few weeks, breaking a really long plateau. It's so...uncomplicated! And it works!

I just read Eat Stop Eat over the weekend and found it very informative. Up to now, I've been using eating windows, but I've got some travel coming up with old friends and due to timing of meals, I may do some 24-hour fasts instead. Haven't done a day-long fast for quite some time. May need to drop in to blow off a little anxiety before I attempt one.

[Monique]

Welcome, geoblewis and congrats with your weight loss. Drop in any time and update us....or when more people join, it will be "us". LOL. So far, doing the eating window thing works great for me . I haven't read Eat Stop Eat yet...I will definitely have to get my hands on it.

Monique

[hatgirlie]

I'll give it a try. Eating Windows? I'll check out that book, too. Is this a 24 hour IF, or what? Good luck, All!

[skinnyelle39]

Monique Thanks so much for starting this thread I think its an awesome idea. I just started IF on thursday of last week and Im really enjoying as well.

Im almost feeling like Im cheating the weight loss game in a way. Seems to good to be true. Im curious about how sustainable IF and the weight loss it promotes is over the long run. Id love to hear from some long term IFers as well as those who have " fallen off the wagon" and started IF again and what that was like.

[ValRock]

I seriously love this!!! I used to feel so guilty for not eating all day. Now it makes sense!!! I feel so much more even keel and it works!

[elkay]

Hi
This sounds interesting, how does this work or where can I find out some more info

Thanks

[Monique]

Welcome everyone! So glad you can join me! For those of you who don't know much about it, coming from another newbie...my first suggestion would be to simply google it first and see what you and get from that (that's what I did, other than reading threads here ). The cool thing about IF is there is pretty much no wrong way to do it. Some people simply fast for 24 hours once or twice a week and others, like myself, fast every day and have an "eating window".

For example, when I wake up in the morning, I do not eat anything until 3 p.m. in the afternoon. I give myself until 8 p.m. to eat whatever the heck I want. That's 19 hours of fasting time from the moment I stop eating until I start eating again so it's no wonder you lose weight. You can decide WHEN your eating window will be and for how many hours a day your window will be open. Mine is a five hour window but if you want 10? Fine, that's the beauty of it .

I love food too much to do a 24 hour fast. LOL...so the eating window works for me . So, if anyone would like to give it a try or CONTINUE with IF, tomarrow (or today now, it's 12:37 a.m. California time, haha) is a fresh new start. I've been slacking in the month of April but I'm ready to commit again and get healthy . I better get to bed now....gotta work at 8 a.m. You all take care and expect to see a lot of me in here

Monique

[elkay]

Thanks Monique

Can I ask, what you drink or what you can drink of if you can drink in that fasting period.

I couldnt fast for 24hrs either but I think I could live with what you are doing for the 19hrs as I would be at work and hopefully too busy to think about eating
Do you mind if I ask how much you have lost and how long it took you to lose it or anyone elses feedback

[TooManyDimples]

Hey Monique! Good idea to start an IF support thread. For everyone, especially the new people that are interested in learning more about IF I'll share my experience.

I recommitted to losing weight starting March 1st. My general tool is just calorie counting. I decided that I was going to stay off the scale for the whole month of March and not weigh again until April 1st. Around mid March someone started a thread about IF and it was the first time I'd heard of it. I kept along with the thread for a few days and also did some looking around online.

IF really appealed to me mainly because I'd always heard you need to eat smaller meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism going and I've always hated doing so. I would eat a small meal and still be hungry and already be thinking about my next meal that was 2 hours away. IF doesn't subscribe to that metabolism idea and there is even some research that's been shared pointing to the idea that periods of fasting are actually really good for your metabolism.

I decided to definitely give it a try. March 13th I started. I decided to make my eating window from 2pm to 8pm. I also decided to continue calorie counting. I need some bit of structure and I didn't think it was a good idea for me personally to just be able to eat whatever I wanted even in my window. So I started eating my calorie range of 1200-1600 from 2 to 8 everyday. The first few days I was getting hunger pangs in the morning because my body was used to eating earlier in the day. After a few days it wasn't a problem anymore. I asked about drinking things during the fasting period and some long time IFers told me that it was fine to drink water and also coffee and tea were good. John, who will hopefully show up in here because he has a lot of great info, said I could even use some sweetener if I wanted, he just said I should make sure the calories don't add up to more then 50 I believe. Not a problem for me because the sweetener I use in my hot tea only has maybe 5 calories and I usually have 3 cups of hot tea durning my fast time.

I also asked about exercise and they said there was no reason not to exercise during the fasting period unless you don't feel right. I always exercise during my fasting period and have had no problems with it.

So when April 1st came I had my weighin and I was down 14.4 for the month. That's the most weight I've ever lost in a month, so while I can't say for certain IF had any effect on that. I can't say it didn't either. =)

April was a tough month for me, my husband and I were having some problems and it was a tough time and I fell off the wagon a bit, then I went on vacation for a week and then when I got back I was just out of sorts and wasn't really trying. For the month of April I had a gain of 2.2lbs. Which isn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. =) I got back on track starting yesterday and IF was a breeze. I didn't have any problems in the morning, I just fell back into it very easily and I'm hoping for a smooth month with some great progress to come.

I really love IF and I'm so glad I found out about it. I'm not an expert by any means, but I'd be glad to try to help anyone who has any questions and I'd also love to learn more from others who have experience with IF.

[ValRock]

The last couple weeks I've been doing a 24hr fast on Mondays, having a 5-9 eating window on TWThF and eating 'normally' on the weekends. It works out great! Fits in with most social eating I'd be doing and I haven't really felt hungry at all! That's the good thing about this, you can tweak it until it works for you! I'm living with family right now and I thought that would be a nightmare... but this allows me to eat dinner like a normal person and nobody even notices I'm doing anything differently .

[Monique]

Hey Kim. Welcome Elkay. Yes, what Kim said about the staying under 50 calories while fasting is also what I read. I just simply stick with water...just because it helps me make sure I'm drinking enough. I weighed in this morning to see where I'm at and I'm at 216. I think it would be awesome to get to 200 by the end of this month!

My tummy is growling right now but it's gonna have to wait until 3. Haha. Hope you all have a great day.

Monique

[pinkflower]

hi everyone!

So for years, I would typically just have a cup of coffee in the morning, and then yogurt about 10:00, and not eat until mid afternoon. I didn't know it was fasting, and was just eating when I was hungry....But then I read the IF thread a couple months ago, I realized it was, and worked to really establish an eating window and worked my way up to 24 hour fasts, once I read about all the health benefits!

I usually eat from 2-7. On days that I lift in the morning (1-2x a week), I always have an apple and protein shake before I go, or I can't get in as good of a session. I've done a few 24 hour fasts, and it's really not that difficult. The hunger pains last for 15ish minutes and only gets bad a few times during the day. I drink unsweet tea, water, and 1 cup of coffee w/ creamer during my fasts

The hardest part is breaking my fast with healthy choices and to be prepared. It gets easy to cram whatever is available (like cake) because you're so hungry when you realize you can eat. I guess like anything, you have to plan and continue to use that self control once you break the fast.

IF works great for me because it's what my body naturally wants to do and it's less of a hassle to deal with food all the time. Along with IF, I do calorie count and find if I have an unusually high day, I can make up for it by eating lower cals for a couple of days. It's very flexible and I loooove it!

ETA: There are also thought to be similar health benefits to just reducing your calories during a window, so even if you just each fewer cals during certain times, it can be beneficial

[JohnP]

Originally Posted by skinnyelle39

Im almost feeling like Im cheating the weight loss game in a way. Seems to good to be true. Im curious about how sustainable IF and the weight loss it promotes is over the long run. Id love to hear from some long term IFers as well as those who have " fallen off the wagon" and started IF again and what that was like.

IF does make dieting easier but it isn't a diet in itself it is just a way of eating and it is completely sustainable over the long term. I've been intermittent fasting for well over a year. Sometimes you're going to eat outside of your feeding window - for whatever reason - and you just restart the next day.

IFing can be combined with any other diet. You can IF + calorie count or IF + South Beach diet - you get the point.

Calories dictate fat loss or gain - I use IF even when I'm trying to maintain my weight during a diet break or even when trying to gain weight.

[JohnP]

Originally Posted by pinkflower

The hardest part is breaking my fast with healthy choices and to be prepared. It gets easy to cram whatever is available (like cake) because you're so hungry when you realize you can eat. I guess like anything, you have to plan and continue to use that self control once you break the fast.

This gets much easier over time. For me the adjustment was fully complete in about 30 days. I don't get hungry at all until about an hour before my window opens and when it is time to eat I'm just hungry - not ravenous.

Wether this is simply being in tune with what hunger actually feels like or my body having adjusted to the style of eating or some combo I don't know.