I am trying the JUDD plan too. It's just my first week but I'm really liking it.

CoolMom75. What has become so hard about the 5:2? I have been doing it since October except a week off for Christmas. I have modified it to 4:3 at 800 calories. It is easier than 500. I was always starving and light headed. Would something like that help???

I guess it was the holiday parties and switching up my fast days and then I had trouble getting it going again. Luckily I think my healthy eating is becoming a real lifestyle change. I didn't eat at a deficit but did maintain.

Yesterday was my first fast day, starting after a 700 cal breakfast. No heartburn..yay!

Why would the 5:2 cause heartburn? Do other people experience this? I already have problems with that.

When I suddenly miss a meal at a time my body is expecting one, all the digestive acids are still produced but no food to burn it up. The acids get to hang out and irritate instead.

After a couple weeks of consistent fast days my body adjusted and I no longer got heartburn.

truth truth truth

I never had heartburn but just take some tums. It works.

That does mean a lot to me. I haven't felt like much of anything hoop wise lately. Although there is a curvy hooper contest and I am soooo not feeling it. I have one video unlisted for it but I am not sure about that being the video. Half tempted to brave the cold to try and hoop outside. One girl said that she searched for my entry as soon as she heard about the contest! 30 minutes a day makes a huge difference in your practice!

Hi folks,

I'd like to join this thread. I've been using an eating window for months now. I have decades of experience with losing weight a variety of ways, but none yet with permanent maintenance. I am primarily trying to get into a permanent Way of Eating.

It seems like the best eating window for me is 6PM - 8:30 PM. So, it's basically one meal a day. I keep my window open longer than necessary for a meal so that I don't feel the urge to over-stuff myself at dinner (because I know I can eat more a little later). But it turns out that I don't usually make use of the last hour and a half of my window.

In order to try to find something that will work for me in maintenance, I have not been counting calories. It would be great if I could get in the habit of doing that forever, but I know that I won't. Been there, not done that.

I do have some "eating guidance" that I use to make sure my food choices naturally stay within a reasonable calorie budget. I did retroactively tally one day's count and it was around 1500. So far, my weight is trending downward (albeit more slowly than on a stricter diet). But I can really imagine myself adopting this as a permanent change, unlike any of the diet approaches I have tried in the past.

The squishy part is the eating guidance, which substitutes for calorie counting and is very specific to me. It's a little challenging to hit the right note. I am trying to stay accountable and actually lose weight while adopting a permanent life style change.

Is anyone else here doing anything even remotely similar?

Well I've been doing IF for almost 30 days and have lost 6lbs which is great. It has been very hard to stay in my window the last week or so. Work is just overwhelming and some pending blood test results have me a little stressed which always makes me hungry. I stayed in my calorie limit so I still lost some. After next week work will be back to normal and tests back so I can get back to IF full swing. I really like the whole IF lifestyle it fits so well and it's nice when I can make adjustments as needed.

Hi, Sassy! Stress is so destructive to us! I was just a little stressed out yesterday and I ended up using my whole eating window. Stress makes it a lot tougher to stick with any program. I am seriously thinking about taking up yoga, which is the last thing people who know me would expect. But I feel it's because I am such an unchill person that I need some way to mellow out.

Hope things go well with your tests and you tame the work beast soon so you can focus more on your healthy habits!

A big difference with this round of weight loss has been my focus on ways to relax that are not food related. I used to love taking baths. The tub in our current home is ridiculously small but we bought a hot tub (cheap off Craigs list!) so I focus on using the hot tub after work or whenever I need to decompress. It has really helped!

Thanks yoyama. January is always bad for work, I am accountant and have a ton of tax work. So I can deal knowing that once feb 1 hits I have a little lull and can catch up and take a day to recover. My poor husbands birthday is the 31st too! The stress just turns on my appetite. I just need to get thru the week! I am working out daily so that helps a lot.

Hi everyone

I would like to say hello and join this thread.

My bf and I are starting the 5:2 on Monday, it'll be our first fasting day. We both work from home, and find that we kind of influence each other badly when it comes to eating. I usually count calories, but if he has a snack, I give in and have one with him, and vice versa. Even though I go to the gym, I seem to be endlessly snacking these days and I'm sure that's why I regained the 3 pounds I lost a few weeks back, it's frustrating. I know the typical recommendation is always "don't skip breakfast!"...but if I eat breakfast, and lunch, then I can't stop eating the rest of the day! If we don't have breakfast, that desire to eat doesn't kick in until we're famished, so I think that the 2 days of 500 calorie fasting will be good for us and not too difficult.

We both talked about our former lives working in restaurants, where basically we ate once a day because it was free at work. We were both in much better shape and lower weights back then. We love our bar though, so we'll have to make sure to cut that out on the fasting days and cut it down on the other days. I have 15 pounds I want to lose and he has about 11.

I've been reading through this thread and also found Dr. Mosley's book online, I'll be reading that tomorrow. I'm glad to see there are many others here following this eating plan! I look forward to being involved in having support and supporting others!

Welcome, Chardonnay! I hope 5:2 works well for you and your bf! I think the most important thing is to find something that works for you and having your bf be on the same wavelength should really help. Fasting (or any diet) is definitely harder when people around you are eating.

I've been on-plan and making some progress. I seem to be bouncing around just below 150 now and I was in the very high 150's when I started this round of weight loss. So far, this approach has been much easier on my willpower than calorie counting and as long as I am making any noticeable progress I will be happy.