[Liliann]

Hi Trish! Good on seeing you....Bravo on your 2 Lbs loss!! Sounds like you found a lifestyle plan...Keep it up...and thank you for the tips from your book readings. This is the only weigh to go.

I weigh daily, and am learning more on this...if I gain, cut back more on my food choices...and when I loose, stay with the same food choices. I do exercise on my fast..and the key is to be busy. ...I use my scale...tummy as a guide. I fast about 5 hours and no snacking for me.

Need to be strict...because in Jan, have to see my medical doctor and she always pushes me on weight loss surgery...I need to loose 40 Lbs by end of Jan 2017.

[Nightowlrn]

Hello Lili and Patty. I started a 5:2 WOE in May 2016. I fasted Monday and Thursday. I weekly calorie averaged to average 1200 cals/day or 8400/week. I found I was losing too fast -- bad problem to have eh? I realized my problem was I wasn't able to eat enough calories and specifically protein on the 5 days I ate to maintain 8400/week. Anyway - I switched to starting each week on Monday with the goal of averaging 1200/day. On weeks when I have a high calorie day(s), I fast either before or after the high calorie day(s) to make up for it. The goal is that by the next Sunday, it all averages out. I have continued that with the exception of vacationing the last 3 weeks.(all bets were off and I planned for this "temporary" gain because...well..I have to let life happen sometimes and go with it.)

Everyone is different. For me, fasting was a bit scary at first, but it has actually been a gift. I now know I will not die if I go to bed hungry. I know that drinking a glass of water or having a light soup is often all I need. I believe this is a WOE I can maintain. I am fine going a day with very few calories. I am not fine thinking of trying to maintain 1200 calories every day.

I started May 2016 at 202# and am currently 155. (I was 153 before I left for vacation in early November...oh well.) So - this is working for me. I will add I also am exercising away about 500 calories a day. So, I would assume I would have accomplished about half the loss I have had so far if I wasn't exercising. I am a short person - a larger person might not have to add so much exercise to lose. Us shorties have it tough as we can only reduce our calories so much to maintain healthy minimum body function requirements.

[pattygirl63]

Nightowlrn - Awesome weight loss. Thanks for sharing your story with us. The way I'm eating with IF is the way I ate growing up, but I had eaten breakfast for so many years that the thought of fasting really scared me at first too. I just didn't think I could do it now, but I am finding it fairly easy. My starting time varies. Three days a week, I go out for breakfast with my DS and our DD. Daddy is 93 yrs old and I moved here to spend more time with him. Most Monday, Wednesday and Fridays we all meet for breakfast. Monday and Wednesday at 10 am and Friday we meet after our beauty appointment. We usually meet Daddy by quarter till 11 just before Whataburger stops selling breakfast. Once in a while we end up having to eat lunch on Friday if we are later.

The nice thing about IF is that no one even has to know we are dieting. I usually check ahead of time to see how many calories are in the food I'm ordering. MFP has a lot of that info on there so I can usually plan ahead.
The days we meet I start eating around 10ish or 11ish. On the other days, I'm eating at home and either start eating at 11 or 12, but regardless of when I start eating, I stop eating around 8pm. So my fasting is either 14, 15 or 16 hrs depending when I had my 1st meal. On days I don't go out I wait until I get hungry to eat. I'm a night time eater which is why I make 8 pm my cut off time.

Until I read these books, I always thought you HAD to eat low carb when Intermittent Fasting, but this man Reed who wrote one of the books says we need to find the diet that we can live with so we can be successful. My previous doctor when I lived in SC told me that they had learned that any diet will work. He said that the key was finding a diet that I could live with the rest of my life. This is what I've been looking for and I have now found it.

Thanks again for sharing your story as it is very encouraging to me. I too am short 5'2". My second hubby's step mom used to say "I am not fat, I'm just too damn short". LOL I have thought a many a time.

Have a great week.

[Gin1912]

Yep, I found you ^^