I read this thread yesterday and decided to do a fast-day today.
I made it to 20 hours.
I'm trying to get back to the Fast 5 approach. It worked really well for me a little over a year ago and then I let snacks and breakfast back into my diet and gained over half of the weight back.
I'm going to try to make it a way of life this time :)

Hey guys, just wanted to pop in and see how everyone's doing. Seems like everyone is doing well. I've really enjoyed this WOE too, I think it's because I get that satisfied feeling every evening. I started out doing ESE, which i did for two weeks.. not long I know. Then, I just decided to commit to fast-5, which I have done for about a month now.

I'm wondering what everyone's weight loss results have been? I lost about 4 pounds initially, but have since maintained, which is great, but I hope I keep losing. There have been two times in the past month where I've eaten a little during lunch time, so they weren't complete fast days, per se. Am I being too impatient for more weight loss? Has anyone here lost a significant amount of weight eating this way and how long did it take?

I'm really ready to get to my GW, for summer especially. I think I'm going to do one or two 24 hr fasts a week in conjunction with ESE and see how that goes. I lost the 4 pounds during the first 2 weeks which were the ESE weeks then when I went to fast-5 I just have maintained so hopefully this will work. I'll keep everyone updated.

I don't do a refeed because I'm lowcarb, I do a refeed to feed my muscles for lifting. It depends on how you lift, how much weight you are lifting for me. It's pretty hard to grow muscle without enough carbs put at the right time. So, I place my carbs around my workouts (protein shake before my lift, and then my highest carb after..usually sweet potato, paired with cottage cheese or another higher carb starchy veg, paired with a protein to slow it down a bit).

If you're lifting weights, and doing a CKD type program, the refeed is almost essential to growing/retaining muscle.

Agreed. I eat epic sized post workout meals if I train fasted which I often do.

Example: Package of hamburger helper + lb of 93% lean turkey + can of corn + 3 eggs + apple + bananna + 100g of raisin bran + 48 oz non fat milk + 44g of isolate protein + rooster sauce.

calories 2,884
Fat 73.0
Carbs 351.3
Protein 230.8

All carefully weighed for accuracy. :D

I started fasting off and on about 25 years ago and my weight problem actually worsened. I finally learned about intuitive eating and lost 40 lb. and have kept it off over the last 3 years.

No one here is doing traditional fasting. What we are doing is different. The longest anyone here is fasting is 24 hours which means they eat a meal at say 6:00 PM and then don't eat again until 6:00 PM.

Also I think we would all agree that people need to get their dietary habits in order first, and then give intermittent fasting a shot if they desire. Certainly it would be easy to a person who has not developed good habits to do a 24 hour fast and then proceed to go on a massive binge.

In light of how this thread has gone, I'm not sure what your purpose in posting was. It would seem you saw the title and skipped to the last page without reading the rest. Regardless, congrats on getting to your goal. I'd suggest you take a look at the rest of the thread you might discover that intermittent fasting is for you even if traditonal fasting was not.

Can you actually eat all of that in one setting??? :eek:


That would truly be impressive. LOL

Your pic is cute, btw :):)

Grumble grumble, I wish someone had changed the name of Intermittent Fasting before it caught on. Even "I eat for a shorter time during the day than most people because it lowers insulin and other metabolic hormones during times I don't eat which lowers risk of heart disease and renders important health benefits" is easier to explain to someone than the look of fear that comes over their face when you say "Intermittent Fasting."

Also, thanks neanderpam for the info!

JohnP lol your recovery meal is more food than I'm supposed to eat in two and a half days...

Honestly I never say Intermittent Fasting.

I always say 'oh, I do IF. It's just a basic calorie diet (true in my case) where I shorten my eating window a bit, and of course the ol' exercise!'

I don't go into details at all, and pretty much they are satisfied with the diet and exercise routine. Most people would only really be interested if you could say "I pay $5 for these magic beans and I eat one a day and lose 12 pounds a week, while doing anything I want!!" :D

At first it was a little difficult coming from 5-6 small meals a day but with practice it's not only easy, it's fun.:D

I could actually eat more. Working out fasted tends to make me ravenous.

Hmm, well, let's see. John is 6' 9"...I'm 5' 1.5". John weighs 236, I weigh 114. I'm female, over 55. John looks like a 'young'un'. If I were YOUR age, height, etc. I'd have a post workout meal like yours TOO!!! Heh, heh! Good for YOU John, heh heh...I have a 19 yr. old Grandson who can eat like that, workout and is in great health. He got the 'lifting bug' from me (and brags about his 'Nana' doing 40lb. one arm rows w/dumbbells).

I'm also: hypothyroid (well replaced with all thyroid hormones), have four autoimmune diseases. BUT.....I've found that with cycling my calories and my carbs (I have a daily 'chart' that lists my cals, and macros for each day, and my highest day is 1955 calories, which is a LOT for a little person like ME...but I do NOT gain weight from it, I drop fat percentage and gain muscle ...not at the same time though).

I lost my weight lowcarb (Protein Power/Atkins rungs for addback) and keep my lowest carbs at around 40 net, and highest at around 70net. I do NOT eat starchy carbs unless it's put after a workout. I do my small amount of cardio fasted, wait and hour, and then eat a higher fibrous carb meal coupled with protein and the least amount of fat I can do.

My once a week day off/1900 and some calorie day is really fun! :)

For my starting routines/eats I used Tom Venuto's plan Burn Fat Feed Muscle. (It's an Ebook).

Amen! They do want the magic wand don't they? I like it when doctors and medical personnel tell me 'lowcarb just makes you lose water weight'. Then I tell them how much I weigh, they know how much I USED to weigh and then I say 'I was on the toilet for two years getting rid of all that water' :D

Pam

I am just having a little bit of a pity party for myself :dizzy:

My neighbor runs a daycare and she called me this morning wondering if I could fill in for her for a bit today. Yep...not a problem unless that is, I forget to bring something with me in case she is later than she thinks she will be. My stomach knows that it should have some fuel being added to it now and it is growling terribly :D

Pity party over...I WILL survive :lol:

Neanderpam - thanks for sharing your story...very inspiring!

John P - Your post workout meal looks awesome...You definitely get a high five from the Hamburger Helper glove guy! My brother and husband can also put away huge meals. My husband used to eat 2 footlong subs when he was in college. Of course he also used to eat whole frozen pizzas with dried ramen noodles too...the guy can EAT.

I am down one more pound this week, I hope the weight loss will continue. I know there are lots of ways to lose weight but I like this way the most and hope that it continues to work for me. Even 1 or 2 pounds a month would be great. As long as I don't see the scale keep going up it's all good. I am tired of feeling uncomfortable in my body.

Tomorrow is my daughter's second birthday so I will be eating goodies outside of my window...can't decide if I want to change my window tomorrow or make it my higher calorie day.

Lauralyn, how did it go with the day care? I'm hoping that when your window opened, you didn't go nuts on the baby food!

SarahMac, good luck tomorrow! I'm sure you will do great!


Today I didn't eat until 4, unintentionally, but I didn't go out of my mind or anything which is good. I managed to make a reasonably well-thought-out presentation at work around 3. This is proof that I can function without food. No one tell my taste buds.

Hope everyone else is doing great!

Tx, when I posted that I was in my window...I was in my window for over another hour. :dizzy: Baby food would have been good :lol:
By the time she came back I was ready to chew my arm off and I was well on my way to a full 24 hr fast considering the night before I ate last at 5pm. Oh well, I guess I proved to myself that I am not up for a 24 hr fast anytime in the near future. :o

I bet you might surprise yourself. Not that I'm encouraging you to try a 24 hr fast if you don't feel up to it, but theoretically, if you were...When you wake up with the mindset of "I'm not eating today until Xpm (whatever would make it a 24 hr fast)," you'd be surprised with how easy it can be. Not that it's eeeaaasy, per say, especially the first few times. But it's easier to do a 24 hr fast when you're mentally prepared to not eat until much later in the day than when you had planned on eating earlier but HAVE to do a 24 hr fast do to circumstances. Now that I've gotten back in the groove of my 24 hr fasts every Sunday, I start mentally preparing myself for it. Not that it requires a pep talk or serious meditation or anything, but it'll cross my mind that I won't be eating until 7pm on Sunday. So when Sunday morning comes, I don't wake up with a panic of "OMG, I can't eat until tonight!?" Just like when you're starting daily IF, if you wake up assuming you'll eat breakfast and then for whatever reason don't eat until that afternoon, you're going to feel frustrated, hungry, food-on-the-brain, and deprived all day because you didn't get the food when you expected. When we aren't expecting to eat until later, it's easier.

Looong winded way of saying...the 24 hr fasts really aren't too scary.

mkendrick~ I totally understand what you are saying and you are probably right. I just might start mentally prepping myself for a 24 hr fast in the near future...might :)

I'm doing my second 24 hr fast this weekend. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be last time, so I'm hoping it's at least equal if not better now that I'm not so freaked out about what I might do ;) I've got a really busy day planned tomorrow, with a lot of driving. Should keep me distracted enough until tea... Here it goes!

I'm thinking I want to give this a try. I believe it's how I like to eat naturally, and I believe in listening to my body for guidance on what it needs, but the overwhelming advice to me (because of type 2 diabetes, PCOS, etc.) over the last few years was to push eating five to six smaller meals a day. But if the IF is supposed to be better for insulin resistance, then I'm switching!

Frankly, I love a nice big meal at the end of the day. I love having a few cups of tea throughout the morning and not eating till after lunchtime. I have noticed I lost more weight and was less stressed when I eat that way. I tend to do my weight training in the afternoon/evening, so I can easily support that with an appropriate meal right afterwards.

Woo! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

I still feel like I'm standing round the playground wanting to join your gang but not quite making it yet. (That's to do with me, not you!)
I am still intrigued by this WoE.
I didn't do it last week. The evil depression got me, my butt was welded to the settee except when I was out buying chocolate, or my new best friend, toffee.
However, I determined to try again yesterday, and oh! the relief. I'm still having to work on not eating like a waste disposal in the window but having a 'not until' and a 'not after' time really works for my brain, and at least the window is relatively small.
Yesterday was my One Good Day, after a dozen really bingey ones. Today I'll do my drndest to make my Second.
:hug:

Okay, first official day of IF...so I had the celebratory indulgence last night that I'm regretting today. But perhaps I don't have to be so hard on myself. Overeating last night fuelled me for this morning's avoidance of the kitchen. I slept in some too.

I plan to not eat until after 1 p.m. and to quit by 8 p.m.

I plan to continue to weigh myself on Friday mornings, right after Pilates class. Before the weekends when I lose my resolve and have pizza with the kids. After the week of getting past doing pennance for the pizza indulgences.

Hey, I do have a plan after all!

(Later in the day...)

Just had my first meal of the day. Made it to after 1 p.m., ate exactly what I wanted...a salad made up of 3 cups arugula, 1 can Trader Joe's tuna packed in olive oil, 4 Tbs. sliced olives, 2 Tbs roasted and unsalted sunflower seeds, 1 spring onion, 1 large tomato, olive oil and lemon juice dressing. It tasted marvelous, but I was still feeling hungry after eating. I've chosen to let 20 minutes pass before making an additional choice, and I drank 2 cups of water. So far, doing okay.

(Officially done eating for the day at 8 p.m.)

Well, I can't say I ate less than I normally do. I found myself to be more aggitated later in the day, like a low blood sugar thing, so I wanted to eat more. When dinner finally rolled around, I overate whole wheat pasta...don't often have cravings for that, but perhaps TOM can be given some of the blame for that tonight. I didn't binge, just had a triple serving. I gave myself the limit, in case I was still "hungry". At the moment, I feel full, but still edgy. I accidently ate something with hidden soy in it a few hours ago and it's really bothering me. I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight.

Am I trying to control too much? Steering around a food allergy and sensitivity is a must-do if I want to function normally every day. Avoiding eating seems simple enough to do earlier in the day. But staying within the calories and carbs when I'm really hungry and edgy is going to be tough. I hope tomorrow is better.

I have survived this morning without coffee so far, although I'm about to make some. Feeling edgy. Worried that when it comes time to eat in about an hour, I'll be unable to make a wise choice. So glad I'm not going out to eat today!

I've been on this plan a whole day and my mother is already freaking about not being able to give me food to eat when I go to her house. It's her sickness, to feed me, and she acts like I'm rejecting her when I don't eat what she offers. And she never seems to offer what I will allow myself to have. I eat low carb, very controlled, and she's always cooking something for me with potatoes or rice in it! WTH!!!???

"But it's natural," she whines.

"So is marijuana! I don't see that anywhere around here!"

Yep, I'm edgy and cranky from not eating this morning or having my coffee!

yeah i am sure it is TOM i am always so hungry during it. but for me anyways i haven't got very hungry at all on IF and low carb, i have the urge to snack late night but i just have to say no..its not hunger just habit.

Just finished eating dinner and I feel so satisfied, even after having eaten 600 calories less than yesterday! I kept going over my food choices in my mind...did I miss something? Nope!

Carbs and fat were appreciably lower than normal, protein was on track. I didn't eat three distinct meals. My schedule didn't allow for that today. But I was okay with that.

So I guess I'll see how hungry I feel in the morning. I have a Pilates class at 9:15. I'm wondering how I'm going to feel after that.

30 minutes left and I'll have done a 24 hour fast. Just wanted to see what it felt like. It's not something I'll commonly do. Hunger has been coming and going in waves but never overwhelming.

I posted over a month ago that I tended to eat just a couple hundred calories a day before 2ish, but never thought of it as fasting, it was just what I preferred to do. Since then, I've been working at truly fasting and establishing an eating window, which tends to be about 1:30-6. I don't do this on days I lift or work out though (which is 2-3x a week). It's been working fine, I guess not that much different from before.

So I decided I'm going to do my first 24 hour fast. I just finished dinner and will fast until dinner time tomorrow. I guess I just want to see what it's like. I feel so good when I'm fasting and I like not planning out all these zillions of meals. Life is just much simpler and I feel very content.

I'm concerned I will make poor choices when my 24 hr fast is over because i"ll be hungry, so I'm going to plan what is for dinner tomorrow ahead of time. I'll probably break my fast by eating an apple while preparing it so I don't start nibbling and stuff. I'll see how it goes!

I used to do 24-hour fasts for spiritual reasons, many years ago. I just remember feeling light-headed, intermittently, and sleeping more. Afterwards, we'd go out for dinner. I don't recall specifically overeating back then, but I was in my 20s and I wasn't overweight...yet.

I can't fast like that any longer. It's gotten harder as I've gotten older. I think my type 2 diabetes is part of the problem. Perhaps it will resolve itself as I lose weight and at some point I may consider doing it again.

This is the start of my fourth day on IF. I woke up ravenous. I have added a little extra carbohydrate to my dinners, and I think that's the issue. In the past, if carbs are the last thing I ate in the evening, I feel famished by morning. I'm going to have some coffee with a little cream and hope that'll keep me from doing a swan dive into my sons' breakfast. They want to go out this morning...I'm not sure I can do that just yet!

i think i am going to work on my first 24 hour fast, just so i can say hey i did it, my last meal was at 3pm, but i am not going to get too stressed if i cant do it, im getting very antsy to get out of the 300's, IF has helped me a lot the past 10 pounds or more.

ARG I'm still having trouble with working out during a fasting state. My workouts, for whatever reason, seem to be better (in terms of how much I can do) if I have a small snack about 30 mins before. This has lately been a homemade pumpkin health bar (100 cals/5 g protein/20 carbs).

I can workout during my fed state, or I can try working out upon waking up. For some reason between 11-2 PM, when I'm fasting and when I'd prefer to exercise, it's gotten really difficult. I just had to open my window at 11:30 AM because I'm going to run 5K at noon and judging from recent experiences I won't be able to unless I eat a small snack.

Any advice? :?:

Indiblue- I would say if it is working for you to have a little snack before your workout, stick with that. Is this not working for you? I wouldn't worry about working out while in your fed state. Have a little snack, workout...wait a bit and have a big meal. Your body might not enjoy working out fasted...go with what works and adjust as needed. Could you be overdoing your workouts/doing them too often? What kind of workouts are you doing? Disregard if you don't think this applies...just throwing it out there! :)

Anybody else have any thoughts?

I agree, I have been following intermittent fasting for about two months now and find that I do not miss the calories and even get more accomplished on those fasting days then when I have three meals. It is important to know what works well for your body though. It's always good to try out new things but only stick with what's working. I say if having a 100 calorie snack before working out helps your energy level then you should stick with it.
Keep up the good work. :)

Yes. Eat. Don't stress over the little things that in the big picture aren't a big deal.

Since I like little details though ... maybe try eating 1/2 the pumpkin bar and see what happens. :D

repto--how did your fast go?
indiblue--I cannot work out without being fed, I just can't....well I mean I can, but I don't get in as intense/long of a work-out. I simply don't do IF on those work out days, or allow myself a snack, such as 1/2 protein shake or whatever

So the day I planned to my 24 hour fast didn't work out. I was starving, and actually ate at 10am, which is odd, because I usually don't even want to eat until after 12. So I'm doing it today. So far so good, but the latest I've even gone w/o eating is 2pm, so there's nothing new yet. I'm hoping eating an apple to break my fast, then waiting 20ish minutes before starting with dinner will stop me from eating everything in sight haha

24 hour fast is over....I made it to 23 hours yay!! I broke it with an apple, a couple of slices of turkey and 1 serving of sun chips. I'm feeling almost full, and am sure that in an hour, I"ll eat a small-regular dinner (soup, sandwich, veggies) and be great the rest of the night.

I found during the fast, I had a few 15ish minutes spells of overwhelming desire to go shove anything in my mouth. But as I waited and distracted myself, I realized the hunger pains just went away and I felt fine. I had energy to do everything I needed to do. In fact, I wasn't even hungry at the time that I broke my fast. I was getting a headache and wanted to see if eating would make it better (it did not!)

So I will absolutely do this 24 hour fast from time to time as it made me so keenly aware of how strong I can be. I feel so resolved in my ability to say no to tempting/unhealthy things in every day situations. I can do it, I decide what I eat. I decide.

I find it interesting to think of people for whom such a fast is not an option, but an everyday necessity. That, and coffee, help me "distract" myself until my eating window opens.

Very good point. I do the same when I'm struggling to drink more water - think about the fact that I could live somewhere where clean drinking water is not an option.

my fast so didn't happen that day,it was a very stressful day, i just might not mentally be able to do a 24 yet, if i could get through the next 8.5 hours today...its worth a shot..
my weight has been messing with me the past couple of days, i had a really good week of losing, so maybe my body is just like...whoa...okay take a break or something.