Hello everyone. For the first time, I didn’t overeat during the Holiday. I stayed on my IF plan. It is getting easier to do IF daily. I try to keep my calorie count approximately 1200 – 1500.

What are you results so far?

That's really great! I've found it to get easier as time went on too. 20 hours is a piece of cake now!

I had a slip-up during my fast last night. I was up later than usual writing a paper, and I was starving. I tried to drink more water but it wouldn't go away. But, my slip-up wasn't with a bag of chips or a sand which -- I baked a turnip and ate that! A year ago, it would've been a trip to McDonalds!

Doesn't sound like a slip-up, Noirstories! Sometimes you just have to eat!

Valeriao- sounds great that you did well, even during the holidays! That is a true test.

Angie- I know what you mean. It really does get easier. Your body gets used to it.

Hi John.

At my night job and doing pretty well with IF. It's easy when you sleep till almost 4pm! ha ha. Pulled a muscle in my leg on the very first exercise I did with my weight routine today. Boooo. I was able to finish though b/c I was doing upper body and back, but my quad hurts now. Oh well. Maybe spinning will help it tomorrow.

I hope your leg feels better Kelley.

I am doing a lot better with my fasts. I have been able to push my start time back to 1. I am going to start working on the FF now. We didn't do a big dinner for the holiday so there wasn't a lot to gorge on anyway. We did have a nice healthy dinner, which was was nice.

I agree that a turnip isn't a slip up. You may have needed it. I'm going to try roasting a turnip.

I like using my slicer and turning them into chips. I spray a little Pam on them, some sea salt, and pop them in the oven. So good!

I lost 8 pounds in 4 weeks. My goal is to lose 1 - 2 lbs per week.

About how many calories does everyone consume in relation to their BMR? MyFitnessPal is putting me At 1200 calories, but my BMR is a little over 1400. I know there are tons of calculators and many opinions on the matter, but what daily average have you had the most success on?

Actually, if your BMR is 1400, multiplying by your level of activity then subtracting 500 calories from that may bring your daily calories to 1200, assuming you want to lose a pound a week.

When I calculate my BMR for my current weight, it's 2041. If I use Harris-Benedict and multiply that by 1.2 (for sedentary), I get 2450 calories. Subtracting 500 calories from that brings me down to 1950 calories. And I'm finding success keeping my calories in a range between 1750 and 1950 calories.

My goal weight is 165. BMR for that weight is 1467. Multiplying by 1.2 brings maintenance to 1760 calories. I plan to slowly taper my calories down below that as I gain a bit more control over my appetite. I used to mindlessly eat over 4000 calories a day, but am finding it a real struggle getting below 1950 on a consistent basis.

When I did my BMR on MFP I think it put me at somewhere around 1750... (but of course, I have no idea how accurate that is...) My daily calorie counts have been coming in between 1500-1800 and with that I've been maintaining this current weight loss... I tried going down to 1200, but I can't seem to manage it for more than a few days... I'm trying to come up with some sort of plan to get me jumpstarted again to move down to my goal... I'm always open to any ideas on that one

On a separate note... I have been having a little bit of trouble the last week (since Thanksgiving) with my IF'ing... I've been doing 16/8 and I've had a few "cheats" at night...

Anyone have any tips on dealing night time hunger while IF'ing?

Tripswitch- hot tea, herbel since it is at night or a really good chai really satisfies me. Otherwise cold soda water or diet coke. Gum chewing is good sometimes.

Mizzthingaling- glad your fasting is working well. Yes! The pulled muscle felt almost fine after I woke up today. Spinning felt good too. Yea!

Noir- I'm bad. I have no idea about calories. I loosely count WW points from time to time- when I feel that what I'm doing is not working...

Val- sounds like a great weight loss so far! Congrats.

Hi Georgia!!

Good IF day so far... good day over all.

Since people occasionally ask me about what diet plan I follow I thought I would just put a post here and then link it in my signature. I don't believe in a diet plan. I prefer the words "Way Of Eating" (WOE) because it's how I've eaten for the last couple years and plan to follow this for the rest of my life. In my opinion as you're losing weight you should be trying to determine what your own WOE is going to be. Losing weight is easy, keeping it off is the hard part.

Keep in mind this is my maintinence plan, not how I lost weight. However if I had to do it again I would follow the below plan as well, just a more restrictive version. It simply works for me and my lifestyle.

Before I tell you what I do I'll tell you why I do it. I follow this plan because I'm not willing to give up any of the foods I like to eat. I like eating delicious food. I find eating very pleasurable. Going to a decent resturaunt and having a wonderful calorie laden meal is enjoyable. I enjoy drinking alchohol. A nice glass of wine or a well crafted beer is something I enjoy. Since I'm not willing to give up these enjoyable things I've had to come up with a way to work around it.

I follow a set of unstrict rules and very loosely monitor calories Monday - Thursday. I intermittent fast daily which is a fancy way of saying I don't eat breakfast - except vary rarely.* I eat fairly strict during the week and then I loosen up over the weekend. When I eat a little to much one day, I eat a little less the next. I don't track macro nutrients, at all. I do love meat so I'm sure I'm getting plenty of protein.

Roughly I need about 2800 calories a day to maintain my weight based on my size and activity level. During the week I only eat about 2000 calories a day, on average. Because I usually only eat twice a day there isn't much to keep track of. This gives me the ability to eat more over the weekend and not worry about it.

It's a very simple plan and it works for me. I don't own a scale but I weigh myself once a week at the gym.

*I used to be ready to eat my arm if I didn't have food by 10:00 AM. I heard about intermittent fasting and thought I would give it a try. It took only a couple weeks to adjust. So if you're thinking about giving intermittent fasting a try you're in the right place.

Thx for your post, John. As you say, it really is not that hard! I am so much like you- love to eat, love almost all foods, don't want to give anything up, love a good beer or nice wine, etc. IF is the best way to be able to live with eating what you want.

Yeah I plan to take on a similar approach as John when I enter maintenance. I feel like we have taste buds for a reason. Food is meant to be enjoyable. We don't have to overeat to enjoy it either.