Hi all! Welcome rockie and wvuchick

I love that we are all doing such different forms of IF! I'm still doing 5:2, but have been thinking of seeing if I can fit 4:3 (which I guess is essentially ADF) into my schedule. That would, however, mean fasting on a Friday or weekend...which actually might be a good thing. I am always really good during the week but the weekend is where things get dicey. We'll see how my weigh-in goes this week before I decide.

Thanks noname!

I agree about loving all the different forms of IF represented here. It is all about doing what works for you.

I don't worry too much about the weekends. I usually burn massive amounts of calories shopping or working around the house, but I was actually pretty excited that I was able to stick to my eating window on Saturday and only ate an hour and a half early on Sunday (awesome considering it was Easter ).

I'm lucky this time around that my husband is "dieting" too, he's not doing IF, but he did this weekend, since he can't eat a meal without me.

I am so glad this forum is here! I love IF, but have been finding that I have to be careful of calories on non fast day. Of course, the fact that I ate a bunch of easter cookies this weekend is beside the point!
Really, I hate to count calories, but I am going do it now, to ensure that I lose. It's harder to lose now that I'm 49.
Is there something about a hard workout that causes water retention?

I should have mentioned that I do still count calories while doing Fast 5. I'm trying to stick to about 1600 a day. Except on weekends, because I am so active.

Yogini99 What form of IF are you doing? I counted calories at the beginning with 5:2, and I start to count again whenever I notice that I'm not losing. It's good to keep in check, but it's nice to not feel like I need to do it every day. I haven't counted in months, it's so freeing!

About the water retention, I did a lot of reading about that recently because I was SO sore after a lot of hiking this weekend and noticed an abnormally large gain this weekend. There's a bunch of different theories, but the one I saw the most was that your body holds onto certain fluids when it is repairing muscle. *shrug*

wvuchick that's great about your husband! My bf is similar. He noticed me losing weight and picked up some healthier habits. Plus on my fasting days, we have a pretty light dinner. I gave up on making something separate for him, and if I don't cook for him, he eats crap.

Hi Noname (I CAN'T call you "slob"!!!)
I do the 5:2 fast. I feel like I just don't have a good gauge on what I can eat on non fast days. I am hoping that by counting for a little while, I will get a clue again on portion size and calories of things. I am shocked sometimes at how fast the calories add up! Good grief.
That's great to know about the water retention post work out- wonder how long that lasts?
How much weight do you lose per month or so with the 5:2. How many cals per day (about, I know you aren't counting) on non fast days?
I am trying to stick to what the my fitness pal says I can eat on non fast days- 1450

Yogini Ha! You can call me slob if you want. I would take it as a compliment - it's a quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's

It's definitely worth counting for a while. How long have you been doing 5:2? On average I lose 1/2 to one pound a week. It's very slow going. I started last August and have lost about 25 pounds since then (I slipped up a lot over the holidays).

I eat around 2,000 calories (less on weekdays, more on weekends) on a non-fast day which is what is recommended by Michael Mosley, the guy who wrote The Fast Diet. MFP is telling you to eat 1450 a day because it thinks that's what you should be eating 7 days a week in order to lose weight (it doesn't have the capacity to understand IF - most 5:2ers I know set MFP to "sustain"). You could try to increase your calories on feast days - from my understanding, the shock factor between a fast day and a feast day is part of what gives you some of the health benefits of 5:2 and can help kick-start your metabolism. You're certainly not at risk of *starvation mode*, but you can probably cut yourself a little slack on feast days and still lose weight.

That's just my experience. In full disclosure, I've never read the book :P

Good morning all,

Yogini, I agree with nonameslob about the 7 days a week thing. You could eat as much as 1830 calories on your feast days and still be creating the calorie deficit mfp suggests. That's pretty awesome.

nonameslob Yeah, my husband only wants to lose 25 lbs. which after two weeks he is half way there. Life is so unfair sometimes.

Yesterday for some reason I was really hungry. I managed not to eat outside my window and I actually ate less than usual when I did. And this morning I was one pound down

Have a fabulous day all!

It's been a while since I posted here, so I'll mention that I have a short daily eating window (6:00-8:30) which works well for me. I tried Alternate Day Fasting, and it just didn't work out as well for me. One thing I love about my WOE is how easy it is for me to make an exception (like for Easter) and just get right back on track the next day. I'm feeling good about that this week.

I haven't really made any weight loss progress in the last month, but that's OK with me because my main goal is to find a lifestyle that I can live with in maintenance after a lifetime of yoyo dieting. That said, I have tweaked my eating rules (really just reverting to some older ones) because I'd like to build up some slack for vacations and such.

My WOE includes eating all I want of veg & protein so I'm "feasting" for one meal a day. I retroactively counted the calories from yesterday and it totaled around 1400. (I am most decidedly NOT going to count cals as part of my lifestyle. I was just doing it as a sanity check). That should be plenty low for weight loss if I'm not having too many exception days.

Yogini, the extra water weight from a workout usually shows up the next day and is mostly gone the day after (I'm not really speaking from personal experience, just mostly what I've heard), but if your muscles are still sore, it could hang on a bit longer. A really hard workout can add 2 pounds or so easy. For ppl with more mass and more muscle, the amount can be even higher (but they also lift/workout at a higher level).

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the info!
Noname- I will have to check out the Breakfast at Tiffany's reference! So glad to know you aren't hating on yourself..Ha!
I will try setting the calories on sustain, rather than lose- that will make my life nicer
I think I am losing less than a lb a week so far- slooooow. But, I haven't been perfect the whole time, and ate a bunch of cookies this weekend. I don't regret it really...they were delicious!
The biggest thing, like you guys say, is finding something sustainable. I like the idea of the eating window also, yoyoma. With the 5:2 fast, it's definitely easier for me to have only coffee (yes, with half and half!) in the am and then eat around 5:30, a small dinner. So eating window would probably not be super hard for me. What if you have to go to lunch with someone, etc? Do you move the window?

Noname- forgot to answer, I have been doing 5:2 for about a year, off and on. It is great for maintenance- trouble occurred when I decided over the winter that I could eat organic ice cream on non fast days and not really exercise either, except for walking!!
I have been doing it more carefully for the last month or so, while eating better on non fast days and upping the exercise. Since loss was slow, I just started counting calories on non fast days. I will probably up them to a little more than 1450 by changing MFP to sustain- at least on some days.
I have been playing around with HIIT exercise and I like it. What do you like to do for exercise?

Happy Friday eve all!
Just thought I'd check in. I was again hungrier than usual yesterday, but stuck to my window and calories. So that was a good thing.

I have a doctor's appointment today. I'm hoping for good results, but it was pre-fast 5, so it will be a good starting point. I so hate getting on the scale there, so I wore the lighest close I could manage for work to try to help the scale a bite. LOL.

Yogini - You may already know this, but you can set MFP for the calories you choose. They don't give the option of calorie cycling (different totals for each day), but that might help. I found out my TDEE using my body fat percentage (a very depressing number indeed) and changed MFP to 30% below that. Just a thought.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

wvuchick I didn't know that about MFP! I thought you just had to choose sustain or one of those other options. But I don't use it much anymore anyway. Except when I'm trying a new recipe...ugh, I tried something new on my fast day on Monday and it was AWFUL! Not much worse than having to eat something you don't like on a 500 and under day. Sticking with my trusty grilled chicken salad tonight.

Good luck with the doctor's appt today!

I just filled out my life insurance form for work. Last year in July is when I found out I was being denied due to my weight, which is what spurred me to try 5:2. It felt really good to fill out my weight this year. Only 25 pounds from when I filled it out last summer, but I am VERY proud of that and am looking forward to getting an approval letter!

To change your calories in MFP, from the home page click on Goals > Change Goals > Custom. That will take you to the screen, you can change it all, just not by day, which would be great if you are on 5:2 and still count calories.

25 lbs is nothing to sneer at. It's like carrying around 3 one gallon jugs of water.

Had a pretty good IF weekend. I did eat yesterday a couple hours early, but I worked in the yard for 5.5 hours, so I'm sure I didn't do too much damage. I keep patiently waiting for the scale too move. Today marks too weeks on Fast 5, so according to the book, I should start seeing some progress soon!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.