Well, last week I once again did not report a loss. Didn't even hit my low weight! Trying again this week. I'm okay with maintaining and I'm not ready to make any big changes to my diet so it is what it is. I did plan all of my meals out for the week and tweaked some things a little bit. My lunches last week were a bit heavy so I'm making a roasted veggie salad this week for lunches. Should be a nice, lighter change and maybe it will help me end the week at a lower weight :P

I have my first 5K race on Saturday! I ran a full 3.1 miles last night for the first time, so that was exhilarating. Feels good to know I can do it. I was really nervous about the race before that.

Not much changed here. Bouncing weight, but not a high range. I've learned that my body does this as the scale moves down. Housework is my exercise today. I had a lot of carbs and too much salt which probably is the reason for my small rise in weight today. Also, I ended up with a 12 hr window which is very rare these days, but knowing that it can be done helps keep me from feeling like I was off plan. Keeps me feeling empowered to do this. Makes me love IF even more because it encourages me. Today back on my 8/16 plan. Yesterday was just an unusual day. Tweaking my carbs today so I can get things moving in the right direction.

Noname Your stall may be just a temporary thing because of all the exercise you are getting with/preparing for your races. I've heard that can happen. Glad you are not allowing it to be a set back for you.

Lililann Don't get discouraged with yourself. Just keep working at your plan and it will come together as you get more comfortable with it.

patty - Thanks for the encouragement. I've been stalled since November, so I don't think that's it. But I'm going to wait until both 5K races are over (the second one is May 2nd) before I try out anything different. I have been logging ALL of my food the last few weeks and that's definitely been eye opening. I usually ignore weekends but I have to stop doing that!

I am glad you recognize how the scale bounces up and down with this way of eating. Hope your 8 hour lower carb day goes well :)

Today is a fast day for me! Also a rest day. Ran another 3.1 miles last night to make sure I'm ready. Resting today, short run tomorrow, then race on Saturday!

Noname I think this is something we are always going to be learning how to change or as I like to call it tweak. I'm sure you will figure it out and I like that you know not to put yourself under the stress of trying to change things while you are doing the races. I think that is wise especially since you are maintaining. Good luck on the 2 upcoming races.

Since I've settled to do IF with kind of an Intuitive style, my eating has been evolving. I've eat too many carbs and small amounts. I have been reading different ideas online and since I know I'm not going to do a strict LCHF, I have finally settled for a Moderate to Liberal LCHF. I play little games with myself and decided this morning to eat when hungry, eat what I like and try not to overdo any of it. I know I have to take my last pill for the day around 8ish so my 8 hr window is usually from noon to 8. Eating a little more of good carbs, I only ate 3 meals. Breakfast and dinner are not as large a meal as lunch. I found that I was totally satisfied. I've been reading about Resistant Starch which is on the net a lot these days. I realized today that this is how my Mama cooked. Since I'm eating more moderate carbs, I am eating peas, legumes, potatoes with skin and just watching the portions.

What was really nice about this way of eating is that I was not feeling too well yesterday as I had a terrible headache and could not sleep last night. Nothing seemed to help me go to sleep even after I got rid of the headache. So I didn't sleep, but knowing I am doing IF I was able to stay within the 8 hr window. I love IF.

Does intermittent fasting work well for someone who lifts weights a lot and want to build muscle?

mkat12, yes, I've heard it is AWESOME for that. I'd suggest this resource: Leangains Guide. I believe it is a 16/8 model (16 hours fasting, 8 hours feeding).

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Done my two fasts for the week, a day earlier than usual as we are leaving for a long weekend away! It will be an active weekend since we're camping. Big hike on Friday or Saturday. Hit a new low on the scale finally, so it seems that things are moving again. May be my slight change or diet or increased exercise or both. Either way I finally feel back in the game. It was a slow start to the year, but I've still got 8 months left :)

IF is great for someone looking to build muscle mass. I have been doing it off and on for years and love it. I mix it up though, which I like to do, some people not so much. I prefer to take a fat burner also when I am fasting because it makes it much easier, especially in the beginning.

No loss this week from last week. Boo! Still possible I could drop a little bit by tomorrow morning, but I usually count the day after my second fast as my "official" weigh.

Lately, the day after a fast day I've been waking up really hungry, which is odd because that never used to be the case. Then I eat breakfast so early that I snack too much throughout the day. So today, I didn't eat my breakfast until 10. That means I should be able to hold out until lunch without a snack. Hopefully that helps a little bit :)

I don't want to go back to 16:8 on my nonfast days because that was way too much restriction, but I do need to make some sort of change.

Hello all, I want to start back fasting on a regular to help get rid of some these extra lbs. I haven't posted here in awhile but I do still fast daily about 16 hours, loosely. I need to get back to at least 2 fast days (500 cal) a week.
Noname how did the 5k go?
Pattygirl I recently transition to LCHF about 3 months ago. Initially it was not easy and I had all the carb withdrawal symptoms imaginable. Lately I have fallen off and started letting carbs creep back in at higher amounts on the weekends so I do need to get that under control. I actually enjoy eating LCHF.

Hi all--I haven't been on here in quite a while, but I see a few familiar names.
Noname--It sounds like you're in a slump right now, but I can tell your weight is definitely lower than last time I was here. So congrats on that--you always seem to figure it out! And good luck with the 5K! I'm getting back into running again as well, and a race would probably be a good, motivating goal.

I have gained back a lot of what I had lost last year, but not all, so I guess that's something. I'd like to lose at least 10 lbs before the summer when we'll be going to the beach a few times. I was doing Fast 5 last summer but found it was not sustainable for me, especially once my kids went back to school and life got generally more hectic. So now I'm trying once again to figure out a good IF plan and get losing again! So far this morning I've had some coffee (really, a coffee alternative I found and love!) and a couple bites of dark chocolate. I might try doing 16/8 for a while and see how it goes.

Good to see some old faces back here again. Welcome back ShaMac and lightenup!

ShaMac - Awesome that you're still keeping up the 16:8. Have you been maintaining with that? I'm sure a few 500 cal. fasts will shift things quickly for you!

lightenup - It sucks that you've gained some back but I know you have the tools and resources to figure out what works better for you. It's only early May - I'm sure 10 pounds in the next few weeks will be perfectly reasonable! Good luck today! It would be great for you to get back to running, especially combining it with fasting!

My 5K went awesome :) I had fun and totally obliterated my best time. I'm not sure I *love* the race aspect, so I'm not signing up for anything quite yet. Maybe once I move (sometime this summer). I'm going to slow up on the exercise a little bit and focus on losing weight (instead of exercising so much that I'm hungry all the time).

Today is a fast day. I really need to plan my meals for the week. My meals are pretty regular so it shouldn't be too difficult, just need to actually do it and then shop and prep! Didn't have time to do any food prep this weekend!

Noname, no I was not maintaining, I actually had put on a lot of weight and recently decided to change my eating habits a few months ago, since then I have lost a little over 20lbs. How many fast days are you doing a week now? Hopefully we can motivate each other through them.

Lightenup, I too am trying to knock off some weight for the summer, I was hoping to get off another 15lbs or so before July, its a big goal but Im positive about it. If you dont mind me asking, what kind of coffee alternative have you found?

ShaMac--It's called Teeccino, and there's a website teeccino.com. You can read reviews there or on Amazon. It sounded really good so I had my husband pick some up from Earth Fare (similar to Whole Foods). I got the mocha flavor which is pretty good. I also just ordered the 9 flavor sampler from teeccino.com. The "coffees" are made from carob, barley, chicory, and sometimes dates, nuts, figs, cocoa. You brew it like coffee, and you can add sugar and/or creamer just like coffee. So far I love it, but I was curious about the other flavors, so that's why I got the sampler. As for why the switch, I had cut out caffeine a couple of years back, but 2-4 cups of decaf a day was starting to not feel healthy. After reading up on health issues with regular and decaf coffee, I found this on the internet and read great reviews. Even my mom, a hardcore coffee drinker, tried it and realized she could easily use it to at least cut back on her coffee intake.

Well I've done okay the past two days (so far!), doing pretty much 16/8 with an eating window of about 2:30pm to 10:30pm. I'm also working on cutting back on carbs and limiting processed foods and sugar. Is anyone here doing low- or lower carb? Or is pretty much everyone doing that? This is really my first attempt at keeping track of carbs to any extent. It isn't easy when you're married to an Italian who loves pasta and bread!

Hi all. I'm new here. :3 Warning: long post... ;D

Well, where to start? Mmm, ah! I know! I've been doing 16:8 fasting for more than a week now and I'm actually losing a bit of weight. Slowly, but certainly. I have lost 15kg few years ago by just eating right and exercise, but it seems like the older I get, my weight somehow crept back up. It even started creeping up faster once I hit 30. I tried to eat less to compensate, but couldn't deal with it while I watch other people eating waaaay more and that includes refined sugar deserts which I have given up a long time ago. Yup, clean diet or at least I thought it was. No need to say I was jealous of them.

Being discouraged and had a huge wake up call 2 months ago when I regained 10kg with my pants no longer fitting me, I decided I had to do something, but what? Dieting was a big nope. I knew it wouldn't work, it won't be suitable as my lifestyle change. At first, I tried to reduce carb intake (mind you, it's all whole grain, no refined stuff, etc. and way less than most people I know eat), but I got really tired, only to feel better when I resumed my normal intake so I was stuck at this point.

I was about to give up when I heard about intermittent fasting. I spent hours reading about it and decided to start it right away. Usually I eat a snack at night and eat breakfast in the morning, thinking the more frequent I eat is better for weight loss... wrong! I was overeating anyways.

Just by fasting for more than a week, I have learned so much about myself and what I eat. Surprisingly, I feel so much better and I got so high on energy, something I never knew was possible to have (I was always tired!!!) that I had serious troubles sleeping. I also noticed that carb is now making me tired than other way around before fasting. It's like my body finally got the message??? So now I don't really crave carb that much anymore, resulting me in looking for alternatives to replace what I usually eat (like instead of pasta, I can use spiralizing peeler with veggies to make "pasta" from it). The health benefits I get from fasting is already amazing. I wish I knew about this earlier. :(

So yeah, here I am. :D Now you know a bit more about me.

I have a question: Being a part-time vegetarian, meeting my protein need is a bit hard so I ordered whey protein, vanilla flavored. I thought it wouldn't come with sweetener, but it does. Surcalose. :/ If I knew that, I would have gotten one with stevia instead. However, I don't want to waste this one since it's a bit pricy. Do you think it'll be okay for me to finish this one and buy one with stevia later on? I found mixed articles on Surcalose so I'm not 100% sure. Thanks!

And one more thing, I've read alot of those threads and it's awesome to see how you guys struggle only to eventually succeed. It's good to know that I'm not only one who is struggling! <3