this is my thrid day, i was stuck fluctuating between 174 and 175 for 2 weeks, today the scale said 170.6!!hoping it stays going downward!yesterday i didnt eat until 2:30 (my goal was to make it til 1:30) and i ate a pretty heavy lunch about 450 cals. i was so full still at dinner all i could eat was a salad with chicken and forced myself to eat a protein bar to get as close to my daily cals as i could. i think im gonna try to not eat as much at lunch tho and balance my meals more although it is so nice to get that FULL feeling.

in regards to PACE and HITT i would love to start doing some but is it ok to do during ur fasting time?

Unless you're on an extremely low calorie diet there is never a reason to force yourself to eat. Example - you're shooting for 800 calories a day - probably a good idea to force yourself to eat. On the other hand if you're shooting for 1500 and only at 1200 there is no reason to force down food.

The idea that your body is going to go into starvation mode is nonsense.

see thats where i guess my brain is still stuck in the eat eat mode. my goal is 1300-1400 i was doing 1200 but i think it was too low(well told its too low) so i have been adding a little more. but then i get confused because im full at 1100-1200 but everyone says u need to eat more than 1200 because when i plateau i will have to eat less!lol im confused

Honestly, IF is the only time when I do feel more hunger when I'm working out.

I think it's because I'm actually able to stay true to my calorie counts and not over indulge here and there. Right now, I am very low cal (between 800 and 1000 calories per day) and I have a very active job in the first place, so when I add exercise to the mix, it does make a big difference in my appetite levels.

I will say that when I am on IF and just taking in a normal calorie range (say 1200 and above) then it really doesn't affect my appetite either.

Indiblue - I don't have the answer, but have been experiencing the same thing. I'm usually struggling to stay near my calorie level, especially when I workout, but now on IF, I have to work to get in the same allotment. I work out in the evenings, so I get to eat before and after my workout. Whatever the reason, it's a great benefit

The 1200 calorie thing seems to be a mantra of sorts around here. What is important is that your body is getting all of it's nutritional needs met which can be done on far less than 1200 calories. What is also important is having a plan you can stick with which for most people means 1200 calories or above. [EDIT] I'm not suggesting calories to anyone I'm merely saying if you're not hungry there is no need to force yourself to eat.

You will eventually plateau but it will probably take longer while IF. When you do it is not time to lower calories ... it is time to take a diet break. Slowly ratchet your calories up over the course of a week to maintinence calories and eat at maintience for a couple weeks. Then resume dieting.

Great article here.http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...iet-break.html

It's also a mantra throughout the dieting world... it shows up as an error message on my calorie counter (My Fitness Pal) whenever I consume fewer than 1200 calories. It literally says I will go into starvation mode. Absurd that there is a generic cut-off for ALL people regardless of height, weight, and activity level. Unlike katydid I'm very sedentary right now (not walking to work, in front of a computer for work) except for my 30 mins-1 hr workout and my BMR is 1350 or something like that. On some days 1200 is pretty much maintenance for me right now.

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Thanks all who indulged me on my exercise- appetite question! Not sure why it is the way it is for me, but like a previous poster said, I'll take it! katydid it makes sense if you are at 800-1000 with an active job all day you'd get hungry on exercise days. Did you say a while back you manage a Panera? I don't remember why but that sticks out in my mind for some reason. If so I could understand how that would be exhausting.... I worked part-time at Starbucks when I was just out of college as an intern and it was exhausting. Anyone who has ever worked 8-10 hours a day in front of a computer should try doing what you do- it's incredible.

Hi everyone! I haven't checked in with you guys lately. I just wanted to tell you all that I finally got on the scale again today. March 1st I weighed in at 250. Today I'm down 14.4 to 235.6! I started IF on March 13th. I don't know if it had any effect on my weightloss amount but I can say that this is the best weight loss month I've ever had. =) Still loving IF!

Great job Kim!

I hate the 1200 calorie rule, quite frankly. I DO like that the trend in the "dieting community" is to adequately feed and nourish the body. I'd much rather have people obsessed/paranoid with not going lower than 1200 than obsessed/paranoid with eating as little as possible. But this magical number of 1200 calories is silly, in my opinion.

An animal's body and eating instincts (all animals, humans included) are designed to eat to meet energy needs, but not necessarily specific nutrient needs. The genetic control that would be required for the animal's brain to instinctually crave specific macro/micronutrients would be too much genetic baggage to evolve and pass on. (The exception to this seems to be salt, but the instinctual desire to consume salt is separate from the instinctual desire to eat). This bit of animal behavior has an economic importance, in fact. When you're trying to feed cattle (or any producing livestock) the perfect amount of food that exactly meets but does not exceed their protein and energy requirements for the maximum daily gain, you canNOT feed too much energy because they will stop eating once they've satisfied their energy needs and won't meet their protein needs. Energy feed (grains) are cheap, protein feeds are not. The cow's brain is not designed to think "well I've eaten to satisfy my energy needs, I'm full, but I need to keep eating to satisfy my protein needs." It is up to the animal nutritionists to blend the perfect feed with no more or no less protein than the cow needs and an excess of energy.

Anyways, I say all that to illustrate a point...(I'm an animal scientist with a nutrition focus...I get overly excited about feeding cows, lol)...even though those of us with weight issues sometimes have a hard time identifying true hunger, our brains still work largely like the cows on this front. Once we have met our energy needs, our bodies stop being hungry. Again, our minds might still be hungry, we might have evening munchies or the desire to eat socially or emotionally or whatever else, but our bodies will no longer send true hunger signals.

That said, if I meet my energy needs at 800 calories by eating nothing but carbs, my body will no longer feel true hunger. That number may be lower or higher than that for each individual. That doesn't mean that I've even come close to meeting my nutritional needs for the day.

So for those of you that are finding you feel full at 800 calories (or whatever number you're at), you have probably met your energy needs to survive for the day. And I can assure you, your body will not go into starvation mode. Whether or not you got a balanced diet and met your macro/micronutrient needs depends on what you ate for that day.

Yes, I am a manager at Panera. I don't really sit down, except the 30 min to do paperwork at the end of my shift.

I have worn a pedometer a couple of times and it tends to average 10 miles walking per shift. (The highest I ever had was 13 miles on a shift, but we were super busy that day). I'll admit I run around more than other managers do, just because it's a tendency of mine while working. I don't like to stay in one area long, I like to check on everyone and make sure things are okay.

Anyway, I deliberately never let myself stand still for very long at all. I consider it one of the greatest benefits of my job.

Of course, all the free fresh baked pastries can be an unfortunate benefit too, if I let them.

Heck yeah!!! That is beyond awesome!!


Great post mkendrick! I agree that people's infatuation with certain diet numbers is strange and abstract.

We are also a society that tends to trust so heavily in what 'they' say. We tend to blindly follow any path that someone with a letter behind their name says, even if we have evidence of the destruction it does to our bodies.

It's sad that we don't trust ourselves more than we do, but perhaps these grass roots types of sites and forums will allow people to start feeling more confidence in their own best decisions.

One more small note . . . I saw the number 142.5 on the scale today!!!!!

It's one pound down from my previous low, and feels like a real victory since coming back from vacation.

Thank y'all for cheering me on to the 130's. I wanna see that number so bad that I can't stand it!

ok so i get it, im going to focus more on making sure my diet is balanced than the actual number of calories i ate. if i am full i will stop and if im still hungry i will eat something. lol easy to say right. i guess it is the fear of "screwing up" and i know everyone says its trial and error but error REALLY sucks!thanks everyone!i think this is the most logical group of people on this whole site lol i was telling my sister (who is a crazy yo-yo dieter)about IF and she said so basically your anorexic!!i was like no way!and found myself going on and on about all the facts and studies and basically quoting you guys then just stopped and realized yeah prob better to not tell people how i eat unless i have a pamphlet written up i can just hand them lol

Hi Everyone, I have just read this entire thread and I am so intrigued! I plan on starting IF tomorrow (already ate breakfast today). It is so cool to see everyone's learning curve on this process! Thanks for the great posts so far, and I will check in!