IF fasters. I'm a weighted yo-yo at 255 lbs
I've tried many diets, but the diets that I've lost 50lbs or more have been slim fast and IF4:3

AS the new year approaches fast. I've decide to get started now. I hope to be in a strict IF routine starting new year's running fast.

I'M not in a hurry to lose the weight. Rather to apply all the knowledge of accumulated over the years and apply it to a healthy lifestyle. A Fat person can do very healthy things while waiting for a lower weight goal and not to just starve. Then start living healthy. My actual goal is to live longer. So it is a priority for me to put the proven health foods into a lifestyle of fasting. Also some moderate exercise vs nothing at all. The one tip I'll share is that if I don't want the weight to return?
I should practice eating the amount of daily calories I'll be consuming when I reach goal.

My weigh in. Saturday December 16, 2016. 255lbs. Starting Light exercise and weekly calorie restriction. My goal 160lbs. it will take a long time. Possibly 2-3 years.

Today I'm playing with my new veggetti pro. I got it for $5 on clearance was a steal. Cut up a potato nuked it and put on ketchup. I do experiment and journal dishes. 1 I ate it all. it was 125 cals . I became hungry again in 2hrs,but went to sleep. Then awoke without hunger pangs.
I look forward to sharing with y'all.

I like to post alot though I'm not an expert in a professional sense. I find that these type of forums help keep just as focussed on my weight as if I were standing on my scale every day.

If you believe I would like another thread please share.

Pang, I'm jumping in here with you! I'd also like to be in an IF routine by the new year.

Tonight just dinner and tomorrow too! Tomorrow night will be our family get together, so that will be looser,, and the same for Christmas. But I'll still try and keep it all in a 8 hour window.

Normally I'd like a 3 to 6 hour window, with some longer fasts on a weekly basis.....

Merry Christmas to all and enjoy the season!

Hi Finally Free.
That's what I love about intermittent fasting. Even if I binge on something I know I shouldn't. I can still keep on with the routine.
It's been almost a year since I last fasted. I wasn't able to get the 600 calorie day like I wanted. But more importantly I did count my calories. And any day I can keep it under 1200 is calorie restriction day so not a loss. Practice makes perfect Imo.

Basically I plan my fasting days on days when I'm eating alone. And my feed days. On days when I'm social. As long as I'm counting my calories over a 7 day period I can adjust.

I aim for 1 lb a week of calorie restriction. But after I've been fasting for a few months I ramp it up to an aim of 2lb in week on an every other week routine. So to say my individualized plan is a two week plan . Week one is 5:2 with exercises for 3400 calorie restriction. Week two is 4:3 with 6800 calorie restriction. My next fasting day is set for December 26th.

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Edit update.
That was the 23rd this is the 26th of December.

Today was my first fasting day in a very long time.
My strategy was simple.After work I slept most of the day. My last meal was at 11pm on the 25th. I did have to work so ate just before going in. Came home 12hrs later and crashed into the bed. With only three hours to go. I have high confidence in success. I stayed hydrated so no head ache.
I'll try and extend the fast by eating only 600 calories at work. 300 just before going in and another 300 around 5am at lunch time. This way I'll have food energy while working. I hope to come home around 10am I know I'll be tired and sleepy so I'll just sleep with plans to eat when I wake up Tuesday evening. I plan to eat a healthy tuna avocado salad on lettuce like a sandwich around the 36 hour mark.

I read that eating fish 2-3 times a week instead of other meats lends to longevity. So skipjack tuna is my gotoo choice for feed days. Ive been experimenting with adding pieces of dried fruit in it.

Basically it's
1 can tuna
2 medium eggs
1 avocado
8 red grapes quartered
4 mini sweet peppers finely diced
Served in lettuce instead of bread.

I find that knowing what I'll eat in advance helps to keep from giving into hunger pangs.something to look forward too so Ill have confidence and willpower that I'll be sated when I break the fast. So I won't give in to temptations.
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Just woke up Tuesday around 4pm. Ready to eat normally in a 8hr window. Happy with myself. Right now I'm not trying for trying for 2lb a week goal with exercises.

It's one to talk about it, yet another to get started. In the past restarts were easy. Not this time for me perhaps due to Christmas temptations. This is why I wanted to start immediately instead of waiting till Jan 1st. I look forward to getting into the 4:3 lifestyle again, but I'll define my success not on the scale but in successful attempts. I'm sort of rambling, but after reflecting my thoughts are I need to be on the 4:3 routine just in case I fail at 5:2. Considering I want to lose 100lbs. I want to be ambitious, but I know it takes about a month or two to become accustomed to fast days. I mean to say comfortable with every other day.

I dug up alot of my info from past attempts. I'm buying the foods I have marked as enjoyable and effective. Basically building on past successes. What sticks out for me? How quickly the menu changes when I have 2-3 fast days and 2 fish days.
It makes for only 2-3 feed days so my meal planning becomes simplified. Further I know I'll be eating meat meals on those days and since broccoli is a synergy for nutritional uptake with most whole meats like steak and chicken. It's pretty easy to just designate a steak and chicken night for satiety issues in the beginning. So this is what I plan to do.

Monday fast day 600
Tuesday tuna
Wednesday's fast day 600
Thursday catfish and beans
Friday fast day 600

Saturday chicken broccoli
Sunday steak broccoli

The weekend chicken and steak plays to satiety. Though once I get more accustomed to fasting I change the satiety gear into the DNA REPAIR MODE gear by altering the satietydays into 30 plus hour fasts. Thing is that's my personalized approach that fits my work schedule. I add alot of rules and filters as I go on.
For instance 7 vegetables a day, low glycemic rate, pre and probiotics, high fiber, anti oxidants, supplements, synergy foods, anti cancer foods, immunity foods, nuts, fish, walking, strength training, high-energy then low-energy day, energy and health tonics, liver, gallbladder,and colon cleanse. Other issues like planned treat and planned breaks as well as seasonal menus . Thing is its hard to get into high end menus and still be social with family and friends. When a meal time is just as a baggie of food. However I think this is why I return to fasting over and over . Not all days are restriction days. And iu can still eat socially 4 days of the week.

The weekly above is in my notes as a 2lb week plan, but had light exercises on fish days and heavy exercise on meat days where my total amount of exercise calories added up to 2400 calories Over 7 day period.

So if I look at like an equation.
BMI 2200 x 7 = 15400 calories - 6800

Monday +600 fasting
Tuesday +2200 -400 exercise
Wednesday +600 fasting
Thursday +2200 -400 exercise
Friday +600 fasting
Saturday +2200 -800 exercise
Sunday +2200 -800 exercise

What I like about this is it is still approximately 1200 calories a day over 7 day period. This is my plan to reach 220lb from 255

What a long post , I think I said all I hope to do .

Hi Pang,

These holidays have put a big ole 8 pounds on me! I'm done for now with celebrating. I've started fasting today and will have my food ready for when I have to break it.

I will not change my stats, I'll just squeeze back into them.

How are you doing? I'm sure others will join us soon,,,,,they are just doing what I've been doing. Have fun folks!

Here's a good fasting resource,,,,,Get inspired with me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8LfrxhBnio

Here's a little more inspiration for the bright ones among us!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vdxZVe8m8A

Perhaps some of the usual posters are on a school break or away from work computers.
For inspiration I watch a 1hr documentary called eat,fast,live longer. And it's companion the truth about exercise.

This is my sec ond fast day this week. Basically it just fits my scedule as the easiest day to fast while sleeping all day. I wasn't going to exercise , because it almost always brings on hunger pangs of I haven't eaten in 12hrs. So my experience has been to sleep immediately after the exercise.this almost always works to sustain the fast without hunger pangs. I've walked 8,000 steps already.basically alot of callestinics on the fast day. So I'm going through my notes. I'll do barbell strength training and jump rope then nap while my family is cooking and eating their dinner.

Only 8 more hours to go.

In the past I used to avoid dieting during the holidays as long as I had a Jan 1st restart date. But I think I just make a another personal lifestyle policy of intermittent fasting for every holiday. This gives me alot of restart days as it seems I only fast for 6-9 months then I stop for some unplanned reason.
Maybe it's all the successful fasting days I've accumulated in past 4 years. I know what works for me and keep notes. Basically as long as eat in a five hour window is what I find is best for me.
If I were a day person it would look like this.
Hungry till noon- just calorie free drinks
300 cals at noon lunch with friends
300 cals at 5pm needs to last 3 hours dinner with family.
Early to bed around 9pm
EDIT NOTE.
IF friends and family can't support the small portion then avoid them during your meal time.

But for a holiday where food is part of the event.
1 holiday plate around noon
Another holiday plate five hours later.

Only eat twice on a holiday.

I strongly feel like that keeps my hunger impulses at bay so I can eat the holiday dinners with family and friends without reservation. You know just enjoy myself, but not binge or gorge just a typical plate like everyone else.

Hope you're holiday has been well.

Hoping to get to a free Wi-Fi soon too see those videos.
Just woke up haven't eaten in 18 hours. Going back to sleep. Hoping to make it a 30 hour fast. I'm very pleased with myself completing a 4:3 week. So i'm going skip ahead on my fasting skills agenda and insert nutrition shakes as a permanent part of personal longevity lifestyle. I was sucsessful with slimfast.

I'm putting them in the menu as how I break my fasts. The hurdle will be making them real foods good enough to look forward to. My age is a factor As I'm 49. If I were 25 I would think it's nuts. So it's a real challenge.

Response to Gin1912 below.
I will try harder to make nutrition shakes as tasty and satisfying as whole food meals. I mean how hard can it be to blend up my favorite salads?

Just thinking about it like liquefying chicken soup and a salad together. It's easier that way to count the calories and put into Pyrex containers for future varieties.

Hi Liliann ,
let's try harder

I must of been under a rock someplace. I can use avocado instead of butter???

OK I know it's not a fasting day food. But I'm having an OMG day!!!

Having some tuna by myself as the wife and kid are with extended family. I'm looking up a Google Search for "avocado instead" look through the image panel and click on link and it was like a lightning bugs moment. No butter ever.

Basically I can mix up all those condiment packets at Arbys. IE spicy three pepper, or zesty . Mix into a ripe avocado smashed into butter consistencies. MAGIC
OK its high calorie, but it's not empty nutrition!

I admit I bought too many when they were only 49 cents per.
It's a natural sandwich spread . But when we put a flavor packet in the mix it's magic magic magic. OK now I'm thinking the compound weight lifting is more doable on week two with more of this in the menu. I'm a happy panger! I can look forward to not eating long enough to reach a 30-36 fast and be sated with avocado salads and spreads without bread. See I'm always searching for 100% nutrition on a 600 calorie plate. I just found it here. Tuna,egg,onion,avocado,garlic,pepper,flavor packer,turmeric.

Edit Small update.
It turns out that for greater nutritional uptake eating tomato and avocado together have synergy that has better uptake than either alone. Another food synergy is turmeric and black pepper. I'll be trying these four in combinations to make a superpower food .
See I'm on the edge of sedentary. If I don't eat well and work too long I don't feel like doing anything when I get home except watch TV. I want to change that and get back to what I was doing not so long ago. Lifting weights at the gym and then sailing when the weather was prime. I can't blame my weight because I've been a yo-yo topping up at 275 five years ago. I was still getting out and meeting people taking them on sailing adventures and joining them at events that interest them. So when I realize a new meal that give me energy but also fits my fasting menu I'm happy about it.

Good luck everyone. C U next year.
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Jan 2nd
Was supposed to be fast day but was frenzy errands and taking my teenager here there and everywhere. I ate fast food. But I kept in moderation. Only 800 calories from fast food,and 1200 from a sweet potato health salad. I laughed because I was making a tuna salad without mayo, but ended up forgetting the tuna too. Kept thinking how bland it was. It wasn't bad , but wasn't great either. Oh well. Lots of nutrition , not hungry , nothing to complain about.

Hi everyone! For those who don't know me, I'm the person who started the OMAD thread some time back. It became inactive, and I have been off 3FC for awhile, but now I'm back. I was glad to see this thread.

Like many people, the holidays were a struggle for me, but in the new year I have been very serious about OMAD as well as my LCHF diet. I am having success with it, although I will admit the first couple of days were pretty rough.

I don't weigh myself, so you won't see any ticker here. I go strictly by how my clothes fit and how I feel. I think the scale is an instrument of torture.

I generally eat my one meal in the neighborhood of 5:00 p.m., although that's not a hard and fast time. I try to keep my eating confined to a small window (one hour, if possible). I did this before but without any restrictions on what I ate. Now I have combined it with a LCHF regimen.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hi southern maven.
I'm still here . Not sure where the other faster are.
What is omad and lchf?

I'm doing well getting back on fasting days, fish days, and health food days..I'm not super focused on fat loss right now until I get back into regular exercise and fasting as routines. To me it's important that diet and exercise Like a habit. Then I'll tweak to lose at least a pound a week.

I find that on a fasting day. I have the urge to cheat more strongly either before or after main meals. I have more will power not to binge in the morning's. So I try make the majority of my hunger hours in the morning. I go to sleep early on fast days rather than cheat.

Hi Pang!

My apologies; should have spelled both of those out.

OMAD is an acronym for One Meal A Day. It's just another form of Intermittent Fasting. LCHF is Low Carb High Fat. I've tried low carb before with limited success; I always feel pretty bad when I try it but this time it hasn't been nearly as bad. I think only eating once a day has helped with that, although I have no idea why. And in the past I probably didn't eat as much fat as I am eating this time.

I hear you! I have never in my life been a breakfast eater, so going without breakfast is not at all difficult for me. I do get hungry sometimes around midday, but it always passes. For some time I was a practitioner of intuitive eating and one of the things I learned from that was that hunger is not an emergency! I loved IE but the bottom line is that I HAVE to get some weight off for health reasons and IE was great for making me more aware of my hunger cues as well as other things related to eating habits, but I wasn't losing any weight. I am post-menopausal so weight loss does not come easy.

The bottom line for me is this - I can stand hunger all day if I have to, but I cannot be hungry when I go to bed!

Glad to "meet" you, Pang!

Nice to meet you to southern maven.

I fear something may have occurred to our host. Just a concern that there had been a sudden stoppage of postings from Lillian.
I joined the site after she stopped. So I have no idea if there is or is not a problem.


I won't commit to 23/1. Is same as OMAD.
When WWW was young I found an article relating to 23/1 only issue was bone marrow from protein restrictions. Other studies were conducted to find which window meals could be go without long term issues .
19.5/4.5 had no health issues of measurable consequences. I believe it was a German study in the early 40s and may be why I can't reference to it anymore.
Not trying convince anyone to try 19/5. I'm an ameture!
What I did was look at the 4.5 window on how doable it is .
I settled on 19/5. Because it fit my social eating window.

I could eat lunch at work then 5 hours later eat dinner at home.

I just beginning fasting again now in my 4th week. I do plan to eventually have three 33hr fast per week. But in alternate day style. Where I have 33 HR fast then eat normally for a day in window of more than five hours.

I've accomplished it before and had successfully weight losses but also muscle loss too. This time I'm being much more vigilant about the protein intake. So far I feel very strong. But I'll be very careful moving forward into 4/3. Feeding 4 days fasting 3days.

I used to have that same thought about going to bed hungry.
When I got divorced 17 years ago I spent a month on the family boat on lake Michigan. My brother was Captain. When we out for four or more days he would make us eat his stuff his way. I hated it. I wouldn't eat for nothin. He would go to bed hungry . Wake up and eat . If I ate before sleep he'd give me nothing till 2pm. There was a mutiny . I pushed him over and threw his hat in. Big kids. We werrrgh. I did come around eventually , it is a pivotal skull for me.
If I'm close to bed time , Instead of shuffling around avoiding the kitchen. I just go fall asleep. I discovered I can go to sleep with hunger pangs, and typically awaken without hunger pangs.

So when in the exercise phase. I found that if I had been fasting more than ten hours and tried to exercise intensive running or jumping I would get hunger pangs. Experiment to jumprope for ten minutes. Either go to sleep or eat 300 calories to quash Hunger pangs. It's my experience. Tricks to fasting through hunger pangs. If it weren't for pangs we would all be thin. Irregardless makes dieting so elusive. I'm falling asleep smiles.

Walking over to scale....
After four weeks semi intermittently fasting protein diet.
243lbs
I'm chuffed!
12lbs in four weeks to start.

Sorry for the ramble . Falling like a stone.