Oh goodness guys, now I'm craving hot dogs haha!

berry, that is so awesome! I'm excited for you! What time of the day do you plan to exercise? I've heard from so many people who do really well exercising in the morning and it actually quells their hunger.

I don't remember what your eating schedule looks like, but for me a "fast day" still involves food (500 cals - coffee in the morning, and dinner). I know some people who eat zero calories on the 2 fast days of 5:2. No way! Still never thought I'd be able to make it until dinner without food, but my dinner happens quite early on a fast day haha

Second week of a combo of 5:2 and 16:8ish, excluding the weekend, and my loss has been close to two pounds again. I am never eating breakfast M-F again! This is awesome! Plus, all I have is a smoothie for lunch on those three days, which takes a whopping 5 minutes to put together. I used to spend a lot of time prepping my lunches for the week.

berry, if that's the case I think you could do Fast 5 fairly easily. You pick a 5 hour window in which you eat. So you could do 11-4 and not eat the rest of the time. Just a thought!

I to love a good hot dog and there's nothing better imho than a good ole WV hot dog. Yesterday when I left work for some reason the halls smelled like hot dogs. It was torture!

My weight has been playing with the same few ounces all week. I'm hoping that changes tomorrow and I get to record a new number.

Have a great Friday everyone!

No... I don't think I can... I don't have an "I'm full" meter. I literally could eat my entire caloric needs in one sitting - NO PROBLEM... unless it was all leafy salad without fats/proteins. THen, maybe, I would get too full before reaching my caloric "limit".

What is working for me is a bit of half and half cream in my cofee in the morning (7 am-ish - 150 calories) and then sometimes a small lunch, sometimes not, "about 100-200 calories) and then at 6:30 pm the rest of my calories for the day in one big meal - about 800 calories or so.

Oh so true. And they are plentiful in WV! Seemed like every Friday someone was doing a hot dog fundraiser. Chili and slaw on my dog? Yes please! They don't do that around here. Have you ever been to Hillbilly Hotdogs? I gained a lot of weight when I lived in WV...

Ok, no more hot dog talk for me!

berry, that sounds like a good plan.

I think my fast day was a semi successful. Berry I still eat around 600 calories on fast days; usually an egg or two in the morning, no lunch and 350-400 calorie dinner, which is usually a big salad with lean protein.

Today is a regular eating day. We are going to go to a friend's house for a late supper. Luckily for me she is making pizza and because I have a Celiac disease I can not have any, woot! So I will stick to salad and fruit salad she is making.

Even though it is a regular eating day, I am trying to keep my calories around 1200 and low carbs... On Fridays I usually eat around 1600 calories, but since I only fasted one day this week, I am keeping calories in check for today. --I did not lose as much weight this month as I hoped for and I am trying to squeeze another pound off -- I keep bouncing back up to the 140's, I so wish I could leave these behind. I did the same with 150's... it took me forever to get below them and stay below.

This 5:2 plan does seem to work though. I have been losing a bit weight and my upswings haven't been that huge. I was 145.8 pounds when I started this diet on May 13th and today I was 141.4...so it is creeping down. So I have lost 4.4 pounds in 2 1/2 weeks...need to remember that! -- I just got the taste of the 130's a few times, and I would really like to get there and soon.

I am happy about this plan; I finally found something that seems to work and I have a name for it. LOL. So I found a home!

Sending to all on this beautiful Friday morning!

Mmmm, I love me some organic beef hot dogs!!

Yesterday went well like the day before--even easier maybe. I'm just waiting for the day this gets really difficult, as I'm sure it's coming. The trick for me has been to eat a good amount of protein as a snack/small meal first, then a cup of coffee, then I'm ready for dinner around 7:30pm. I've been eating a fairly normal dinner, too. When I was IFing before, I was totally obsessed with calories, and I had bad food cravings. So far I haven't had that problem, but it's only been two days!

Today I was 157.4, so the extra lb from the day before came off, plus a little more. I probably shouldn't weigh everyday, but I've done it for a decade or more! I know my body has fluctuations, esp water weight, so I don't stress TOO much about a gain. But a lb up after my first Fast 5 day wasn't what I was expecting!!

wvuchick--I think you're doing Fast 5 as well, right? If so, can you tell me how long you've been doing it? And, do you do Fast 5 everyday, or take the weekends off?

The weekend is coming up, and I'm not sure what to do--Fast 5, eat normally all day, skip breakfast only? I'd sort of like to enjoy a good lunch with my family some of the time, or maybe a good pancake breakfast. But eating in the morning is my downfall. I don't know how you ladies can eat just a little in the morning, then wait until dinner! Once I start, I can't stop! I mean I don't eat constantly, but I can't seem to stop snacking. Plus, once I eat, if I wait a few hours I feel shaky--is that a blood sugar issue? Anyway, that's why I feel like Fast 5 is the way to go for me, since it's easier for me to just not eat than to eat just a little and then stop!

It sounds like everyone here is doing well with IF--congrats!! Have most of you been doing IF for a few weeks or so? I wonder what the long term practicality is? I'd love to eat this way all the time, but I'm wondering if I'll burn out at some point.

"Will power dust" --that's awesome! I'm so used to "Baby dust" on the TTC boards ;-)

noname - I have been there. Just once, it's a couple hours from where I live, it's uh...unique. LOL

lightenup - I am doing Fast-5. So exciting to find another fast 5'er. I do fast on the weekends. It really isn't too hard. I do treat myself to a diet caff free pepsi on the weekends, that's like my cheat or whatever. I have been doing fast 5 for 7 weeks. I can honestly tell you that I think this is a plan I can stick to for life. Maybe once I am at goal, I will cheat on the weekends, just not right now. I honestly love this way of eating.

Dr. Bert actually says for the first two weeks you shouldn't expect losses. It takes your body that long to switch from fast storing mode to fat burning. Have you read the ebook? It has some really good information in it and it's free.

It will definitely get easier and you will have days where you are really hungry, but for the most part, I think you will find it easy.

wvuchick--Wow, 7 weeks is awesome! I hope I make it that long! We're going on a trip in late June/early July to visit my family out-of-state, and I'm hoping to have lost several lbs by then. Congrats on your 19 lbs! It's so motivating to see that scale go down! You know, I have read the Fast 5 ebook, back a year and a half ago when I first tried IF. I just searched and it's still on my computer, so I'll definitely go back and read it again. Back then I'd already lost a good portion of the weight I needed to lose, and tried various methods of IF to lose the last few. It did work, but I was still counting calories and just burned out. I also wanted to try getting pg, so I stopped the IFing at that point. I'm hoping this time, without counting calories and with Fast 5, I can make an actual lifetime change!

My DH actually does a 16/8 fast most days at work, so thankfully he's understanding if I want to skip lunch on the weekends. It does feel strange to skip a meal with the fam, though. Has anyone here dealt with skipping meals with kids around? I'm wondering if they'll think it strange that mom's not a meal with the family? I could just explain it to them, but I'm worried they'll want to skip meals as well (ha! maybe not!), and I feel that the general public would frown on me not feeding my kids the standard 6 meals per day. My daughter also really needs a good dose of protein regularly throughout the day, or she can't control her emotions.

Sorry, went on a tangent!! ;-)

Hi lightenup! How's your first week of Fast 5 going?

I'd like to move away from big breakfasts on the weekends as well...but we usually have eggs and some type of meat, a small lunch if anything, and then dinner. Breakfast ends up being around noon so I guess it's no big deal. I need to remember that I can still have breakfast for dinner, no need to miss my breakfast foods! Sorry, no experience with skipping meals with kids around.

I've been doing 5:2 since August and can see myself doing this or some form of IF for the rest of my life - I would switch to 6:1 for maintenance, though would probably need an occasional 5:2

lightenup - No kids, so I can't help with that one. If they sleep late you could just tell them you had a big breakfast.

Well the coworkers are having me a birthday gathering shortly. I did tell them not to buy me the usual cake and ice cream. We'll see if they actually listened to me. I hate to be rude, but I'm not breaking my fast and I mean I did tell them, right?

BBB, it just goes to show how different we all are. I experimented a bit and found that moving my window any earlier than 6-8x PM would set myself up for failure (too hungry before bed time).

Like you, I could easily eat myself into a calorie surplus in a single meal, but I added the rule that I had to start with a "fresh" course (veggies and fruit, mostly veggies, along with a measured amount of healthy fat, e.g. salad w/EVOO, pepper strips w/goal cheese, fruit and nuts) which I eat until I start to register fullness.

Then, I still limit my starchy carbs (but I include some), and I eat all I want of meat and veg. I usually limit dessert to 2 squares dark chocolate (specifically, chili chocolate; the spiciness prevents it from triggering me). With all those rules in place, I can eat all I want of my entree. I do measure the healthy fats (10 almonds, a single serve guac pack, tbls EVOO) starchy carbs (a few heaping tablespoons), and the chocolate (2 squares), but otherwise I'm not tracking.

Also, the reason I give myself 2.5 hours for one meal is that I am totally allowed to top off later if I want to. I rarely do, but giving myself that permission prevents me from panic gorging in order to avoid hunger later (this is one reason ADF didn't work for me, the other being that I was really miserable on the down days. Knowing that I can eat as much as I want at some point in the day prevents that.).

I'm not pushing my approach at you. It sounds like you've got something that's working great for you. But in case you ever get really sick of tracking (I did), you might be able to try adding a set of rules like mine.

Yo yo man - just curious. How long have you been doing IF? How much have you lost since starting? Thanks.

I've been using an eating window for a little less than a year (my weight then was about 160). I was originally trying just to find an easy way to maintain (not that I was happy at that weight, but I didn't feel like I could take on the task of losing at that point and I was tired of failing at maintenance). So, in that time I've lost about 20 lbs, which is slow for most people, but perfectly acceptable (delightful, even!) for me.

Anyone here have splurge days/meals? When I originally started this plan 3 weeks ago, I allocated one day as a splurge day. But it is starting to scare me because I have a really hard time getting OP after that. What are your experiences with splurge days?

Well the month ended well, with total loss of 5.4 pounds. I am ending the month in a lower decade and that makes me happy! My goal is to drop 4 pounds this month. I know now that I am only 16 pounds from goal, these pounds will start coming off super slow. So even that 4 pounds may be a stretch...but it is just a goal