I'm new. Wondering if anyone fasts or almost fasts every other day or 3 days a week. I've done this really successfully in the past, am going to do it again, would like encouragement!

Thanks!

Depends on what you mean by fasts. Is it eating absolutely nothing? Or will you be drinking juices or vegetable juices?

As a general rule I don't like the idea of fasting. it just doesn't really seem right. I've done detoxes in the past, cutting out certain foods, but it always backfired right afterwards when I'd stuff my face with all sorts of sugar and stuff.

For me losing weight was about getting a healthy eating plan I could do for life. I would never be able to live with fasting every other day for the rest of my life. I guess it depends on what you want. Sorry if I sound unsupportive of your idea, just in MHO it doesn't sound particularly healthy.

Thanks for your reply! I'm already eating quite healthfully, but don't lose weight easily mainly because I can't get a lot of exercise. I sit at the computer all day in my job, and at night, I make dinners, clean up, take care of things the kids and I need and go to bed. I walk at fast pace for 40mins-1 hour probably 5 days a week, but this isn't enough to move the weight. So, I'm having to try to go toward fewer calories, and I just would rather restrict more every other day and eat a little better on eating days.

Let me add some reasons that I am gravitating toward this. Years ago, I fasted two days a week along with exercising and eating healthfully and low calorie on the eating days, and I got down to between 125 and 135 as a regular thing. Years later, I read about fasting every other day causing people to be less prone to diabetes and other diseases, and actually causing mice they tested this on to live longer. So, I got into this again, and lost 15 or 20 pounds and kept it off fairly painlessly for quite a while. It's worked a number of times through the years.

Jer - no offense meant here - but if it successfully worked you wouldn't be here trying to re-lose the weight.

I think quite alot of people lose weight and maintain successfully without exercise. I have lost in the past without exercise, it just happens to help. I'm with Cats here, I dont think fasting is a healthy way to lose weight and would recommend trying calorie/portion control.

Rather than fasting, why not just step up your exercise. If you've got the time to do 40 mins to an hour of walking per day, then you've got the time to step it up and exercise more/harder.

I agree that if you're not keeping off the weight, then it's not really "working'. And I don't really consider not eating every other day to be really healthy.

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I guess the obvious answer is that, like many people, I haven't stuck with ANY strict structure of eating forever, and that's why I'm dealing with weight still. But that doesn't mean that each time I get back to greater strictness that it's a sign of major failure otherwise. I can't step up the intensity of exercise any more--I can't jog, and I don't have time for more than I am doing, not regularly. I walk probably close to 4 miles an hour speed, and DO fit in more walking when I have any time to do so. My eating is healthful; I rarely eat fast food, rarely eat fried foods, don't eat sweets a lot, and don't binge eat. So, I am not looking for a way of eating, particularly, because my eating is healthful, but I just don't lose weight very easily anymore. I DO appreciate your thoughts and concerns.

Would still like to hear from any who have/or still do fast/partially fast some, in a non-obsessed way!

I also don't recommend, or believe in fasting.

If you are walking for about an hour 5 days a week, to me, this amount of exercise sounds FINE. However, this is what I recommend:

~Instead of ONLY walking, why not do a strength building activity once or twice per week? If you are having trouble losing, gaining more muscle mass can help. Instead of walking 1 hour, 5 days a week-why not do that 3 days a week instead...and on the other 2 days, do a strength building activity such as a workout dvd that uses weights, or one that uses body resistance like Pilates?

Cardio exercise like walking is wonderful for burning calories, but muscle building exercise is just as important!


~You mentioned that you eat healthful things...but you can become and stay overweight eating healthful things, if you are eating too much of them. Rather than fasting a few days a week (which is bad for a number of reasons) why not simply cut your portions a bit EVERY day?

Do you know exactly how many calories a day you have been averaging? A simple 100-200 calories a day could be the difference between you not losing, and losing. Sometimes it really is that simple. I would recommend for the next three days, that you write down everything that goes into your mouth-a food diary. Write down approximate portion size as well. Eat normally as you usually do when you do this. At the end of the three days, if you figure up how many calories you have been eating, you can see where changes need to be made.

There are people who fast for religious reasons one day a week and don't seem to suffer for it but, quite honestly unless it's doctor supervised, more than that could be setting yourself up for long term effects you might not be too happy with.

I think there are several of us here (raises hand) who had great success *fasting* when we were younger only to find that 1) we started piling the weight right back on practically the instant we went to a "normal" eating pattern. and 2) pretty soon the fasting stops working for weight loss and you have to work doubly hard to repair your metabolism before you can even think about trying to lose all the weight you gained back (raises hand again).

I think a better bet would be to read through some of the posts in the specific diet threads and see if you see a program that feels like it might work for you then sit down and develop a plan that's going to nourish you body a little less erratically.

And ditto what aphil said about writing everything down. And that means e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g - if you take one french fry from someone elses order - write it down. Just because you don't put it on your plate (or in your glass in the case of sipping from the kids soda ) doesn't mean it doesn't count. It can be quite an eye opener.

And hang out at 3FC - you can learn soooooo much and get soooo much support from the members here

Another vote for non-fasting. I found that my body is so much healthier when I maintain a steady blood-sugar level. Eating small meals several times a day - portion and calorie controlled is a much easier and safer way to accomplish the same thing. AND - it can be done for life, so no weight gain will occur after you hit goal.
Fasting is hard on our bodies, and our brains, and even our moods. Unless it is done for religious or medical reasons, I can't imagine putting your body through it. I just finished a fast (for a medical test) and I am amazed at how it affected my ability to think clearly and problem solve.

I don't think that any of you are aware that there are good health benefits from eating a low amount or none one day and eating normally the next day, according to many recent studies. There's evidence of less incidence of diabetes, cancers, and heart problems from this method of eating and from calorie restriction. The only difference is that the way that calories are restricted is different in the two methods, in the first the restriction is on one day and then there's no restriction the next day, while in the second there is constant restriction. There's no recent evidence that there is anything dangerous or unhealthful about fasting every other day, as long as the eating day includes good, healthful food, and there IS evidence of health benefits.

I understand that you have each found something that works well for you and I'm glad for that. I was merely wanting to see if there was anyone doing a different method that I've found very effective for us to have mutual encouragement. Thanks!

I think many of us are a lot more aware of most recent nutritional studies than you think we are.

As far as I know there have been no studies performed by *reputable* medical establishments that show that fasting on a regular basis provides health benefits. Certainly no studies are out that show fasting every other day is healthy.

If you have links to a reputable study that shows this, I'd love to see them. I'm always happy to educate myself when there's something to be learned.

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I wasn't making an accusation about anyone's level of knowledge about weight-loss studies; I just said that the people who had responded to me didn't seem to be aware of studies to do with calorie restriction and alternate day fasting--no judgment, just an observation which explained why I was getting some resistance about limited fasting.

I can't post links because this is only my 4th or 5th post, but one article is on wikipedia, under "calorie-restriction". There are articles for the researcher "Mattson" related to calorie restriction or to alternate day fasting, and some from the University of California at Berkeley for alternate day fasting, as well as some from University of Louisiana, Kaiser Permanente, NIH, and several other institutions. Hope this helps.

That is the last place I would go for reputable informaion on fasting. You probably aren't eating enough to lose weight and have now damaged your metabolism.

What is the last place? NIH? University of California? Kaiser Permanente? Others that are included in the Wikipedia article? I put the Wikipedia article because it refers to several studies and cites them in the one article, instead of having to refer to a number of different articles, which I couldn't do by links, and so this was the one place that referred to several studies at once.

I thought that this website was a place to come for mutual encouragement and to find others that are doing a weight loss program similar to your own so that you can get mutual support. Since my first post this morning in which I stated that I was looking for someone who'd been fasting intermittently, I have had people respond to tell me that I should do something else, that I need to exercise differently, that I'm doing things wrong, I need to keep track of what I'm eating, I need to add something like Pilates, I am damaging my metabolism, and so on. This is not support but ganging up on someone who is not doing what you are doing! I can't add Pilates because my walking is done at work during my lunch hour, and I rarely have time at home during the weekends to do anything, as I have my children and helped to look after my bed-ridden dad until he died recently and now help to care for my mom. I have been keeping track of calories eaten, with no weight loss. I have not lowered my calories so low that I've damaged my metabolism, none of you know anything about me and yet you have made assumptions in your statements to me that were based on nothing! I am quitting this website. My goodness! What support!!

Threads about fasting get tricky, for lots of reasons. Jer, I can see why you feel challenged and not supported. You asked for people who had successful fasting experiences, and aren't really finding any.

First, I wanted to remind everyone about the forum rules. One relevant portion: "If you wish to support another member, please answer questions in a factual, friendly manner to the best of your ability, but do not argue or critique other’s choices or plans unless specifically requested to do so. Please do not undermine or debate what other members have chosen to do. This is a support forum, not a forum for debate."

I guess in this case, if we have nothing positive to say about fasting, then we shouldn't say anything.

However, I also wanted to note, from the same post, that "3FC supports all healthy weight loss plans so we have to ‘agree to disagree’ about which is the best plan" (emphasis mine). Fasting doesn't have to negatively impact health, but we've also seen people take it too far, and have significantly impacted their health with extended fasts, etc. Especially as you never really discussed what kind of fast you'd be doing, many people may be commenting because they don't feel it is necessarily healthy and are concerned about you.