Hello everyone!!

KTucke7-->>
I have just started to follow fast 5 and I am wondering if you have any tips for me to lose the weight I want to lose and also to maintain afterwards.

Thanx

I am not Ktucke7 but I would suggest you read the first IF support group thread. If you're lazy, like me, than I would simply tell you this:

Calories matter. IF does nothing to change the equation of energy.

@esmi134 Like John said, you still have to watch the calories on Fast 5. It is just easier for me to do when I'm only eating for 5 hours. A lot easier! Personally, I count my calories on a weekly basis rather than a daily basis. That gives me some to play with for weekends, a special dinner, or when I just have an overdo day.

With fast 5, make sure you eat enough to carry you through the fasting period. I'm a night eater, so this isn't really a problem for me. I eat, go to bed, then have no trouble at all getting to my eating window without hunger management problems. Like I've mentioned before, I tend to be the "once the first bite crosses my lips I want to keep going" type. That's why fast 5 works well for me. I find that I can manage my calories a lot better if I can eat something relatively substantial instead of trying to spread a skimpy calorie allowance over 16 hours... That's why it works great for my maintenance. I don't feel deprived.

I've found my maintenance is around 1700 calories a day. When you are maintaining or losing, it's important to know what your maintenance is. While there are lots of calculators that give an estimate, most find that it is a really individual thing. Use a calculator as a starting point then you'll have to determine your true maintenance by trial and error. At 1700 a day x 7 days, I have 11,900 calories a week to distribute. I eat about 1400 calories a day Monday through Thursday, which leaves me (11,900-(1400 x 4)) 6,300 calories for Friday through Sunday, when we tend to eat out and do things involving food. If I wanted to lose, I'd drop my weekly down to around 9800 which would put me at losing about 1/2 pound a week. You can cut more or exercise more if you want to lose faster.

I've been at the weight loss/maintenance game since 1995 when I lost 100 pounds. I find logging calories to be invaluable when losing and during the first years of maintenance. I use fitday.com (free version). After awhile, it becomes second nature to understand the calorie content of what you are eating, believe it or not.

When losing, watch your body's response. You don't have a lot to lose so you may not notice this as much, but as your weight drops so does the number of calories you burn every day. Every pound burns calories even when it is just sitting there, so your requirements change. They also change with age. I'm 54 now, and I've found that even though I still lift weights and exercise, my maintenance calories dropped after age 50. Anyway, if you stop making progress (while losing) or start gaining (while maintaining) you will have to adjust your calories.

Finally, while I know it makes no sense and shouldn't be possible, I've found that my maintenance is about 100 calories a day higher when I do fast 5. It was 1600 a day before and now it is 1700. Bonus! :) Not sure what the mechanism is there, but I know it is true for me.

Another tip I'd give you is to eat plenty of protein. A lot of people don't get enough and it's important. It's your body's fuel of choice and it digests differently than carbs, so it keeps you full longer (in simplistic terms).

Hope this helps. If you have any other questions or I can help in any way, just let me know! Good luck to you and know that if I can do it, anyone can...

Thank you guys!

JohnP, where can I find the first IF support group thread? I am interested in reading it.

KTucke7, I appreciate all the info, I am very excited because I have already noticed a difference and want to keep going.

I'm reading this thread with interest.

I did a version of this when I was in my early 20's and lost 50lbs pretty effortlessly. I would eat a small yogurt cup in the morning, then I would fast until about 3pm when I got home from work, then I would have a very large meal (or meals) in the evening (which is my worst trigger time). I would say it was about 1400-1500 calories total but because it was in a short amount of time I felt like I could eat unrestricted.

However, so many people drummed it into me that it was SO unhealthy and SO damaging to my body and such a *wrong* way to do things that I abandoned it and gained it all back -- despite the fact that I did in fact lose weight.

Anyway, I'm going back to eating in the evenings ( a controlled calorie amount) and eating very little during the day/fasting. Thanks for the inspiration. I'll be reading this thread with interest!

@35x35 Welcome and good luck! :)

Hi everyone,

I came across this forum after doing a lot of research into IF and this seems like the most active and supportive forum to be a part of!

I have always been petite but at my heaviest I was 165lb(ish) after being on the contraceptive injection, eating crap and doing no exercise. I came off the injection and lost 35lbs in 8months about 6 years ago (without trying...I put it down to being a poor student) and I have been going to the gym and running since the weight loss for about 4 years now and have managed to tone up.

However, I cannot seem to shift these last 10lbs or so to get down to my ideal weight even with a good mix of strength training and cardio 4/5 days a week.
My big problem is of course my diet. I do not put weight on, I just maintain. I have been this weight for years now! I don't eat unhealthily, I just eat a lot!! I love eating! And as soon as I eat breakfast in the morning a few hours later I am hungry again.

This is my 6th day of doing variations of IF.
Sat/Sun/Mon/Wed and today/Fri I am doing 16/8 and on Tuesday I did 24 hours from 7pm-7pm. Though it was more like 23!

It has confirmed what I thought, if I don't begin to eat, the hunger is much more manageable. It is easier to flat out resist any food at all, than to resist snacks/treats when already eating. It seems more clear cut and I am finding this works for me.

I have been drinking lots of water and green tea, which I do anyway so it hasn't been too difficult to not eat until 1pm/2pm. On the 24 hr fast I drank pepsi max too.

Funnily enough when I was a student and I lost 35lbs without even trying I was only eating one meal a day. And sometimes at weekends I wouldn't eat for 24+ hours due to partying....makes sense now, I was doing IF without realising. So it definitely does work!

I look forward to being part of your support group!

@Rosey85 Good going and glad you joined us. I'm past the one year mark on Fast 5 and I love this way of eating! I sure wish I had discovered it years ago. It is great for anyone with "hunger management" issues in my opinion. It works like a charm for maintenance too, which is a struggle for anyone who has lost weight. Nice to see you are almost there! :)

hi! I started IF today. I'll need support for sure because this time it seems it is more difficult not to eat and manage my hunger...

KTucke7, thanks a lot for sharing your exp.

@Princess Sophia Welcome! Hunger management gets easier after a few days. Hang in there! :)

@KTucke7 thanks for the warm welcome :) I agree that your body does not take long to adjust, after only 6 days I am finding hunger management significantly easier, even at work sitting at a desk in a boring job.
Just keep drinking plenty. I find switching between hot green tea, water and pepsi max good because of the different temperatures and sensations of them.

@Rosey85 I drink hot green tea and diet pepsi. I also sit at a desk all day. If nothing else, the green tea helps keep us awake! ;)

hello everybody, glad to see some activity :)
I also have a desk job and thats when its easiest for me to follow IF, its being home that is challenging, i work part time for now. But I drink coffee, make different flavors (no sugar or cream or anything else) and water, sometimes flavored as well.

thank you a lot for your support. I completed successfully. :carrot: Will repeat it next week (Tuesday or Wednesday)

@esmi134 It is a real challenge when at home instead of at work! Makes me realize how much boredom eating I did...

I am supposed to be doing a 24 hr fast tomorrow and not sure how i will fare being at home! Especially as I have 2 hours of gym classes early tomorrow morning and am always hungry after the gym. I am hoping that weighing will motivate me! If not I will just do as long as I can, I think I will aim for 3pm if 24hrs is feeling impossible nearing mid afternoon being so near the kitchen... :)

Not JohnP here ... but I was also looking for that first IF thread. It was closed in September. Here it is:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/supp...ort-group.html

I'm 17 hours in to my second 24hr fast and feeling good despite 2 hardcore classes at the gym this morning! I did have hunger pangs now and again within 2 hours of working out but they seem to have stopped now.
I weighed and have lost 1lb since last week, I am happy with that (especially as I ate a giant box of valentines day Thorntons chocs within 3 days!) though I expected the scales to show more because I look like I have lost more especially around my stomach which is always my problem area.
No worries though 1lb a week is fine by me if the mirror and the fit of my clothes continue to show improvement!
How is everyone doing today?

@Rosey85 Good here! With as little as you have to lose a pound a week would be really good progress. Happy Sunday! :)

Found this if anyone needs any further proof that IF is an excellent lifestyle choice! :)

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardia...pes=news.reads

@katylil That link takes me to an article about tuition hikes. What am I doing wrong?

Look to the right, there are some links to other stories and its one of them :)

Found it! Thanks :)

How is everyone doing?

Yesterday I did my 3rd 24 hour hour fast and went to the gym at around 22hrs fasted, as I posted on the other thread, I need to silence the voice in my head telling me I should be feeling tired after not eating, as physically I felt fine.

Today I am doing 19 hours so will eat at 3pm. I checked my body fat percentage the other day and it was 18.9% so I will check that every week to keep track as well as the scales. It looks like I have broken through my plateau though, as I have not been under 60kg for about a year! And 3 days ago I was 59.3kg! (Hopefully not just water which is why I wanted the body fat check to help me keep track).

Sounds great Rosey! Wish my body fat percentage was that low.

Do you have a direct link to the article? Like they said above, this links me to an article about tuition. There are no articles on the right about IF now.

Oh, I can't post links yet! Google "The guardian fasting" it's the first search result about preventing brain diseases :)

thanx EmmaD :)

Hi all,

I am looking into IF and could only find this thread on these boards, are there other IF places?

I've been doing calorie counting mostly but I keep messing up in the evening. I'd start out so perfectly and then ruin it. Mostly because my mom cooks so nice but full of calories. I am considering to only eat between 16-20 every day. I work a lot of 22-02 shifts so my day is only halfway by then. hihi. Any tips for a beginner? Things to pay attention to?

And do you guys eat absolutely nothing in the fasting-period or only fruit/veggies?

Thanks in advance.

I am unaware of any place on the internet where IF is discussed a huge amount and that is because it is quite simple and therefore there is not much to discuss unless you're a research scientist and trying to understand the mechanisms behind how IF can help fight cancer or extend life or other theoretical health benefits.

Tips for beginners would be to recognize there is an adjustment period and drink plenty of fluids during the fasting period. Some adjust in a couple days for others a couple weeks. If you're planning on starting your eating period at 2:00 PM nothing says you can't work your way up to that. Also one should have their diet in order before they start.

You do not eat anything during the fasting period but according to Martin Berkman you do not ruin the benefits of fasting if you consume 50 calories or less. However I think he is mainly basing this on his own experimentation and nothing actually scientific and has made the proclamation as a means to increase compliance. (You can have a dash of sugar or cream with your coffee or tea for example) Personally I keep the calories under 25 but that's just me.

You can like "Leangains" on FB and you'll get Martin's feed but most of his stuff revolves around bodybuilding. You can friend Brad Pilon on FB but he doesn't post much.

JohnP: Thank you for your suggestions. You are right, it isn't that complicated haha.

I will think up a serious plan and start with it this week. Tomorrow I have an important exam, and since I already gave up caffeine last wednesday I better not screw with my system much more before then. ;)

Good luck philana! The leangains.com site has a lot of interesting info if you want to read through it. As John said, it is primarily geared to bodybuilders but I found some of the science stuff to be interesting. There is a huge leangains forum on bodybuilding.com, but again most of the people who post are into bodybuilding.

If you have any questions, just ask! Someone here will try to help.

Had trouble finding a thread on IF but I finally did! I've thought about trying it in the past but never truly committed to it. I lost 15 lbs through calorie counting but now I'm stuck. I think the problem is that I really need to eat 1200-1400 calories a day to lose weight but I have a lot of trouble sticking to it. I generally eat more like 1500-1800 which lets me maintain but not lose. I'm a big night eater so I think having a window from 1-9pm or 2-10pm might work.

Also question, I've recently started weight lifting and I normally do it in the evening after school or work. I know you're supposed to workout in a fasted state but would this really matter or could I have a snack at 4pm...work out and then eat dinner at 8pm?

Oh another question, I tend to eat out with friends a lot. Sometimes brunch...sometimes dinner. Does moving your window around work or is it best to keep it constant? Part of the reason I hate a lot of diets is because I don't want to miss our on my social life! That's way calorie counting (kind of) works for me.

Thanks!!

At your height/weight I think you're foolish to focus AT ALL on what the scale says. Obviously I don't know what you look like naked but clearly you're working on vanity pounds. I'd be cautious to drop calories too low. To keep your hormones from getting out of wack you need to lose fat slowly when it comes to vanity lbs. Note: I said FAT not weight. Realistically if you could lose .5 lbs of fat a week that would be a good goal to shoot for. If you did this by June you would have lost 6 lbs of fat. But what you've got to recognize is that progress needs to be slow. I'd personally suggest calorie cycling. 1200 on off days - 1700 on workout days.

You don't need to work out fasted. You can move the window around.

John P - Thanks for the advice, it's really mostly body fat I want to lose. My body fat % is very high like 19-30%. A few years ago when I was dancing/acting (I then quit after a knee injury and various other issues with the industry) I was at this weight but my body fat was at about 19% and I felt a lot better. I'd like to get back there and maybe get my weight to drop a little lower. I changed careers and now work in obesity research so I am very aware that I am not overweight and these are just vanity pounds.

I started yesterday and ate from 1pm - 9pm, I'm going to do this again today.

How cool to be involved in work that can potentially affect many people in a positive manner. If I were to win the mega millions jackpot I would quit what I'm doing and open a free weight loss center.

Yeah I really enjoy it :) I think it's very important and doesn't get enough attention.

I have said so many times, I wish I had gotten into nutrition or something where I could help people that have weight issues.

Since I can't win the lottery (I work at the lottery, which means I can't play it :() can I work for you. I can open a mid-east US center. Since I live in one of the fattest states, it would be very busy!! ;)

Sure thing! I'll have to remember to buy a ticket tomorrow. :D

Too quiet on here! How is everyone doing?