The FastDay Forum

[Debs]

Hi All,

I read this last night, her new Every Other Day fasting book as I was interested in finding out a bit more about the science. It didn't take long to get through TBH hence the speed reading.
I won't go into a lot of detail, but the area that stood out for me were:

1. Weighing every day caused people to lose more weight than if they did it once a week. Psychologically people are more in tune with what they are eating. I always thought it was a bit daft. Not any more!!

2. She advocates high fat for feeling fuller. Hurrah!

3. She believes in lunch and a snack (400 cal lunch and 100 cal snack). Interestingly the meals in the book have carbs, low fat cheese etc. and she doesn't have a problem with ready meals. Each to their own.

4. She has scientifically shown that you can eat crap and lose weight, hence the junk food on the front of the book. There is some info on better eating and portion size towards the back of the book, but the emphasis is definitely on eating what you want and the weight loss will follow.

5. She has a maintenance plan which involves three days in the week of 1000 cals. People generally only put back on 500g doing this

6. Exercise increases weight loss.

My impression is that this is heavily weighted (Ha Ha!) towards the American, and increasingly, British market for people who aren't interested in healthier eating. Interested to see what other people think.

I weigh every day. It helps me as I'm not losing atm & if I was doing once a week, I would have a very different view of what was going on.

I will be interested in the other things she says, May well buy it. Ta for review.

Hi All,

I read this last night, her new Every Other Day fasting book as I was interested in finding out a bit more about the science. It didn't take long to get through TBH hence the speed reading.
I won't go into a lot of detail, but the area that stood out for me were:

1. Weighing every day caused people to lose more weight than if they did it once a week. Psychologically people are more in tune with what they are eating. I always thought it was a bit daft. Not any more!!

2. She advocates high fat for feeling fuller. Hurrah!

3. She believes in lunch and a snack (400 cal lunch and 100 cal snack). Interestingly the meals in the book have carbs, low fat cheese etc. and she doesn't have a problem with ready meals. Each to their own.

4. She has scientifically shown that you can eat crap and lose weight, hence the junk food on the front of the book. There is some info on better eating and portion size towards the back of the book, but the emphasis is definitely on eating what you want and the weight loss will follow.

5. She has a maintenance plan which involves three days in the week of 1000 cals. People generally only put back on 500g doing this

6. Exercise increases weight loss.

My impression is that this is heavily weighted (Ha Ha!) towards the American, and increasingly, British market for people who aren't interested in healthier eating. Interested to see what other people think.

Thanks for the synopsis Debs. My thoughts are:
1- Weighing every day definitely motivates me - I take it with a pinch of salt though and don't get upset if I'm slightly up and know that I am due a toilet trip
2 - I'm not a fan of low-fat/diet foods - what they take out is usually replaced by something worse!
3 - personal preference - whatever works!
4 - I respect my body so junk food is not an option - possibly an occasional treat
5- no comment - I'm a way off maintenance!
6 - definitely - has to!

I'm sure you can achieve a goal weight by consuming your calories from junk food rather than healthy food but my opinion is that I want to be healthy, not just thin!

[Debs]

Agree madcatlady, and in part, that was the disappointing element for me.
She also talks about artificial sweeteners and the evidence of the problems they cause, particularly increasing food cravings.

Thanks for the summary, Debs!

I know something she's really concerned about is people being able to stick to it. Perhaps this is the reason for the lack of restrictions on non-fast days (which is really no different from 5:2).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading it. I keep an eye on her Facebook page, too. She answers readers' questions and is very helpful!

Interesting thanks Debs. I guess if your fasting every other day then you can eat rubbish and still lose weight. I don't agree it's the best way but if it's a way to help people that only eat rubbish anyway then it's better than nothing.
I heard about a study that showed when you have something artificially sweetened it confuses your body as it was wondering where the calories went, hence you can then crave other foods.
Yes I'm tempted to buy the book too.

Hi:

Actually, one of the reasons 5:2 can be so successful is that you can eat anything.

I have been addicted to carbs all of my life and have never been able to lose weight and keep it off because as soon as I get off what ever diet I go back to my bread and potatoes and gain the weight right back.

That has not happened with 5:2. I'm just coming off five months of travel and I did not do 5:2 during that time. However, I did fast whenever I could and have gone from late August to last Saturday without gaining even one pound. I'm back on 5:2 now and expect to pick up my pound a week or so weight loss from now until I travel again.

My point is that at least for me, I can actually eat carbs and still maintain/lose weight with IF. The recent (and former) threads about low carb eating speeding weight loss I believe are very accurate, but when you are addicted it is really hard to do.

Thanks to whomever on the forum posted the link to her book fb page. I saw she was recruiting for a study & as I live in the area called to see if I was eligible. They got back to me within 30 minutes. Sadly, I'm not eligible since I'm T2 diabetic. She said they're writing a grant for a diabetic IF study, but it could be years so I'll check back every so often. I watched an interview with a local talk show & it does seem she's not worried about the nutrient composition because even the people eating garbage on their feed days were having good outcomes in their bloodwork, cardio outcomes, etc. She did state maintaining muscle was important & sustainability is the key to success. She also said once people get through the first ten days, the don't seem to be as hungry. But you all know this already because you've been living it for the past year +. I learn so much from all of you, each day I pick up some new tidbit.

[Betsysgr8]

Thank you for the summary Debs! I agree that it's a shame that junk food is not 'forbidden' but that is also what makes just thinking about fasting do-able. You only have to get your low-cal (fast) days right and the rest should fall into place. I think, many of us, may not remember that that was what was so easy about starting IF, just 2 days. Only after we were doing this awhile did we start to look at what we were actually eating everyday and question why or not really crave the 'bad' stuff anymore. It's all a learning curve and if we give this WoE long enough we will improve our nutrition by just taking in all the information available here on the forum.

I am yet to read the book however the eat what you want i.e. junk food. While the blood work in the tests is ok I wonder what the blood work would be like 20, 30, 40... years down the track.

I still believe that junk food should be an occasional food not an all the time food.

Thanks debs for the précis! very interesting. I also have misgivings about eating junk food but as has already been mentioned if you lose the weight then it is better than doing nothing

Ballerina x

yes thank debs.

I agree with Betsysgr8. Get people started with whatever is easiest for them.

I've been obese and really despised my body. In my lowest moments, I actually wanted to punish it by feeding it junk, as well as to comfort myself by eating. People like me need something to break us out of that vicious cycle.

Now I'm slim I respect my body and I want to treat it well. Maybe it's because of that respect, or because my tastes have changed, probably a bit of both, but now I want junk a lot less.

But if I want junk, I'll have it. I think it would trigger me to binge if I deny myself beyond the 2 days a week that I can do.

I weighted rarely, not even once a week, and didn't stop me to lose the weight and to reach my target.

I don't think that encouraging to eat junk food is a good thing

The only thing I agree with is the 1000cal days when you are on maintenance. I may even try it as I struggle a bit to not go overboard with fast days since I am maintaining.

I think until I read the above replies, I'd forgotten how it was when I started. I ate a lot of rubbish on feed days and it took me months to sort it. I was still losing weight as I was very disciplined on fast days but it was only as they got easier that I was able to address cleaning up my diet overall.

I think it is making the incremental changes that add up that is key, well, it was for me. Too much change too soon would have been difficult, which is what I suspect happens with most Jan dieters...

One fun thing about this forum is that by the time I read through the replies to a post (thanks, @Debs, for this one), everyone has already said what I was going to say and I can just move on.

I probably won't read the book, but am wondering how she can propose a specific number of calories for maintenance. A big guy or very active woman taking in 1000 calories in a day would feel pretty much like they were fasting. For me, 1000 calories just means skipping a dessert, or not having the rice with my stirfry. Hardly a change from my non-fast day allowance of 1250 to 1400 calories per day.