The FastDay Forum

Curious how people feel about this.

From what I read in the eating windows threads and tents, people love the concept of nominating x number of hours to eat every day be it 5,6,7 or 8 for all kinds of reasons. My understanding is that this eating window method occurs every day of the week, thus it effectively "daily fasting" but without attention to calorie counting at all. Penny dropped more me only recently is that eating windows is actually daily fasting.

For those who have experienced both 5:2 or 4:3 and the new eating window method for a long period of time, which do you find:

- easier (and if so, what makes it easier for you, individually)
- more effective in weight control
- more healthy for you
- less hungry all the time.
- just eat less (more calorie deficit)

If you switched to eating windows do you think this will be permanent, that is you wont return to the "traditional" 2 or 3 days of 1/4 TDEE principle behind "5:2"

Some do combos (like me) so interested for these if you would ever just switch back to one or the other.

Before anyone thinks I want to start a war of the methods, don't, i'm just initiating friendly discussion and comparisons.

I'm seriously considering doing something like 16:8 everyday for maintenance, once I get to a slightly lower weight. The plan would be to keep an eye on my weight still (of course) and throw in a proper low-cal fast when necessary. But since I've only done 16:8 on non-fast days so far, I can't really answer your question. I am also curious what other people have to say, though there's already a lot of info on various other threads around...

I'm still working out what I want to do/ what is best for me

Ideally I would like to just do 6:1, and on the 6 days eat as I need. But it is very easy for me to exceed TDEE so skipping breakfast almost everyday has been a strategy that has helped keep the intake in check.

But I really do want to be able to eat mindfully (almost) all the time, and be able to manage my hunger and need for food - ie, be able to eat whenever I feel (genuinely) I need to, whenever that is. This is part of my solstice challenge (that I must add to my signature!).

But (another but) I do think extended periods without food helps with keeping the weight off (and not just cos you consume less) and I like to believe that it also has the other health benefits that MM and others outline. So I will try to keep my eating window as narrow as is reasonable for me most days if that fits in with my hunger/need for food - but an 8 hour window is as narrow as I can generally get, cos I do like something just before I go to bed (going to bed hungry is not conducive to sleep for me).

NB I still would do one fast day a week cos that gives me a few more cals I can have on other days (!!!), and it also means a 40-hour period with minimal food intake, which as I mentioned above, I think is beneficial.

Neither is easier and both are easier. Will depend 100% on individual people. Just like fasting works (and is an "easy" option) for some people, but not others, so will different ways of fasting work be easier for different people.

I have done 5:2 for 4 months and lost 12 lbs. The way I did 5:2 was, no calorie drinks only on the fast day and no calorie counting on the feed days.

I have done Fast-5 (19:5) for 4 months and lost another 12 lbs.

I find Fast-5 much easier, because it's the same thing every day so the power of habit is with me. Most of the time I don't feel any hunger pangs, some days not at all. I have found it easier to eat more healthily. I don't feel like I am avoiding a "bad" food from when I wake up until when I go to bed, I don't think about food at all except during my eating window. To be fair my diet began improving while I was on 5:2 because I experienced the effect of not being very hungry on the day after my Fast, so I was able to step back and make better choices.

Towards the end of my time on 5:2 I was beginning to have negative thoughts about the fasting day "Oh no, here we go again!", but I don't have those feelings about my daily fast. I plan to do an eating window for the rest of my life, rather than 6:1 for maintenance, though it may turn out to be a longer window than 5 hours so that I don't get underweight. I will experiment when the time comes.

Hi Juliana, I started out doing 4:3, then I decided that avoiding refined carbs would be a good idea. Then after further reading about eating windows I went to 16:8 on a daily basis and the weight fell off. I watch my calorie intake on my fasting days only.

I have now started to do 19:5....I have learnt that a narrower eating window makes me less hungry generally speaking.

Until I am well into maintenance I don't know how much of this I shall have to do. Although it looks like the 19:5 window is the way to go for me.
I am still trying to shed a further 2k hence I haven't stopped 4:3 yet.

Because I am over sixty I think I have had to be quite strict about keeping my insulin levels at a minimum (or as close to zero as I can) to lose weight, some of you younger members can burn off glucose by vigorous exercise and so keep your insulin levels down that way. It's insulin that you have to beat!

One size does not fit all.....it's a matter of finding what really works for you and at a pace you can cope with.

I hope this helps.

Another timely post Juliana. I'm kind of playing about with maintenance just now but not happy with the balance yet. After reading @barbarita Fast 5 thread, I'm going to give that a try. This from me who swore by pure and simple 5:2

Also read the Fast 5 free download and think it's doable considering my current eating pattern. So I'm doing 2 days just to see how I feel and so far so good. Only 35mins till I can fill my face. I mean break my fast sensibly

Alf

I decided to try fast five this week alongside 5:2 as my weight loss has stalled the last few weeks and I've even gained a little. It didn't bother me too much on Monday as I knew I could eat at 3pm. I didn't actually eat until after 5 I think. It did start to get harder throughout the week and by Friday I'd had enough, but I'm sure that's because I was combining, which I'm not sure is a great idea.

I liked the feeling of knowing that at 3pm I could eat whatever, but the thought of doing a 500 cal fast day the following day wasn't appealing. I might give it another go sometime but fast 5 only, not combined with 5:2 and it would have to be weekdays only for me. The choice of EITHER going out for lunch or having some drinks in the evening just wouldn't work at the weekend and would just be too restrictive.

I'm maintaining and have been for a few months now. Gradually moved from 5:2 to 16:8 (1pm-9pm but usually finish eating by 7pm as I don't like eating late) without thinking about it. It would be difficult to move my window to open later in the week due to work and I eat an evening meal with my husband. Weekends are eat what I like but generally/naturally, stick to a similar window - breakfast is a rare occurrence these days maybe after an early morning run I'll have porridge and banana or scrambled eggs/omelette if I have eggs to use up. I don't fantasise about food much these days and very rarely snack which is the big change. I don't feel as though I am waiting for the window to open, or that it has to snap shut. I do still do a full fast once a week, usually on a Monday as Sundays tend to be the day when a lot of food gets eaten and I'm ready for the break. But sometimes I do just feel like a fast anyway, like this week when I had an uncharacteristic binge on chocolate. We're not big alcohol drinkers which I am sure helps keep both calories down and resolve in tact!

Actually that's a long winded way of saying I think I've found the way I should eat for me

I'm sort of maintaining/possibly going to go for a little more weight loss/seeing what happens at the moment, so am doing 16/8 or less most days, unless I want a breakfast for any reason, which happens from time to time but less than once a week.

I was doing one proper fast a week and 16/8 the other days, but have found that doing a shorter fast say three days a week (so basically only having dinner on those days, but not calorie counting and including the odd drink/dessert etc.) has led to me starting to lose a bit more weight and is better for me in terms of sleep, as I sleep very badly after a 500 cal fast. Also I hate counting calories so I find dinner only easier.

So at the moment my week is dinner only Mon/Wed/Fri and 16/8 Tues/Thurs, then weekend days it depends what is happening. I can't say for sure what I am going to do longterm, I quite like changing from time to time so I might well try something different in a couple of months depending on weight loss/maintenance.

Thank you for the responses. Keep them coming. I am truly amazed by the variations you find with everyone. Intermittent fasting is so flexible and means so many different things to different people.

Would love to hear more particularly where you changed from one way to another and then another or do combos.

As many say, one size doesnt fit all which is different to other diet regimes which tend to follow strict rules. We all evolve our own formulae. Hard i guess for someone brand new to all of this as to which is teh best way to go.

Maybe some have thoughts on this. Someone fresh to IF.. should they stick maybe to 6:1 at first to get the hang of any kind of fasting if they are brave and move to 5:2. or perhaps should they start only with 16:8 7 days a week? 8 hours being a nice easy eating window range for the newcomers, compared to say 5 hours.

I wonder too if it all depends on our lifestyle. If you are a stay at home mum or a stay at home home-based worker the eating window might be easier than 5:2 or 4:3.

I went straight in with 5:2 and didn't find it that hard. I started off with having some fruit for lunch then an under 500 cal dinner. Then I had bouillion for lunch, waited until 4 ish for fruit and then an under 500 cal dinner. Gradually I started skipping the bouillion and fruit and now I don't have anything except water until early evening.

If you did 16:8 every day, would that basically mean you never have breakfast again? Hmm, not sure I could do that. And yet, when I skipped breakfast on a feast day because I knew I was eating out, it seemed to make a difference...hmm again

I skip breakfast, but my 'eating window ' if you wish to call it that is the rest of the day! That and 5:2 works for me all be it slowly - but I am more or less where I want to be weight wise, just aiming for a little wriggle room like many others.

Don't you ever miss breakfast, though?