The FastDay Forum

Hello,
I am tired of myself snacking. Background: I played around with 5:2 starting in December, lost 9 lbs right away, found out I have hyperthyroidism, got on medication and am feeling better. The weight is beginning to creep back, so I am trying to develop a better eating habits to ward off additional weight gain (which may be inevitable if my thyroid levels really plummet now). I don't feel up for fasting for 12+ hours (what I did in December was pretty hard for me). So here is my question: are four-hour periods of not letting food into my mouth considered fasting on this forum?

[carorees]

It depends on how much you are eating when you do eat. If you stick to around 500 cals for the whole day then, yes, that is fasting. If you are eating a full meal, then no. After a full meal it takes in the region of 5 hours before you reach what is known as the post absorption phase ...that's to say you finish absorbing the nutrients from your food and start using stored calories.

Hope that helps.

Personally, that is a normal day for me, or even longer. Breakfast at 5.45am, snack at 10am, meal few hours later etc. However it's a good point, how many people are snacking all day on feed days? It makes me wonder if non success at fasting is thwarted by continual snacking on other days. This might make fasting seem hard to someone who is used to constant oral stimulation!

There's no doubt that it's the non-fasting days that are hardest. Why do we snack? Are we really that hungry? I mean, we can go all day fasting and fight the hunger...can't we do that on non-fast days? I guess it's a work in progress isn't it.

[carieoates]

No. 4 hrs is not a fast.
12, maybe 16, definitely 24 hrs is a good fast. Get the body burning fat....takes longer than 4 hrs I'm afraid.

The Varady study showed that as long as you stick to 500 cals it doesn't matter if you have several small meals or one "big" one. At least in terms of weight loss and whatever other markers they measured. If it's weight loss you're after, I say do whatever it takes to get you through the day on 500cals.

Yes, as others have said, I wouldn't call it a fast, but it would depend on the amount of calories. Any day with less than 500 calories is a fast no matter how often you eat them.