The FastDay Forum

Whether your in the Christmas challenge club or not... the big festive season where we are surrounded by puddings, cakes, hams, turkeys etc is soon to be around if not already. Indeed I'm making a Panforte cake this weekend and the tradition around her of a Guinness Christmas pudding as already been followed, and two are in the freezer ready for Christmas day or other party.

I came across the term "release weight" rather than "lose weight" this week after seeing a TV program about a guy that lost 200kg without surgery over a couple of years. (and all without bariatric surgery)... if you are curious.. http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/89302 ... -ever-told

Anyhow lets release weight from now to Christmas.. Or between Thanksgiving and Christmas if you are in the States.

When you need to release weight more quickly, do you have some strategies to share. Yes its all over the place in this forum, but give us your top three thats actually worked for you... i..e allow you to lose more weight quicker over say 4 or 5 weeks in preparation for some big event

Im all ears as I need to get back to my own Christmas challenge goal as my quit sugar one has slightly failed in that i havent been able to follow it like I thought i could. Will try though for next 4 weeks. Or if I can't I will adopt one of your techniques so please share your secrets. I will try anything (once).. tried the extended no eating/liquid only fast/21 hour fast but that did not work for me so anything else? Im not too good on the low carb/no carbs approach either.


Your top 3 techniques?

For me getting stricter on non-fast days is the key. This means fewer treats and less alcohol.

When I was in active weight loss mode I went through the holiday season and continued to lose weight. For me:
1. I went into a semi-maintenance phase in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the week after (once the holiday parties started in full force). I only did one down day a week, and I did those on days that we did not have a party/get together scheduled. The rest of the days I went to parties and ate, but on these days I treated them like down days around the party. So if we had a family potluck for lunch, I'd break my fast there at 11am, at the party, and then after the party I'd eat very lightly for the rest of the day. If the party was at night, I'd only eat 200-300 calories during the day, and then eat normally at the party.

2. I enjoyed myself at the parties, but I only ate food that I actually wanted to eat. I used to be a huge 'polite' eater and at get togethers I'd eat EVERYTHING, because I didn't want to hurt feelings. Now, I eat what actually looks good to me and I don't feel bad about not eating the nasty looking casserole aunt so and so brought

3. I eat everything that I want, but I do small portions. One get together we go to every year has delivered pizza, and then everyone brings a dish to pass as well. We're talking 3 tables worth of food! Old me would eat 2-3 slices of pizza and then fill 2-3 more plates with other food. Now-I chose one smaller slice of pizza and then I'll take one spoonful of other things, instead of 3-4 spoonfuls, a half a slice of fudge, instead of two pieces etc etc. I still indulge and eat higher calories, but the smaller portion sizes mean a large calorie difference! The old me would eat over a 1,000 calories in just macaroni and cheese at this party-now I eat a much smaller portion of it, and it's under 300 calories (yes, I actually figured the calories out, lol).

For me it is doing an extra fast day ie 4:3.
Sugar is my culprit not portion control so this time of year is the most dangerous for me. On non-fast days I often ALLOW myself sugary things, so if I need to lose weight, I do 4:3 because mentally I can refrain from "bad food" on a fast day even if I go over the 500kcals sometimes. Also, knowing that I will have to step up to do 3 fast days the following week if I over eat is sometimes enough to rein me in (not always).

Can I just add that this is my first Christmas continuing with 5:2 so this is a new experiment. I hope to maintain my weight.

I keep a tally of how many fast days I have had versus how many fast days I would have had if I had fasted twice a week since starting.
I'm not strict about catching up, but it does give me an incentive to fit in an extra fast sometimes as it means I can 'get ahead' before going on holidays etc.
I'd love to release some weight before the Christmas period as I'm currently attracting the stuff!

When I was in active weight loss mode I went through the holiday season and continued to lose weight. For me:
1. I went into a semi-maintenance phase in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the week after (once the holiday parties started in full force). I only did one down day a week, and I did those on days that we did not have a party/get together scheduled. The rest of the days I went to parties and ate, but on these days I treated them like down days around the party. So if we had a family potluck for lunch, I'd break my fast there at 11am, at the party, and then after the party I'd eat very lightly for the rest of the day. If the party was at night, I'd only eat 200-300 calories during the day, and then eat normally at the party.

2. I enjoyed myself at the parties, but I only ate food that I actually wanted to eat. I used to be a huge 'polite' eater and at get togethers I'd eat EVERYTHING, because I didn't want to hurt feelings. Now, I eat what actually looks good to me and I don't feel bad about not eating the nasty looking casserole aunt so and so brought

3. I eat everything that I want, but I do small portions. One get together we go to every year has delivered pizza, and then everyone brings a dish to pass as well. We're talking 3 tables worth of food! Old me would eat 2-3 slices of pizza and then fill 2-3 more plates with other food. Now-I chose one smaller slice of pizza and then I'll take one spoonful of other things, instead of 3-4 spoonfuls, a half a slice of fudge, instead of two pieces etc etc. I still indulge and eat higher calories, but the smaller portion sizes mean a large calorie difference! The old me would eat over a 1,000 calories in just macaroni and cheese at this party-now I eat a much smaller portion of it, and it's under 300 calories (yes, I actually figured the calories out, lol).

Smaller portions is a key I think. thanks for sharing @KateKat

For me it is doing an extra fast day ie 4:3.
Sugar is my culprit not protion control so this time of year is the most dangerous for me. On non-fast days I often ALLOW myself sugary things, so if I need to lose weight, I do 4:3 because mentally I can refrain from "bad food" on a fast day even if I go over the 500kcals sometimes. Also, knowing that I will have to step up to do 3 fast days the following week if I over eat is sometimes enough to rein me in (not always).

Can I just add that this is my first Christmas continuing with 5:2 so this is a new experiment. I hope to maintain my weight.

@Ieramul thats an interesting on.. that the fast days because you have nominated them as fast days means you man mentally refrain from the foods we need to avoid. And the need for 3 days of fasting gives you one more day of such "power" .. and one more day must be a good thing.

Drink Water
Eat anything so long as it is green
No sugar

Drink Water
Eat anything so long as it is green
No sugar

sugar.. if only i can..
water is a good one. so so hard if out of tap. does any liquid count?
whats so special about the colour green ?

Green stuff is typically low in calories, sugars and highly alkaline. The chlorophyll benefits are supposed to be wide ranging http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natu ... lorophyll/.

Eat your greens!

Green - oh great @rawkaren I love Haribo Gummi bears - I don't mind being colour selective... even better M & M do single colour packets...

Green - oh great @rawkaren I love Haribo Gummi bears - I don't mind being colour selective... even better M & M do single colour packets...

The first thing I thought of when I read that post was green m&ms too But the no sugar thing would cancel those out

[Debs]

But nothing with green mould eh @Rawkaren?

When I was still losing weight what worked best for me was listening to my body and stop planning everything. I didn't plan my fasts, for example, I just went along. I mean, if I was hungry in the morning, I had a breakfast but if I wasn't, I didn't have anything else than my coffee and knew that it was going to be a fast. It still works that way, by the way... It really helped me to enjoy my fast days and they stopped being a chore.

The Holidays weeks are normal weeks for me so I my usual fasts. In the few parties I went, I ate everything I wanted but smallish portions and as @KateKat, if I had a party for lunch, I ate a very light dinner or ate just a little during the day if I had a party dinner. It was a balance between binging and feeling frustrated.

To sum up I tried to stop putting so much pressure on these few weeks and use a simple balance : if I ate big one meal, I ate small the other 2

Fizzy water
Upped the veg and - don't look now Juliana - reduced the carbs
Planning ahead

I have fallen off the wagon over the last few weeks (no thanks to stressy work) and I'm determined to get back in the saddle, which basically means getting organised. Thanks very much@rawkaren you have spurred me on - I'll be buying a weeks worth of greens later today .............