The FastDay Forum

My progress down the weight ladder has been arduous and slow.
Over the last few months, I have tripped a few times, given up in despair and started again. I now fast 3x a week, though I am less strict on the 3rd fasting day.
I find myself today 25lbs / 11.3kg lighter than I was when I first started this WoE last August.
Still a long way to go.
No major WoopWoop, but definite progress. The fact that I have had my thyroid gland removed and rely on thyroxine tablets might also help explain the slow speed of the weight loss.

But yesterday Mr Keihira brought some really, really nice sourdough bread home, and I ate a whole baguette by myself, with a thick layer of Gorgonzola and some sweet smoked ham. The tomatoes on the side were more for show than anything!
Then I had a large, flaky pastry with my coffee, and I though "in for a penny, in for a pound", and I opened the packet of crackers which had been teasing me all week and I ate the lot whilst watching my Skyfall DVD, and I even had a glass of wine, too!

I stepped gingerly on the scales this morning, feeling sheepish and a bit angry with myself for undoing all my hard work of the last few months.
To my amazement, the scales read exactly the same weight they did on my usual weigh-in day two days ago.
No change.
None.
I had binged all afternoon, eaten loads of carbs, way, way more than usual, and this has had no ill-effect on my weight.

To say I'm ecstatic is putting it mildly!
I'm now wondering if I've been too hard on myself, not that I have been denying myself any type of food, but I have been strict, even on my non-fasting days.
My TDEE calculations allow up to 2200 cal (!) but I can barely bring myself to exceed 1500, even though I burn 500+ cal every day exercising.
Being lax about what I ate has led me to being obese, so it has been quite difficult to loosen the reins since starting this WoE.

So, what do I take from this?
For starters, I will continue to fast 3 days a week, 2 strict days at 500 cal and 1 more indulgent 7 or 800 cal.
Next, I will stop punishing myself for becoming obese.
Because that's what refusing myself the odd treat is: a punishment for having no self-control, for indulging, for becoming fat.
I have to step out of that mind-set and stop thinking I don't deserve to enjoy eating like slim people do. Like I did before.
Starting today.

A great post. I think slow and steady wins the race. I feel that if you deny yourself all the time you miss out on some of life's pleasures. Now you know you can indulge yourself occasionally.

I'm a slow loser too but i just take it for what it is now and go with the flow. I think you were eating slightly below cals needed before but think 1800 would be more appropriate (maybe) my calculations for myself tell me that my TDEE figure should be 2020 but what i do is eat around 1700 on normal feed days and restrict to 500 on fast days ( i do two proper fast days) then I do a 3rd half fast day where i don't eat til around 5pm so only eat about 1000 cals this means i can eat 2000 cals if i WANT on weekends! I've only been doing this for a month and i'm losing average of a pound a week which like i said i'm happy with in the long term!
I am however stepping it up over next few weeks i.e. maybe not pigging out at weekends in order to get some kind of "ok" beach body lol

Btw go careful as they say it takes 2 - 3 days for over indulging to actually show on the scales - best of luck x

Or slow and steady looses the race but enjoys the view?

Think of this WOE as your life, enjoy it!

There is allot to be said for that, if you work out how to do it let me know mind!

Your weight loss is not that far away from 1lb a week so you are doing great!

[carorees]

Oddly a few of us have noticed bigger weight losses after weeks when we ate really well on feast days than weeks when we were careful...Moogie and I to name but two and I have seen posts from others saying the same. I'm did a little graph of calories eaten per well versus weight loss and found that.
1) going over an average of around 2000 cals per day coincided with a weight increase
2) going below an average of around 1500 cals per day coincided with a weight increase
3) increasing daily calories after a previous drop coincided with a spike of increased weight loss

So I think it's good to mix things up even more than 5 days on a bit below TDEE plus 2 days on 500. I think that talkinpeace got it right when she suggested a pattern of 2 days x 500, 2 x a bit under TDEE, 2 x a bit over TDEE, 1 x splurge!