The FastDay Forum

Hi! I'm new here and Nicky was kind enough to point me in this direction over on the Introduction board. I am not at all interested in 5:2 and the ilk anymore. Tried it and don't like counting calories for even two days a week.

I am going to dip my toes into time restricted eating. I joined the Fast 5 and 16:8 groups on facebook, but I'm honestly not a Facebook fan and would just as soon close my account.

There are four books that I know of that deal with time-restricted eating, and I bought them all. After skimming them, I feel this is a great fit for me. So I will join. I'm starting tomorrow. I will do 16:8 and hopefully work my way down to Fast 5 a few days a week.

Whoever set this up, thank you! I just can't find any forums on this type of fasting!

Just in case anyone's interested, this is what I bought. They give a wealth of information, but differ from each other:

1. The 8 Hour Diet by David Zinczenko
2. Fasting - 18 Hours for your God Given Body by Debbie Sweetser
3. The Fast-5 Diet and the Fast-5 Lifestyle by Bert Herring, MD. (I bought this, but you can download it for free from his website).
4. The Mini-Fast Diet by Julian Whitaker, MD.

plus, since I'm also fasting for spiritual reasons, I'll include this gem, The Spirituality of Fasting by Msgr. Charles M. Murphy

If anyone knows of any others, please share. I love books.

@lovesdaisies Welcome

I know how you feel about Facebook, I only set up a Facebook account to get onto some groups, Fast-5 and LCHF so far. There are some interesting Q & A in Fast-5 group and of course Dr Herring himself is active on there, so I am staying in them.

However the great thing about this site is how quickly you get to know people and make friends, regardless of what kind of fasting they do.

Good luck with the 16:8.

[carorees]

Welcome @lovesdaisies!

The best thing about intermittent fasting IMHO is that it is so flexible. You can do 5:2 without counting calories if you call it Eat.Stop.Eat (started by Brad Pilon) as in this you fast for 24 hours and then just eat normally (so that's 24:0 on two days per week), you can do ADF (EOD), 4:3 or if you like an eating window you can do the warrior diet (20:4), Fast-5 (19:5), 18:6, 17:7, 16: (leangains and the 8-hour diet). The problem with all these plans is that they set out their idea as to what is best and expect you to stick to their plan. If you understand the principles of fasting you can just organize things to suit yourself. I prefer the eating window method but lots of people don't like to fast every day. I adjust the window to suit my circumstances. If I feel I have been over-eating or the scales have been unkind or if I'm going out for a big meal, I make an effort to shorten the window to 4 or 5 hours. Otherwise it is usually a 7 hour window with an option to extend, if necessary, to 8 hours.

My advice is to start with an 8 hour eating window and then shorten it until you reach a point where you are losing weight without feeling deprived (aim for 1lb per week so as not to over-stress your body). I would also recommend trying not to break your fast each day with high carb foods. the reason for this is that as your insulin levels fall during the fast, the insulin response to the first food you eat can be a bit blunted so you get a higher peak in blood sugar than you would normally. It is probably not a good idea to have your blood sugar being spiked every day. I usually have a normal lunch of soup and bread or eggs or a cheese sandwich. Only very rarely do I open my eating window with a breakfast-type food like cereal or waffles.

Do keep popping in here to let us know how you're getting on!

Welcome @lovesdaisies Yes just find a method to suit you your lifestyle and circumstances depending on your need to lose weight or fasting for the health benefits.
Primarily for me starting at 266lbs was obviously weightloss then as I progressed and I've gained certain health benefits my method last year was 4:3 then as I've struggled this year for whatever reason I've returned to 5:2 with a view to doing 2 true 24hr fasts all my normal days are now 18:6 this suits me for now until my body makes up its mind to let go of more fat!!!

Thank you so much for the kind welcomes!

Carorees, what an excellent post. Leafing through these books I bought, I definitely agree with you, you have to personalize it to make it YOURS. The most important thing in my opinion is the time window for eating. After that, eat the way it suits you. For example, I'm going more toward plant-based for health issues. I did not do well on low carb like you do, but everyone is so different!

5:2 was just not for me. I didn't like even counting to 500; counting calories makes me neurotic, plus I found it was akin to severe deprivation for me. I knew I couldn't make it a lifestyle. But I did lose 7 lbs. the first month, so it works, and I salute those who make it their lifestyle. But even the 7 lb. loss wasn't worth it to me.

So I have given this great thought. I've also been researching eating slowly to eat less, and this seems more natural to me than counting calories. The studies seem to conclude that you take in less calories and it adds up over the long term. Here are the guidelines for anyone interested (from the study I read):

1. Use a small spoon.

2. Take small bites.

3. Put the spoon down between bites.

4. Chew your bites 15 - 20 x.

Plus, if you can, wait 20 minutes before going for seconds (this is the amount of time your brain processes you're full).

I admit my eating is not normal. I eat too quickly, shoveling it in; I eat huge portions. I've been known to binge. So the above 4 steps will be my new eating norm, along with time-restricted fasting. I will work on this day by day.

I am so glad I found you folks - what a great group. Good-bye Facebook!

Off topic:

Ok, I hate to sound dumb, but I got 3 mails on the forum saying I'd been "tagged" in a topic from this sub-forum. What does that mean?

@lovesdaisies - that's a tag!

the messages just bring to your attention that someone has mentioned you in a thread so you don't miss anything!

my question for @Carorees: not sure I really understand the windows thing - doing 4:3 and naturally 16/8 on feed days most of the time - are you saying I could do 16/8 every day and lose weight the same - if so, how many cals would I restrict myself to as presumably I wouldn't have my TDEE every day?

[Debs]

Interesting! I have done two days of 19:5 without any problems but this morning I was ravenous!! It seems to happen every four days or so, which ever regime I am following. I was going to do it again today but may have to be a bit kinder to myself.

@Debs that happened to me too, I gave in and ate breakfast a couple of times, then I just pushed through until lunch and decided that breakfast would be no more than once a week, and now after doing 16/8 for nearly a month I completely forget about breakfast most days and don't get hungry at all until at least 12, often later. How about trying a hot drink or a distraction or something first and seeing if you can't delay breakfast as much as possible, you might find that you don't need it afterall?

[Debs]

Hi there @Nicky_94, and thank you. Yes, I normally can and do but
I guess I'm close to the end of a continuous 21 day, very intense work roster and HAD to cram biscuits into me at 7am!!! I was fine for a few days and then, ouch, it hits me!
Luckily I was out doing a lot of walking today so at least I worked a few crumbs off!!

@lovesdaisies , good morning, I also cannot abide counting calories which is why I never did the maintenance plan of 6:1 even one day of counting calories is too much for me. I have been doing 16/8 now every day for over a year and have had no problems whatsoever. I understand that you can go straight onto an eating window and lose weight, that is Dr Herring's message and if I was to do this again from scratch that might be the way I would go but I did find 5:2 very effective and always encourage folk to try it first, if only to get used to the fasting side before trying any other method. When I first read the fast-5 book I seemed to miss his point that you only eat one meal per day.....

"Q. What should I eat on the fast-5 diet?

A. You're only eating one meal a day, so it's worth making it a good one."

I find that for about half the time I only ever eat one meal a day the other days I may also have a small snack but I just eat whatever I want. Caroline made some excellent points and I do try to not break my fast with carbs. Other than that it is easy, don't eat breakfast, dont nibble late in the evening, numbers aside that alone will give you a reduced window without ever looking at the clock.

@Madcatlady , hello, I never count calories and I know instinctively that I sometimes go WAY over my tdee but then other times I eat under, just depends how I feel. Within reason, don't worry about the calories, just eat healthily, enjoy what you so eat and trust this to work. In spite of being on maintenance I have dropped another 7 pounds which gives me lots of wiggle room.

Good luck to both of you

Ballerina x

[carorees]

@debs I'm wondering whether the three day thing is due to glycogen depletion. Perhaps you're not really getting the fat burning going and so are using glycogen to keep you going. When the glycogen runs out your body demands carbs to restock. That would also explain the lack of much weight loss.

It would be interesting to test your urine for ketones to see if you're going into ketosis, which you should do after three or so days of 19:5. A negative result on the ketostix doesn't always prove you're not in ketosis but a positive one would show that you are fat burning.

How to force your body into fat burning? You have to cut off all carbs until it gives in. It might be uncomfortable but once you get the body's fat burning machinery going it should switch in and out of fat burning more easily. The Dukan attack phase is designed to do this, and the Atkins induction. Of course you can fast as well.

[Debs]

Thank you for your thoughts @carorees, they are much appreciated. Doesn't the Atkins/Dukan go against the overeating protein theory?
I am certainly cutting down the carbs but. I probably ate a bit more in the last two days.

[carorees]

The idea is to have a different diet of no carbs during the induction phase just to force your body to burn fat. Once the metabolic pathways have had the dust blown off them and are up and running, then you can go back to a more normal diet as your body will switch between glucose (glycogen) and fat for fuel more easily. If your body is stuck in the rut of only burning glucose the fat burning pathways get shelved as being of no use. It is only when forced to get them out of the attic that the body will manufacture the enzymes needed to burn fat. So no need to worry about how much protein or fat really, just keep carbs as low as possible (under 20g per day).