The FastDay Forum

Oooh lots of new motivation going on this Autumn, wonderful.
My feed days are basically 15 hour fast/9 hour eat, plus two x 24 hour fasts currently, though I just seem to stand still weight-wise :0. I blame the Seasonal Change for that ...
I will measure my waist at the end of the month as usual, hope that shows something more positive.
At least I'm not 12st 10lbs anymore, 11st 2lbs may have to do.

:0)

AB@azureBluewell done on the weight loss! I wd be thrilled to bits to be yr TOP weight! And no i am not five foot ten,or thereabouts,just a very short fat gal who wd happily settle for merely short and fat xx( with short fat hairy legs likeErnie Wise - if anyone knows what I' m on about!)

That sounds good @carorees Caroline, so would it look like this:
Monday- 5:2 day up to 7-800 calories
Tuesday - 20:4 eat 5 pm till 9 pm up to tdee ( with flexibility to lengthen window)
Wednesday- 20:4 as above
Thursday- 5:2 day up to 7-800 calories
Friday - 20:4 same as Tue and wed.
Sat- eat whenever
Sunday - eat whenever.

Yes I love the flexibility too. Who knew that I wouldn't get hungry till 3-5 pm most days if I actually listen to my body! Amazing!

No more now til 12 noon tomorrow..Kitchen window has just been locked and bolted,blinds down,curtains firmly shut.have washed up and mopped the floor.no reason to go back in. the kitchen is closed! 16 hrs of just water now.
DD eating a Freddo Frog. 95 cals x

Can a gal not eat a Freddo Frog on a Friday without someone blabbing @candicemarie?!

A delicious close to 20:4...

Hi! There probably has already been discussion on this, but a quick search did not find me anything. And thought I would post here, rather than start a new thread.

How often, if ever, would those of you following an eating window regime, eat outside that window? Especially those on 19:5 - how do you manage a social life or holidays/conferences and the like where meals are catered? Just curious. Thanks.

Hi

I manage a social life by shifting my 5-hour eating window from my preferred 2 - 7 to earlier (e.g. 12.30 to 5.30) for a social lunch or later (3 to 8) for a social dinner. I would not eat later as I always hated eating late. I would switch to sparkling water in a pub/restaurant from 8 pm if I was at a dinner.

I have someone staying with me, if we are eating out in the evening I have a black coffee with her while she has a light lunch, or vice versa.

Conferences or full board holidays would,be tricky. I am retired, so conferences are not an issue. If someone else was paying e.g. employer, I would eat a lot at one meal and have some snacks with me e.g. boiled eggs, nuts, babybels, dark chocolate, to "top up" within 5 hours of that meal. The full board holiday more of a problem. I would resent paying for the meals I do not want. If an English company I might try negotiating a reduction, e.g. on the basis of no breakfast. If lunch was fairly informal e.g. packed lunch to be eaten out, I would take it and eat it at a time to suit myself - similarly with buffet lunches where you can sneak out stuff in plastic containers, discreetly!

Wow Barbarita, you are dedicated!

I eat within a window of 8 hours max from Monday to Friday, with at least 1 shorter window per week and more depending on weight (I am maintaining, or at least I am supposed to be!). I leave weekends free to do what I feel like, so I do eat outside of my window if I have a reason to do so, but if I have a quiet weekend I often stay within an 8 hour window as I rarely eat breakfast. I would accept the weight gain if I was to go on an all inclusive holiday or something and just eat within a shorter window when I got back. The other week I was at a conference and breakfast and lunch were provided, so I ate both, I just didn't have an evening meal, and that worked out fine too, I think it's quite easy to shift an eating window around when necessary though I prefer to skip breakfast generally.

[carorees]

Like barbarita I shift the window to suit the occasion. I'm also fairly relaxed about how long the window is, so while in normal life it's usually 6-7 hours, I'll allow 8-9 hours on social occasions.

If at a full board hotel I just eat the meals and not worry as I don't stay in such places very often. Or if the lunch was optional, I'd skip lunch. If I eat the meals I'd avoid as much of the carbs as I don't care about (potatoes, rice etc) but scoff the desserts! If breakfast was uninspiring I'd not worry about skipping it and just having coffee.

If I had a job where conferences and full board hotels were the norm, I'd have to use proper 500 cal fast days to compensate whenever I could.

I think it's all about being flexible and fitting fasting around your life: between 5:2, 4:3 etc and the eating window method there's always a way of balancing things over time.

The beauty of an eating window is that it is so flexible. My window is anything from the time it takes to eat one meal up to the full 8 hours, it all depends on how I feel on any given day and what social arrangements I have planned but it it is always an every day event however long or short.

Ballerina x

A BIG thank you to Carorees for pointing me here. As I said in my previous post somewhere else, I've done them all, 5:2, 4:3 and even alternate days. Time restricted fasting is definitely for me. I felt so much mentally sharper and healthier with this form of fasting. I am returning to 16:8 and down the road I'll experiment with different hours if need be.

So I'm back for good!

Good on you @marigolds, I've changed to just 16:8 daily since Saturday and already feel brighter for it. Who knows how long for, one day at a time works for me :0)
Good luck everyone, we can do this, yes we can!

I find if I don't eat before 2 pm I am ably to eat a sensible healthy diet and feel good. On the days I decide to have breakfast, no matter how healthy it is (eg a boiled egg ) I go completely off the rails. I have tried to reason with myself that this is a lot of nonsense but after over a year of maintaining and a lot of ups and downs I have to admit that I am far better not to eat breakfast.

[carorees]

@daisygal

Here's the 16:8 tent. I'm ashamed to admit that despite being a 16:8er, I haven't posted in here for ages. I lost the last third of my weight this way. I found though that if I have an 8hr window all the time I gain weight slowly. A 6-7hr window seems to keep me in maintenance and a 5hr window I lose. So my advice is to adjust the size of your eating window to get the results you need.

Good luck

@carorees, do you think part of the reason the eating window approach has been successful for you is that your appetite had already been adjusted from doing 5:2 for awhile?