The FastDay Forum

After yesterdays birthday barbecue my weight is up a pound :0(
I kept within 17:7 but GF rolls with veggie sausages plus rainbow birthday cake took me way past preferred calorie intake :0@
On the other hand, our eldest granddaughter will only turn 16 once :0)
Good times with lovely family are to be savoured :0D

Hi there all, I would like to set up in your tent with you for a while if you can find a spot for me. I've been doing 5:2 off and on for a couple of years, more off than on, but when I'm on I get good results, better than with any weight control method I've ever tried. Seems I'm off now and can't get back on though. I was interested in what Azure Blue and Candice Marie and Righton said about the nibbling -- that's me, and it's an evening thing. If it's a fast day and I do great til my evening meal, planned out at 500 calories, I find that I'm sitting around three hours later still nibbling - pigging out might be a better term - on anything I can find.

I'm wondering about trying a 16:8 where my window closes at about 2 or 3 pm, depending on when I have breakfast, and begin my fasting then. I think nothing is easier than a little something for me.

Thought I'd work on it for this week and not have a fast day at all. Just spiff up my self-discipline a bit.

And then maybe my fast day needs to be a zero calorie 24-hr fast.

I live alone and don't have to cook for a family, so I'm fortunate in that I can just stay out of the kitchen entirely if I want.

Wonder if anyone else has used the window to successfully control the impulse to keep on eating?

Dee

Hi there all, I would like to set up in your tent with you for a while if you can find a spot for me. I've been doing 5:2 off and on for a couple of years, more off than on, but when I'm on I get good results, better than with any weight control method I've ever tried. Seems I'm off now and can't get back on though. I was interested in what Azure Blue and Candice Marie and Righton said about the nibbling -- that's me, and it's an evening thing. If it's a fast day and I do great til my evening meal, planned out at 500 calories, I find that I'm sitting around three hours later still nibbling - pigging out might be a better term - on anything I can find.

I'm wondering about trying a 16:8 where my window closes at about 2 or 3 pm, depending on when I have breakfast, and begin my fasting then. I think nothing is easier than a little something for me.

Thought I'd work on it for this week and not have a fast day at all. Just spiff up my self-discipline a bit.

And then maybe my fast day needs to be a zero calorie 24-hr fast.

I live alone and don't have to cook for a family, so I'm fortunate in that I can just stay out of the kitchen entirely if I want.

Wonder if anyone else has used the window to successfully control the impulse to keep on eating?

Dee

@drdee I used to be an evening nibbler too, but what I did when I started 19/5 was to have my window in the evening (5 - 10) so that it was allowed. Because I had done 5:2 for a while, getting to 5 was not a problem. Then after some months, mindful that eating late generally thought to be not that good for you, I made it earlier. First a few months of 4 - 9, then 3 - 8, then 2 - 7 which eventually became 2 - 6. Unless you are made of sterner stuff than me (not unlikely!) you may find going cold turkey from 3 pm a real struggle.

Nowadays I still pander to my tastebuds in the evenings if I feel bored, or want something tasty while watching TV, surfing or reading, but with a variety of delightful spice, herb or Green teas, or sparkling water - all zero cals. Eating up to 6 also means not being hungry at bedtime, which for me was always a bugbear on 5:2.

Anyway, however you decide to do it, all the best!

Barbarita,

It's really encouraging to me to hear that you were able to gently wean yourself toward. I'm hoping that I will be able to tell myself NOTHING is allowed after my window closes, not an almond (which leads to handfuls), not a glass of milk (which always seems to require something along side), just nothing. If I can't do that, I'll try making my window start late the way you did. And then have a fast day that was a 24 hr. zero calorie fast maybe?

[carorees]

Interesting question about curbing late night nibbling. For some lucky reason, I've not had any problem at all with saying no to further calories after dinner (apart from at the occasional social event), whether on 5:2 or 16:8. I would love to know why and be able to pass it on to you. I find it harder to not eat when not hungry during my eating window but once closed it is closed. Perhaps it is psychological or perhaps it is to do with being fat adapted (see ADFnFuel's recent post on the topic). Certainly, from reading the posts on this forum, late night nibbling is a big problem for many. Do keep us informed on how you get on DrDee because all experiences in this area are really useful. And good luck!

Thanks Carorees, I am hoping the evening nibbling is psychological and that closing the window will be a message that gets carried through for me. I'll check out the post on being fat adapted that you mention since I don't know what that means at this point, but always willing to learn!

One thing that impresses me about this tent is that the winds that blow through are accepting of folks working out their best way.

Dee

I think I'll write on this window.
I am doing this "eating window" approach now, because I've fasted 5:2 quite a lot this summer and it began to get too difficult. I am in the super summer challenge and had managed to keep my weight down with those two fasts a week.
But now disaster has hit. My son was here and he and his girlfriend made us HIGH carb things to eat. The result was that I quickly put on 2 kg and started craving and eating, sugary carbs.... UGH! Haven't done that for years...

So to combat these problems I am now fasting. I got tried of fasting properly. So I am window fasting. My window is open 15:00 - 18.30. I am planning on doing this until the next lot of summer guests arrive 15th August. I am hoping I will manage this. We will see. I'll keep on reporting. Thank you for listening to me

Hi Margotsylvia, I have just begun posting in this tent too, looking for a window that would help me get past constant nibbling in the evenings.

Your window sounds really small to me, mine is from 7 am to 3 pm, but for the last two days I've found it worked in the way I wanted -- I ws able to say nope, I'm not eating a single bite more today. I get that it's probably a psychological thing but if it works ----

Hi carb eating creates a craving for more carbs in me too, funny how that works. But I've also found that if I low carb for about three or four days the cravings go away nicely. Seems like it works for me to remind myself that I only have to do the hard thing around food for a limited time, whether it's low carb or fasting when my window is open. But sometimes I can't bear to think of doing something forever!

Dee

So true :0(
My Sunday carb explosion has left me in Nibble Land, falling for a marmite sandwich at 9pm last night and crisps at noon today :0@
Must. Resist.
Must regain no carb-cravings again. I feel so much more balanced and relaxed without them.
Grandsons tomorrow. Uh-uh!

[Debs]

I'm in here for the foreseeable future as I recover from my month of heavenly over indulgence, or resetting as I prefer to call it
My natural time to eat is morning and lunch but I find that I struggle with sleep if I fast late and always have done so I shall start myself off gently and fast as long as I can each day until I fall back into a pattern. I also find paying too much attention to food doesn't help me so I have some meal replacement shakes until I am less obsessed with eating. Not everyone's cup of tea, but any port in a storm I say!

@debs cup of tea? Try making a cuppa when the urge to eat overcomes you whilst you are resetting. Have you any tea to hand?

@drDee do you think you need to open your window so early? I do 16:8 every day except high days and holidays and rarely open my window before 1:00 or 2:00. That sees me through any late night snacking temptation. I also remember talk of people 'closing' the kitchen at the close of their window. You can get through this, it really is all to do with a change of mindset.

Hi Wendy D, you are an inspiration on this forum! Maybe I don't have to open my window so early, I will play around with that a little and see. But I wake up hungry and am used to a big breakfast, probably my biggest actual meal of the day. And I wake up around 5 am, so by 6 or 7 at the latest I'm pretty focused on eating!

I actually feel pretty excited to be experimenting a little and taking it slowly til I find what works for me.
Dee

[carorees]

Hi Wendy D, you are an inspiration on this forum! Maybe I don't have to open my window so early, I will play around with that a little and see. But I wake up hungry and am used to a big breakfast, probably my biggest actual meal of the day. And I wake up around 5 am, so by 6 or 7 at the latest I'm pretty focused on eating!

I actually feel pretty excited to be experimenting a little and taking it slowly til I find what works for me.
Dee

Hi @drDee Like WendyDarling, I rarely open my window before 1pm. I do sometimes wake up hungry but a black coffee and the feeling goes. I generally wake up before 5 am but don't get up until 7 or 8 as I attempt to get more sleep! If you sleep badly, you tend to have higher cortisol levels and this drives carb cravings. Poor sleep is a disaster healthwise and something I am still trying to sort out. If your early waking is due to poor sleep (as opposed to being a morning person) you might like to work on that! If you are a morning person, then having an early window could be right for you if you can get into the right mindset of closing the kitchen at the end of the allotted eating time. Experimentation is the key!

Hi Carorees, I am a morning person and love my quiet early mornings. And you're right I know that good sleep is the basis for good health. I got a fitbit to help me track my sleep and last night I got 7 hours with no wake-ups and two restless periods. I feel pretty good about that! I usually sleep pretty well unless I've got something big on my mind, then it seems I have to spend the night worrying about it, not good, I know.

I've gotten into a bad habit of constant snacking, especially after dinner, but now I have 3 evenings of closed window when I didn't touch food at all --as they say, the kitchen was closed (all though I've been known to go to the store if the kitchen's closed!). I wouldn't say I had cravings last night, but I did think about food a lot. Different things to snack on would just pop into my head. Like I've got a gremlin in there shoving temptation at me every little while! I had surgery a couple of months ago; healing nicely, but I think I've gotten pretty self-indulgent in some ways, like entertaining myself with eating, because I haven't been able to be very mobile yet, so lots of limitations.

Anyway, as you say, experimentation. I am really curious now to see what happens with my evenings. It would be lovely to have one with no, or even very little, food thinking going on.

I'll keep you all posted

[Debs]

Hello experimenters!
Yes, WendyD is an eaxample to us all. In a good way of course! I had a successful day and didn't have my protein shake until 2.15pm which I was really chuffed with. I had three cups of tea in the morning, which zi shan't be giving up, and am now having a large and worthy salad followed by a couple of squares of dark chocolate. As Rawkaren said, better to have a small amount of something than give in to major temptation and completely blow it!

Good luck all!