The FastDay Forum

Dear Sarah,
The book I talked about. Well, I got the Info from this site, and I was told it could be downloaded for free from the Internet, which I have done. You can too, I presume.

Bert W. Herring, M.D.
"The Fast-5 Diet and the Fast-5 Lifestyle;
A Little Book About Making A Big Change"
2006

It is a very useful book.
The only thing I object to it in it - I think - is that his eating window goes quite late into the night. It does not start until 5 pm.
There have been medical studies that show that we lose more weight if we stop eating in the evening.

I have my dinner no later than 6 pm.

Yes I have lost quite a bit of weight on it. At first a lot, then for 2 weeks almost nothing, while the body adjusts and then again more slowly.
I tend to do 3h+15 min. window. That suits me fine. So it is about 3.15/ 20:45. I do that because it suits me so well. You can easily do 16/8.
I been doing this for years now, because I find it so easy. Every year I fast like this before Christmas and then again during Lent. This years August regime is extra. I've lost over 3 kg on this now
You not being hungry at all, is a very good sign. did you cut out them carbs???

I think that the reason people gain weight eating late at night, is because it is in addition to their regular eating. I think that your eating window can be whenever you want it to be.

I'm just starting to really do 16:8 faithfully, so I can't talk too much about the success. And even now my schedule is a little crazy, so I may not even be fasting 16 hours at all times. But I don't eat until noon no matter what. I hope things will calm down soon and I can shorten my windows to at least 17:7. I'm also reducing my carbs.

But in everything I've read about it, it's ok to have up to about 50 calories during the fasting period. So I do have tea with a little bit of milk in the morning.

This morning I was down 1/2 a pound since Monday. Not much, but hopefully by my WI day on Monday it'll be a little more. I have a busy social weekend, so I have to be careful, but I'll stick with my eating window and try to limit the carbs. I'm also going for a walk/run this morning, so that should help!

@sarahg - to answer your question, I try to do it every day. But they say you can do it just most days and still lose weight. But obviously the more you do it the better. You really start to get used to it, so I don't really even think about eating breakfast in the morning anymore. I will have "breakfast" foods sometimes for other meals!


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Thanks. Today,day two has been easy enough. I find not eating breakfast easy. I did 5/2 years ago and found then I cd easily skip breakfast. I never really feel hungry in the morning anyway
I just can't go back to 5/2 so this sounds doable to me. I eat quite well anyway so in my eating window I don't really pig out. So hopefully I will lose weight. I dont t want to get obsessed with the scale again so I'm trying to just use waist measurements
Also we are going travelling so will just continue to skip breakfast and enjoy my dinners

Sarah - I do try to have one day where it's lower calorie. Not quite a fast day, but maybe 700-800 calories within my eating window. I too can not do 5:2 anymore. I just need my lunch. It's my physical and psychological break at work and I need it!

So last night I binged on chocolate. I haven't done this for years. For the past three weeks I have been following a normal old fashioned diet. Three small meals ,no junk and healthy snacks and then I did two easy days of 16.8. While I was dieting I didn't feel like chocolate but when I started fasting something happened to me and in my window I went crazy I'm worried that this was because of hunger or low blood sugar or feelings of deprivation and fear of being hungry
Also what should I do now. Obviously I will try eat lunch later today today as I ate at 10.30 last night. Should I do a low cal day!

Hi @Sarahg

These things happen to most of us. Please don't be hard on yourself. How much choccie did you actually have? There may be many reasons why you binged on chocolate. What was the reason you had the first piece? Were you hungry at the time? I guess it is possible that the change in your eating behaviour (eg fasting) may have triggered a "need" for chocolate. Can you work out why you continued to eat it? I can be a chocolate binger too, but have been unable to work out why I do so!!

By the time you read this, you will have already decided what to do food wise for the rest of the day. My suggestion would have been to just eat normally, according to how hungry you feel. And to eat nutritious foods of course.

If the bingeing becomes more regular, you need to work out what the triggers are, and see if there are ways to avoid them. Drink a glass of water when you first get the urge. Find a distracting activity. If you still really feel like something sweet, maybe some fruit will do the trick. I have read somewhere that just a very small amount of sugar (but not chocolate) can overcome a sugar craving - you have to wait for the effect to work. Perhaps don't have any choccie in the house. Of course, sometimes only choccie will do (I know not everyone will agree with that). If you really want it, go to the shops and buy a small bar. If you don't think you are able to cut it out of your diet, and want to keep some in the house, have it in a form that may make it less easy to binge - eg not a big bar, and not too much of it. Try to really savour the chocolate when you eat it - let it melt slowly in your mouth.

Not sure if this is any help for your particular situation. Good luck for finding what works for you.

Thanks for taking time to reply. I don't know why I did it. I just shoved it in my mouth. I haven't done that for years. Usually I have a few squares of dark choc each night and stop there. But since trying to diet the last three weeks I cut out choc altogether . Maybe that's why. Maybe I shd go back to my two small squares after dinner each night. I certainly don't ever want to binge on dark choc. Last night I ate sweet creamy rich choc. Didn't even taste it. Just thought tomorrow I will fast so let me eat and eat now . Now that I'm writing this I realise it was like those old days when I used to think I'll diet tomorrow so let me eat and eat now. You helped me sort that out.

Yes, just continue on again! But keep everything but the dark chocolate out of the house and have a little of the dark chocolate when you feel like something sweet. It should hopefully stave off the cravings!

I splurged last night at dinner. I tried to keep my carbs down, but clobbered that with a beer and a hard cider!! But it was a special occasion, so a splurge is ok once in a while. I just hope I still lose a little this week!

I agree a splurge every now and again is fine. I have been reading a few old posts about fasting and windows and am a bit confused and disappointed. Having read the book ,years ago ,I thought the whole premise of fasting was ,fast and then eat normally. Just healthy food ,not overeating. Then I read hear about carbs sugar fat. Sounds like dieting to me
My husband who is doing 5/2 believes in fasting and then eating normally. He maintains his weight this way ...but isn't over weight..and says his blood tests have improved
So would love some clarification here
Does one lose weight from fasting because one cuts down ones overall calories or is there something else going on when we fast which is what I always beloved. Because frankly ,I would prefer to just eat a low calorie diet all the time. I have done that by the way and I don't lose

Hi again @Sarahg

Your post raises a number of issues! As mentioned by Tracieknits, among others, there is a lot of variation in individual metabolism - hormones, genetics, etc - that will affect how different ways of eating work with each of us.

In theory, the basic 5:2, where you can continue to eat whatever you usually eat, on non-fast days, should result in weight loss, without any further changes to your diet beyond the 2 low cal days. And this worked for me, though I did cut some foods out - pasta, rice (NB I now have rice) and fruit juices, not that I had these often anyway - and reduced the amount of fruit and chocolate biscuits I had - tho this was partly because I had been putting on weight on my diet at the time, and this was a change I was happy to make to my diet.

I do believe that fasting does have some additional benefits beyond just reducing calories, and I think there is some scientific evidence for this, particularly if you break the fast with protein, rather than processed carbs. The fasting library on this site may/should give some information on this (it is a while since I read the library articles).

But it appears that for some people, the basic 5:2 does not result in weight loss, or enough loss. Carorees is the person to explain this, but there is apparently evidence that some people are overweight because of carb intolerance, so a LCHF diet is then needed for weight loss. (Though I have also seen evidence that not having sufficient nutritious unprocessed carbs can have negative health consequences, especially for older women. Who do you believe...)

You say that a low cal diet does not result in weight loss for you?? What are you eating as part of that low cal diet? Again, in theory, if you are eating less than you need, you should lose weight. But the body can be very capable of adjusting your energy needs to fit your energy intake. I think one of the reasons proposed for fasting working is that the body does not get used to a set amount of food each day. But it is all very complex, and we each need to experiment to find out what way of eating is sustainable for us, and means we feel good and are healthy.

Re the earlier post on bingeing, the other thing I meant to mention, that I read about in the Amanda Sainsbury-Salis "Don't go hungry diet" books - which I recommend - was that if the body is deprived of some essential nutrient, it makes you hungry for whatever, in the hope that you might consume what it needs.

Hope some of this is of interest !

Thanks for that I suppose the truth is I just can't face going on another diet and was just hoping I could do 16/8 and lose a few kilos. When I did 5/2 years ago it took ages for me to lose and only managed to lose wen I was respecting on no fast days. I was miserable all the time and hungry all the time. Then I stopped and the weight came back plus a bit. I know the big thing at the moment is that dieting doesn't work I totally agree after years of dieting I am still trying to loose a few kilos and an in fact a bit heavier. I thought fasting would be the answer. For me to skip breakfast and eat a late lunch is easy I don't eat junk food but can't face then counting calories so tend to just eat I eat a bit of carbs like one slice bread or half cup rice. I don't like protein so eat mainly veg and a bit of yogurt and cottage cheese its all very interesting. So let's see how I go doing 16.8. Only been a few days for me

I continue my window activity. To report I gained some over the week end. I am kinda 'relieved', because this is how it used to be a couple a weeks ago. I would gain at the week end and then lose it all on a Monday. The last two weeks have been different in this respect. . But today is my 'eating less' - day. We'll see what tomorrow will be like

[carorees]

I agree a splurge every now and again is fine. I have been reading a few old posts about fasting and windows and am a bit confused and disappointed. Having read the book ,years ago ,I thought the whole premise of fasting was ,fast and then eat normally. Just healthy food ,not overeating. Then I read hear about carbs sugar fat. Sounds like dieting to me
My husband who is doing 5/2 believes in fasting and then eating normally. He maintains his weight this way ...but isn't over weight..and says his blood tests have improved
So would love some clarification here
Does one lose weight from fasting because one cuts down ones overall calories or is there something else going on when we fast which is what I always beloved. Because frankly ,I would prefer to just eat a low calorie diet all the time. I have done that by the way and I don't lose

The answer to your question is that one loses weight through fasting both by the calorie reduction, but also and more importantly, because of the drop in insulin levels during the fast which allows your body to access the fat stores for fuel. Without a drop in insulin, your body can't access the fat and instead you will continue to be hungry, which is one reason calorie counting and high carb, low fat diets don't work in the long term because the increasing hunger due to continued high insulin eventually results in the diet falling by the wayside/bingeing. During fasting various other changes that benefit your health also occur. The Learn tab at the top of the page has many articles explaining the science behind fasting.

Regarding how to eat on non-fast days...What is a healthy diet????
More and more research is pointing to a healthy diet not including sugar and refined carbs, but including more healthy fats than has been promoted by governments and health professionals in the past few decades! You should eat to appetite on non-fast days but still aim to eat healthily. If you already don't eat much refined carbs/sugar and do eat plenty of vegetables and healthy oils (i.e., avoid oils extracted from seeds, such as sunflower seed, corn oils etc., but do eat naturally occurring fats and oils extracted by simple pressure or not refined at all, such as olive oil, butter, fat on meat), then it is likely you will lose weight. However, if you already have diabetes or pre-diabetes or a large waist for your height, you are insulin-resistant and you will quite likely have to make extra changes to lower insulin enough to lose weight and this may include reducing carbs further, which will include wholegrains. If you have a highly stressful life, have thyroid issues or certain other conditions, have a long history of dieting, 5:2 or 16:8 on its own may not be enough and you'll need to address the underlying issues as well as what you eat.

(The FastDay program covers all this and more, especially if you go for the longer version )

Thanks carorees
I am not diabetic. And only have a small amount to loose. However I gave dieted all my life. 45 years or even more. I have had thyroid problems in the past but am fine now. Because of my dieting history I or ably have a slow metabolism but I suppose I do know what is healthy to eat. I eat no refined foods and as I said eat very little carbs. Just bread or crackers or rice. Sometimes I have a glass of wine so I eat well. Going to try 16/8 and watch what I eat in the 8 hr window
Thanks

Well, I've been out of WIFI reach for a couple days. But now I want to report that 'things are back to normal again'. I mean I lost a lot of weight on Monday. On Tuesday morning I weighed only 56.1 kg, which is my lowest weight yet. But I have now put on some more. Eating more, I suppose. Not worried though. It is the long term weight loss that matters.