The FastDay Forum

Hi. As fasting buddies @iztla and @barbarita are setting up this tent for us followers of the Fast-5 style of Intermittent Fasting. Quick summary: every day you fast for 19 hours and eat as you please in the remaining five hour "window". Lots of useful discussion about "Windows" in the Eating Window Tent.

Every day?! Wow! that sounds tough. Would love to know what success you have doing that.

Good luck

Bean

Every day?! Wow! that sounds tough. Would love to know what success you have doing that.

Good luck

Bean

@nursebean I don't find it tough now, sure I sometimes get the Fast day hunger waves, but not often real hunger, and at 3 o'clock when my window opens I can eat how I like! I Switched from 5:2 on 23 December 2013, if you look at my Progress Tracker you will see that I have lost less on Fast-5 than 5:2 but still 7 lbs taking in the odd gain and stall, and at BMI 22.something slow is to be expected. The other thing I do, which is my choice as in Fast-5 there are no rules about what and how much you eat, is to eat lower carb. Mostly I don't eat bread, pasta, rice or potatoes and I don't miss them.

I really do find it easier than 5:2.

[Debs]

Good to hear you have found a method that works for you Barbarita. I shall visit the tent with interest!

[carorees]

Glad to see more followers of the eating window method!

I do 19:5 at least once a week, the rest of the time is probably 17:7. It generally depends on when OH fancies eating lunch and whether I get dinner sorted early enough. When lunch is delayed to 2-ish and I'm organised in the kitchen to have dinner ready by 6:30 then I can manage a 19:5 day. More often we have lunch at 1-ish and dinner at 7-7:30.

Glad to see more followers of the eating window method!

I do 19:5 at least once a week, the rest of the time is probably 17:7. It generally depends on when OH fancies eating lunch and whether I get dinner sorted early enough. When lunch is delayed to 2-ish and I'm organised in the kitchen to have dinner ready by 6:30 then I can manage a 19:5 day. More often we have lunch at 1-ish and dinner at 7-7:30.

Hi @carorees It must be much harder when you have family meals to work around or a job where you don't get home till late. I am retired and the logistics are easy for me as my OH is a carnivore and I am a lapsed vegetarian who now eats fish, so he often cooks his own meaty meals! Also I am a food lover not a foodie, don't do complicated recipes although I love browsing @Fatdog's journal for ideas. I just throw together some ingredients I like. Cuts down a lot on planning, prep, cooking and washing up!

@barbarita, thanks for setting the Fast-5 tent! (I couldn't help to add 5 hearts)

I've been doing the 5 hour window for 10 days and honestly it has been pretty easy! I won't say that I don't get the hunger pangs, I do but because I did 5:2 last year, I knew that they would pass and food would be available in just a few hours. The advantage is that now I don't need to worry at all about counting calories during my window and I love the consistency of doing the same thing everyday. Having said that, I also felt very comfortable at the beginning of 5:2 but once I fell off the wagon I couldn't get back, so the ultimate test will be when I for some reason interrupt the routine.

This is what I do:

I wake up and drink some coffee while my daughters have breakfast, then I don't eat anything until around 4pm (some days it has been closer to 3-3:30pm). I break my fast with a fruit, usually a banana and then eat some snack time food, like crackers, cheese, seeds, veggies. At around 7 or 8pm I eat regular dinner with the family and call it a day. Some days I've eaten dessert, some not, sometimes I eat something else but nothing after 9pm. Usually I am full after dinner so it is not a problem for me. I go to bed at around 11pm or later and wake up at around 7:30am. I've had a few hunger pangs at around 12-2pm but I just drink some water and get busy.

For those not familiar with Fast-5 I highly recommend the book (you get it for free on the website: http://www.fast-5.org/ ) Not only because of the diet but of the whole philosophy. Dr. Herring uses the acronym: D.I.E.T. Did I Enrich Today?

I guess you folk don't like breakfast much! Don't think I could do without my beloved cereals for too long

Bean

Hi! Follower of 5:2 here, but may I ask, after a while did you notice a diminished appetite or do you get just as hungry as before you started? Thanks.

Hi @Marigolds53

You will have experienced real hunger and limbic hunger on 5:2; real hunger being that sort of gnawing empty sensation under the diaphragm, and limbic hunger being the desire to eat that occurs independently of that, when you fancy something out of habit because you're bored, it's lunchtime, someone has upset you etc etc.

On Fast-5 most days I don't experience a great deal of real hunger, if I do it's usually in the last hour or two before my window starts, and as we know it comes and goes in waves. Dr Herring says that if you do experience real hunger a lot after you've been doing Fast-5 for a while it is indicative of fatburning - I cheer myself up with this thought. And where I used to tell myself "I can have it tomorrow" I can now say "I can have it later".

As for appetite; I know for a certainty when I am just full or full enough not to eat any more. If I was really good I might lose a bit faster by not treating myself to a bit more when I am just full, but what I am doing is sustainable and I always have the stricter regime in reserve if I do hit a long plateau. I am not sure I am eating a great deal less than before I started 5:2 and Fast-5 as I don't count calories, but I attribute some of my success to eating lower carb. If I wasn't fasting I would find low carb,difficult.

[carieoates]

This is all very interesting I shall download that book thanks. I find that I can go pretty well until I get home from work at three. Maybe I could try not eating until I get home from work, and knowing I can might help my mindset. I normally do a bit of housework, and start preparing the eve meal, bake batch cook just to keep my mind off food for a while longer. I'm currently doing 4.3 with 16.8 all others. But things are moving so so slowly again.

Edit. It's not free for us in the uk but only £1.92.

Good morning Barbarita,

I always say that I do 16/8 but only because most folk on here recognise the expression, the reality is that most days I do something much closer to fast-5 and quite often I only have a late lunch so I frequently do 23.5 hour fasts. Beanie bobs, if you cannot do without breakfast then this is not for you but otherwise id advise anyone to have a go, the freedom from calorie counting is wonderful. An eating window is the easiest thing I've ever done and I've been maintaining under my target weight for over a year now.

Ballerina x

Hi buddy @Iztla

You are doing great.

I am with you on the dangers of falling off the wagon - with me it has happened in with exercise. I got competitive with myself and wanted to go faster and further. Then something happened, a strain or a tummy bug, and after having to stop for a while the idea of starting again at the beginning slower and shorter did not appeal so I gave up. So on Fast-5 my only unbreakable eating rule is Eat Within Five Consecutive Hours. I make up other rules for myself about what I can or cannot eat, but they are guidelines.

The other thing about wagons is mentally plan in advance if you have to step off briefly, so if there does come a day when social/family obligations dictate that you have to have lunch and dinner tell yourself the day before that this is what you are doing and that you will be back to it the day after. That way you haven't "failed".

Onward and downward

I just followed the link you gave above and it did download free ... makes very easy reading too.
Might give it a try but it suggests eating between 5pm & 10pm...we are in bed by 10pm up here on the wild coast of Lancashire - do people think it would be OK to do 3pm-8pm say. On a normal fast day - it is about 2/3/4pm that I feel like giving in !

Ruby x

[carorees]

My reading of the science makes me think that we should not eat late in the evening as it interferes with leptin and other hormone rhythms. There are studies showing a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in people who eat late at night even after correcting for other risk factors.

I think you should aim to finish eating 4 hours before bed ideally.

So, I'd go for lunch at 2 and dinner at 6:30, finishing eating at 7pm rather than the late window suggested in the book.