The FastDay Forum

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum, however, I am not new to fasting. In college, I fasted on and off and never found it particularly difficult if I drank plenty of water. I lost tons of weight then because I would also walk to and from campus. More recently I have followed a 5:2 fasting lifestyle for the past couple months. I have been fasting on Tuesday and Thursday for a full 24 hours. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any scale victories and this style has more maintained my weight than aided in weight loss. As a result, I've recently decided to move forward with a 4:3 style of fasting, 36-hour fasts.

Anyways, I decided to join this forum because I like the idea of being a part of a like-minded community for support.

Nice to meet you all, talk soon!

Liz

Welcome Liz! I'm not sure but that sounds like a lot of fasting, that might not be the way to go. How are you eating on your non-fast days? Maybe you should stick with a regular 5:2, but watch what you eat on the other days? Just a thought! Losing weight definitely gets harder as we get older!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do. We are glad to have you join us. We have a new challenge starting for the month of July, if you'd like to join us!

[Tracieknits]

HI and welcome!

The 24 hour fasts can be hard, because it's so easy to eat more than we plan/should/need in the remaining hours of the waking day. 36 hour fasts with 500 calories (ish) of food definitely seems to help more.

My endocrinologist is a big fan of eating windows - for example saying "I'll only eat between noon and 8pm"

Back when I had an awful lot of weight to lose, just 5:2 fasting without counting anything except fast day calories (and even then being very loose with it) worked beautifully. As I've gotten smaller, it doesn't work nearly as well. I hate to admit that, but it's true. I've found I need to track what I'm eating on a daily basis to make sure I'm not massively overeating on feed days. I still really like the idea of lean days and normal days, and I find it works really well for me.

Good luck and welcome!

Hi Liz and welcome.

I assume it wasn't that long ago that you first gave fasting a go, given it is a relatively recent "popular" diet? You didn't mention whether you put any weight back on after college, and whether you have much to lose now. If you don't have much to lose, as Tracie infers, weight loss may be slower. Also, I do wonder if unfortunately nothing works as well the second time around.

As cblasz says, it is useful to examine what you are eating on non-fast days - is there room for you to make more nutritious choices on those days?

This forum is very quiet at the moment, but if you keep us posted on your experiences, then that may help generate a bit more discussion!

Best wishes and good luck.

Hi again everyone,

Thank you for your posts and your thoughts as I embark on my journey!

My first go at fasting in college was close to a decade ago. It was a stricter extended fasting period of up to three days, sometimes more. I more so got into fasting for the detox benefits as I had led a very unhealthy lifestyle and was transitioning into a healthier state of mind and lifestyle with the guidance of a holistic practitioner. I lost about 40 lbs at that time but more importantly, I felt "cleaner" afterward and didn't pay much attention to the scale. I gradually put on the 40 lbs I lost (+more) until about mid-2015. My highest weight after this span was 340 lbs.

Since mid-2015 I've maintained an 80/20 Primal eating style. Through this eating style plus exercise, I have lost 70 lbs. I plateaued around March and noticed my body's digestion no longer responds well to being constantly fed. Soon after I adopted the Eat-Stop-Eat (5:2) style of eating, consuming about 2000 cals on my feed days and ~600 cals on fast days (post 24 hours and after some light exercise). Unfortunately, I got discouraged over the past three weeks or so following this style and not seeing progress and did become looser on my fast days with time frames or # of cals. My eating windows are also dependent on others timeframes and lately, I have been eating later and later to accommodate.

I am hoping the 36-hour fast where I have zero (500 cals maybe) will help me go from:

"after work, I can eat...oh wait you have to wait three hours after getting home...well it's already been 20 hours...500 cals?...but GUAC IS SO GOOD!!!!"
to
"You're not eating today, here is what you have to look forward to tomorrow."

I have always struggled with portions and overeating phases. Once I get lax and lenient because I am discouraged and have some of...anything, my inner food monster appears.

Anyways, that was a mouth(type)ful. I am rather private in person so it was nice to get all that ^^^^ out.

Dear Liz

Thank you for sharing all that information and glad that you found it useful to do so. One benefit of forums like these is that we each are relatively anonymous, which can make it easier to say things about ourselves that we may not do in person.

It's sounds like you have done some pretty serious fasting in your time, and it doesn't seem like the fasting is a challenge, it is the non-fasting time. As it is for many of us!

With 5:2, some people, don't see immediate results, and I think it is recommended to give it at least 6 weeks before dismissing it. Also, the rate of loss is quite gentle with 5:2 - only around a pound a week.

You must be very pleased with your weight loss while on Paleo. Are you still following the 80/20 Paleo? If so, are you happy with that? During the "20" time, what foods do you eat that Paleo doesn't recommend? Are there some less nutritious foods/ drinks in your diet that you could reduce/ remove? Do you feel "deprived" by not having any of the (some would say nutritious) foods you are not supposed to have on Paleo?

Exercise can also help, particularly if you aren't doing any.

This forum is quiet, compared with its hey day, but there is still lots of useful info in the Learn pages, and many interesting discussion threads.

What about joining us in the July challenge? Set yourself a short term goal and share your experiences over the coming month.

By the way, I wonder if you should set a smaller intermediate weight loss goal? Some of the reading I have done suggests that a weight loss goal of 10% of your body weight is a realistic one to set (no time frame required but it is expected that a 10% loss should be reachable within a time frame during which your commitment remains high - if you follow!). If you reach that goal, then aim for another 10%, and so on. There is the benefit that each time the 10% is a smaller amount! Setting a larger goal can be dispiriting because of the time it can take to reach it - several (consecutive) smaller goals are likely to be more motivating,

Please do continue to share your thoughts and experiences, and any more of your relevant personal history that you feel comfortable with.

Best wishes and good luck!

NB You were amazing to be able to fast while at college. College was a disaster time for me and my weight, so much white carby food on offer. For example, I think I ate at least half a loaf of bread a day - 4 slices with every meal...

It's been a while! I've thought about coming back here and there to update but I've been trying to dial in things.

Shortly after I initially posted I got an infection which spread to my kidneys within the week (TERRIBLE PAIN)! That whole ordeal lasted about three weeks. Furthermore, the antibiotics the doctor gave me wiped me of...everything. No strength, no motivation, no desire -- nothing. I was basically lifeless until the antibiotics were out of my system. I tried to maintain my fasting regime throughout, but really I just wanted to get through the work day and sleep more than anything.

Anyways, I am back to post because there have been some changes to my initial strategy. I have successfully maintained a fasting routine of fasting every other day, consuming 500 calories on fasting days if I am feeling overly hungry. Basically Varady's book but I am counting calories on non-fasting days, which she doesn't state is a must.

Through sickness and health, I've lost 10 lbs since July 1 and I feel SO much better on the new routine than I felt on 5:2.

Good to hear you are recovering from your illness @damnposeurs

Your every other day fasting is working for you so you are going well!

I am reading Michael Mosley's new book called Clever Guts. He writes about how antibiotics can mess with our gut, and gives some ideas on how to get your gut back to a good state after doses of antibiotics, which can wipe out a lot of the good microbes in our system. An interesting book (and he has a cleverguts website)

All the best
Merry

Exercise can also help, particularly if you aren't doing any.