The FastDay Forum

Well im finally back to fasting. Loss 17 pounds thru dieting but bored with constantly counting calories. So decided to do 2:5 first fast yesterday. Did good. Will fast again Friday. Good to be here. Need support.

Hello @song of the bride and welcome back!

I'm a returner too and there's quite a few of us on this forum.

Tell us a bit more about yourself so we can get to know and support you. How much do you want to lose...and so on....?

Well mom with three grown kids current weight 250 pds. have tried everything. the only things that work for me r Paleo and Fasting. lost the 17 pounds with Paleo diet, but i get tired of eating a lot of meat. would like to lose 100 pounds over next year in time for renewal vows of my son and his bride. They have been married nine years and she is vegan, trying to lose also. BUT!!! i simply need a lifestyle change and not just another diet. tried 16:8 intermittent but would rather just do 5:2

[Tracieknits]

Welcome back! Yeah, I can't imagine sticking to Paleo. While it is smart to switch to simply lower carb eating and less processed food, there's a lot of fluff about Paleo that I find rather silly.
I've returned as well. I had a lot of success at first with 5:2 but then the weight loss slowed to a crawl and stopped. Right now I'm doing a combination of Weight Watchers and 5:2. Plain old 5:2, without watching what you eat on normal days, doesn't seem to work as well as people hope, sadly. But I find that combining 5:2 and weight watchers, I'm having fantastic results. I've lost 23.6 pounds since mid April doing this

Welcome back! Yeah, I can't imagine sticking to Paleo. While it is smart to switch to simply lower carb eating and less processed food, there's a lot of fluff about Paleo that I find rather silly.
I've returned as well. I had a lot of success at first with 5:2 but then the weight loss slowed to a crawl and stopped. Right now I'm doing a combination of Weight Watchers and 5:2. Plain old 5:2, without watching what you eat on normal days, doesn't seem to work as well as people hope, sadly. But I find that combining 5:2 and weight watchers, I'm having fantastic results. I've lost 23.6 pounds since mid April doing this

That's wonderful I was going to ask a question I have a problem if I eat on my fast day to me is not fasting and I'll just go ahead and eat so when I fast I just do water and I have A cup of coffee in the morning and that's all I did yesterday because if I start eating I know me I will keep on eating so I know this won't last you know forever but that's how I'm doing it right now. I can't do the 500 calorie thing for me it's all or nothing

[Tracieknits]

I understand that completely. There's a lot of people who feel eating makes them hungrier. What I do on fast days is put off eating as long as possible. When I was doing it more strictly, that meant nothing but coffee, water, and maybe a cup of instant broth until dinner. Then I'd have a low carb dinner, maybe saving enough calories to have a snack before bed. But there are plenty of people who do nothing but zero or near zero calorie beverages all day on their fast day. There is apparently no harm to 30 to 36 hours with no calories. I wouldn't do more than that without a doctor's approval though.

Hi all,I think not eating at all for the whole day is so hard,I work as a domestic cleaner sometimes 10 hour days plus travel time,I need to eat but so hard to stop at 500 cal on fast days,I can do it I just full off the rails,but I really need to give this a proper go because I want to reduce cholesterol

Yes that will be hard for me to to work 10 to 12 hour days and be able to fast completely. some people manage to do it but I find that I cannot do the 500 calories, I will just keep right on eating so on fast days it's easier for me to just not put anything in my mouth except water and maybe a cup of coffee and I have a weird recipe for a cup of coffee it's called bulletproof you put a tablespoon butter a tablespoon of coconut oil and you blend that together with your cup of coffee believe it or not the fat content helps keep me full until about 4 o'clock in the evening and I've been doing that for quite a while even when I'm not fasting I tend to drink my Bulletproof Coffee and I got that from a Paleo website it really works you might have to blend it all first because the heat will cause water to go all over the place so be careful I use instant coffee and I blend mine with the blender first and then I warm it up in the microwave good luck to everybody who's fasting today

Hi bride,bulletproof coffee sounds interesting,I wonder how I could combine it in my short black coffee,I had never heard of that before,I wonder if anyone else has any similar recipie s

Hello, @Song of the Bride, welcome! Not to be nitpicky, but bulletproof coffee (coconut oil) is far from calorie free; so you really aren't "totally fasting." (Just checked; typical bulletproof coffee is 441 calories.)

(Note that I have been doing 5.2 without a break for over 2 years; have lost 30+ pounds, and while I have plateaued, I've also kept that weight off, something I'd been unable to do in the past.)

However, I do understand the trouble stopping once you start, I sometimes have to watch that as well. My usual pattern:
Get up 8am
Black coffee (and I mean dead plain, no sugar, no sweetener, no creamer)
Pot of green tea (10-11am), PLAIN
Water, of course
4pm: cup of veggie broth with tiny blob of coconut oil (see, I agree it helps with satiety!)
After work (6pmish): Small meal--may be a quickie omelet (2 eggs cooked in nonstick pan, maybe with green onions or mustard), OR greek yogurt with low cal fruit (peaches or berries), OR cup of low cal soup (such as Amy's split pea).
Dinner (9pm or so): Typical is Beyond Meat strips (I am vegetarian), with blanched broccoli; sometimes a saute, sometimes in a salad with LOTS of low cal veggies. I eat late because I usually do, and I have enough trouble sleeping without making it worse by trying to sleep on an empty stomach.

Although I don't limit carbs on normal days, by default I do on light days; I go for "bang for my buck" then. So I emphasize protein, a judicious amount of (healthy) fat, and low cal vegetables/ fruit. I know that any intake of carb-heavy food would stimulate my appetite, so that's enough reason to avoid. What helps me most through those later hours is telling myself, "Oh, you've gotten this far, don't ruin the whole day pigging out now." In other words, not invalidating all those hours of hunger.

Here's a pdf I put together for a friend of mine...

5-2 et al.pdf

5.2 Basics

(590.6 KiB) Downloaded 64 times

Hello, @Song of the Bride, welcome! Not to be nitpicky, but bulletproof coffee (coconut oil) is far from calorie free; so you really aren't "totally fasting." (Just checked; typical bulletproof coffee is 441 calories.)

(Note that I have been doing 5.2 without a break for over 2 years; have lost 30+ pounds, and while I have plateaued, I've also kept that weight off, something I'd been unable to do in the past.)

However, I do understand the trouble stopping once you start, I sometimes have to watch that as well. My usual pattern:
Get up 8am
Black coffee (and I mean dead plain, no sugar, no sweetener, no creamer)
Pot of green tea (10-11am), PLAIN
Water, of course
4pm: cup of veggie broth with tiny blob of coconut oil (see, I agree it helps with satiety!)
After work (6pmish): Small meal--may be a quickie omelet (2 eggs cooked in nonstick pan, maybe with green onions or mustard), OR greek yogurt with low cal fruit (peaches or berries), OR cup of low cal soup (such as Amy's split pea).
Dinner (9pm or so): Typical is Beyond Meat strips (I am vegetarian), with blanched broccoli; sometimes a saute, sometimes in a salad with LOTS of low cal veggies. I eat late because I usually do, and I have enough trouble sleeping without making it worse by trying to sleep on an empty stomach.

Although I don't limit carbs on normal days, by default I do on light days; I go for "bang for my buck" then. So I emphasize protein, a judicious amount of (healthy) fat, and low cal vegetables/ fruit. I know that any intake of carb-heavy food would stimulate my appetite, so that's enough reason to avoid. What helps me most through those later hours is telling myself, "Oh, you've gotten this far, don't ruin the whole day pigging out now." In other words, not invalidating all those hours of hunger.

Here's a pdf I put together for a friend of mine...

5-2 et al.pdf

Yes I know that's not fasting but what I meant is if I eat food then I keep on eating I do realize it's Bulletproof Coffee is definitely full of calories and that's fine with me as long as I'm not eating solid food

Ok thanks for verifying that ferretgal,that's a lot of calories best spent on real food,but if it works for you bride that's a great thing

Ok thanks for verifying that ferretgal,that's a lot of calories best spent on real food,but if it works for you bride that's a great thing

Yep it works. I'm fasting today but this morning I put a spoonful of coconut oil and teaspoonful of butter instead of my normal tablespoon. it's still good for me today so that works for me that's what's so unique about fasting everyone is different