The FastDay Forum

Hi Danish,
Don't you get lovely rye bread where you live, rather than high GI white bread and buns ? And Wasa crispbread, of which I am a great fan ? You could try to calculate the glycaemic load of what you are eating, if you keep a food diary and weigh your food. I'm not sure if you said how many calories you consume on a daily or weekly basis compared to your TDEE total daily energy expenditure, I think it means). I am not an expert, and I have much more to lose than you, but these are the issues I think about, and I am a vegetarian like you (without a chocolate habit).Skol!

Hi Danish,
Don't you get lovely rye bread where you live, rather than high GI white bread and buns ? And Wasa crispbread, of which I am a great fan ? You could try to calculate the glycaemic load of what you are eating, if you keep a food diary and weigh your food. I'm not sure if you said how many calories you consume on a daily or weekly basis compared to your TDEE total daily energy expenditure, I think it means). I am not an expert, and I have much more to lose than you, but these are the issues I think about, and I am a vegetarian like you (without a chocolate habit).Skol!

Yes, I do eat a lot of rye bread, indeed. And also some crispbread (not necessarily the Wasa brand) My girlfriend just happened for some reason to buy loads of white bread this week. Usually I prefer whole wheat / whole grain products as I think they are often as good or better than white bread, rice etc.

About weighing my food and calculating this and that as others also talked about. It is one of the things that bothers me most on fast days and I would hate having to do it on the 5 other days of the week as well.

I feel your pain Danish Vegetarian. I'm in a similar position having gained weight on holiday, purely my own fault, and struggling to get it back off despite fasting and eating *quite* well on my non-fast days. This also comes after no losing much weight this year all.
Personally I'm thinking my carb addiction, particularly white bread, white pasta and crisps are my problem but a life without these things is a life not worth living! I hope you get to root cause of yours x

@DanishVegetarian - there is a fair amount of research support for the notion that lack of sleep tends to be associated with weight gain, particularly fat deposition around the mid-section. Eg: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25012962

Several pathways could link sleep deprivation to weight gain and obesity, including increased food intake, decreased energy expenditure, and changes in levels of appetite-regulating hormones, such as leptin and ghrelin. A relatively new factor that is contributing to sleep deprivation is the use of multimedia (e.g. television viewing, computer, and internet), which may aggravate sedentary behavior and increase caloric intake. In addition, shift-work, long working hours, and increased time commuting to and from work have also been hypothesized to favor weight gain and obesity-related metabolic disorders, because of their strong link to shorter sleep times.

There is some discussion among obesity researchers that lack of sleep is associated with modulations to the HPA axis and endocrine system and increases attraction to fat, salt, or sugar.

So, a chronic deficit in sleep can be very relevant for some people as a contributory factor to a lengthy plateau in their weight loss efforts or even something that contributes to a gain in body fat or adverse changes in other health markers.

I would prefer not to stop fasting, but I can lay off the sweets for some days. Is that enough for this experiment

@DanishVegetarian - I phrased that badly. I meant to suggest that it might be helpful if you can lay off the sweets for some days while continuing to fast - but that perhaps you might relax the 16:8 if you found that more manageable while you were without whatever support that the sweets would normally supply.

If you can continue with 5:2 and give up sweets for a trial period and then observe what happens then that might be useful information. If it's practical to combine that with whatever is at least an adequate amount of sleep for you then that would be very helpful.

@JennyH10 - I think you misunderstood. I just didn't do 16:8 every day on my holiday - and it wasn't when I started gaining weight. I think you should stick to 5:2 even in your holidays or all your hard work will be wasted. One of the good things about 5:2 is that it you can just move your fasting day if it suits you better so it fits in your holiday schedule.

About white bread, pasta etc. Why not try whole wheat instead? And try salted nuts instead of crisps. We make our own salted almonds. They're great when you feel like having a snack.

@SSure - I am not sure what laying off sweets was supposed to show? Was it supposed to change my waist size or was it just about the weight? I haven't eaten any sweets at all since Tuesday and I avoided anything with sugar in it. The only carbs I have had was the "good" kind from whole grain / whole wheat products. I have still been fasting with 600 cal. on Thursday and still only eating for 8 hours a day.

My waist size is still 92-94 cm. depending on the time of day. Maybe I should have that test for insulin resistance like I was advised - even though I would be surprised to have it.

@DanishVegetarian I too am a vegetarian (ovo-lacto). Although I don't limit carbs on purpose, I find that I gravitate toward very low carbs on fast/light days. You haven't said if you eat eggs, but I find hardboiled eggs to be a very helpful snack on light days; the protein and fat are very satiating for the calories.

I really don't eat pasta/bread/potatoes on fast days. Early on, I had a baked potato for dinner on a fast day 'cause I was really wanting one; I got hungry in the middle of the night and had to get up and pop a couple of fake chicken strips in my mouth to get back to sleep! Since that, I just don't do major carbs on fast days. I also love my sweets, and enjoy good artisan bread (on normal days, of course). Though my biggest sin (that I won't give up!) is beer...not on fast days, though!

I know there's a lot out there about large waist size (me too...), and while it doesn't mean you AREN'T insulin resistant, how about your family, especially any siblings? While both my sisters are slim, they still have relatively larger waists for their size--just the way our family is built! Damned apple shape!

As some have pointed out, with your already lowish BMI, it's possible your body is just done losing weight, at least for now. Be kind to it. You can see my blog for some of my thoughts about this WOL (btw, I've been on a plateau for several weeks and have a much higher BMI than you). I consider this just how I'm going to eat for the rest of my life; I know if I went off it, I'd just regain the 22lbs I've already lost. Truthfully, I don't find fasting (at least as I do it) that difficult. So, if more weight comes off as I go forward, wonderful! If not, I've found a WOL that works for me and enables me to walk and exercise without pain...

Hi @DanishVegetarian. Just thought I'd add my thoughts for what it's worth. My initial reaction after reading your post was that you need to cut back on the chocolate and sweets. When I first got into fasting I gradually found that I wasn't craving chocolate as much and naturally cut down. I stopped eating it as much in the week and tended to just have treats at the weekend. Recently the fasting has been going a bit weird, I'm craving all the naughties again and eating more on weekdays. I haven't properly lost weight in ages, just keep going up and down, up and down. For me eating sugary stuffs definitely makes a huge difference, so if you can cut back at least some and maybe have two or three treat days, that may help. The more you cut back the easier it gets and yes I need to take my own advice