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General 5:2 and Fasting Chat

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Maybe will try counting calories today.i suppose it's not too hard just limiting the food in the window to 500 cals
Just following up from my last post on this thread. I've been doing Fast 5 for almost 2 weeks. During the week I find the fast period no problem as I'm at work. I work in a lab so food is forbidden which makes it easy not to snack. I gave breakfast up last year shortly after I started 5:2 so that's no problem. I've even found missing lunch everyday fine. Then I usually get in from work about 5:30 which is perfect.

However, boy I find it hard not to eat, eat and eat some more in the 5 hour window. I also find it difficult at weekends, but I guess that's ok. I'll give it another couple of weeks to see how things go and whether I can adjust to this woe without putting weight on. The daft thing is I know what I'm doing wrong and just have to get the old will power ramped up again.
For me I find the daily eating window easier in many ways but that is more to do with flexibility of cooking and the fact that I slept so badly on fast days doing 5:2 because my long-standing insomnia problems were much worse on fast days. The actual not eating bit was not difficult! I lost 23kg doing 5:2 and a further 17kg doing 16:8, both done for about 9 months, so bearing in mind the general slowing of weight loss as I approach target, which is to be expected, I would say that 5:2 and 16:8 were equally effective for me.

Still 100g to go to target according to Libra! I have been below target a few times in the last couple of weeks but the trend is taking a while to reflect that due to the occasional jump back up above target.
You've done INCREDIBLY well Caroline! I'm still waiting for you to update your avatar. The one on the Hang Out is wonderful. I must say you do help to keep me going. I was close to giving up this week...but I think I'm about to get back on track...we'll see :confused:
Thanks carorees,you answered my question
I am trying 16/8 but just seem to find it hard to count calories...tired of doing it.today I tried to eat less in my window so I could call it a fast day.interesting that you lost weight just doing 16/8
Did you limit what you eat in your window?i don't really eat that much .
I don't limit as such but I try not to fill the entire eating window with food! I just have lunch and dinner and keep carbs down by not having much rice, potato, bread etc with my meals, as my appetite has shrunk, I need to cut out the carbs anyway so as to have room in my stomach for the veg and protein components and a little to spare for a sweet treat.
Thanks carorees
You have done so well,you are an inspiration
nursebean wrote: Don't you ever miss breakfast, though?


NO! ........I've been eating within a varying window now for at least 15 months and the thought of eating before at least noon fills me with horror :shock: most days I don't even think about food before 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I accept that this is not for everyone but it is just perfect for me so I see no reason to not do this for the rest of my life. When we were on holiday recently we all met for breakfast and for the first couple of days I had a small piece of cheese and a tiny bit of ham, just to be sociable, but I soon knocked that on the head as it really did not work for me and just had my usual black coffee instead. Beany Bobs my love, just do what comes naturally to you and enjoy your life without overeating, you can do it, honest,

Ballerina x :heart:
Im on 4:3 but if i find i have a dinner date on a fast day i find it easier to convert to a 19:5 for that day than to move the Friday fast to a Saturday fast (which is what i used to do) Tonight is a good example and im lookign forward to one of those feasting smorgasboards. I know i will eat too much but its ok if its only every now and then. And theoretically with eating windows the effect should not be tragic

So we weave and change our eating plans to suit. Loving Intermittent fast and its flexibility for our lifestyle.
I find daily 16:8 far easier to adhere to than full 24h+ fasting. However, there are aspects of prolonged fasting that I most definitely prefer.

For example, some recent evidence has added weight to the idea that longer term fasting is more beneficial from a health perspective. As such, I'm willing to "suffer" a tad more in the short term for the long term rewards.

Also, the longer I fast, the better I feel both mentally and physically - well, technically anyways. I can't completely shake the emotional/mental attachment to food and that tends to annoy me during prolonged fasting. However when I can put it out of my mind, I feel great. (wrote a little something in my blog: http://www.hungerfitness.com/difficulti ... s-choices/)

With prolonged fasting it's as if I can feel my body "resetting". Various hormonal levels are baselining, insulin, blood sugar etc. I literally feel like someone did a de-fragment on my hard-drive and a trash clean-up on my OS.

Short term fasting like 16:8 doesn't quite give me that feeling. Makes sense, as you'll probably be in a fed state a good deal of those 16 hours due to the last meal before the fast. Also you most likely have a roughly 12h supply of glycogen in your liver. So while you may go 16 hours without eating anything, your body will probably only be in a true fasted state for a few hours.

So, I'm a bit torn at the moment. 16:8 is far easier from the adherence standpoint as it is a less extreme form of fasting, but aside from the weight management aspect, it does seem to be an inferior choice for health benefits.

Let's face it - trying to partake in a prolonged fast in our modern world, when you are pretty much being force fed advertisements about food from every angle, is pretty hard. :D
Hello @hungerfitness

Your thoughts about16:8 chime with me, which is why I do 19:5. I think if I had 8 hour window, that is I ate something at the start of it, and had my last food not too short of the end, I would eat too much, would have to consciously think about the amount rather than relying on my appetite. It is in the last few hours of the fasting window that the fasting benefits kick in.

Many people who do 16:8 of course do not use their full 8 hours every day so it works for them, but my mindset prefers simple rules to flexibility.

Thinking about it, another reason the eAting window appeals to me is that I can enjoy exercising every day. When I was on 5:2 I felt fine on the fast day but a bit woozy the morning after, even after breakfast. Never feel woozy on 19:5
As I often just have the one meal and no snacks I frequently find that my fast has lasted almost the full 24 hours and I must admit that I do feel really good and alert from it but for me flexibility is the key. This week has been typical, Monday was water only, Tuesday's window was a bit of a 6 hour non stop food fest which finished with a whole packet of Jaffa cakes and I then felt sick, serves me right! Wednesday was lunch only, yesterday was a very late lunch but then a sort of light but healthy grazing session til about 9 pm so another 6 hour window there and today will be a late lunch only, any time after 2 p.m. I think I take flexibility to new heights :lol: but I still never break my window and my weight never increases so my chaotic non routine works well for me :lol:

Ballerina x :heart:
I'm looking at the eating window again for the holidays.
I did the missing of the breakfast most of the time last year and it nearly worked. A few lapses but not too bad.
Thing is, I actually love breakfast and, the day after a fast am soooooo hungry. If I'm doing windows on most days though that shouldn't be a problem as I shouldn't be too hungry.
I also get a bit anxious about not having something at night, even if I'm not hungry and I'm fasting the next day. I tend to have something 'just in case'.
What I do find though is that the day after fasting (3 times a week) and having breakfast, I really don't need to eat until evening.
So maybe after the holidays , I'll know if daily fasting windows are easier than 4:3.
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