The FastDay Forum

@Ssure, thank you for your thought provoking input - you have made me question myself with a bit more scrutiny. I feel I don't try to control my weight, I CONTROL IT, in the same way, I control many aspects of my life.

First of all your question, why I find weekends more difficult- it is because I work during the week and the weekends are my time off. It's a mini holiday. I have been good during the week and now I relax.

I see myself as a very balanced person - or should I say someone who NEEDS balance very much, like a pair of old fashioned scales. If one side goes down I have to put a counterweight on the other side. I like - no, I need equilibrium, harmony. Any excesses will need to be countered. If I do strenuous work, I will rest accordingly, I need solitude after being in a crowd. I dislike clutter but will have just the right amount to make my house homely. On the outside, most people mainly see my scales nicely balanced and don't realise the amount of work/control goes into keeping the balance.

I now wonder if this previous weekend's excess (more than usual) was the result of three extremely easy and strict fast days one a 36hr water fast, after which my weight hit an all time low, surprising and pleasing for me, but also making me ever so slightly concerned.

I wonder if I should modify my fast days now that I am maintaining. Maybe I should just slightly increase my fast day calories to maybe 700- 800kcals, enough to make me choose healthy and filling food and not enough to have an excuse to go overboard on the following eat days (my TDEE is quite low) I have never seen the connection of fasting with my innate need for balance, maybe because until recently losing weight was the "balance to be achieved"

I was never overweight, my weight just crept on ever so slightly from my early forties. We are talking about a pound and a half a year but once gained I could never lose it until I had the tool of 5:2. I love having control and balance back in my life. BTW Whilst this need for balance is often a pain I am protected from fasting turning into an eating disorder . I don't want to be too skinny either.

Ssure, thank you for stopping me and make me express this in writing.

I was waiting to see this topic! I have now recently managed to write both to fasting today and now to this maintaining. This means that I am a bit confused about what to call my way of fasting/ eating. I was 52.8 kg this morning. Which is about a half a kilo less than I would be on a normal day. I am doing a 5:19 window fasting/eating in Advent. I have not eaten anything yet today.
It is an old Christian tradition to fast before Christmas. This is part of my overall strategy for maintaining. If I have some extra room before Christmas, it will not be such a disaster. My maintenance weight is 51.7 kg and I find it really hard to stick to that. I tend normally to be about 53.3 kg. sigh! So I am hoping I could achieve a bit lower maintenance weight that 53 kg. I have not lost very much weight doing this window. I read in the 'Fast 5 ' -book that the first two weeks do not cause weight loss. This little fast is only about 3 and a half weeks.... By the way, I am small and small boned, my BMI is well over 20.
It is very, very cold and gray and dark here too, so a bit hard. 2,5 weeks to go on this way of .... it feels like fasting!!!

Do you do 19:5 every day or on selected fast days and do you count calories? Please let us know how you do on this type of intermittent fasting. Would love to hear.
Very interesting to hear fasting before Christmas is an old Christian tradition. Only knew about lent.
Good luck with maintaining.

[carorees]

Well it has been a mini rollercoaster weight-wise with me. Not big ups and downs but ups in the face of making adjustments that should have resulted in downs. In the light of the foregoing discussion about control, I am trying just to stick to my planned WOE and let the weight take care of itself, but as SSure says, that is easier said than done.

Summary: my max weight in the last 10 days was 64kg, min weight 63.1kg, trend 63.6kg. I would like to get the trend between 63 and 63.5 (range 62.0 to 64.5): even though my max allowable weight is 65kg, it feels good to have a reasonable buffer zone. Currently the trend is staying the wrong side of 63.5kg.

Happy to be staying within one pound of my goal this week, even though I haven't fasted for a week and a half I'll do a fast day on Thursday, to keep my hand in--will probably need it by then, anyway (last night's baked brie platter at our favorite [only] local "Irish" pub). My high for the week was 136 pounds, low is right at goal, 135.

I was interested in the comments about "balance", with which I can identify. Pondering on this, though, I wondered if some of us might have a tendency, at times, to lurch from one extreme to the other when we detect an initial imbalance. I think that I have done that in the past. I think that what I need is a "measured" approach so that there's not too much movement either side of equilibrium.

It has been ueful for me to reflect upon this in both personal and professional terms. Thankyou.

I read your comments to my post Ieramul today. Thank you for commenting.
Yes, for it to feel like a fast, I do fast every day. I do not count calories. I have my breakfast of yogurt, apple, berries and muesli at 15:00. I try to have it as a snack, at afternoon tea time, so less than if it were a breakfast. Then I have a regular supper, sometimes even with desert, together with my husband at 18:00.
My worst time of day is between 13:00 and 14:00. At 14:00 my husband and I go for our afternoon walk by the lake and the woods. When we get back it is tea time and I can have my break - fast.
I live in Finland, and we have some Orthodox people here. I am not Orthodox. The Orthodox have a long tradition of having a Little Fast ( before Christmas) and the big fast (Lent).
Last year at the lenten fast I managed to loose my massive weight gain from Christmas. Phew. I did not do window fasting last lent, and I didn't fast at all before Christmas.....
Today my weight was 52.5 - so I am seeing some weight loss. But I would still do this fast even if I didn't lose any. I think it is a wonderful principle to abstain before a major feast!
All the best to your control/ not control efforts Ieramul and everyone else as well!

First of all your question, why I find weekends more difficult- it is because I work during the week and the weekends are my time off. It's a mini holiday. I have been good during the week and now I relax.

...On the outside, most people mainly see my scales nicely balanced and don't realise the amount of work/control goes into keeping the balance.

I now wonder if this previous weekend's excess (more than usual) was the result of three extremely easy and strict fast days one a 36hr water fast...

I wonder if I should modify my fast days now that I am maintaining. Maybe I should just slightly increase my fast day calories to maybe 700- 800kcals, enough to make me choose healthy and filling food and not enough to have an excuse to go overboard on the following eat days (my TDEE is quite low) ...

It looks like you have an enviable awareness and insight into this matter, @Ieramul.

I read your description of weekends as a 'mini-holiday' and then saw this from Prof Cooper:

It's easier to diet in the week as meal times tend to be more regulated, explains Cary Cooper, professor of psychology and health at the University of Lancaster. 'At the weekend we lose that routine, so it makes dieting harder.
'There's also a culture of psychological reward: I've worked hard all week, why shouldn't I eat what I like?'
Saturday is the worst day of the week for slimmers, concluded researchers in the journal Obesity in 2008, after they asked 48 menopausal women who were on diets to keep food diaries.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... -zone.html

Re: the possible rebound from the water fast - Josie Spinardi argues that the extent and duration of an over-eating episode/binge is in direct proportion to the period of restriction/deprivation that triggered it. I never know what I think about this but my observation of watching people fast (online and IRL) since 2011 is that this is accurate.

Upping your food intake on FDs sounds like a good idea: I'll be interested to see how it works for you both in general and for managing your UDs/weekends.

It is an old Christian tradition to fast before Christmas.

Very interesting to hear fasting before Christmas is an old Christian tradition. Only knew about lent.

@Margotsylvia, @Ieramul, my family always fasted during Advent when I was little - in later life, I've always been surprised by how few other people have heard of this tradition. My childhood seems to have been dominated by fasting It felt like it was always a Holy Day of Obligation (fast and abstinence); Lent or Advent fasting; fasting for a scapula or other special dedication; Fridays were always abstinence but usually also what people here would now term a modified fast (St Peter's Broth for lunch - i.e., hot water with salt and pepper); plus the tradition of going fasting to Communion (depending on the timing - this meant that you had no breakfast and probably couldn't eat until lunch time or later).

I wondered if some of us might have a tendency, at times, to lurch from one extreme to the other when we detect an initial imbalance

@Bracken, Dr Barbara Berkeley has some interesting thoughts (and a book) on the topic of maintenance:
post197370.html?hilit=Berkeley#p197370

Dr Barbara Berkeley's blog post on White Knuckle Maintainers was good on this. She recommends that people spend the early months/year in maintenance gathering data about themselves and observing the impact of various foodstuffs/events. So, daily weighing, keeping a food log etc.

Thereafter, when maintainers understand their body and responses, she advocates a more relaxed practice with regular audits (so to speak).

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2014/06/a ... ng-go.html

Virtually every successful maintainer I know, including those who respond to this blog, are highly controlled in their eating habits. This is a necessity when we live in a world which surrounds us with opportunities to eat badly. ...

But it is my observation that those who succeed in maintenance long term are the ones who have learned to relax into the practice. Most of us start out with the "white knuckle", teeth gritting approach. We try so hard, feel so challenged, and often have the sense that we are continually dodging a bullet. White knuckling through something can get you over the hump in the short term (like public speaking, or running the last half mile in a race), but it is unlikely to provide a long term success. And when you do let yourself slip, all that built up tension is likely to lead to a monumental fall.

The best outcome is one in which your maintenance behaviors become second nature and preferable, not forced. How to get there?

So, it feels quite common that the early months/years of maintenance have some degree of hyper vigilance and over-reaction and then we might learn to trust ourselves and relax into maintenance without relaxing the food choices or eating schedule that suits us. I feel that I'm still in the distrustful phase in some areas. I feel comfortable about the food choices and fasting but I can't shake the feeling that one day I will wake up and somehow be 20lbs heavier. (Of course, my reluctance to book my surgery until I understand how my rehabilitation will go and how vulnerable I am to weight gain, is probably influenced by this.)

@Ssure Ssure, I agree that we must find a WOE we can totally relax into and not having to give a second thought. I am sure it is the aim of all of us to eventually acquire a habitual way of eating/fasting until it won't feel like dieting or fasting any more. It means forming a strong habit that works for each one of us. Initially that will require self observation as well as daily weighing. There is a part in me that resists logging my food in writing though, but I am quite happy to make mental notes adding up in my head what I eat. I suppose meticulous logging feels too extreme for me and is not doable in the long term and this is a habit I don't want to form.

It is interesting that you, who seems to me so much in control of what you eat admit that you still fear waking up one morning finding you have re-gained all your weight. It shows just how much effort and strength it takes "being in control" and that we doubt our own strength despite our success and how vulnerable we can feel deep down.

@Bracken, Yes there is quite a bit of lurching going on. I am not sure if this is not also a character thing. I can be quite lazy and a minute later very industrious. I am always fascinated by the different, often opposing aspects to our being. Well, we would get very bored with ourselves if we could figure ourselves out all too easily. Food is definitely one important one to figure.

It is interesting that you, who seems to me so much in control of what you eat admit that you still fear waking up one morning finding you have re-gained all your weight. It shows just how much effort and strength it takes "being in control" and that we doubt our own strength despite our success and how vulnerable we can feel deep down.

@Ieramul, on another forum is a remarkable woman who is now 5 years into maintaining a 200lbs+ loss and she regularly says that she feels, "One brownie away from weighing 350lbs again". That reads like a variant on, "One [X] is too many and 1000 [X] would never be enough" and it does speak to a sense of vulnerability in maintenance and a fragility. What is interesting (to me) is that she has chosen to ignore her appetite and reports that she is hungry for much of the time but her sense of wellness at her current weight, after a lifetime of super morbid obesity, is what enables her to retain her control.

For me, I think it's because I literally didn't recognise myself for some time (long story short - RTA, injuries, and concussion/TBI). I not only gained weight but somewhere along the line my body composition changed radically. So, although it didn't happen overnight, it felt like it to me because it was only when I felt more like myself that I noticed, IYSWIM. So, yes, I have the wholly irrational apprehension that I can wake up and find myself in a body that I don't recognise because it feels like this has already happened to me. And because rapid regain does seem to happen after radical weight loss, and the statistics for maintaining are so miserable, it's plausible that I have a sensation of waiting for the shoe to drop and an overnight regain to come out of nowhere. And, I am aware that this is ludicrous.

Anyway, for now, I'm maintaining at 106lbs which is within my range of 105-110lbs.

I really liked that refusetoregain link, @SSure! I have struggled with maintenance (though by one important measure I've been successful--i.e. I've kept most of the weight off). Something I've noticed that is helping is with winter upon us, I'm wearing trousers more. I prefer monitoring my weight by how they fit rather than a number on a scale. They're less forgiving than skirts and dresses so this is working well for me in winter.

Things seem to be a little quiet these days on this part of the forum. Most of us probably busy with preparations and celebrations. Weight is back to a steady 62.5, which is a perfect start for the big weeks to come

Still managing to maintain- I miss out lunch if I don't like what the scales say, which seems to work so far. Not sure it will work at Christmas though!

Tiddly pom, not read this thread yet, but joining maintaining on my fastiversary 30 December. I have had 6 months of bouncing to nothing, which is fine but learnt lots of lessons to share. Room for one more?. Happy hols........