The FastDay Forum

Hi steph, i hope you had a good fast day. Mine was mediocre today - more 650cals but it will have to do.

You are so right, the secret of restrained eating is in the carbs. As soon as I start eating them, I know I crave sugar and more carbs. Not so with most protein meals. I can't overeat on protein very well.

Lets see how tomorrow fares and if I can stay below TDEE. bIG HUGS

Congrats Ieramul on your successful, though perhaps mediocre, fast day. I'm afraid mine was a bust. I found a single Brötchen in the freezer left over from Easter and just had to eat it. If I had stopped at that my fast would have been the same as yours, but alas, I ate and ate even succumbing to that cinnamon raisin bagel I was craving on Friday. I wolfed it down. Snuck more licorice too. Adam will notice this time and I will have to give him some money for the missing ones. Now I feel terrible, both physically and emotionally. I want to cry, how stupid is that? I should have called one of the people from OA. Thought about it but felt too uncomfortable even thinking about it.
Well, time for bed, that is if I can stop eating! I hope your day goes well! ttfn

Hi Steph, I understand how you don't want to call for help, especially once the deed is done. a phonecall can only be of use if you manage to call when you struggle with the decision. But willpower can be broken in an instant. It sounds to me you did not go over your TDEE but didn't much fast, so maybe you can try and schedule a fast day today or tomorrow and another one on Friday. That way you signal to yourself that there is no way that you give in. I know it is infuriating when you wasted a fast day. You have my full sympathy.

Since I went about 250 cals over my fasting cals yesterday I am going to try and eat no more than 1200 cals today. i will have a protein omly breakfast today consisting of one or two poached or boiled eggs. Later in the morning I will have a mug of stock (Soup) and two pieces of fruit and then a thoroughly filling supper (trying to limit the carbs.. That's the plan.
Tkake care , steph and don't be too hard on yourself. Dust yourself down and no more self reproaches. They achieve nothing. BIG HUG.

Hi Ieramul, I tallied up my calories for yesterday and indeed I didn't go over my TDEE. I thought I had blown it completely. However, I gained 2 lbs overnight! how is that possible? The jeans that were loose yesterday are now much snugger. I will attempt to fast today even though I am already wanting to eat and it is only 11 a.m. I usually don't eat until 2 or 3 on a fast day and even on workday feast days so I have a ways to go. Yesterday I had some yummy tofu soup which was filling but I still had an omelette with a bit of parmesan cheese. Then, feeling very full I proceeded to feast Well, today will be better!
Good for you for your determination to eat under your TDEE today. You go girl!
Time to get on with the day and have another cup of tea! I have some letters to write and drinking tea just seems to go along with writing for some reason Hugs!

Hi Steph, I am very proud of you for giving this another go today. Your gain this morning was a blib, probably water or food in the system. You see I think as long as we keep trying to find the best way how we can deal with keeping our weight under control that is the most important thing.

Just think, of the weight you might have gained since you joined this site and fasting. You are in the healthy range now but if you had not monitored your weight over the last 6 months you might have put on maybe 6 lbs and in another six months it could be a few pounds more. Remember that the weight goes on ever so slowly over the years until the few pounds become stones. By engaging into this fasting and vigilance now you won't be in this situation in a few years' time. If you manage to keep you weight as it is now, you are in a much better position than many people.

I know we can become quite despondent when the scales don't move down or if we gain a bit, but if we could just sometimes remind ourselves how many calories we are saving by fasting and hence prevent weight gain.

I had a good start today with a poached egg, a slice of microwaved bacon and some leftover steamed vegetables. At work I remembered that I was having lunch with a colleague and I am afraid it wasn't a healthy meal. So now I have no idea what the damage is. I also had two apples mid morning. If I manage to just have some vegetables and dip and an apple I might just save the day. But if it is not meant to be it is not meant to be. I will be fasting tomorrow so I try not to have any carbs like bread tonight. I have heard that people have better fasts after a low carb day. I must admit after my Sunday sugar splurge I did find the Monday fast harder than usual.

Take care and BIG HUG - whatever you are doing - keep going.

Thanks so much for your pep talk Ieramul! you don't know how much it really helps. When I started this WOE in October I was only 122 lbs and then over the course of November to February I gained 15 lbs! by pigging out on "feast days". I ate thousands of calories a day on mostly carbs and junk food. Not a feast day went by that I didn't gorge myself. Now that I've been eating sensibly the weight is slowly coming off. I don't consider myself to be at a healthy weight because most of it is belly fat which is the worst kind, especially combined with diabetes. I would love to get down to 122 lbs again! and I'm sure I can if I stick to this fasting WOL.

Today's fast has gone well so far. I ate around 2. Had salad, a boiled egg, half a cob of corn and an orange and surprisingly I am still full three hours later. I'm hoping to make it till 7 or 8 before I eat again so that the evening isn't so long. It helps that it is gloriously sunny and warm here today. Didn't even need a jacket when I went for a walk! incredible weather. I'll be going out for another walk to mail a letter to my mom. She doesn't have a computer so we still use the regular post It is lovely to get a letter in the mail.

I hope the rest of your day went well and you managed to salvage your TDEE in the end. If not, no biggy, there's always tomorrow!

Hi Steph, this is interesting. How did you eat before fasting? Did you not pig out? If you are over compensating and pigging out because you feel deprived then maybe try a week or two without fasting just very reduced eating ie 1300-1400 cals per day and see if your eating habits normalise? If you were 122 lb and happy with that weight, why did you start fasting?

I don't think I stayed as low as I hoped and probably was more 1500 cals. lets hope tomorrow's gasting will go better than Monday's.

good luck BIG HUG. Take care

Well, I started fasting because I was hoping to lose another 5 lbs to get rid of the rest of my belly. My sister is my height and averages around 115 lbs which is a very healthy weight for 5'1" (although, to be fair, she's never had kids and didn't get that extra pregnancy fat to deal with). I wasn't aiming for that low but it would have been nice. When I started I had been calorie counting since last February, eating only 1200 calories a day, every day, which had lost it's appeal. I just couldn't see doing that forever. It took me 9 months to lose 13 lbs. It was grueling and not something I want to go back to. I could never enjoy lunches out with friends or big family gatherings. I much prefer this fasting. I started overeating just before I started fasting. I was fed up with calorie counting and thought I deserved to have treats. Then all hell broke loose and any restraint I had went out the window. I started baking, big mistake! Now that I am learning to eat healthy again the weight loss is happening, with little hitches now and again. I used to be vegetarian and ate so well. Then life got in the way and everything went to pot. Why did you start fasting? how much weight did you lose and how long did it take you to reach your maintenance goal?

Beets are roasting, spinach is prepped for sauteing, chicken ready to go in the oven. A good, low cal supper to end the day with. Take care!

I made an error. I just checked my tracker and my first weigh in in November was 129 lbs not 122. 122 was my lowest weight when I was calorie counting in the summer. That's my memory for you! So I had already gone off the rails when I started and I didn't heed the "normal" eating advice on here.

Hi Steph, My highest weight ever was 58kg = 128lbs. That was just before the Horizon programme in 2012. I used to be very slim in my youth weighing about 48-49 until my early forties which I always felt was my natural weight as I am very fine boned and short. Most of my weight was/is around my hips and thighs. When my weight started to increase I didn't like it and immediately tried to reduce my food intake and eat healthily. I managed to maintain my slightly increased weight for some time but found it almost impossible to lose weight once it was on. So I was 51kg for a couple of years and then 52kg for a few years etc.

For a while I did food combining and I managed to lose a few pounds and felt really good health wise. But I could not sustain it. So I resigned myself that every year I would gain a little bit more weight and that there was nothing I could do about it. This was life. Then I tried 5:2 in September 2012 and lost 14 lb by December 2012 doing 4:3. I was about 51kg (113lb) by Christmas but after Christmas I felt so cold, I thought I could not go on. So I gave up and gained half my lost weight( 7 lb) by May 2013. In June I started again and this time it took me as long to lose 7lb as it did to lose 14lb the previous year. By Christmas I was down to 51kg only to give it up in January again. So last June I started again with a weight of 54kg (119 lb) and reached 49.5kg by Christmas (once I dipped even lower).

Over the Christmas 2014 period my weight went back up to 51kg but really I want my goal and maintenance weight to be 50kg. I know it is arbitrary but I like that figure because I was that weight for a long time.

For maintenance I want a bit of wriggle room and weigh just below 50kg anything above and I will fast. Last week I was down to 49.5 and then went and messed it all up at the weekend and on Monday I weighed 50.7 as I was being a total pig all weekend.

I feel that the closer I am to my goal the more I self sabotage. I have been almost there since January. This week I am going to crack it. I have had a not so good fast day (650-700cals) on Monday but I am fasting today and on Friday so I should get back down to last week's goal weight. At the weekend we are away and I am always very good when away and not around my own cupboards. I don't eat lots at meal times and I can't snack in other people's houses.

My TDEE is 1300 if I don't exercise/walk but with my daily lunch time walks I think I can increase it to about 1450. That is not much and really and I think without fasting I would have to permanently restrict my diet especially if I don't walk for a few days. So I think I will need at least one excellent fast day and a mediocre to maintain my weight and not feel constantly deprived.

Wow Ieramul you are tiny! How tall are you? I now don't feel bad about my long term goal of 115 lbs. I hesitated to put it on my signature because I wanted to reach my interim goal of 125 lbs first and then keep going if I can. 122 lbs has been the lowest I've been in almost 30 years, pre babies. I'll be jumping for joy if I reach 115! At my thinnist, at 18 I was 104 lbs. It would be incredible if I were to reach that. My heaviest weight was 187 lbs when I was on medication and very depressed 10 years ago. You sure keep a close eye on your weight and have such a small window for your maintenance range but you seem to be doing so well with this fasting, making up for weekend sweets quickly. I struggle to keep the weight down once I lose it. Monday I was 130.2, yesterday 132.4, and today, the day after fasting, 130.4. I will be surprised if I can make it till Saturday and stay at 130 ish. One of the problems I have is that my friends and family keep saying I don't "need" to lose weight, that I look just "fine". I guess I hide my weight too well but I consider 130 to be heavy and my naked form agrees It is discouraging not having their support.

I just splurged and had a white bread roll with butter and an egg is boiling. Now I just need to resist the cookies at the Senior's Residence this afternoon when I visit Marion. It is another lovely day here and I'm going to see if I can get her to come outside for a bit, maybe take her for a walk around the block in a wheelchair. It would have to be short, though, because I don't think she has any sunscreen and I don't want her to get burned. Her skin is so thin, it would be awful for her.

I intend to make zucchini fritters and potato latkes for supper. We'll see if I have the energy and follow through once I get home. I usually don't and right now I don't feel like prepping them. Adam loves the latkes. And so do I and they would be a nice treat. I rarely fry anything.

Enjoy your day Ieramul, and thanks for telling me your weight loss story. Really helped.

Oh Steph, you are amazing. Your journey is so much more successful than mine. You lost so much weight with your willpower be eating a reduced calorie intake. It must have been so difficult. You weigh 57lbs less than 10 years ago, that is fantastic. It is admirable that you have the ambition to get back to the figure of your youth , a weight you clearly seem to identify with. I hope you can get down to your 125lb interim goal to give you more motivation. There is nothing more motivating than weightloss.

I admire every person who has a lot of weight to lose because I don't know if I could do that. I presume that the worst is not the weight but the loss of confidence that you can achieve weight loss.
I suppose this is why I am sooo vigilant. I don't know how I would deal with having to lose so much weight. I know people say maintaining is so difficult. I don't think it is not half as difficult as losing. Once I reach goal weight or a bit below I can eat all my 1300-1450 calories every day and if I want to eat a bit more one day I can eat less (fast) the next day or week to undo the damage. We need to understand that once we reach goal weight we can't go back to how we ate before. The fasting is there to balance out occasional indulgences and calorie miscalculation and calorie amnesia. Then we need a good scale and honesty. By the time we get to maintenance we know roughly the calories content of most of our food and we need to keep a mental record of the calories we have consumed in any day. Ok this may be depressing news to some people but not half as depressing as having to start again.
Having given up twice I won't give up again (apart from the occasional holidays).
Well, Steph we seem to be a similar height and soon we will be similar weight. I am sure you can catch me up this summer and then we can keep each other going through the cold months.

My fast today went well. I didn't eat until half past eight tonight and all I had was two tomato, a pepper, a bit of brokkoli with a low cal dip and for desert I had a lovely apple. No more than 300cals I am sure. I am glad I managed a good fast. If I can do a 600 cal fast day on Friday, I should be happy and hopefully have "paid off" my overindulgence last weekend.

Ieramul, you have it down to a science. I just seem to bumble along hoping for the best and congrats on eating ONLY 300 calories! fantastic!

Losing weight now that I am slimmer is tougher for sure. Sometimes keeping to my 1400 cal allotment takes herculean effort. Today was a disaster. I gave in at the senior's residence. There was an afternoon social and peanut butter nanaimo bars and cookies were served. I greedily ate the bar even though after the first bite it was cloyingly sweet. Silly of me. Then I snitched a couple of cookies from the coffee area as I left. Had tea and those cookies when I came home. I felt full but still wanted to eat more sugary stuff and thought about getting some chocolate. I actually phoned Cheri, an OA member, and chatted for a bit with her. Lovely lady. After I hung up I decided to make supper even though I wasn't very hungry, to get my mind off chocolate. So, I stuffed myself. Then started thinking about chocolate again and walked to the corner store and alas it was closed! My craving should have stopped there but no! Adam wanted me to pick him up from a friend's so once he got in the car I drove to the grocery store where I picked a piece of cheesecake out of the bakery selection. It was rather bland but I ate the whole thing anyway. Hmph. Now I have a big red X for the day under my "sugar" column . and I knew better than to have the nanaimo bar! I'm already thinking about what I will eat tomorrow after work. I have to go water Ille's plants tomorrow. She is travelling in Germany and other parts of Europe for a month and I have the job of tending her greenery. She placed a little bowl of Easter chocolates in front of one of the plants for me. When I went out on Tuesday and found it I almost ate a little egg but I was fasting and resisted. I've been thinking about that chocolate ever since! One of these days I won't be so consumed by all these thoughts of food.

I've been reading a book about low-carb eating. One thing it says is that the worst thing you can do is focus on how much more you have to lose, rather you should focus on how much you've already lost! and let that motivate you. Everyday I think, I've already lost X, yippee, that is X lbs less than I weighed when I started. I know for myself I can get very discouraged if I start thinking - it isn't happening fast enough, what am I doing wrong? there is something wrong with me because others are so successful at this! silly thoughts which I slap right out of my head It is such a mind exercise this weight loss stuff
Ok, bed time. Enjoy your day!

Hi Steph, instead of letting other people's success discourage you, I hope they encourage you as well knowing that it can be done. You have done so brilliantly in the past and I am sure you will get into the groove again. Sometimes it is a small thing that motivates us again. But honestly you have done so well. Don't be too hard on yourself especially as you have health issues, which I don't have. I am so lucky in that way.

I am sure your cloyingly sweet bar set you off yesterday and I really recommend you try eating no carbs on a fast day to start with (and when you are used to it a few more days a week). By no carbs I mean no processed carbs. Carbs in fruit and vegetables (except potatoes) are allowed. If you can extend it to a few non fast days then that would be even greater. It is definitely worth a try and like any diet it needs getting used to. So even if it seems a bit difficult at first, persevere.

I don't find it too difficult because for a long time I did food combining (on and off) which meant you either eat a carb or a protein meal. So now I just don't have the carb meals. To an extend, I am finding myself returning to food combining (although not as strict and not for extended periods) but will still do 5:2 or a variation of it always. It's the only doable long term strategy for me.

I had no carbs yesterday and only a few raw vegetables and an apple and I don't feel hungry this morning. I am not sure if it would work for you but having no carbs makes me feel less hungry after a fast day. I won't eat until I get hungry and brought with me only fruit (2 apples, a banana and some grapes) to eat throughout the day. They are delicious and easily digested. Then when I get home this evening I will have a normal meal with DH (including carbs as in potatoes or rice). From habit I don't have large portions of main meals and as long as I don't have desert, I should not suffer cravings.

I am pleased that my weekend damage has been alleviated. This morning I was down to 49.5kg or 109lb. I am very happy with that. If I can get it down to 108 by Monday, then I have achieved my goal, sitting in the middle of my maintenance range. I want my range to be between 107-110lbs. I will have lost 18lbs doing 5:2 but more importantly without 5:2 my weight would probably would have inched further up, so am more likely 20-25lbs lighter than I would be otherwise.

Steph, I am sorry, I can't be more helpful and I am glad you have someone from your group you can call to get your mind off. Make use of it maybe when you feel you are constantly thinking about food, before you actually eat. Are you fasting today? If so, Good Luck.

Take Care BIG HUG

Hi Ieramul,

Thanks for your kind words and suggestions. I do get inspired by other's stories but also can feel a little discouraged that they've done so well and I am struggling. I have to remember that they struggled too. It isn't easy for any of us to lose weight.

I'm glad you are within your maintenance range! how gratifying.

I've cut out a lot of carbs over the last few months. I don't buy loaves of bread anymore or bags of cookies. When I need a fix I will go to a grocery store and buy a single bread roll or bagel. If I want cookies I try to avoid the boxes and buy a single one at a fast food restaurant or bakery. My problem is the sense of entitlement I feel after a fast day. I think I should bloody well deserve a treat! and on Wednesdays I go see Marion saying that I will only have two cookies or a muffin or one piece of cake if it is a party. I can't just stop after that, though. So I have to go back to NOT accepting the treats at the socials or sneaking cookies on my way out the door. I've done it before when I was strictly calorie counting and I can do it again.

Today I brought home some diced chicken from work and mixed it with mayo, curry powder, basil and cucumber, green onion and celery. Then I put it in boston leaf lettuce leaves and rolled them up. SOOO tasty. I also had half of a very unhealthy 'smokey' which I fried in a pan. I am full now but may have a banana. Not a processed carb yet today. There is only more packet of crackers for Adam's lunch tomorrow so I can't eat that! Haven't quite decided what to make tonight, an egg dish of some kind and veggies and perhaps a few boiled, diced potatoes. I'm surprised how I can feel full after a meal of just chicken and vegetables. So, I have been moving towards the low carb diet.

I'll be fasting tomorrow. I'm glad I'll be at work. It is more difficult when I don't work to get through the morning and early afternoon without wanting to eat. Working means I don't get home til 3 ish and that is a good time to eat.

I am very tired and will have a ten minute nap before my son gets home. We have to head out the door to the bank. That time of the month again! rent needs to be paid.