The FastDay Forum

Well, this week is my first week, so stats:
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Height: 151cm

Current weight: 74kgs (Obese)
Goal Weight - Short Term: 67kgs (Overweight)
Goal Weight - Mid-Long Term: 55kg (Sneaking in there at a high, but normal BMI)
Goal Weight - Long Term to Maintenance: 50kgs (would like to keep my BMI below 22)

Waist currently is 88cm (34.6") would like to get it below 68cm (27").

Hoping to reach my Mid-Long term goal (this is the lightest weight I've ever been as an adult) by January next year and my Long Term to Maintenance goal by summer next year.

My first fast is tomorrow. I'm planning to do them on Wednesdays and Sundays at first, I want to see how I go at work and concentration levels before I do both during the week.

The only problem with Sundays is that I'll have less to do. So need to make sure to keep myself distracted.

I do calorie count on my "feed" days, but I'm rubbish with portion control, so it's a way for me to keep in tune with what I'm eating. I'm also trying to eat a more paleo-style diet consisting of mostly vegetables, protein, good fats and occasional starchy foods like sweet potato and pumpkin. I'm cutting back on breads, cereals and dairy where I can.

Sugar is my biggest culprit. I'm hypoglycaemic, so if I eat a lot of sugary things it hits me like a ten-tonne truck. I'll get shaky, dizzy, sometimes slur my words (when it gets really bad). So I'm trying to keep sugar consumption to a minimum, sticking to occasional very dark chocolate and the very occasional frozen yoghurt.

It's going to be a long year a head, but hopefully this way of doing it will make it feel less like a chore.

Best of luck, I'm sure you'll do great!

Good luck Mresta! I had my first fast day on Saturday and it was much easier than I thought (lost 3lbs, which has stayed off so far). Next one tomorrow, so here goes...

Thanks guys! I had a cup of tea and dark chocolate for dessert at 10pm last night and decided to skip breakfast rather than lunch as I usually get hungrier in the afternoons.

Hopefully the timing is still OK, it means I'll have a fasting stretch of about 14 to 15 hours.

[janeg]

Hello Mresta and welcome. You've got this well planned out so shouldn't need any luck! Drop in and spend some time here to keep you occupied and please puts your stats on the progress tracker.

Hello Mresta and welcome. You've got this well planned out so shouldn't need any luck! Drop in and spend some time here to keep you occupied and please puts your stats on the progress tracker.

Thanks Jane! I've tried to do as much research as I could before starting.

I've joined a swimming pool and looking to join a gym (little trickier as I'm a freelancer so can be in different parts of London for work). Have a personal trainer who I see once a week and thinks what I'm doing is great but doesn't want me training on fast days in case I get dizzy (hypoglycemia rearing its ugly head).

But is something I can control when I lose weight, so hopefully can in the future.

...and it went totally fine.

Like I've said else where on this forum, I went in there with a battle plan.

The night before I cooked chicken and veg broth with my favourite Japanese stock and added a bit of chilli and shrimp oil to give it another boost of flavour.

I knew from the past that I'd be able to skip breakfast more easily than lunch (giving me a 15 hour fasting window). And keeping a food emotional dairy will keep me in check throughout the day to stop me gorging myself if I listened to my body more. Just in case, I also took along a toothbrush and toothpaste as I know I'm more reluctant to eat if I've just brushed my teeth.

With that, I did feel a little peckish in the morning, but realised it's mostly thirst I feel.
When my hunger increased to the point of stomach grumbling, I drank a mug of green tea to quieten it. Luckily work is very busy at the moment so I can distract myself.

The afternoon was a little tougher where it was a little difficult to concentrate and I kept yawning, but I think that was mostly work related than fasting.

But I felt fine, even when a huge chocolate birthday cake was brought in, I managed to ignore it. I felt like I had to rush home a bit to get some light dinner into me, but happened to chat to one of the girls - turns out she's doing 5:2 as well! But on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I promised to adjust my days so we're doing it at the same time and can support each other on fast days as she's found some work mates are a bit sceptical thinking "it's just another fad", so we'll keep it between the two of us.

I managed to get a decent walk in after work too - further delaying dinner, I think I was buoyed up by the fact I have someone else doing it with me. When I got home I thought I might be able to go without dinner all together, but cooking my husbands dinner set my sense of smell and hunger off, so still had the minestrone I planned on.

So my eating plan looked like this:

Last Eaten: 10pm Tuesday

Morning: Green Tea
Lunch: 1pm: Chicken and Veg Japanese Broth : 210 calories
Afternoon: More Green Tea
Dinner: Around 9pm: New Covent Garden Minestrone and a Tangerine (sweet craving kicked in) : 240 calories

Total: 450 calories

So now it's 7:00am on Thursday, I'm considering what to have for breakfast, but despite being up for an hour I don't really feel like eating yet, so will wait a little bit longer. Normally breakfast if the first thing I do straight after feeding the cats. But I decided to take a bit of time out and write this update instead.

Hi Mresta, sounds like you are well organised. The toothbrush/paste is a great tip! I've completed day 2 without too much bother and managed a 15 hr fast which I would have said would have been a struggle as I often have hypoglycaemic symptoms. Scales say I've lost 5lbs this week....may be lots of fluid, but still!

Congrats Mresta! Sounds like you are going really well and have it all sussed out! Oh and I also love the tip about brushing teeth to fend of hunger must try that on my fast day tomorrow when the cravings kick in thanks

Hi Mresta, sounds like you are well organised. The toothbrush/paste is a great tip! I've completed day 2 without too much bother and managed a 15 hr fast which I would have said would have been a struggle as I often have hypoglycaemic symptoms. Scales say I've lost 5lbs this week....may be lots of fluid, but still!

I was worried a lot about my hypoglycaemia too, but I had no problems at all for the 15 hours. I haven't gone on the scales yet! I'm going to weigh myself on Monday (then Wednesday's there after to match my work mate's fasting pattern). I've got an old pair of manual scales, so have no idea about body fat - might have to get a monitor of some sort and see if I can get my cholesterol checked at Boots.

I just finished up a week of alternate day fasting and smell has really triggered my hunger. I looked up some research studies and women more so than men, have a heightened sense of smell while fasting: http://tryingadf.blogspot.com/2013/04/adf-side-effect-super-human-smell.html

My fiance is also doing the diet with me and he hasn't noticed any changes. I can smell everything though.

Hi Having just finished my first week with varying degrees of success I can attest to the increased sense of smell & taste. I conclude that I can do without as long as I don't eat, as soon as something passes my lips thats it I need more. So planning meals ahead has helped hugely as I can think about that instead which helps spur me on. Amazing planning Mresta, it does seem to be the key.

Me and hubby both starting tomorrow! Wish us luck! Hopefully check in again tomorrow night and let you all know how it goes. Night night x

[janeg]

Good luck to mrs and mr lorrymac Do let us know how you get on. Drop in and browse for inspiration and distraction. And remember to put your stats on the tracker to keep a record of your progress.

Had my second fast yesterday, I knew Sundays are difficult because we would be going out to Camden Town and the markets there have food stalls everywhere. Luckily a friend of mine agreed to meet at Yo! Sushi, so I could just grab a couple of plates of sashimi off the belt for under 200cal and a couple of cups of green tea and be totally fine. (At the end of the day with my evening's large bowl of soup and some broth to kill off hunger pangs I still came in under 450cal).

Like a few others mentioned here, sense of smell went BOOM. My sense of smell and taste is a bit heightened anyway. Yesterday was insane though. I could smell a churros stall down the street and the smell of sugar stayed in my nostrils for hours. Definitely on Fast days I need to avoid markets and food stalls! I think bread is the hardest though. I had to pick up a loaf from the bakery on the way home and the smell was so hard to resist. I made my husband carry the bag on the way home to stop me tearing into the wrapper and stealing a slice. The fact I'm trying to cut down on starchy carbohydrates too makes it just that little bit tougher.

But the good news is I weighed myself this morning and I'm a kilo and a half lighter than last week! I haven't grabbed my tape measure yet, but hopefully my waist has gone down too (I always lose the fat around my waist and stomach first, my thighs and bum are the last to go).

So from 74kgs, I am now 72.5kgs

This week I'm changing my fasting pattern though, so basically doing ADF for a little bit to match a girl at work's pattern of Tuesdays and Thursdays and there after will weigh myself on Wednesdays - so my next weigh in won't be until mid-week, next week.

I only had a mild headache yesterday, but I think that's more to do with the fact we went to a very loud circus act than not eating much. I am getting ill though, woken up with a sore throat, so I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a full blown cold as I've just found my local leisure centre had a small, but well stocked gym that I've just signed up for and is fairly cheap. I'll need to speak to my personal trainer about a plan, but was thinking of 10mins on a cross trainer as a warm up with some yoga stretching, 15 minutes of boxing, 15 mins of weight lifting followed by abs and stretching to cool down.