The FastDay Forum

Any thoughts or comments on the 20/ 4 fasting regime ??

Hi @Zincubus

Good to hear from you again - the forum is SOOOO quiet at the moment, I am glad (but surprised!) you have posted.

Have you read through the eating windows thread which should contain comment for and from those who are doing quite narrow windows, like yours? I assume you have also read articles by Krista Varady or related material - she is the proponent of 19:5 so would have lots of information for you.

Are we to assume from your recent post that this is your first real attempt at "dieting"? I am no expert, but it appears that men generally have more success (at least in the short term) than women, and you have certainly achieved that.

I have come to believe that almost any diet works for a lot of people in the short term (say up to 6 months), but longer term success (ie not putting the weight back on again) is more a matter of whether that way of eating suits the person and is sustainable. And also that they have addressed the cause of/ found a solution for their overeating in the first place...

Intermittent fasting, in its various forms, does appear to be having success for many, but I think it is still in its infancy in terms of having big enough numbers of people using this technique to be able to judge how successful it will be longer term (at a population level) - and whether it is more successful than other strategies people use for weight management.

But on an individual level, if it is working for you, go for it! Cutting out all those processed carbs and sugars would help as well, of course. What carbs have you reintroduced?

How long have you been using eating windows? I couldn't quite work it out. About 13 weeks? So still early days.

Have you considered making exercise a bit more regular? For example, aiming to walk 10,000 steps or more every day. Or running more frequently. As with what you eat, the exercise needs to be something that suits you (and you enjoy!) for it to be sustainable in the longer term.

At the moment it sounds like everything is going well for you and you are happy with your eating habits. If you start to have any issues/problems, do share them with us.

On a personal note, I am not someone who can manage windows eating on a regular basis. I do aim to not eat until I feel genuinely hungry, but on most days the longest I can manage without eating (including the overnight time) is about 14 hours. 5:2 worked very well for me in losing weight and I have maintained (retained?) most of my loss. I do use fast/light days as the "antidote" to overeating, though I try to not overeat by making sure I fill myself when hungry with a wide variety of whole foods - but also do allow myself other food if that is what I want. (I do have more chocolate than ideal...!!)

Best wishes for your continuing success.

Well the only serious carbs I eat are potatoes and I have them every day at around 5pm .
Three times in the form of CHIPS and a good portion as well , and four days on mashed potatoes with steamed cod or roast chicken or similar .

I do 20:4 five working weekdays ( eating a decent amount of calories / food in 4 hours ) between 5pm and 9 pm . Weekends I do 16:8 which means I eat a dinner at noon Sat and Sunday .

I lose an an average of.one pound a week currently l

You might be interested in the post by Margotsylvia on the fasting today thread . She is currently using a 3 hour eating window.

Just wish I could figure out how to lose this last 7 to 10 if belly fat !!

I've lost all the weight from torso , arms , legs ,waist etc ...

You could consider traditional 5:2 (eating 600 calories on 2 days and the amount that would be enough to keep you stable at the other 5). Worked really well for me, particularly on belly fat. In my case I did the 2 days on consecutive days, but most people do them on different days.

I second @P-JK thoughts on using 5:2 in its simple form of 2 x fasting days such that you eat normally 5 days a week and 1/4 of your TDEE on 2 days. Or even do what i do which is 4:3.. so 3 days of fasting. I add to that a more strict fasting on 2 of the days, now bedded down to 100 calories on these days leaving me room for say a miso soup, some kimchi, a few walnuts and expressos with dash of milk. Been losing weight with it an my belly is shrinking

Na sorry guys . I'm a creature if habit ( Aspergers ) so 5:2 or 4:3 just won't work for me ....

I had a strange breakthrough this last few days funnily enough .

I'd been stuck on the exactly the same damn weight for nearly three weeks but a few days ago I suddenly dropped two pounds and then another one pound !?!?

Very odd to kinda plateau for a while and then suddenly kickstart into weight loss again for no good reason !?!

Any thoughts ???

i'm not sure *why* it happens, but many, many people on all sorts of different diets see this happen. There can be a few weeks of no losses, but if you stick with the program, suddenly you'll see the scale move again, more quickly than you expected. Sometimes, people notice they are losing inches before they notice the pounds drop off.

I'm sorry the forum isn't as busy as you would like. This is the slowest time of year - hands down. November and December are just the months when people lose interest in weight loss.

However we will likely see a surge of people in the first week of January. I know I plan to recommit to my weight loss journey and come to the site every day once January 1st hits.

Best of luck in the meantime.