The FastDay Forum

I fasted yesterday at 475 calories and was still above 140 this morning. I was 142 before fasting, which is creeping up to as much as I would like to weigh, but since I'm not willing to diet on non-fast days it may creep up more.

Well done everyone. I'm just checking in and am still maintaining within my limit, 60kg and feeling good. Spring is on the way and I can see the evenings are drawing out so I think I've got through the worst time of the year relatively unscathed. Not really fasting any more, just keeping an eye on my weight, and exercising more. Completely failed the sober January though !

Hi @wmr309 Have you looked into the FODMAPS diet? It involves restricting foods that cause fermentation in the gut (and so release of gas causing bloating). Many of the things you say you are eating more of can cause bloating, such as the high fibre breakfasts, whole grains, legumes and fruits

Thanks @Carorees, I haven't looked at it before. No garlic or onions would be hard for me but it's worth a try. Since about a couple of months I'm also experiencing constipation and cramps (all new to me) so that's why I've upped the fibre. Some days I feel better but once I lie down my stomach area feels heavy. I've been referred to a gastroenterologist. I do quite a bit of exercise and drink 2.5-3 litres of water a day so it's not clear to me what it could be.

[carorees]

Maintaining a bit on the high side again. Still under target but not much room for manoeuvre.
Max weight this week 65.1, min 64.0, trend 64.2. Last summer was easily maintaining at a trend of 63.2ish so would prefer to be back there. Hoping it's just the effects of winter.

No garlic or onions would be hard for me but it's worth a try.

@Wmr309 Good luck for a helpful outcome from the gastro referral.

I've been following FODMAPs for several years and it completely changed the quality of my life (if I say that on a bad day I had urgency >20 times in 4 hours, I'm sure you know what that's like).

FODMAPS doesn't mean that items will always be excluded, it's more that you need to find the levels you can tolerate.

I sympathise on the onion and garlic. I can only tolerate a tiny quantity of onion or garlic that has been exposed to water because the troublesome fructans are soluble in fluid but not oil. However, I'm fine with a reasonable portion of fried onions or oil in which garlic has been gently infused. I tend to fry the onions for a soup, stew, or casserole, remove the onions, use the oil to cook the remaining ingredients - put my portion aside and then add the onions back for other people. I sometimes have my fried onions/garlic on the side. Other people find that they're OK with using onion/garlic powder but they experiment with this after excluding all allium products for a couple of weeks.

Once again this week my high was 137 with my low right on goal of 135 this morning after a fast yesterday. I suppose that fasting twice a week would give me a lower range. I may try that when the weather improves. We've had Monday exercise cancelled so often lately--I prefer to fast on a day when I'm busy out of the house. So I've been left with Thursdays as the only days to guarantee that I'm too occupied all day to think about food.

Spring in 36 days, right?

@marybeth, It must be snowing fat. I'm still fasting but the weight is creeping up. I sure hope it gets easier in a few weeks. Nothing but lots more snow and deep cold in the next 10 day forecast. <sigh>

I am maintaining or I should say I am trying to keep maintaining this months. Not out of my range yet but very close to get out of it unfortunately. Since Christmas I have gone to the top of my range and find it hard to come down. I hope the next month I do better. Good luck to all

I'm 107.6lbs which is at the midpoint of my preferred range of 105-110lbs. It's in my range but I have an upwards trend that bears watching tho' this has happened to me before - and I've lots of inflammation round my joints at present.

@peebles Maybe OH's DD and SIL have the right idea--they're getting out of Dodge (Lexington/Concord area) on the Amtrak this morning, heading south. They won't return from a visit to their DD in Washington, DC. until Tuesday. Blizzard should be over by then. We are in for the weekend with a large supply of dark chocolate.

We were actually booked for a trip down South starting today, but we cancelled it because of the upcoming below zero cold. We don't have anyone who could house sit and our furnace has a history of refusing to turn on if there is the tiniest clog in a tube leading to the power vent. If the furnace fails when it's 7 below and the pipes freeze, we could come home to a find a frozen waterfall down the staircase. That happened to my brother years ago when he went off to the Carribean for a week one winter. He had to replace all hsi floors and live with friends for a month.

Hopefully we will be able to go next month.

It's a shame about your trip having to be postponed, @peebles, but 'better safe than sorry!' You folks in the States area having a rough time with the weather this year - or is it always this bad?

At my weigh-in this morning I was 0.2 of a pound over my target, so I am happy with that, although I did fast on Tuesday because my weight had jumped up by two pounds almost overnight! It could have been because I bought salted caramel popcorn and two large bags of crisps, which my husband and I demolished last weekend! This Friday they didn't find their way into my shopping trolley! I also did an accidental half fast yesterday, so that would also have helped with overcoming the crisp/popcorn additional poundage!

Hope that the rest of my fellow maintainers are keeping steady this month - only two weeks to go and we will be maintaining for March!

[carorees]

Is it me or is there a general theme this month of people finding their weight has increased or that they are having to work hard to keep it within the maintenance boundaries? An effect of the cold winter perhaps? I'm hoping that with the spring will come a decrease in weight back to where I was in October. Still just under target but would prefer a bigger margin.

@carorees, It does seem to be a general theme that weight is creeping up.

@stowgateresident, Our winters almost always bring something unpleasant, but this year seems to have every single element that can go wrong, where usual we only have a few unpleasant elements each year. Where usual winters may be very cold, or bring record amounts of snow, or feature a long-lasting power failure, or a major ice storm this year we have had a winter that started with a major power failure, followed by ice storms, record amounts of snow, enduring near-record cold that keeps the snow from melting, and now we have a wind storm.

And we are nowhere near done. Our last real snow usually happens in April. OTOH, the weather seems to be pretty awful even in those parts of the U.S. that don't get nasty winters, like Texas and the mid-South.

I usually only post an end-of-month retrospective in the Maintaining thread, partly because I am superstitious and partly, because I don't know if I am maintaining. I can tell you if I have maintained, but maintaining is only as good as the last weigh-in.

For example, after 8 straight days on 122, I shot up to 124 and stayed there for 3 days. The trigger was probably eating out on Thursday, when along with an omelette and salad, I had a latte and a side of chips. I knew as I was eating them that there were too many chips, but finished them anyway, and I did not particularly enjoy the latte.

The upside is that the latte and chips wore off in 3 days without my consciously under eating to compensate, and when I lunched out yesterday I had a goat's cheese salad and tea with lemon because that is what I wanted.

So - reinforcement. Fasting and respecting the appetite does work. Will I have chips again - yes, sometimes. Will I knowingly overeat again? Maybe.

NB 122 is the top of my range, and I have been on average slightly above it all winter.