The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

I hear you @Sassy1For me, what seems to work is to be ever mindful of what carbs and sugar does to my body and how hungry I really am, without denying myself treats if I really want them. But also to beware of letting treats become routine.

So, not eating breakfast is normal, avoiding bread based lunches is normal, avoiding starchy foods with dinner is normal. A handful of nuts is ok but many handfuls not so ok. Having a glass of wine with or before dinner is normal and a dessert of fruit and cream or yoghurt or a couple of squares of dark chocolate after dinner is normal. Treats that are only for social occasions are cake, biscuits, cocktails, more than 1 glass of wine, chips, crisps and other nibbles.

As long as the special occasions are not too frequent, that seems to work for me. I'm lucky that I don't have any problem waiting to open my window or closing it after dinner. The length of the window varies and I try to be aware of the time enough to ensure it is always less than 8 hours.

I think that if you get bad cravings you need to ask why those are happening and the answer often lies in the other things going on in your life. Stress, lack of sleep, underactive thyroid, hormones, mineral and vitamin deficiencies can all make cravings worse.

I suspect it takes quite a long time before maintenance becomes less of a white knuckle ride and more of a comfortable walk in the park!

For the record, I was back under target on Tuesday morning but had a meal out last night which may have brought me up again and have lunch out tomorrow and lizbean's lunch on Saturday to add to the damage. I'll report in again at the end of next week.

Enthusiastically reading all your posts for tips to keep in maintenance. Must admit I was so focused on losing weight and it happened far more quickly than I ever anticipated so I hadn't even thought about maintaining. Carorees you are such an inspiration and I enjoy reading your threads on other parts of the forum - so you are my role model!

I have been fighting a pesky pound since the beginning of the month but finally it's gone. My day conspired yesterday to give me a short eating window and despite wine and chocolate this morning the scales were kind!
Just in time to put it back on this weekend I suspect!

[carorees]

Thank you for your kind words @galexinda...I hope I can continue to live up to your expectations! I do think I have been rather lucky though and so as a role model somewhat limited...there are those on the forum who have battled through lots of stress and hardship and, while their weightloss may not have been so dramatic, their persistence in the face of adversity should make them better role models than me tbh.

Anyway, luckily the meals out mid week did not appear to have done any damage so I'm in a reasonable position to cope with eating with alacrity tomorrow! (thanks @pennyforthem for that turn of phrase...I am going to use it extensively!). @Merlin well done on the 1lb...let's have a pact to have an early dinner so that we get a good long fast tonight!

We will be eating before the theatre-so if I don't succumb afterwards it will be. Only planning on coffee before the meet

I haven't checked in on the forums for ages. I am coming up on my second anniversary and am maintaining - though my scales are acting up a bit and my clothes are tight! I had a week long band camp in June and ate 3 meals a day. Ate with abandon the first couple days, then throttled back for the last 3-4 days and all ended well there. End of July is family reunion and get together with my sibs - we'll see how that goes.

I find it easy to delay breakfast until 9-10 and stop eating about 6-7 PM and that does seem to be working for me. Good to see posts from familiar people since it has been so long since I posted!

I agree with you, @Sassy1, '... there are times when we can't manage our consumption the way we would like'. This doesn't apply to everyone, of course, but it certainly does to me but 5:2 or 4:3 ( or whatever your particular take on fasting) does allow us to take remedial action as soon as the conditions are right.
I'm still slightly under my target weight but in the next three weeks we are looking after our granddaughters and I know that my eating will be totally haywire! I can't imagine what damage will be caused to my waistline by eating random food at random times as I fight the exhaustion of keeping them fed, watered, clean and entertained! I love them dearly but there is a reason why women of sixty six are not of child-bearing age - it's because we don't have the stamina we had in our twenties and thirties!

I am still hovering between 146 and 147 lbs, fasting at 600 calories twice a week. BP holding up, but I am too hungry on eating days again. May only fast one day a week or raise the cals on two. I hate being this hungry.

I am already underweight.. how can I gain weight? please help me

I haven't posted in the maintaining thread for ages for the simple reason that I am not at the maintenance weight I wanted to be at, or even at the slightly higher weight I chose at the beginning of this year. I basically stayed at my chosen maintenance weight for about 2 weeks after a long struggle to get there and was then at the top of the 2 kilo range for about a year, before going up another kilo and finding fasting really hard, struggling to eat normally on the other days, and finding that as soon as I didn't fast for a week my weight shot up 2 kilos. After months of struggling to go lower and losing and gaining the same one or two kilos repeatedly I am just going to call this maintenance and continue maintaining at my current weight which my body seems to want to be at as I have maintained steadily at this weight since March no matter what. I am not 100% happy with this because it puts my BMI just over 25 and it is 5 kilos higher than I would like it to be and 5 kilos higher than the weight I was before I had children. On the plus side this weight seems easy for me to maintain by doing 16/8 most days, my waist size is unchanged from my lower maintenance weight (excess weight is all on hips and thighs), I am doing more sport so I am more toned, I am still maintaining 20 kilos of weightloss from over 10 years ago (rather than 25), which is already an achievement, and I'm still a size 10/12. I am also eating normally apart from not eating outside of my window and find that I am eating better than I did when I was maintaining at a lower weight because I am not counting calories or experiencing out of control eating after fast days. So here I am, maintaining at 66-67 kilos, let's see how this works this time...

Thanks @Nicky_94 for keeping us posted. I would say it really helps people to be updated on how we are doing, not only if things are fine, but also when they are a bit more difficult. Using the forum and the tracker help us getting to know the real experience of people with fasting. Sorry things have been a bit less easy than expected, but you are right that it's vital to find some way of maintaining that is sustainable and sufficiently 'doable' for you. Things might always change for the better, our bodies do strange and unexpected things.

So…maintenance. I'm trying to get a handle on why I seem to be struggling more than other people here. I think I have a number of factors working against me. First, all my stupid injuries keep me from running, my preferred exercise. I'm trying to replace it with other stuff but cycling and swimming are a bit too time consuming, and I'm just not so motivated to run on a treadmill or go to the gym in general. Having said that, I've been getting there usually 3 times a week at least, which isn't bad. Second, I engage in way too much pity eating. My life is really stressful right now trying to find a new job when my contract at the current job is almost out and trying to get a couple of papers published. But that would be a really stupid reason to gain a lot of weight, ne? Third, my inability to keep things in perspective, and being a bit too 'black and white'/'all or none'/perfectionist sometimes. I keep trying to remind myself that at my worst since reaching my goal I've maintained over a 20% weight loss (29% at my very lowest point). AND I always get right back to trying to lose when I've gained. When I do it properly, I usually get back to my upper maintenance range pretty easily/quickly.

I think once I sort out my next job, I'll be fine: definitely the second problem is my biggest. In the meantime, I'll keep doing 4:3 and trying not to eat every sweet in sight on my non-fast days. Also, I'm not sure it matters, but my fast days were slipping a bit lately--I was taking in too many calories before dinner and often going over 500 a bit. At this point, I'm not sure the exact calories matter so much, but I felt it was important to get back to fighting the hunger a bit more midday. I think mastering that helps with non-fast day appetite as well, so in that respect it seemed important. I've managed two fast days well below 500, which is a good thing, I think.

Ok. enough reflection for now. I hope that is helpful to someone out there who is struggling with maintenance!

Bad month for me too @Maryann, currently one pound above my upper limit. How can it be fair that one can fast for all those hours and still not be able to eat ad lib when the time comes? Good at not eating when hungry, bad at eating when not hungry (because it's there, because I'm worth it, etc etc!)

Updated my tracker this morning (9st 12lb) - a pound heavier than the last time I recorded back in May but still under my 10st upper limit so I'm happy, particularly when a long weekend in Bilbao a couple of weeks ago saw the scales tip 10st 2lb temporarily! Still maintaining primarily by doing 16:8 and walking 16-20 miles a week. Finally got round to installing Libra last night, prompted by a post on here. Recording my daily weigh-ins should help to keep me on track I think.

Weekly check in 125.2 (yesterday) - really pleased with that. I have been a bit lax lately about weighing on a Friday, my goal day ... time to pull socks up me thinks, to keep me focused.
@MaryAnn thanks for your reflections .... and I hope no 2 stress is sorted soon.