The FastDay Forum

This is really interesting. I must admit that I'm doing this to lose weight, health benefits being secondary (to me, personally). I expect to either try to maintain and do 5:2 now and then, or do 6:1 forever with maybe the odd skipped lunch (now that I know I can). I have changed my eating habits on my feast days massively, so the thought of maintaining is not impossible.

This week I've had brunch and supper on fast days, so not doing 24 hours. I feel much happier with this routine, so if I continue losing weight that is what I will do. If not, I'll have to go back to supper only but I really, really don't want to.

So are you going to carry on with 5:2 or go to 6:1 for maintenance Caroline?

My main concern is weight loss/maintenance. If health benefits follow, then that's fine.

[carorees]

So are you going to carry on with 5:2 or go to 6:1 for maintenance Caroline?

Depend on whether I plateau on 5:2 or not. At the mo I can't imagine still losing weight past my target so I'll have to see what happens. Probably tempting fate to have a plan at all!

Hopefully I'll need to start thinking about maintenance in the next week or two, so nearly there now!

Dr. Mosley also skips lunch regularly, he says. So he's kind of still doing the same thing he did on 5:2.

Yes, skipping lunch is quite easy, I did that before starting 5:2 and will continue to do that now. But I'd still like to do a 24 hour fast at least one day a week for the other (not yet confirmed!) health benefits.

I plan to do 6:1 and keep an eye on my weight, if it goes up I will do 5:2 again until I am back to my goal weight. I predict I will be back and forth from 6:2 and 5:2. When I was on weight watchers I would diet once a year, put all weight back on then diet again the following year. The maintainance still felt like a dieting and with weight watchers I couldn't weight to 'finish' the diet.

With the fast diet I get the 'finished my diet' feeling 5 days every week so I feel able to stick to it in the long term.

Yes, skipping lunch is quite easy, I did that before starting 5:2 and will continue to do that now. But I'd still like to do a 24 hour fast at least one day a week for the other (not yet confirmed!) health benefits.

I think I will also skip lunch once I reach my goal weight. It was hard for me to accept this after a lifetime of nutrition gurus telling us never to skip meals, eat every 2-3 hours, etc. With just occasional exercise, my activity level just isn't that high. I really don't need to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day to keep me going.

To be honest that happy day is going to be a long time in the future so I'm not thinking too much about it

When I lose my weight (and I have a LONG way to go), I look forward to doing 6:1 with maybe an occasional 5:2 thrown in.

Also, I was reading that Dr. Mosley regularly skips lunch on feed days except for vacations, special occasions, etc., and that appeals to me. Maybe I'll try that once in a while. I feel so great on fast days, much better than on feed days, and I'd like to experiment with an occasional skipped lunch to see how I feel on feed days.

There's also the option of fasting for 24 hours with the 500 cals thrown in as someone mentioned. I don't do that; it doesn't appeal to me, but as time goes on we'll see. I'll do whatever it takes to remain on intermittent fasting. One thing for certain: I'm NEVER going off this plan.

I've given this a lot of thinking and I am contemplating between:
-Keep on 5:2 but not watch what I eat on feed days (turn feed days into feast days, LOL)
-Keep on 5:2 but eat 600 calories on fast days

Perhaps I'll do both and see what happens. Naaaah... too risky!

I'm going to try the 24 hour fast with my 500 calories for dinner.

I agree with Ginty- hope by the (distant) time I am on to maintenance all you earlier fasters will have it all worked out!

Since starting this way of life last autumn I am amazed at how much my eating habits have changed. Like most people I just grazed mindlessly, even during meals, throughout the day and sometime throughout the night if I couldn't sleep. As I neared my target weight I found that my eating window was naturally reducing and not just on fast days. I decided that would have an 8 hour feeding window every day, easy, just skip breakfast and don't nibble late in the evening. When it came to maintenance I decided I would continue with this regime but not calorie restrict ever. So far, for me, this is a dream come true as my weight has never been so stable and I feel wonderful.

I now seem to be eating only one meal a day most days, a very substantial lunch, which I find is as much as I need. Out of interest, on Friday I counted the calories in my lunch and it was in excess of 2000, phew, I felt stuffed. Saturday and yesterday followed a similar pattern and this morning neither my weight nor waist measurement has altered. I don't see me eat much today as I am still overfull from the Easter Food Fest.

If we are going to be socialising in the evening then I just have a VERY light lunch and dinner as normal within an 8 hour period.

This is not for everyone and in fact I'm amazed that I am doing this myself as I would never have believed that I would have chosen to eat in this manner but if it is good enough for Des O'Connor, then it is good enough for me and my singing is also every bit as bad as his.

I think the trick is to experiment and find what suits you, not anyone else, and then just go for it, good luck,

Ballerina x