Hello fellow fasters,

I’m relatively new here, I’ve been reading the forums, but this is the first time I’ve posted (long time reader, first time poster haha).

I have a bit of a problem (actually 2 problems), in that I find that I’m starting to obsess over fasting. What I mean by that is, I started doing 5:2, then I increased to 4:3 and now I find myself thinking “what if I do two fast days in a row”, “what if I fast for 4 days”. I am worried that it’s going to get to the point where I’m fasting more than not and possibly becoming an unhealthy lifestyle. I’m only into my 7th week, I’ve lost about 3.5kg in that time and I think because it’s actually working I keep thinking the more I fast the more weight I’ll lose, and the faster I’ll lose it, but I obviously don’t want to end up with an unhealthy attitude to eating or make myself ill, or end up not eating at all.

Part of my problem is, I am definitely an “all or nothing” type of girl. I am fine on fast days (I just eat on small meal for dinner), partly because I know it’s my fast day and so I don’t have anything around to tempt me, and partly because if I am craving something (my weakness is chocolate), I tell myself “tomorrow”. Even if I don’t particularly crave chocolate on my non-fast days, I still buy it and devour it because I told myself on my fast day that I could, so I do, because it’s a treat for fasting. Hope that makes sense. I also have trouble stopping, so it doesn’t take long for a whole block to get eaten.

I only lost 100g last week and in my mixed up little brain I thought “it’s because of all the chocolate, I need to fast more”. Then alarm bells rang and I know I should just stop eating chocolate, but I’m in this habit now and I really don’t know how to stop.

Does anyone have any tips on how to change my mindset? The more I try to talk myself out of chocolate, the more I think about it, and the more I want it.

The second problem, well it’s more of a question, is I think I’m going to stick with 3:4, because as I said above I know I won’t eat bad things when I’m fasting, so 4 days where I can potentially slip up are better than 5 in my opinion. But I’m worried because I don’t really count my calories on my non-fast days, and although I do eat very healthy (aside from the chocolate), I don’t know if I eat enough (as in my calculated TDEE) so I’m worried if I increase my fast days, but am not eating enough calories, it might slow down or stop the weight loss.

I’m so sorry it’s such a long post!! Any suggestions or tips would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks, Sara 🙂

Thanks Tracy,
Those are great ideas, use my obsessiveness to my advantage in a way. I think I will start counting my calories on my non-fast days too, at least until I get out of this rut with my eating. Or maybe even keep a food diary, those have helped shock me in to action in the past and then I will be held more accountable to myself when I go back and read it.

It’s funny because today is a non-fast day and it’s the first time in 7 weeks where I haven’t wanted or thought about chocolate. Maybe just writing all of that down made me look at it externally and think it through more logically. Hopefully it lasts!

I will stick to my 2-3 fast days too. It’s good to have someone else opinion and take on things. Thank you very much for taking the time 🙂

I think that was my problem, it was starting to become the normal thing for me to overindulge. It didn’t help that I was still losing weight even when I was, which gave me no incentive to stop.

I like that as well, and the fact that it’s so easy to make it a lifestyle, which is hard to say for any other ‘diet’. I used to go to a nutritionist, and that worked, but I went back to uni and started working part time, so I couldn’t afford to go and see her, or the food (and amount of food) she had me on. So although I eat healthy the substitutions I used saw me put the weight back on. But this just seems to easy to integrate into everyday life. Plus it’s cheap! I’m so glad I got on to it. Have you been doing it for long?

Your sandwich sounds amazing! I hope you enjoyed it. I need to branch out with my cooking, I just normally cook the same thing every night. Meat and veggies. Fast or non-fast days. Same breakfast, same lunch. Maybe if I started to experiment a bit more, then that food would be a treat and I wouldn’t be looking for chocolate.

I have never heard of creme egg brownies! I am definitely going to google the recipe though and test them for myself!