Hello all, been reading the forum for a while now, but not posted. This is a long post, so if you’re on a fast day, make yourself a cup of 0 calorie herbal tea to drink while reading!
Just thought I’d let anyone who’s interested know my progress using the Fast Diet as a way to lose weight.
Firstly, I’m 13stone 9lbs now. Starting weight was 14 stone 5lbs – I’m a slim-framed 5′ 6″ female, so should apparently be around the 9 1/2 – 10 stone mark in terms of my weight. I used to hover between 10 and a half stone and 11 and a half stone. Now I feel so uncomfortable, no clothes fit me and I’m desperate to get down to what I once thought of as being huge.
I gave up smoking in January 2013 and it was horrific in that I was literally putting on half a stone a week and went up 3 dress sizes in what seemed the blink of an eye. Trying to lose any weight soon after this resulted in nothing at all happening. It was like my metabolism was in some teenage strop, in a stubborn mood, refusing to allow me to lose any weight at all no matter what I did. So I just gave up dieting, hoping when my body adjusted to lack of nicotine that I could start to lose weight again.
I tried the Fast Diet first, 6 months after quitting cigarettes, about 6 months ago from today, but in the middle of an extremely stressful period in my life. The result was I was STARVING and weak and in foul humour and listless and…actually put on weight! (I have a friend who quit smoking at the same time as me and suffered the same problems. Massive weight gain and she’s now in a great deal of stress and on a low carb diet and also has been putting on weight). I’m not a doctor but my guess is cortisol is to blame when you gain weight and are extremely stressed out (for me combined with slower metabolism since stopping smoking). Apparently cortisol encourages weight gain around the stomach = danger for heart attacks etc.
I’ve been on it now since February the 15th. I’ve lost 10lbs. I’d hoped for a weight loss of 2lbs a week, thinking that by now I’d be down 16lbs. Instead I have lost weight but extreeeeeeemly slowly. Most weeks the scales show no loss at all, which I find mentally very demotivating. One week I put on 3lbs. I went on holiday having not lost anything for 2 weeks, only to come back (I didn’t fast there) to find I’d lost 4lbs.
Now that I’m back there’s been 3 more fasts and I’m back to losing 0 lbs, in fact I gained 3/4 of a pound. I read an article recently about research where dieters dieted all the time and others dieted for 2 weeks (or was it 1?) then took a week off, then dieted again. The on off dieters lost much more weight than those dieting all the time. So, maybe a little break now and then to confuse the body and metabolism would be good, who knows. It certainly kick-started my lack of weight loss again.
However, I have a wedding to go to in 4 weeks and had used it as a mini-goal along the way to being a normal slim size. But in the next 4 weeks, there could easily be 0 lbs weight loss, or weight gain during that period so I think the time has come to add in an extra fast day. I know about TDEE but really don’t want to calorie count on my normal eating days. For me, that defeats the whole purpose of this way of eating, watching what you eat 2 days a week is very do-able. But having to watch every morsel that goes into my mouth every other day is just like every other diet out there and I would just quit it and so I refuse to do that.
A few notes:
1: I also had the runs for a few weeks when I started this way of eating – that seems to have stopped without me noticing when.
2: I have IBS and have noticed when my stomach is so bloated that I look like I’m pregnant, as I am now, then the scales won’t show any weight loss. So reckon swollen stomach holding onto water could be the culprit here
3: Dehydration and salt. I know for sure I don’t drink enough liquid and eat too much salt. I’m pretty sure I’m not doing myself much favours in terms of readings on the scales or for my health with this.
4: I live with my mother who is a feeder. She will tell me I need to lose weight, then berate me for not eating enough and go out and buy chocolate for me and tell me I need a treat (and I wonder why I have a bad relationship with food…). I find the fast diet very good under these trying circumstances. Dieting every single day would be very difficult when you’ve someone trying their best to prevent you from losing weight, but I can block her efforts to keep me fat over the course of 2 days. Obviously the ultimate solution in terms of weight loss would be to move out, but can’t financially right now.
5: It does get easier. My first 2 weeks were extremely difficult. I was SO hungry. Then somehow it got slowly easier to go without food, so that now I don’t eat breakfast or lunch and have my 500 cals at dinner time, so that I can sit down and really enjoy a decent meal. It’s got so much easier that in fact I could go the whole day eating nothing at all now, apart from drinks.
6: At first my portion size on non-fast days were affected in that they got smaller, as it felt like my stomach had shrunk. Then I found that wasn’t the case any more and I could wolf down large portions of food after a fast day. The only solution I find for this problem is to eat as early as possible on non-fast days, which I have to implement.
7: Don’t start this diet when you’re in a state of distress and stressed if you can help it.
8: I have found yoga helpful as a motivator to keep with the fasting, particularly when the scales show 0 loss. It means my whole focus on losing weight and looking better physically isn’t all to do with fasting. I also walk my dog every single day rain or shine, but I was doing that when I piled on the weight, so walking seems to make no difference in terms of weight loss.
9: I have taken detailed measurements and need to check if they’ve gone down, even though the weight has gone up. But can’t figure out the reason how you would stay the same weight yet your measurements would go down, unless you’re suddenly working out at the gym and building muscle. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Here’s hoping I lose a few more pounds after this week’s second fast day or I’ll be very very cross at 2 whole weeks with 4 days fasting and 0 loss. I really want the Fast Diet to continue to function as a way of losing weight…it’s the only thing I’ve found that makes sense, that I can stick to and is adaptable for a normal life.
9:33 am
15 Apr 14