This topic contains 2,437 replies, has 150 voices, and was last updated by Fuvvie 7 years, 10 months ago.
D4 | NFD | Singapore
Today I got offered a chocolate hazelnut pancake at work, and I managed to only eat half of it. Which I’ve never been able to do before. This is the type of balance that I’m looking for, to be able to have a little of the good things. On non fasting days I really do subconsciously think about my choices. Proud moment there!
Otherwise the day went uneventfully and I finished just under my TDEE again. Contemplating a FD tomorrow or the day after. We will see!
Hi All,
Started yesterday, my first fast day. Oddly enough I didn’t feel hungry, but I did feel the pressure of maintaining the same habits (having breakfast which I skipped). Had a Pret Salad for lunch and then soup for dinner which totals around 530 cals.
I’m also restricting my calorie intake on the non fast days, but not necessarily 600 cals since that would be too much.
Weighing 103kgs, want to go down to at least 90kgs. It’s a long way to go and I have to fight myself not to be too impatient.
Day 4, CANADA, FD
Yesterdays FD day went well and feel inspired to carry on today, so will go for my first B2B fast. Knowing that several of you have successfully completed the B2B fast is my inspiration.
Coda thanks for the BLOOBS def’n- amazing what we learn on this site!
AT and FUVVIE, I love your quotes, thankyou. Especially like the image of 105 of us around the world holding hands and succeeding together.
Dykask -fascinating info on lactic acid, holding a squat right now😤
Day 4 USA (Utah visiting) FD
Thought I had better do a FD today since it has been probably 10 days since I did one. Being on maintenance, 6:1 has worked well for me to stay at 160. Our daughter does not have a scale, though, so I have to weigh at the gym. It’s not exactly like I do at home, but I won’t be home until the beginning of next week. MFP has been terrific for calorie tracking, though, and I’m right on TDEE or under each day.
kellianne — good for you making it on your FD well! I began 5:2 at just over 190# last March, and was surprised that FD’s weren’t as awful as I imagined them to be. Be smart on your NFD’s and you’ll be fine. Those ‘normal’ calorie days can be awful to maintain.
Sleep following a FD was often difficult for me too. I never got a handle on how to manage them, I just reminded myself that my body was losing weight steadily, and that alone gave me a good sense of accomplishment.
Onward and downward!
very late in the evening hot hot hot Day 4 country West Australia 16:8 FD
Did really well from 8 pm Tuesday 3rd until 7 pm tonight. Came home to cooking-loving children who’d made vegetable sticks and guacamole. All good except I ate way more than I needed or even felt like. Then had large main course with salad followed by fruit salad and ice-cream. Plus a glass of vino.
Nothing too bad by itself but the sum takes me WAY over TDEE again.
Trying for a FD again tomorrow but it is difficult trying not to hurt the various cooks’ feelings when they had gone to so much trouble!
40C today and 38C forecast tomorrow so keeping to liquid only not too difficult during the day.😎
Day 1, Canada, FD
First day doing this, starting off with a FD. Yikes. Hoping to slim down from 150 lbs to 134 and mostly to feel healthy and fit after a year of watching my gluten free resolve slip (I’m pulling it together and combining with 5:2) and my exercise regimen fall apart. Hoping accountability on this thread helps.
@fuvvie – wow! The spreadsheet is amazing!! looks like this must be a full-time job! what is the general process that folks follow in terms of reporting in on weight loss / overall success rate?
Thank you so much Fuvvie!
Second post
@fuvvie the spreadsheet is a masterpiece! It reinforces the resolve and good intentions of the group. Thank you for your hard work
@laddie10 can you talk to me about ketones? My OH has type one diabetes and I associate ketosis with being unwell. I know it was a cornerstone of the Atkins diet, but I dismissed it for that reason
US SC Day 4 NFD
Fuvvie… your spreadsheet is awesome!
Wellrounded… love that you do that with your teas. I should try to make them special too!
I decided to switch spots between 4 bookcases and my treadmill…. the treadmill is in a room with double doors… the bookcases are not. I moved the treadmill to the hall, took most of the stuff off the bookcases and moved them into the room. Put everything back on the bookcases, vacuumed and dusted everything including the treadmill. Moved the treadmill to where the bookcases were… won’t fit through door casing!!! I don’t think even taking the casing off will make it fit. Argggg!!!! Took everything off the bookcases, moved them back… well you get the picture. On a positive note I sweated more than I do on the darn treadmill so will not be doing that today!!! Note to self… measure.. measure… measure.
Have a good day all.
Day 4 Cornwall UK. FD
Wow Fuvvie that is a brilliant spreadsheet, great job!
I realise you dont have much on me so Jan start weight 148lbs aim for this month to lose at least the 7lbs I put on over xmas!!
Fasting 2days and 16/8 on nf days. (Laddie10 I find this is the best routine for me, very rarely eat breakfast apart from Sundays when OH cooks Poached eggs on toast!)
Dykask – those squats are HARD! Yes got waves of hunger! I think it’s just my first fast since before Christmas so it’s not been the easiest! But I’m stillon it and will have a spinach and mushroom omelette later -salivating thinking about it!!
I do find sparkling mineral water a great help also green tea with cider vinegar, had chicken broth at about 1pm.
Bert – sugar free gum, I buy it in multi packs ! My dentist says its really good for my oral hygiene too, so a bonus!!
AT – I suffer from Bakers cysts behind one knee so annoying and painful! I did my hamstring last year, slipped on the gravel my leg shot out and I tore it good and proper! So painful, it was all colours from foot to thigh and took ages for bruising to go!
So my Fast day hasn’t been easy and especially my OH decided to have large Cornish pasty while I had my broth!! The smell ummm love the smell but dont enjoy the after effects! So pleased I didn’t cave-in!!
All this talk of food I’m off for some coffee!
Good luck all, onwards and down!!
Day 4 Ireland NFD
Both yesterday and today ended up being NFDs.
Plenty of exercise today, running for an hour in the morning after a light breakfast.
Managing to keep within my TDEE.
Tomorrow planning to do a FD… I love the idea of teas using a special teapot and cup and making a ritual of it. May be a good way to “fill the gap” when looking to eat and nibble at about 4pm which is my danger time!
It is very inspirational to read everyone’s posts… the 8’points are useful to read and especially like the idea that you just resume eating normally after a fast as if it had never happened… and don’t over eat to compensate.
Will try saving my calories until dinner time tomorrow so can eat normally with the family in the evening.
Bye for now
Well. I do need to own up to the fact that this year my intentions for fasting have fallen by the wayside. Yesterday, I WAS going to do it…but hunger finally overtook me at teatime (always the time of most danger for me) and when I start eating…well, the “might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb” mentality takes over!
As I said yesterday, Friday has to be a fast day as I’m going for a scan at about 4pm and I’ve been told not to eat after a “light early” breakfast. HA! that’ll get me.
So maybe I will also fast tomorrow to get in the mood, right? Just porridge, then a hard day delivering the mail, then nothing til’ after the scan on Friday….Hmm.
Coda: I love that quote of yours…I shall repeat it here:
A river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its PERSISTENCE…..yes. So I must persist and persist.
Day 3 & 4 — Wisconsin, USA
1/3 – FD (First fasting day ever!)
Just under 500 calories of food (mostly veggies and egg whites), coffee, lots of water and tea. It was actually pretty easy! I’m pleasantly surprised and excited to keep going! Next fasting day will be 1/5.
1/4 – NFD
Feeling like my hunger is diminished today. I expected my hunger to be greater, after a fasting day (yesterday), but it’s actually less than usual. What the heck? Lol. I’ll take it, though!
Day 4 : Cheshire, UK : FD
Yay! 🙂 It’s almost 8pm here and I’m still fasting. My first FD since 21 December. It’s a liquid fast apart from chewing some gum at around 4.30 pm. @ Bert1802 – thank you for the tip. I was a bit reluctant as I felt like it might be cheating for a liquid fast but I really needed it as the pangs of hunger were getting the better of me.
@maui I’m taking part in a Facebook Clutter Challenge for 2 weeks as of 1.1.17. The challenge is to clutter clear for minimum of 15 mins per day. More often than not, it turns into a longer stint. I agree that clutter may well be connected to weight gain. I like this definition of clutter:
Things you do not use or love.
Things that are untidy or disorganised.
Too many things in too small a place
Anything unfinished.
@lisa.Alma thank you! I was unexpectedly too tired yesterday, that’s why my resolve weakened easily.
@wellrounded – Herbal teas are my saviour during the cold weather. I like the sound of white tea with bergamot…I will try it sometime.
@fuvvie – Wow! Thank you for your dedication to this thread. Your spreadsheet is impressive especially as this thread is very popular 🙂 Thank you! 🙂
Day 4 / Sweden / FD
Today started as a NFD but I realised that this is another holiday long weekend here in Sweden and so today was my last chance to fast this week. I had already gone a little over my daily limit for an FD when I decided to make it an FD but only a little. And shoveling snow for 90 minutes this morning (along with a 40 minute walk in the afternoon) certainly help.
Thanks for the link to the spreadsheet @fuvvie. You can put me down as NFD for Day 1.
I see many posts about people eating lchf or skipping breakfast on NFD or other special adaptations. I try to eat as I normally would on NFD but I do log everything on My Fitness Pal. I often find that I am under my TDEE and then allow myself a treat if I feel the need. It is important to me that I can make this work in the long term, eventually for the rest of my life so I am aiming to fine-tune my eating habits, not radically alter them.
I do like what some have said about cravings, I can have that tomorrow (and by tomorrow, that craving may be gone).
Good luck everyone and take care!
Day 4 Portugal FD
Yay, I am coming near the end of my first FD in ages. So far so good, and I expect the rest of the evening will be fine. Well done @goldensun for fasting today also. I like having control over what I am eating. I am going to try for another FD tomorrow, even though my parents are still visiting. They leave on Friday and then I can get really focused.
Day 4 : Cheshire, UK : FD – Second Post
@erika45 Well done you too! 🙂 I hope to join you tomorrow for another FD.
Spent sometime catching up on today’s posts and just spent 30 minutes shredding lots of paperwork eg bills. Very satisfying and takes my mind of food.
Now for a soak in a bubble bath then to bed 🙂
My understanding is that Type 1 Diabetes is very different than Type 2 and you are correct in saying that the presence of ketones in someone with Type 1 would not be a good sign!
Type 1 is where a person has too little insulin vs Type 2 is where you have too much insulin. I would never suggest that a Type 1 patient do Atkins or any severe calorie restricting diet – they need more insulin not less.
Ketones are substances that are made when the body uses fat for energy. We can actually see then by testing urine if we are burning fat. We can actually measure to what degree of ‘ketosis’ we are in. But if you were to test your urine, a normal healthy person (not fasting or restricting calories) it wouldn’t show a lot of ketones if any.
But if you are trying to lose weight – and lose it by burning fat, a great way to do it is by fasting which allows us to quickly burn up our stored glucose (carbs/sugars) so we can get to the point of burning fat.
For us then, having ketones in our urine is great news!! We are burning fat! Hurrah!!
So that was the answer to your question I think…if you really want to torture yourself read on…
More on what happens when we eat:
The link below is an excellent video on the entire process of eating and what happens to our bodies. Everything from how we burn glucose to fat and why burning fat can only be done by lowering your insulin levels and burning through the stored glucose (Carbs/Sugar) first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETkwZIi3R7w
Here is my attempt at a summary of the video but if you have 30 minutes I think the video has some great info. in it and really helped me to understand the process and what I need to do to rid myself of this extra 15-20 lbs!
When we eat, insulin levels go up. Insulin being the hormone that tells our body to store fat and to store some of the sugar we don’t need immediately in our liver. We store this extra food in the form of glycogen and fat.
When you don’t eat your insulin levels fall, and that signals your body to pull out some of that stored energy – both glycogen and fat – for use. Dr. Fund describes the glycogen as food that is stored in your refrigerator – we have easy access to that and we use that up first. Fat is like the food you store in your freezer – harder to access. The fridge is small so while it is easy to get to that energy source, any extra food/energy we eat gets moved over to the liver as the insulin essentially directs the excess to get stored in the freezer.
Said another way, Insulin is sort of like the police that tries to control access to the freezer where the fat is. When we eat our insulin increases and therefore it is hard to get to the stored fat as fuel. Our body will use the energy in the fridge first.
In Insulin Resistance (Type 2 Diabetes – and for many of use that has eaten lots of carbs for years and years) – the insulin levels stay high all the time and we can’t get to the stored fat as fuel. Simply lowering calories actually doesn’t help because our bodies will just reduce the energy out – and we all know what it feels like to have our metabolism slow down – we feel like crap!
Sadly, cutting calories doesn’t lower insulin very well at all. Lowering calories will lower the glucose in the refrigerator but doesn’t doesn’t effectively lower insulin – both things must occur to gain access to the freezer – lowering the glucose in the fridge AND lowering insulin.
But during Fasting – glucose and insulin both come down while at the same time fatty acids, ketones, and norepinephrines go up! Your body knows what to do to survive – burn fat! Alternate daily fasting works just as well – if you stay under around 500 calories – so you still get the benefits of full fasting.
In fasting (vs calorie restricting like the typical diet) something different happens. For the first couple of days, we burn the carbs – the energy that is stored in the ‘fridge’ but as you run out of the carbs/sugar/glycogen the level of carb oxidation drops or stops completely (we stop burning sugar because we are empty in the fridge), and we switch to fat oxidation – fat burning goes up. Hurrah again!
Essentially, we ran out of the easy to access fuel that was stored and now are in the freezer using up the fat. By the way, we don’t start burning protein which most people fear. Our bodies are very efficient and access the fat storage for energy.
When we don’t eat, our insulin stays low which then allows us to get to the fat – no police stopping us from getting to the freezer where the fat is stored. Awesome.
Dr. Fung says all the above much better than I do that’s for sure! Hopefully, some of this was useful to you or others.
Stay Strong!
Hello all UK day 4 NFD
Just checking in – have to catch up all of page 9 and all posts on page 10 above this one and off course the ones after that will appear after mine. Was busy in work today so didn’t get my usual lunch time catch up.
Adding my name to join the the pocketeers – think this was the last one I saw.
Pissupoosa
B2tF
Bert
AnneMarilyn
AT
Coda
@fuvvie hope I can join this thread, please?!
After an indulgent Christmas I need to lose 19lbs! I’ve been within 6lbs of target weight several times using 5:2 but need to get over that line and stay there – hoping this thread will help. Also doing dry January, which will help a lot I’m sure.
I started back on 5:2 yesterday weighing in at 173lbs and need to get to 154lbs – obviously not within the month, tho.
Looking forward to the coming month – will be doing 5:2 and reducing calories on non-fast days too (to a reasonable amount).
Will check in tomorrow.
very early Day 5 FD , barely conscious , hot hot hot sunny country West Australia
Was up at 5am after bed at midnight.
Off to do some sheep work before the heat of the day sets in.
Will strive to keep it a FD
Loving all the posts and will catch up later.
Happy eating/fasting wherever in the world you may be.
Off to the heat dust and flies!
Day 5 Gippsland FD 79.9 kg
Pretty happy with myself – back from a 5 day holiday in Tasmania and I lost .4 kg!! It helps that I snuck in a couple of FD’s, and went hiking up a mountain, but I also managed to experience the Taste of Tasmania festival and have a couple of sneaky glasses of bubbles to cheer in the new year.
This WOL works!!!
Today I will fast until this evening when I will probably have an omelette with lots of veggies.
Like many of you, I test my urine for ketones and it is a great motivator to see that little purple patch appear on the stick.
I know I am burning fat, and it is so much easier to stick to the plan.
Cheers!!
Jan4: FD
As yesterday i had lots of water, coffee, herbal tea and squash during the day and a 493 cal dinner. (Diced chicken in fajita seasoning and peppers, 100g, 1 tortilla bread, salad and jalapeño with reduced fat sour cream, and a cup of tea with milk. all logged in on MFP). Nice to see the charts coming along for this week. And I have done my 14000 steps.
FD3 coming up tomorrow.
Good night from a chilly Surrey. Zzz
Day 5 – Melbourne – NFD
Good fast day yesterday. Not hungry yet at 10.30am after a large milky coffee. Will eat at lunch time.
Ref sugar: I have found my desire for sugar has faded substantially over the last couple of years. As I have looked at all the research over and over, I suspect that I have gradually come to see it, intellectually, as a poison and that has in turn gradually worked at an emotional level to turn me off it. I certainly don’t crave it any more and usually when I eat anything that is ‘heavily sugar’ nowadays I have a yucky taste in my mouth later, as though it was a fake sweetener. Now, cheese, on the other hand…mmmm
Day 4…..Florida…….FD
Just a quick check in…. took a little longer to read posts then I anticipated, plus my home was all a buzz when I arrived…..
Did well on my FD, I do have dinner left but I’ll make it…. b2b wasn’t to bad, after all but I am looking forward to a NFD.
Well, I don’t have any tips or profound knowledge for you at the moment, maybe a little later. Right now, I’ve got all my boys talking to me at once and it’s hard to think.
I’ll stop by later
Cheers
@fuvvie!!!!!!!!!
Excellent link – thanks so much. This is right up my alley!!
Day 3 and second FD this week. Seems like it is going well and it hasn’t been so hard to fast except right around 5 pm. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not eating That today…Interestingly my on my NFD I haven’t been very hungry and feel satisfied with a smaller amount of food. Trying to keep up on exercise on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Day 5 – Perth, W.Aust – FD
So far so good, got the usual exercise in this morning and just had a little lunch. 100cal doesn’t seem like much, but so far I’ve not had much trouble creating satisfying lunches for around that, so pretty happy so far. This evening will be a test though, heading off to visit a friend for a few days, hopefully she hasn’t gone to too much trouble for dinner, otherwise this day might have to be recorded as only a partial fast. I may be offline for those days too, so may not record anything @fuvvie, but these will be NFD in any case. My friend is keen to get back to normal eating habits after the holiday season, so hopefully we will be good, but the odd glass of wine might be calling. Keep strong everyone, we can get through this together.
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