Adopting a different method

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  • Well, after struggling to keep going over the last several weeks, have changed when I eat, and have so far found it easier to cope. I was having breakfast and evening meal on fast days, but recently found that keeping this up has failed. So now eat nothing after the previous evenings meal until the fasting days evening meal. Sadly on non fast days eating in the morning appears to give me a license to carry on regardless. I don’t understand how I can do without all day one day, but am currently incapable of such mild constraint the next! Anyway, have no intention of giving up yet, and will continue for a while longer, hoping the situation improves. Anyone else similarly stricken?

    On fast days I eat nothing at all during the day and I consume my calories in one go at dinner time. This is much easier for me then having two or three small meals during the day. If I eat a very small breakfast it feels like my tummy is waking up to food and it wants more!

    I also believe strongly in the 16:8 way of eating, as the fasting is good for my body.
    Stef.

    I also find I can go all day without food on my fast days but have no constraint the next day. The body is a very curious thing and I do believe science has yet to crack the code of how it operates. I have successfully lost 8 pounds in 8 weeks and have never counted calories. It is very liberating to know I can have that piece of cheesecake and still lose weight when before I would just feel deprived. Dr. Bert Herring introduced the fast diet in his video Fast-5.org back in 2005 and Dr. Mosley has just put a little spin on it for us to make it easier. Thanks Dr. Mosley for your documentary

    Thank you both for your comments. Stef, I had this problem on eating days when I first began fasting 5 months ago. After a couple of weeks my appetite decreased altogether and it was great. Now, because I had a short break when we had a house guest it’s seems to be back to square 1. I agree about about the tummy thing.
    Preed1347, congratulations! I did restrain myself initially, but it seems to have gone to pot! Hopefully it be back to normal soon. Luckily, at least now the fast days appear to be sorted!

    Hi Toms mantis x

    I am no expert but have seen several people on this forum adopt exactly the approach you have and are having great success with it. I would do what feels right for you and what *work* for you, even if it isn’t in print πŸ™‚

    Aud x

    I have the opposite problem πŸ™

    Fast days are absolutely fine. My ‘fast day veggie soup’ (50cals) at about 2pm and a meal around 300 cals at 6.30. My TDEE is 1600cals.

    The normal days are a different matter.

    today I had porridge at 9am, did the usual around the house then took the dog for a long walk. At 3.30 I realised I hadn’t had lunch but I wasn’t hungry so I had a rice cake. At 6.30 I had a meal of around 300 cals. So less than 500 cals in total.

    I’ve just eaten beans on toast which I didn’t enjoy much. It just seems ridiculous to just eat food I don’t really want to get up to a sensible amount of calories but that’s what I seem to end up doing most days.

    Oh and I ate a small bag of cadbury’s buttons (75 cals) ….big deal!!

    Haha sylvestra I have a similar problem usually. Seeing how I eat one meal a day every day, it can be difficult to eat my allowed number of calories on normal days! Try to stuff 1400 calories into one meal whilst eating healthy foods… it’s quite difficult! I usually end up baking some bacon, this is high in calories, fat and protein ^^

    Yeah this is my problem as well. If I eat in the morning it unleashes “the Beast” so to speak. So on fast days I go dinner (the night before) till around 3pm, then have a 50 cal soup, then a 300-400 calorie dinner. On non-fast days I don’t eat till lunch then rock lunch and dinner normally, not worrying about my calories (hard to eat to many this way).

    Another thing we did in our house, was I have two sons age 11/13. They are junk food addicts (with jack rabbit metabolisms, so they get away with it). I told them what I was doing and asked if they would be willing to detox from all processed/junk food. They thought it would be fun to do together.

    So we killed all junk food and processed food for fresh cut fruits and veggies on demand in the fridge (except their hotdogs… that was a hard limit for them ;). It has made making the right choice the easy one! Now if only I could get my husband on board, but he thinks all this is crazy so not likely.

    Toms, I have a similar problem to you. I also discovered some while ago that it was easier to hold off eating on fast days til as late as possible, and I generally manage this – but even if I can’t wait that long, I still am able to keep within the ‘allowed’ calories. I find fast days easy to stick to, especially after having been on 5:2 for a while, because the requirements for the day are so strict so there isn’t any question of having a biscuit, several choccies, a piece of bread, etc.

    Non-fast days are much more difficult – the freedom to have what I want can cause me to eat things that I don’t really want, but eat because I can, if you follow! I have no problems at all in consuming my TDEE’s worth of calories on any non-fast day, and have to do a rough calorie count of what I eat, cos of this.

    I was on 16:8 for a while, but I just felt hungry all morning every day, and still had to watch what I consumed in the 8-hour window. And I do eat lots of salads, veggies, protein – foods that are supposed to help make you feel full – and drink lots – but these don’t satiate my hunger.

    What has happened for me with 5:2 is that I am better able to manage my hunger and not give in to cravings as often as I used to. This is mainly cos my weight loss has been fantastic with 5:2, I am the slimmest I have been in my adult life, and I don’t want to put any weight back on!!

    Not sure if any of this is any help to you, but I can totally empathise with where you are at! πŸ™‚
    Best wishes
    Sassy πŸ˜€

    Seems I’m not alone! Tomorrow is my third day fasting until tea time so will post how it goes. All your comments have been of great help to me, always good to know you’re not alone when you’re struggling. I feel much better now. I would hate to put any of my lost weight back on again. Thanks all.

    Horrible as it may sound, but eating nothing at all on a fast day might be easier for people who have problems when eating early gets the insulin mechanism in gear.
    It’s half past three in the afternoon and I have not missed eating at all – been out for 10 mile walk on a very beautiful mild sunny December day – but, if I’d eaten first thing, then the insulin response would have made my body scream for more fuel about 2-3 hours later.
    Having said all that, I’m off to an Xmas party at 6pm – I cannot deny that I am somewhat looking forward to cancelling my fast and indulging in yums and slurps πŸ™‚
    Just need to make sure that fast day cancellations do not repeat too often – especially during the, very aptly named, festive season !!

    Storitelr: with the start off the fast diet I have given up drinking Coke, one of my really bad habits. I also have a 13-year-old son and a 17 year old daughter. We still have some Coke left in the fridge but I convinced my children to refrain from drinking it until the weekend. Once it is finished we will not buy anymore.

    Junk food is also pretty much out of the window as I am not getting it. After five weeks I can say that it seems that my new healthy eating style has also rubbed up on my family. We are generally speaking eating very healthy but we do have our little sins, such as ice cream, pizza and from time to time a Big Mac.

    The only remaining issue is that we all love to eat pasta…

    Anyhow,today is my second fast day this week and Friday will be my third.

    Good luck to you all
    Stef.

    Hi Toms mantis – I totally agree that the fasting all day until evening meal approach is better than trying to spread out the calories.

    I think I tried the ‘spreading out’ approach about twice back in September when I started 5:2. Firstly I found that I struggled to eat anything that made a difference to my hunger – without putting a lot of time and effort into preparing food (and I had very little time available as I was working long hours). And secondly I was just ravenous all day afterwards until I could eat again.

    I was 100% convinced that I could never go all day without food – but although I have felt hungry on fast days, I have found it really simple to do. In fact most fast days I have just had beans on toast for tea – and doing that twice a week is about the least complicated diet you can have!

    I am a real foodie – I cook a lot and don’t have a sweet tooth or really eat any junk food at all – but I do have LARGE portions and like a drink (or several!). Hence ending up about 3 stones overweight πŸ™ The main thing I have learned to do on non-fast days (most of the time) is to try to stop eating when I am full, and because my TDEE is woefully low (now around 1600!) this really helps.

    I do hope your change of approach works and you continue to lose weight.

    Cath x

    Hi Snedger, enjoy your party, fast another day.

    Stef, don’t think I could do 3 days fasting. How do you find it? Honestly, I think I have done so well up to now because my other half is doing it with me so I don’t have to worry about doing other food for him. As usual he has done much better than I have.

    Cathyork, yes, it’s like once I eat my body says, oh goody, where’s the rest? And I just want to munch. Have to admit I also find it easier to do this in the summer than now, if that doesn’t sound daft! Happy fasting everyone.

    “Stef, don’t think I could do 3 days fasting. How do you find it? ”

    Actually it is not a problem at all. I do Monday/Wednesday and Friday and I have no problems eating nothing during the day and then have <500kcal in the evening. On the other hand though, in the medium run I will do 5:2 and eventually 6:1.

    I have two more kilos to go to reach my ideal weight and as I am inpatient…I do 4:3 to get if off before the new year- hopefully.

    What bugs me most (this is the first time that I am doing any kind of diet) is that I am spending a lot of time calculating kcals and thinking about what to eat. This is not so much because I am hungry but because I am trying to do other lifestyle changes, such as for instance I gaveup drinking Coke nearly six weeks ago (and I DID drink about 3 cans a day…and the full sugar ones). I also stopped drinking coffee in fact any coffein.

    As I have never done a diet before I have no idea how many calories are in what kind of foods, so I spend quite a lot of time reading labels, calculating my intake and so forth.

    I hope that in the long run this really just becomes a life style where I do not think about these things at all as at the moment this new way of life seems to run my life πŸ˜‰

    Best of luck to all of you, particularly with xmas coming up!
    Stef.

    Hey, Toms

    Really just saying hi!

    When I decide what I’m doing, I’ll let you know. Birthday this weekend , then Christmas. I am just maintaining at present, but planning to get back in the swing.

    Good luck on your plan.

    Piper, hello. Good luck when you get back on the wagon, my new regime seems to work, so glad! Was beginning to think I would stick as I was! We are having Christmas off, too, but will be back to normal afterwards. Not too many pounds heavier, I hope.

    Hi Toms Mantis,

    You’re definitely not alone! I have been struggling for a couple of months now, and I had done so well. What is keeping you from totally giving up? I don’t want to give up, but the umph is gone….

    Hello TidyChick, the only motivation I have right now is that I definitely do not want to put weight back on! Have had to buy new clothes a size smaller so that’s another thing. Will see what happens after Christmas, as I won’t be fasting over the holiday – won’t be stuffing food either though. I understand about the unph going. At first you have that zealousness and nothing can stand in your way, but as you get used to it…. Anyway, wish you luck for comtinued success. Please, check in after the holiday and maybe we can devise plan!!

    Toms mantis,

    Sounds like a plan, and thanks!

    Hi, Both my husband and I have successfully lost over 3 stones between us on the Fast Diet. I don’t eat til dinner time on a fast day, my husband has breakfast and dinner, both successful ways to loose the pounds. I was wondering if anyone has tried fasting overnight, whereby you have a light dinner and nothing til lunch the next day?

    Hi Alison – well done to both of you, that is a fantastic result!

    I fast from after dinner Sunday until lunch Tuesday – water only, a total of 40 hours. It sometimes gets a bit hard Monday night when my husband has his dinner & wine, but I now know it’s desire, not hunger! Then Wednesday and Thursday I don’t eat from after dinner until dinner the next night (so 2x 24 hours but not skipping dinners). I find it easier not to eat at all, why stimulate those greedy little tastebuds? I have much more energy, go for a hard cardio session at the gym 6 mornings a week, and have much more clarity and concentration.

    I ALMOST made my goal of 70kg by Christmas! Not quite, but have now lost the magical 20.1kg (3 stone 2 lbs) since 22/1/13 Now 70.7kg from 90.8 in January!!!!!!!!!
    Had blood tests last week and
    Cholesterol from 7.2 (January), 5.9 (April), 5.4 (last week)
    Tryglicerides from 3.2 (January), 0.8 (April), 0.6 (last week)

    I did keep a very detailed food diary for the first 2 months but then stopped, I really don’t see the point of getting into the calorie counting treadmill, that’s why we all started fasting!
    BMI from 34.8 to 30.1 to 26.61 today.
    I feel great and will fast forever, AND did not to put on ANY weight over Christmas – Onward to 66kg.
    Vicki

    One thing I remember from eating low-carbohydrate meals on other diets is that once I get carbs ‘out of my system’, after a few days, my appetite drops away to almost nothing. I think that’s what the menu/recipes for fast days is all about in the book, is having that blood insulin level drop off some so the appetite is not so strong. With this, I’m looking for some sort of balance between the two – low-carb gets too strict and I fall off the wagon and go back to my old ways, but with this, I seem to reach a more balanced point where I can enjoy a little of this or that without ruining all my progress. It might be worth trying to cut back on the starchy foods and sugars for a few days – fasting or not – to see if the sense of craving things goes away? If I’m off-base, just ignore me – I am only speaking from my own experience and it may not really apply to you. πŸ™‚

    Best,
    -catinhat

    Catinhat,

    I agree completely. When I go off the starch and carbs, fasting is so much easier. Sugar does something awful to me. When I eat sugar I get this weird after taste in my mouth that I swear makes me crave more sugar. Like I eat some skittles and I can’t stop because the taste in my mouth won’t go away until I eat more sugar. It take up to 24 hours to go away. So I find sugar, carbs, and starch mess with my mind more than anything. Going off them really does help when fasting.

    I too am only speaking from my personal experience but I agree with you completely!

    Hi all,

    I also take all of my calories in in one eal on fast days. usually for lunch as I would hate to exclude myself from having lunch with my team members. One should not underestimate the impact of that.

    But I also can relate to what you mentioned: having breakfast is no good at fast days for me either. And I also do not like the “spred the 500 put” approach. It just seems wrong to me. I mean, this diet is about fasting. It is not the “eat 500 kcals two times a week” diet but the “fast” diet and the periods of me fasting are just much longer if I take in everything at one single meal. And I do not just want to restrain of weight but also benefit from all the other impacts of fasting.

    Cheers,
    Julia

    Hi All, just want to say thank you for starting this forum Tom, I started with the 5:2 eating plan in early Jan ’14, it all made such good sense to me and I felt it it was an achievable way for me to fine tune my efforts to live a healthier life and feel better in general and to lose the dreaded middle age kilo creep. Starting out I struggled a little with spreading my 500 cals over the day, because like a lot of you on this forum I found that eating brekkie seemed to set off those hunger/desire cravings and made the day really difficult. I have now adjusted my plan to start my fast after dinner on Sunday night, go through to Monday night when I have a low calorie meal with only one coffee (milk, no sugar) on Monday morning and 1 tea (again milk, no sugar) at Smoko at about 11am and doing the same again for Wednesday night/Thursday. I have gone from 3-4 coffees and 1-2 teas a day to now only wanting 1 coffee and 1 tea everyday, this has ‘just happened’ I just don’t feel like anymore (I don’t why). I have also found that I am eating a lot less bread than I used to, again just not feeling like eating it, which is weird because I have always loved my bread products and toast was often my go to afternoon and/or evening snack. While on ‘non-fast’ days I have been delaying my first meal until at least midday and then having a smoothie with lots of different fruits, spinach leaves or cucumber, low-fat yoghurt, skim milk, cinnamon, chia seeds and ice, good for tummy health, absolutely delicious and as I am in Australia, very refreshing in the Summer heat, then having a normal/usual meal for dinner. I find this delayed approach to that first meal works much better for me in controlling what I eat. So much of what you have all said here in this forum resonates strongly with me so, thank you for sharing your thoughts. We have always been taught the mantra ‘that breakfast is the most important meal of the day’ but maybe that teaching is not always appropriate. While I really like and appreciate all the work that has gone into and the information that The Fast Diet way provides, like Audrich said we need to do what suits each of us, so a little tweaking here and there, while keeping to the basic principles is sound advice. πŸ™‚

    Would appreciate advice if I am on the right track on a slight change I am making.

    I started 5:2 before buying the book. What I would do is have 100 calories of egg whites at 7am, then measure out 500 calories of food for the day – 300 chicken breast, 100 celery, 100 blueberries and/or apples – and basically graze on those 500 calories somewhat evenly throughout the day.

    After reading the book, I realize that is probably not the best approach. So, what I am now planning to do is 200 calories of egg whites at 7am, and then a 300 calorie dinner at 7pm, which is essentially what the book suggests. But, I plan to still graze on the 100 calories of celery (which is a LOT of celery) to take the edge off between 7am and 7pm. It is just the celery, nothing added to it.

    I think that is okay, as celery has a glycemic index (GI) of zero, so even though it is making me not as hungry during the 12 hour fast between 7am and 7pm, it is okay, because celery is so fiberous and has no GI impact.

    Any thoughts on whether the 100 calories or celery – which is about 20 oz – throughout the day has any negative impacts on the results of the fast period ?

    BK

    Hi billkane:

    The neat thing about 5:2 is you keep track of calories, not the types of food you eat, so you can eat foods that you love to eat while on 5:2.

    If you love celery, go for it.

    As an aside, the gains from 5:2 come from caloric restriction, not periods of time without eating. That is why you can eat any number of times a day and be successful, as long as you stay within the 500/600 calorie limit on your diet days.

    Good Luck!

    I don’t suppose that it will make much difference, but it is missing the point.The idea is to have a long fasting window between food when you are awake, which in turn teaches the brain that you are not going to collapse in a heap if you don’t eat for a while, amongst the other benefits of fasting for a period of time. The idea is not to graze.

    I miss breakfast, then have lunch of either 200 or 300 calories and then have the remainder about 4 ish when I am hungry……then nothing else until the morning.I eat my evening meal at 6 then fast for 16 hours until 12 noon when I eat again, then have another 4ish hours and then another 13 hours until breakfast.

    Why not miss breakfast and try lunch and evening meal? I wouldn’t want to consume that much celery, it would put me off and wreck havoc with my digestion.Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

    Celery is a power house herb.
    I have to change things up. As my schedule changes my fast days change. Until I can figure out how get them in . My issue isnt hunger it’s hunger pangs. Sometimes breakfast is when they come other times it’s a few hours after dinner. What I looked for was seriously taking stock of my environment. What are the reasons I start to cheat. People, smells, line of sight. Hunger pangs, access. I think it’s typical for people to cheat a few hours after dinner. This is my reason for putting my dinner just far enough from bed time that I can sleep without hunger pangs. In turn. My first meal is the amount of hours I can make 250calories last without hunger pangs. So noon and 5pm. Works for me. Only reason is because I have a stronger will power in the mornings and don’t cheat. I’m just as hungry at 9 in the morning as 9 at night but I personally don’t cheat in the morning.
    So I can go til about 2pm. If scheduling permits I eat only 100-200 calories of something bitter. And resume eating at 5pm like normal with more calories to the hunger genie in the bottle.
    The only other thing I’ve read is it causes issues to go more than 19.5 hours everyday without carbs,and protein on a regular basis. I was on calorie restriction diets long before 5:2.. Then my understanding eating all calories in meal wasn’t healthy and a study that I can’t reference to save my life . Wrote that calorie restriction was ok up to 19.5 hours without optimal nutrition. with a window of 4.5 hours didn’t have any issues

    So to speak to Billkane. I don’t see any issue there.
    Ant to Tom I would say put a bigger intake that sates at the time your most likely to cheat.

    Another point I’ll make is about eking up the metabolism.
    Say you went to sleep and 8 hrs later you get up and mill around. And that doesn’t trigger hunger pangs.
    But if you get up and eat a slice of bread. Jump up and down for some happy reason. Your body- metabolism starts to react first with hunger pangs and more hunger pang and more till you eat.

    That being true to my experience , I watch popular DR shOw that doesn’t like his name used. About doing very light intake enough to quell hunger pangs about 50 calories. And just a bit later five sit ups a few hand weights. To the heart pumping and getting the metabolism to kick in to awake and walking about mode.
    Best wishes.

    Hi I’m new on this forum. I began the fasting diet on Monday 28h April.
    I’m another who has to miss food out altogether til my evening meal. If I eat anything I then want more. Unleashing the beast is a great description of how it feels.

    Before I ventured into doing this my weakest times of overeating was always evenings when I needed to snack.

    Somehow with this way of eating my mind has automatically disciplined itself to not want food after my evening meal.

    I’m also now very reluctant (worried) to begin to eat normally on non fast days incase the beast is unleashed and I can’t reign it back so I’m finding that I’m eating just the one main meal in the evening. I’m needing to know if this is okay as I haven’t read the book.
    I’m 67 years old and don’t need the food so much for energy these days! I don’t have much weight to lose at 10st 6lbs but need to get it down to between 9st and 9 1/2st. My height is 5’4″

    After 3 days of only eating in the evening I’m finding it quite easy up to now but need to know if it’s safe for me.

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