Wondering if there are other South Africans on the site? Michael’s TV programs “The truth about…” have only recently been aired here so as usual we are slow to catch on!

I’ve been trying to help people ditch diets for years, as well as keeping weight off myself without going overboard as well as trying to keep cholesterol and sugar within healthy limits.

Instantly intrigued by IF, it just makes so much sense, and have been doing it a few weeks. Probably not doing it right – I’ve been fasting completely for 24 hours one day (supper to supper so not going to bed hungry) and eating lightly the next day including the fast-break supper, the rest of the week eating normally and enjoying my small glass of wine, occasional cake or helping of dessert. Have lost weight, maybe about a kilo and a half.

Be encouraged! It’s maybe a bit harder in the cold, but stick with it. At least in Gauteng you get some warm sun in the middle of the day even if you freeze at night. I’m in PE and winters are mild, thank goodness, but a cold day tends to stay cold!

I’m still losing weight but quite slowly bc on Feed days I’m not being sensible. Went thru some stress lately and used sweet treats as therapy! But with the two fast days I am doing fine, am well within healthy weight limits and now wondering how much more I should actually lose, since I’m 53 and as the doctor in the family keeps mentioning, it’s not good to be too thin when you get older. I’m about 4.5 kilos down since I started FD in early March and I’ve done it every week.

Lately I’m thinking that weight in itself might not be that useful, I’m rather trying to measure round my middle and get my Waist-to-Height ratio correct, i.e. waist should be less than half your height. As for “lose weight fast”, that is for the birds, really. It doesn’t matter when the weight comes off or how quickly, as long as it does. The body has to get used to giving up its long term stores, and must learn to trust that there isn’t a famine about to happen, or deep seated drives to find food will derail your best efforts.

The Fast Diet is not a gimmick – it’s a way of life with so many benefits other than weight loss – you should see improvement in your skin, hair, energy levels and immune system as well as blood chemistry if you get it tested (I haven’t done that).

Today is a Fast day and so far I haven’t eaten anything and it’s mid-afternoon. Drinking cups of tea with a bit of milk, that’s all. I don’t usually do this – usually eat a good Oats breakfast with a bit of red fruit and a cup of soup or stock for lunch, but today I just can’t be bothered. I’m hungry, I suppose, but that’s not bothering me either. I have really lost my fear of being hungry, I just notice the feeling and move on to the next thing I need to get done. It helps being busy. On Fast nights I get really tired and go to bed early (for me), this is also a good thing!! But I can exercise or work out without any problem as long as I drink extra water.

I will eat supper later… on a Wednesday fast I eat whatever low calorie stuff I fancy, tonight it’s cottage cheese and Greek salad, maybe some Avo to make it more interesting. On Thursday I take it a bit easier, may eat a piece of toast at lunch and for supper I do fish – Sashimi if I can afford it and frozen if I can’t. Salad or greens with that. By then I’m looking forward to the end of the fast, though I usually make it a late breakfast on Friday. Last week I went to a Coffee Morning and stuffed my face with sweet stuff and spring rolls so that wasn’t good and I won’t do it again!! But at the end of the week I was the same weight as before so I got away with it, not to mention several plates of pudding, potato bake, pasta and other stuff that with any other diet would spell disaster.

Most Fast Dieters seem to prefer to separate their two days. Not me – I like to a) get it over with and b) actually feel my body converting to fat-burning mode once all the supplies of sugar are used up, and keep it in the state for most of the next day as well. It seems to take about 18 hours from previous night’s meal to wipe out all the sugar and start burning fat instead, which since I’m not eating fat is mainly my own body fat. I may be over-simplifying but I cannot see how anyone expects to burn body fat without at some point having a deficit of calories and especially of sugars and carbs!!

I have friends on the Tim Noakes Diet – might be worth a look – though the amount of fat he prescribes is pretty horrifying. I find it fascinating that people (especially men) do seem to lose weight so well on the Noakes regime! If you saw the Carte Blanche insert on this, the other expert on the show (Dr Opie) suggested doing the Noakes for a few weeks to lose weight and then go for something more balanced. It does seem to work well for some, others feel terrible on it, so I’m just sticking to the Fast Diet – I like doing it, it makes sense in lots of ways, and I know from sad experience that I don’t stick to diets that apply every day. I worry about consuming large amounts of animal fat, not only because of the cholesterol aspect (still waiting for better research on that) but because I figure that a lot of the toxins that are used in modern agriculture end up in the animal fat, so unless it’s organic, grass fed etc etc I would be surprised if it’s good for us

The sugar withdrawal gives me a headache sometimes but nothing too terrible, if that happens to you eat the oats porridge for breakfast, it will help, I use a small spoonful of yoghurt and a barely-there drizzle of honey….

I also bought the Fast Diet recipe e-book, not using it much but it’s got some really nice ideas in there and you’ll be surprised at how much you can eat without going over your calorie limit (I reckon 500 Calories to be about 1800 Kilojoules, if that’s not right, someone better tell me).

Wishing you all the best Big Mamma – start off with dividing your calorie allowance between the three meals to make your Fast Day easier, split the days if that helps, and make sure you’re not at a loose end or too much around other people’s food on your Fast Day, and you should be just fine. If you can avoid my bad example and be careful not to over-indulge on your Feed Days as well, that weight is going to come off and you’ll feel so much better all round.

Sunny