Hoping to live a long active life

This topic contains 27 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by CalifDreamer 6 years, 9 months ago.

Viewing 28 posts - 1 through 28 (of 28 total)

Geopri123

1:14 pm
21 Aug 17
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Hello!
I have watched the Horizon documentary last week and got extremely intrigued. My library had the Fast Diet and FD Recipe ebooks and I read the over the weekend. It is my first fast day today and I am sooo excited and optimistic!

About myself: I am a 33yo female, mother of 2, one of them 13 months old. I started putting on weight a few years ago when we were trying for our second baby. Before getting pregnant my weight was 68kg (150pounds) and at 158cm (5’2″) that put me in the overweight range with a BMI of 27.2.
Two months ago my sister told me about the MyFitnessPal app and after rejecting the idea initially (who has time for that?) I gave it a go and realised how much I was snacking. I cut down on snacks, started exercising up to 3 times a week and lost almost 4 kg and 5cm around my waist in the 8 weeks since then. I’m very happy with that and maybe it would’ve worked for longer, but I am so tempted by all the other benefits of fasting.

Geopri123

1:21 pm
21 Aug 17
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Today is my first day of fasting. I am planning to have a 16 hours window. I don’t find it very hard to skip breakfast and I like exercising on an empty stomach so I think it will be ok. I’ll do Mondays and Thursdays and weigh myself on a Friday morning.

I have two goals, each of them is a pair of trousers. One of them I was wearing when I was about 56-58kg, the other pair is much older (probably close to 10 years) and I was 50-52kg. We’ll see how it goes.

Day 0 numbers:
BMI: 25.5
WAIST TO HEIGHT RATIO: 0.53
WEIGHT: 63.7kg
WAIST: 83.0cm

Ran 5km this morning.
I am going to enjoy my boiled egg lunch as soon as I finish posting 🙂

Geopri123

1:33 pm
21 Aug 17
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This is how the trousers look on me at the moment. I can zip up the first pair but I wouldn’t be able to wear them for longer than 5 minutes.

57kg trousers

52kg trousers

dykask

1:33 pm
21 Aug 17
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Wow you don’t seem too bad off. I hope it goes well for you!

You may need to experiment to see what works well for you as far as food goes. I typically don’t eat while fasting but I have around 100 fasts under my belt. Once I eat very much I have too much hunger. There are a lot of people though that do better eating a small amount.

A 5km run is pretty good when you are fasting.

I see from your pictures what you are trying to trim down a little. What worked for me was removing most of the added refined sugar from my diet. My belly was similar to yours before I did that and in 4 months it mostly went away. I still have some fat I’m trying to get rid of but it doesn’t matter for my pants size.

Geopri123

1:50 pm
21 Aug 17
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Thanks, dykask! I have stopped eating sugary snacks since using the calories log app, I couldn’t believe how much I was overeating! Goodbye 400kcals triple chocolate muffin, goodbye 350kcals brownie bar (minuscule!) and cheese twist 🙂
I love bread and I don’t have access to good bread, I think I need to start using my bread machine again.

I thought about fasting all day, but 16 hours seems more manageable to start with. We’ll see!

bigbooty

10:48 pm
21 Aug 17
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Go easy on the bread. The difference between sugar and bread is minimal. Both are turned into glucose very quickly. Bread has already been turned into maltose while you chew it in your mouth. Turned into glucose shortly after leaving your stomach. Good luck.

dykask

11:38 pm
21 Aug 17
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I think homemade bread is probably better than store bought bread. A lot of bread on the store shelves also has the High Fructose Corn syrup added to it. Not only do you get more glucose but also too much fructose plus the additional glucose that is from the bread. While glucose does spike insulin and that reduces that amount of fat that can be burned, the HFCS adds the fructose and really helps pack on fat around the middle. Maybe the bread could be made with whole grain flour?

Personally I don’t care for bread, although I do like toast. I naturally tend to avoid it. However I do have too much white rice and various types of noodles in my diet. In Japan it is rice is hard to avoid. Even the word gohan which is a meal really means rice. For example breakfast is typically asa gohan, morning rice.

It might be worth keeping a food journal and studying what you really eat. I used to do that. Personally I put little faith in calorie counting, I did it for years and it didn’t work well for me after long-term. It did work very well the first 7 or 8 months though. At least for my body I’ve found what I eat is more important than the calories. For example whole fruit doesn’t seem to cause problems but an ice cream bar a day packs on fat. I eat more nuts that I probably should but the nuts don’t seem to cause a problems. Typically though I shoot for 10 servings of fruits and vegetables when I’m not fasting. That really limits how much other stuff I eat.

I think the key to is to figure out what works for you. Your best tool will be the tape measure not the scale. The fat around the middle is the worst place to pack it. I’m finding that for myself it is the hardest to get rid of.

Geopri123

12:06 pm
23 Aug 17
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Yes, most of the bread on the shelf has sugar quite high in the ingredient list. There is one supermarket here that sells sourdough bread made with flour, water and salt only, but it’s on the other end of town and I rarely get there. Anyway, I can live without eating bread every day, I’ll keep it for 1-2 mornings a week maybe (avocado on toast is one of my favourite breakfasts).

I log all my meals in MyFitnessPal and it does help, that’s how I cut down on snacks. I didn’t used to have a sweet tooth but during the last 13 months of disrupted sleep I felt that only sugar can keep me sane some days. Now the baby sleeps better I don’t really crave any sweet snacks. Life is so much better when you get enough sleep 😀

I find that if I don’t snack at all I am well below my TDEE. I eat mostly fresh home cooked meals with the occasional frozen pizza or take away. I stay away from pasta and white rice so I think I’m on the right track.

You are right, @dykask the tape measure is a better instrument. I read a few stories on this forum and everyone seems to get to a point where they don’t loose any weight for weeks. As long as the body fat is going away, I’m happy.

Geopri123

9:58 pm
25 Aug 17
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First 2 fasts this week Mon and Thu, I lost 1.3kg, almost 3 pounds. I am now in the ‘healthy weight’ BMI range.
I found it easy so far, I hope I can keep it up.

dykask

1:57 am
26 Aug 17
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@geopri123 – very impressive results. The BMI is what trips me up. My BMI range is from about 25 to 26.2 … a little on the heavy side. My body fat is below 20% but even if it is muscle weight, it still makes my heart do more work. Great work getting your BMI down!

Geopri123

10:19 am
26 Aug 17
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Thanks, @dykask! I took your and @bigbooty ‘s advise and cut the bread. I had loads of veggies, beans and legumes with eggs and lean meats. My goal for next week is to have some more fish.

bigbooty

10:40 am
26 Aug 17
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@Geopri. Some people get gas when eating lots of legumes. I boil my legumes and then let them soak overnight. I let them just start to sprout. That breaks down the oligosaccharides and helps reduce gas. Also serve the legumes with mushrooms or leafy veggies as that helps break down the oligosaccharides.

Well done!!

Geopri123

11:00 am
18 Sep 17
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4 week report:
w1 – 2 fasts – 1.3kg loss
w2 – 2 fasts – 0 loss
w3 – 2 fasts – 1kg loss (1 liquid only fast this week)
w4 – 3 fasts – 1.3kg loss (2 liquid only fasts)

Total – 3.6 kg loss

Body fat 26.8% down to 24%

Waist circumference seems to have stayed the same, but I probably didn’t measure correctly at the beginning – I had to buy new jeans this weekend and punch a new hole in my belt.

This is almost as much as I lost in the previous 8 weeks by eating low cal every day, about 1500-1600 calories a day. I ate a lot at the weekends, almost 50% over my TDEE, but stayed under during the week. Mostly 🙂

Last week was very challenging doing 3 fasts, I think I will stick to 2 from now on, it is A LOT easier!

Geopri123

2:38 pm
4 Jan 18
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I don’t know how many weeks it has been now but I kept fasting 2 days a week. Except last week when I decided to indulge over Christmas but then got a bug and couldn’t eat much anyway 🙂

I haven’t lost much since last time I posted, I stayed between 59 and 60 kg since mid September. I stopped exercising then and started eating a lot more on non fast days, mostly snacking on chocolates.

Health wise I don’t know how much/if I have improved. I know that the body fat % dropped by almost 3% since I started fasting but the waist to height ratio has stayed about the same at .53
Damn you sugar and lack of sleep!

fasting_me

4:33 pm
4 Jan 18
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You have been making progress, Geo, so don’t lose heart. Have a look at what you eat on Slow Days. You have done a good job of identifying and eliminating your snacking. Now see what else is keeping the weight on. For me, white rice and beer pack on the hard-to-get-rid-of pounds. Maybe you have a few foods that do that.
Stick to your TDEE every non-Fast Day. In August you said you wanted to add more fish. Have you? Great protein with loads of Omega-3. We always eat some seafood on a Monday Fast dinner, as well as on a Friday Slow dinner.

Today for breakfast: salmon quiche [crustless!] with pear, fruit smoothie [homemade], and coffee.
For dinner: chicken stirfry with a little brown rice.

Keep on keeping on, Geo.

Geopri123

2:34 pm
5 Jan 18
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Thank you, @fasting_me! I gave up white rice and pasta but I still love bread. I have a lot of it on non-fast days, maybe I should start slowly with only having it for breakfast.

I haven’t been eating more fish, but thanks for reminding me, I’ll be having some for dinner tonight. Having seafood days makes sense, that way you can’t forget to include it during the week. I’ll do that!

Geopri123

1:13 pm
14 Feb 18
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I don’t remember why I decided to expose my flabby tummy on the internet 6 months ago, but since I did I thought I’d follow up on the evolution of my midsection. I can see good progress, so I’m happy I decided to take pictures.

I did 2 fasts a week every week since mid August, except for 3 weeks when I tried 4:3.

Body fat %
26.8 -> 22

BMI
25.5 -> 22.9

Waist
85cm -> 76cm (recently getting my waist to height ratio under 0.5)

This week I’m trying a longer water fats. I’ve only done 1 day before (so about 36-40 hours). I’m in the 3rd day today, aiming for at least 4, but if all goes well I’ll do 5.

Geopri123

1:21 pm
14 Feb 18
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Forgot to say that in the last month or so, especially during the 4:3 weeks, I found walking to be so easy! Not that I ever found walking difficult, but more recently it’s like I’m floating, like I don’t have to put any effort in it.

CalifDreamer

8:32 pm
14 Feb 18
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Geopri123, you look great! What a difference!

How did you manage to display the photos in your posts? I didn’t know that was possible here. Please share!

CalifDreamer

9:23 pm
14 Feb 18
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Well, that didn’t work…

Geopri123

9:39 pm
14 Feb 18
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You need the ‘less than’ and ‘bigger than’ signs instead of square brackets. Like this

CalifDreamer

9:57 pm
14 Feb 18
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Geopri123

10:01 pm
14 Feb 18
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I can’t see what you put in the src=”” but sometimes links from goohle images don’t work, it needs to be a direct link to the image.

So instead of copying this link from google

https://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.pexels.com%2Fphotos%2F15239%2Fflower-roses-red-roses-bloom.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pexels.com%2Fphoto%2Fflower-roses-red-roses-bloom-15239%2F&docid=YsMelWvplcmDdM&tbnid=GIygWYOeyU_zBM%3A&vet=1&w=5168&h=4000&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim

Visit the page that actually holds that image, right click on the image and select copy image link (or similar). It will be much shorter like this

https://static.pexels.com/photos/15239/flower-roses-red-roses-bloom.jpg

CalifDreamer

10:08 pm
14 Feb 18
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Well, I’m still doing something wrong. I’ll have to try again later. Thanks for the help. I love being able to post pictures here.

Geopri123

10:10 pm
14 Feb 18
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Almoat there.
1. You need ‘http:’ at the beginning of the link just before //
2. You have 2 quotes ” at the end of the link, remove one

Geopri123

10:13 pm
14 Feb 18
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Actually just removing the extra ” will make it ok.

CalifDreamer

10:15 pm
14 Feb 18
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CalifDreamer

10:23 pm
14 Feb 18
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My browser (Safari) is adding extra symbols and “. I’ll have to try later on Windows.