Good on you Littlewing

I wish in a way that Michael and Mimi hadn’t used the word Diet in their book title. The word should be banned as it can be so damaging.

I am so very determined that i refused after week 1 to count any calories. Once i had an idea of what 500 calories was that was me done. I also think after reading numerous posts on here that the BMR and TDEE although interesting are causing more problems. Too many are either misinterpreting them or sticking rigidly to them which is clearly setting some of them up to fail which is such a shame.

This really is a very old simple story of fast and then eat less than normal on non fasting days and if you really want to change your lifestyle stop counting those calories, most people really know what they should and shouldn’t be eating.

I’m using a spreadsheet for the first few weeks (my own setup) as I have been a low carber for many years and had no idea of calories. It’s just to give me a guide to how much I can eat. I use http://www.fatsecret.com/ to look up a food

Maxwell, I agree with you, about the word ‘diet’. I always explain to people that this really isn’t a diet – it’s an approach which makes you re-think your whole approach to food, intake and health.
The word ‘diet’ is occasionally wont to make people roll their eyes and think “Hey-ho, yet another ‘Fad’ to hit the headlines…It will pass!” but the more I explain to people how incredibly simple it is, and the more they perceive how much better I look and evidently feel, the more interest it generates.
I do wish there was a better word than ‘diet’… maybe ‘regime’ is better, or ‘lifestyle’ fits…. but it’s perception that maybe needs to change, rather than vocabulary…

Yes, I find on my non-fast days, sometimes I just about hit the recommended calorie target, sometimes I go over, but more often, I’m slightly under – and i don’t feel deprived, hungry, unhealthy or as if I’m starving myself.

I have to admit to guilt feelings if I eat a pot noodle, or something – but the thought of bread actually creates a mild aversion in me.
I honestly haven’t touched bread since June.
Ryvita crackers, yes. Kallo rice cakes, definitely… Twiglets…? guilty as charged! (Love ’em!) But bread? Actually? Ugh.

Maxwell/TaraMaiden – I call it the fasting strategy. I agree about not calling it a diet

I use My Fitness Pal, but simply for the graphing function (weight/waist). I did originally use the calorie-counting as well, but I’ve since written my own scripts which make it easier than using the MFP website/app. I count calories everyday because I HAVE to. I put on weight if I don’t! Doing the fast diet enables me to eat more on non-fast days than if I didn’t fast (thus giving me more flexibility on those days), but the total I can eat in a week is unchanged. Note that I can be physically “full”, but still keep eating, thus the need to count everything anyway. Those who DO feel full when they’ve eaten enough are the ones who don’t need to track on a non-fast day (since their body tells them when they’ve had enough).

As for those saying this isn’t a diet, it is. A diet is what you eat, full-stop. It may be a PARTICULAR diet, like this one, or the South Beach, or whatever – maybe the seafood diet (“I see food, I eat it”) – but even if it’s not a particular one, what you eat is YOUR diet. Vets and palentologists use the word diet in relation to the foods that animals eat (herbivore, carnivore, etc.). If people have a problem with the word “diet”, then they’re using it to mean something other than it’s dictionary definition!