thinatlast, I’ve found its not too difficult to do a water fast vs 600 calories. Sometimes I get a craving for something to eat in the late afternoon but it is psychological not physical. By evening it passes and I don’t have any issues sleeping. I’m not usually hungry the second morning either.

One thing I’ve learned from tracking my blood ketones is that eating a <600 calorie meal on a 35 hour fast really limits fat burning for me. At the end of a 5:2 style fast I’m at 0.4 mmol which is the start of the fat burning range. If I water fast it will be ~ 1.8mmol, a much stronger indication of fat burning. It take three days of <600 cal eating for me to get into the same fat burning range as one day of water fasting.

When I do my next five day 500 calorie “fasting micking diet” in January I’m going to make the first day and a half a water fast to kick start the fat burning. Then 3 and a half days of eating one avocado made into guacamole with raw veggies to dip. No protein consumption allowed.

For the next week or so I’m going to continue to do 2:1 with water (black coffee allowed) fasts

It gets easier to fast over time. I think my body is getting used to burning fat for energy. I am a foodie and a great cook so giving up food is not my idea of fun. The habit of eating several times a day is tough to break. When I’m hungry I drink seltzer water. But I must admit that everything tastes better after a fast!

My stomach doesn’t grumble when I go to bed. I’m tired so I usually fall asleep quickly.

I measure blood ketones with a “Keto-Mojo” device that is similar to a glucose meter. A finger stick and I get a read out in 5 seconds. Much more accurate that urinary strips.

The five day “fasting micking diet” was developed by Valter Longo to make a five day fast more palatable for patients that could benefit from a true five day water fast. Particularly those receiving chemo therapy. A five day fast also has tremendous immune system benefits. He has patent on it and sells a product called prolon. Basically it is a kit of dehydrated veggies, phyto nutrients and fats. The essence is to eat <500 cal a day 50% fats / 50% carbs from non starchy veggies. As little protein as possible. I’ve mimicked the “fasting micking diet” three times, not for weight loss but for the other health benefits.

Hello all… Joining in but only a relative newbie. This is my second month on 5:2.
Am involved in the December challenge as well but need all the help I can get!

This was a NFD that quickly spiraled into a higher than TDEE day. 😈 After a good FD yesterday (hard earned).

I allowed myself to go fully off track with some good IPA.
And been feeling melancholy for no good reason and let that take me further down.

Back to it tomorrow but really just want to learn from you all who have been on this path for longer.

Cheers!

Day 6. Still in London. We went out for a family meal last night. It was Turkish, a cuisine I haven’t eaten for 25 years . Not knowing what anything was I let the family order and gave the OK to what they ordered for me, which was a mistake. I reached the stage that I had eaten just too much, then a second main course arrived for each of us. All healthy stuff, just far too much. I should have realised when the waiter seemed surprised at the amount ordered.

I can compensate today – they are accustomed to my habit of not eating breakfast, only Grand daughter will be here at lunch time and I head for the hills mid-afternoon, so I can totally fast. The weirdness of this time of year means that I will eat nothing from 9.30 pm yesterday until 12.30pm tomorrow, when I meet a bunch of friends for a Christmas lunch. After that I will probably need another total fast.

LJoyce, I remember back when you were making that bouillabaisse. That seems like a really good soup to have on hand because it’s high protein and relatively low low carb which seems to make FDs easier. Maybe I’ll make some and freeze it. The problem is finding space in our freezer. We always have lots of bags of plain frozen vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. I like fresh but they seem to get old so quickly. The freezer means always having them on hand. But the home made soups would be more handy.

Tomorrow will be a FD for me. I’ve been maintaining around 59 and 60 kg, but I should be trying to lose. I have to get my brain out of the eating mindset and stop looking at all the holiday recipes on Pinterest and recipe sites. It’s way too tempting. I’m too close to my final goal to coast through the holidays without losing.

Day 7. Back in the Forest. After my overeating Tuesday and fasting Wednesday I return the same weight as I went. I will break my fast with a Christmas lunch. Thereafter no more Christmas events for a week, so I should get back on track.

Hi everyone,

Lunch out was good, we were surrounded by people having early Christmas lunch with their colleagues/friends so it was a very jolly atmosphere in a place I go to regularly, chosen for the good food and good service.

I had a couple of G&Ts, roasted salmon with celeriac puree and chard and succumbed to a dessert (as my companions both wanted some and I cannot sit and watch others eating it) which was very good. I didn’t eat anything else yesterday so no damage done.

I have no idea if I’ve lost any weight since 1st Dec as I only weigh once a week as I can do without the stress incurred by the daily ups and downs of weight due to food in transit, fluid, exercise etc.

I’m fasting again today and all is going well.

Good Morning ALL! I am inspired by diverdog, how many days a week do you do HIIT?

Wishing distractions would disappear…Funeral Saturday, trying to squeeze in a water fast Friday.

Then the festivities set in next week…

I’m hoping to follow this smaller group.

IPA is India Pale Ale 🙂

I’m really hungry this evening so have just eaten two small dill pickles to curb the hunger dragon and keep me on track.

NFD for me and lots of challenges. Lunch and afternoon out.
I got less than 3 hours sleep last night and was up at 7am as I had roofing contractors arriving and didn’t want to get caught in a bathrobe. I found myself eating vegemite toast at 8am – I rarely eat breakfast, so this wasn’t a good start. I’ve tried to compensate by spending the rest of the morning gardening. I think I overdid it as I’m hobbling more than walking now.

Diverdog, I ordered some from Amazon after asking about it on a thread here. I found that I really like it on sourdough toast with butter. Then I realized they carried it at my neighborhood grocery store in California, so no need to have to order it online. A jar lasts a long time because it’s very salty. I was warned here to spread it thinly. Except by thinatlast. I think she uses it on her car. 😁

Hi everyone
Just checking in – still the same weight as last Friday, better than a gain I suppose.
I prefer Promite – not so keen on vegemite!
Have a great weekend. Bye for now!

thin,

I tried very hard to like it but I just can’t 😒

Hi Minka! Great to see you over here. Agreed that traveling can make it difficult not to overindulge on new and interesting foods or just foods that aren’t available very often. Maybe just limiting them to small amounts would be a good strategy. Or using LJoyce’s strategy of wearing snug clothes that are unforgiving and don’t have any stretch to them. I think I may use that one when I go out to eat.

I’ve never heard of Promite before, but did order some Marmite around the same time as the Vegemite. I like it, but like the Vegemite better. Sorry, thin. 😁 I wish I could find things other than bread that they paired with. I love bread, but it’s hard to stop at 2 slices. I don’t like it on broccoli or cauliflower. I’ve never thought to put it on legumes.

Day 8. Late reporting today – early morning telephone call had me rushing out. Fortunately the snow was no-where near a much as forecast. Unwise eating at Christmas events yesterday leaves me one pound heavier than when we started this challenge. I think Mon/Tuesday will have to be a 65 hour water fast. That usually works.

I just saw a obituary for a man I went to HS with. It made me sad and nostalgic so I pulled out my high school yearbook and browsed through all of the senior pictures. I looked at over 200 18 YO’s and there were 2 obese people in the class of 1968! We are obviously doing something very wrong these days!

Diver dog and penguin, it’s the same here, looking at photos in my high school yearbook where there were very few, if any, obese kids. At my high school reunion this year there were many. It was kind of sad because many of them were very good looking in high school, and now, with all the extra weight they look awful. Weight really ages a person too. It looked like an age discrepancy between those who had stayed thin and those who’d gained weight. Some where almost unrecognizable.

I often hear that people are afraid of losing weight because it will make their faces look older. After losing 25 pounds, the bags under my eyes that I thought were aging are mostly gone.

Sounds very familiar. I think every vegetable I ate was grown by my father. I still garden the way he and my grandfather did. When I was an under age Wolf Cub, now Cub Scouts? my first badge required me to cook something. In my case Yorkshire Puddings. Some days I even sound old to me.

There was something about doing a 4:3 week that I realised I usually do but haven’t really mentioned. I thought I should share it.

Doing 2 FDs in a week almost feels as effortless as breathing these days – although there is the odd exception. Adding that third FD has the potential to mentally put me into a “deprived” frame of mind – which can easily lead to compensating with extra food on the NFDs – defeating the whole purpose really. When I start a third FD in a week I go into it thinking that I just need to be careful today and anything up to 800 cal is fine – I find this reduces the stress. The reality is that I rarely go above 600 on this 3rd FD, and mostly do a normal 500cal FD. But it makes a big difference to my mental mindset – I feel more relaxed about the day, which usually means a more controlled NFD to follow.

Part of my thinking about this, is that I’m doing the 3rd day only because I need to get my calorie count down a bit for that week and doing a low cal day is better than not accomplishing a FD at all. For me, this third day is always about an immediate need to cut back a bit and not about fasting benefits.

I guess what I’m trying to convey, is tackling a FD (or anything else really) has a lot to do with the way you think about it. It’s all too easy to think ourselves into poor outcomes. The way I frame things in my mind has a lot to do with whether I succeed at things.