Intermittent Fasting

[Hohn]

Down another 3 lb since I broke 200, thought I plateau'ed at 200, but apparently not. (even within my regular daily weight variation).

 

[Ggreen]

Another successful week of weight loss. I haven't been back on a scale, but I'm still loosing. I have moved into a smaller belt, this belt has been sitting in a drawer in my closet for the last 3 years, before that it was with me from back in 2010ish. I grew out of it quickly after leaving the USAF and now i'm on the smallest hole again. I've lost a lot of size, but am not loosing where I want so I'm planning to start some yoga in the mornings to try and start toning away my belly. It is a lot smaller than it was, but I want a flat stomach again. I feel like most of my loss has been in the girth of my arms and legs. My arms do not fill out sleeves like they used to, not even close. It is weird looking at myself in the mirror and picturing all of the fat that had just been devouring my body.

Diet wise, it has been pretty steady. I've been exploring different foods and my current dinner obsession has been poached egg over baked veggies. I had it over broccoli and cauliflower last night and it was on point. My favorite is to saute mushrooms and asparagus either on the grill or stove with some garlic and coconut oil. I have kind of departed from obsessing over calorie count and moved into routine eating. I know basically what my granola and yogurt has in it, I know what my eggs have in them and have a general idea on my meats and proteins. So now that I have set up healthy eating habits it is getting easier to stay under 2000 calories a day. My 600 calorie days have increased to around 700 due to being a bit more active and needing the extra. I have had a few days the past couple weeks where I just wasn't hungry and went ahead with a 23 hour fast, supplemented with vegetable juice.

I am finding the hardest things to resist are the finger foods, my wife has a trail mix she likes to keep around and I've caught myself snatching the odd mm or chocolate piece. Also had a weakness for York peppermint patties... I'm fighting the binge instinct that I have tho and limiting myself to a bite or a bitesize candy and making sure I count it in my daily calorie goal.

9 weeks in and it has been a much easier road than I expected. I am not a patient person though and I want to be under 200lbs yesterday, but losing 98lbs is a long term goal that requires me to keep myself in check and motivated. I'm closer everyday and reminding myself of that helps.

 

[thunderchicken]

I decided to give IF a try for a week or two and see how I feel and results compared to following my macro diet. I am on day 4 and likewise I am on day 4 of a mild headache. I have been weaning off diet soda as a caffeine fix, so could be withdrawals from that or could be my body trying to acclimate to IF. If the headache doesn't go away soon I may cave

 

[Reverend Dreed]

I went the diet route with the mrs 2 months ago, 1200 calories and very low carbs. No bread, potato's, or pasta. Kind of a modified keto diet but we went high protein and medium fat, instead of the true keto high fat one everyone is doing these days. I have shed 40 lbs and the mrs about 17 pounds.

 

[Ggreen]

I decided to give IF a try for a week or two and see how I feel and results compared to following my macro diet. I am on day 4 and likewise I am on day 4 of a mild headache. I have been weaning off diet soda as a caffeine fix, so could be withdrawals from that or could be my body trying to acclimate to IF. If the headache doesn't go away soon I may cave

I've never been into soda so could be your body getting used to operating without aspartame? I still drink caffeine in black coffee and tea. Maybe try giving your body some caffeine. I've not experienced a headache throughout the 9 weeks of fasting.

 

[Ggreen]

Another week almost in the books. I'm still thinning out, but now i'm starting to notice it in weird places. My neck has shrunk, a lot, now I'm good with that but I'd rather it be coming off my gut lol. I've really been getting into kombucha teas a few times a week and my turds are unbelievable and regular. When I was nearly 300lbs my bm's were inconsistent but consistently bad. Now I basically know when where and what is going to happen.

I've been mixing up my fasting cycles. Now that I'm accustomed to eating between noon and 8 I'm finding myself not craving my noon breakfast. So when I feel like it I push into a 20-4 or even up to a 23-1 (which is a warrior diet kind of). I could get into warrior diet, I mean hunger seems to truly be a mental game for those of us as obese as myself. My body can sustain itself for a long time. I make sure to not push to any physical barriers though. If i'm hungry and it is in my window I eat. When I'm hungry out of my window its almost always a craving and those are difficult to beat. More difficult than a 14 year chewing tobacco habit was. I was dipping while sleeping to illustrate my extent of addiction and I cold turkey successed it because I was too lazy to drive into town and pick up another can (and broke at the time, paying for tobacco with change is very degrading). So I've lost the crave battle a few times in the past week to some ridiculous trail mix my wife had. It was the first time I've put my foot down and said no to keeping a food item around.

Anyway highlights this week
-Awesome BM's
-Cravings are hard
-Kombucha Kombucha Kombucha
-Eat only for fuel, eat only for fuel has become my internal mantra.
-Facing the scale in 3 weeks.
-Gave away a box full of XXL shirts

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I've been doing the "stop eating at 5" thing pretty successfully, but had to cheat today. For reasons not relevant to this thread I was stuck in a situation that left me rather dehydrated once I was relieved. Over the course of 15 minutes or so I drank right at 3/4 of a gallon of water and still didn't need to urinate. Body was not enjoying all that water with nothing else in the slightest.

On a side note, since I quit drinking diet soda and have been avoiding sugar with rare exception, a pre-packaged frosted cookie is *incredibly* sweet. Like holy crap that's sweet.

 

[Hohn]

Yeah, it’s weird how the changes in diet affect our perception of sweet. Even plain shredded wheat tastes a little sweet to me with milk. I no longer add honey or sugar, nor feel it needs it.

 

[amboy49]

I just had to prep for a colonoscopy today. Does that count as fasting ?

 

[Ggreen]

Today, August, June. The results don't lie. It's not easy but it's doable. 55lbs and 3xl to 1xl with some large shirts that fit.

 

[Ggreen]

Going to keep tooting this horn. I have been less than faithful the last couple weeks, but I'm back in full force. When I was "cheating" I was still eating mostly clean, but the wife and I ordered a pizza on a late night and I didn't remove the toppings, and I ate after hours. I snacked on that f'n thing the rest of the week. I've been maintaining my hours pretty well. Even with two weeks of less than perfect fasting I've still been on a losing streak. I tried on and fit into some 36" waist pants. My waist is shrinking fast. After USPSA this sunday I came home and meal prepped for the week and it feels good to be back on a true 600cal day today. Can't sing the praises of kombucha enough either. Anyway I'm excited to get onto a scale next week.

 

[Ggreen]

I wore these shorts all summer without a belt.

 

[Ggreen]

I'm down 90lbs. From a 42+ waist to a 34, XXL down to xl and L, started this less than a year ago. It's unreal. Had I not fallen off the wagon for a month I'd be at goal weight.

 

[SarahG]

I'm down 90lbs. From a 42+ waist to a 34, XXL down to xl and L, started this less than a year ago. It's unreal. Had I not fallen off the wagon for a month I'd be at goal weight.

This is seriously impressive and makes me want to get my butt in gear. I only need to lose around 25 lbs to be comfortable with myself again, but at 5'2" that counts for a good bit. I've been trying to maintain a deficit daily, but at my height it can be hard especially when stress triggers eating for me. So you do two days per week at 600 calories and the other not counting but just eating healthy foods? I feel like I could do that!

Also, why kombucha? And do you have a particular kind you like? Sorry for all the questions!

 

[HoughMade]

Good work!

In 2004/2005 I went from 290# to 192# in about 18 months. Too low. I was not comfortable at 6'3". Low carb- South Beach, specifically, not that that matters. I crept up towards 240 over time, but when strict again a couple of years ago when I got some bad lab results. Back in the 220s and feeling good.

 

[Mark 1911]

I'm doing the low carb thing right now. I've only been doing this for about a week now, but cutting out rice, potatoes, pasta, bread, beer (except for maybe 1 or 2 over the weekend). Also cutting out candy, soda pop, sweets, stuff with syrupy glazes, high fructose corn syrup, etc... Goal is to drop from my current weight of 200 to around 160. I haven't weighed myself yet, but I can tell I've dropped a few pounds over the past week.

 

[Ggreen]

This is seriously impressive and makes me want to get my butt in gear. I only need to lose around 25 lbs to be comfortable with myself again, but at 5'2" that counts for a good bit. I've been trying to maintain a deficit daily, but at my height it can be hard especially when stress triggers eating for me. So you do two days per week at 600 calories and the other not counting but just eating healthy foods? I feel like I could do that!

Also, why kombucha? And do you have a particular kind you like? Sorry for all the questions!

I'm far less strict on the 2 600 calorie days. I focus more on eating in an 8 hour window. If you do the 5 2 with 2 600 calorie days you will melt 25lbs fast. Sustaining goal weight means readjusting the diet from a loss to a healthy balance.

Kombucha keeps you regular and it works. I don't have a favorite, but I like the ginger flavor Aldi has. It makes you feel better when you start this style diet because it keeps things moving even when there isn't a lot to move lol tried to say that without being crude

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Wow, 90 lbs, that's an awesome accomplishment.

My kids have been making Kombucha for a year or two, and after drinking theirs, I've started brewing my own. Home-brewed Kombucha, bottled with ginger slices is really good. I'm not a beer drinker and I've been off of soda for several months now, so the Kombucha is a good evening beverage.

 

[SarahG]

I'm far less strict on the 2 600 calorie days. I focus more on eating in an 8 hour window. If you do the 5 2 with 2 600 calorie days you will melt 25lbs fast. Sustaining goal weight means readjusting the diet from a loss to a healthy balance.

Kombucha keeps you regular and it works. I don't have a favorite, but I like the ginger flavor Aldi has. It makes you feel better when you start this style diet because it keeps things moving even when there isn't a lot to move lol tried to say that without being crude

Thanks! I may give this a try this week and see how it goes.

 

[alabasterjar]

Congratulations on your results!
I have been on IF for less than 3 months and have lost about 25# (I'm 6'1", started at 265) without trying too terribly hard. I have tried to stay fairly consistent with a 5-day/week, 18-6, with some interspersed 48 hour fasts (twice since January). Except for my wife, no one knows I've been fasting (well, except for all INGO now), and my general rule had been to not affect "social" meals. Evening dinners around the table with my family is a must, as well as "big breakfast" with my family on Saturday mornings.

Most of the information out there on IF is based on male metabolism. Female metabolism is different, so YMMV; make sure you've done your homework before you start.

For more information on IF: [video=youtube_share;PSR82vmZ5lk]http://youtu.be/PSR82vmZ5lk[/video]





Tangentially related to IF; my degree is in bio chemistry and the metabolic pathways shown are sound: [video=youtube_share;dBnniua6-oM]http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM[/video]