To encourage you to fast?

[surveythebest]

If you want to lose weight and keep it off.

I fast from 8pm to 12 pm. Usually have my first something around 1pm

I haven't actually changed what I eat. I make sure I have some nutrient rich food in me but generally my diet is a bit shit

Anyway, I've gone from a size 16 to a size 10. This happened within 3 months. It's been 9 months now and I've kept it all off! Remaining at a size 10

I don't eat breakfast, ever.

When I was in my teens, I almost skipped breakfast because I genuinely forgot to eat. The same happened early twenties but then after I had my son, I started eating breakfast!

Since that time I went from a size 10 to a size 16.

So yeah, for 9 months now, I just haven't eaten breakfast but haven't restricted myself really and still don't have a perfect diet by any means

I am remaining a size 10 and it's working. I suppose I'm an 'all or nothing' person. And I find the fast easy to stick to because I can eat 0! Sticking to 0 is easier than sticking to 3 sensible meals a day, for me

Now I just have lunch, snack a bit tbh, and then dinner, also snack a bit but not loads as find I don't want to

When I ate breakfast, I found I was hungry all the time!

So glad I did this and took the plunge. Just thought I'd share

Or maybe that’s just not the window that works for you. There’s no rule saying it has to be between certain times. You might do better eating heartily in the morning.

When I was size 8 in my youth I was like this. It’s just a fast metabolism I think, not a medical problem

See I love a bit of keto breath. Though feel sorry for anyone around me. Feels like I am literally breathing the fat away.🤣

12 hours is fine though that’s 8pm say to 8am. That’s pretty normal eating. It’s the 16 hours I would have an issue with.

I thought that until people found I that I fasted and we spoke about it.

I know a lot of people who said they would struggle with even 12 hours as they don’t go to bed until midnight. They snack all eve until bedtime and then have breakfast at 7/8.

Even before fasting, I would have dinner at around 6 and then not have breakfast until 8am, my entire life.

But some people do snack until a late bedtime.

Me and my OH have always been about the same dimensions, same height and weight, same size clothes, and we're 3 months different in age. In the last 3 years though she's gone up from her previous XS size clothes to a M/L size and has tried loads of things to lose weight and it has been without success. She's about 20kg heavier than when she's been at her fighting weight.

Anyway about a month ago she started doing a rigid 16:8 and she's the smallest I've seen her in that 3 years. She initially found the fasting periods difficult but was fine after a week or so. She now eats more healthily in the break periods and finds that she doesn't feel so drawn to snacking. Her calorific intake is definitely down. She isn't deliberately targeting any specific food groups but is tending towards higher protein and lower carbs. She's also gone to more 18:6 and is going to experiment with a randomised pattern of fasting, where sometimes it's shorter and sometimes it's longer

I do intermittent fasting as a default form of eating and pretty much always have since I was a teen. One thing I always find interesting about these threads is different people's attitudes to being hungry, some people talk about it like it's going to do them actual harm to be hungry here and there.

Just wondering how much actual weight you lost in those 3 months going from a size 16 to a 10?

No! I had an ED and my son has an ED. Whilst I will admit there may be some benefits to fasting occasionally, regularly missing meals, and doing this as a way of controlling weight is not healthy for me, and goes against everything I am trying to encourage my son to do (e.g. eat sensibly, not get too hungry, not see eating nothing as something positive).

I wouldn't advocate for anyone else to fast but I do quite like that the concept is more accepted now.

I'm not hungry in the morning, a little milk in my coffee to avoid sour-belly is ample until whenever I feel ready to eat (somewhere between 11am - 1pm usually, unless it's a hotel buffet then I roll out of bed and dive into the pastries!).

So many years of having people worry if I have an ED just because my appetite hasn't woken up yet was quite stressful.

Now it seems much more normal to listen to your own body and adapt your intake accordingly. So a big healthy breakfast is fine, and fasting through to lunchtime is also fine. Or is that a misperception on my part?

The important part seems to be the spacing rather than the timing. Pick whatever 8 hour window and only eat then. Most people are going to need to skip a meal and breakfast seems the most convenient.

I did fast diet for 3 years. Lost only about 1 stone . But did enjoy the freedom it gave in a wired way. The literature does now point to this not being effective at large weight loss, but is effective for other things

but, I am one of many people who have developed Postprandial diarrhoea and vomiting. Even after I twigged that it was breaking a fast that bought it on, and stopped the fasting diet , I now still get it if I don’t eat regularly. In other words I no longer have any flexibility in even leaving 5-6 between having something to eat.

Im 8 years post stopping fasting. My condition often rules my life. I have had horrendous public accidents , I take spare clothes with me if travelling or think meal times may be disrupted. I take antispasmodic and anti diarrhoea tabs before travelling or going out routinely. I not only have diarrhoea but violent bowel cramps and vomiting. It comes on within an hour of eating even small amounts of food post fast of longer than 5-6 hours, and the attack lasts 3-4 hours till everything is ejected. I am left exhausted and still in pain for rest of the day.

yes, it could have developed independently from fasting, but the fasting set it off and it doesn’t even take full fast to result in an attack

im not the only one …there’s acres of correspondence on boards like fasting sites about this.

what really annoys me is lack of warnings by those advocating fasting. I had a lot of hospital tests etc which all came back negative. Even thought I told Gp and consultants that I did do fasting, they didn’t connect it, until I was finally referred to a good one, who basically pointed it out.

So we were following the old 800 cal Mosley version. It was about 200-300 at one “meal” then a break of the fast with balance of calories
we’d typically eat the 200 at around 11am - egg and veg type thing and then have balance of calories at 5:30 to 6 pm - that was usually chicken and veg , or just a vegetarian, or maybe a fish and veg

we’d do fasting on a Tuesday and Thursday

It didn’t really trigger on first fast day of the week, and ok on Wednesday , then come Friday i was usually ok next day through normal breakfast and lunch , and then Friday tea (still keeping it light) I’d eat at 6-7pm and within an hour off it would go. Not every time at first, but gradually over 3 years got more and more frequent. And also started to happen after Friday breakfast or even on the Wednesday

as it wasn’t every single time, and then started to happen at other times, it took me a long time to twig - and for the consultant to point it out

I can’t eat a main meal after 7pm now without ending up in the bathroom for next 3 hours within 1 hour of the meal - makes going out for dinner almost impossible,

Sorry, no we’d do the 200-300 at around 9am to get a full 8 hours between eating during day. It was a long time ago 🙄.

You were only eating 800cal a day?

Oh how awful for you. Thank you for sharing, this needs to be more well known.
I hope there is research being done in to why this happens?

I know lots of people are Michael Mosley fans but 800 calories is so ridiculously low. I wonder if it puts stress on the endocrine system and this leads to the problem. I really hope it improves for you.

I don't know. I've never looked at scales and always requested medical professionals not to tell me my weight due to a history of bulimia

But I overheard them when I was at my biggest at an appointment, and my weight was about 13 stone something!

What if you have to take regular medication in the morning with food. Fasting won’t work then.

Then you can start your eating window in the morning and finish eating earlier in the day.

I’ve been doing a soft 5:2 for about ten years. “Soft” because I have around 800 calories on a fast day rather than the 500 they say. I find it the least painful way to avoid gradual stealth weight gain and stay round about the same size- not least because I’m a natural gannet. A couple of fast days a week allow me to eat whatever I want at weekends without paying the price.

I'm sorry to hear it @Appleofmyeye2023 That sounds very difficult. Wishing you well.

Surely by Default most people would have a significant break from food while asleep? (It would be quite feasible to leave 12 hours between dinner and breakfast without missing any meals?)

You would think so but I've found I have to be quite disciplined about it. If you were to wake up at 06:30 and have a cup of tea with milk and/ or sugar, that is breaking your fast, because your stomach does have to digest that. You'd then have to have your final meal before 18:30 and not that many people are home and able to cook within that time. Then if you have a final drink around 20:00 of anything containing milk or sugar etc, your stomach isn't actually getting the downtime it needs.

It's not just your eating - it's anything you either eat or drink that has any calories in it. So people's 'fasting' times often aren't as long as they think they are.

“Fasting is really bad to suggest to people recovering from eating disorders or who are prone to disorderly eating so yes I think YABVU”
As someone recovering from a ‘not specified eating disorder’ which I suffered into my 20, fasting is a healthy way for me to manage my weight, which I never thought I would have to do and didn’t have to until my middle age.
having to count calories or weigh food would be so triggering for me, I’d be thinking about food and calories all the time and it would take over my mind.
I never weigh myself for the same reason, the numbers get in my head.
with fasting the only thought I have to have about food is if I can eat it at that time or not.
yes, eat what you like, no not yet, wait until later.
I’d argue having to eat constantly without at least a 10 to 12 hour break is disordered eating in itself and not the way human bodies are built to consume.
Anyone feeling faint or lightheaded after a couple of hours of not eating needs to have their blood sugar and thyroid checked out.
New born babies typically feed on a 4 hour schedule because they are growing at enormous rates percentage wise, healthy adults do not need to feed every 4 hours.

It's a myth that you need to "fuel your body" first thing in the morning. Your muscles are 100% full of glycogen when you wake up. Your body has turning fat into glucose or pulling it straight from liver stores.

I go to the gym in the morning on an empty stomach and perform much better than if if ate something.

You really think that women have a problem sleeping at night because they haven't had a breakfast 18 hours before?

Tempted to give this a go. What kind of things are you eating during the '8' window? Approx how many calories?