To be shocked it’s been this easy to loose weight!

[EatStopEat]

On alternate day fasting - not 16:8 but fasting for 36 hours then eating anything you want for 12 hours. E.g stopping eating at 10pm on Sunday and not eating until 10am on Tuesday. Eat all you want until 10pm and the cycle continues. No calorie counting but essentially cutting calorie intake in half.

Thought about trying it for ages but never in the right headspace. Watched a Michael Mosley doc on Netflix out of respect for the great man and saw him talking about it again (welled up a bit when he was talking about wanting to live longer I must say) then just decided, F IT. I’m doing it.

Age 53. Starting at 18 stone 4. Aching knees and back, swollen ankles, couldn’t go upstairs without needing 5 mins to get my breath back, DC complaining that I’m heavy breathing over them 😳, high cholesterol, high risk for T2 diabetes, high blood pressure also hypothyroidism and deep in menopause,

In just over 4 weeks, I have lost 20lbs. Now 16stone 12. I absolutely love my food on feed days. I thought I would overeat but I don’t. In fact I haven’t got time to eat everything I planned (oohhh, I’ll have you tomorrow kind of thing 😃).

I work out in the gym on feed days so I go every other day instead of pressuring myself to exercise everyday and then not do any at all! I eat chocolate bars, big meals etc. I have started making overnight oats ready the night before feed days which I am loving and really fill me up. Drink tonnes of water etc. I have cut out normal bread and have gluten free instead just because it made me extremely bloated after fasting (wouldn’t have otherwise), gluten free pancakes with syrup too. More natural gravitation to healthy food now.

On fast days, I drink loads (as well as electrolyte water), have coffee with sugar, herbal tea with honey and two milk shakes with protein powder and ground flax seeds for extra nutrition. I will probably switch to fruit and veg smoothies when I get fed up with them but not yet!

I was worried I would be dizzy or have headaches but nothing! First few fast days were hard but now it’s so easy. I look forward to eating the next day and even fasting afterwards when I feel stuffed (!) and think about what I want to eat. I’m not starving when I wake up after fasting either and feel very cleaned out so to speak.

I have a busy household (2 adults - 4 older DC), I WFH, and it works fine. Don’t mind cooking for family as know I can have it tomorrow. Honestly I never thought I’d ever find a diet I’d keep up for more than 2 weeks which was my limit. I can’t keep up with calorie counting or denying myself nice food for months on end, so depressing.

I can see the benefits already to my skin, so much less tired, mental fog lifting, no swollen ankles!, dress size gone from tight 20 to comfy 18. I can almost run upstairs and the difference to how hard I can work out in the gym is amazing in just a month which is due to the fasting IMO. In addition there are internal benefits from fasting which will be adding up. I feel 100 times better than a month ago. I know the weight loss will start to slow down but I expect to reach a reasonably healthy weight before Christmas and can then do occasional fast days if my weight starts creeping up again.

Honestly, I really want to advocate this way of losing weight. It’s not a fad, we are designed for feast and famine. No extra costs, actually save money on fasting days as two shakes cost the equivalent of £2 and I’d easily spend more than that eating 3 meals a day especially if I was getting a cheeky Costa, McDonalds, or Subway for lunch although I can and have had that on feed days!

AIBU to think this is amazing and think more people should try it before resorting to spending hundred of pounds on weight loss injections which can have damaging side effects and are affecting Tyoe 1 diabetics getting life saving medication and equipment for that medication?

Obviously fasting is not for pregnant women or people with contraindicated medical conditions but most people could do it if I can!

well done OP! If fasting is working for you (and it will help change your eating habits) then good job!😀

I think alot of the time people fail because they go into weight loss thinking there is an end goal when they can eat 'normally' or stop restricting themselves.
It should be about changing your eating habits for life so you can automatically eat healthier choices in sensible amounts without even thinking about it most of the time.

IF def isnt for me though...I like my food too much!
Ive managed to lose over 100Ibs in a year and a half and pretty much eat every couple of hours. All plant based, whole foods so I can fill my plate!
Im now at the point where even if I go off the rails one day (doesnt happen often!) I naturally go back to healthy options because its what I enjoy.

Thats the key...finding something that will work for you for the rest of your life.

I’m placemarking as I want to read this properly later…it looks interesting and doable. I’m struggling terribly with my weight, and can’t seem to shift any. This may be worth a go! 😊

I have reactive hypoglycaemia, would alternate day fasting work if I had say a couple of slim fast type milkshakes to keep me going on fast days?

Not sure about reactive hypoglycaemia so you probably should check with your GP.

I have shakes on fast days. Just got Slimfast’s new blueberry flavour which is yum. I have two a day with added vanilla protein powder and ground flax seeds, and I have a spoon of sugar in coffee (2 cups a day) and a spoon of honey in herbal tea (1-2 per day).

I do think that is why I’m not getting low blood sugar crashes and headaches and I’m not going to be anal about cutting it out as I would be having a lot more sugar if I was eating normally on those days, so the amount of sugar I consume is still massively reduced over the week!

Rest of the day water with lemon juice, sugar free squash (not the aspartame ones), and an electrolyte tab dissolved in a pint of water which is important for salts. Although I’m going to start making my own with Himalayan pink salt.

Those saying it’s an eating disorder, well I was a three meals a day and 3 snacks woman, I never binged, but ate too many carbs and always enjoyed desserts. I hated calorie counting and was always hungry when I tried to diet but would be hungry EVERY DAY with a never ending amount of time in front of me to get to a reasonable weight. Hypothyroidism made it harder. I tried fasts but again that would have taken months on shakes or meal replacement sachets every day so I never managed it for long enough. All those days ahead of no nice food! This is working for me and much easier way to get a calorie deficit. I’m finding it sustainable now I’ve got over the first few weeks. Our bodies can cope with periods without food as they had to before supermarkets became a thing. Feast and famine was normal in our evolution.

Krista Varady did a lot of research on this way of eating. She is featured on the MM documentary near the end. She researched it before him. Just remembered I need to download her book to read this weekend. Might be a good idea for anyone interested in doing it as well. It’s only £4 on Amazon.

Off to gym for some weight training now. No way would I have gone after work a month ago. Too knackered! I’m so positive about how I’ll feel in a few more months, more than on any other weight loss plan I’ve tried.

Thanks so much for replying to me @Footballwidow24

I'm most of the way through the day and I've had a slim fast milk shake. Not sure if that's cheating but I got to early afternoon and could feel myself crumpling so thought that was better than giving in

I'm still quite full from that so I think it'll see me through til tomorrow

Really interesting thread that has given me the jump start I've needed since DC1 was born nearly 5 years ago now

A lot of people do fast days with something like 600 calories, not cheating at all. I prefer not to have anything to eat as once I start it's hard to stop. Do what suits you!

I tried this OP, having read your post. Fasted all day yesterday with only one green smoothie (veg and one apple) and water and coffee/tea. Loads of water. Was hungry last night but less so this morning! Broke fast at 1pm, had bean and tomato soup and couple of seeded crackers for lunch (soup a Moseley recipe), couple of bowls, same for tea, but I'm surprised by how not-hungry I am today. I could do this a couple of times a week easily!

Today in my OMAD incarnation I had homemade enchiladas and a side salad made of greens, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, chopped boiled eggs, pumkin seeds and feta cheese. The enchilladas were made of a chilli sauce with turkey mince, courgette, onions, carrots, peppers, kidney beans, mushrooms and passata.

I was really hungry when I went to eat at 5 pm and made myself an enormous plate. But only got through about 50%. (Which to be fair was substantial). So I put half away again for tomorrow.

I think fasting makes your ability to go overboard lessen. Because your stomach shrinks- which may be an old fashioned term, but it feels like this for me.

I am 11 stone 13 today. The last time I saw 11 stone 13 was before I gave birth the first time around.

I don't in any way feel deprived. But to answer a pp- if you have issues with blood sugar spikes or insulan you simply must consult an expert before embarking on fasting IMO. You can't muck around with medical issues and food.

You may find the hunger pangs hit again soon so I’d have another one this evening. Two shakes is still well within 600 Cals

The one thing I’ve been bothered about is not getting enough nutrients on the fast days because if you do are doing one day off/one day on you are reducing the amount you are getting over the course of a week quite significantly. The shakes have all the vits and minerals we need. I use cows milk in mine which gives extra calcium and with the added ground flax and protein powder, I’m probably getting more nutrients on fast days than I did on a normal eating day before I started this!

You can probably find shakes which have less crap in them which are much more expensive than Tesco/Sainsburys own brand or Slimfast but it’s not worth overthinking it IMO. I’m naturally inclined to eating a lot cleaner on feed days than I was before so it balances itself out.

Also I think liquid shakes are easier for the body to digest so it’s still getting the break from digesting solid food so it can get on with cell repair.

I had a pizza to have tonight as it’s Friday but not feeling it after my pre gym falafels and houmous! Probably just have a bowl of posh Aldi ravioli with pesto and some Parmesan. That is amazing in itself. A month ago, there’s no way, I would have passed up a pizza (and I’d have eaten the whole bloody thing😄).

You've obviously found something that works for you, well done!

(looks at own obsession with carbs and despairs)

I'm confused what it is.

Is it 600 calories on day 1,2,3, then whatever you like on day 4 between 10-10, then repeat?

Good start. Well done! I found the 2nd and 3rd fast day hardest but once I’d got over the 1st week, it definitely started getting easier and it’s coming naturally now but I am looking forward to only doing it once a week when I get to a healthy weight for housekeeping when needed!

Make sure you’re taking some electrolytes on fasting days though as all the water and tea we chug dilutes the salt that the body needs. You can get flavoured dissolvable tablets or make your own with a bit of decent sea salt or pink salt (google a recipe) and put squash or lemon juice with it. Also I’ve seen a recipe for cucumber and mint water I’m going to try.

Space out your water too so you’re not taking too much at once as well. I always remember a poor lady who was doing Lighter Life at the same time I was years ago, you need to drink a lot of water on that as well but it’s a VLCD that you do everyday to keep you in ketosis, and she drank so much water in a short period that she basically drowned herself internally. I know I need 4 litres of water for my body weight so I have a two litre jug of filtered water which I finish by early afternoon and then refill so I’ve finished that by the time I go to bed.

I also drink more water on feed days as got into the habit now and being hydrated all the time has its own benefits for skin, uti prevention etc. The peeing all the time is a PITA though. Thank god I WFH is all I can say.

Make sure you eat plenty on feed days too. I for example have a big bowl of overnight oats with fruit for breakfast, a few pieces of gluten free toast with peanut butter if I want it later, a veggie omelette with salad stuff on the side, a big bowl of Greek style yoghurt with more fruit, nuts, seeds and honey, for lunch, whatever I fancy in the afternoon whether it be a bag of crisps, some chocolate, a Belgian bun etc, then a decent dinner like veggie chilli, mash and veg with veggie sausages, pasta, etc. A dessert if I want it etc. I don’t deny myself anything. Gym workout.burns about 600-700 cals which is my ‘extras’ fund!

Well done @EatStopEat

It sounds as though you made that mental mind switch needed. Keep going.

I really hope I can do the same with MM. Only 5 days in but if I can achieve half your weight loss in four weeks I will be ecstatic

Can I ask what ADF stands for?
Well done btw, this is an inspiring thread

I do OMAD and I love it. I’ve lost 6 stone and feel like a different person. I genuinely feel unwell when I eat during the day now, sluggish and bloated and miserable. It wouldn’t work for everyone but it works brilliantly for me.

Yes, I can see how a shake would be better on a fast day to keep nutrients up - though I genuinely like green smoothies, they're very energising.

Each to their own but not eating for 36 hours is alarm bells to me.

If a thin person told you she was starving herself for 36 hours at a time you’d consider it an eating disorder.
But an overweight person is congratulated and encouraged, because we value weight loss above all, over mental and physical health.
As a society we actively encourage disordered eating practices in overweight people and that is quite disturbing when you really think about it.

I’m not trying to piss on anyone’s parade - seriously OP if it works for you, that’s fine. I don’t have individual diet advice to give nor do I know anyone’s medical history on this thread. But it is much more extreme and unsustainable long term than standard 18:6 fasting, and prolonged periods of not eating followed by eating whatever you want is not only building on an unhealthy relationship with food, it’s creating a dysfunctional relationship with your body’s natural hunger and satiety signals and creates anxiety and stress (mental and physical) around restriction and being “allowed” to eat - something our body literally has to do, is programmed to do.

@macaroniandcheeze look up the work of Dr Jason Fung on insulin and fasting.The body holds hundreds of thousands of calories in energy when overweight. When we don’t consume food, the body will switch to using these stores. Obviously it’s not for everyone and should be done carefully.

I really agree with being able to eat what you want on some days. I do general calorie counting now, though I have done fasting in the past and I love the fact that I can eat a roast dinner/chocolate/jacket potato with butter and full day cheese etc and really enjoy it (it just means I’ve used up a lot of my daily calories in one go at times)

I tried slimming world once and was miserable (and didn’t lose anything!) as I didn’t have any foods to look forward to and all the low fat stuff just meant I never felt satisfied.

When I did do fasting, if I was craving a particular food I would just think to myself : “You can have that tomorrow” and knowing that made it much more manageable! Well done OP

Very bad for you. How on Earth are you going to sustain this forever? Best just to eat less and move more. That’s what I’ve done over the last 10 weeks and I’ve got from 11st 6lbs to 10st 4lbs. Aiming for 9st.

No it’s not bad for you. Listen to or read the research.

"Eat less move more" is such trite patronising nonsense and what works for one person will not work for another. OP has found something that works for her. You seem to have found something that works for you. Great. No need to come onto a positive thread as if you're some kind of expert and piss all over it

Why would I need to sustain this forever? The whole point is to lose weight! I wouldn’t need to carry on with it unless I wanted to do it once a week, or even once a month to maintain my weight. I’d rather do that than constantly watch what I eat and count every morsel that goes into my mouth everyday.

I am eating less and moving more. Just doing it differently to you with the additional health benefits of fasting.

drchatterjee.com/why-intermittent-fasting-works-with-dr-jason-fung/