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!

I did gather from Dr Fung and others that fasting to burn off stubborn midriff fat (you will know about this if you're in your 40s+) is more effective than other weight loss strategies. Interested to know if anyone's found this to be the case? I'm not particularly overweight but this is the area I need to lose from most.

Best just to eat less and move more.

What do you think fasting is exactly? It's just a means to eat less, so long as overall nutritional needs are being met over a whole period, fasting periods are just a means to mentally find manageable ways to reduce intake. I don't believe it's more than that personally and don't think it will be any more scientifically successful than reducing calories by the same amount another way as you are doing, but it works for a lot of people.

Just on the shake issue, why not make your own in bulk? I have one of these every day and make up a few days worth in advance. Be aware that you may have to give it a stir after a few days to reconstitute the texture but it tastes exactly the same. I do five portions at a time, put in click top mugs, about 250 mls each.

Berries (frozen is fine)
oats
milled flax and chia seeds
spinach
walnuts and/or almonds
unsweetened protein powder
(if you feel you need to flavour it/sweeten it a bit add a few drops of vanilla extract).

That keeps me going for hours, although I'm not dieting as such, I don't eat much F+V so this gives me a pass!

I’m interested in what happens in the body when you’re fasting: repair and healing. Lots of research in this area is exciting.

I have, I have read a lot about fasting but also I have taken an interest in research that fasting and other diets can be triggers for disordered eating behaviours and reinforce unhealthy attitudes towards food (moralising/demonisinh), and that extreme diets can be damaging mentally and physically in some ways as they work against your body’s natural hormones and hunger cues, cause anxiety and stress over restricting and not “allowing” the body to eat, can cause nutrition issues. Etc.

@EatStopEat the reason there are concerns about the sustainability of this way of eating is that most diets of one kind or another show short term weight loss but long term is very difficult to maintain and the effect that dieting has on the body’s systems means that it’s more likely to gain weight again as soon as you go back to normal eating, which then triggers further unhappiness and a yoto dieting cycle which is even more damaging to your body.
That said, again I’m not here to tell you what to do or pee on your parade, just to encourage caution and awareness.

This way of eating may have physical benefits but can have negative effects for some people eg. it’s not teaching and understanding of your body’s needs or developing a healthy approach to food. An all or nothing mindset is rarely a healthy one.

Personally I am an advocate for healthy relationships with food and body, which is usually less popular and more complicated that “try this one rule to lose fat” but then I don’t really believe that losing fat should always be the main driver of all our attitudes and behaviours and that we should constantly be fighting/punishing our bodies in order to get what we want (which is so hard, if it was easy to lose weight the whole world would be thin and we wouldnt have overweight people with eating disorders) The book Intutitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole is worth a look.

I agree! I have read about the benefits of fasting. However I think in all the excitement there hasn’t been enough focus on the drawbacks for people embarking on (another, probably) restrictive way of eating.
But we know a lot about the negative effects of other kinds of diets in general.

36 hours is really extreme.

I think a lot of people trying fasting have also tried every other trick in the book - I know I don't have a healthy relationship with food, fasting enables me to think less about food than other diets.

Yes I agree it’s extreme and it’s not for me. I do 18:6, sometimes 20:4 and it’s fine, it’s simple and I feel really focussed in the morning which is unlike old me. ED is discussed at the end of that Chatterjee podcast and Dr Fung explains that the research done doesn’t track that it is triggered by fasting. Obviously it’s not to be recommended to someone suffered from anorexia or bulimia. Primarily fasting is aimed at those who are obese as a way to lose weight. The vast majority of people do not have an ED.I think we can all understand there are limitations and contraindications for any diet without saying it’s no good for anyone.

Precisely, it’s not going to help deal with an unhealthy relationship with food, it’s just going to exacerbate and encourage it.

We are so fearful of food we don’t even allow ourselves to think about it.
Thats not “health” at any size is it

You are missing my point. I am not stressing over food, I know what I'm doing each day. I have kept this up for over a year, and miss it when I stop (eg on holiday). If there was some way I could repair a relationship with food affected by decades of dieting, I would have done it. This is much healthier for me than weighing all my food to calculate the calories.
Fasting isn't exactly a new fad, it's been around for ever. The diet industry won't like it as it does not require any money to be spent on it.

Just adding here- when I was loosely doing intermittent fasting years ago, I read that some people dissolve an Oxo cube in boiled water and drink it. This helps a bit with headaches due to the salt it has.
It only has about 10 calories. I used to do it a lot, need to do it more often!

I'm finding that even quite infrequent fasting has been enough to drop my hb1ac. I only manage I few mornings a week but this inspiring me to do it more consistently.

It's weird as slimming world was always saying you need regular meals to keep your metabolism ticking over. I wonder if that's not true and it's more about keeping hunger at bay for over eating at lunch? I personally never feel any more hungry. I did a nhs lifestyle eating course and they said you can't make up for lost meals by eating double at the next meal and explained why. I can't remember the details.

I'm also drinking a shot of kefir in the morning. The kids are horrified

Oh dear! Did you really mean to say this?

'It's weird as slimming world was always saying you need regular meals to keep your metabolism ticking over. I wonder if that's not true and it's more about keeping hunger at bay for over eating at lunch.'

Michael Mosley (and I'm not sure why people have said his advice shouldn't be followed, because he died of bloody heat exhaustion by the look of things, poor guy) advised that snacking, even healthily, interfered with fat burning - in other words, if you keep topping up your glucose levels with food, fruit etc, then the body would use that instead of its own fat reserves. It makes sense really, and I think people were generally slimmer years ago when they didn't snack all the time, drink sugary drinks all day, eat late in the evening etc.

Wow! Might try this OP. Thanks 🙏
I shall report back.
3.5 stone to loose.

When do you eat it?

Your opening post has given me confidence. Thanks op.

I'm feeling inspired OP so I'm going to try this too.

I've got about 2 stone to lose. I'm currently 11st 3lbs ish and I'm 5 ft 3". My weight makes my body feel uncomfortable and I feel very unfit and out of breath. I need to make a change. I've tried Lighter Life, Keto, calorie counting but honestly they just weren't sustainable. This sounds very easy to follow (without worrying about carbs, calories and random recipes!).

I started last night (last meal at 6.30pm, I can't really eat later than that or feel uncomfortable). So will do next meal 10am tomorrow.

Will do a week of settling in and then get back to the gym next week.

Will follow this thread with interest and check back in on progress.

Thank you for starting this thread OP!

I’m currently doing OMAD.

I don’t have much to lose so worry it may be hard.

I wonder if your method would be better as I like the idea of being able to have it tomorrow.

Well done you. Keep going.
Ive recently lost nearly 4 stone with Slimming World. That works too

Just reading this thread as I am the same as you. I'm slowly putting on weight due to peri plus I've had some health issues with joints.

But I'm keen to do a fasting regime when I get back from holiday this week.

Would you mind sharing what you eat on the fasting and non fasting days? Do you track calories and if so, how?

I'm 52 and 175 cm. Need to lose 1.5 to 2 stone around middle and thighs!

Thanks.

Does coffee with mct oil break the fast?

Not sure what that oil is but it will have calories so yes it will break a fast. Black coffee, herbal tea and water are fine. Try doing intermittent fasting first. I do 18:6 and am losing . I eat between 12pm and 6 usually or 1pm and 7pm. 2 healthy meals a day. I don’t count calories but it’s probably between 1000-1400. I walk 10,000 steps a day. I’m 53 and have lost 7lbs since end of June.
After doing this I have done OMAD/24 hr fast without any issues. It’s happened by chance when I haven’t had the opportunity to eat when I thought I would and it’s been fine. I don’t get hungrier just occasional pangs that water quells.

Just saw this thread. I started one meal a day 3 weeks ago and love it! I'm an all or nothing gal so it really suits me, losing lbs and feel great

How's everyone getting on? I've lost a few pounds, but I haven't managed to be super strict. I've been doing this for a few weeks now, since I first saw this thread. It's worth a shot.

I was feeling hungry this evening, so I ended up going to sleep instead.