My 16/8 / 18/6 fasting 80 pounds to lose journey

[TarasChoc]

I've just started this Woe last Monday and I'm very happy with how much more naturally this comes to me than anything else I've tried. I fell into it accidentally after starting The fast 800 a few weeks ago. I had a few things on and found the low carb and calories aspect hard to stick to but realised I was still in a decent deficit, eating less sugar and doing a 16/8 without finding it all too hard. I've now fallen into 18/6.
I am tracking calories, I'm only eating two meals and the occasional snack so I don't find calorie tracking hard.

I'm looking at losing 70 pounds so I'll be in this for the long haul. I'm currently doing a lot of research listening to Gin Stephen's podcast and reading Delay, don't Deny , The Obesity Code and Fast, Feast Repeat.
I've been weighing everyday to track the trends but my official weighin day will be Monday.

@sheepdreams I had it today toasted with some of Aldi's spicy smashed avocado, sliced tomatoes and basil. Was delicious!

I think that's sound advice Neeko thanks.
I started back yesterday and it was a relief. I didn't eat low carb but not particularly high either. I had a tuna mayo on that fab aldi sour dough and a crustless quiche with a salad. I also had a pack of breakfast biscuits.
I was hungry later in the evening but a false hunger I think.
6 weeks until my next weekend away for a wedding and I've a short trip to France a couple of weeks after that so lots to look forward to.

@sheepdreams and anyone else who's struggling I think your best motivation/education is to read/listen to as much as possible from the experts. When it makes sense in your head it's easier to knuckle down and push through until you get a routine going.
I do find I lose better on lower carb most likely because I'm less hungry and not having big insulin spikes.

@Bumbblehumble that's a great loss, well done. I wouldn't consider that slow at all!

Morning, all !
Apologies for my absence. I was getting really depressed with the weather so took myself to Tenerife.

I did a lot of thinking on my break. A lot of walking and some drinking. Food intake was fine. I was eating at 2pm then nothing til the following day. Although I did drink wine in the evening so I don't suppose it counts ! Was drinking 3.5 litres of water a day, and hitting 15k everyday, which I was really pleased with as it was very hot.

Good news is I didn't put any weight on. I'm still 13st 9.
I'm changing my food intake times. I'm still fasting but I think I was hungry before. I'm going to eat 10am, 1pm and 4pm. Stop at 5pm ish which isn't a problem ( unless I cave in and drink). So, still 16 : 8.
You all sound like you're learning a lot from this woe. I think that's great. Sometimes you have to jiggle it about, see what works for you. No point otherwise and I agree @TarasChoc , listening to the experts really does make sense.

I have a busy weekend as it's dh's 60th but Sunday, I'm starting ( again) properly.
I'll have 5 weigh ins til my next holiday. I WILL be under 13st for it !

Keep going, folks - you can do it ❤️

Sounds like a lovely holiday @Amdone123 enjoy your weekend celebrations.
My week is only going OK, we're still off work and out of a routine.
I'm going to shop and meal plan over the weekend and hopefully get back to 20/4 from Monday.

@Neeko I generally eat my last meal around 8pm and then open for the day at noon. However ideally I would like my last meal to be around 5pm-6pm latest and break the fast earlier in the day. It's just really difficult as I pick up DC from after school at 4.45pm/5pm, then when I return home I sometimes have to deal with last minute work e-mails (I WFH) or take one of the DC to an activity whilst DP takes the other one so by the time that's all done it's 8pm.

I hovered around 68 kilos a couple weeks back but now back to 69 today, however it's my time of the month when there is always bloat and excess weight so I'm not overly suprised. Plus I had a couple of heavy meal nights last week during a work trip and friend's surprise birthday party. I feel back on track as have had mainly healthy, veggie meals this weekend. I have a two week break coming up but planning to incorporate lots of walking and physical outdoor activities with the kids so fingers crossed I manage to keep it up!

Morning, folks !
Sounds like we're all trying to make this woe work for us - I hear you all regarding routine, holidays getting in the way, etc.
Thankfully, my dh's celebrations are over and I've waved him back to work. Packed lunch and everything 🤣.

I've been sticking to my 16 : 8, not had any alcohol, not many treats, etc. Even on our spa weekend, we ate on the Saturday at 2pm, then did the spa experience and drank soft drinks and tea, etc, til Sunday morning. My dh doesn't even fast, but he hates eating too much, so that helped.
I'm a pound lighter but not officially weighing til Sunday. 5 weeks to lose 9lb. Nearer to my holiday, I'll probably do 7 full on days of keto. I just need to plan it properly as that's why I've failed in the past with keto.
Hope you're all ok. Keep trying, any blips, ignore them and get back on it !

Ergghhhhhhh, bad day yesterday. I was feeling good in the morning. Got lots done, didn't have breakfast til 12, then was just so hungry alll day. Ate wholemeal muffins. But 3 of them ! Also had 2 glasses of wine and a bar of chocolate ( to stop me starting on dh's Baileys).
Scales haven't moved, so I'm grateful for that.
I'll try again today !

Hello Everyone. I am almost a month into 16/8 so I thought I'd join in and tell you where I am at. I started at 13.7st and am now hovering around 13st . Doesnt really show yet as I carry most of it around my tummy. As well as needing to lose weight, I need to cut right down on sugar. For my weight but also for my brain/mind - I am in menopause and finding sugar reeeeally slows me down and makes me feel very low.
So I am tackling things in a 3 pronged attack

1. 16/8 IF (I fast from 8pm til noon next day)
2. Cut right down on sugar (no cakes no sweets no chocolate. I'll have a little honey or jam)
3. Cut right down on bread. (trigger food for me! and gateway drug for butter and marmalade!!)

For me I have to be really strict. I find it so easy to 'just have a little...something, it wont do any harm as I'm doing so well...' I almost have to treat myself like a small child and give or deny permission! Between 8pm and noon I dont have permission to eat. My only concession is one cup of tea when I wake up and a coffee around 10.30. All other drinks are water/herbal tea only (in the fast window). I'd like to drop the tea and coffee to make it a true fast but cant just yet. I dont find the hunger too bad. I much prefer it to food cravings. Water water water is the key to keeping the hunger at bay. After a couple weeks of eating what I wanted in the window, I am now paying attention to healthy food and filling up on vegetables and salad. I am not exactly calorie counting but I try to keep around 1200/1400 a day, it seems just about doable for me. Once or twice a week I record daily intake on MFP just to make sure I'm not deviating too far from reality (I can easily go over the limit for the day with a good glug of olive oil or a 'small' piece of cake. I eat my last meal around 7pm. I need to lose a good couple of stones so I have a long way to go, but I feel good about it right now.

Hi @humblesims yes, that sounds great. I hear you about being strict. I struggle with that - I'm not very consistent. I think I'll be better when summer is over. I'm the same with having a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. I'm fine not eating til 11am but I need a cup of tea.
You can lose those couple of stones - stay focused and keep going.

Morning, losers !
Well, 1st weigh in of 5 today and I've lost a pound, which I'm really happy about.
I've not had a good week but I'm more happy about the fact that I'm determined to carry on.
13st 8.
I'm going to aim for a 2 or 3lb weight loss this week.
How are we all getting on ?

13st 7.
A pound a week I'm losing. I think I'm happy with that 😩

Hi everyone, nice to see some new faces. I've been MIA the last while as I took another social media break in a bid to reduce my phone use again.
Anyway it's around my 1 year anniversary so I'm going to update my total loss.
I am 43.5 pounds down!!
In some respects it's not as much as I would've hoped at times in others it's more than I would've dreamed this time last year.
Starting off in autumn 2022 I was very consistent and had a great routine. In 2023 I've struggled much more. I know why I've struggled up to now in 2023 and looking back I can make peace with it to a certain extent.
Somethings like been unwell for January and February plus changes in working hours and a busier home life threw me off kilter. I find when my routine gets disturbed I really struggle to keep all the balls in the air, which is something I need to work on.
The good news for me is my personal life will be less hectic from next week and I'll have more time to focus on myself which I plan to make the most of.
I'll catch up later with everyone's posts. I've downloaded the app again, let's hope I can be trusted not to get carried away again ;)

Don't ignore the cholesterol. It is probably caused by the saturated fats in your diet, so for a while, try to limit those, and switch to soya, sticky fibrous vegetables.
When doing low carb, it is normal to end up eating a lot of meat, cheese, egg, etc....
Keep in mind that you have been losing 1,5 kg/month by doing low carb + fasting + low calories, so even if you are less strict on the low carb, there is no reason to believe that your weight loss trajectory will change. You have lost so much weight, you can adapt and be a bit more flexible now.

Low carb long term has health implications for some. High cholesterol is a warning.

Thanks @AnIntrovert I've been playing about the last few weeks. What I find is if I keep my carbs at max 100g then I'm not hungry. Probably because I'm eating less refined carbs. I'm mainly eating "good fats" now too and my appetite is fine.
One thing I find is that keeping a food diary is very handy for referencing back to when I'm struggling. It's handy to look back at the times I was sailing through and see what I was eating, how much water I drank and my activity levels.
Sorry I'm not on here as much these days, I feel a bit like I'm just repeating myself a lot which must be boring to read.😄

Just came on for a little update to say I'm still plodding along at fasting. Some weeks are better than others but it's still very much how I eat.
My next weight in update will be the end of November which has given me something to focus on.
I've adapted to lower carbs a lot of the time but it's very easy to get put off my stride and a lot harder to get back on. Realistically my lower carb eating is eating food that's less processed.
I'm still focusing on gut health too and I find this helps me eat better.
Over all the bonus of fasting, lower carb and caring for my gut health means a lot less hunger and cravings once again. I find I have to be organised to achieve all 3 but its really worth the effort.

I'm going to try and post here regularly again as I find it helpful. I just need to learn not to spend ages mindlessly scrolling though threads when I do.😁

@AnIntrovert I know your post was weeks ago (I haven't checked this thread for a while, lol! 🙈) but I did just have to take you up on your cholesterol "scaring"...

For YEARS we have been told that saturated fat intake leads directly to higher blood cholesterol (and therefore is dangerous) but if you actually dig into it you will find that they have really really struggled to prove that is the case.

Read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes and "The Great Cholesterol Con" by Malcolm Hendrick... And Zoe Harcombe has some really interesting stuff on cholesterol too.

On an anecdotal level, my mum has had type 2 diabetes for a very long time, and a couple of years ago she started experimenting with a low carb diet (pretty high in fat) and some fasting... About a year in she got her cholesterol tested and it was around 5.5. A few months ago she had some surgery and other stressful stuff going on, and fell off the low carb wagon for a while - and with the increased carbs her cholesterol shot up to nearly 10!!!

I don't have a good memory for quoting scientific stuff so you'll need to read Gary Taubes's book but he explains very concisely how it is excess carbohydrate that causes massive problems in the body, not saturated fat.

@TarasChoc I'm so so happy you're still here and still plodding 🥰🥰 and your weight loss over the year is really good.

I'm still here and still plodding too. Nearly up to my 3 year fastiversary!!! Like you, I have some good weeks and some where stuff gets on top of me and I don't fast so long or eat as healthily as I'd like... But ultimately I will always always always incorporate fasting.

I've been over on the 5:2 board a bit for 2 or 3 months, experimenting with some up day / down day scenarios and I actually really like it. I find it quite helpful to have a couple of days a week with a really tight eating window, then I can have a more relaxed window on other days - and that mixes up the fast length too so I get some longer ones in there.

Weight wise I really struggled earlier this year and went through a rocky patch where I regained about half of what I'd lost with fasting 😵 but I'm super happy to say that it's slowly coming off again. I feel a lot calmer about it now and I think it will carry on coming off slowly... I just have to keep plugging away and not be tempted to be restrictive or try a quick fix because that always backfires!!

Gary Taub ? Seriously? A journalist whose book was labelled to be Overly Biased/Not Convincing? Nah, I will pass thank you @mumlikeaboss .

Sugar and carbs are not the same. Nobody argues that sugar is good. An apricot will not cause your cholesterol to rise. Sausages and bacon, that' s another story

@AnIntrovert

Gary Taubes isn't the only one arguing in favour of fat vs carbs. So if you don't like him, shop around - there are plenty more who have the science and research to back it up! But most people don't want to believe they've been fed a pack of lies about carbohydrates for the last 50+ years, and would rather keep their heads in the sand.

No, an innocent apricot probably isn't going to raise your cholesterol - but all those studies that were conducted by people trying to prove that lowering your fat intake would lower your cholesterol...? None of them, despite spending millions, managed to prove that that was the case.

Also remember that people vary wildly in what diets suit their different bodies - some people handle carbs much better than others. Some do really well on a low fat plant-based diet, others feel much better on a meat-heavy, lower-carb diet.

If you personally prefer to eat soy and vegetables and forgo the beautiful flavour and nutrients that natural fat brings to your diet, then you do you :) and we'll do us.

Hey there,
I don't use social media much but just wanted to come on and say hello and give a little update.
I'm still ploughing along in fits and bursts. I mainly stick to a fasting way of eating now but I find that events like Christmas/holidays/been under the weather, throw me off so I'm not as consistent as I would like to be. It's like I'll lose a certain amount of weight, gain maybe half and start again which can be frustrating but progress is been made.
I've a clear run for the foreseeable for the first time in ages so I'm hoping good progress will be made and this year I'll hit that 80 pounds off. It's within seeing distance now which is really inspiring!

Hello @TarasChoc - I just wanted to cheer you on! You're doing incredibly well. I've enjoyed reading this thread.

Hello! Just want to say I've read through a lot of this thread from the beginning and feel really inspired by it. I have a lot to lose (7 stone at least) and have never tried fasting before. I have started this week doing 16/8, since Monday scales are showing -2lb which is motivating.

The part I struggle with most in dieting is staying motivated and focused to do the right thing. I think IF will really help me with this, I work til midnight a few times a week so was often eating late at work and snacking after I get home so stopping that for a start will be much better for me :)

I really hope I can continue feeling positive about this and keep going it's very early days just yet but feeling ok.

I need to improve on meal planning and also drinking water. I hate water 😖 I usually always have squash or diet fizzy, I also stopped my post school run cuppa with 2 sugars (I miss it!) but I'll probably have one at 12 :)

Well I did my first week on 16/8, I took Saturday off so I could have a drink and eat later. But it was still okay as I lost 4lb, I'm happy with that! Hoping it continues :)

Week 1: - 4lb

I have 5 stone to lose also for my knee operation, in 6 weeks in on 18/6 and I've lost 12lbs. Nothing is an effort, no hunger at all. I eat two meals daily. My inflammation in my knees has decreased drastically. This is my way of life now, love that you can move it around to suit yourself. Still haven't got the swingers to do a 24 yet but will soon.

I believe the same thing about the less sugar and carbs also. I've lost 12lbs in 6 weeks, absolutely delighted and feel fantastic. My daughter noticed today I've lost so I'm buzzing.