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.

You've explained it very well @Neeko

Week 1- 5.5
Week 2 -2.3
Week 3 -1.4
Week 4 -2.4
Week 5 -1.4
Week 6 -1.2
Week 7 -1.8
Week 8 -2.6
Week 9 -2.8
Week 10 -2.6
Week 11-1.4
Week 12 -1.6
Week 13 -1.6
Week 14 -1.4

Total lost 30 pounds

I'm heading away on holidays this week, I'm approx two stone lighter than when I was last away earlier this year and it's a lovely feeling.
I'm guessing I won't really be fasting even 16/8 as we'll be eating out and I'm not going to enforce my windows on anyone else🤣
I'll do my best and revert back to my new normal next week when everyday life resumes.

Wow @TarasChoc! What an achievement. Have a brilliant holiday.

taraschoc I've just read the whole of this thread and wow, you are an inspiration! I'm 51, perimenopausal and have put on 12 pounds in 11 months. I think it's a combination of HRT, WFH and access to the fridge! I weighed myself this morning and it's the heaviest I've been in years. I haven't got a huge amount to lose, maybe 15 pounds, but am unhappy and none of my clothes fit!! I've started fasting today and will do 16/8 I think as I'm not hungry in the mornings. I'll try and get to 12pm have lunch, then dinner later, stopping at 8pm. This morning is water and coffee. I also walked on the treadmill this morning for half an hour. Have an amazing holiday and I'm going to keep checking your thread whenever I weaken 😀

Well done @Neeko! Sounds like you’ve cracked it and got this WOE working for you

@TarasChoc have an amazing holiday! You’ve done so well and seem to have had a real awakening around your whole thinking about food and how you eat so this will be a long term change for you- that’s phenomenal! Well done and thanks for sharing and inspiring so many others xx

I’m in week 3 of gym and IF and enjoying it - got complimented by a friend who said she can see my shape coming out and I looked much better. Bought a coat today in a size 16 when I’d been buying size 18 for the last year so that’s a good sign!

Thanks @MooFroo. I'm certainly in a better place mentally that I have been for a while.
Enjoy that lovely new coat. It's great that a friend is noticing the difference in you too as it can be hard to see it for ourselves.

@user50and Hope the first few days are going well.

Thanks @neeko. I ended up having beans on toast for lunch, an apple, a banana and then sausages and mash for dinner between 1200 and 1900. Drank 2l of water, had 2 x black coffee and 2 x white. Got on the scales this morning, 1.25lbs up!! maybe I should weight weekly?

Remember this is a process. Focus on doing the fast initially and fix any issues on the eating window once you are fully comfortable with the fast.

@user50and the weight thing is crazy! I’m weighing every couple of days and the numbers jump around a lot - one meal or time of day makes a difference on the scales so I’m not getting too caught up in the scales numbers.
I wore a dress yesterday that a few weeks ago was tight and uncomfortable - it felt great yesterday! So look for and celebrate the non scale stuff too - for me it’s definitely eating better food and a lot less snacking; enjoying my gym sessions, and feeling healthier - the overall weight loss and health benefits will come over time if I keep doing the above

we can do this and I just now accept that we will all have different journeys and results but any progress towards better health and fitness is good.
mom much more flexible than I was 3 weeks ago and even touched my toes the other day- that’s been a while!

Well done on the NSV with the dress @MooFroo. It's a great feeling.

I weighed in under 10st this morning. I didn't even dream this would happen when I started this woe. It's crazy. Its been a really busy week for me and normally I'd be feeling unwell and very stressed with skin breakouts and headaches but I'm totally fine.

Week 15 update. I faced the scales for the first time in a week due to been on holiday. I am up 5.6 pounds. Most likely most of this is not actually fat but I guess a couple of pounds will be.
I'm back to IF today and I'm very glad to be. December will be an iffy month but if I can end the month back with 30 pounds off that'll be amazing.

I had a lovely holiday, ate and drank what I fancied. I also had the realisation that have its OK to do this on special occasions and that it's not okay to be all or nothing where I eat like that all the time or I'm on a diet and can never have it.

Week 1- 5.5
Week 2 -2.3
Week 3 -1.4
Week 4 -2.4
Week 5 -1.4
Week 6 -1.2
Week 7 -1.8
Week 8 -2.6
Week 9 -2.8
Week 10 -2.6
Week 11-1.4
Week 12 -1.6
Week 13 -1.6
Week 14 -1.4
Week 15 + 5.6

Total lost 24.4 pounds

Well done @MooFroo and @Neeko with your achievements.
I found at first weighing every day and constant fluctuations on the scales were hard to take at times. Now it's all useful data to me. If I feel unsure I'm making progress I look back through my app and am reminded just how this goes. I won't pretend updating yesterday after a weeks holiday was enjoyable but I feel a surety that special occasion gains are part of the process and it'll be gone again soon enough.
it was a relief to get back to my WOE yesterday.

I'll bet you lose at least some of that quickly @TarasChoc. Your body will just be unsettled as to why you have suddenly changed what it had adapted to. Isn't it interesting how it's a relief to get back to this woe? That's never happened to me on a traditional diet, which just proves this isn't one! 🤣

@Neeko me either, I would usually dread what I would've considered restarting but I've embraced going back to what is now my normal way of eating.
I've said to myself husband next time we go out of the country on holidays we're not booking breakfast. He barely eats anything I chow down on carbs and now we've no children along with us we don't need to be up and going so early. As always eating first thing made me peckish all day plus I couldn't drink much water as I didn't want to be constantly looking for toilets.
I feel that eating/drinking over a longer period made me sluggish and even if I could've fasted 12/14 hours I would've felt better for it.

Totally agree on the sluggishness. Eating makes me sleepy.

@TarasChoc these holiday experiences are good to have because it's all a learning process of what feels good.

We used to eat all day every day and we didn't know any different, but then we get used to not having breakfast and when we go back to it it's immediately clear that we don't feel great!!

I feel horrid now if I eat 3 meals a day plus snacks, and I also find it makes me drink less water because my stomach is always full of food so I don't have space to rehydrate! So it's a double bad!

On the plus side, 2 years in I'm getting more comfortable with telling people that "I'm not a breakfast person" and just sitting with a coffee while they eat.

Not to make that sound like I have it all together and find it effortless 🙄🙄 far from it.

Had a TONNE of life stresses over the last 2/3 months and have actually been gradually gaining weight despite still fasting 😩 - goes to show that there are a lot of factors involved and sometimes some of them are beyond our control.

But I still fast every day for as long as I can, because like I said I just feel awful if I eat all day. And I'm very happy to have got to the point where I love fasting for its own sake, not just as a weight loss strategy!

Week 16 - 3.8

Week 1- 5.5
Week 2 -2.3
Week 3 -1.4
Week 4 -2.4
Week 5 -1.4
Week 6 -1.2
Week 7 -1.8
Week 8 -2.6
Week 9 -2.8
Week 10 -2.6
Week 11-1.4
Week 12 -1.6
Week 13 -1.6
Week 14 -1.4
Week 15 + 5.6
Week 16 -3.8
total loss 28.2

@mumlikeaboss your wise words really helped me this morning, thank you. I'm sorry to hear you've had a stressful time recently. I hope things start to ease for you soon.

A friend was calling before work, I said I would make us some breakfast. He resigned myself to been in a bit of a danger zone for the day eating so early. I read your post this morning. As usual I wasn't feeling hungry and I decided to just be honest with my friend that I don't usually eat breakfast. It was no big deal, I had a cuppa, she had breakfast and we had a lovely catch up.

I've shifted some of my holiday gain. To be honest if I maintain my weight over the next couple of weeks I'll be happy. I've decided to follow 16/8 for the next couple of weeks to allow some leeway over Christmas. I want to enjoy the time spent with family and friends but I really don't want to come away or take a break from fasting as for me it's my normal way of eating and taking a break would be sending signals to my diet brain to activate itself again!!

That's such a good outcome 🤗 it's a real mindset shift to realise we can enjoy people's company without having to partake of the food!

Sometimes, of course, it's fine to join in and eat - but if you know you'll regret it later, it's also fine to say no.

Well done on already losing a chunk of holiday weight too 💪🏻

All the best for everyone dealing with the flood of food and drink over Christmas! 😁 I plan on avoiding breakfast as a bare minimum, and on most days I'll probably be able to work around a fairly small eating window (4 hours ish). Depends how many social events we end up at, but just going to go with the flow and not stress too much.

I am still finding reading all your comments really helpful.

It especially helped to acknowledge the diet brain thing - just the fact that I have a mental block about getting under a certain weight - ie back to a healthy weight again, And probably childhood memories of having to have a good meal and being criticized if I didn't want pudding or didn't feel like breakfast. And yet at the same time also being held up as a model of being thin, when my mum wasn't, and was always on a diet, as if I was somehow to be envied and yet also criticized. I so badly want to get past those constraints and just get better about eating when I am hungry, not eating when I am not, and being able to say no to food.

My plan for Christmas, when we have lots of family visiting and staying with us, is to stick with a 18/6 pattern -- no breakfast, just coffee, lunch around 1pm and dinner around 6pm. I feel well on that, and don't need to add in all those extra meals, puddings, afternoon tea and cake, just because others are.

I enjoy not feeling stuffed and lethargic, I enjoy my clothes fitting well, and discovering things in my wardrobe that I haven't worn for several years. I enjoy feeling healthy. I'm not going to give all of that up!

Sounds like a great plan @WoolerOwl and an achievable one. I plan to do something similar myself but will have some treats and puddings. I think the trick for me will be to fast every day and to not allow the Christmas food to overspill for weeks.
I found what you said about all the emotions around eating really interesting and something most of us can identify with.

I've been hopeless at following this! Too many Christmas events. Exactly the same weight as two months ago so I will write off December and start properly in January. But I'm so happy for your success with it OP. Merry Christmas!

Ah, but you haven't gained weight either, @alwaysonadiet1. That's a win!

Week 17 +1.8

Week 1- 5.5
Week 2 -2.3
Week 3 -1.4
Week 4 -2.4
Week 5 -1.4
Week 6 -1.2
Week 7 -1.8
Week 8 -2.6
Week 9 -2.8
Week 10 -2.6
Week 11-1.4
Week 12 -1.6
Week 13 -1.6
Week 14 -1.4
Week 15 + 5.6 (holidays)
Week 16 -3.8
Week 17 + 1.8 (Christmas)
total loss 26.4