Countdown to DECEMBER - approaching Christmas powerfully and compassionately together

[loveyouradvice]

Welcome - come and join us!

We’re a friendly group that uses Fasting in one form or another to lose weight or maintain our weight loss. We all have our ups and downs, and welcome insights from others and laughter along the way.... pirates and dachshunds will pop their heads up, we're in awe of those shredding with Jillian and lifting significant weights (beyond our own!) and impressed when we get our steps in.

Christmas really is just around the corner! Let's share our goals for this month and plan together how we can have the best Christmas ever, enjoying the festivities AND looking after our bodies - in whatever way we decide is best for each of us.

Fridays are our informal day for weighing-in (optional) and reflecting on the week – often with ideas for self-care and new goals for the coming week.

We cheer each other on, and commiserate when things don't go to plan.

If you’re new to this group, do introduce yourself and share your hopes and plans.

Some of us find daily posting helpful for accountability - others just pop in every now and then

Interesting to hear your journey @loveyouradvice ! I am a bit younger, in my late 30s but:

• As a child I was definitely not skinny, I think I thought of myself as a bit chubby but looking back I was very normal sized!

-As an early teen again I thought I was "big" because I grew to a size 10-12 while a lot of girls were still in 6-8. -But then I did put on weight. I didn't weigh myself much but by the time I went to university I was a size 14 with a 34GG bust. Then I existed on a lot of pizza and bad food and really put on weight up to a size 16-18 and I think I was about 14 stone at points although I did yoyo probably between 12 and 14 for a couple of years. -In my 3rd year of university I turned vegan and slowly lost weight. By the time I was 22 I was 11stone5 and stayed there or thereabouts for about 3 years until I was put on some medication that made me gain weight and went up to 12 stone 3 (I remember the shock of this on the scale) then I had my wedding to slim for and got down to 10stone7 for that-mainly via 5:2- but then back up to 11.5/7 after wedding. -Had a baby a couple of years later and then breastfeeding the weight just melted off (I had also stopped the medication that had made me gain) I was around 10/10 and a half stone for a few years. Then I got quite ill with my medical condition and in 2019 was at my absolute thinnest, under 10 stone for the whole year (I was weighing in kilos by now because I had so many medical appointments and that's how they did my weight!) My lowest weight was 53.5kg but by this point family and friends were telling me I looked ill and gaunt so I don't think I would want to get that low again (even if I could haha) -Pandemic hit, disease was bad, I took steroids and piled on weight again up to around 77kg. I yo-yoed between this and 70 with various diets but they never stuck. Just over a year ago after a very controlled weaning period of 9 months I got off steroids completely. I was like "oh the weight will drop off now" It did not haha. -Hoping if I can lose weight again I can get to my early thirties weight of around 10 stone to 10 stone 7 / 64 to 67kg and keep it there!

Anyway, I managed my fast day yesterday so hoping to be back on track and looking forward to some positivity from the scales on Friday!

I found this an interesting read this morning:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/a2c617031bebb7c0

Some of it makes sense to me (perhaps because I want it to!)

"When there’s less sunlight, our brains make less serotonin, a chemical that helps us feel calm and happy. To boost serotonin levels we start to crave carbohydrates because eating carbs helps another chemical, tryptophan, get into the brain, where it’s turned into serotonin."

I have definitely been craving more carby food since the clock change. I do however already do most of the things they recommend to mitigate; getting outside, regular exercise including weights etc. Must start Vit C again and be more consistent with my Vit D spray now.

"It’s natural for progress to slow in winter, so aim to maintain or lose weight slowly, rather than push for rapid results. Think of winter as a “maintenance and momentum” season, laying the groundwork for more active months ahead."

@loveyouradvicemy weight journey has been
long. I was always the big one at school, my parents are lifelong dieters and I remember my mum losing a lot of weight after my brother was born. I left school and lost a lot of weight very quickly, I remember being excited that Miss selfridge started stocking size 8’s! Then I had a baby at 19 and gained a lot of weight, maybe 4 stone. Lost a lot. I remember being 9 stone 7 and trying to lose 5lbs to be at the bottom bmi range for my height. Met my husband, I was 11 stone when I got married, had a couple of giant pregnancies and gained 4 stone again each time. After my youngest was born I started running, and did fast800, I lost around 3 stone quite quickly but I’d say that was the first time in my life I actually felt good. Then Covid came, and I did a lot of running and gym, and did whole30, I ate so well and I was like a powerhouse, running 50km a week and I looked and felt so healthy. Then I basically had a breakdown of some sort, I don’t know if it was long Covid, or some other condition or just age/ peri but since Feb 22 I have had periods of really poor health, I have been tested for everything but basically I am tired all the time, get every virus going, suffer with anxiety and really low mood, my hair falls out. I’m on HRT. I am now gluten free and have been taking iron and other supplements but I do a lot less exercise and feel a lot less healthy. All things considered I think I’ve done very well to still be 11 stone ish, which is what I weighed when I got married 15 years ago. But also, I feel like what a wasted life spent counting calories and tracking every morsel and not really getting the results I want. 2026 is definitely going to be a year of change for me, I do not want to continue on this diet culture spiral and getting nowhere.

I’m really hoping for this to be something I can do long term. I’m short and always curvy so as soon as I hit puberty my natural weight was 2 pounds into overweight which was a problem back then (now it would be skinny even on a preteen)!

Dieted hard my first year of university to 127 - into a healthy BMI! But was 144 most of those years until I developed a chronic health condition and went on meds that got me up into the 180s! After coming off of those meds/onto others I got down to 155 and sometimes as low as 148 for most of my late 20s and early 30s. 2 kids, 5 pregnancies, perimenopaise, covid, and last year I hit 170 and did 4 months ozempic because I could not get full or stop eating no matter what. I couldn’t afford to stay on Ozempic but that switched me back to normal and even though I put back on ten of the pounds I lost, I’m in control enough to go 2 days without eating now. And I need some kind of rule to stay on track

Our stories are so interesting... with many overlapping themes... I so agree about feeling what a waste to have spent decades focussed on weight/weight-loss... "lifelong dieters", what an interesting phrase @thenewaveragebear1983 and defintely describes me. But NO LONGER - I want the coming decades to be just me enjoying my body and food to nurture it, as well as for real pleasure in eating.

I wonder what we want our story of Christmas and the festive season to be... What would you like to be able to say in early January?

Me: I was powerful through Christmas, my weights only gone up by a couple of pounds today. I felt really good throughout, with energy to get out for lovely walks and see friends, and only had a couple of days when I felt christmas-sludgey and actively chose to have those, rather than just falling into them. I had some relaxed days, usually with an 8h eating window - but not on Christmas Day and NYE! - and balanced them with nurturing days, when I focussed on protein and healthy veg in a short window and did lovely things for myself that weren't food-focussed. Hmm - need to work on that a bit but basics are there I think.

@JadeVS72 it sounds as if you're getting back on track - what's the rest of hte week been like?

Thanks for that link @IDareSay -- it makes total sense. I like the idea of winter as a time to maintain and nourish through darker colder months.

@thenewaveragebear1983 What a fabulous call for 2026 - to shed this dieting spiral - Im on for that!!

@Dliplop it sounds like you used Ozempic as it is intended - and congrats on getting back into control So powerful!! What rules are you creating for yourself that help?

Here goes - Friday check-in.

And darn - those two pounds have popped back on again - overate one day, twas healthy stuff but too much dark chocolate and nuts BUT not a lot - but my body seems so super=sensitive. I guess it's trying to get back to a higher set point. I'm rather annoyed as a balancing day which I thought would work, didn't. Hopefully the next two will as Ive then a sunday lunch with mates Im looking forward to enjoying`!

SW 14.2
TW 10.12
CW 11.0.... Darn! I was enjoying relying on being in the 10s - 9 days of it... twill come back, but bit annoyed...

the story of my weight…
I was a little heavier than others when a child. Lost some weight in my early teens by eating 400 calories a day for a few months. Oddly no one noticed that I was hardly eating at all. Went back to eating normally after a school trip which broke my routine. I stayed at fairly normal weight until left home to go to college and then gained weight quickly. I was shocked at age 20 to find myself at 13 stone. I’m 5.6 Soon after, I stopped eating chips chocolate and crisps and quickly lost about 2.5 stone. I stuck to that for years by avoiding sweet things. Did a lot of exercise in my 20s and 30s and kept weight fairly steady at 10.5 stone approx.
I had children in my 30s and didn’t struggle too much with weight despite big gains during pregnancy. Breastfeeding probably helped.
In my mid forties I was surprised to find my weight had jumped to 11.5 stone. It then gradually crept up further and I have found it hard to control ever since. I think perimenopause definitely had an impact and I have been trying various ways to lose weight ever since - age 57 now.
I tried fasting in early 2020 and I remember liking the easy routine but I didn’t think of options beyond 16:8 and I didn’t change what I ate particularly so it stopped working after a while.

Over the last few years I tried slimming world, second nature, slimpod, going vegan, exercising really hard. All of them worked for a while but I couldn’t stick to them.

Earlier this year I noticed my weight was climbing almost week on week..despite exercising a lot, and I decided to try intermittent fasting again at 13stone 5lb in March. I lost my dad to dementia in 2024 and I look after my mother who has Alzheimer’s and the goal of being healthy and independent for as long as possible became my main motivation. Having high cholesterol and having to start medication added more motivation.
I read Jason Fung’s book The Diabetes Code and realised I can control my appetite by keeping insulin levels down through fasting. I like this way of eating.
I have found it helps keep me on track to listen to podcasts about fasting - TFM, Gin Stephens, Fasting for Life etc. I discovered that people fast much longer than 16 hours without any problem.
I took on board ‘fasting, nutrition & community’ from TFM as the three pillars of intermittent fasting for weight loss. That led me to this forum as I don’t talk about this much in real life - to find a group of people in the same boat.
Recent developments have been that my husband has started to do TRE - doesn’t eat before 12 now and stops eating at 8pm. This has helped both of us as I found that him eating crisps or chocolate in the evening really triggered me to want to eat.
I tried some long fasts of up to 36-38 hours but what works best for me is alternating 16 hours and 22 hours,

11. 8 this week

I think I’ve maintained this week but I’ll be honest I have not really tried as hard as I could the last few weeks. I’ve not stuck to my calories and I’ve eaten a lot of rubbish and as a result have not had as much veg or nutrition as I could. I’m doing a long run tomorrow so I’ll consider it carb loading 🤣 I’ve done a few boot camps this week in the cold. It’s just my food isn’t great. A bit like you @loveyouradvicei feel like I just put it back in so quickly that sometimes I just get tired of it, like I’m swimming against the tide. My dh has been in a diet the last few weeks, he’s basically eaten a few salads and stopped buying food at petrol stations and he’s lost 8lbs. I have probably taken all year to lose that!

it’s my work Christmas do on Friday, it won’t be boozy because it’s daytime but it will be Chinese buffet food and probably a glass of wine or 2.

I’m down one pound and I think it’s going to be even better next week!

I’m doing 5:2 but the 3 other weekdays I’m also staying clear of sugar and snacky foods

I did weigh in on Friday but didn't get round to posting. I agree @tiredwitless community does help! I hadn't thought of podcasts but might try!
So on Friday I was down a bit again yay!
SW 77.4 KG
TW 63 KG
TW xmas 70KG
CW....71.9KG

Not sure I will reach my Christmas target but yes the weather makes it hard and I struggle when I have evening plans (need to travel for work Wednesday/Thursday and taking DD to a show on Friday night this week) slow and steady is working for me though and I enjoy the accountability of a weekly weigh!!

I maintained again this week which is my third in a row, I did that last month as well. I’ve lost the grand total of 1.5 lbs in November, but actually looking back through I’ve lost 6 since 1st October so that a bit better. I’m not planning to give up yet until I break up from work, still 3 good weeks to go and I am regrouping for some proper fast800 rather than my sloppy half arsed attempts of late.

I did run 15km yesterday, that’s got to count for something!

today I had leftover roast pork and veg but not potatoes etc. and a piece of Wensleydale with cranberries in. Tonight we’re having sausages, kids will have mash but I won’t. Tuesday is always a tricky day for me, so my goal tomorrow is to drink my full 2l water cup and to go for a walk at lunchtime.

Good morning sll
11.8 today. Have stayed the same. But have been under the weather with some sort of flu virus all week, threw my routine and fasting windows off quite a bit so letting myself off the hook. Back to TRE today 22 if I can manage it, started yesterday at 8pm . Still a bit of time before Xmas.
a new goal for the coming week/s is to keep Calm, a little bit of yoga in the mornings to help with that and breathing exercises. I think too much stress in my life in general and it doesn’t help!

Good morning lovely people!

So very sorry to hear this @StealthSightHound . That sounds like a very very rough run - however old they are, when those we love and truly appreciate die, the world feels a much emptier and less vibrant place. And to lose DCat and your friend's diagnosis too, all in such a short period of time, that is so much. I ruefully joke that when someone I love dies, I put on 2 stone... I've now managed to change that to overeating healthy stuff rather than a pound of sausages at 3 am when my Dad died - but it's still calories, 3 bowls of muesli and berries and yogurt may stop a binge and a blood sugar spike, so my body prefers it but the scales still go up. Do be gentle with yourself - you're going through a lot. Great to ditch the bread and butter if you can but please don't push yourself too hard when you're grieving. Time for loving and nurturing self-care. Can you think of a couple of truly cherishing things you can do for yourself this week?

@tiredwitless I'm so impressed - I hope you're congratulating yourself on the 11.8, especially given the virus - and that's basically 2 stone down this year, phenomenal. And congrats on working out what's good for you with alternating 22 and 16 - I love Gin Stephens and probably use her "Delay dont deny" a few times a week - and over the festive season I know it will be several times a day! Congrats on getting DH on board - it makes such a difference! Mine is lean and a keen cyclist which doesn't help here - though he has adopted low/no sugar which helps. Im loving "Fasting, Nutrition, Community" what a brilliant approach and I realise it's what Ive been doing and it SO helps me. I suspect it's obvious but what's TFM??

And wow husbands can be annoying sometimes @thenewaveragebear1983 - I remember my Dad looking very smug when he lost 2 stone but just cutting back a bit, and wondering what all the women were making such a fuss about....Congrats on the 15k run! And yes, 6lbs is basically half a stone so keeping that off is impressive!!

Good to hear @Dliplop - once we've cut out the snacky foods/sweet stuff I always find it so much easier

Me too @JadeVS72 - I love the accountability of weekly weigh-ins. And it looks like you'll be pretty close to your Christmas goal. I'm impressed by the slow and steady!!

Here goes - Friday check-in.

Most interesting - I'm just finishing a Prolon Fasting Mimicking Diet (and have bought 2 more for next year in their Black Friday deal)... So yes, the weight loss looks excellent. I do it for the health benefits, with a long-term autoimmune disease, but the weight loss is always a nice side benefit. I expect it will bounce back up by a pound but I'm aiming to stay at 10.11 now through Christmas and beyond. I know as @tiredwitless mentioned how key fasting + nutrition + community are to me, so coming on here will help keep me very accountable!!

SW 14.2
TW 10.12
CW 10.10 so 4lbs down on last week

Hi all, this thread popped up on active so I thought I’d say hi - and testify that fasting really does work as a long term strategy. I was on the original 5:2 threads after the Michael Mosely documentary in 2012. Went down, IIRC, from just over 12 stone to about 9 and a half.

pretty much maintained over the next ten years using 16:8 - but with a gentle creep up of about a stone. I did the Zoe big IF study in 2021/2 and then joined Zoe, changed my diet to whole food pantry based, and started taking the fasting more seriously in that I started to clean fast, which I hadn’t done previously. The weight just fell off. In retrospect (and now knowing more about fasting) I think it was because I was genuinely ignoring calories and only going for Zoe high scores. So when I retrospectively looked at my daily calories during the 4 months of Zoe logging and weight loss I found some days I’d eaten 900 cals - others it was over 3000. The average over the period was 1750 ish a day. I was basically doing a version of ADF. THE fasting and feasting Gin Stevens recommends.

so now I do a standard 16:8 with an occasional ADF or longer fast as required. Seasonal variations of a few pounds, but nothing I worry about. I’m 70. My BMI is 21, all my blood work is in the normal range, my jeans are 8/10 depending on brand.

I’m very happy with my “fasting lifestyle” and feel totally liberated from the tyranny of calories. I never think about them. I just eat real food, mainly plants, and make sure I clean fast. I have cake and/or ice cream daily - but home made and nutritionally dense, lots of nuts. I never feel deprived.

hoping for the same success for anyone just getting started with this. Thank you Michael Mosely!

So glad it’s the weekend…
Well done @loveyouradvice you are making great strides with 10.10!
TFM is The Fasting Method a podcast I listen to sometimes.. it’s got free and paid options but I just listen to the free and while it’s not always great it’s fantastic for fasting basics.. Jason Fung is on it sometimes.

@StealthSightHound I’m sorry for your losses. I agree with @loveyouradviceyou need to be gentle with yourself for a while..

Thank you @catsrus for dropping by it’s great to hear your success story. I really don’t do calories any more and it’s fab to know it’s worked long term for you.

well done @Dliplop and @JadeVS72 and hang in there @thenewaveragebear1983 Husbands are a different species when it comes to weight loss. It’s sometimes hard to post when things haven’t gone as well as they could but I hope it helps- it does for me.

keep warm everyone

Hi - by clean fasting I mean nothing apart from black coffee or tea with no milk. When I started fasting in 2012 I would not count drinks and had milk in my coffee / tea. I didn’t believe it was possible for me to enjoy tea in the morning (essential!) without milk - and I don’t like green tea or black tea without milk. Herbal teas are out as they are too “flavoured” and it is believed they spark an insulin response - which is what the fast is trying to avoid.

the breakthrough for me was someone on the Zoe IF study suggesting white tea. It’s even less processed than green tea, can be drunk without milk, high in polyphenols, and, to me, tastes just as good as tea with milk. Mine is Clipper brand and I buy it from Amazon.

ADF. Is Alternate Day Fasting - the “Fast/Feast” bit talked about by Gin Stevens. A no-food, or very low calorie, day should be followed by a day of proper eating, good food, no calorie restriction, plenty of protein. It’s a cycle of repair and build. When I did my four months of food logging when I started Zoe I inadvertently was doing this as I wasn’t tracking calories. When I went back and noted the calories each day there were huge daily variations despite the average coming out at 1750 ish. That’s not a calorie intake that would have ever seen me lose weight in the past- yet it was effortlessly dropping off me during those 4 months - so it really helped me to realise that weight loss was more complicated than a simple calories in vs out. I should have known that from the original 5:2 days as similar mechanisms must be at work there. I think I had just thought that the fasting days were putting me into calorie deficit for the week.

hope that helps.

I’ve not been keeping up with the thread because I’ve downloaded a ‘bricking’ app for my phone, and I am hugely rationing my phone use! It’s making a huge difference.

food wise I’ve been ok. I was very premenstrual last week and I felt it, I just need more food that week, I seem to be hungry until I reach maintenance and find a deficit really hard. I’m trying hard though. Today we had pig in blankets and a small amount of mash and gravy. I made a big pot of veggie curry and portioned out 6 pots which are 250 cals each, and will do my lunches all week. I am determined to have a really good few weeks now, I have barely exercised this week due to terrible weather and to be honest I am being very cautious with my health, if I feel utterly exhausted then I am not pushing it.

my plan is to weigh on 1st dec and then gave a really focussed few weeks with lots of veggies and protein, and I know I will enjoy the Christmas week all the more if I do.

Good luck @StealthSightHound - yep the White tea has been a game changer for me! It really does make fasting easier if I do it “clean” as Gin Stevens (and Tim Spector at Zoe) recommends.

I’m going to have to look up Gin Stevens! I was in the hospital Monday with some hemmoraghing, and spent all week on a high protein high calorie high salt diet per the doctor. I am okay to eat how I want Monday but if I get dizzy I’m to stay on high everything another 2 weeks until I repeat some blood work. We’ll see how it goes. Alive and blood inside is better than anything else! I’m going to keep Monday high salt and high protein and hopefully the modified fast will be okay for my body. My hands are getting stiffer from inflammation again