Fasting support. Come join me.

[QuinoafromKew]

I am getting back into fasting again and fancied a bit of support. I do a fair bit of 16:8 but after indulgent holidays I do a few 24 hour ones to reset me again i.e from dinner one night to dinner the next.
I'm doing one from dinner tonight so anyone else fancy joining in. Everything is easier with a buddy.

Totally agree.
We all tweak things to make sure we stick with them long term.
Great result @WeightForMe. I was 1.5lbs lighter this morning so held onto the majority of my loss and am going to do a 16:8 so am there with you @Yesreallyitsme. @sweetchill is correct on the milk issue @BarbarianBabs and so I do try and have black tea but ocassionally I know ' a proper cup of builders tea' will make the difference in the last 4 hours and so I do it. Hello to @cremebrulee972 - join us when you are ready.
Welcome one and all

I’ve been fasting for about 16 years, the first was to manage asthma and gastritis symptoms and for autophagy health benefits.

The only time a “dirty fast” might be an issue is if you’re fasting for autophagy (cellular repair) which happens from around 18-24 hours. Your body uses all its glycogen from the muscles, starts burning fat and then your body begins to enter cellular repair. It can only do this as long as there are no other calories present in the body, and milk/cream in coffee etc interrupt.

So unless you’re doing longer term fasts for autophagy, please don’t worry if you add splashes of milk to your tea. Whatever is helping you get through a fast is good!

I currently fast 36 hours once or twice per week, one water fast only and the other I’ll add cream to my coffee. Most other days I’ll fast 18 hours.

Once you get into the rhythm it becomes very manageable and on fasting days I tell myself that today, I’m just getting all my calories from fat. Helps me mentally to just go with it!

I am a dirty faster. I have lost at least 2 stone this year (more really but didn’t want to get on the scales as I knew I was heavier!). I generally do 16:8 daily, sometimes more like 17:7. I don’t always stick to it at weekends. I have had a few 24 hour fasts due to sickness but I am thinking I might introduce this as a periodic reset.

That is exactly what I use if for @BoilingHotand50something - resetting after holidays/indulgent weekends/when the lbs on the scales are sticky.
Great explanation @Strokethefurrywall - best of both worlds.

I am just back from a lovely - though hot - walk. My friend lives in an awkward location by public transport from me so thought I'd walk there and back and burn some calories and earn some points on my walking apps.

I did a semi-accidental fast today!! I ate at 19:00 last night and eat disgustingly quickly so was finished not long after.

I didn’t have time to sort breakfast at my usual time, and at 10:00 I realised I only had to wait one more hour to make it 16 hours since dinner the night before! So decided to just make a herbal tea and hold off from eating for 1 more hour.

I had mushrooms and scrambled egg for brunch 😊😊

Well done @BarbarianBabs. Just about to put together some food for us here.

I tend to have one meal a day. I was doing that previously but filling the rest of day up with utter rubbish!

Hi all, loved reading all your posts. I’ve fasted quite aggressively before holiday & it helped with my bloat & water retention loads. I’ve done a 22 hour fast today I love how energised I feel when I’ve done it! Hoping to stick to a mixture of 16/8, 18/6 with a 22-24 hour fast once a week. I’m drinking black coffee, water & I find that Yerba mate tea is a great for keeping energy levels up …. Has anyone here tried it?

One month of Fast 800 and 20 lbs gone! Also got into my smaller jeans and a dress that didn't fit me 6 weeks ago! My sleep has improved and I definitely feel more clear headed despite having an awful cold. Have a fantastic day all.

I'm delighted the thread has taken off and is providing support for us all.
Lovely to see so many positive fasting stories too as some of my friends are a little negative about it - to say the least!
That's a great achievement @LoyalGoldMentor It took me 5 months to lose 16lbs - and I am averaging 1.5lbs per month over the past year with holidays and lots of very indulgent food days in among the fasts so 20lbs in a month is so impressive.
I have never hear of Yerba mate tea @cremebrulee972. Have you got a link to the one you use?
Ended up on just over 26,000 steps for the day yesterday so I have nearly enough to order another £15 Amazon voucher from one of my walking apps and the scales showed another lb gone this morning ( I'm losing holiday weight at the moment so it is dropping off faster).
Have a super day all.

Your step count is impressive. I really need to make more of an effort to get out and walk. I use to walk for miles and I would make sure I had done 10l steps by 10 am every day. I'd get up at 05.30 and get out whilst the family were asleep and now I've become lazy. However, even losing weight in the last month has improved my fitness.

I naturally fast, I only eat when I'm hungry, eg yesterday breakfast was at 3pm, dinner was unintentionally very late but usually about 7pm.
I must be a dirty faster though @QuinoafromKew because I can't function without my teas and coffees.
I'm still fat though so obviously need to start changing what I eat.
Menopause and borderline hypothyroidism haven't helped.
I've started losing weight very slowly because I've gone cold turkey on chocolate and sweets, and that's the only stuff that causes the food noise.
Steps wise I only count my "exercise" steps, like dog walking, and average 6000. Michael Moseley did say that 4000 fast steps getting out of breath and raising your heart rate is just as effective as 10,000 steady steps.
This heat isn't conducive to anything fast for me though!

I probably have a lot more free time that you @LoyalGoldMentor as my DC are grown now. I was like you when I first got my Fitbit - not getting up at 5.30 but instead not going to bed until I had @done 10000 steps for the day even if it meant walking around the block at 10pm. I went off the boil a bit but then saw a walking App saying they pay you to walk and thought I would give it a go and it has been a great extra motivator. ( they don't pay much btw but these days...).

I'm chipping away at my weight @CherryogDog and even at only 1.5lbs a month I'm getting there (I am postmenopausal and am now wearing clothes from my wardrobe that hadn't seen the light of day in a good few years as well as many dresses that sit a lot better now than they did a while ago) I am lucky though that I love the heat ( also love sitting in the garden until 10.30 drinking wine and eating crisps on these beautiful warm nights which is not so good 😀but nobody is perfect).
Let's have a great day fasting or not fasting as the case may be.

Very happy to find this thread. I did lots of 5:2 when the delightful, much-missed Michael Moseley first introduced it and successfully lost a good amount. However, after a while I began to feel so unwell when fasting (low blood sugar) that I had to stop.

What other variations are there to 5:2 that actually work, ideally that allow me to eat during working hours (my job involves a lot of people-contact and I'm neurotic about the bad breath that, for me, is an inevitable side effect of fasting)?

All help appreciated!

@Headinthecloudsfeetonthegroundcould you do something like 16:8 with the 8 covering your working hours. So any breath and low sugar issues would be in the evening?

@HeadinthecloudsfeetonthegroundAgree 18:6 might be better for you. If you do say 8pm - midday fasting I don’t think breath will be an issue, especially if you are getting plenty of water up to lunchtime? You could always use mouthwash to be extra sure.

This is the one I use. I brew it like normal loose tea, 1 tbs per mug. It really makes a difference for me energy wise & keeping the hunger pangs away. I’m about to run out & will be repurchasing. I couldn’t be without it now.

https://amzn.eu/d/01kY9JW4

Thanks for that @cremebrulee972. I shall give it a go.
it might boost you too @Headinthecloudsfeetontheground and keep your mouth feeling hydrated.
Early night for us after a busy day.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I'm starting 16:8 today - wish me luck! Due to work I won't be able to do it every day (work has some obligatory social aspects) but I'm going to do it as often as I can, aiming for five days per week to give me a good kickstart.

I imagine that we don't mention our weights here (that has been my experience in other fora) so I shall simply say that I would like to get rid of about eleven pounds.

Good luck! When I'm fasting, I drink diet coke or sparkling water with lemon when socialising so I don't look like I'm having nothing! I'm back on fasting today after my holiday, had a chicken salad last night at 9.30 so will eat nothing until lunch at.1.30

Good luck today @Headinthecloudsfeetontheground
I have no issue with people mentioning weight. I'm currently 124lbs (I hit 154lbs in covid lockdown times having been between 134-138lbs before it started) The first few lbs fell off as soon as I stopped eating everything in sight and with an hour of exercise allowed outside. Then the next few lbs went relatively quickly as life went back to semi-normal. Then it took 5 months to lose 16lbs and I have been chipping away ever since.
When my DC are home, I'm on holiday or I just fancy an indulgent weekend I eat and drink what I want knowing I can get back on it again in a few days.
I am small (I was 102lbs in my early 20's) and am aiming to see if I can get down to 118 lbs by 14th December.
Good luck today @OnlyGreenClothes
I'm not fasting today (though in theory you could say I'm doing 12:12 as I only eat breakfast a few times a month).

I lost 5lb in 24h on Monday! 🤯

I had also put 10lb on in the preceeding 10 days, over-eating on an all inclusive holiday. Home Sunday, ate 6pm Sunday and then only milk in coffee for the whole of Monday. Tuesday morning I was 5lb down, which is mind-blowing.

Yesterday (Tuesday), aside from milk in coffee the only calories I had were from protein and I had a very low calorie day - another 1lb off this morning.

Im a serial faster. Its made harder currently because its summer (I'm a teacher) so my routine is lacking. But in term-time I only ever eat one meal a day (OMAD) in the evening, which results in a default 22-2 fast. Also, I frequently skip the meal and fast on Mondays, resulting in a 48h fast from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening. Occasionally I go for a Sun-Wed 72h fast.

Couple of caveats - I have milk in my coffee and drink a lot of coffee, so my fast will always include 200-250ml of semi skimmed milk. So not a true fast. If im not drinking coffee i have electrolytes.

I am also on 10mg of Mounjaro, and have lost 7 1/2 stone in the last year - which means i started fasting when my body had a lot to lose. I think this helped physiologically because I was able to tell myself that my body would not starve when not eating - i had plenty of fat cells to sustain body functions.

I'm now close to healthy BMI (10st 10 - BMI 25 is 10st 4lb for me). I can still do a 48h fast easily, but longer is more challenging.

This week showed me that most of my holiday gain was water weight, which goes quickly when I fast.

I’ve done a number of fasts 24 - 40 hours. Last one was 48 hour fast (just tea) and I wasn’t even hungry when I broke my fast.
It’s great to reset your body/sugar cravings etc.

I’m on holiday at the moment with buffet breakfasts and already looking forward to a fast when I get home!!

Both of you @AmberLime and @Theheatishot approach this just like I do. Really enjoy the holidays and make the. most of things then fast to reset. It makes this whole process sustainable long term.
I am in awe of your weight loss @AmberLime and your long fast @Theheatishot. I am fasting today but just 24hrs.
DH and I had planned a 10 mile walk tomorrow but looking at the weather forecast I'm not so sure it's a brilliant plan and might be better on Saturday. Had also planned a shorter walk with my chum at 2pm today and not sure about that one either. I normally love the sun but 33-35 degrees with not a cloud in the sky might be a bit much. We will see.
Good luck everyone today fasters and non-fasters alike.

Please don't walk today @QuinoafromKew - look at what happened to poor Michael Moseley, and he was fit as a fiddle 😢

Day one of 16:8 done and I survived. Problem was I drank more water to compensate for the lack of food so got only four hour's sleep as I was up and down to the loo!