💪 5 week Intermittent Fasting challenge 💪

[waistchallenge]

OK, my first attempt at a thread failed through my own fault, let's try again:

Limited duration because longer threads usually taper off. Ending the week beginning 24th of July, final weigh in/measurement Sunday the 30th (additional to the Thursday).

Weigh in or waist measurement Monday and Thursday. (I'm using waist measurement as I don't like weighing myself).

Using a recognised intermittent fasting schedule (e.g. 16/8, 5:2).

Optional exercise where possible, logged in the thread.

Starting tomorrow.

Is anyone up for slimming down in time for August?😀

I'm hungry but going to ignore it.
I'm drinking lots of water which has actually made my face look less old!
Slept better last night too.

How’s it all going? Anyone else finding their digestive system is so much better. Without sounding crude … I’m clearing my bowels so much better and so therefore feel
less sluggish. I’m on week two and although there are no physical changes .. I do feel good

I've been so constipated 🤣🤣 going to aim for 4l of water today. I bet you'll see the difference on the scales on Monday.

Best of luck… water will help for sure

Yeah I am 5'1''

Hii all sorry missed updating yesterday but did weigh in:

Weigh in 10

Height: 5 ft 7
Starting Weight: 76.5kg // 12st
Current Weight: 75.7kg // 11st 9lb
IF schedule: aiming for 17/7, eating between 1-8pm and cutting portion size.
Size: 14
Target: 72.5kg // 11st 4lb by 30 July
Still to lose: 3.2kg in 4 weeks

I was delighted to have lost a bit yesterday but then scuppered myself by going big at lunch, and we had a late dinner so my eating window was over 8 hours. Finishing later means I'm fasting until 1.45pm today. Good news is we don't have a massive weekend planned so hoping to be able to stick to the plan and hopefully see a further loss on Monday.

Saw a neighbour yesterday who said I'm looking good, weight loss was noticeable (I'd already lost 3.5kg before joining this challenge) which made me feel good :)

Good to see your update, @reabies ! Nice loss. I hope a couple of the other missing people turn up today, too.

I think I'm stalling/plateauing a bit so I'm probably going to try exercising every day for a week. It's just annoying as you'd think fasting would be enough.

Is anyone not doing low carb/low sugar? Or is that pretty much a given?

Yeah I'd be wondering about the plateauing myself, as I've seen on other threads some people use IF as a way to lose weight then just continue it to maintain, so I wonder at what point your body just decides ok I can function on this amount of food and moves into maintenance rather than loss?

Really hoping I can reach my goal weight before that happens, but at some point I will want to just be maintaining and if I can do that with IF (rather than going back to 3 meals a day and just getting bigger again) then that would be ideal.

I'm not doing low carb or sugar tbh, not in any dedicated kind of way, but maybe just as a consequence of less snacking. My main tactic has been to reduce portion size, so have half of my allotted dinner for dinner (we do gousto so have set portion sizes), and the rest for lunch the next day. Means I know I'm getting good home cooked food twice a day (rather than nipping out to the local bakery at lunchtime!) but also means I'm eating less at each meal. I noticed the other day when I decided to just eat my full dinner as we had lunch plans the next day, that I felt really bloated and my belly hurt as I was heading to bed, so I think my stomach is adapting to a new normal amount of food.

Yes I worry about plateauing and having to eat like this forever.

Thanks for the reminder!

Weigh in 10 - 16/8

Height: 156cm/5ft2
Starting weight: 70.1kg
Today weight: 69.9

Not measuring but I feel less bloated and like something good is happening despite hardly any actual loss. Eating 2 ‘normal’ meals per day between 12-8 with less sugar, fewer snacks. I will be drinking alcohol this weekend as I have a party but will try to drink less calorific drinks. Target - 68kg to start with and see how I get on.

What are you all eating?

Hi
update is I weighed myself this morning and I have lost 4lb! Thinking it must be water but not going to knock it

@whatthefreshhell Wow 🤩
@Whydoesnothingwork I'm not eating yet just because I'm going for a run later and I can't do that right after eating. Starving, though. What have you had? Are you drinking this weekend?

Hi everyone, I am finding it really hard to skip my morning cup of tea. I have tried black tea and I can't manage more than a few sips. I don't like green tea or coffee. Any recommendations for a palatable drink for the morning?

Not sure @Bumblebeebum23 - I can't and don't skip my morning tea and have managed to lose 1st 1lb in 2 months 😊

That's reassuring to hear @MerriMarch. I am trying not to get disheartened, but my weight has barely changed since starting (over 2 weeks ago). I've been tracking on MyFitnessPal, and doing 16:8 but the scales are not budging! I know officially tea and milk breaks the fast, so I wondered if I needed to be even stricter. I have a lot to lose, so disappointed I'm not getting bigger losses.

I am doing more like 19:5 and not eating much for lunch.
I have my normal morning tea and then eat a large (delicious) mug of yogurt / porridge oats / raspberry combo for lunch at around 12.30. When I get home from work, I have dinner around 5/5.30 and then don't eat again until about 12.30 the next day.
I've gone from 10st 12lbs to 9st 11lbs in about 2 months and losing around 1 or 2lbs a week.
My tummy is still a bit flabby, but I have definitely lost inches from my legs and my clothes are looser 😊

I've had a blip. Yesterday was my very low calorie day, I'm supposed to be having two a week. Well I woke up at 2am and had toast (well, pita) with jam. No drink was involved! I suppose the "low calorie" was just tooo low because this hasn't happened before.

So, overdoing it might be counterproductive, I suppose is what I'm taking from what happened.

@Bumblebeebum23 I also allowed myself milk in drinks until recently when I found losses had stopped. So it can work, you just don't get the other health benefits of fasting apart from weight loss. Someone recommended cream rather than milk earlier in the thread.

Have you calculated your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)?

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Hi @waistchallenge, Yes, I am eating below my TDEE. I guess I'm just finding it frustrating because usually, when I first start a "diet," it falls off initially. Guess I just need to keep going and not sabotage myself.

Hi @Bumblebeebum23
I had been drinking tea with milk til my friend (who is into fasting) told me it breaks the fast. I now have tea with a slice of lemon and I love it. Really refreshing - let me know how you get on 🤞

Thank you @Thisisthedawningoftheageofaquarius might give that a try x

Also the way you brew tea to drink it black is different, it's supposed to be less strong because it's not going to be diluted by milk. And some.teas are easier to drink without milk, tea in the UK is mainly blended to be drunk with milk.