If I'd known how easy weight loss is

[itslikecakesbutitsnotcakes]

I'm both annoyed and utterly elated.

I'm approaching 50. Obese at 5ft 6 at 97kg (15st 3). I've tried every diet under the sun in the past 20 years and usually given up. I'm a perfectionist so the slightest slip makes me give up. Plateaus and stalls made me lose motivation. My DH cooks and he's like a rake so he'd oblige with diet foods but would lose more weight than me and have to supplement with biscuits and piles of plain carbs so I'd feel bad and stop. Always failed.
I even tried Saxenda. Had no impact at all.
My problem is overeating and over drinking as a habit not for hunger. Even when dieting it was all too easy to think 'one glass of wine won't harm oh and a bit more won't either', 'that was a healthy meal, there's more left in the pan that won't harm' 'ohh I'm hungry, a big hunk of cheese is fine and these nuts and ham... its low carb', 'I've been good all week, let's have a pizza on Saturday'. The self talk was sabotaging.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, the past two and half weeks I have been water fasting and it's been nothing short of miraculous.
-lost 10kg (20lbs so a stone and half)
-energy through the roof, sluggishness and lethargy gone
-brain fog gone
-skin glowing
-bloating gone
-trousers that didn't fit me two weeks ago are now hanging off
-arthritis and bunions in feet pain have massively reduced.
The big thing for me is it takes away the opportunity to self sabotage, no worrying over what to eat and buying and cooking special food, wondering what substitutes for potatoes etc the choice is gone so food and alcohol doesn't enter my head. It's so easy. Once the difficulty of the first few days has gone I honestly want to continue as I feel so amazing.
I start my fast at 10pm Friday and go 90 hours without food. So that takes me to dinner time Thursday. This week I'm going to to go to Friday dinner time so about 115 hours and nearly 5 days.
At weekends I eat one meal a day. Usually dinner and ensure it's low carb but have a few glasses of wine too and start all over again Sunday night. I check I'm in ketosis continually and I continue to lose weight over the weekend.
It's definitely not for everyone but works an absolute dream for me and my personality type and my particular type of addiction to food. Lots of people will think it unhealthy or dangerous but there's planet of peer reviewed quality literature on the huge benefits that long term fasting brings. It's also been a godsend on my alcohol intake that was reaching terrifying levels and certainly becoming an addiction.

I'm elated that this is having such an amazing effect but annoyed I've wasted so much time on crap diets and thousands on injections.

Also. It's ridiculously cheap! I've saved hundreds on food and drink over the past 3 weeks.

You literally didn't eat anything for four days?! Wow. I would love that self control. Do you not faint with hunger though? I can't go a couple of hours without thinking of food.

Do you need to take supplements to make sure you are getting enough iron and calcium etc?

Sorry, have read this twice and am still not sure....is you actual plan just to not eat Anything!!!

Wait,what....stop the press.... eating nothing at all helps you lose weight....

If I can't stick to 1200 calories a day, I sure as hell can't stick to zero....

I was doing 48 hour fasts which I enjoyed. Completely understand what you mean by how much easier it is to just not think about it.

Bloody hell! Do you have a job?

Should your first Friday read Monday?

OP this is really bad for you and disordered eating. Please stop.

Hmm before I became over weight I could manage a day with no food, not so much now
watching with interest

I thought this (starving yourself basically even for 4 hours, let alone days!!) was a dangerous thing to do or is it only "dangerous" when you're using WLI?

Waiting for the outrage (rightly so but rarely comes anywhere else except on WLI threads).

OP this isn't safe. You're going to lose your hair, lose muscle mass, look gaunt, unhealthy, etc and once you stop, you'll pile it all back anyway...(and all the other things people say to those on WLI but won't say it here).

Christ.

Please don't recommend this OP. You're starving yourself and probably going to end up with gallstones at the least. Maybe a heart condition in between if you keep it up.

This sounds very unhealthy...

At 50 you should be upping your protein and combining a healthy diet with strength training. What you are doing is utter madness and you are inviting all sorts of health issues related to your organs.

I’m not sure if this is real…if it is, I am worried as this does not sound healthy in the long term for both physical and mental health. It would be worth speaking to your GP.

go 90 hours without food
but have a few glasses of wine too

Try giving up the alcohol first 🙄 You are fast tracking yourself into trouble.

Do you have a job? I'm a similar height and weight, although a bit older and I can't imagine being able to function if I did what you are doing. I've lost half a stone by cutting out all snacks and eating smaller portions. What you are doing sounds dangerous and unhealthy. It's not sustainable and you'll make yourself ill.

This is
a) not sustainable
b) dangerous
c) probably not true
d) all of the above

Well duh.

It's a bit like how my headstone will state 'Here lies DollopOfFun. Finally managed to lose weight and keep it off'.

On a serious note, OP this is a bad idea for all the reasons possible. This isn't "easy weightloss" in the way you think.

This sounds insane.

Don't feed the trolls

Insanity.

If you don't have an eating disorder yet (sounds like you do), you are swiftly developing one. If you were a teen or woman in your 20a and told a dr what you're doing, they'd be diagnosing you with a dangerous eating disorder and referring you to a ED clinic . Think about that,

This is an eating disorder.

Please go and seek professional help

This is utterly ridiculous. If you eat nothing all week and simply live on water and then eat one meal Saturday, and one meal Sunday then of course the weight will drop off you. The faux surprise is ludicrous.

But what a stupid and disordered thing to do. There is intermittant fasting and there is 'attempting to give myself a serious eating disorder'.

How is your diet plan any different to that of many anorexic teenage girls, OP? You are 'elated' to discover that surviving on water alone works for weight loss? You should know better at your age.

Unhealthy, unsustainable and you'll be depriving your body of essential nutrients and promoting serious muscle depletion and likely calcium loss.

If you can starve yourself for 4 days I'm sure you can stick to a healthy calorie deficit to ensure a steady but healthy weight loss. Even one meal a day is better than this which will just mess up your metabolism and cause you significant harm.