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@bhbee: I'm at least "relieved" that IF isn't triggering the restrict/binge cycle that I am so used to. But I will say that my appetite has largely corrected itself. When I started, I was either super hungry or never hungry during my window. I feel like, now, my appetite is back to where it used to be, but just during certain hours of the day. I think something I can work on is trying to eat more intuitively during my hours. And drinking more water. I was hoping (of course!) to see some more weight loss after weaning, but my weight is pretty much the same for the past few weeks. I really want to lose another 15-20 lbs, but I still am not willing to make this a diet, so...
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@crazydoglady: Well I've only really been doing this for a couple of weeks and I haven't been extremely consistent with timing, I usually fast between 14-15 hours. Today was unintentionally 16 hours and I am not going to lie, I was HANGRY and very impatient that last hour. I haven't weighed myself much, I just weaned from breastfeeding/pumping and I know that's going to affect my weight but I am trying to not get too caught up in the number.
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@crazydoglady: @LadyDi: weaning is a tough transition for your body so I think we all deserve a little grace having recently done so!
I really need to work on water too!
There is part of me that really wants to lose another 20 and there’s part of me that’s like ah whatever don’t want this to be too difficult so - we’ll see! I’m hopeful as the weather improves I’ll be out more which I think helps me.
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How is everyone doing? I have been pretty much maintaining my weight since January-ish and finally have dropped a couple more pounds and have lost all the weight I gained on the F it diet! And have FINALLY dropped down to the next number on the scale (like 159 vs 160.) I was experimenting with not eating until 3ish, but that didn't seem to work for me, so I am trying to have a shorter window of finishing my dinner/dessert by 6/6:30, but my actual feeding time for 16:8 is 11:15-7:15. I wish my lunch were more flexible, but I can only eat from 11:15-11:55 or weight until after 2:30.
Anyway, I have definitely been more flexible with things here and there, but am chugging along and trying to stay committed to 16:8 at the very least. -
@crazydoglady: i fell off the wagon the last few days. I need to be more serious. I will check on this thread more regularly to keep me motivated and on track because I really like doing it. It sounds like you are doing great! I am trying hard to drop down permanently to the next number bracket too.
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I've totally fallen off the wagon and need to get back on. The weekends are so difficult. But even more so, my food choices just aren't as good and that's what is killing my progress. Making a commitment again this week. Though St Paddy's day celebrations will derail it again this weekend...but definitely after that......
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@crazydoglady: that’s awesome onyour progress!
+1 for me on falling off the wagon but, I did 17 last night and I’m hopeful to fast 16+ all this week.
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@bhbee: And then I gained it back...
I really do think I need to start working on my actual diet if I want to lose more weight because I have been maintaining for about 2 months or so. I am not willing to eliminate food groups or count anything (other than hours,) so I think I really need to work on being more mindful of my actual hunger and fullness during my eating hours. I have been doing a lot more snacking/eating when not truly hungry than I had when I first started.
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@crazydoglady: I hear you completely. My habits have just gotten awful since the holidays and I’m not even really sure why! So I think part of what I need to do is focus on self care (like sleeping enough, etc) and hoping that helps me make better decisions that are not based on being harried or stressed. Good luck!!
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Is it just me or does anyone else feel like the coronavirus quarantine is going to be bad for fasting. More time at home just means more time to cave and eat all of the snacks I impulsed purchased at costco yesterday.
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@LadyDi: oh I thought that today too. I’ve been pretty good this week but today showed me my kids are going to stress me out (and all I did was keep my middle home from preschool and not leave the house) and stress eating is my kryptonite!!
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@LadyDi: yep, yep, yep. Intermittent fasting only works for me at work, not home.
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Ok ladies, stepped on the scale today and yikes. We’ve been home less than a week! I’m toying with trying to do 10-6 but I really miss the ease that skipping dinners was for me. But it doesn’t feel right when we’re all home, it was different when dh never ate with us during the week. I really love to eat when I get up but I may have to get over that - the morning is when I’m most productive so maybe I can focus on getting busy and get to 10?
Anyone else have strategies for not gaining during lockdown? I’ve given up on trying to lose for now, except these couple pounds I saw today! I’m also trying to not eat between meals and focus on real food.
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@LadyDi: @DesertDreams88: @bhbee: YES! Like, I am currently drinking coffee with half and half...and a little sugar. I still won't eat breakfast, but I have been eating after my window is closed. Definitely emotional eating with my school closing etc. Luckily, I havent seen much movement in the scale...yet.
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@bhbee: I actually find fasting when I am busiest to be super easy. I am so busy, it seems to help! Maybe just try it? I think having a maintain menatlity is a great idea. I still really want to lose 15-20 lbs...but not today.
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@bhbee: Agreed on the getting busy and getting if off of your mind! I usually do 12-8 and it's been harder at home when I have to feed the littles constantly vs when I''m in the office and am constantly on the go. The other issues I'm having is that nothing healthy sounds good at home. When I'm at work, I eat pretty well b/c I freeze soups and reheat them in my mini crock pot but at home it's like I'm paralyzed with what I have available. It's a whole new world!
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Anyone else fall "off the bandwagon?" Like, I just want to eat poptarts at 10pm...Things have been going so well, not feeling deprived at all and then the pandemic hit and my emotional eating and has gotten CRAZY.
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@crazydoglady: haha yes. I think the only thing saving me is I’m doing a good job cooking a lot for the family, since we now all eat 3 meals a day here, so I’m not grabbing crappy food for meals. Thankfully today we found everything we need for the week at one store, food supplies near us have not been great and shelter in place starts tomorrow so things are only getting crazier around us. And homeschooling starts this week since we were off last. And I’ve got family drama with my mom.
I’m baking a ton and generally breaking the fasting window into tiny pieces and the breakfast skipping has been non-existent. I keep joking about the “quarantine 15” with dh but it’s going to be hard to manage! I hope we kind of get into a new normal and stress goes down but I don’t know. Solidarity at least!
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DH and I have definitely gotten a little more lax about our fasting window with everyone being at home. We are still skipping breakfast which helps with the food rationing since the boys are eating sooooo much.
We both seem to have hit a plateau but I think I'm ok with that for now. Going to focus on not gaining as the stress makes it harder to lose anyway.
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Just checking in with everyone. It's been hard to follow my typical eating window with so many snacks in the house and not working. However. I am up 3ish lbs, so I decided get serious about IF again. For the past two days, I have been fasting from 6:30-10:30 and then allowing myself to have half and half in my coffee from 10:30-12:30. I still really want to lose 20 more pounds and would like to lose a majority of it before school starts back up again (hopefully) in August.
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So, despite my previous post, this is not going well...definitely binged last night on random snacks even though I had already brushes my teeth and set my zero app to fast. Anyone else struggling with IF right now? Maybe now is just a time to maintain.
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@crazydoglady: yes I’ve been terrible especially with Easter, we had candy around and I made special foods all day. I did do an 18hr fast yesterday as a sort of cleanse and it felt really good, so I am trying to remember that. I really think losing is going to be hard. It’ll be a huge win if I can lose the 5 lb gained since my low
so my goal is probably to do 14hr fasts and try to limit the damage.
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EASTER CANDY!!!! AHHHHHH! Why did I buy stuff that I like? This weekend definitely threw me off. And I"m having a hard time just being home with the snacks. I had breakfast this morning instead of fasting. And it was chips and queso. Tomorrow's another day.
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I've been just trying to maintain. During the week I have been trying to stick to 14 hour fasts and squeeze in a 30 minute workout of some kind. On the weekends I drink wine and eat ice cream before bed. It's really hard though, ESPECIALLY with easter candy floating around and my mom drove by on Monday and put an entire cake on our porch.
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yeeeahhhh I've gained about 5 lbs with just these past 5 weeks so I need to slow my roll and get back to some self-discipline / non-emotional-eating.
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Thanks for everyone who has shared their experiences! DH and I started IF and I kept the cream in my coffee--I lost like 1 lb the first 8 days. I decided to experiment with doing a true clean fast and lost 2.5 lbs in 4 days
I feel WAY less bloated too!
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I am an IF newbie and was curious as to whether all of you ladies are still doing this and what sort of results you have had. I had baby #3 in March and this is the first time I haven’t been able to just shed the weight with minimal effort (can’t decide how much of this is pandemic related and how much is having hit my 40s).
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@Shantuck: ugh I totally fell off the wagon during covid when my IF schedule wasn’t as easy to manage. But I’m still a true believer! I originally lost 20 pounds in about 3 months and found it so doable. I still feel a lot better on the days I do 16:8 but I’m trying to at least get back on 14:10 as I think it helps my overall appetite in addition to cutting out late night eating. It was by far the easiest diet to follow of anything I’ve done for those 3 months but I do find it hard when all 5 of us are home all the time so this year I hope to find some middle ground while we wait out covid.
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I started this back up again in December. I wasn't too super strict about it b/c....holidays. I don't know that I really lost anything but I didn't gain anything and let's be honest, if you don't gain over the holidays, that's a win!
That being said, I finally read the book "Fast, Feast, Repeat" by Gin Stephens and it really put everything into perspective for me. I don't think I really understood the mechanics of IF or why it works until I read the science behind it. I also joined a few FB support groups that have answered a lot of my questions and have given me support and held me accountable. I tend to get uncomfortable around groups like this as they sometimes give off a "cultish" vibe to me but I had a long talk with my doctor about this. She was the first one to suggest IF to me and I trust her. The biggest thing I'm doing right now is cutting out booze in January and doing 18;6 fasts during the week but allowing 16:8 fasts on the weekends. I will slowly be adding in exercise.
Good luck! I'd love to hear how everyone is doing!
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@Shantuck: Hi! I was on this thread early on but REALLY committed after Christmas 2019. We had a lot go on family wise those holidays and it was just the right time to make myself a priority. I embraced the clean fast (read Gin Stephens) and moved pretty quickly to a 19:5 and towards the last quarter of the year did mostly OMAD with about 2 days a week that I eat a 19:5. This is just kind of the schedule my body has naturally switched to. I just had my one year anniversary and have lost 50 lbs.
It's honestly been life changing for me. Since I'd had my 2nd child (he's 8!) I'd tried 1000 things to lose weight, including things that had worked prior and literally NOTHING worked including being super strict and cutting out so many foods. This has let me continue to have dessert and fast food and weekly pizza. Anyhow, that's a brief story. But feel free to ask questions.
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@Twolittlemen: does your schedule revolve around eating at dinner time then? My biggest struggle is that my natural inclination is to eat early and then fast, but I don’t like never eating family dinners because of what messages it may send. I was very successful when dh wasn’t home for dinner much and so just the kids ate but have struggled since covid when we’re all here and eat together. It’s so easy for me to not eat later in the day and so hard to not eat earlier, so if you have any great tips on switching up the schedule let me know!
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@bhbee: Yes, I eat dinner. Mostly because it's important to me to eat with my family and I work outside the house 8-5. If' I were single and had access to eating a nice meal earlier, my body is more naturally inclined to want to eat my main meal around 2. But honestly that doesn't work for me in a variety of ways, ie I'd have to eat out or pack it to be reheated and I'd never eat with my family. So I've just trained myself to eat later over time. So if I'm eating a 19:5 I'd open at 2 and close at 7. This allows me to have something when I really start to feel hunger but still eat with my family. And if I'm busy I can generally easily put off eating til 5 pm. if I'm at work that lets me extend to 5:40 because then I'm commuting and I just refuse to let my first bite of food be car snack food.
Also since I'm putting off eating for so long I just refuse to give anything up and knowing that if I just wait longer means I can eat a dessert most of the time that's enough for me to wait. It's truly delay, not deny. Can I wait an extra hour if I can have a cookie and ice cream for dessert? that sounds like a great bargain. I don't think I would have had nearly as much success if I was also restricting my food choice or quantity.
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@Twolittlemen: Hi there! So I'm actually finding that I'm doing 19:5 during the week and it's been pretty easy. Would love to hear from you what you eat during your window at this point. I, too, prioritize family meals so I'm trying to figure out how best to open up my window. So far I'm finding that I'm eating too big of a meal b/c I'm hungry at 1 and then I'm not hungry at all when we eat dinner at 5:30. I can't tell if it's just a portion size issue or if I need to completely change up what I'm doing. Any advice?
Tomorrow I'm actually going to go into the office so I'm going to see if I can actually make it all the way to dinner time and do OMAD instead.
Also, how do you handle the weekends? I'm great during the week b/c working enables me to follow a routine. Weekends are super tough because I can't make a good plan.
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@Mommy Finger: so at work- I try and keep the adult style lunchables/ mini charcuterie things in the fridge and I Also work a block from a Chick-fil-A and I can do nuggets and iced tea (my work is pretty flexible about running out at unconventional times). And at home I will generally do meat and cheese wraps dipped in mustard or apple and on or carrots and hummus or nuts and cheese. Something like that. Filling snacks more than meals. I can rarely eat 2 meals in that time frame. I’m just not that hungry most of the time. But sometimes I am.
On the weekends I actually have very little trouble doing OMAD because I’m busy and if I’m tempted I can leave the house. Like go to target or go on a walk or physically remove myself from the environment. Unlike during the week when I have to stay in one place for work.
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@Twolittlemen: Thanks! That makes sense.
And we're totally the opposite. I can distract myself at work but on the weekends I'm with the kids and I"m always thinking about feeding them so they don't get cranky. I also do a lot of my meal prep for the week on the weekends and it's hard to do that without sneaking a taste to make sure the seasoning is right on what I'm cooking. With a short window, it's hard to plan to get it all done there. Either way, just something to get used to!
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It's great to hear so many have had success. It's probably mostly water weight but I started Saturday and am already down 5 lbs with 16:8 IF and daily Peloton/strength training. My husband is doing this also and is already down 6 lbs. So far so good and seems so manageable so far.
I really do think I need to start working on my actual diet if I want to lose more weight because I have been maintaining for about 2 months or so. I am not willing to eliminate food groups or count anything (other than hours,) so I think I really need to work on being more mindful of my actual hunger and fullness during my eating hours. I have been doing a lot more snacking/eating when not truly hungry than I had when I first started.
so my goal is probably to do 14hr fasts and try to limit the damage.
I feel WAY less bloated too!
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