Just got back from my Tuesday weigh in and hit my 10%. Had an unhealthly restrictive week to restart the weight loss. Major calorie and portion control, as weight loss had kind of stalled and wanted a kick start. Back to more controlled methods as a 3kg loss in a week isnt good for you.
This is my experience too. I've managed to do six days (and counting) of intermittent fasting, latterly 18 hours per day of zero solids and a 12pm-6pm unrestricted eating window, and off the back of that I'm doing regular exercise for the first time in months. I can't believe how quickly I'm feeling like a different person, especially when it comes to motivation and energy levels. A strict 18-6 split would mean zero calories for 18 hours, and I've never done that (nor do I think it's necessary). I'll have coffee with milk when I start work at 8am, and a little later I'll have a very small glass of fruit juice, and these help tide me over until midday when I can start eating. After maybe a couple of weeks of the restrictive fasting I'll relax it to 16-8, which means I can chomp down more protein in the morning.
Currently down 2.3kg since the start of the month, which is a little over NHS lose-half-a-kilo-a-week recommendations, but most of that was at the start; since then, it's been annoyingly flat. I was 86.4kg on the 17th, I'm 86.4kg this morning. Decided, based on the above, to dip my toes into the fasting game - not properly, mind, but just by stopping eating by 1900 of a night. That should give me 12 full hours of fasting, 13 if I stay in bed a bit longer. We'll see if I can stick to it - I've got used to my pre-bedtime bowl of cereal!
I have completely cut out further food after dinner, despite always being a "cereal for supper" person, and to be honest I have not missed it at all.
Well, day one of the new routine and I'm not a fan. Despite having had the same number of calories as any other day, I was proper hungry last night. Weirdly, though, I wasn't when I woke up - I've just finished breakfast, but I reckon I could happily have pushed it out an hour or two later. (But I won't, 'cos then I'd have to interrupt the morning's work.) And it's most likely a coincidence, but my weight loss has restarted - was 86.4kg yesterday, 86kg on the button today. Let's see if the trend continues!
@Gareth Halfacree fasting is really tough, but you definitely get used to it. I'm almost a fortnight into it now and I find late evenings the most difficult because generally I'm not doing anything and therefore I'm aware of the sensation of hunger / empty stomach, and I'm also a big proponent of the pre-bedtime cereal, which is a hard habit to break. A small cup of decaf tea usually keeps the cravings at bay. In the mornings I just get stuck into work with a cup of coffee and I'm so distracted that the hours just fly past, and sometimes I'm not eating until almost 1pm (which, admittedly, is probably not ideal). Come next week I'm going to start having a late breakfast at 10am, but no gorging - strictly 2-3 eggs and nothing else. Not particularly looking forward to it!
As @LennyRhys says, you need to give it a while to get used to it. You're probably just not used to the sensation of being hungry of an evening. I occasionally skip breakfast and on days where I do, I suppose I'm going from 7pm the day before until 1pm without eating anything, which is an 18-hour window. When I started doing that, I was honestly concerned that something was wrong because by about 11am my stomach was rumbling and growling in a very disconcerting manner. But after doing this maybe three or four times (not consecutive days, mind!) I found I was able to get through to 1pm without any trouble, and actually felt bizarrely good doing it.
Still early days, but I think I'm getting a little less miserable of an evening now. Actually stopped eating at 1800 last night, 'cos I hit my calorie goal early, and have only just had breakfast. Something's got the weight loss back on the table, too: I've dropped to 85.5kg now after a week of hovering around 86.4kg. Also, a (somewhat arbitrary) milestone: the app for my body-analysis scales is saying my fat percentage is "HEALTH" [sic] instead of "OVERFAT." It's still complaining about my muscle percentage, mind, but still: progress!
Chapter 2 - portion size. I was always exactly 13 stone. Any heavier and I felt terrible. Well we all know how that went. The other day I stepped back onto the scales feeling proud of myself and well, 16 stones. This is nothing compared to the 21, but still way out of my league. So I had a think about it, and tried to figure out why I was now so heavy. Turns out I am eating far, far too much. It's like a ritual. Take the pills, feel like you are stoned on weed, stuff your face (very comforting) and then go to bed. However, I did an experiment the other night and figured that if I ate half of what I normally do it still all goes the same, I don't feel hungry the next day, and yeah surely I can get below 15 for the first time in many many years? Gotta be worth a shot. It also means food will become half of the price (or more, I got 4 bits of cod in breadcrumbs the other day) that it was before. I still have a huge portion of veggies 'cause, well, why not? but yeah. It is time to return to normal for the first time in over a decade.
OK so I am now four days into this half diet. And what would you know? I feel absolutely no different. In fact, I feel like I have more energy. Last night I had come Piccolino meatballs. You get 6 in a tray with some sauce and cheese. Figured it may be a bit mean to eat half, but eat half I did with a tiny portion of spaghetti. Had a bowl of cereal for afters (fruit all gone and I am leaving in two days so no point spending £40 to get some delivered) and sure enough today I have changed the bed, put the load in the washer and hoovered the entire flat. Not only will this do me an awful lot of good, but it will also mean food now costs half. Bonus. What I do need to do, however, is get some 8" plates. So that I am not tempted to fill up one of the huge buggers I have now. Besides they are 7 years old and chipped, so that's the perfect excuse
Yeah, I was going to say when you posted yesterday: get smaller plates. The psychological effect of a full plate is pretty remarkable in making you think that you have more food than you do (and vice-versa, of course!)
On the matter of portion sizes, I've found that I just can't eat as much now as I used to when I was much younger and more active. It doesn't mean that I don't want to eat more (I always do, hence grazing), but I guess now I'm more conscious of how much I'm eating because of fasting and the "diet-mind". The idea of smaller plates is an interesting take on the psychology of fullness - in addition to that, it's worth trying to eat at a slower pace and chewing food more thoroughly, which can help you to feel full sooner. Good to see abother BTer back on the wagon.
Whilst perched atop le crappiér this morning*, I made a snap decision to get back on the scales again every day. Thanks to ADHD, it’s either all or nothing: that nebulous concept of “self discipline” simply doesn’t exist unless I build it into my routine every day. Pleasantly surprised to see that, since I last confronted that detestable glass plate in September, it’s come down from 160.3kg to 153.2kg. 7.1kg down with basically zero effort on my part. Sooooo… back to calorie counting (myfitnesspal and scanning barcodes) and portion control. I’m the one that does all the cooking anyway, so I’ve already been trying to get into the habit of measuring and limiting how much I put on the plate. As opposed to just… eyeballing it: “yeah that looks about right for pasta”, or “that doesn’t look like it’s enough chips, better dump some more in”. This also comes back to that point about plate sizes: if I’m doing something with chips, 200g per person looks pretty pathetic on our plates. And 200g is already pretty generous, most resources I found recommended more like 100-150g per person. *Look, peeing while sitting down is just comfortable, ok? It’s not “EmAsCuLaTiNg” or any of that incel claptrap, it’s just comfortable first thing in the morning.
End-of-February check-in! That three-day rise? That was my blow-out day. No ragerts, still. Other than that, decent drop: 88.5kg at the start of the month, 84.6kg today. That's a near-4kg loss, or twice the NHS recommendation. Not quite at the level of a crash-diet, tho', so I should be good to keep on with what I'm doing. Blood pressure's been much improved since getting the drugs for it, who'd have guessed. Still a couple of higher days towards the start, but I've been in the green for a week now. Huzzah!
^ Do you have a target weight? I suppose it's all relative - I'm carrying a fair bit of muscle and also gaining muscle atm so weighing myself is mostly pointless, hence why I'm relying on the tape measure to track my progress. My waist is now down from about 40" to 38.5", and I have a target of 37" so there's a fair bit to go yet, but I'm three weeks in and still have the drive to keep pressing on. I'll be doing one final week of 18:6 fasting, which includes my daily treat of a Creme Egg with a glass of milk. Granted, my "fat loss" phase is not optimal, but it's happy, which means it's sustainable.
I'm not massively muscly, so BMI works for me - I'm ideally aiming for two-thirds the way up the healthy scale, or dead-centre if I can reach it. In terms of weight, I've set a 75kg goal in the MedM app - chosen 'cos it's a nice round number. The stupid calorie-tracking app, though, won't let you set a goal weight less than humpty-tump percent of your current weight, so that's set at something daft like 78.4kg - I'll drop it down to 75kg when I reach it. Haven't bothered measuring my waist, but it's visibly smaller - and I've had to tighten my belt a few times (though it's a continuous-adjustment thing, so I don't get the pleasure of saying "down another notch!") Disappointing start to the week, though: went on a walk yesterday, burned 555 calories by the watch, and am somehow heavier than I've been all last week. Boo-urns!
I think I might have to cut some more calories: I've been 85kg ±0.5kg since the 26th. It's super frustrating. I remember this happened last time, and I went from 1800 to 1600 calories a day to restart it. EDIT: There we go, set a new goal in the app and it's dropped me to 1610 calories. Retrospectively, sadly, so now it thinks I've been eating 250 calories a day above my goal, but whatever.
I am no nutritionist but 1600 cals a day seems pretty low? I certainly don't think I'd fancy subsisting on that for any length of time.
Sedentary lifestyle, innit. My commute is to the bottom of the garden, and my job involves sitting on my backside all day.
