Hey y'all! Anyone and everyone is welcome to jump in and join us.

This is the Intermittent Fasting DAily Menu/Results/Accountability Thread. It's where a few of us (or many) are going to log in and encourage each other while we experiment with our own IF plans. You can list or talk about anything--not just your food. I look forward to adding in HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and core exercises to my walking plan while practicing IF. So expect to hear about that too. hehe I expect some of us will talk about the known IF side-effects like insomnia, circadian rhythm disturbance, etc. It's all good! Let's hack this IF mofo! mkay?

There is not any 1 specific IF plan--there are so many to choose from, so this is a BYOIFP (bring-your-own-IF-plan) and join the fun! This is the thread where we'll post our daily menus and maybe some piccys at times! We can discuss progress, issues we might notice, look at how we may want to refine our own personal plans. I do think you should be healed from surgery and have your doctor's and RD's blessings to try something like this and you should do a ton of research and reading about Intermittent Fasting.

IF isn't only about weight loss, it's about taking specific measures to limit either quantities, calories, macros, or sometimes only consciously altering eating windows/schedules in order to effect metabolic change and reduce inflammation and improve health markers.

Ok, let's do this thang!!!

6 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

So I've decided if I lose anymore it cant come so quickly or from my face or twins...

My cheeks (north and south) are totally gone and my twins are just a memory! I mean, they were only Cs at my heaviest, so the bar was pretty low to begin with, but now I have 80-yr-old man bubbies! Just a bit of jiggle around the pink!

Edited March 22, 20197 yr by Orchids&Dragons

Ok. I have been unaccountable lol.....

I have been doing some thinking, and misbehaving and thinking about the misbehaving. I stumbled onto a website that has helped me with the psychological (psycho ?) stuff that rolls around in your head that you are never enough, that no matter what you do, unless you are a star at it, you are a failure....hmmm All about THE GOAL, whatever the genre - in this case the ultimate wl goal. The website is https://www.whywesuffer.com

THEN Fluffy sends out that podcast link from the bariatric surgeon, and his psych stuff ties right into the other one. Major epiphanies in head stuff and nutrition (thanks @FluffyChix)

Plus I have been biting the bullet to get back to 3 squares and edging into keto this week.

2 hours ago, Orchids&Dragons said:

My cheeks (north and south) are totally gone and my twins are just a memory! I mean, they were only Cs at my heaviest, so the bar was pretty low to begin with, but now I have 80-yr-old man bubbies! Just a bit of jiggle around the pink!

Oh nooooooooooooo

Hello team! I’ve been catching up on some of the thread as I’m a new convert to IF (I started yesterday...)

I’m doing the 16:8 plan and already really excited about the mental shifts that are part of this in terms of my eating patterns and planning. I’m on spring break right now so I’m doing 12:30-830 window, then once I’m back at work next week I’m going to do 11-7 (since I’ve been waking up a bit later this week). I am doing about 1/2 a premier protein in my coffee when I wake up and otherwise just water/tea/clear and calorie free liquids during fasting hours.

I’ve also gotten strict with myself about tracking everything in MFP again over the last week, so between that and IF I’m hoping to focus more on my macros, eating more veggies and cutting down on carbs.

I’m doing this now in part because I’m in a monster stall (two months hovering between 203-206) and because I have many bad/problematic eating habits that I was able to get away with not addressing my first several months that I’d really like to start getting serious about dealing with now.

Who knows if I’ll lose more weight - I kind of hope so but I’m also kind of happy with where I’m at right now, or working on getting there. Mostly what I want to tackle is my eating and huger patterns, and I think IF will be a really great tool in helping me do that!

???

@Orchids&Dragons I'm so sorry about the state of your tubesocks girls. ((hugs))

@Sosewsue61 Welcome back my friend! Hold on tight and do it just for today. We can do anything for 1 day. Then tomorrow wake up and recommit for 1 day. Pretty soon you'll be going strong and you will catch the fire. I swear seeing the scale move quickly is the big motivator. Just embrace the suck for 1 day only. ((hugs))

@GreenTealael Can I just tell you that I adore your videos!!!??? Love the links you post - they teach so much and are very helpful and uplifting/empowering! Fiber = Big Crush for me. Must. Have. Fiber. LURVE fiber! Love Dr. B.

@AEdoesRnY Welcome! Hope you will hang out here and post often. There are some super duper posts in the last 153pages. Bahahahaha! Happy reading/losing. IF really helps shake the tree up. I also recommend a "lowerish" carb approach. Even though @sillykitty wasn't LC/keto by her foods, I believe she was/is by virtue of her restriction and daily calories. And I really think we all want to access the fat stores in our body rather than burning lean tissue. Being keto means you have access to your fat stores to make up the nutrition you need when you're in calorie restriction from fasting. If you are only in calorie restriction (that may be high enough to keep you from ketosis), then you don't have access to those fat stores and your body smartly down regulates your metabolism in alignment with your calorie restriction. Plain as mud, right?

I'm doing good here y'all. Still bouncing between 140-144. Today I'm 141.0 and will hopefully be 140 tomorrow again. Or maybe I will tick down into the 130s? I can hope. Right? I want to be @sillykitty when I grow up.

4 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

@AEdoesRnY Welcome! Hope you will hang out here and post often. There are some super duper posts in the last 153pages. Bahahahaha! Happy reading/losing. IF really helps shake the tree up. I also recommend a "lowerish" carb approach. Even though @sillykitty wasn't LC/keto by her foods, I believe she was/is by virtue of her restriction and daily calories. And I really think we all want to access the fat stores in our body rather than burning lean tissue. Being keto means you have access to your fat stores to make up the nutrition you need when you're in calorie restriction from fasting. If you are only in calorie restriction (that may be high enough to keep you from ketosis), then you don't have access to those fat stores and your body smartly down regulates your metabolism in alignment with your calorie restriction. Plain as mud, right?

Thank you! I've been skimming through past posts though I'll admit I didn't get even close to looking at all 153 pages! I'll work on catching up because I don't want to make anyone repeat themselves/ask questions that have been asked a million times!

I definitely want to cut down on my carbs - I was kind of horrified to realize that my carbs were around 175 the last few days even though my calories were good! I think I'm going to start off by focusing on lowering overall carbs but also paying attention to net carbs and fiber/carb ratios. I need to cut down on "fluff" so I'm thinking net carbs might be a good way to steer me toward 'better' carbs as I'm working on lowering carbs overall. But we'll see what happens with that!

I'm thinking as a starting place to be under 75g carbs total and then under 50g "net carbs" (i.e. carbs minus fiber). Trying to decide if that's a reasonable/worthwhile goal, but I think it's a good and ambitious-for-me starting point even if the numbers are still way higher than what others do!

22 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

Orchids&Dragons I'm so sorry about the state of your tubesocks girls.  ((hugs))

Cs can't get to tube socks, more like booties!

24 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

I'm doing good here y'all. Still bouncing between 140-144. Today I'm 141.0 and will hopefully be 140 tomorrow again. Or maybe I will tick down into the 130s? I can hope. Right?  I want to be @sillykitty when I grow up. 

That's wonderful! 130s soon, for sure! Congrats!

Intermittent Fasting Supporting Cognitive Functioning

https://siimland.com/can-intermittent-fasting-make-you-smarter/

2 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

@AEdoesRnY Welcome! Hope you will hang out here and post often. There are some super duper posts in the last 153pages. Bahahahaha! Happy reading/losing. IF really helps shake the tree up. I also recommend a "lowerish" carb approach. Even though @sillykitty wasn't LC/keto by her foods, I believe she was/is by virtue of her restriction and daily calories. And I really think we all want to access the fat stores in our body rather than burning lean tissue. Being keto means you have access to your fat stores to make up the nutrition you need when you're in calorie restriction from fasting. If you are only in calorie restriction (that may be high enough to keep you from ketosis), then you don't have access to those fat stores and your body smartly down regulates your metabolism in alignment with your calorie restriction. Plain as mud, right?

I'm doing good here y'all. Still bouncing between 140-144. Today I'm 141.0 and will hopefully be 140 tomorrow again. Or maybe I will tick down into the 130s? I can hope. Right? I want to be @sillykitty when I grow up.

Hey that's me!

Yes, I have never been a low carb-er. But when I was in my weight loss phase, as @FluffyChix pointed out, I was low carb by default, due to my restriction + needing to hit my protein goal. I was consistently in ketosis solely due to being on basically a very low calorie diet.

I think, IF also may have helped to protect me from ruining my metabolism, since I was eating so few cals, so often. I inadvertently did a modified 5:2 form of IF. When I was home I'd be very focused, very low cal. But then during work travel I'd be all over the place, like biscuits and gravy for breakfast kind of thing. But again due to restriction, and a structured eating schedule (3 meals a day), I was never insane with cals even those days. I may just be grasping at straws here, because I've been far more successful then I deserve to be, and I don't know why I've been so lucky.

@AEdoesRnY Welcome!

I'm not currently doing IF because I'm trying to find my maintenance sweet spot. But I love that I have it in my back pocket for if or when (ok, realistically, it's when not if) I start to regain. (For the record I'm ok with some regain, as long as it's in the right places)

My favorite things about IF

- Decreased hunger - I've never felt so in control as when I was actively doing IF. I did 18:6 or 20:4 for the most part. I'm not naturally a breakfast eater, so I just pushed my first meal back as far as possible, some days that was 10 am, some days it was 4 pm, and either was fine by me. Then after my evening meal, I just tried not to snack. Or if I did need to eat something, I just made sure it was super low cal, like cucumbers, or jerky. The longer and more consistently I did IF, the easier it became. I was natural to reach for a drink vs. something to eat. Pushing my first meal later and later became easier. For the most part, I was truly not hungry, even though I might be spending 20 hrs of my day not eating.

- Flexibility - If one day IF just isn't possible, due to schedule, or hunger, or whatever, that's perfectly fine. Nothing is ruined, you didn't fail, you just didn't do IF that day, no big deal. This is an incredibly freeing concept for me. I mean if you are on a low carb diet and you eat a bowl of pasta, you feel like a failure, right? I don't see IF like that at all. I mean some versions of IF are high/low days (like 5:2), so if you eat during a longer window, or you made some not great choices, that's just a high day, right?

Ok, that's my IF soapbox, thanks for listening!

Edited March 27, 20197 yr by sillykitty

^^^This a meeeeellllion percent! Love this post!!

@sillykitty You really are a silly kitty! Girl, you worked your fanny off and you know it. You deserve to be celebrated for your accomplishment and ARE celebrated! You;re a smart girl. You could have figured out a way around your restriction!! And in fact, you noted several meals where you felt like you could eat more! So not only does it take very great mindfulness skills to listen to your restriction--it's far from a slam dunk!!!!

MUAH! And congrats on your below goal weight. You look beautiful!! And if some regain happens, you know what to do about it if it doesn't end up where you want it!

20 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

^^^This a meeeeellllion percent! Love this post!!

@sillykitty You really are a silly kitty! Girl, you worked your fanny off and you know it. You deserve to be celebrated for your accomplishment and ARE celebrated! You;re a smart girl. You could have figured out a way around your restriction!! And in fact, you noted several meals where you felt like you could eat more! So not only does it take very great mindfulness skills to listen to your restriction--it's far from a slam dunk!!!!

MUAH! And congrats on your below goal weight. You look beautiful!! And if some regain happens, you know what to do about it if it doesn't end up where you want it!

Ahhhh, thanks @FluffyChix!

But I have undoubtedly been extremely fortunate that have lost as much as I have, and been able to maintain, so far. I do think it is important to recognize that I am an outlier though. I have been far more successful than average, with 100% of my excess weight lost, and also that I didn't need to be "perfect", or quite honestly even close to perfect, to get there.

It's no doubt, the cardio-intensive regimen you follow.

Well, I am doing fine. No snacking, delaying bf about 3 hours and finding out it works for me. Cut carbs back most days around 24, the rest 30-50.

Dr. Cywes really hit the ball out of the park for me it seems. He also said the reality is we cannot be perfect at this all the time, don't think of this journey as having a goal, THIS is the goal in essence.

My occasionally (s) were more like frequently (s) of consuming the carbs. Can we just talk granddaughter's homemade strawberry cupcakes for her birthday here? LOL I baked them. Then I just thought about sugar nonstop - put down the cupcakes (drugs).

I have had good restriction from the beginning, I just pretended (lying) I wasn't eating that many bad carbs. BUT those months might have been a glimpse at what maintenance looks like when I get there. At my age, it is unpredictable and since I have not been at a normal weight for over 42 years it will take some time to figure out.

And from reading there are issues with weight gain 3-5 yrs out in many cases.... but at age 70 who knows what that will look like.