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!!!

19 hours ago, Apple1 said:

Yesterday I planned to eat just one meal. I ate dinner at about 6:30 which was just about 30 minutes shy of 24 hours since my last meal. I did drink 2 large cups of coffee and plenty of Water. I ended up having a snack after the group meeting about 10 pm,so I am not sure it was really one meal, but I ended the day with only 774 calories consumed.

I went for a run yesterday morning!!! This was my first time since knee surgery 2 months ago to repair a torn meniscus. It went pretty good. I only ran 2 miles and I definitely did not push myself. I am a little sore but the knee feels ok. I ran then walked, then ran. I felt the pull to keep running like I used to and it felt so dang good. I am praying I can keep going with no pain.

OMG! Music to my ears!!! Also, lots of discussion about this but one of my groups Dr. Mindy Pelz on FB says that autophagy starts as early as 16 hours or so...and that it can clean up bad proteins such as your knees, arthritis etc! So happy to hear your report. And even better, that switching up the game and making it new has done the same thing for you that it has done to a lot of us!! You have your mojo back!!! WWWOOOOHOOOO!!

12 minutes ago, summerset said:

Still no chance to get about 2000 to 2500 kcal during that eating window. At least not if I don't want to gorge on nuts.

are those your maintenance calories? with fasting, you don't worry about calorie deficits on fast days. You make up for them by having feast days. With fasting, your insulin is super low so fat stores can be accessed. So there is very little "deficit" to be had unless you have no or very low fat stores...as long as your insulin is low enough that your body can access them.

And typically that's harder for people who each carbs, than for those who are already following a low carb or keto style diet.

On 02/04/2020 at 11:19, summerset said:

Interestingly enough my focus is way better during the fasting window, especially when at the angiography table.

Yeah, but I’ve learned that if I don’t fast for at least 18-20 hours I don’t get the benefit of increased focus.
Had a killer class just now (18 hrs fasting) but since yesterday was such a skimpy non-fasting calorie day, I decided to go ahead and eat rather than try to stretch it another day.
We’ve got major weather coming our way, and I decided eating before work would be preferable to not-eating in case it gets really bad out there

So how many calories do you maintainers try to do after a fast?
I just had some Italian meatball and shirataki noodle bake that hubs made last night.
It was 3 meatballs with some Alfredo sauce, with a pile of the shirataki.
Totally filled me up and From what MFP tells me, about 350 cals.
Prolly won’t “eat” again til later when I’m at work and will have a protein shake.

I might even get a little crazy and add in 2oz mixed nuts...... ???

Well, I'm an outlier and my maintenance calories are only around 1100/day. So the days I do IF or ADF are purposeful low cal days. That way on my Feast Days, I can have 1400-1600 cals and still maintain my weight week in and week out. So I don't worry about getting things "IN" other than making sure I have sufficient protein. Cals hit the low that I want. Cuz I'm fasting. Since it's ADF and not an every day thing, I don't worry about hitting some mythical caloric threshold.

The test for me is whether my weight drops during the week, or stays within a pound or two of itself. Right now I'm on the way back down from 134lbs. I'm 133.2lbs today and tomorrow will expect to be 132ish again.

12 minutes ago, Sheribear68 said:

So how many calories do you maintainers try to do after a fast?
I just had some Italian meatball and Shirataki noodle bake that hubs made last night.
It was 3 meatballs with some Alfredo sauce, with a pile of the shirataki.
Totally filled me up and From what MFP tells me, about 350 cals.
Prolly won’t “eat” again til later when I’m at work and will have a Protein Shake.

I might even get a little crazy and add in 2oz mixed nuts...... ???

Zero calorie fillers like Shirataki noodles IMO aren't compatible with both fasting and maintaining. How about Edamame pasta instead?

2 hours ago, summerset said:

How do you get enough calories in within a 4 h eating window? I find that to be impossible.

I never worry about that anymore, I gave up trying to be perfect?

Do any of you do orange theory or CrossFit or workouts that burn 500 calories? I’m interested in trying intermittent fasting but my workout is at 6:15 am and I can’t imagine it would be healthy to not at least have a protein shake after. Or do you just do IT on days you don’t work out?

5 hours ago, AnnieD78 said:

Do any of you do orange theory or CrossFit or workouts that burn 500 calories? I’m interested in trying intermittent fasting but my workout is at 6:15 am and I can’t imagine it would be healthy to not at least have a Protein Shake after. Or do you just do IT on days you don’t work out?

I find my best workouts are in the mornings after I’ve fasted for at least 12-14 hours.
today I killed a pretty advanced noon class and I was 17+ hours fasting then.

8 hours ago, sillykitty said:

Zero calorie fillers like Shirataki noodles IMO aren't compatible with both fasting and maintaining. How about Edamame Pasta instead?

Never have tried that.
I have had a protein shake, 2 ounces red meat and 1 oz Brie since breaking fast and I’m pretty full even though I ate my last food almost 4 hours ago

8 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

Well, I'm an outlier and my maintenance calories are only around 1100/day. So the days I do IF or ADF are purposeful low cal days. That way on my Feast Days, I can have 1400-1600 cals and still maintain my weight week in and week out. So I don't worry about getting things "IN" other than making sure I have sufficient Protein. Cals hit the low that I want. Cuz I'm fasting. Since it's ADF and not an every day thing, I don't worry about hitting some mythical caloric threshold.

The test for me is whether my weight drops during the week, or stays within a pound or two of itself. Right now I'm on the way back down from 134lbs. I'm 133.2lbs today and tomorrow will expect to be 132ish again.

Yeah, my fasting days are for sure low cal days.
I probably got in 700-800 today, and I’m fine with it bc I like this lifestyle.

it’s crazy how comfortable the routine becomes

7 hours ago, Sheribear68 said:

Yeah, my fasting days are for sure low cal days.
I probably got in 700-800 today, and I’m fine with it bc I like this lifestyle.

it’s crazy how comfortable the routine becomes

@Sheribear68 aren't you in the 130s now? Why not update your profile?

On 02/04/2020 at 23:30, Sheribear68 said:

I find my best workouts are in the mornings after I’ve fasted for at least 12-14 hours.

today I killed a pretty advanced noon class and I was 17+ hours fasting then.

I guess I just need to look at IF options first. I always go to my class on an empty stomach. I just mean if I don’t have a protein shake within a half hour after it’s over I feel really ill. When I’ve tried IF in the past my window was 11am to 7pm but that would not work with a 6:15 am orange theory class. I’m sure there are many different ways to incorporate IF into my eating plan tho.

? Completed a 24 hr modified wet fast ?

May try another... During my wet fasts I have tea w & w/o cream, water & enhanced water,

At about 18 hrs I had a spoonful of peanut butter because I thought that's when I'd start eating but got super busy and never did ?

Ended up eating around 10 pm so it became an OMAD fast ?

Edited February 5, 20206 yr by GreenTealael

On 02/05/2020 at 06:28, FluffyChix said:

@Sheribear68 aren't you in the 130s now? Why not update your profile?

Lol. Cause I didn’t even think about it til you mentioned it. ???