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5:2 or other fasting. anyone fasting today?

Jason Fung is very funny about low calorie diets ('Calorie Restriction as Primary') but, at the end of the day that's exactly what fasting is really - just done in a different way but it has some nice additional benefits. It just doesn't drag on every day or focus on low fat/high carbs like a traditional **** diet.
 
Chook said:
Jason Fung is very funny about low calorie diets ('Calorie Restriction as Primary') but, at the end of the day that's exactly what fasting is really - just done in a different way but it has some nice additional benefits.
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LOL, this tells me that you have never been on a low calorie, low fat diet!
 
Oh I have. I am a Rosemary Conley, Slimming World and Weight Watchers failure of many years standing. My first ever diet was age 19; I just wanted to get in to a size 8 wedding dress - I needed to lose maybe a half a stone. I went to a diet class and was put on 800 calorie (weekdays) 1000 calories (weekends) ultra low fat/high carb diet. I did manage to fit in to my wedding dress okay and then almost immediately put on a stone - everyone said it was wedded bliss that slammed it on - but I think that the diet had somehow screwed with my metabolism and I've been low fat high carb dieting pretty much ever since just trying not to put any more on but without success. I did once manage to get down to a size 8 again in my 30s - I existed on strong black coffee and cigarettes (weekdays) and low fat high carb (weekends) and I really made myself ill.

Last summer I was at my biggest (with BG in the high 20s / low 30s) then discovered the twin miracles that are IF and LCHF and I've since lost just over 4 st but to be a healthy weight for my height (and age) I need to lose another 2 st. 4lbs.
 

Thanks @Chook. Father is thankfully improving steadily.

day 3 of IF and pre-meal BS is again 4.8.

Just 4 months into LCHF, my liver function test showed tremendous improvement and returned to "normal" parameters. the exercise & IF certainly made me more insulin sensitive but my liver has recovered sufficiently to funnel all the sugar into fat as i put on almost 20lbs in just 3 weeks.

honestly, as i mentioned earlier, being so used to 20-30s, to see 7.8 after downing half a tub of haagen dazs ice cream is truly humbling...plan to start exercising moderately next week. hopefully, i can shift the weight within the month.
 
Hi, @Chook

I've had the 72 (80) hour fasting test in hospital.
I knew what was happening and I wasn't hungry until I got told that I could now eat.
The hunger or craving went away, the smell and food choice made it easier. And temptation stayed away, and the longer I went, the clearer my brain was.
By the last day, it was just wonderful to eat a good old fashioned English breakfast in the hospitals restaurant, obviously without the carbs! There was no way I was having a hospital type diabetic breakfast!!!
 
All the numbers regarding fasting just confuse the heck out of me! So, I don't know what mine comes under but I had my dinner last night about 7, and I'm not eating today until my meal this evening. Couple coffees with cream though..
 
Chook said:
but I think that the diet had somehow screwed with my metabolism.
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You see, I find Dr Fung's explanation of how this happens on low calorie dieting, but not on fasting, quite convincing. Especially illustrative was the more recent post on the fridge and freezer storage. But fair enough, not everybody will agree.

Anyway, congrats on your weight loss to date! Very well done! We've got similar numbers, too - I've shed 4st10 and still have about 2st6 to go.
 
Well I lasted until dinner time when my dear hubby decided to get a chinese takeaway.. so I gave in and had 2 small packs of pork scratchings and some of his duck...so I guess it was a 48 hour fast with 1/2 an hour either way.. however it was really hard in the afternoon probably because I hadn't mentally prepared myself not to be eating.. also blood sugars weren't extra low so not sure it was worth it.. I would like to try going for longer to see if the pangs go away.. will keep you updated
 
Hi @bulkbiker and @Chook. As the lovely Larissima says - I do 2-3 day fasts once a month. Day 2 can indeed be the toughest day for hunger and lethargy - if you are going to have that reaction. Folk react differently, for sure. It is so strong for me I basically have to write that day off for any real movement, or really any enjoyment (although I can engage in screen time, watching, and basic clerical/computer organisational tasks, and that works well, but it is like being ill). But I have been getting the wonderful burst of energy that I had seen depicted and talked about on the Aussie juice faster's doco, and that Doc Fung talked about, on Day 3. This absolutely coincided with ketones for me (as detected on ketostix), just as Doc Fung said it would. And this started to happen post lowering my carbs considerably, on a LCHF way of eating. I would like to try a longer fast, maybe even 7-14 days (the longest I have done is 4-5 days), but Mr Svea says I need to give him plenty of warning so he can get way out of town!
 
@nosher8355
I will pass your comments about hospital fasting on to my husband. He's having to fast for a couple of days for a procedure next Monday (so fasting Saturday and Sunday) and has been told that afterwards he won't feel like eating until Tuesday or possibly even Wednesday. He's worrying about it already. When I tell him that fasting is okay and not as bad as you think it might be he says that he'd feel more confident in what I have to say if I'd had experience of fasting for longer periods of time. He's right though, the only time I've ever gone without food for longer was a really bad tummy bug about 10 years ago - I didn't eat for over a week - and that wasn't voluntary! I think I will do a three day fast when I'm off work for a week at the end of this month.

Its strange how appetite works. On the first couple of occasions of fasting using the Michael Morley 5:2 method I was very hungry right from the moment I woke up. I'd already planned how I was going to fast (no evening snacks the night before then no breakfast or lunch and have a 500 cal dinner) so I knew I wasn't going to be eating breakfast and that hunger didn't really let up until I broke my fast that evening and I was even still hungry the following day. Thankfully thats changed nowadays, even on days when I'm not fasting, I don't eat breakfast and rarely eat lunch if I'm not working. Looking back I think some of it was the high carb low fat way of eating I was following at that time but some of it was definitely just habit. Certainly low carb and IF seem to go well together.
 
I also find that LC and IF go well together. Another thing with LC is that we're encouraged to drink more water, and it helps keep my stomach feeling full. I drink a lot of water, a couple of mugs of black coffee, and several green teas on a fast day (also some pink salt, or a mug of chicken broth, home made or from a Kallo cube, for electrolytes)
 
@Larissima Yes, I drink loads as well. I wish I could drink green tea but it gives me cracking headaches so I drink a lot of Tetley Red Bush tea with vanilla. I'm going to order some Kallo cubes - you're the second person that has mentioned them to me this morning.
 
I drink loads as well (but not always water
)

My appetite has changed remarkably after 9 months of LC and now 2 months of intermittent fasting.

I hardly ever feel particularly hungry, and I never seem to absolutely crave a particular food.

When I was a fat b*$!@*€ I was forever starving.
 
It's the carbs that makes you feel hungry, as I've already said, sometimes after my first meal of the day when IF, I don't feel like eating cos I'm not hungry but I have to!
Being in or around ketosis will keep the want for carbs away.
Tell your hubby @Chook he will more likely miss eating than the food itself, give him plenty to do and keep him occupied, whatever it is he does to while away the hours.
If it's kind of op I can imagine, he won't feel like eating anyway. It will probably do him good, tell him that one! Perhaps, you could fast at the same time to encourage him.
 
LOL. I just had a phone call from the hospital. The doctor can't do it Monday afternoon so it's been brought forward to 8am Sunday. His fast starts tomorrow and he doesn't know it yet.
 
Yes, I think I will fastvwith him. Excellent idea.
 
Good luck to anyone fasting today.

I'm planning to fast tomorrow then Monday and Wednesday of next week. I've been thinking about the ND diet with real food which I think would be a reasonably easy transition to someone on an LC diet but, after consideration, I think I prefer the flexibility of fasting. Its something I might re-visit after I've done this 2-3 day fast I've got planned at the end of the month.
 
IFing (and probably in conjunction with LCHFing) has absolutely improved my ability to function well without food for periods of time, which was not the case before. I would shake, feel faint, and be highly irritable and obsessed with food even on missing only one meal! (Yeah, the 'high carb low fat' norm was NOT good for me.) Now I can feel chipper and top of the morning! It certainly makes life easier if I don't have time to eat. I am very grateful for this change, and so are my loved ones!
 
Hi

I lost about 20 kilos, I have gained 5 of them back but most of the gain was straight after finishing ND, I have been quite consistent in terms of my weight since last 6 or 7 months.
 
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