Wednesday 14 August 2013

A Year of Alternate Day Fasting

Flipping heck! I get worse. I wrote this nearly a week ago (8th August, my ADF anniversary) and went off at a tangent - yeah, Facebook mostly and a bit of work. This is because I now use the android app to blog - while it's fresh in my mind - then tidy it up later on the laptop ... only I forgot that bit. 

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Well, I'd set my target to lose 57lbs. Yes I know it's a lovely 'even' number (not). But I need to get down to an even number (of course). As usual I failed to reach my target on a specific date by 1lb, but who cares?

I've not been this weight since I left school in the mid-70's. The first thing I did on leaving school was to go on a diet to lose 2lbs I needed to qualify for something. Of course - me being me - I starved for a week and lost 7 lbs, and I've never looked back, hmmm :/

Since then I've gone on umpteen little diets (lasting a month or less - usually hours). And several proper 'let's do this fatso - and de-flab this pudgy little body' diets lasting three months and more. Never have I got beyond six months. That was Slimming World and only so long because I was allowed to change my target (the weight I'd already reached) and go for free.

And here I am, a whole year of Alternate Day Fasting and no signs of tiring of it. It's just so natural to me now. I'm also back to Mon/Weds/Fri as my down days after faffing about trying to mix things up.

I have incorporated a gentler version of Fast-5 (19 hours fast/5 hours noshing) into ADF because it eventually became obvious that my breakfast cereals were causing me problems:
  1. I wasn't losing weight.
  2. I was always hungry before lunch.
  3. I was constantly bloated on up days.
So now when I wake up in a morning I don't have to think 'can I have a biscuit this morning?' Because the answer is 'no'. I've extended my previous day's (complete) 'fast' to 19 hours by not eating until 1.30pm.

During this day I continue to eat normally up to 8.30pm, when ALL snacking must cease. If you were to be in my vicinity between 8.00-8.30, you'd spot me munching on nuts.
So I have a seven-ish hour eating window on up days and six hour eating window on down days. This does NOT include Saturday. This is my 'munch' day when I start with a biscuit in bed with my coffee, then continue to munch throughout the day, including booze at night, then I stagger to bed completely stuffed.

By Sunday morning, I'm relieved to wait until 1.30 for my dinner and bemoaning the fact that I ate too much the day before. This has been my pattern for the last couple of months unless we've had visitors. Then I just do a fast-8 (16 hours fast, 8 hours to eat) every day - basically I just miss breakfast - this maintains my weight for that week.

I've decided that I'm going to carry on and lose another 6-8lbs ... or until my sisters tell me to stop - I'm very obedient - because I still see a very fat woman in the mirror (but not photos oddly enough). This extra few pounds  will ensure I've got a bit of leeway while I find which maintenance method suits me best.

I still like the idea of 500 cal days at least once a week. So my latest idea is to have one down day of 500 calories, one super up day and the rest Fast-6ish days. I'll let you know if this works when I get there ...
 
.....

  1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
  2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
  3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
  4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
  5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
  6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
  7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
  8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
  9. Me and Zumba
  10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
  11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
  12. Growing Up 
  13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
  14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
  15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
  16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
  17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
  18. Fasting For Maintenance
  19. Tweaking Maintenance
  20. Weight Gain 
  21. Still Maintaining
  22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting
  .....

2 comments:

  1. Well, it all sounds very complicated to me, but if it works, good for you. I've never been any good at measuring out things and counting kilojoules and thing like that. I just cut out things completely. I'm eating only fruit and veg at the moment - a sort of '5-a-day' diet. :)
    The reason for this is that all the veggies in my garden/greenhouse have all come at once! I hate to see things go to waste/seed so as fast as they come - I eat them. It works - I have lost 3Kg in the last couple of weeks - and I haven't started on the tomatoes yet. I gave up drinking 3 months ago but have re-introduced two glasses a week just to be sociable. (one cider + one beer).
    I could easily be vegetarian, but I don't think it is good for you to go without fish and meat all the time.
    One thing you haven't mentioned, is what does 'Grumpy' eat? Or has he left home in search of Steak 'n Kidney Pies and Spotted Dick? :)
    Take care B xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Bernard, I don't really count calories anymore. I just eat roughly the same things on my 'down days' - prawn or chicken salad for lunch and Glorious Skinny soup for dinner = approx 400 cals and the rest covers the semi-skimmed milk in my hot drinks.

      You've done well losing 3kg eating the veg. I used to be a vegetarian but yet another diet (Atkins) saw me eating meat again.

      Grumpy eats as he always did, three square meals a day with snacks. He does like his fruit and veg though and is very fit or I'd be cutting his dinners down a bit - he has a cooked dinner nearly every day whilst I eat my soup :)

      Delete

Be nice, I'm very sensitive.