March 2023 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)

#21

I can’t imagine eating tiny meals, so very much incompatible with me. If I eat a tiny meal, I start starving until I don’t eat my 100-150g fat and protein. Maybe the necessity would help with it, it’s interesting but hunger may not happen if I can’t do much about it… And maybe I would adapt after some days? But it never would be good.

Well. I try to go back to OMAD/2MAD. I was horrible in the last days but I couldn’t help it. I eat a ton. I take minimizing protein seriously but I still fail. At this point I am elated if I stay below 160g but I go over 200 soooo easily despite my efforts… OMAD would keep it below 160g most of the time, probably…

It’s 5pm now and I didn’t eat yet! (More than a few morsels and not exactly zero calorie but close coffee.) I did get hungry at 3pm but I was walking home and it just passed. Good.
My bold vague plan is not eating before sunset but of course I won’t be able to pull it off every day. I am very determined to wait until lunchtime (usually around 3pm, trickier in weekends) and then I will see but I need some Very Serious Urge to consider eating valid. It’s the best for me, no matter how I look at it. I have super high appetite lately and it’s easier to fast in the earlier time (like between 3-6pm) than in the later ones. I am less crazy in my well-fasted state. Of course I still dislike feeling weak and dizzy who only can think about food but I often don’t have that at lunchtime yet even if I don’t desire fasting anymore… Fasting is chill and a bliss in the morning, I really love and need and crave it. Well, not crave as I have it… I guess we can’t crave something we have or can we? Maybe we can.

So, it’s spring and I had enough and I am very much determined again, I want to start a new, way better life :smiley: And it helps to want to change many things at once, somehow I get more momentum, it’s more clear I am nothing like the old me (oh I am… but maybe I can trick myself to some extent)… :wink:

We will see but I appreciate I could fast until now. And it continues for some more time for sure. I am fine. Not satiated, not hungry, I don’t even have an appetite, it’s a blessing after insanely high appetite WEEKS. Fasting is lovely now even if I do feel I can’t do it for several more hours.

But I drink coffee now. I can’t just skip a lunch and not even drink coffee now. And I got proper coffee, I mean not my usual instant stuff. As I have a proper filter now! And it works :smiley: So lovely, I can experiment with various coffee brands I couldn’t in my instant coffee years! Instead of eating a ton and messing with myself and our food money. I even get stronger and I want to see my tiny developing muscles better. It’s a way bigger motivation than just losing fat, I never was pretty, vanity really isn’t my thing and my health is good… I still wanted to slim down as that has benefits (and good isn’t good enough, I want the best health I can get) but I just couldn’t do it until now. Maybe in the future. I am very sure that I can’t do it without OMAD. And OMAD is so convenient as long as I have blissful, perfectly satiated fasting in almost the whole fasting window and I never need to stand proper hunger. As I don’t do that and don’t even wish to do that. Hunger is a very important sign, my body wants food. So it gets food, very soon if not immediately.

I better have great results after this pep talk to myself.

(Bob M) #22

Bob,

What about the PSMF (low calorie, high protein “fast”)? Will you try that?

(Central Florida Bob ) #23

I’m thinking about it seriously. I had great results before the surgery, but due to timing wasn’t able to do anything in terms of monitoring success. For the 8 days of the liquid diet, PSMF before surgery, I lost one pound/day. After the surgery, I was on the orders to eat small meals frequently, clearly swollen with fluids and other junk, so I didn’t weigh myself. By the time I got around to it, a month later, I had gained the 8 pounds back, plus the couple of pounds from weighing myself without the one day fast to make the measurements more repeatable. My scale’s monitoring app actually said something like, “this is so different from the last value, is this really you?” I wanted to slap the programmer who wrote that.

There’s got to be a joke in there somewhere.

I had a bookmark for a website about the PSMF that would calculate a starting point for you, but the site was dead when I got there. I’d prefer a PSMF with real food rather than a protein shake. I need to research that.

#24

There are options but somewhat limited. Very limited for me as I prefer fatty protein but still have a few lean options. It’s another matter I couldn’t do PSMF for various reasons (like I hate starving myself and my passionate LOVE towards fat). But I do have beloved lean items. Like boiled egg whites, some fish (I prefer fatty fish but spices and maybe sauces help)… And if I just want to be able to stomach something and joy isn’t my priority, there are more options. Lean meat can be quite nice when in some juicy dish…

If I did some very low-cal diet, that probably would be fat fast, better for my satiation and tastes. Sometimes I wonder about a PSMF like meal. But it never works. Probably will try again though, I am a curious one and like to try even extreme stuff for a very, very tiny while as long as it’s not dangerous for very short term :wink:

(Bob M) #25

Oh yeah, if I did it, it’d have to be with food. Drinking meals does not suit me.

My wife is getting back on the keto wagon and is trying Maria Emmerich’s stuff, and Maria has fully gone PSMF for her clients. I think she advocates a few days a week.

There are some lean beef options, too. But a lot of meat can be lean, white meat of chicken and turkey, shrimp, mussels, etc.

And I was wondering how long you can reduce calories before the body figures it out? I’m not sure. I assume if you do something like rotate the days, maybe never? Body builders, for instance, tend to rotate between growth + eating and then getting lean. (Of course, I hate to use body builders as a measuring stick, since they are unlike a normal population of folks.)

(Central Florida Bob ) #26

That’s the big question. How long could I keep up that pound a day rate? My guess is not much longer than the 7 or 8 days I was on it. I really wasn’t hungry and never felt cold on the routine they put me on. Both of those are positive signs. Three bottles of the meal replacement drink/day, plus any sugar free drinks I want. So instead of having black coffee instead of coffee with cream, I dumped a tablespoon or so of the meal replacement drink in it. It was basically a vanilla milk shake, anyway.

For rough numbers, lets say I want to lose 20 pounds. Could I go one week on with one week off three times? Actually, that’s five weeks, or just over a month. Could I then keep it off? I have no idea. It’s an attractive idea, though.

With any sort of bizarro-world diet like that key question is always how sustainable it is.

Is your wife working to a book by Maria Emmerich or a client of hers?

#27

Pork can be pretty lean too. (Now the supermarkets here has LIGHT pork loin. I can’t eat pork loin to begin with as it’s way too lean for me but they cut off the remaining tiny fat as well… But fresh ham is mostly lean too and that’s a lovely cut, not like chicken breast or pork loin with that odd texture I don’t like, no, it’s some tasty juicy stuff when roasted.)

I forgot how much fat PSMF allows (I know it’s very little but still something) but it’s pretty possible to plan a day with tasty food, even for me. I just couldn’t stop there but I can’t stop at 200g fat either sometimes so I am a very bad example for almost all things where fat should be limited or self control should be used…

Today I ended up with TMAD and quite low-cal and low everything. I am pleased and feel quite right. 2.5 hour eating window. I try to keep my determination alive and skip lunches!

(KCKO, KCFO) #28

Glad the surgery turned out well.

I am switching to lunch and dinner, I had started to wake up wanting breakfast, so I think it is time to switch it around. I don’t want my body telling when to eat anymore. :).

(Robin) #29

Amazing. That is beyond my comprehension…

#30

It’s burning off much quicker than expected. I was keto-adapted before I started, and I have been mixing it up in 2023 with “meat week” and “egg week.” My wife hated egg week because the house always smelled like eggs. The conversation went like this . . . [me]: “Would you like some eggs?” [her]: “Oh my God I am so sick of F***ing eggs!” Just wait until fish week and foul week. And the ever-popular liver week. Also, I did quite a few 36-hour fasts thrown in for good measure.

Today is day 5 of 7, down 10.5 lbs. since Sunday, also 1" off the waistline. Will break on Sunday around mid-day, assuming I make it all the way to the end.

#31

But eggs doesn’t smell bad…

I planned egg days before, or egg meals, they never happened. I need various things at once all the time.
After years knowing it must be awful, I tried out egg fast. I heroically lasted 9 hours, it was awful indeed. I don’t know if that or my fat-phobic day was the worst. Both were unsurprisingly horrible but I was curious, I have those moments and I have no regrets.

I had lunch today but considering I was a bit hungry since 3 hours? I am good :smiley: Proper, uncomfortable hunger wears me down in no time but it was just some soft hunger and tiny weakness. I knew I need food soon but I could wait until lunchtime. It’s WAY better and more enjoyable to sit down properly and eat together with my SO.

So today is TMAD. I am pretty sure about it. I can eat enough in 2 meals and I won’t listen to siren songs at night but my absurdly high appetite went away anyway.

(Bob M) #32

I believe she’s just looking at info produced by Maria, maybe on Twitter. We also have her PSMF cookbook.

My wife just restarted keto, and is really trying to stick to it. Her boss at her work is a carb-centric person, as are most (all?) of her friends. So, it’s more of a challenge for her.

But I told her to get comfortable being in ketosis before trying to do low calorie.

(Central Florida Bob ) #33

Very solid advise.

#34

Broke the fast Sunday. After 7 days the total weight loss was 13 lbs. Waistline down by 2.5 inches.

Will try to keep strict keto this week so that I don’t gain it all back!

(Bob M) #35

Very impressive!

(Robin) #36

Way to go! Onward and upward.

(Central Florida Bob ) #37

What Bob M, @ctviggen, said: very impressive. That’s virtually 2lbs/day!

Another Bob

#38

Wow, congrats!
Sometimes I wonder how much would I lose, probably a couple of pounds after refeeding…
But I still don’t skip a single day…

Hi people, I am back to carni + small eating window after some wilder days (I have some natural resistance to eating too carby too long but my poor eating window always swells when I get more relaxed… I even get hungrier earlier on weekends. Oh well. I am back now.

I go for OMAD/TMAD days with a small eating window now. It’s spring and I have momentum regarding doing things better than before (I am almost as active I wish to be and get stronger, it’s super motivating) so I am very much ready to push things and try to get the bigger part of my joy not from food… It’s not even hard, it’s SPRING!!! :smiley:

#39

I am OMAD the rest of the week, we will see how it goes.

(Central Florida Bob ) #40

Did my first 40 hour fast since January 13, and all went well. I was a bit concerned about how recovery from the Jan. 26 surgery would impact, but no big deal. It’s another marker for “life is back to normal.”

My morning weigh-in was the best since mid-December, all except for the PSMF I was on. Not a surprise.