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Dieting talk under the cut
So, rehash: the premise is that you spend one day fasting -- you aim to eat 400 calories over the entire day. Then, the next day, you spend one day eating whatever the fuck you want. 2000 calories, no rules about fats or carbs or whatever. This equals out to 1200 calories a day -- which is a "normal" but also quite restrictive number of calories to eat in a day. For my previous diet, I was eating 1300ish calories a day. I found it difficult to sustain, and had to actively give up if I ever wanted to eat out, which I ended up doing frequently because every time I had a bad day I would want to quit.
On a fast day, I eat super light. I drink lots of water and I eat as slowly as humanly possible. A typical day's eating for me is a hard-boiled egg in the morning, an apple or V8 midday for a snack, a 100-calorie snack for lunch, and then for dinner maybe some crackers with salsa or spreadable cheese on top and cottage cheese, or a calorie-light soup and popcorn, that sort of thing.
On feast days, I eat whatever I want. Cookies, ice cream, and cake have happened over the last two weeks. Hamburgers and hot dogs. Cereal and sandwiches and omelets and hash browns. The research-supported idea behind it is that your body is way more efficient at processing junk if you give it a break. The control group eating normal food actually ended up being outperformed by the group eating the high-fat food on a fasting schedule. (And, the group eating the high-fat food on a whenever-you-want schedule ended up a complete horrible mess. But they were eating the same amount of calories as the fasting group, so the fasting made a huge difference.)
You're supposed to weigh yourself the morning after a fast day, the same approximate time every week.
I went from 157 lbs when I started to 155 lbs in the first week. In the second week, I went to 153 lbs.
I'm losing weight every week, and eating cookies every other day.
It is mind-boggling and amazing. It doesn't feel like a diet, even though I eat so very little on fast days. I haven't found myself ever being oppressively hungry -- although like I said, I eat slowly: that one apple at around 10AM might last me until almost noon, because I only take a bite when my stomach starts twinging again. But I don't ever need to feel like I'm denying myself, and I'm not really ever tempted to suggest breaking the diet, because even if I'm dying for a 700-calorie Taco Bell burrito, I know that tomorrow I'll be able to have that.
It's actually really freeing. I'm only dieting and watching what I eat half the time. And I'm losing weight. I feel like this is something I can sustain. If I end up needing to do something on a fast day -- like, if I'm going to dinner at my parents, or if my sister's wedding falls on a fast day -- I can just adjust my schedule, maybe with a 1200-calorie bumper day. And if the fast day is too hard, you can tweak it a little to compensate: do a 600 calorie fast day, and then try to eat less, more like 1800 calories, on the feast day.
And I'm making all the progress! I'm not currently exercising, which I need to remedy, because exercise is not just about losing weight, but we don't have a lot of room in this apartment and when we move out we plan to fix that. By then, our bodies will be fully adjusted to the new food cycle.
It's so awesome, I can't get over it.
On a fast day, I eat super light. I drink lots of water and I eat as slowly as humanly possible. A typical day's eating for me is a hard-boiled egg in the morning, an apple or V8 midday for a snack, a 100-calorie snack for lunch, and then for dinner maybe some crackers with salsa or spreadable cheese on top and cottage cheese, or a calorie-light soup and popcorn, that sort of thing.
On feast days, I eat whatever I want. Cookies, ice cream, and cake have happened over the last two weeks. Hamburgers and hot dogs. Cereal and sandwiches and omelets and hash browns. The research-supported idea behind it is that your body is way more efficient at processing junk if you give it a break. The control group eating normal food actually ended up being outperformed by the group eating the high-fat food on a fasting schedule. (And, the group eating the high-fat food on a whenever-you-want schedule ended up a complete horrible mess. But they were eating the same amount of calories as the fasting group, so the fasting made a huge difference.)
You're supposed to weigh yourself the morning after a fast day, the same approximate time every week.
I went from 157 lbs when I started to 155 lbs in the first week. In the second week, I went to 153 lbs.
I'm losing weight every week, and eating cookies every other day.
It is mind-boggling and amazing. It doesn't feel like a diet, even though I eat so very little on fast days. I haven't found myself ever being oppressively hungry -- although like I said, I eat slowly: that one apple at around 10AM might last me until almost noon, because I only take a bite when my stomach starts twinging again. But I don't ever need to feel like I'm denying myself, and I'm not really ever tempted to suggest breaking the diet, because even if I'm dying for a 700-calorie Taco Bell burrito, I know that tomorrow I'll be able to have that.
It's actually really freeing. I'm only dieting and watching what I eat half the time. And I'm losing weight. I feel like this is something I can sustain. If I end up needing to do something on a fast day -- like, if I'm going to dinner at my parents, or if my sister's wedding falls on a fast day -- I can just adjust my schedule, maybe with a 1200-calorie bumper day. And if the fast day is too hard, you can tweak it a little to compensate: do a 600 calorie fast day, and then try to eat less, more like 1800 calories, on the feast day.
And I'm making all the progress! I'm not currently exercising, which I need to remedy, because exercise is not just about losing weight, but we don't have a lot of room in this apartment and when we move out we plan to fix that. By then, our bodies will be fully adjusted to the new food cycle.
It's so awesome, I can't get over it.