Anonymous wrote:Rhonda here: I am doing OMAD because I've done IF before and a few longer fasts here and there, but the pandemic kicked my butt and it got a lot bigger. My kids don't notice that I'm not eating breakfast, sometimes they notice at lunch, but I'm doing OMAD and not alternate day fasts because this way I can still have dinner with them.

The one annoyance I have is that I was the one who usually ate leftover dinners for lunch (happily!) and now no one else wants them. Hate to waste food.

I am on Day 4 and feel great. I take a long pandemic walk in the afternoon (I aim for 10,000 steps a day) when I start to get antsy and found an IF podcast called Intermittent Fasting Stories to listen to while I walk.

I am not doing workouts other than my long walk since it's my first week. I noticed before I started OMAD when I was running I was hungrier, so dropped down to walking.

I hate to waste food too. I repurpose the previous night’s dinner for lunch so rest of family will eat it. Typically cutting it up into a salad or making it into a sandwich or fried rice. Can make some lunches that rival Sweet Green or Potbelly which is where my spouse used to eat when at the office.

I fell off the IT train since teleworking + home schooling began. I can't make it to noon without getting hangry at my kids. At work, I would stay busy and have meetings and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. But with kids, I totally lose my patience in the morning when we're trying to get classes and schoolwork done and they're doing every goddamn thing they can think of to avoid it.

I keep telling myself I'll start again when the office reopens, but now we're looking at August...

Good luck to you all! I started 16:8 last summer and it worked great for me. I lost about five lbs right away and my stomach area looked much better (after three kids, this was basically a miracle!) and everything tightened up. Then this year in Feb/Mar/Apr I gained it all back and then some, and it has been hell to get it off. I would blame pandemic stress but I think it started before that. I'm now doing 18:6 because with no commute (pandemic silver lining) it's easier to get dinner out faster and the weight is slowly coming off. I also had an IUD put in and I know it's not supposed to cause weight gain but honestly this has been so much more of a struggle that I can't help but think it did for me. Anyway, once you get into it, it works great!

I also run several times a week, 10-12 mi/week total, and try to lift weights (was doing crossfit a couple times a week before), and after the first few weeks I was okay with the fasting/exercising part of it.

Rhonda: Starting Day 5. Went from 145 down to 141 this morning. Probably just water weight but encouraging nonetheless!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do people who do the extreme versions of this not worn out? I lift weights 4x a week at least and average 20-30k steps a day between runs and long 5/6 mile long walks. I literally don’t know how I could do that if I was going an entire day without eating like the Pp above who fasts completely on MWF and eats T/Th/weekends. There’s only so much you can do workout wise when you’re completely fasted so how do you get around this?

I only lift weights twice a week (full-body both days) and 25-30K steps a day (running, walks, used to be swimming I don't have trouble doing 18:6. I'll do a very occassional 24ish hour fast. With that, I'll finish eating one day at 5 and then eat the next day at 5. I don't think I could do 8pm on a Monday until breakfast on Wednesday.

There is a lot you can do completely fasted. For instance, I did 15 mile trail run last weekend (I guess it was maybe 30 calories with the electrolyte tabs in water pack).

Huh. Ok, I’ll give it a try. Don’t really need to lose weight but I’m curious if I’ll see any other benefits. Stopped eating last night at 630 after dinner so I’ll try to get to noon today.

Anonymous wrote:So do people who do the extreme versions of this not worn out? I lift weights 4x a week at least and average 20-30k steps a day between runs and long 5/6 mile long walks. I literally don’t know how I could do that if I was going an entire day without eating like the Pp above who fasts completely on MWF and eats T/Th/weekends. There’s only so much you can do workout wise when you’re completely fasted so how do you get around this?

I only lift weights twice a week (full-body both days) and 25-30K steps a day (running, walks, used to be swimming I don't have trouble doing 18:6. I'll do a very occassional 24ish hour fast. With that, I'll finish eating one day at 5 and then eat the next day at 5. I don't think I could do 8pm on a Monday until breakfast on Wednesday.

There is a lot you can do completely fasted. For instance, I did 15 mile trail run last weekend (I guess it was maybe 30 calories with the electrolyte tabs in water pack).

I am trying it out today. I haven't ate anything since dinner around 7pm yesterday.
Ran 5 miles this morning and did 45 minutes of full body exercises.
So far I feel just the same as any other day

Rhonda here: I am doing OMAD because I've done IF before and a few longer fasts here and there, but the pandemic kicked my butt and it got a lot bigger. My kids don't notice that I'm not eating breakfast, sometimes they notice at lunch, but I'm doing OMAD and not alternate day fasts because this way I can still have dinner with them.

The one annoyance I have is that I was the one who usually ate leftover dinners for lunch (happily!) and now no one else wants them. Hate to waste food.

I am on Day 4 and feel great. I take a long pandemic walk in the afternoon (I aim for 10,000 steps a day) when I start to get antsy and found an IF podcast called Intermittent Fasting Stories to listen to while I walk.

I am not doing workouts other than my long walk since it's my first week. I noticed before I started OMAD when I was running I was hungrier, so dropped down to walking.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started out doing it because of finances and wanting to avoid going to the stores - for about a month I was only eating every other day. It really worked - I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight, but I did and I also started to feel better and have less pain in my joints (I wasn't overweight - am 5'5" and was about 135, I'd guess I'm about 125 now?). I can see myself sticking to this for a long time. The last two weeks I started fasting only on MWF and would eat on the weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I do drink caffeinated beverages though so I'm not sure I fit strictly into the IF model....but without caffeine i would have terrible headaches.

Do you have children at home? What do they think when they don’t see you eat? Are you worried about them developing eating disorders?

Not PP, but my older kids don’t even get up
Until noon. So they don’t notice I don’t eat breakfast or lunch. They fix themselves lunch and I prepare a full meal for the family for dinner. We eat together. I even eat a dessert if everyone else is eating. On special occasions, I will eat earlier and adjust. Eg, Mother’s Day, my daughter got Krispy Kreme delivery for breakfast. (And I ate 4).

Anonymous wrote:Sure- I will. I was IF 18 hours/day (looser restrictions on the weekends) very successfully for a couple of months before everything came to a screeching halt, and then it all went to hell. I’ve been anxiety eating for 2 months, but started back with the IF 18 hours this week. I avoided the scale since March, so I don’t know how much weight I put back on. I’ll probably weigh myself in a few days and use that as my starting point.

This is me- if we’re using names I’ll be Phoenix (hopefully rising from the ashes!)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started out doing it because of finances and wanting to avoid going to the stores - for about a month I was only eating every other day. It really worked - I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight, but I did and I also started to feel better and have less pain in my joints (I wasn't overweight - am 5'5" and was about 135, I'd guess I'm about 125 now?). I can see myself sticking to this for a long time. The last two weeks I started fasting only on MWF and would eat on the weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I do drink caffeinated beverages though so I'm not sure I fit strictly into the IF model....but without caffeine i would have terrible headaches.

Do you have children at home? What do they think when they don’t see you eat? Are you worried about them developing eating disorders?

Not the same person but have have kids. I’ve been doing it for over 2 years and just the other day my 8 year old asked me why I don’t eat breakfast. If they have noticed before now I don’t know. Maybe because they are home all the time now. I usually do my workout late morning and then eat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started out doing it because of finances and wanting to avoid going to the stores - for about a month I was only eating every other day. It really worked - I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight, but I did and I also started to feel better and have less pain in my joints (I wasn't overweight - am 5'5" and was about 135, I'd guess I'm about 125 now?). I can see myself sticking to this for a long time. The last two weeks I started fasting only on MWF and would eat on the weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I do drink caffeinated beverages though so I'm not sure I fit strictly into the IF model....but without caffeine i would have terrible headaches.

Do you have children at home? What do they think when they don’t see you eat? Are you worried about them developing eating disorders?

No, my kids are grown.

Anonymous wrote:One approach that has worked for me is to do one 24-hour fast, once per week, and just skip breakfast on the other days and try to stay low carb when you do eat during the day. Super easy once you get into it, and for days when you are just not feeling it to fast, eat when you are hungry and try again later in the week. I’ve lost about 20 pounds over about a year doing IF in sort of a half-hearted and episodic way.

^^I do this too--every Tuesday is a fast day for me, so I don't have meal until end of the day. I will say that it has helped me cut down on how much I eat on other days too and I am less hungry in general.

One approach that has worked for me is to do one 24-hour fast, once per week, and just skip breakfast on the other days and try to stay low carb when you do eat during the day. Super easy once you get into it, and for days when you are just not feeling it to fast, eat when you are hungry and try again later in the week. I’ve lost about 20 pounds over about a year doing IF in sort of a half-hearted and episodic way.

Anonymous wrote:I started out doing it because of finances and wanting to avoid going to the stores - for about a month I was only eating every other day. It really worked - I wasn't necessarily trying to lose weight, but I did and I also started to feel better and have less pain in my joints (I wasn't overweight - am 5'5" and was about 135, I'd guess I'm about 125 now?). I can see myself sticking to this for a long time. The last two weeks I started fasting only on MWF and would eat on the weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I do drink caffeinated beverages though so I'm not sure I fit strictly into the IF model....but without caffeine i would have terrible headaches.

Do you have children at home? What do they think when they don’t see you eat? Are you worried about them developing eating disorders?