fast-5, fast five, fastfive

If anyone is interested in a starting a support group based on this lifestyle, I would like to be a member!  There is a community at the spark people website, but I prefer the calorie count plus website tools and navigation capabilities.

Way too radical a concept for me. Good luck though.

Thanks!  I've been on it for a week now.  It's not so bad, and it really addresses my problem -- eating about 1000 calories too many, specifically at night. 

I'd have a hard time w/ a diet that tells you to expect NO weightloss in the 1st 3 weeks. That would be discouraging to me.

How have you been doing on it?

Today is day 6 for me.  I've lost a pound.  It really isn't a diet so much as an eating style.  I am adapting this style ALONG WITH CALORIE COUNTING.  I need to stay between 12-1500 calories, and I was having no success with eating two meals that I particularly didn't care for -- breakfast and lunch.  That was an addtional 500-700 calories that I have to do without.

This is a very adaptable plan as long as you fast for 19 hours.  Some use a different window than I do, but I find limiting my eating only between 5-10 PM works for me.  That is my problem time. 

 

My sister did this some years ago but at the time we called "anorexia". She would only eat from 8am-12pm until they put her in the hospital.

I received this great post from the support group I belong to.  It's a keeper, so I'm including it here with my originating thread.  Maybe someday, someone like me will do a search regarding this eating style at this terrific calorie counting site.  Then maybe I'll have a support forum here.

Hello Elvis -   Welcome!  You've joined a growing phenomenon that is changing lives!  I've been doing FF for about 4 months now.  I absolutely LOVE it!   I LOVE that I can eat higher quality foods without guilt because I'm not eating them all day long!  For me, I've had to dwindle my window down a bit to see the progress I want to see.  And I'm saving so much money!   But the big thing that I have to keep reminding myself that's different with this WOE is that I don't have to give up things.  I don't have to give up chocolate that I love or creamer in my coffee.  I just have these in my window.    I also have realized that I CAN go a full 24hours and maybe longer without food.  I won't pass out or die like my psyche has lead me to believe all these years.  The fear of not having food is gone .  I'm not consumed by what time of day it is and 'is it almost lunch' or 'oh have to stop work so I can eat'.  It has been very enlightening and liberating!  Food no longer has control over ME!   And when that chocolate treat or ice cream or yummy muffin peaks into my life outside of my window I DON"T CAVE!  I'm able to laugh it off and say 'I'll just eat it in my window'.   It's been a challenge for me to push my window further and further back.  I have enjoyed this.  LIke i said, I'm saving some bucks here and with these gas prices, I'm cutting it everywhere I can.   Good luck stay on the plan, remember you don't need to shorten your window to see results.  Eat what you want and enjoy!  I think the loss you'll see, knowing what you've eaten will be motivation enough.  But we're all here for you anyway! karen

Oh no, spirochete.  It sounds like your sister really had anorexia.  That is not what this is at all.  If you read the little book, it warns about this and advises you to seek professional help in the event this occurs. 

I sincerely hope your sister had a healthy recovery.

Original Post by elvisabeth:

I sincerely hope your sister had a healthy recovery.

 She got really bad but this was years ago. Today she is a totally healthy, happy mother of two. Thank you!

It sounds very tempting to be able to eat what you want, but that's what I used to do and there's no way I could've gone 19 hours without eating, unless maybe I took a couple of sleeping tablets and just slept through the whole 19 hours.

ok so in this diet you only eat within a 5 hour time period per day??

thats what my husband does almost every day!! he dosnt eat breakfast or lunch.. he comes home for dinner around 8-9 pm and eats dinner, cake, pie, cereal, ice cream, fruit and then goes to bed around 10-11pm... 

and he loses weight off this... i dont think its healthy personally but he does lose weight.  i try to feed him some days but he leaves too early and sometimes im not awake.  and he dosnt let me pack him lunchs.. like hes not hungry during the day or somthing. 

if this diet is really bad please let me know so i can try to make my husband eat during the day!!

 

Not trying to sound like a B&^%$ but this is just seems dumb. This is how I see it going down:

19 hours w/o food= Very hungry person=Binge=Weight gain.

It is not healthy with the idea "You can eat anything you want". Sure if you want to lose weight starving yourself will get you there, but what about a healthy happy body?

I know you probably could care less because you have made up your mind about it, I just think you time could be better employed to making a sexy, HEALTHY body with proper nutrition ad exercise.

In the summary, it mentions that "over the course of four weeks, you should see four pounds lost, but the loss may not be evenly spread from week to week; it can be two pounds one week, none the next, then two again, and so on."

So with this "diet" you would lose an average of 1 pound a week. 

If you were to count calories, then you would need a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day or average of 3500 calories a week to lose 1 pound each week.  This option seems much more manageable since you will be able to spread out your calories throughout the entire day and as ralplovestrixie pointed out, avoid any potential binge episodes.

Once a year, for a month during Ramadan (sp?) my step mother (Muslim) fasts during daylight, and then after the sun sets breaks her fast w/ water and eats what ever she wants. In theory you could stay up and eat all night, but odds are you're still going to sleep @ night. When I go visit during this time, I usually participate too, and it's really not that hard.  By the time it's time to eat you're not ravenous, I guess because your body has come to the conclusion that you're not going to eat. (Ya know how even if you're REALLY hungry if you wait to long to eat you realize your not even hungry any more) So, you don't eat an enormous amount to "make up" you get your fill as you would during a normal meal. Your stomach isn't going to hold a whole day's worth of food all at once!

In theory I can see how this would work. And it's not all that radical. Your not starving yourself completely, and rather then telling yourself "no" you tell yourself "later." Which often by the time it comes you'll probably either forget or don't want it anymore anyways.

The only negative effect i could see is on your metabolism, since they say that eating small meals throughout the day helps to keep your metabolism up. But, who knows how true that is anyways!? It's just another thing that might work for some, but def not everyone!

I really don't see it as a diet, but a change in when I eat.  Like I said, I'm one of those people who finds it nearly impossible to stop eating AT NIGHT.  My breakfast used to be about 500 healthy calories, lunch about 400, and dinner about 500.  What killed me was the snacking, especially at night (popcorn, fruit, raw vegetables, a cocktail, etc.)  By the time my day was over, I was averaging 2500-3200 calories. 

At first, I thought I would try fasting every other day, and when I was searching for that topic, I learned about the fast-5.

So this is working for me.  It is NOT a fast weight loss plan, either.   I find when I wake up, I'm not at all hungry.  After sleeping 7-8 hours of the 19 hours...only 11 to go without eating.  I feel some hunger around 2ish....but then there is only 3 hours left until brake~fast. 

I've been on it for a week, and I've met my goal -- to cut out 1000 extra calories that I was formerly eating ABOVE what I need to be consuming to lose weight. 

I find it very, very easy to go all day without eating, and it's getting easier.  I don't "binge", when its time to eat, but I do enjoy quality nutritional foods when the window opens.  After fasting all day, my stomach fills up quickly at around 400-500 calories, and then I can't eat another morsel!  A couple of hours later, I eat another 400-500 calories.  Then it's time to go to bed, on a full stomach, which isn't comfortable, so now I realize that I will have to make adjustments to accomodate the 1200-1500 calories that I normally need.  The calorie counting is the diet.

Tomorrow I'm beginning my second week, and I'm going to make the following adjustments.  Tonight, I will quite eating at 9 PM.  Tomorrow, I will brake~fast at 4 PM.   (It doesn't matter when you brake~fast as long as the fast is for 19 consecutive hours.)   Gra dually, I want the window to grow smaller for me, so that I no longer continue to eat late the evening.  Then I hope to reasonably control eating 1200-1500 calories and stopping until the next day.  I will not likely ever eat breakfast regularly again since I've been forcing myself to do so all this time (over a year) anyway.

 

I do this regularly during the summer months when it's warm and I don't feel like eating. I eat a piece of fruit at the beginning of my window (@6-7pm depending on when I get off work), then I eat a large dinner. This almost always yields at least 1200 calories, so I'm good. As for metabolism, I keep it up with a 20 min walk in the morning, a 1 hour session of interval walking/running in the early afternoon then a 15 min walk in the evening prior to breaking my fast.

The benefit to me, is, I can eat spare ribs, or brats, or Chicago style pizza in enough quantity to fill me (1/2 rack of ribs, or 2 brats, or 2 slices Chicago pizza) without endangering my weight loss. Mind you, I also make sure I eat veggies with that meal and whole grains and usually another serving of fruit.

As the cooler weather comes in around October, I add in breakfast (porridge out of hulled barley or steel cut oats), and then in the dead of winter I add in a low cal lunch and decrease dinner by the # of calories added to the other meals.

I'm exercising, too!  Once my dinner has settled, I ride my bike for an hour.  I rarely have an appetite afterwards.  Yesterday, I was having a hard time waiting for the window to open, so I did yoga (which shouldn't be done after eating, anyway.)  After running through my routine, my window had been open for thirty minutes!  The food was delicious:  fruit, salad, high fiber cereal, followed by vegetables, organic pasta...amounting to about 1200 calories!

Late night snacking?  Eliminated!!  

Hey Elvisabeth

Count me in in the support group. I think that would be cool.  That would be nice to have other people with same types of goals to have for extra support.

This is my 4 day on here and I am still getting the hang of entering the calorie counting. Not everything is on the lists. But guess that helps me pay more attention to the back of the boxes.

I'm exercising to. I joined a Snap Club and started on the treadmill and bike.

So Elvisbeth good luck with your dieting your not alone. !!!

----- Original Message -----
From: elvisafast
To: fast5@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [fast5] newbie progress report
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:41:26 -0000 





I am through the 3-week adjustment phase and sailing along into my first
month this week. I have adhered to not breaking the fast until 19
hours have passed, while tweaking my window to better suit me
personally or as my schedule required. I have kept a food log, but I
wouldn't say I've made an effort to restrict my calories. The most
amazing thing to me is I didn't have to. I have become remarkably
aware when I'm hungry, and when I'm not. I still eat too much after
I'm full, so that's something I'm still working on. But the true
magic for me has been that the cravings are gone. I no longer graze
all day long and through the late night. It's so bizare to go into a
convenient store and walk the candy aisles and think to myself, "What
do I want?" Then I realize, I don't want any! And I walk away
with ease.

Don't get me wrong, when I'm hungy, I'm really hungry! But that
really makes the food I choose to eat worthwhile.

I don't exercise much, and I'm certainly no athlete. But I ride my
bike around leisurely nearly everyday for an hour. I estimate I
probably burn no more than 300 calories. I stretch and do light
weights to keep my arms toned. That's about it.

I've lost eight pounds, but as others have said, it really is in the
inches. I know this from the clothes I can wear now, and seeing my
hip bones for the first time in years. I'm logging my inches and
weight on the 19th of each month (because I started on June 19.)
I'll post my stats in my next progress report.

I hit my first 10 pound loss today!  For me, this eating lifestlye is EFFORTLESS. 

Here are my stats after beginning this a month ago (June 19 to July 20):

31 day calorie count:  52084

average daily calories:  1680

_________________________________________

BEFORE      AFT ER

155 lbs        148 lbs

waist 36"     35"

hip 42"          40"

thigh 23"      no change 

arm 12       & nbsp;11.5

I've lost two more pounds since July 20th, bringing a total loss of 10 lbs. today.  My next stat progress report will be August 19. 

 

Your calorie calculation comes to 800-1000 a day, which is not considered healthy.  Unless you plan to correct that and say that you are correcting, I don't think it's a good plan to promote. 

I know people who get very sick when they can't/don't eat throughout the day, they get faint and disoriented.  If I go too long without food (more than 6 hours) I tend to crave fatty foods with less nutritional value.  Have you logged your calories and checked the analysis tool?  I don't know how you can be meeting your nutritional goals on so little food.