Hey everyone, I’m looking to start IF for weight loss being 5’5 and 194lbs. The reason I’m afraid is because last time I consistently did 16:8 a couple years ago (that lasted 7 months), I realized my thoughts around eating became distorted and I started feeling very guilty for eating carbs and started going overboard with both diet and the fasting times. Instead of just sticking with 16:8, I started OMAD and then water fasting 3 days a week just to get faster results.
I stopped when I realized I was headed towards getting an ED. Since then I’ve obviously put on a lot of weight but have also completely gotten rid of the shame and disordered eating thoughts around food.
So this time around, I’d like to start fasting without crossing that line again. Do you have any advice or tips on how to stay away from that fine line of being mindful of eating habits while not obsessing over it in a negative way?
I understand what you’re saying, but disordered thoughts about food go BOTH ways. We, all the people in this forum to lose weight, already have disordered thoughts about food. We believe we need more than we do, and so we overeat.
Even the posts about people who try IF and then don’t see results, they’re either going overboard with cheat meals or they’re still consuming the same amount of disordered calories in their new eating window. There HAS to be a calorie deficit.
If you want to try it again, I think the simplest way would be 16:8.
Like fasting from 8pm to 12pm the next day so you have plenty of time to eat, or 10am to 6pm eating and 6pm to 10am fasting.
Or a 12 hour fast to get acclimate yourself back into it.
Slow and steady wins the race✌️❤️
Yes! I do!! I used to have bulimia. Starting IF felt like it could go either way: ED or healthy lifestyle change, which will it be? So I decided to take it slow. There are changes to make that make a huge difference, but aren’t difficult to do. I eat from 11:30-5:30. I cut out alcohol and have it on special events still or a little on the weekends. This was huge for me because I was a heavy drinker. I count calories on SOME days only, especially in the beginning so I could figure out a baseline. But doing it every day would be bad for my post-ED mentality. And I changed my focus from “I shouldn’t eat THAT” to “I should eat that (veg, fruit, protein) because it’ll give me energy and make me feel good.” I focus on eating more protein and then I don’t have to struggle with denying hunger cues, because I feel pretty full most of the time! I’ve lost 6 lbs in 41 days which isn’t a ton, BUT it’s gotta be all fat because I lost many inches off my waist and hips. That’s better than a crash diet because it’ll last!
Sounds odd, but hear me out, practicing gratitude really helped me with lessening the feelings of guilt surrounding certain foods/meals. Just before eating I’d say thanks for the meal. It doesn’t have to be associated with any religion or higher power. For me it served more as a reminder that I had a meal to eat but also, a meal I wanted to eat.
Other than that planning your meals to make sure your getting enough calories and nutrients during the day. Planning meals for a steady weight loss that can actually be maintained and trying to focus on fasting as a lifestyle change rather than a diet to lose weight will also help in the long run.
It might also be in your best interest to stay away from the scale or old clothes that you use to measure weight loss.
16:8 and definitely start out by not restricting any other foods during your fast and think instead about what foods you love that are healthy to incorporate. Try to eat each color of the rainbow every day (naturally colored ofc). Also practice the Japanese 80-full rule — once you’re 80% full at mealtimes, stop eating and do something else for 20 minutes. If you’re still hungry after that, finish your food. (The stomach takes about 20 minutes to send fullness signals to the brain).
Approaching with gratitude for the food you’re eating and focusing on healthy food that you love is the only way to have a long lasting healthy relationship with food (for me at least — I’m overweight and have struggled with sugar and portion control for a long time, and this has been the only way that I’ve not hated a “diet” and also lost weight). There are people in this sub that have way more discipline than me, but personally, I’m every facet of my life, too much discipline makes me feel insane so I have to be gracious with myself to move forward and not get overwhelmed. You should also be gracious with yourself.