I’m a bit more seasoned to dieting and have so far lost 56 lbs (not a lot but yk life is life). I’ve been dieting and actively trying to lose weight since Feb of this year. I’m 5’7 and I’m 173 lbs with my goal to be going down to 155 lbs.
The first day i did IF was easy and i felt so good; but over time (more so when i started working on top of school) id often not knowingly until after the fact eat only one meal a day which is breaking IF.
I’ve got myself into a circle of eating then planning to do a IF 24 hour span then eating, and repeat which has been going on for about 2 weeks. How do I keep myself from caving into the urge to eat on 24 hour IF days?
Determination.
Not eating for a day is a decision, and you might have to remind yourself of that sometimes.
Then there are the tricks. Like going for a walk or exercising. Changing things up to reset your brain. Brushing your teeth or using mouthwash to signal the end of the eating day.
But sometimes it’s just looking at the cupboards or fridge and saying ‘no thank’ out loud to it and walking away.
Or if you’re really hungry, curling up in the fetal position and praying to the fasting gods for the hunger pangs to go away. That might help, too.
Know when you’ll hit your trigger timings for pangs and be prepared for them. That worked for me. I realized I was less worked up about the pangs when I know I would get one.
I get one 6-7 hours after my meal, 13 hours after my meal and 2 hours after I wake up. YMMV.
And I kept reassuring myself: “if I skip this meal, I’m just 1 sleep away from a successful OMAD”.
Right now I’m 15 hours into my fast and I know if I just sleep now, I’ll wake up tomorrow with a successful fast.
After 10-20 days, I just got used to the lifestyle. Of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t get derailed once in a while or get burnt out (like I got last month when I just did maintenance IF).
My “slim” clothes fitting me better is also a motivation as days go by. When I hit an uncontrollable hunger pang, I wear a shirt that didn’t fit me properly and relax at home.
I do have days where I get tempted and cheat (like it happened a few days ago when I went with my wife to see a movie and just grabbed her popcorn).
Heya, I wanna know why does it have to be 24 hours? I mean, you’ve tried and it seems not to be working, I’d try something like 18:4 (is that the number combination?) or something else, I like to eat when being actually hungry and that is why I have liked IF, but I personally don’t like to push it too much either. Best of luck either way!